A/N: So, I've moved into my new home and have found some time to update Little Bird. I KNOW IT WAS AN UNREASONABLY LONG WAIT BUT PLEASE DON'T KILL ME BECAUSE I PROMISE IT WILL GET BETTER FROM NOW ON! 0.o
The rate of production probably won't be that fast, but I have a few installment's stocked up, it's just about progressing far enough that they won't look out of place!
So, without further ado,
Please enjoy this latest installment.
The Hangover.
"Nobody makes love anymore, Seras." Sir Integra answered, tapping a load of papers on her desk to align the edges.
"I suppose not," The vampire conceded, "Not unless it comes in a bottle anyway."
Sir Integra raised her eyebrow and picked up the stapler, trying to ignore that comment. The evening had been rather quiet so far, nothing much to do but paper-work and entertaining her pets. One pet was still locked up in his dungeon, brooding or moping or whatever it was vampires did when going through a mid-century crisis. The other pet had seated herself on the corner of the desk and was playing with a few of the paperweights and decorative lighters. She currently had her hands on the solid brass Womble figurine that would otherwise have served as a book end had it not been in the middle of a grizzly battle with a glass Captain Cooke – both items had been gifts in the past, from the very same vampire nonetheless.
The sheer amount of tat on Sir Integra's desk was testament only to the amount of tat that was concealed inside her desk drawer – fondly named as the 'Tat Drawer'. The group on the edge of the desk was the overflow pile and she had a funny feeling that it was only going to get bigger the more years passed by. And Seras was showing no signs of developing better taste, so the quality of the tat was unlikely to improve any either…
"I disapprove of your drinking habit."
"I disapprove of your smoking."
"Don't attempt to best me on disappointments, Missy."
"Kapow!" Captain Cooke fell to the floor and the Brass Womble began to root through the remaining tat pieces in search of a suitable opponent. "I think I can best you there, Sir."
"Oh really?"
"Uhhuh." A crystal swan tea-light holder stepped up to the plate and began a furious – and noisy – barrage of the hapless Womble. "Oh life, how I miss thee, let me count the ways."
"Don't bother." Click click.
"Well for a start, I've never had a boyfriend."
"Didn't I just tell you not to bother? You never listen. And what about Mr Bernadotte?"
"He wasn't really my boyfriend. KABLAM!" The Womble finally released its mega-attack; combined Aren't-I-cute with a power hook from the right hand side. The crystal swan was defeated. "And we only kissed once."
Sir Integra's eyebrows rose and she looked up from her paperwork as a rumble began in the air, a little like growling but accompanied by the rattling of the windows. It would appear that they had an eavesdropper. It would also appear – because she was still rambling on about him – that Seras hadn't noticed anything, but this was all of course untrue because Integra had seen her ears prick up the moment the unsettling noise had started.
"And the dance teacher really didn't count either because even though he was nice and kind of cute, all he ever did was stare at my chest. Which is all well and good but he didn't even get close to kissing me and I personally would have thought that-"
"Seras." She hopped off the desk and Sir Integra's gaze followed her – over the rim of her bifocals – as she scurried around the desk to the 'tat drawer' and yanked it open. "I really don't care about your boyfriends."
Seras 'umm'ed and 'err'ed about her next toy for so long that in the end Sir Integra grabbed one for her and slammed the 'tat drawer' closed again. She shoved the new toy into the vampire's ample bosom and waved her away with an aggravated sigh.
Zrzrzrzrzrzrzrzrzrzrzrzrzr!
"Right!" Sir Integra snapped, standing up from her chair and holding out her hand, "Give that to me!"
"But you handed it to me!" Seras complained, clutching the rattle to her chest.
Sir Integra crooked her fingers and shook her head, "Just hand it over, Seras."
It went straight in the bin, along with the Womble. And Captain Cooke. And the Crystal Swan.
"Now get out of my office."
"But-"
"You're annoying me!" Sir Integra snapped, pushing her glasses back up her nose, "Alucard is annoying me! The pair of you are annoying me! I have work to be doing and you can entertain yourself; at someone else's expense!"
