Background Info:
This is my first Hellsing fanfiction.
AU! I repeat, AU!
Integra is married to Anderson, and has been for maybe a month or so. It's a mainly political marriage but she and Alex have come to an understanding and are beginning to care for one another more strongly.
Alucard is still around, mainly because I haven't actually finished the anime and I'm not exactly sure how it ends. (I hate watching subbed anime- I have the attention span of a gnat and can't focus on one thing for that long, I need to multitask- and the last two episodes aren't dubbed, at least that I could find.)
Might be slightly OOC? Hopefully not too badly, though.
I think that's all.
"So be prepared for the chance of a lifetime! Be prepared for SENSATIONAL news…"
Returning home after a long, weary and unfruitful hunt, Alexander Anderson-Hellsing (oh the compromises) paused in the foyer with a tilt of his head. It wasn't every day you heard the Lion King being played in the Hellsing manor. Perplexed and quite a bit curious, he hung up his coat and followed the sound of the children's movie into one of the smaller downstairs dens.
Integra, relaxing on the couch with a glass of wine in her hand and a sleeping vampire laying his head in her lap, just looked up at him as if everything was normal and smiled at his confused expression.
"Glad to see you're back safely. We saved you dinner." She gestured to a covered plate on the end table with the hand that held her wineglass; the other was gently petting the sleeping vampire's hair. Divested of his normal hat and coat the monster looked amazingly small, curled up in an impossibly tiny ball between his master and the arm of the couch. Alexander still eyed him warily as he picked up his meal, well aware of how quickly he could attack.
He heard a squeak as he went to join his wife on the couch, and looked down to see Seras curled up on the floor with her head against Integra's knee. She too was dressed casually- her light blue pajamas made her look much, much younger than she had any right to. He frowned as he sat down and the fledgling scuttled away to Integra's other side with a soft hiss. He frowned, considering the unusual behavior of the monsters- Alucard normally would have woken the instant he entered the room, and Seras usually wasn't so obvious about how much she disliked him…
"What's up with those two tonight?" Integra huffed out a breath and gave him a wry smile.
"One of the soldiers decided to play a prank, and switched their normal rations with the blood of someone who was high as a kite and drunk as a skunk. Normally drugs and alcohol don't affect them, but when they're already metabolized in human blood it's a different story." Anderson blinked once at her, then looked down at Seras who was staring at him warily. Her pupils were the size of dinner plates.
Torn between amusement and despair, Alex could only shake his head. High, drunk vampires- certainly not something he had any experience with.
"So what happens to 'em?"
"They'll be very childlike and more than a bit animalistic until it works its way out of their systems. We can keep them quiet, limit their destructiveness… and take lots of pictures." She held up her small digital camera with a decidedly wicked grin and he laughed at her ingenuity. "Alucard is old and experienced enough to sleep it off, but Seras insisted on staying up. So we put a movie on- she's been entranced the entire evening." Her voice held a detectable note of fondness; no matter how cold she acted towards them, Integra cared for her vampires.
He shifted on the couch, putting his finished plate aside, and was surprised to see Seras startle and scoot farther away from him. He frowned, opening his mouth to ask why, but his wife hushed him with a gentle touch. She set her wineglass aside and leaned down to the blonde fledgling, slender hands reaching down to pet golden hair.
"Seras, it's all right. You know he won't hurt you now." Anderson sat up straighter, shocked; he'd honestly thought her aggression and avoidance of him was because she hated him… Not because she was frightened.
"She's… scared of me?" Integra gave him a dry look.
"Alex. The first time you met her you shoved blessed blades into her back, appeared to destroy her sire, and attempted to decapitate me. Of course she's frightened of you." She smoothed blonde bangs back, her voice low and soothing. "If you threaten a trapped tiger, it will snarl and bite and claw to scare you away. You know vampires are predators. They behave similarly."
Alex felt thoroughly stupid now, looking at the tiny vampire being soothed under Integra's hands. He'd killed and tracked and trapped many a monster, but he'd never lived with a tame one. They continued to surprise him.
"Shhh, Seras. I'm here, Alucard is here, Walter and the soldiers are nearby, you're safe. I'll keep watch for you." She gently coaxed the young draculina to lay her head back down, and within a few moments Seras was engrossed in the movie again. Just like a child. The thought brought a smile to his face, remembering the orphans he had looked after before marrying into the Hellsings.
He couldn't quell his smile as Integra sat back and rested against his side, one hand still idly stroking Alucard like a favorite pet. She alternated petting the two vampires for a while until Seras tried to keep the petting hand on her too long and Alucard began to stir restlessly. Integra harrumphed exasperatedly.
"Seras, switch sides. I can't pet you both like this." The draculina was in motion before she realized that the change would bring her closer to Anderson, and when she froze for a moment Integra nudged her firmly with her socked foot. "Stop being silly, Seras. I won't let him hurt you." The fear in her eyes, now that he could see it, made his throat close up. She still looked so much like a child…
The blonde pressed herself as close as she could physically manage to Integra's legs, flinching whenever she accidentally brushed Alex in any way. Integra resumed her petting, and they settled into quiet for a long stretch of time.
Just as Simba was rescued by Timon and Pumba, Integra gently nudged his arm. She quietly gestured to Seras, who was by this time relaxed against her legs again. When he frowned in incomprehension she rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand, gently leading it in a slow stroke of the vampire's hair.
"Pet her." She murmured in his ear. "She needs to stop being afraid of you if we're all going to live together."
He swallowed and did as she said, doing his best to forget the deadly fangs that rested only a few inches from his hands and how often the creature under his hand used those fangs to snap at him. It felt strange, petting a humanoid creature as if they were nothing more than a dog, but he could feel the tiny motion as Seras pressed into his hand and smiled a little.
It took her a moment to notice the change. He felt the instant she realized Integra was no longer doing the petting; she froze, her body going stiff as a board, and turned her head to look at him with wide, frightened eyes. He swallowed and gave her the same look he'd used on his most terrified orphans.
"Shh, lass. It's alright. I won't hurt ye." A tense, breathless moment passed before Seras relaxed a little, tentatively pressing into his hand again. He resumed his petting, Integra breathed a silent sigh of relief, and they turned their attention back to the movie. He didn't let up gently petting the tiny vampire.
When at last the credits rolled, he looked down to find, to his surprise, that the draculina had fallen asleep with her head against his leg and one hand wrapped around his calf. He couldn't help his smile.
Integra sat up and stretched, then gently shook Alucard's shoulder to wake him. He hissed as he roused himself, seemingly about to bite, but Integra was undeterred.
"Come, you menace. It's time for you to sleep properly. You too, Seras. Go to your coffins, and I'll see you at dusk tomorrow." Grumbling, only half-awake, the vampires obeyed.
As they left the room, she got to her feet and stretched more fully before extending a hand to help him up.
"We'd best be getting to bed as well. Come on." Shaking his head at her forwardness, he grinned- and swooped to pick up her slender body, carrying her down the hall over his shoulder. She yelped softly and smacked him in the shoulder none too gently.
"Alexander, this is completely undignified! Put me down this instant!" He just laughed- if she were truly offended she knew how to break this type of hold- and carried her down the hall to their room.
This would definitely go on his list of strangest evenings, right alongside "the time I played truth or dare with a nun" and "when I chased a child vampire through a carnival funhouse".
At least this was slightly less stressful.
Author's Notes:
Dang, it's surprising how many animes I've gotten into from watching their Abridged series. I blame my club.
Hopefully this wasn't too terrible, hope you enjoyed and review if you feel like it!
-SS