The mighty warrior, the brave hunter of monsters who had conquered the night at the tender age of three, lunged forward in the graceless way miniature bodies manage to move, and the great Arthur Hellsing drove the tip of his blade into the icy flesh of the No-Life-King. The nosferatu looked down at his leg where the baby Hellsing was giggling, smacking the unfortunate limb with a small wooden sword his father had given him. The little hunter could not hope to harm the leg or the vampire attached to it, but within the child's colorful mind he was conquering the beast with ease and finesse. Alucard stepped to the side, and Arthur gasped, losing his grip on his fantasy as he fell forward with his strike and landed on the carpet.
Stunned, blue eyes stared at the floor, not noticing the retreating steps. The eyes were examining the boy's pinkish, fleshy fingers while the vampire made his exit. Alucard fazed through the door and passed down the hall, traveling at an easy pace with the same neutral expression he had worn in the playroom he had paused to glance at in passing, when he had been moving through walls as he tended to do. Behind him he heard a door burst open as little feet ran out, the dramatic child gasping as he looked one way and then gasping when he swung his head in the vampire's direction. A high squeal of delight punctured the vampire's ears, though he showed no change of expression or any other response that suggested he was aware of the child. The creature was calm, indifferent as the pitter patter of tiny baby feet hurried behind him, hearing the slight pulsing beat of an excited heart and the gasping giggling breaths that were audible over the frantic tapping of feet against wood.
The small Hellsing stalked his prey, failing to hide or make himself in any way discreet. But the pursuit, the game, thrilled the child as the boy continued, oblivious of the distance or the exertion. He saw the vampire stop – hope spurred the boy dashing forward, but he tripped and was soon on his knees and pushing himself up from the floor with a soft grunt. As he gasped in amazement when he saw that his prey was escaping through a wall, the instinct of a hunter burned in his chest and filled the boy with the mock desperation and outrage that made him hold out his sword and yell in his wobbling young voice, "No! You won't ge-get away from me…vam-vampire! I'm gonna- I'm gonna get you!" Little stubby legs pumped forward, the boy panting as he sprinted with a waddling stride. "Here I come! I- I'm gonna-" He huffed while swinging chubby arms as he followed the beast, "-gonna get you! I'm gonna- I'm gonna-" Arthur murmured with his steps like a chugging train.
As he stopped before the door, a wide grin broke out across his face, enlarging the smile the rosy lips had worn before. Grabbing aggressively at the door, Arthur pulled it open and then charged into the room, directing his sword towards the back of the vampire as a shrieked war cry surprised a blonde man sitting behind a great mahogany desk. Van Hellsing peered around the figure of the demon to smile and then chortle at the mighty warrior who had arrived to vanquish the evil monster. Abraham stood, humor and tender affection glowing with pride when Arthur began to hack at Alucard's legs with his toy sword.
"Rawr, rawr, rawr-" The child growled in a voice that could never be menacing or manage to frighten anything bigger than a mouse. The father chuckled, watching with one hand planted on his desk.
"Hello Arthur." A warm smile spoke.
Snapping out of his imaginary battle, Arthur gasped and looked around in a wild and startled way. Then blue connected with blue as he found his father. The boy panted faintly with air filling his reddened cheeks and he waved his sword. "Hi Daddy."
Abraham smiled and took the hand from his desk to wave back. Arthur had stopped and let his sword fall against the vampire's leg so he could rest his wrist for a moment. "Daddy," the voice piped up again, sounding very important - which humored the adult Hellsing, "D-Dada, I'm- I'm kinda busy right now, with- with important stuff I gotta do. So- so I can't talk to you right now."
The attack was renewed with another growl from the tiny throat, while Van Hellsing's eyes widened and blinked with amazement before he let out an open laugh. "Well, aren't you a busy little man. …But I need that vampire you're killing right now. I have work to do too, you know."
Little Arthur froze and stared at his father and then his large blue eyes glanced at the vampire, his mouth gaping, being as dramatic as ever. Oh, his daddy had very, very important work to do right now. Yes. Very, very important special work. His daddy had grown up stuff to do. So…so he would just have to finish later… "Okay Daddy." The child sighed, hanging his head as the tip of his sword touched the ground. The head slowly rose, and the child gave the man a very serious look. "But- but I'm gonna hafta do this after- after you're all done."
