It has been two weeks since Dante adopted Ember. Trish instantly agreed to be her pseudo-mother and Nero has started to take a liking to his new cousin. He agreed to watch her while Trish and Dante were busy and Trish would watch her if there were missions. Dante usually watched her but he did have to do missions. It made him sick to be so far away from Ember when she might need him or could be in danger. The demons haven't tried to kidnap her, it was odd but Dante knew they were waiting for them to let their guard down.

Ember has started making noises, Trish is so positive she could start speaking soon that she talks to her and encourages her to try to respond. When Nero plays his video games he'll let her watch, she tries to mimic what the characters say and even try to laugh at funny parts. She even tried to scream and ran away when Nero was playing Resident Evil four. He was fighting the Big Cheese and when his upper half separated from his lower half and he looked like a creepy insect it freaked out the toddler, but when Nero got to the upper level of the warehouse and the Big Cheese started swinging from the rafters after him, Ember tried her best to scream and she ran out of the room and down the stairs to shop to Dante. The teen made up for it by giving her a candy bar from his secret stash and letting her play Twilight Princess. Though she had trouble because her hands were too small for the controller so Nero played and the toddler happily watched.

Today, Nero was playing Skyrim, he had just got the game and was now learning to use the Thu'um. Ember liked this, the greybeards said it was a shout, so she tried to shout and on her fourth try, she actually shouted, in Nero's ear.
"AH! Damn it!" The teen exclaimed and held his ears. Trish ran into the room and said: "What's going on?"
"Little brat just used the Thu'um right in my ear," Nero said and uncovered his ears, shaking his head a bit to try and rid himself of the ringing.
"Thu'um!" Ember said happily. Trish gasped in surprised and said "You talked!" even Nero was surprised. "Try and say another word." The blonde demon said and knelt down in front of the toddler. Ember smiled and said "Mommy." and hugged the demon.

Trish was shocked, did she... she did! Trish picked up the toddler and said "Oh, I'm so proud of you. Let's go show Dante." Trish rushed down the stairs into the shop and stopped right in front of Dante's desk. The demon hunter looked up from his magazine and saw Trish and Ember with big smiles, suddenly Ember said something, something that struck a chord with the cambion.
"What?" Dante asked, unsure if he was hearing things.
"Daddy!" Ember said happily and held her arms out. The demon hunter jumped out of his seat and took his daughter from her pseudo-mother, cradling her in his arms. He felt a sense of happiness, she finally talked and she called him daddy, it made the elder cambion so happy.

"Well, I say we should celebrate," Nero said as he came down the stairs, smiling when the toddler reached for him.
"There is a new restaurant that opened up a few days ago, we could try there. Don't know exactly what it is but it could be good." Trish said and watched as Ember affectionately nuzzled her cousin.
"Sounds good, let me get Ember dressed and we can go," Dante said and started to walk towards his daughter.
"I'll do it," Nero said and walked upstairs with his little cousin. Dante and Trish smiled at the two as they vanished from view.

Nero took Ember into her and Dante's room and went through her bureau, grabbing a pastel yellow spring dress. As he removed her pajamas, he remembered how Dante said she'll be moving into Trish's room when she gets older and when he feels like she'll be safe without him. The teen slipped the yellow dress over the toddler's head and helped her put on her sandals.
"Okay, there we go, you're all ready," Nero said and took Ember's hand, leading her downstairs. As soon as they were in the shop, Trish picked up Ember and said: "Aw, you look so pretty." She kissed her cheek and said, "Okay, let's go."

They all walked outside but as soon as they did Ember started crying, Dante immediately drew Ebony and looked around.
"What are you doing?" Nero asked his uncle, finding this very strange.
"Whenever Ember starts crying for no reason it's because she can sense a demon," Dante said, trying to figure out where the demon is. Suddenly a loud thud was heard. Trish was knocked to the ground and a wolf demon was running off with Ember, who was now screaming and crying out for Dante. The demon hunter aimed his gun and was about to fire but Nero picked up a rock and threw it with his devil bringer. 

The rock had gone right through the demon's skull, it collapsed and Ember fell to the ground and scraped her arm. Trish got up and everyone ran to her.
"Damn it, I thought they had given up," Nero said and picked up his cousin.
"No, they were waiting for us to let our guard down." Dante said and holstered his gun. Trish could tell by the look on the elder cambion's face that he was gonna say they should head back inside so she quickly said: "We should still go celebrate, Ember has been locked up in the shop for two weeks and I'm sure she'd like to go out to someplace nice." Dante wanted to argue but he knew she was right so he sighed and nodded, getting in his car.

~

Dante parked the car and got out, looking at the building and saying "Are you sure this place is finished?" Trish nodded and said "Yes. Let's just head inside." The small family slowly entered the restaurant, the boys expecting something boring or unfinished like Dante had thought. But When they got passed the waiting area and into the actual restaurant, they were surprised at what they saw. The walls were spinning and they were decorated like the solar system, same with the ceiling that was giving off a dim but beautiful glow. A waitress came over and said, "Come this way, we have a table ready." They followed the waitress and sat at a table that was right under one of the lights, this one was a pale pink.

The family picked up their menus and started looking through them, all except Ember who can't read.
"Don't worry, I'll order something for you that I know you'll like," Trish said and patted the toddler's head. Ember smiled and looked around, the place was so pretty. She wanted to explore every bit of this place. It was absolutely amazing. When the waitress came back and asked what they wanted to drink, Nero asked for a coke, Dante wanted coffee, and Trish said: "I'll have a diet coke and Ember will have chocolate milk." And almost immediately the toddler said "Strawberry!" That made Dante laugh and say "That's my girl."

Ember looked at the calendar on the wall and saw it was October 16th. It was only two days till her birthday. She smiled, but then she realized they didn't know when her birthday was. Well, it's okay. She'll tell them when it's time, or maybe tomorrow. She was excited for her birthday. She was gonna be two, though she didn't look it. She still looked like she was only 1. Trish got her age wrong when she tried to guess it.

Nero noticed where Ember's attention kept going so he said "Why do you keep looking at the calendar? What's so special about it?" Trish and Dante had turned their attention to the toddler as soon as Nero said that. Ember smiled brightly, pointing at the calendar and then holding up two fingers. It took them a bit but then Trish said: "Oh, it must be your birthday in two days, right?" When the toddler nodded, Nero said: "We're gonna have to do a bit of planning for that day."
"We can start planning when we get home," Dante said and set his menu down when the drinks arrived.

Ember smiled and happily took her sippy cup of milk, drinking some of the strawberry milk before setting it down on the table. She was so happy, she's finally starting to speak, they're celebrating because of it and now their gonna do some planning for her birthday when they get home. Trish took her hand and said "Hey, they have a little playground for the children while they wait for their food. You go play and I'll watch you." The toddler smiled and got out of her seat, running to the playground while thinking she can't possibly be happier.