Ok, I totally realize I have so much on my plate right now, but this plot bunny WILL NOT leave me alone. Originally, I intended to post this as a sequel to my Crossover fanfic Given (Hellsing x Black Butler) But then I realised there just wasn't a way to make it cohesively work. So this will stand alone.

Okay, I am hugely conflicted about the Alucard x Seras VS Alucard x Integra thing...I like both pairings in the right setting. For this fic, it will be largely AluSeras. HOWEVER, there may be a few Alu-tegra moments, because their relationship is deliciously complicated and- I just can't help myself. This takes place 7 years after Alucard's return.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Hellsing/Ultimate or any other constituent thereof. (That would be kind of wierd...) If I did, the plot would NOT have been even remotely the same because frankly I'm not a fan of "raining bullets". The noise is just annoying. But the characters are awesome, which is why I'm here.

WARNINGS: Will appear at the heading/AN of most chapters where applicable. There are allusions to Alucard and Seras' past in here, so if you aren't up to date with that, you might be confused/horrified. ANGST will be a pertinent theme. I'm not even going to hide it- Integra does die here. (Even despite the Alu-tegra) As a central plot device, too. :( But not all is lost. Spelling/grammar errors are partly to blame on the crap program I have and the fact I do this at 1:00AM most nights. Tired minds don't like to do complicated, but I try.

Also, I have a stylistic habit of incorporating song lyrics/poetry that suits a chapter's theme; you aught be warned that a lot of the time, these song lyrics/poems ARE PLOT DEVICES; What does that mean? It means I use them to foreshadow and to illuminate upon the characters themselves or the general plot. However, you can skip them most of the time if it bugs you. There may be a few I recommend to read because of plot significance, (e.g setting the mood or giving a deeper meaning to the following text) but this is rare. I add them mostly because I listen to music while I write and because some songs seem to be made for this anime.

Alright, now that my first-chapter A/N is done, let's go on, shall we?

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CH I

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Time.

There was either never enough, or far too much of it. For Seras, either was a possibility; after all, she was going to live a very long time, with any luck, and yet she never seemed to have enough time to do what she had to do and what she wanted to do in one night. Tonight was no exception.

Seras walked down the moonlit hallway, anxiety eating her up inside. She'd been forbade from going upstairs, at her Master's behest, and knew she had things to tend to down on the lower levels- men that needed breifing and dispatch, which she'd been largely placed in charge of in her Master's absence, among other nightly chores, their objective to keep her busy just precisely to keep her from getting anxious. Seras wasn't what she would consider a nervous person, but her Master's absence seven years ago had left a dent in her confidence; then, the preoccupation was a welcome distraction from her thoughts. And now the events going on upstairs had her all in a tizzy with worry.

Integra had collapsed.

It was as simple as that, it seemed, but Seras knew better. She couldn't place her finger on it, but she knew somehow that there was a larger, unspoken implication in the event. The fact her Master was up there with her now, doing who knows what, not only made that intuitive fact more concrete to Seras, but it added a whole other level of stress. Alucard was surprisingly predictable, to Seras at least, as long as he was within sight of her. She had long since learned to read his movements and pay rapt attention to his less than obvious body language, though she'd be lying if she said intuition didn't play a role. She didn't always understand how she understood her Master when seemingly no one else but Integra could, much less how she was able to do it so easily at times; but she did know that an Alucard out of her line of sight was one she had a much harder time anticipating the behaviors of. He was still inherently unpredictable, as he did not frequently fancy letting her into his head, and she had the inkling sometimes purposefully did the opposite of what she expected him to just to try and throw off the "hunches" she would get watching him; whether he was in her line of sight or not, he could still throw curveballs- he just had a habit of throwing perceptively bigger ones when she wasn't.

Seras paced back and forth up and down the hall fretfully, trying not to let her mind materialise the possible implications of Integra's fall. It would do her no good to worry about it, she told herself, and the chances of Alucard seriously hurting her were slim. He respected her, loved her even, possibly; he wouldn't be reckless. Would he? Lord knows he could be, but Seras refused to think about that.

