Disclaimer: I don't own Hellsing. Tis rather depressing.
A/N: And now we're on Sloth, which personally when talking about Alucard and Integra, has got to be the hardest. Everything else is hunky dory but this is going to be interesting. Warning you now.
Chapter 2: Sloth
Alucard, five- hundred year old vampire or not, had some very distinguish mortal qualities.
This wasn't a new revelation for Integra Hellsing. In fact, she thought this for the first time a few days after his release from the dungeon when she was twelve. Back then it was just a blur for a good while after she felt and heard the gun shot that killed her uncle. In fact, if she were a different person she would even say that it was just a dream. A very sick, stress related dream.
Except, there were two things wrong with that scenario: she was who she was and tragedy seemed to follow her.
And Alucard was still there, proof that what happened was real.
Still, life continued.
As it were that day so many years ago; she remembered being in her father's office, messing with something. To this day she couldn't remember what she was fiddling with, but she remembered what tea Walter brought in that day because that was the day he returned to Hellsing Manor. Poor Walter had nearly had a heart attack seeing Alucard up and about after twenty years of sleep.
Walter had asked a barrage of questions afterwards, totally ignoring Alucard as he asked his questions. Alucard had just leaned against the wall watching this exchange; his hair still bone white from his imprisonment, still wearing his leather strait jacket and insane grin, showing a little too much fang for Integra's liking.
Then just like that Walter had gone about his duties and brought up a cup and teapot filled to the brim of Earl Grey tea. Then he left her and Alucard without a word.
Like there wasn't a vampire in the house.
Like everything was freaking peachy.
Integra couldn't understand how unnaturally calm Walter could be with Alucard in this house. She was hyper aware if he so much as twitched, still going through the aftershocks of being woken up and was still trying to get his bearings.
So needless to say if he so much as lifted a finger, Integra had a gun on him in a second, remembering what he did to the men her uncle had thrown at him.
And judging by the amusement in his vermillion red eyes as she held the gun to him, he knew exactly where her thoughts went.
Which brought her back to his unnerving human- like qualities that he possessed. She couldn't remember what she was messing with that day. Frankly, she couldn't remember much of those days unless Alucard was a part of the thought. She felt him in the office all the time but as long as he didn't do anything, she figured she'd just take it stride.
It wasn't till he was right beside her that day did she nearly have a stroke because she didn't even feel the air as it moved with him nor had she heard him coming. If that wasn't unsettling enough, his next words scared, baffled, and surprised her all at the same time.
"I'm bored," Alucard said; his voice; alien, rusted, and husky took on a quality of laziness and monotone that left her only staring at him.
To hear this centuries old creature say he was bored was just mind boggling. It wasn't like a normal person saying it at all, especially since Integra had seen what he could do. It was just so human and to hear him say it was a lot to take in for Integra's already over worked mind.
"You're bored," Integra answered slowly, not entirely sure she heard him right, that this creature felt boredom. Alucard smirked, a fang creeping out from his lips.
"Yes, Master. I'm bored. Surprisingly so since things have seem to change in the past twenty years since I've been, shall we say, incapacitated. I'm curious to see how the world has changed," he replied.
Integra was flabbergasted. She almost wanted to ask what he expected her to do about it. Like the twelve year old she was she just wanted to stick her tongue out at him and tell him in the most polite voice she could to piss off.
But then she remembered that this was something, someone she didn't want to mess with just yet. She still had no clue what Alucard could do, besides the obvious, i.e. rip men apart like they were paper.
She needed research and she needed it now.
She had walked around the desk, intending to leave, only to have Alucard block her way when he had been standing behind her before.
Integra could feel her hand clench, trying very hard not to look back, just to see that he had indeed moved like lightening around her. She could feel him smirking down at her, feel his amusement.
Whatever, the ass-hat could have at it.
Integra moved to step around him, only for him to follow her movement and stand in front of her. Seeing this Integra moved around again, only for him to follow her in tandem.
"Alucard! Get out of my way," Integra hissed between clenched teeth, refusing to look at him at all.
"Make me," Alucard said, all teasing and amusement gone from his voice. At this Integra had to see his face, his eyes, to see if he was letting anything slip.
He wasn't.
Integra feeling the blood rush to her through her body as she tried to calm herself by clenching her hands into fists as she continued to stare.
What she didn't count on was Alucard's hearing. As she watched him, she saw his eyes glazed over slightly in blood lust as he listened to her blood pump through her veins.
"Well, Integra, what are you going to do," Alucard asked again, now a little more amused.
And this Integra finally snapped and pulled the gun that she manage to fit on her person and shot Alucard in the head, officially blood thirsty and unbelievably pissed off.
Alucard seeing this disappeared before the shot pierced his skull, his smile the last thing to leave her sight, just like the Cheshire Cat.
Though she couldn't see him, she could feel him still in the room, watching her.
Suddenly she could hear a slight chuckle from no particular part of the room. It was like he was the room, it was everywhere.
"There she is. I was wondering where the girl that shot her uncle in cold blood had gone to. It seems she was just sleeping. I wonder how long it will be before she finally comes out to play," Alucard said, his voice bouncing off the walls; tone an odd mix between ancient amusement and childish interest.
Integra wanted to kick something. She couldn't believe she had fallen for that, his taunts. It was then that she also remembered her bond with him, more importantly, his duty to her.
"Shut up, Servant! You have no right to claim or know anything about me, whatsoever! You are under my control, or have you forgotten that? I will put you back in that dungeon if you keep pissing me off," Integra yelled, literally feeling her blood pressure go through the roof.
