Good Evening,

This is a 30 AU challenge with the Mad Child! This is 5 out of 30. Afterwards, please go check out the Mad Child's version of this AU if you hadn't already!

The theme of this AU is: Imaginary Friend.

Alucard and Sebastian ARE HUMAN in this!

Warning: SEXUAL CONTENT!

Oxford Not Brogues

Best Friends Forever

A young boy of four stood in the doorway that led into the boy's dormitory of the orphanage. He was a beautiful, young child with pale skin and big brown eyes. His black hair framed his face, but was slightly messy. He wore a short sleeved black button up shirt and black shorts. One of his knees was scraped and was bleeding, but he didn't seem to care. He just stood in that doorway and listened to the soft sounds of his best friend crying.

"Alucard?" Sebastian whispered. There was a sharp gasp from the other boy when he realized that he was caught and all became silent. "Alucard," The young boy called for his friend again and he cautiously stepped into the room. "I know that you're in here, Alucard." The room was lined with beds, but the young boy knew exactly where his friend was hiding. He traveled slowly to the back of the dormitory, right to his friend's bed and found Alucard beneath. The four year old ravenette was curled up in a tight ball beneath his bed. His skin was just as pale and beautiful, but was covered with dark bruises and fingermarks. His body shook from the recent treatment he received. His black hair was tousled from the harsh treatment and his clothes were wrinkled and messy, having been pulled off recently.

"Alucard," Sebastian whispered as he lowered onto his knees. "Did…Did the Priest take you back to his room?" He asked, knowing that the Priest did this to his friend. From the mentioning of the Priest, Alucard curled up into an even tighter ball and cried silently. "What did the Priest do? Why are you always crying and hiding? Why are you hurt? It's okay, you can talk to me." The young boy reached under the bed to grab his friend's arm and gently started pulling him out. "Come out, Alucard." Alucard willingly crawled out from under the bed to sit beside his friend on the floor. Tears ran down his face and his green eyes stayed glued to the floor, almost as if he was too ashamed to look his best friend in the eye. His little body shook and his fists were clenched tightly in his lap.

"Alucard," Sebastian had started, but he was cut off immediately.

"I want to run away, Sebastian." Alucard was speaking in a broken voice. Anger filled his eyes and more tears trailed down his cheeks, but he still refused to look at his friend. That is, until he said this. "Will you run away with me?" The brown eyed boy sat up straighter and stared at his friend in bewilderment.

"Run away?" He repeated. "But…why?"

"You know why!" Alucard shouted and cried harder. "They hate us! They all hate us! They glare and beat us! And that Priest, he…he hurts me! He tears off my clothes, throws me on his bed, and he hurts me! He hurts me all over! He pushes my head into the mattress so I can't breathe and he holds me down while he hurts me from behind! I don't want him to hurt me anymore! I don't want to live here anymore! Please, run away with me, Sebastian!" The crying boy then reached out to take his friend's hand tightly. "We're like brothers, Sebastian!" This caused Sebastian to smile.

"We're best friends," Michaelis happily announced. "Brothers forever,"

"Exactly!" Alucard exclaimed. "Brothers forever! We don't need anybody else! They're not our friends! And they will never be our friends! They hate us! So let's go somewhere, anywhere!" Sebastian's smile suddenly dropped and he looked worried.

"But…where will we go, Alucard?" He asked.

"We'll ride a train, like in the movies!" The boy said happily with a smile on his face. "We'll go anywhere it takes us!"

"Where people are nice and will treat us like people?!" Sebastian asked with a smile just as big as Alucard's, but as soon as he asked this, his friend's smile fell.

"No!" Alucard snapped. "Away from people! Far away from everybody! It will just be you and me! Forever! Nobody else!" Sebastian's smile slowly disappeared and he lowered his head in disappointment.

"Oh," He whispered.

"Oh?!" Alucard repeated with an offended look. "What do you mean 'oh'? We're brothers! We don't need anybody else, remember?"

"Alucard," Sebastian whispered. "I want friends," His eyes shifted to the ground. "I want at least a girl friend, you know…a friend that's a girl." A bright smile then appeared on his face and he giggled. "Like that blonde we saw in the movie. She was very pretty and so nice. What if she was our friend? I bet she would love us and be nice to us and treat us like we're people." Alucard frowned and slowly lowered his head in disappointment.

"Yeah, but she isn't real." He whispered. "It was just a movie. People like her don't exist." Even though this fact crushed him, Sebastian couldn't help smiling while he absently played with his shoelaces.

"But if she did exist, I bet she would be so nice and sweet and gentle." He whispered with a distant look in his eyes. Alucard smiled when hearing this.

"And she'll be our age. I don't want her to be older because then we can't trust her. If she was our age, I would let her hang with us all day long. We can play from sunrise to sunset." He added.

"She would have big blue eyes and have that pretty girl smell." Sebastian chuckled in delight. Suddenly, Alucard's smile fell and he lifted his head to look at Sebastian.