Hellsing smiled and showed his appreciation for the considerate decision, sending the boy off with a small wave. But Arthur did not leave the room. He wandered off to a chair sitting beside a lamp and a rising wall of books he gawked at, gazing up before sitting down to wait. The boy watched his father and the unchanged vampire that had ignored Arthur the entire time the little Hellsing had been trying to kill him. Abraham was amused again by the choice his son had made, but he humored the child and let Arthur remain since he was not distracting him. A measure of time that was a bit longer than a minute passed before Arthur could no longer sit still or keep his imagination caged up in his little head.
"Pew pew… pew pew pew…pow, ah darn I- I missed! Gonna- gonna need more bullets. Now…pew pew, pow- YEAH! I got him! I got the vam-vampire!"
Having watched the excited boy transform his sword into a gun in order to use a long range weapon to assault the demon, Van Hellsing smirked at the child's enthusiasm though he realized the distraction was preventing him from getting work done. "Arthur." He addressed the child currently taking cover beside the chair he had been sitting on and was just about to crawl under. The boy backed up and turned to sit on the floor so he could see the man.
"Yes Daddy?" The soft voice asked, wondering why he had been interrupted.
"I need to get work done now Arthur. Could you please go back to the playroom? You can practice shooting at your tin soldiers so you'll be prepared to take on the vampire after I'm done." Lips smiled at the suggestion they had given.
Awed by the man's wisdom, the boy paused on the carpet threads which he believed were quite comfortable to sit on. Then he got up slowly and clumsily brushed off the bottom of his pants as if he'd really been rolling around in dirt and dodging bullets. "Okay." Arthur's response came as he scampered off, taking a moment to shut the door.
While waddle-jogging down the hall in the constant hurried pace a busy child manages to maintain, Arthur stopped to look back at the door. But he obediently returned to his playroom and set up rows of polished tin soldiers he then used to strategically destroy one another, pretending one side was the good guys, the human hunters, and the other side was the bad, stinky, evil monsters. "Rawr, rawr, rawr!" One soldier, the warrior, stomped on the other soldier that was meant to be the vampire, though the two were nearly identical. "Blehhh!" The sound of death and defeat came. The vampire lay on its side, obviously conquered, while Arthur made the other soldier hop around as it did a victory dance, yelling, "Yay! Yay! Yay! I-I got that dumb vam-vampire! I won! Yeah!" Absorbed in his victory, the boy completely forgot about the real vampire he was supposed to vanquish and continued to play with his tin soldiers. He did not realize that as time passed, he had gained a small audience.
In Arthur's mind a battle was raging - guns, such as the ones he often heard around the Hellsing Manor when the hunters were training, fired and sparks leaped out of them like sparks had never leaped out of guns before in reality. Everything was big, bright, booming, and dramatic. And he was Arthur, the greatest hunter that had ever lived. The vampires would run away from him, crying for their mommies, when the mighty warrior charged. They were fast, so Arthur needed a trusty steed.
Grabbing as many tin soldiers as his arms could carry, the boy tottered towards his rocking horse, leaving a few casualties on the carpet behind him as they dropped from his arms. The vampires were arranged on the floor, fleeing from the horse, and then the brave little boy mounted his steed and began the pursuit. He rocked forward and then back, leaning in the proper motions as wood creaked occasionally. The miniature Hellsing threatened to capture the vampires and make them all his slaves, so they would have to clean his room forever. A pink hand patted the horse to encourage it to go faster. "Le- let's go! L-let's go! We got 'em! We g-got them now! Neigh, neigh! Good horsie!" A hand stroked a painted wooden head. "We- we almost got the vam-vampires! YEAH!" The boy quickly dismounted, tripping and picking himself up quickly before he used his giant sword to smite the devils he had caught up with. They fell without resistance.
"Oh no!" Came the voices of the vampires, narrated by the child. "Oh no! I-it's Arthur! We- we better run!" "Wham!" The sword cut down two vampires in one stroke. "Wahhh! No! I w-want my vam-vampy Mummy! Wahh!"
Arthur giggled, his cheeks bright as his eyes glowed with happiness. Strokes continued to knock down vampires, the boy pausing to pick them up again when he ran out of victims. He laughed. "You- you crybabies! You're a-all crybabies!" "Boom, pew pew-" The sword instantly became a gun.