Taking the hint, Seras nodded, turned on her heel and left, curiously silent. Sir Integra sighed. That was better. Some peace and quiet would do them all good once in a while and that meant not being assaulted by irritating noises, smells, sights or vampires for at least an evening. She didn't want to hear about Seras' past boyfriends, current affairs or nearly anythings. She didn't want to have to put up with Alucard's foul mood on account of his fledgling and she didn't want to sit through any more of what could be reasonably dubbed 'tense play'.
Seras lingered outside Sir Integra's door. She wasn't allowed back in and she wasn't about to go back to the dungeon, that she could guarantee. But she was loath to wander the mansion, dithering aimlessly from place to place. It just wasn't her style, so she stood there, outside the door and waited. Waited for an idea to come to her, a want to appear, or her master to crash her little party. The corridor was currently silent, the fainted clicking emanating from Sir Integra's office as the woman stapled papers together, but the air seemed to be getting thinner as a huge power flux signalled her Master's approach.
He appeared through the opposite wall with a grin already plastered to his face. She wanted to scoff at the ridicule of it all, but didn't because she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing she was affected by him. It was bad enough that she knew he'd been ferreting around in her head – it felt funny, as though nothing in there was really safe anymore, almost as though her memories themselves were jumbled, as though they'd been rifled through and not put back the way they used to be – but the fact that that was hardly necessary… It was plain embarrassing just to think about.
"Good evening, Police-"
"Don't call me that." She said tersely, moving off down the hallway. She was heading in the direction of the library. She would get herself a new book, one she hadn't read before and she would distract herself with it so she wouldn't have to think about…
He watched her shaking her head viciously as they walked towards the library and rightly surmised that the events of a few nights previous were haunting her again. Good. They'd been haunting him too so it hardly seemed fair if she wasn't bothered by it too. Not that he hadn't enjoyed himself - he defied anyone to show him a happier vampire at that time – it was perhaps that he had enjoyed himself a little too much and was now left wondering when such things might happen again. And if they would get any further…
He was following her still, she grumbled internally and slinked through the door to the library, heading straight for a bookshelf. It was the one to the immediate right of her usual shelf and was at eye-level. If she were to peruse long enough without any signs of stopping or choosing anything, maybe he would get bored and go away.
He was bored, that was what the problem was. For so many years he would spend his days asleep and his nights working for Hellsing. But nowadays, with two vampires working for the organisation, there was much less to do on a nightly basis. He had far too much free time and had to resort to the tiniest little things to occupy himself with – one of which was Fledgling-watching. Another seemed to be fawning over her and clasping flesh in hand…
So what if he 'tended' to himself? She might have done it a few nights ago, but it didn't look as though she was up for anything now. She was avoiding him, hoping he would go away, hoping she wouldn't run into him. She was hiding in places – the library, Sir Integra's study – and doing things like distracting herself – with books, toys, flowers, whiskey… In some ways it was amusing and in others it was infuriating. She had her mind in a virtual lock-down, nothing allowed in and – as far as he could tell – nothing allowed out. She hadn't so much as nudged his mind since that evening. Blood packets were now being spirited away before something, anything could be done to them. There was almost no chance of a repeat of that night and that was the infuriating part.
Seras browsed the bookshelf with well-concealed nervousness. She had already selected the book she was going to read but had refrained from picking it up because that meant she would have to turn around, thus facing the elephant – or in this case 'monster – in the room. It was a book she'd been wondering about reading for a while now, Sir Integra had glanced over it herself, but it had soon been relegated to the reject pile of 'unhelpful documents' and hadn't left the library since. But it was about time that Seras saw was Twilight was all about.
Her master's hand appeared over her shoulder and plucked that very book from its shelf and, unable to control herself, Seras complained immediately, "Hey, I was going to read that."
"When?" Came the deadpanned reply, "Christmas?"
Alucard heard her mutter something like 'arsehole' before she ducked around him and began speeding off in the direction of the door. Having none of that – he wasn't really interested in the book, or the library anyway – he ambushed her in the middle of the room.
