A/N: This is an exercise in Walter/Integral interaction, their characters, and the concept of possessiveness. Would Walter ever act like this in canon? Probably not, although it may serve as insight towards the manga's Dark!Walter.
A Breakdown in Communication
A much younger, more naïve Integral of days long past would have tugged on his shirt sleeve, looked up at him with bright blue eyes and asked,
'Walter, come play with me.'
He shakes his head. It was not an appropriate time to recall pleasant memories, especially when the lady in question holds her head in her hands, despairing over the stack of government documents she has to become acquainted with. He recognizes the way she repeatedly pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose, the clench in her fingers when she digs into her scalp for answers, and the frustrated whine that emerges from her throat.
'Miss Integra, it is nearly time for lunch.'
She looks up at him rather drearily, her eyes out of focus from staring at inked letters for so long.
'Yes, thank you Walter.'
He sighs inwardly.
I know you haven't eaten breakfast.
I know you're too young for this.
Walter leaves the room, his gloved hand brushing the heavy oak as he turns the knob quietly for Integral's sake. Hellsing's Headquarters feels strangely empty today, echoing with melancholy and tension. Aside from the odd military personnel arriving at the door to report back to Integra, it was just the two of them.
No manic vampires hanging from the ceilings and laughing as if he held all the secrets of the world. No gunshot from the gallery below as Alucard taunts and mocks his youngest master to date. No poking and prodding towards the aged Angel of Death, no comments on how his skill with his wires might have declined over the decades.
For Walter, it is a welcome reprise. It is the third time that Alucard is absent since the coming of Integra's induction into the Royal Order of Protestant Knights.
A gentle smile touches his lips; perhaps Integra needs to be reminded that she is still a girl behind the armour.
At eleven o'clock, Integral Hellsing stands in front of the family retainer and asks if he would like to leave the formalities of the office and have a lighthearted lunch in one of the mansion's many living rooms. If he is surprised by her forthright manner, he doesn't show the full extent of it. She has beaten him in his game; it was he who was supposed to rescue her from the newfound horrors of office work.
'Walter, let's have a tea party.'
In truth, she said, 'let's have lunch together'. The fifteen year old has more sense and dignity than to use the word 'party' in such a childlike manner, but Walter pretends that it was. It was one way for him to reconcile the young Integral with the older one.
His darling lady is growing up fast. It's wonderful to see glimpses of the woman she will become; a determined look here, a bark of a question there.
Integral removes her shoes and sits on her haunches, smoothing out the pleats of her schoolgirl uniform as Walter gracefully places the tray of sandwiches beside the silver tea set. It looks lovely. It looks serene. It is simplistic and comfortable and the idea of enjoying a meal in the sunlight brightens her mood. She reaches for some food.
Walter is glad to see a genuine smile on her face.
He doesn't remove his shoes like she does, but sits cross-legged facing Integral. Gazing fondly at her face he touches the plate of sandwiches before she does and presents them to her. Again, that smile.
'Maybe we should do this more often, Walter.'
He nods.
It's a picnic. It's a testimony to the old days that weren't truly so far away as he believes they are. But one's memory tends to condense things together for convenience - into segments of past, yesterday, present, and future. The image of WWII melds effortlessly with Integral's birth. A part of him wishes that the young lady enjoying her ham sandwich could have seen what a fetching young man he was, not just the doddling butler he is now.
Walter chuckles to himself.
Wiping the edge of her mouth with a napkin, Integra reaches into the pocket of her blue skirt and takes out something. It's a sleek, black cell phone. She flips it open, her eyes scanning for incoming messages, before closing it and placing it on the table. Walter frowns and remains frowning as she glances at him with tinges of hopeless embarrassment on her cheeks.
She seems to be saying, I'm sorry, but work always follows me.
He seems to reply, I thought the purpose of this lunch was to forget about work.
She sighs and pours herself more tea while he regards the cell phone with dislike. Not asking for her permission, he rises a little and with a long arm, pushes the phone further away from her; far enough to redirect her attention towards him but close enough for mental reassurance.
They continue with their picturesque lunch. More sandwiches, more tea.
But the cell phone proves too much of a distraction for her. Miss Integra sneaks glances towards the other end of the table, initially excusing herself before scuttling over and checking whether Alucard has reported back to her. Soon, her behaviour became so repetitious that she no longer asks and keeps the phone next to her plate.
Walter is having difficulty conversing with someone whose attention is someplace else.
Or someone else.
