Chapter One: Contemplation

Notes: Hello everyone! Notes are at the end today! It's great to have you back for book two! Let me know what you think and thanks for coming back!

"Love seeketh only self to please,

To bind another to its delight,

Joys in another's loss of ease,

And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite."

William Blake

Chapter One:

One week later…

Rays of golden light traced a path between the leaves and branches of a great oak tree and showered comforting warmth down upon the pavement below as large puffy white clouds attempted to interrupt them. After a long and arduous week of storms and overcast skies, the warm embrace of the sun was akin to a well stoked fire in the middle of a cold blizzard: comfortable and reaffirming. For it to be the middle of August, it was uncharacteristically cool today, although that could be attributed to the fact that Fortuna was an island and as such it benefited from a constant coastal breeze. That was fortunate considering the manner in which at least half of the island's occupant's still dressed. It seemed that despite their recent reservations about the Order and their illicit activities, some of them still couldn't shake the habit and it was a constant point of conflict within the community. But regardless, the weather was positively idyllic.

It was almost enough to lule someone right off to sleep. Thankfully, V had not given into temptation just yet, as doing so while he was supposed to be watching the children at a public park would be dreadfully irresponsible. He was many things, but he liked to think that "negligent" wasn't one of them. That wasn't to say that the thought hadn't crossed his midday weary mind, however. He had been awake since the crack of dawn, awoken by accident by the sound of Nero and Nico preparing to leave for an impromptu trip to what remained of Redgrave City. The local military had made the decision to quarden off the area and allow several different groups ranging from scientists to government agencies to come study it. But they were still in the beginning phases of building a containment zone around the city. Considering the fact that it was near several other population centers, the prospect of keeping the general public out was basically impossible. This was a project that was going to be months, if not years, in the making, and there would be a reckoning at the end of it. Somehow he could just feel it.

V tilted his head slightly as he forced himself to sit up right and stop slouching over so far on the park bench, his hair practically blinding him. He had to at least pretend that he wasn't on the verge of passing over the border into dreamland. He had volunteered to take the children to the park so that Kyrie could have some much needed "me time" since every other adult had left for the day. She hadn't asked, but he could tell she needed it. Nero generally helped keep them busy when he was home, but that wasn't going to be the case today. They didn't exactly have a school to be at with everything in the city under repairs, so occupying the time of three young boys who seemed to be practically overflowing with energy was difficult to say the least. Kyle, Carlo, and Julio were a stark contrast to him at the moment. It had been just over a week since he had returned to the mortal realm, and although he felt much less weak than he once had and his injuries had long since healed (at an uncharacteristically accelerated pace, at that), he still found himself limited by a staggering lack of energy. It was as if no matter how much he slept, he never stopped being drowsy. Or was that an unintended consequence of his constant napping? Perhaps his newfound accelerated healing abilities had sapped him of his remaining strength? It was relatively hard to say, and he wasn't going to expend valuable mental energy dwelling on it. He had to make it home, after all.

Home…

What a strange concept.

For most of his life he'd be transient to no fault of his own, constantly moving from place to place, so the idea of having a permanent dwelling was almost totally foreign. He wasn't entirely sure he even wanted that. It wasn't something he'd put much thought into, to be honest. For the most part, he just took things one day at a time, especially right now. There was no undue pressure to do anything besides exist here and he liked that, but the absence of a set goal made him admittedly anxious for no particular reason. V exhaled slowly and shook his head at himself. He was one of those people who was incapable of relaxing, wasn't he? The young summoner took a moment to stretch, contemplating the possibility of standing up. Should he go back to the house? There wasn't anything pressing to do there except ruin Kyrie's otherwise serene quiet time with the abrupt and all to familiar sound of excited children. He could spare a few more minutes for her sake before he went back and did the same thing he was doing now but in a different spot: a whole lot of nothing. It was strange how finding out he was part demon killed the excitement of almost everything else around him. Things weren't going to get too much more impressive outside of that. V smirked, starting to understand why seemingly everyone else in his family had a predilection for combat, one that he was easing himself into in his own way. While he was no stranger to a battle himself, he was most certainly much pickier than the rest of his kindred. But, then again, he had good reason to be, all things considered.

As if possessed by a need to spread his wings to keep himself awake, Griffon suddenly materialized and fluttered around the space between him and the sparse playground equipment, unintentionally highlighting the stark contrast between himself and the brightly colored children's attractions. Although a mostly nature oriented space, there were still swings, slides, and climbing equipment to occupy the time of younger visitors. A recent edition as the city attempted to add more outside influences in a bid to reinvent itself, even if only a little. V shot his avian companion a slightly irked look as he flew over to him and perched on the back of the wrought iron park bench he currently occupied, his arms spread out along the back of it leaving only a small space for the demonic bird to claim for himself.

"Pipe down, hot stuff. We're in a park! No one can even see us down here!" Griffon said, flapping both his wings and his beak. He already knew that V was going to object.

