Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing ran her organization with an iron fist. She never let so much as one detail fall out of place and let no insubordination go unpunished. This meant that sometimes her nights grew long, filled with paperwork and cigars. Her faithful butler Walter stayed awake to supply her with tea now and again, but aside from that she was alone- most of the time.

"That's enough Walter, thank you," Integra mumbled as she watched Walter pour more Ceylon into her teacup. The butler eyed the ticking clock on the desk.

"Do you think you ought to be heading to your room, ma'am? It's nearly 1:20," Walter said in that tone that bordered on fatherly. Normally Integra would have been annoyed by such a tone, but in her exhausted state she thought nothing of it.

"I've yet to finish these reports." She looked up at him drearily, but her eyes fell to her papers and her pen once again began scratching away.

"Very well," Walter replied, and promptly left with a bow, holding back the urge to tell her to stop while she could still see straight.

It wasn't long before another distraction found its way to Integra's office.

"My-my, someone has been working hard," purred a deep voice.

"Oh shut up, I don't see you doing anything," Integra spat.

"My master hasn't ordered me to," said the voice playfully. Shadows pooled on the floor until they filled it, then started weaving up the walls like diseased vines. The Hellsing leader saw three pairs of glowing eyes from the corner of her vision and looked up just in time to see a terrible hell hound bounding toward her, mouth agape. She jumped back and gave a startled shout, but the dog evaporated before it touched her. There in its place stood the vampire, grinning insanely at the fun he'd just had.

"God damn it, Alucard!" Integra cried at the top of her lungs, standing and slamming the desk with an open palm. "I will not tolerate this childish nonsense!" She glared violently at his unchanging face until she felt her own labored breathing and sat down to rest. She knew that she could shout at her servant all she wanted, as it was a good release when he started getting especially annoying, but it would not make it through that thick skull of his and would only rile him further. The key to control over him was composure and reason.

Alucard's grin eventually faded to a smirk and he drifted closer to his master's desk.

"Leave me be," she groaned. "Just for once."

"Oh, I will," he responded coyly, "but first-" He strode around to Integra's side of the desk and leaned down so that he was level with her, their faces inches apart. Against the sheer silence, the clock's ticking roared in their ears. Integra gave him an alarmed frown, but Alucard pushed her head to face her work with only his fingertips, and whispered in her ear.

Walter was nearly in a state of panic when he heard shots going off in the room upstairs. He burst into the large room, silvery wires whipping around him. Before him lay the gruesome remains of the pet vampire and Integra writing fiercely, glaring at the paper.

"Wha- what happened in here? I heard shots and-" Walter stopped mid-sentence when Integra's head snapped up. Her face softened when she saw the old butler, and she took a long drag from her cigar before motioning for him to come forward. The wires disappeared and he stepped cautiously around the mess that was already disintegrating into shadows and dripping away through the floor.

"Closer," she said, and Walter leaned over the desk. She quietly told Walter exactly what Alucard had told her, and Alucard's laughing echoed loudly through the room as she did. The butler's eyes widened and he turned around, clapping a hand over his forehead as he let out an exasperated shout: "I just lost the game!"