'Miss Integra, do you want me to refill your cup?' It is one of his preferred blends from Ceylon, and one he knows that she likes as well. Her answer is abrupt as she flips the cell open.
'No thanks.'
'Miss Integra, I think it's time you should put that away and allow yourself to think of other things.' Gently, he takes her hands and lifts the phone from her fingers, noticing how her arms rise as he tugs it away from her.
'Persistent worry over a phone call will not help anyone's nerves.' Her eyes narrow slightly in irritation.
'Alucard said he would phone, Walter. I expect him to.'
Walter clears his throat, bringing his right hand to his lips. 'Yes, well, I'm sure he will.'
And just like that, there is a barrier between them. One that he cannot touch, or see, or hear, but it is there, his words no longer float to her and his thoughts cannot kiss her cheeks like before. This wall screens him and Walter feels betrayed; as if he is a stranger on the other end of the line.
But I'm the one right in front of you. You should be talking to me.
Integral glances at the phone, hoping to see the red light and the reassuring beep. Walter curses it. He turns his attention back to her. Gently, he encases her hands in his and scoots closer to her.
'It might not be my place to say this,' her blue eyes defies his, doubting him, 'but you should be more confident in yourself, Integra.'
A tilt of the head. A question. Her attention is where it should be.
'You work too hard. You try too much. You should be confident of your orders. If there is uncertainty, it should not become guilt on your mind. I am here to help, too.'
In other words, trust me.
'You're confusing me, Walter.'
He squeezes her hands, wanting to get the message across. 'Does Alucard question your orders? Does he make you feel insignificant?'
'I- sometimes.' She bows her head down showing her discomfort at the topic. Yes, Alucard did question her judgment once or twice. Yes, he did mock her attempts to tame him. But she understood his methods, no matter how uncomfortable they were to her mind and body; he was only helping her become a better leader. To stand where others faltered.
'Don't give over so easily to Alucard.'
'I don't understand you.' It isn't the vampire that's the problem. It's everything else.
'Do not let him get to you. You are the master, my love. He is the gun and you are the trigger. You command him.'
Integral lets out a sigh of pain and closes her eyes. Leaning forward, she wraps her arms around Walter's torso for comfort. He embraces her in return. She is tired, she is too young, and she needs rest.
Integral thinks of the multitude of papers waiting for her at her desk and screws her eyes tightly. Those letters intimidate her in a way she can't describe. All those people, all those conversations.
I wish Alucard was here. I wish he would call me now.
'I don't know what he's doing to you–' he starts, putting the blame to Alucard, 'but-'
'Walter,' she interjects, noticing the disdain in his voice. 'Alucard's only intent is to keep me safe. My work makes me tired, there's so much to do.'
Alucard seeks to protect me. I expect his call because he knows his voice reassures me. He will tell me if what I did was right. I feel stronger when he is around.
He sighs heavily and kisses the top of his lady's head. 'Oh Integra.'
Then, Integral's cell phone rings.
Her first instinct is to answer it and she squirms under Walter's arms. Instead, one of his arms leaves her back and reaches for the table, moving them both sideways. He grabs the phone.
'Who is it?'
His eyes scan the text and frowns.
'Unknown. Call lost.'
Integra sighed worriedly and doesn't look up. Walter thinks to replace the phone to its original spot and his hand hesitates in midair. Instead, he pushes it soundlessly to the far end of the table and far beyond her reach.
She worries in a childlike manner when Alucard is absent for more than a day although she has little reason to. The vampire is her best soldier and she rationalizes that his lack of reporting is due to the fact that perhaps the operation is still uncompleted. As his master, she ordered him to call her upon completion of the task. He is duty bound to call her.
Letting go of Walter, the girl pushes herself off his lap and sits back down on the carpet, pushing strands of loose hair behind her ears. She still has not looked at the table yet, too absorbed in her own thoughts to notice his.
The cell phone rings again.
'Don't answer it, love. It'll just stop again.' He's right. The phone beeps once more before stopping altogether. He frowns and turns his face away from her.
She laughs nervously.
Walter's hands touch hers again.
The cell phone rings. It continues ringing. Integral's heart beats faster and she knows that it's Alucard trying to contact her. Rising from her seat, the hem of her skirt lightly brushes Walter's trousers. Her hand reaches for the phone but touches glass instead.
'Walter, where is the phone?'
'Somewhere.'
It's still ringing.
'Walter, give me the phone,' she insists.
His clipped manner shocks her. 'You don't need to answer.'
Integral's eyes widen in response.
What a ludicrous comment. Of course I have to answer.