"She'll be fine...She's okay, she'll be fine..." Seras murmured quietly to herself. Her mind kept trying to slowly drag back around to all the possibilities, like a black, tarry sludge that was creeping through her mind, underneath the false pretenses she surrounded herself with in times like these, to keep those snaring, engulfing, asphyxiating thoughts at bay. But the tar was trying its damnest to seep through the cracks, trying to snag on her anxiety and swallow her up in it's foul, smelly viscosity. Her gut tensed and made her forget that this was the time of day she normally ate something, too lost in the self-digesting worry to pay much mind to being full. Suddenly, she felt a presence from the interior wall of the hallway, turning just in time to face her Master, who's guise-less face, with no hat and no glasses, was carefully blank as he materialized in front of her.

"Master! Is Sir Integra alright?" Seras asked, not bothering to conceal her concern.

"She will be alright." Alucard replied, his voice sending up a little yellow flag in Seras' mind. Something was most definitely not 'alright'.

"Are you sure? Did you call the medical staff?"

"I was there to watch them check up on her. They suspect it was just a simple imbalance of the sugars in her blood from lack of eating." Alucard stated, but the way he said it was far from comforting. His eyes remained partially unfocused, Seras noted as she peeked a glance at them, indicating his mind was elsewhere even whilst they were talking here.

"Master?" She inquired, concerned for him as well now.

"Seras, would you mind taking a walk with me?" The suddenness of his question and the sheer oddity of the request threw Seras off a moment.

"Um, yes, sure, but Master, what-"

"We have things to discuss, Seras. Many things, it would seem." He replied with an air of finality that only a King could muster. Alucard truly did not play "beat around the bush" very well.

"Yes, Master." Seras replied, letting her head bow submissively as she followed him into the foyer before simply phasing through the door. Her phasing abilities still weren't perfect, and even thrity years of practice had only done so much for her vampire abilities; still, she'd come a very long ways from where she'd been before. She could shape-shift, menially, into a bat or sometimes a cat, if she tried. Her phasing had initially been something she could only do with intense concentration, but it came easier to her now. Upon her Master's return seven years ago, he'd worked with her on the ability to phase through other objects besides walls, and they were still in the midsts of working on partial phasing of select body parts; a useful skill for those possible instances in which you might find "a sword at your throat".

They walked well beyond the gates of the manor and into the street in silence until Seras could take no more. "Master," she asked tenatively, his body language giving no clear indication of his mood, though she could assume it was not a positive one. "You wanted to talk about something with me?" She reminded him gently, not because she suspected he'd forgotten, but because his thoughts seemed to be very distracting- not that she could blame him.

"I presume you are aware, Seras, of what these sorts of incidents entail." He stated, voice smooth but somewhat staccato with a directory intonation. She knew, all right, but had been deliberately keeping those thoughts, that sticky, yucky tar far from her mind as she was able to keep it. Now, of course, she didn't very well have a choice but to let the tar grab on and try not to struggle too much, not if this conversation was headed in the direction she anticipated.

"Yes, Master, but Sir Integra really will be alright, won't she?" Seras asked hopefully.

"For a time yet." His reply made Seras cringe. He appeared to notice, turning one scarlet eye over his shoulder to glance back at her before continuing. "She will not last forever, Seras. Already her body is beginning to go; she does not climb the stairs as well or pull her gun as fast as she once did."

"I'm sure you found out that one the hard way," Seras mumbled under her breath. Her Master let a small, toothy smirk to form on his face for a moment, and Seras felt acconplished for making him do that much with his gloomy mood.

"Indeed, you seem to know me well." Alucard smirked wider for a moment before it was gone the next, replaced by a line that could be called a frown if one cocked their heads.

"Master..." Seras breathed, mentally preparing herself for her own question, still debating if she really wanted the answer. "...How long?"

"Long enough. You'll be able to say your goodbyes, as will I." Alucard said somberly. The very fact he'd mentioned his own farewells surprised Seras; usually he was more reserved about his feelings than that. Still, if he was going to be open about it...

"Sir, I...have a strange question, mayhaps." Seras once more ducked her head submissively when he stopped, turning around to face her. It was then that Seras realised they had wandered into the countryside, someplace near a thicket of trees that now cast long, spindly shadows over Alucard's face in the winter moon's light.

"Well?" He demanded after a moment. Seras had to blush slightly at her own question, but she was genuinely curious.

"Do you...do you love her? Integra, I mean." Seras watched in both facination and apprehension as her Master donned an expresssion first of surprise, then of a bizarre look combining confusion, as if he wasn't really sure, and a sort of absent look that lead her to believe he was seriously thinking on it.

