Halfway through the walk back to the Hellsing mansion, I allowed Alucard to carry me. We got back much faster that way, and it got him to shut up. When we arrived, I saw that there were 2 new guards standing at the front doors. Instead of going inside, Alucard decided to walk around to the back of the building.
"Where are we going?" I asked. "It's kind of dark now, don't you think Sir Integra will want us back?"
"Don't worry about it," he began. "I'm standing directly above my room. You've seen me go through walls, right? Same basic principle."
"B-but…you're carrying me!" I exclaimed. "And I'm pretty sure I can't do that!"
He laughed, crazily, and as I looked down, I saw his feet slowly disappearing into the ground. I struggled to get out of his arms, but his hold was too strong. He was in up to his waist now, and my foot was hitting the ground. Suddenly, I felt a rushing feeling in my toe. It spread up my leg, and grew faster. I was going through the ground with him.
My entire being was engulfed in soil. I couldn't feel it. Instead, there was a strange, numbing sensation moving upwards throughout my body. I was beginning to panic, but a few moments later, I felt my feet break through some sort of surface. We fell together through the ceiling of what must've been Alucard's room. I felt no impact when his feet hit the ground. There was no dirt on either of us, and we were suddenly dozens of flights of stairs underground.
"Never…do that…again," I said, shaking.
"Would you rather the stairs?" Alucard asked, chuckling. I glowered at the vampire. "I thought not. Well, the reason I brought you down like that is because first of all, it's quicker, and second of all, I wanted to get us into the building without Integra seeing you first."
"Why is that so important?" I asked. He had set me down on the cold, hard floor, making an echo throughout the chamber.
"I figured, y'know, you might want to change and show her what you got," he answered, not sounding like his normal, smart-alecky self.
"Well I appreciate the thought," I began sarcastically. "but I'm certainly not changing in here. I'll go up to my room."
Alucard laughed. "You don't remember?" he asked. "Back when I was a dog, you had no problem with undressing in front of me."
I was furious. "Well I didn't much think a dog would care…and besides, I didn't have the slightest idea that you were a man!"
"Hah, even so, it would be nothing new to me if you did it here."
"Yeah? Well-- I've grown a lot since then…" I crossed my arms and pouted, eyes closed.
"Huh, I guess you're right," he said, his voice sounding closer than before. When I looked at him, I noticed that his face was about 6 inches from mine, and he was looking in the general area of my chest.
My first instinct was to smack him in the face, which I did. I didn't know my own strength-- his head flew about 4 feet from its original spot. He straightened himself up and cracked his neck side to side.
"My, my," he said, laughing. He leaned over to retrieve the glasses I hit off his face. Placing them back over his eyes, he grinned. "Can't take a joke?"
I sighed heavily, rolling my eyes, and walked toward the door. Making my way up the stairs took a while, but I did it fine on my own. My thighs were burning when I reached the top of the stairs. It was a comfort to walk down the hallway, rather than on an incline. The corridor was much brighter than my room, and so I kept the door open until I had every last candle lit.
It was then that I realized I didn't have the bag of clothes. Fantastic. As if on cue, there was a knock at my door.
"Still mad?" an oh-so familiar voice called. I huffed and walked over to the door, yanking it open. Alucard stood, still smirking, with the bag hanging on his extended index finger. I grabbed the bag and slammed the door in his face.
"You forget I can go through walls," he chortled. I most certainly did not forget. Hastily, I removed my uniform vest, and the shirt underneath it. When he came through the wall, I was in the process of sliding off my pants.
In shock, he jumped back, and hit his head on the wall. I gasped in mock embarrassment as he slid down the wall. In my undergarments, I knelt down in front of him, lifting his chin.
"See, the problem with being so pale is that I can very clearly see you blushing," I said, smirking. His eyes narrowed behind his crooked glasses.
"It's just from hitting my head so hard," Alucard lied.
"Hah, if you say so," I said, triumphantly. He stood himself up and straightened out his cloak.
"I do say so," he said, regaining his arrogant smirk. "You don't look half bad, though." With a loud laugh, he disappeared through the wall. I stood staring angrily at the spot he so recently occupied.
Rolling my eyes again, I turned and got dressed. I didn't have a mirror, so I fixed myself up as well as I could, and exited my room to present myself to Integra. I regretted doing so as soon as I took the first step outside the door. Alucard was strolling along down the hallway, drinking something.
Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was a bag of red liquid, probably blood. He waved at me. I half-heartedly waved back, looking to the side in annoyance.
"Do you know what time it is?" I asked, aggravated.
"Nope, I didn't think to check," he replied. "but here." He reached inside his cloak and held out something white.
I took whatever it was in my hands and realized that they were white gloves. I hadn't noticed Alucard's until now. On top of them sat a small badge that read "Hellsing" on it.
"These make you official," he added, winking. I'll admit, that lessened my anger spell toward him. He then continued on his way in the direction of his room.
On my way to Integra's office, I pulled on the gloves and fastened the badge as straight as I could to my sweatshirt. It wasn't zipped, and the sleeves were rolled up. My hair was down, shoulder-length and hastily brushed-through with my fingers.
I trudged up about 3 flights of stairs before I heard Sir Integra's voice. I whirled around to find her walking away from me, talking with a man.
"Sir Integra!" I called, running to catch up with her. "How do I look?"
She turned and stopped to survey my appearance. Looking me up and down, she cocked her head to the side. "I hate to be so straightforward," she began, shoving my heart down so far I thought I'd lose it. "but I think you need to appear more…professional."
"P-professional?" I repeated. She nodded, slightly. "Hold on." I swung my head down, combing my hair with my fingers again. I always had a hair tie on me, so I pulled it off of my wrist and put up my hair. The bangs that wouldn't stay fell down in my face. I held up a finger motioning for her to wait again. The man standing next to her looked at me incredulously.
I fidgeted with the zipper of my sweatshirt and forcefully slid it upwards as far as it would go. The collar stood up, covering my neck. I liked that kind of collar.
"Better?" I asked, grinning.
Integra smiled and closed her eyes. "Yes, that's better. And I see that you have the gloves and badge I gave Alucard for you. You're official."
I was beaming. The man beside Integra laughed, almost inaudibly. I looked at him, curiously.
"This is Walter," Integra introduced him. "He is the butler of Hellsing, and a very skilled fighter as well."
He gave me a little wave. Walter looked rather old. He wore a monocle, and looked mostly like all the butlers I had ever seen in movies and such. His hair was pulled back.
"Hello, Walter," I greeted.
"Hello," he replied. "If there's ever anything you need, you can ask me."
"Thank you," I said, smiling. We stood in an awkward silence for a few moments. "Do either of you know the time?"
"It was 19:00 hours when I last checked," Integra replied. She saw my confused look. "I believe that's 7:00 P.M. in American time. Do you need a clock?"
"Oh, yes, please," I said. "I can hardly see down in my room, and it'd be nice to know the time." Walter walked off, quietly. "Uhm…what time should I go to bed?"
"You can go whenever you'd like-- I'm sure Alucard will wake you up at the right time," she answered. "If you need any pajamas, I've got a few spares you can have."
"Oh! I completely forgot about pajamas!" I said, feeling stupid. "Thank you very much. I really do feel troublesome…"
"Honestly, it's no problem," Integra consoled. "If you were any sort of problem, I'd let you know."
Walter made his way into my peripheral vision and returned to his place next to Integra. He extended his hands, holding a digital clock, and a wristwatch.
"I figured you might want a watch as well, seeing as you're not always going to be in your room," he explained.
"Thank you, Walter," I said, taking the items he handed to me. "You people are really something."
Integra brought me to her private room where she gave me 5 pairs of pajamas. I kept insisting that one would suffice, but she merely kept saying that she didn't need those ones anymore and that it wasn't a problem. I also tried to give her back the change from the money she gave me, but she told me to think of it as my first pay.
I stepped out of her room to find Alucard leaning on the wall across from me. He vanished from sight, and when he reappeared, I was in his arms. I'll admit that I gave a little yelp, but who wouldn't?
He laughed at me. "I told you I was going to carry you to your room, didn't I?"
"Well how did you know I was going there?"
"I just know," he replied simply, smirking. We were two stories above the main floor, so it took longer to get to my room, but not by too much.
"You look pretty tired," he said, jolting me awake from a half-sleep. "Would you like me to put you to bed?"
"Huh? Yeah, okay, whatever…" I mumbled.
I was too drowsy to realize what exactly was going on, but I remember feeling something stroking the side of my face for a while before I fell asleep.