She rises off her haunches and turns her body towards the table. The phone is at the other end, farther than her arms will reach. The red light blinks repeatedly and its beeps surround the room. He is calling. Integral leans over the table when an arm pulls her back down. It is Walter. What is he doing? What is he saying to her? She can't hear him over the phone. Why is he pulling her to his lap and why is she pushing his touch away like some dirty fly? He's holding her by the upper arms and she can't move freely and the phone is still ringing and she imagines Alucard on the other line, staring at the receiver waiting to hear her voice.
An angry shiver runs down Integra's arms and her thighs start to shake underneath her pleated skirt. Alucard is waiting, she cannot be held up.
'Walter,' her voice snaps at him, irritated. 'Stop this and let me go.'
He doesn't.
There is hunger in her eyes, the kind that alarms him and makes him angry. The slight tilt in the way that she reaches for the cell hurts him emotionally in a way she didn't meant to.
He knew there is more going on between Alucard and her. His darling Integral is keeping secrets from him. She has no reason to. He knows the vampire; he knows firsthand how he works and the kind of addiction that follows. It is starting already.
Alucard isn't the only one with her safety in mind.
She cares more about the inanimate, cold piece of machinery than he. Integra chooses the vampire's mocking voice over his own comforting one. She's growing dependant, heading towards obsession. She doesn't need the vampire's calls to reassure her commands and she certainly doesn't need the vampire to mock her either.
He mocks her right now with the irritating beeps coming from the phone. Alucard is always getting in the way, the vampire's demands taking precedence over his. He is in this room with them, demanding attention.
If he has the opportunity, Walter will crush the thing with the heel of his boot.
But Integral is pushing him away, pushing his arms away when he is trying to protect her. He wants to hug her, to show her that he means no harm. She wants none of it. She wants Alucard. His gentle face becomes a grimace then a frown. Walter can see that his lady will rely on Alucard to the point that she needs him like a drug.
He will have none of that.
The barrier is up again, but stronger than before. Integral is keeping herself at bay. The screen that once was clear is now a bad television reception, static creeps around the edges and threatens to overtake it completely, permanently blocking Integral from him forever. The lines between them are rewired someplace else.
It's unfair, he thinks bitterly. Alucard is replacing him.
He hears her speak.
'Walter,' her eyes bore into his. 'Stop this at once and let me go.'
He doesn't let go.
'No,' he replies, directly opposing her order, 'You don't need to speak to him.'
Then she knows. She understands that Walter means to overpower her and force her to understand the truth in his ways. The young girl refuses, she can protect herself.
'Walter,' she threatens, her voice becoming darker, 'I have to answer the phone.'
'You are not his.'
His doesn't relinquish his grip on her. Instead, he wraps one arm around her waist and pulls her towards him with the intention of immobilizing her. The girl gasps when her knees suddenly collide with his and she pushes back against the contact, using the carpet as leverage to pull away. She has to, Alucard needed her. She needs to get to the phone. Integral digs her fingers into Walter's shirt and pushes with all her strength. But Walter is bigger, and much stronger than she.
Is it their imagination or is the phone getting louder as well? As if Alucard knows what is going on and yells from wherever he is. The noise it makes shrills painfully in Walter's ears. It is saying: Get away from her. Get away. She is not yours.
'Leave him, my lady.' Walter's voice is suddenly cold and his smile is mocking. 'Is that monster so important to you that you need to hear his voice every hour?'
The loathing in her eyes could have skinned him alive and thrown him into hell. Oh, if only.
Is this truly Walter? A ball of anger forms in her gut and Integral opens her mouth to say exactly what it is that is on her mind. He clamps a hand over her mouth. He is hurting her wrists.
'The phone isn't important,' he insists and shakes his head.
Bollocks.
'Listen to me, Integra, you don't need him.' He bends his head down, pushing her forward at the same time. Their faces are so close that she could tear his eyes out.
'Yes I do!' she thinks before lunching forward and their foreheads collide. He lets go of her, bringing his hands to his forehead. Integral scrambles to the other side of the table and lunges for the phone. One hand finds her ankle and brings her crashing to the ground.
'Damn it!' she yells and kicks Walter in the face, misses, and hits his shoulder instead.
The cell phone continues ringing, its beeps become louder and louder until it is the only thing she can hear. His arms are around her again, hurting her, trying to tell her that she's addicted to the vampire, that it isn't healthy, that it is he who truly cares for her.
'Integral, I love you,' he pleads, 'I know what's best for you.'