Suddenly, Seras found herself being wheeked up by the back of her belt and tossed onto a nearby couch. The book was tossed none-too-gently at the adjacent table and Alucard's knee hit the cushions beside his fledgling's sprawling body. She stared up at him with what could only be described as 'horror', before hurriedly arranging her features into something more befitting of a fierce and powerful creature. He had an expression on his face that she was struggling to place, but whatever it was was likely going to cause her trouble.
"Is it common behaviour among young women of a certain generation to avoid gentlemen with whom they've shared nightly happenings?" He asked, gloved fingers closing over the back of the couch, body leaning over her slightly, just enough to block out the lights and cast his shadow over her face.
"Is it common behaviour among gentlemen to force-feed a young and impressionable fledgling to the point at which she can no longer fight him off and is helpless to all advances?" She countered, somewhat amazed that she managed all that in just one breath.
He chuckled, "You fed yourself, Police Girl."
"You practically begged me to!"
"And if there was any fighting being done then, it was on my part not yours."
Her eyebrows dipped down in confusion. She didn't remember him fighting her, he seemed to be giving her orders for the most part – as per usual – and had been manhandling her into the positions that would suit him best…
"What fighting?" She asked, frowning. "I don't remember you fighting me."
The grin, which had as yet not left his lips since his arrival in the hallway, slipped a little and she got the feeling that he was seriously considering telling her something… Something that might challenge their relationship, maybe? It would certainly explain the idea of her mind being invaded... Just like her body?
"Oh, good Lord," She whispered, a deep and horribly empty feeling settling in her belly. "We didn't… Actually… We didn't… Do anything, right?"
His eyes widened merely a fraction, before he began to cackle horribly, the laugh growing quickly into a fully-blown, head-back belly laugh. Apparently he didn't share the same concerns that she did.
"No, Little Bird," He said when at last he had managed to contain himself, "We never progressed to that point." He turned on his knee to sit properly on the couch, penning her in, and his free gloved hand moved to touch her cheek, sliding over it gently to dip into her hair tenderly. "Although you were gunning for it."
"Oh, go away!" She snapped, slapping his hand away. So much for gentle and sweet and kind. He was as big a letch as they came! She didn't even want to know what happened after her memory ended… She could recall kissing him and nibbling on his lips and… and…
He raised an amused brow as she flipped over and buried her face in the cushions, squeaking and muttering and apparently berating herself over her shameless behaviour. Honestly, she was quite endearing sometimes. Still, these things needed to be talked about. By teenagers and women. He stood up from the couch and cleared his throat.
"Attempting to avoid me will not work forever, Police Girl. These events have long been set in motion and now that we're sworn to each other," He paused to allow her the chance to unbury her head and actually look at him, even though the angle was odd, "The path they will take is inevitable." He tipped his hat as his feet began to disappear through the floor. "Good evening."
Only a few minutes had passed since her master's departure, but already Seras had managed to distract herself. Thank goodness 'Twilight' turned out to be so utterly ridiculous because she was in dire need of something else to think about. 'The path they will take is inevitable'… Wonderful… Thanks to her master she was strangely horny and now – thanks to the twinkling vampires and the 'personal brand of heroin' – she was hungry too. And the blood bags were in the dungeon. No doubt being guarded by a very large, very smug vampire.
She knew how things were likely to go.
A/N:Bad Author, naughty Author, how dare you play with Seras' feelings like that!? ;) Ah well, I'm sure that with a little 'help' from her master, she can get over it heehee!
It was greatly suggested that there should be a follow up of Seras' little... drunken display... and I was only too pleased to oblige! There was originally to be a lime in this chapter but once again it got turned down! My muse just couldn't work out how to work it into the construct, but I went ahead and included some Alucard-time and a number of suggestions that perhaps Seras feels more for her master than she really lets on :P
Please, you know the drill by now, drop me a review with suggestions, critique et cetera, et cetera...
-Lapin