"I can't say I've ever considered the idea," He admitted. "Love isn't something I know how to feel anymore."

"That is to say you couldn't identify it if you did feel it." Alucard quirked a brow at this.

"Well, that's one way to put it, I suppose. I'm not certain I am capable of such a complex emotion."

"Well, you can feel hatred, can't you?" Seras asked. Honestly, she'd never known her Master to genuinely hate anything- at least he never said so if he did - so she really didn't know if he could or not.

"Depends. Hatred is also a complex feeling...but, yes, I suppose I might be capable of it if I ever were to come across something that could vex me that badly." He said it in such the way that it was obvious he knew there was next to nothing left on earth that could do such a thing, but Seras ignored that for now.

"Well, if you can feel something as complicated as hatred, why should you be incapable of love?" Seras offered. "They're quite different feelings, I suppose, but are they really?" Seras couldn't help but let her mind mull over the thought for a moment, glad to have the temporary distraction from more morbid dwells of thought. Her Master's hand, placed gently atop her head, drew her from her musings.

"There's my Seras." Her Master had a habit of saying that now, since he'd returned. She didn't mind it, per-say, but she couldn't say she quite understood what it meant either.

"There is much for us to talk about." Alucard said, drawing his hand back. "We both know Integra will not last forever. Sooner or later her mortality will claim her..." Alucard tilted his head back to gaze at the moon as he said this, perhaps trying to conceal from the much shorter Seras the emotions she knew were being reflected in them. "...And when it does, all the seals on me will be released. Even I don't know what happens then." Alucard admitted with a short, soft bark of humorless laughter. "But I do know that I have been neglecting my duties for far too long now. A hundred years is a lot to catch up on." His voice sounded distant as he spoke of a different time, a time when he was a real king presiding over real subjects. The discovery that her Master's moniker as the "King of Vampires" was more than just a title was still a new one to Seras, and she admitted that it was still a hard concept for her to fully grasp or embrace. Alucard certainly fit the bill in some ways, but she just could not see him acting benevolently on behalf of his own kind, however ironic that might be considering she was one herself. Still, she'd never known him to show pity or mercy on the vampires they took out - and good kings were merciful, weren't they? At least a little? At the very least a King needed to be understanding, and understanding was not something Alucard was very good at sometimes. But then, who said he was a good King?

"Don't discredit me so readily, Seras. You've yet to see the breadth of my obligations, but you will."

"Um, Sir?"

"Did you think I was going to leave you behind once the restriction seals were eliminated?" Seras mentally cringed at the implication. "Well...Frankly, Master, I don't know what you intend to do." A deep, rumbling laughter rolled through her skull like thunder.

"You are the only hier I have, provided you live up to your expectations. Of course, it will likely be a very, very, very long time yet before I die, so you have plenty of time to do that." He mentally laughed, though there was a bitter, almost melancholic note in it.

"Seras," He said aloud, drawing her from her thoughts. His tone was not grabbing, though, merely stating. "My Seras; A draculina. A printesa*." He laughed shortly at himself for that, confusing his curious fledgling. 'Curious indeed.' Alucard turned then, walking on whilst still laughing at himself. " Yes, a printesa de naopte.**" He commented, still laughing at something Seras failed to get. She figured it was probably safer not to ask, though. After all, this was Alucard.

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Alrighty! Short chappie! Now for the thing I love to annoy everyone with-

ASTERISKS! (man, I get way too freaking excited writing that- every time...)

*Printesa: Is pronounced like the spanish Princessa, but with a slight "tz" sound where the T is. There's actually a different letter there, but I only have an english keyboard, so I can't type romanian letters.

**Printesa de naopte: Roughly translates "Princess of the night." Which is technically true if Seras is his Childe. After all, Alucard is, for this fic's purposes, a literal King. (The position suits his personality too well, I couldn't pass it up.)Had that revelation in the middle of college Writing class.

"Wait, wouldn't that make Seras...A PRINCESS?!"

...yeah.

Okay, so for those who are new: I ask for one review per chapter baseline to get a figure for the demand of my fics. More demand=faster updates. Still, I'm a college kid, and life loves to get in the way of writing, so expect reasonable delays. That said, if you want the next chapter, please, REVIEW; I accept criticism when it is constructive, and don't mind the odd comment. ;)

Until then, Aufweidersehen!