You Know Me Through The Years

The Karate Kiddo

"Daddy, do you know Karate?" Mara asked as she and her father sat on the couch watching 'The Karate Kid' for the hundredth time.

"Of course I do." She heard him say as she snuggled into his side. They were just getting to the part where Daniel-San was learning to balance on one foot. This was one of her favorite parts.

"Can you do that?" She looked up at her father with curious eyes and he looked down at her with a smirk.

"That's easy." He said picking up the bowl of popcorn on the table next to him. "You are looking at a bonafide black-belt." Dante put a hand in the bowl and threw some popcorn in his mouth.

"So, does that mean you could teach me?" She watched as her father stopped chewing for a moment then swallowed before looking at her with a serious look on his face.

Dante did not answer her right away and she took that as a sign to leave the subject alone. So, instead of saying anything, she focused on the movie.

Meanwhile, Dante was going over the question in his mind. Sure he could teach his nearly seven year old daughter Karate, but he did not want to hurt her in the process. She was little and fragile. He was sure she could take a beating, however, he did not want to be the one responsible for hurting her. Dante knew if he accidentally hurt her, he could not live with himself and that was enough reason to say no. On the other hand, he wanted her to know how to defend herself if she was ever in a situation that called for it. Especially since she was a girl in a world full of psychopaths and Demons. He shuddered at the thought of her becoming victim to either. This was a discussion to have with his wife when she got home.

"I'll think about it, Princess." Was all he said as he wrapped his arm around her to squeeze her. He looked over to the clock on the wall and saw that it was way past her bedtime. "Alright, time to go to bed." He grabbed the remote and turned the television off with a small protest from Mara.

"Do I have to go to bed? Its Friday." She watched as he stood up. "Mommy said I could stay up late."

"Princess, you and I both know your mom said no such thing. Come on." He put the bowl of popcorn down and held his hand out to her. "Your sister is already asleep upstairs and I let you stay up an hour later because I can. It's only fair that we cover our butts so that your mom doesn't roast them when she gets home." Dante smirked at how sneaky his daughter is.

"Fine. I'll go to bed. But you have to give me a piggy back ride." She demanded almost reminding him of Patty in that moment. He had to resist the temptation to roll his eyes at her pouty face.

"Okay, deal." Without any hesitation he grabbed Mara's hand and with very little effort he swung her onto his back.

Roe arrived home around three in the morning to find Dante sitting on the couch cleaning his guns. Something he normally did to ease his mind, which clued her in on something being off. She dropped her bags at the door and threw her keys on the table next to the stairs before pulling off her coat. She threw her coat on the back of the sofa with a sigh before going over to stand behind where he sat.

"How was your trip?" Dante asked her as she leaned down to wrap her arms around his shoulders and kiss him on the cheek.

"It was productive." She moved her arms up to massage his shoulders. "I managed to find the artifact and secure it without any problems." She heard him groan at the way her hands kneaded his tense shoulders. "Did the girls give you any trouble?"

"Nope." He said putting Ebony back together with a click. "They were easy as usual." He sighed before getting to the oldest girl. "Mara wants me to teach her Karate."

"And you don't want to teach her." Roe guessed. Dante ran a hand through his hair with a sigh.

"It's not that I dont want to teach her, I don't want to hurt her. She's tiny and she's not like Cade." His son was a lot tougher than his daughter. So far, Mara had displayed more human traits than Cade did and the same seemed to occur with Evie. Both girls took after their mother and Dante was almost relieved about it. "I could not forgive myself if I accidentally hurt her."

"You haven't so far." Roe leaned down and wrapped her arms around him. "You have to trust yourself and you know how to be gentle. I'm completely human and you have yet to hurt me." She did have a point. He thought about that for a moment and then smirked at how stupid he was.

"Alright, but she will have to join a dojo at some point."

"So, why don't you teach me some new moves Sensei?" She whispered in his ear with a seductive smile on her face. It did not take much to get his blood heated, so he put his guns on the coffee table in front of him.

"Let me show you around my 'dojo' Sweetheart." He grabbed onto her and pulled her over the back of the couch and into his lap. "This could be fun." He smirked as he leaned down to kiss her.

Two days later Dante was in the back yard with Mara on his knees with her standing in front of him. He had his hands out in front of him with his palms facing towards Mara as she started to punch. Her first connected with the palms of his hand with as much force as she could muster from her little body. The whole time there was a smile on his face as she yelled out with each punch.

"Remember your stance." Dante tapped on her right leg to move it into a better position. "Now hit!"

"Aiya!" She yelled out as she punched hard. Her little fists barely did anything to her father's hands, but that was not what mattered.

"Again!"

"Aiya!"

Roe sat on the deck watching the two of them with a smile on her face. She wondered if Dante was going to be the strict Karate parent and actually go hard on Mara with this. She doubted it. That was likely Vergil's style of parenting, which brought her train of thought to a halt because she had not thought of Vergil in a long time. A feeling of nostalgia came over her when she remembered how the older twin treated her coldly, but that was just his way of hiding his feelings. Both boys had been emotionally scared when their mother died and now they were rivals to the bitter end, with Vergil being the one to fall to that rivalry. She hoped her children stayed away from rivalry with each other because she did not want them to turn out like the brothers.