She made it to the door, still feeling his eyes on her. It was at this moment did she choose to remember his use of her name. She hated the way her name sounded on his lips.
Fact was that he made her name sound like it oozed sexuality and heat. He made her name sound like something delightfully reckless even though, really, it was just another word for honor. She feared how much she analyzed her name on his lips.
He was temptation at his best just by saying her name.
"For now on you will call me Master or Sir Integra. You were never given the right to my name, nor can I be seen as someone weak. I can't have a weakness. That's an order," Integra said. The walls were silent. However, they seemed to vibrate in approval.
She didn't know if she loved having his approval or hated herself for thinking that it mattered.
Don't ask her what she did the rest of the day because she couldn't really remember. She remembered being in the library. She remembers digging up anything that bared Alucard's name on it.
The last thing she remembered reading was the word Dracula, her head and face cushioned by that book. Next thing she knew she was in her room, in her bed, the moon shining brightly through the window. She had looked around, wondering how she got there. The thought was fleeting, but she could feel eyes on her somewhere.
She prayed that it was Walter that had tucked her in. The other option was intimidating and strange.
Sadly, Alucard's odd attitudes didn't really change over the years. If anything, he got worse for various reasons.
Some days he acted like a sullen child, especially when he didn't have anything to kill, like he had been taken away from his favorite toy (Integra shuddered at that thought).
Others he acted like a horny teenager, passing innuendos onto her like it was going out of fashion. More than once she wondered why he even bothered. She could wonder all she wanted about him, her, and how it seemed like all they ever did was dance around each other. It was her duty and just who he was in general made it seem impossible.
However if anything bothered her more than any of this combined it was his moments of sheer lackadaisicalness and this usually lead him to those two words that he said all those years ago.
"I'm bored."
His boredom was scary. It just wasn't natural.
History, however, has a way of repeating itself because here they were, in the office, her fiddling, and his words. The only difference; she wasn't twelve years old anymore.
"What would you like me to do for that, Servant," Integra asked as she continued to writing with one hand. Her other hand was digging though the desk drawer, trying to find a cigar, needing the nicotine rush that was sure to come with this conversation.
"Did I say that you needed to do anything, Master? I just thought I would state how I am feeling. Is that a crime," Alucard asked, his head tilting slowly at her.
It was then she had a thought. Now, granted she had it often but it usually vanished before it ever really appeared. She never wanted to know because that would be him acknowledging time as something to watch. Yet another human quality that jarred her.
"Servant," Integra asked. Alucard shifted, showing he was listening. "What's it like? Living all these years, doing everything you can imagine, but still being stuck where and as you are?"
Alucard didn't answer her right off the bat. In fact, Integra was sure he wasn't going to answer it at all.
He could act lazy, he could be perverted, he could be everything under the sun (figuratively speaking of course) but life continued, while he stayed the same.
It wasn't that he was lazy or anything. Just after living five hundred plus years you aren't sure what going to surprise you anymore.
If there was anything Alucard lived for it was the unexpected.
"I'm not sure how to answer you, Master, mostly because it's just something you need to experience," Alucard said, his grin toned down, soft somehow in the moonlight. Integra stared at him for a second then went back to read her notices and put the cigar in her mouth.
"However," Alucard said, his voice breaking the silence of the office, "Every now and again, you find something, or someone, that causes that dismal boredom and staleness to lighten up a bit. It isn't much, mind you, but after being lost to that haze any improvement is appreciated."
Integra looked up from her writing at that moment, feeling his eyes on her as he said this with an intensity that was astonishing.
Take note, Integra.
Feeling the pull on her mind, she looked around the room noticing it devoid of his presence that masked the space like a cloak.
Left, has he?
Integra grabbed the lighter and flicked it to life, puffing out a smoke or two as she turned to the windows and looked at Alucard's favorite fixture of any sky.
One nice thing about Alucard's human antics, though, it was clear when he forfeited, if only for the night, anyway.
He would be back.
Still, it was nice to know that she wasn't a just a simple dot in his existence. Integra puffed out a thin line of smoke, smiling at the moon.
In a moment of disgust she looked at her desk and the papers littering it. She sighed. She yelled and screamed about how lazy Alucard acted when it was she had a mountain of paperwork she had to get through before sleep even became a thought.
Still, she thought as she turned back towards the moon, finishing her cigar.
Guess it really can't be helped.
With that Integra turned back to her work. With thoughts of immortality, idleness, and moonlight flickering through her mind, she signed her name to more documents, fighting a losing battle with her mind begging for sleep.
The last thought Integra truly noted, as felt herself being lifted up from her chair into strong arms, was about that uplift of haze that Alucard described.
Not that she would ever tell Alucard; that for all of his debauched, frivolous inactivity, she knew exactly what he was talking about.
That uplift of haze?
It had gone both ways when she had met him.
With that, Integra nuzzled her face into the chest of her carrier, ignoring the splash of red she saw as her eyes closed for sleep.
A/N: I never thought that Sloth could somehow be fluffy because this was definitely approaching fluff territory. But there it is. Huh.
Guess this was stretching Sloth a bit but whatever.
To all of you that reviewed, favored, or gave me a heads up for anything, I thank you! Love you all and I hope that you liked the chapter! *gushing here*
Anyway, please let me know what you think. Read and review because I am actually really interested in how these two come across. They are a challenge to write but it's really fun to challenge myself so any constructive suggestions or encouragement is welcome! I know it seems slow now and I am going to fix that soon with other chapters, so I hope that helps!
Later,
TTF