"But he- he's on-only thwee! We-we should…win!" The vampires cried in dismay.
Arthur laughed at them in a devilish sort of way, flattening the vampires with his returned sword. "No. You- you could not ever, 'cuz m-my Daddy is- is the bestest hunter ever! An- and I-I I'm the second bestest!" The mighty hunter roared, and with a final swipe of his sword, destroyed all of the vampires in the undead army. The boy shouted, celebrating his victory, getting up from the carpet to jump and dance - a clumsy spasm of joy. Once satisfied, he pointed at the defeated tin soldiers and grinned. "Now- now you're all my s-serv-serv-ants! Now! C-clean up this mess! Cuz, I'm not gonna! No, not ever!"
The soldiers, more lifeless than the undead they had been pretending to be, did not move. However, movement came from the doorway as Abraham clapped, acquiring his son's attention as he walked towards the battlefield. Arthur squealed when the man tickled him and then roared and swooped down to snatch him up into his arms. The boy continued to squeal and giggle while the father congratulated him and showered him with praise, having witnessed most of the war. Alucard remained by the door, stoic with the same mask over his features, the neutral expression. Crimson eyes watched the Hellsings play, the irises being the vampire's only sign of conscious life.
"You are indeed a Hellsing." The father, chuckling, leaned forward and touched his son's button nose with his own, triggering a giggle. Then, with his mind going elsewhere, Abraham moved towards the fallen tin soldiers to see what feat his son had accomplished. The Hellsing's face was animated, showing exaggerated emotions such as astonishment and excitement. "Look at all of these vampires, Arthur! Look at how many you captured! How are we supposed to keep all of these vampires, hm? Here in our home? …However will we accomplish such a thing?"
The boy giggled, having no answer and not concerned about the question. His father's tone and behavior was silly, and he loved it.
"And they're all your slaves?" Abraham inquired, looking down at the boy he held while raising his brow.
The child nodded enthusiastically, a bouncy bundle of giggles. "Yup! All- all of them are-are mine! I got them all!" The triumph raised his voice as two hands slapped together, as if capturing something, and then the boy squealed with more laughter when Hellsing chuckled, tickling Arthur until the boy was gasping with deeply flushed cheeks. Arthur took deep breaths through a grin as he looked up at his father. Suddenly he leaned forward to see his soldiers. Pink fingers pointed at different individual pieces. "A-and I'm gonna name that one Al-Alu-uard. A-and that one Al-Alu-uard. An-and that one, and that one..." The boy laughed when his father did, finding it funny because the man thought it was. He received a kiss on his head before Hellsing put him down.
Instantly, the tiny warrior rushed back to the vampire, already releasing his war cry and waving his sword in the air. The sword hit the undead legs again and again while the warrior growled.
Van Hellsing took his time retrieving the boy, scooping him up and informing the child that it was about time he was in bed.
"B-but I dun wanna! I-I'm not tired!"
"No. Bedtime is bedtime. Even great vampire hunters need their sleep."
"B-but Daddy!"
The man only smiled lovingly, patting the blonde head as he cradled the boy in one strong arm. He chuckled. "I'll tuck you into bed, Arthur. I'll wrap you in a cocoon so you won't escape."
The boy was overjoyed with the idea, being very fond of his father's blanket-cocoons. He was giggling to himself, before he got the idea to recount his valiant battles, chirping with his excited twittering. Abraham Van Hellsing smiled and let the child gibber jabber to his little heart's content, though the man paused in the hallway to look back at the vampire waiting by the door to the playroom.
"Clean the room. I will still need to see you in my office after I put Arthur to bed." He walked off with the chattering child, leaving behind the blank, emotionless creature. Only when the man could no longer be seen did the demon turn and go to the fallen soldiers, the defeated, those humiliated and enslaved vampires on the floor. Pale hands picked them up quietly, walking to an open container in another part of the room and arranging each tin figure neatly in the box, putting them in their rightful places. The vampire retrieved the other soldiers, the human hunters who had been the victors, and returned to place them in the box as well.
After shutting the box of children's toys in a drawer, the No-Life-King faded from the room to await his master's return.