But her mind is saying something else. Walter cannot love her, not like this. This is not love, this is pain. All he's doing is breaking whatever friendship they had, the contact between them. He has betrayed her. She hits back. His strength is great, but her will must be greater. Walter can't hold her; he has no right to hold her. She's yelling at him and strikes his chest hard and he's trying to hold her face so she can hear his words.
I don't want to hear you. I don't want you.
'Integral, choose me. Choose only me,' he demands. He bites his lip and winces at the bruises underneath his clothes, the bruises that she made.
She scoffs, as if he ever gave her a choice.
The cell phone is louder than ever, and it screams with Alucard's rage. He demands to have his master back. He is calling her like she asked, then why is she not answering? What is wrong? He wants to hear her voice, she needs to be safe. Where are you, Integra?
Walter's face is cold. And it is murderous. He will kill that vampire.
You must come with me. I know what is to come. I know the future, Integral.
'Damn that Alucard–' he starts.
That earned him a punch in the mouth and Walter spits out blood. His mind is tired, but he keeps his hold on Integra. She fights too much and she does not understand that this is important. There are a great many things in his mind that rush towards him in a spectral blur, their voices and their accusations whirring past his ears.
He is suddenly aware that she is swearing at him.
There is no chance of reaching her now, no way to save her. But he must try. She puts more than a barrier between them. There is someone else blocking his way. She marks her land with a thick line of chalk. He cannot walk alone to his. She must come with him.
'Integra – Integra –'
'Stop it!'
'Choose me, say my name.'
'Let go bastard!'
'Integra.'
A knee in the head and Walter's eyesight fails him. He raises his head and focuses on a point well above young Integral's head. He is seeing stars. There is a window behind her, it lights the entire living room brightly.
'WALTER!' she shouts.
And then he stops. He freezes and his eyes glaze over. He looks down at her briefly, a fleeting glance of guilt and releases his hold on her arms. It is all over now.
Because Integral shouts in a voice that shakes him to his core. He stops breathing. She calls his name from her lips - but it isn't the pleading scream of a betrayed friend. The voice that bursts from her lips is that of an adult woman - one that holds authority and power and discipline and one who does not take betrayal without drawing blood first.
The voice that comes from Integra's mouth demands absolute compliance.
And at that moment, she sounds so much older than the fifteen year old child she is. All is lost. Everything is broken now.
He has acted violently. He has hurt her. He has become a monster himself.
Integral exhales and pushes her knees away his and her body away from him. He does not look at her and stares at the wall like a dog awaiting punishment. He tries to remember the pleasant tea party they enjoyed such a short time ago. It feels like a year has passed already.
So much distance between them now.
Full of shame, he unclenches his fingers, careful to mask the pain Integra caused when she forcibly pushed him away from her. Underneath his clothes, there are angry, red welts on his chest. There are tears on his vest from her small nails digging into the fabric.
Integral scrambles off his lap and snatches up the phone.
She doesn't see the look of rejection on his face. All she wants is Alucard. The friend of so many years is gone. Walter destroyed him. But he is still here, waiting for her. It doesn't matter anyhow; Integral doesn't spare a glance at him. He was not the one.
She flips the phone and punches a button.
Walter screws his eyes shut and pretends not to hear. He is passive now, he has given up. He knows that she will not trust him again and that is as good as banishment. He has broken her trust and her heart. He wonders what else cannot be mended.
Her breath hitches as the static from the other line grows louder, making it hard to discern the vampire's voice from the chaotic background. It sounds like explosions and gunshots. His voice is loud, but the noise is even louder. He may be yelling.
'Alucard, are you there?' she commands. Her voice is no longer one of the adult female that stopped his blood cold, but of a young girl who's searching for answers. Possibly more.
The static in the background is receding quickly, the connection is becoming better. Alucard's voice is coming through. He is shouting her name.
Walter wishes he were deaf.
Integra depends on this man, who is halfway around the world. She needs his reassurance more than his. So many years lost in an abandoned tea party and a shitty phone call.
Walter breathes.
I love you. I could have protected you. I have allowed a dead king to take you away from me.
Integral shouts into the phone. There is concern in her voice. She doesn't care if her skirt is wrinkled and her blouse has creases. The bruises from Walter's fingers will heal. Walter has broken her heart. But it will mend quickly. It always does. It is the scars that remain.
She straightens her back and lifts her chin higher. He will answer.
'Alucard!'
The vampire's voice is suddenly clear from the other end. Integra is finally answering his calls. She is alive. She is safe.
'I am here, my master.'