A hand flipped Walter's book shut and Walter gave a grunt of exasperation. He looked up at the hand's owner, knowing exactly who it was. "What do you want, Alucard? I have schoolwork or my tutor is going to have my ass."
"Oh, we can't be having that, can we Walter?" Alucard gave the young butler a seductive look and batted his lashes.
"You know that Arthur says that it's not enough that I can kill for him. He says that the war won't go on forever and I have to find ways to be useful in peacetime." Walter wasn't overly thrilled by the prospect of more schoolwork, or truth be told, the prospect of peacetime. He was a child of an era of war and he was far better suited to blood and death than books and details.
Alucard put a finger under the boy's chin and turned his face up to his. "Shh, there's always time for study. How often do we have time to spend together when people aren't trying to kill you?"
"They're usually trying to kill you, too."
"Ah, but I'm not so easily killable." Walter watched Alucard's smile broaden and his dainty fangs showed at the corners of his mouth. There'd been a time when Walter had wondered why a creature as powerful as Alucard had chosen such a delicate form, but as he'd matured physically and mentally, he'd started to have an inkling.
The sort of thing he suspected Alucard wanted from him wasn't spoken of in polite society, but Walter didn't spend as much time in polite society as he did in the impolite company of other killers. Alucard kept his visible age very close to Walter's and was always willing to give the young man whatever sort of companionship he needed at any given time. Recently Walter had begun waking in the middle of the night from dreams in which Alucard was giving him some very particular companionship. It made looking the vampire in the face immediately afterward very difficult, particularly since Alucard always seemed to give him a knowing smile that said he knew exactly what had been in Walter's dreams.
He re-opened his book and began writing once more. He grimaced when Alucard's slender hand closed the book again.
"What is so interesting that you can't give your friend your attention?" When Walter looked up, Alucard's face was a picture of upset in the face of rejection.
"Alucard, I'm young, not dumb. Stop trying to make me feel bad for ignoring you. You know how Arthur is about my education."
Alucard took the page away from Walter before he could begin writing again. "Vocabulary? I thought your command of English was rather thorough."
"It's good enough for yelling in the trenches, but Arthur wants me to be the perfect butler, not just the good one I am now. He thinks that the perfect butler should be able to answer any question about anything at any time." He sighed. "Which means that among other things, he wants me to be a walking dictionary."
"Then allow me to assist you that you may finish more quickly and join me for some fun. What is rodomontade?"
Walter sighed again but decided to play along, "What I heard from the Major right before he ran like a coward – a pretentious speech."
"Sobriquet?"
"A nickname, like 'Angel of Death' or 'The Impaler.'" Walter grimaced at Alucard. Couldn't he just leave Walter be to get this done with?
"Lubricious? Oh Arthur does choose some interesting vocabulary for you."
"It means lewd, but it can also mean slippery or smooth."
"And can you give a real life example?"
"I could, but I prefer not to. You forgot 'epicene' from the list."
"Epicene? Ah, yes. And it means?" Alucard looked up from the page and fluttered his eyelashes at Walter.
"I'd think you'd be intimately acquainted with its meaning, Alucard. It means effeminate or having an ambiguous sexual identity."
"Oh, my identity is not at all ambiguous, Angel. Not at all." Alucard smiled invitingly, "Would you like me to prove it?"
Walter snatched the piece of paper out of Alucard's hands. "Maybe another time. I'm busy right now."