"She could run away with us." The boy whispered with hot tears in his eyes. His bottom lip trembled as he started to cry. "She would run away with us because she would love us. When everyone else is being cruel, she'll make us smile and laugh. I want her to be funny. Can she be funny, Sebastian?" Michaelis smiled warmly at his friend and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"She can be funny, Alucard." He promised even though the girl wasn't even real. "She'll make us laugh so hard that our sides will hurt. She would be the funniest person we have ever met."

"Can she be real?" Alucard sobbed as he buried his face in his knees to cry harder. "I want her to be real. I want her to take away my pain." Sebastian's smile fell and he glumly looked at the floor while tears welled in his eyes.

"I want her to be real too." He muttered. Then an idea popped in his eyes and he looked back at his crying best friend. "She's real, Alucard, and we'll find her together!" The boy slowly calmed down. He lifted his head to stare up at his friend curiously.

"We will?" He asked softly and he wiped his tears away.

"Yes!" Sebastian exclaimed with a sharp nod of his head. "One day we will find her. She will be our age, cute, funny, and strong! She won't think twice to push or yell at anyone who is mean to us! And she will be our best friend for life!" This made Alucard laugh. Michaelis smiled brightly and laughed with him.

"Excuse me," Someone interrupted their laughter. "But when are we going to play?" Alucard and Sebastian shifted their heads to find that a small four year old, blonde was sitting right beside them. Both boys shrieked in surprise, startled by her presence. How long had she been sitting there?! Instinctively, the boys bolted under the bed to hide, but kept a wary eye on the strange girl. She cocked her head to the side and then she lay on her stomach to stare at them curiously. She stared at them for a long few seconds before she smiled brightly with a sweet giggle. "Why are you guys hiding?" The young boys studied her when they realized that she wasn't dangerous, but…nice. When they finally comprehended this, they really looked at her. Wasn't she the girl they were just talking about? Michaelis smiled and climbed out from under the bed to sit beside her on the floor. The girl sat up to face him, but only ended up getting poked in her arm and shoulder. "What are you doing?" She asked him and then poked him back.

"You're…real?" Sebastian muttered in bewilderment and his smile widened. Sweet laughter met their ears as the girl innocently tilted her head to the side and gave the brightest smile they have ever seen. Almost instantly both boys had fallen hopelessly in love with the girl. Mesmerized by the small blonde, Alucard slowly climbed out from under the bed while the girl playfully poked Sebastian's cheek.

"Of course I'm real. Are you real?" She teased him.

"Where did you come from?" Alucard finally spoke while a gentle smile settled on his lips.

"I've been here for a while." She answered and that beautiful smile of hers faltered. "I'm Seras,"

"Seras?" Alucard and Sebastian repeated under their breaths. It was such a pretty name for a pretty girl. The small blonde pointed at one boy.

"And you're Alucard," She announced as if he didn't know his own name, and considering that he was practically an idiot in love, it was possible that he had forgotten his own name there for a second. The girl then pointed towards Michaelis. "And you're Sebastian,"

"How…how do you know our names?" Sebastian asked. Seras merely shrugged her shoulders, but a hint of pain and loneliness glistened in her eyes for a couple of seconds.

"I've…been here for…a while." She repeated, but softer than before. Unable to stand seeing that pained look in her eyes, Alucard automatically grasped her hand to comfort her.

"What did you want to play?" He asked with a warm smile, hoping to get her mind off of whatever she was thinking about. The small blonde glanced at him with a bewildered look on her face, but it wasn't long before she was smiling again.

The three children played for what felt like hours. They giggled as they ran about the room and hid under the beds. They made up their own little game that didn't really make sense and had no rules. They just added stuff as they went and had the time of their lives. Alucard and Sebastian couldn't recall a time they had so much fun or didn't have to worry about anyone outside of this room. They wanted it to be like this forever. They absolutely adored their new best friend. She was different from others. She was kind to them. She didn't look at them in disgust or bullied them or talked behind their backs. She liked them, maybe even loved them. And they loved her.

"What are you two doing?!" A man shouted. Alucard and Sebastian stopped and looked over to see a man in his late fifties, the priest of the orphanage. He looked absolutely pissed to see the young children running about wildly and making so much noise. His fists were clenched tightly at his sides while he narrowed his eyes dangerously on the two young boys. The two boys drew back from that dark look. Alucard felt hot tears sting his eyes while his body started to tremble from the recent events he just had with the awful priest.

"We…we were playing, Sir. We were playing with Seras." Michaelis answered as he nervously pointed towards Seras who stood quietly across the room. The priest looked over to where she was, but he only scowled and looked back at the little troublemakers.

"I thought you learned your lesson last time for lying, Michaelis. You don't make up false stories." The priest told him in a stern voice. Sebastian's eyes widened in disbelief and he gaped at the man.