V schoffed. Now that they were in a populated city that wasn't composed of demons and the husks of what used to be it's unlucky residents, he was more careful about when and where he allowed his familiars to roam free. Even if Griffon didn't speak, he wasn't the most inconspicuous bird in existence and Shadow was a dead giveaway more likely to send people feeling for their lives than anything else even if they didn't realize she was a demon. While he had no choice but to acknowledge that they were sentient beings with their own wants and desires, they all had to admit that much like discretion was the better part of valor, not drawing the attention of literally everyone on the island was the better part of not causing issues for everyone they lived with. He was privy to the fact that Nero had only recently gained the trust and cooperation of the locals after a lifetime of being ostracized. V himself turned curious and cautious heads alike when he ventured outside of the confines of their cozy home. While no one had said anything to him (at all, really), he was sure that allowing people to see that he possessed demonic helpers in a city that had been terrorized by demons for generations wasn't the greatest way to gain the trust of the locals. That being said, he couldn't say that he was particularly intimidated by the people who lived here, either. They seemed more afraid of him than anything else, and that wasn't too much better if he was being honest. He didn't really enjoy being feared unless it was by his enemies. V possessed enough unsure feelings about himself as it was. He didn't need total strangers to add to it.

"Still though," V said as he threw a cautionary but unconcerned glance in either direction," my previous point still stands. We're not in Redgrave City anymore. I'm asking you to try and be discrete. Nothing more."

"Sure thing, Dorthy. I'll keep it in mind." Griffon said sarcastically as he preened himself.

V closed his eyes for a moment, thinking. At the end of the day, he knew that Griffon wasn't going to be uncooperative. But, at the same time, he understood where his companions were coming from. While they had more or less free roam of the house, there was significantly more room out here for his airally inclined pet to really stretch out and get comfortable. It was a difficult temptation to refuse. And they could almost instantaneously convert back into tattoos. Was he being too stern about this? If there was no one around to see it, what harm could it do? Did they all just need a good flight?

He opened his eyes again, content to put the matter aside for now. There was no harm in it and no rush to come to a decision, but there was definite harm in indecision and stress. Why was coming to a park so stressful to him? Why did he have to overthink everything? Or was he even overthinking in the first place. Ah, there he went again, overthinking things. He needed a distraction…

The white haired man spared a glance at the children. They were as they had been moments ago, playing happily and running amok, causing a ruckus. In a way, he envied them. He'd never really been interested in the concept of physical activity as a child, his attention firmly rooted in literature even then. And he'd never really had the energy… or any friends to play with to speak of…

This was a terrible distraction. Revisiting his childhood was never a healthy idea.

Why did every thought process in his infinitely expanding mind lead down some unwanted or unfortunate path? What he wouldn't give to be able to space out and think nothing at all like a normal person. Was that some facet of his demonic blood; that he should always be on high alert even when at rest? Perhaps he just needed a hobby or some sort of task to complete so that his mind didn't have time to dwell on these types of things. While running from his problems had never been advisable (or worked very well) he needed to set them aside for another time and focus on something more engaging. Or maybe he needed professional help. Who knew?

V uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, propping his elbows up on his knees and resting his face in the palms of his hands. There honestly wasn't much to do on this island, but if he left town and went to the mainland that was a different story. He hadn't done that in the entire time he'd been living with Nero, and he'd never visited the town that the other half of his immediate family lived in. Capulet, was it? Wasn't that next to Enamel, the city that Magnolia dwelled in? And then there was that matter as well. He hadn't visited her yet like she'd asked of him before she'd departed after she'd left the hospital a week earlier. Perhaps he could visit her and browse the local vacancies while he was at it? After all, even though there was no urgent need to leave, looking never hurt. It was something to do at the very least. That had to count for something. And following up with Vergil about the cult was still on the table even if he wasn't entirely sure what to do about that situation just yet. Or if it was preferable. But it had never been about that in the first place. At some point he would have to talk to his father...

Yes, he would start with Magnolia. That seemed to be a favorable course of action given the circumstances. Griffon shook his head, repressing the urge to laugh at how indecisive V was being. While he didn't have a play for play book on what he was thinking since V wasn't talking to him specifically, it didn't take a mental giant to figure out that he was going back and forth over something. And he wasn't getting anywhere from what he could tell.

"I think we should head back now," V said as he stood up. He stretched as much as his eager to protest body would allow him to and gestured towards the children. They pouted as expected, but didn't protest. Throwing a fit wasn't going to earn them a return trip and they knew it. That wasn't a hypothesis they needed to test out. Griffon did a second lap around the playground while V waited for the children to join him before flying back over to dematerialize and rejoin with his master. The group then turned their attention to the path that led out of the park. Home wasn't more than three blocks from here, a fact that V was grateful for considering his continued lack of a cane and his current energy reserves. They would be there in no time at all and it was just past noon. They all had the whole day ahead of them.

Welcome back everyone! Just a few quick points! As always, I am happy to hear your comments and feedback! I decided to not stress myself out with an arbitrary work count minimum so the chapters will be a bit more organic this time around. That doesn't necessarily mean they will be longer or shorter, just that they will be however long they need to be to tell the story correctly. That being said, chapter two is longer than this one, so that's fun! I also want to give a special thank you to everyone who filled out the questionnaire for me at the end of the last book! At this time, it's closed, but it made a huge impact on how I arranged things in this book. The way this is going, I may very well just keep writing for this AU for the foreseeable future as we all seem to enjoy it. I even went out and purchased a new laptop just for this (I'm not rich, it's just a nice chromebook since I use Google Doc and my table is having a hard time) Wednesday and Friday between Noon and six pm CDT is still the publishing time. And thank you all very much for reading chapter one! See you back here on the 22nd of July! I hope my spelling was better this time around!