~ Legacy ~

"So... you would want a useful husband?" Alucard inquired.

Integra glared at him.

"Out of everything I just told you, that is what you've chosen to focus on?"

"Well..." he said slowly. "You did mention twice that you didn't want a 'useless husband' so I take that to mean you wouldn't be entirely opposed to a useful one."

"I don't want to marry anyone!" she snapped, apparently having lost patience with this line of questioning.

"Don't lie," Alucard said quietly.

He was calm. Not teasing for once, but actually trying to have a serious conversation with her.

Integra struggled to reign in her own temper.

"What do you want me to say? That I could never get married even if I wanted to, because the person that I... l-" She tripped over the word, nearly choking on it, and coughed before continuing, "-want to marry is dead?"

"Legally dead," Alucard said, "or dead dead?"

He watched Integra's expression cycle through several disparate emotions as she struggled to formulate a reply. It seemed that she was still determined to dance around the topic, despite the fact that they were both well aware of what her real feelings were.

"You asked me what I want you to say," he said, taking a step toward her. "Admit that it's me." Another step. "That you've been waiting for me." Another. "That I'm the reason you never married anyone." One more step. Now he was directly in front of her. He leaned into her personal space and whispered in her ear, "That you love me."

While she did not immediately deny his assertions, she also did not rush to confirm them.

After a long moment, she sighed and leaned against him, grudgingly admitting, "Yes, all of that."

As she leaned into him, Alucard slid one arm around Integra's waist, bringing the other up to wrap around her shoulders. He waited for her to continue speaking, but silence reigned once more between them. It seemed that was as much of a confession as she was willing to concede at this juncture.

"Was that really so difficult to admit?" he asked, his voice now taking on a note of mild amusement. "When it was already so obvious to everyone that even your child figured it out?"

Integra pulled back from the embrace to glare at her vampire.

"Are you insulting my child's intelligence?"

"What intelligence? This is the same child who screamed for three entire minutes before she figured out which 'scary vampire' I am."

At this pronouncement, most of the irritation disappeared from Integra's expression, to be replaced with worry.

"What exactly did you do to my daughter?"

"Nothing. I just carried her to her room and tucked her into bed." After a brief pause, he added, "I also called her by the wrong name on purpose, which upset her more than I expected it would."

Integra scowled at him, and Alucard laughed. Her child had made a nearly identical expression at him when he'd misnamed her.

"Oh, and while we're on the subject of your child's name," Alucard said.

Integra huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, apparently preparing to defend her choice. Vespera was an unusual name, even less common in this modern age than it had been in past centuries.

That said, Alucard had no objection to the child's given name. It was the middle names that he was curious about.

"You named her after Seras and Pip?"

His tone left no doubt that he considered the former leader of the Wild Geese an inappropriate namesake.

"Yes, well, they're her devilparents, so-"

"They're WHAT?"

"Calling them 'godparents' would be blasphemy," Integra replied matter-of-factly, as if her use of an alternate term was the obvious solution to one's child having undead secondary caretakers.

Alucard wasn't sure whether he found the idea of Seras playing nanny to Integra's child hilarious or heartwarming. And on that note...

"By the way, the kid seems to have gotten into her head that I'm her father."

The flicker of guilt that momentarily crossed Integra's face - guilt, not surprise - told him that this was not a new revelation to her.

Alucard stalked forward, closing the small distance that Integra had put between them.

"I wonder," he practically purred, "wherever she might have gotten that idea."

Integra tensed in anticipation, but Alucard stopped just short of actually touching her.

"Probably from the stories she's heard about you ever since she was a baby, and the fact that the closest thing she's had to a father figure in her life until this point is Seras's familiar."

Although she did not otherwise move, Integra turned her face away from her vampire in a petulant display of pique. He'd lured her into initiating their previous embrace, had made no confession of his own despite demanding one from her, and as far as she was concerned it was now his turn to make his interest known.

Honestly, she didn't expect him to respond to her unspoken demand easily. But where she remained stubborn, he quickly folded. Alucard placed his hands lightly on Integra's waist as he leaned down to nuzzle her neck.

"Mmm, you smell good. Which reminds me, I haven't had anything to drink in thirty years..."

~oOo~