"What lie, Sir? I wasn't lying about anything." He said as he again pointed at Seras. "We were just playing; she wanted to play with us." The priest then threw out a hand to gesture in Seras' direction.

"There's nobody else here, you lying little shit! You and Alucard alone are causing such a damn ruckus! Now, enough with the lies and just take the heat like a man!" The priest growled at him. Alucard and Sebastian glanced at each other, both wondering if either the priest was crazy or if they were the crazy ones. Hadn't they just been playing with a small blonde for the past hour or two? They both then looked at Seras. She still stood there quietly and stared at the priest with hatred in her eyes, but she didn't look surprised by what he said. She finally met their gazes and answered their unspoken questions.

"He can't see me." She whispered to them. "Nobody can, only you two." And to prove her point, the priest didn't acknowledge a word that she had said.

"But…why?" Sebastian whispered.

"Why what?!" The priest snarled, but he was ignored.

"Because I want it that way," Seras responded with a warm smile. She walked around the bed and across the room towards the boys. "Nobody can see or hear me, just you two. I like my world small. Let's keep it that way." The small blonde frowned when she heard the priest approaching them. She turned her head to see the furious priest was going to lash out at any second.

"One of these days, Michaelis, your mouth is going to get you into serious trouble, but today I am in no mood to deal with you." The priest grumbled as he reached down and grabbed Alucard tightly by his wrist. The boy instantly knew what this meant, especially when the priest started to drag him towards the door to lead him back to his office where they will be all alone. Alucard started to cry hard and he fought to get free.

"No!" The boy screamed and sobbed, but he was powerless against the adult. Sebastian didn't think twice about trying to save his best friend. He ran over to grab the priest by his arm as if he had the strength to stop the man in his tracks.

"He doesn't want to go with you!" Michaelis screamed, knowing that his friend will end up hurt if he was left alone with the priest again. "Leave Alucard alone! He doesn't want to go! Alucard doesn't want to go with you!" The priest quite easily threw the brat off of his arm. Sebastian landed hard on his ass. Tears started to stream down his face, but not because he was hurt, but because he was scared. He couldn't imagine how scared Alucard must be. "Leave him alone," Michaelis sobbed on the floor.

"I don't want to go!" Alucard shouted, but he still couldn't get free. Through their tears, the young boys saw movement from the corner of their eyes. They shifted their heads and were mesmerized to see three large black tendrils. They moved around like a snake in the air, heading straight for the priest who was oblivious to his fate. Their eyes followed the tendrils to see that it lead straight to Seras. The small blonde looked different. Such a malevolent look glistened in her blood red eyes. She no longer looked sweet, but like a baby demon that was ready to kill. She glowered at the priest and watched in satisfaction as her tendrils wrapped around the filthy man. The priest immediately started to panic when an invisible force wrapped around his arms and torso, binding him. Alucard was able to pull free and he took several steps back, but the boys' eyes were glued to him and the tendrils.

The priest struggled in her tendrils and started swearing under his breath. He didn't understand the slightest what was happening or why it was happening to him. When he realized that he wasn't going to get free by just struggling alone, he started to call for help, but that ended real fast when another tendril slid across his mouth to silence him. Alucard and Sebastian watched stunned as the tendrils tightened around the man, making him holler in discomfort. Again the tendrils tightened and this time they heard something break. The priest screamed into the tendril, but it was muffled. The tendrils got tighter and tighter. They twirled around his body with ease and broke bones, and they didn't stop until the man practically popped like a balloon. Blood splattered everywhere when that happened. It splashed onto Alucard's face while he just stood there in disbelief and stared at the mangled body in the tendrils grasp. He heard footsteps behind him but didn't think anything of it until he felt a cold hand slip into his. The boy gasped with a small jump and he turned to face Seras who smiled up at him beautifully. She stood up on her tip toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and rested her head against his.

"He won't hurt you anymore, Alucard. You'll never have to go with him anywhere ever again. He can't hurt you." She whispered in his ear. Tears ran down the boy's face and he slowly wrapped his arms around Seras to hug her to him. He buried his tearstained face into the crook of her neck and he cried in relief. "No one will ever hurt you again, I promise. I'll always be there to protect you." Sebastian climbed to his feet while he studied the small blonde. Her eyes were back to being a sapphire blue and the demon that she had been was long gone.

"What…what are you?" Michaelis asked hesitantly as he carefully approached her. He had faith in her that she wouldn't hurt him, but he was still terrified of what just happened. Seras glanced at him from the corner of her eye. She pulled off a grin that sent a shiver down the boy's spine.

"Nothing you need to worry about." She promised him in a whisper. "I'm just…your imaginary friend." She laughed as if it was a joke. Not a second later, Sebastian was attacking her with a hug. He cried as he wrapped his arms around her torso and buried his face in her hair.

"Thank you for saving my best friend." He whispered.

The End

I hope you guys enjoyed this AU! Please check out the Mad Child's version of this AU if you hadn't already!

Oxford Not Brogues