Author's note: So this started out well then it got all Gone With the Wind on me and suddenly I had this hot mess that I just could not salvage. Also The Wolves by Bon Iver was playing and there really was no hope. As always mistakes are mine.

Disclaimer: I don't own Out of Mind by Tove Lo, but I do admit that the shameless fluff is all me.

III

"Baby you have to be... Completely out of your... You're out of your mind... To think that I can keep you... Out of my mind"

Integra's head ached something awful and it felt as if a thick substance had been stuffed up each nostril. She'd given up trying to read the reports scattered on her bed, frustrated by her watery eyes and the oppressive heat pressing on her chest.

How something so trifle could be so irksome she did not know.

She also refused on principle to ignore the ache in her chest. She was not upset! After all she'd assumed Alucard had turned Seras for the sole purpose of making her his bride, so finding her scantily dressed in his chambers should not come as a shock. What came as a shock however was her reaction to the incident. Something like hurt and jealousy had twisted in her gut; fortunately she'd made her dignified exit before she embarrassed herself.

"Perhaps you would like another aspirin?" He'd appeared out of nowhere and in her state hadn't even sensed him until he spoke.

"How long have you been spying on me?" She asked in a snarky tone. Alucard and his little games were not welcomed.

He grinned. "Long enough to observe how bored you are," he replied. He seated himself on the armchair besides her bed picking up a bottle of prescribed medication.

"No more medication, it makes me drowsy," she said firmly. If he could pretend nothing was amiss so could she.

"Ah... I can see how rest can be a hindrance to someone ill," was the sarcastic retort.

Integra would've lined up her own comeback, but it hurt to think.

"Would you like me to read to you?" Alucard asked.

Integra arched an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you be somewhere in your coffin being dead?" She asked, but she sat up anyways, drawing the covers up to her chin to ward off the sudden chill.

"You used to love me reading you bedtime stories..." He said wistfully, ignoring her question.

"Fine, if it will stop you sounding like an old man," she said gruffly.

"But I am old," he said before extracting a small paperback from his coat pocket. He made a show of perching her glasses on his nose before opening the book and beginning to read aloud, "And in her passion, Mary thrived-"

"What are you reading?" She asked startled.

He turned to the front cover. "Her Erotic Adventures," he read out.

She should have known. "Go away Alucard and take Seras' book with you," she snapped. How dare he make a fool of her and then have the audacity to come to her chambers to further humiliate her for her momentarily lapse of weakness?

"I thought you'd appreciate listening to adventures you never had... More is the shame." He said with a delicate sniff.

She glared at him her lips in a thin line.

Alucard sighed warily. "It's not what you think," he began.

"I have no idea what you are talking about and even if I did I do not wish to discuss it with you," she said quite frankly.

"I have no designs on the Police Girl," he continued as if he had not heard her at all.

"I don't care!" Integra snapped and then she blanched at her outburst. She was the queen of control, well most times- mostly at least, however when it came to Alucard the tight reign she had over her emotions always seemed like some pathetic joke.

Sometimes she wondered if she'd ever stop feeling like the enamoured teenage girl who'd seen him as her knight in shining armour.

Alucard's eyes narrowed. "Well I care," he said with deadly calm. "I care because you are the only woman I want."

"Don't you ever get tired of your lies, Alucard?" she asked him snidely. "I'm not Lucy, not Mina or any other of your conquests."

"No you are Integra Hellsing and I've waited centuries for you," he said.

Integra's face screwed up in anger. How she hated him for making her believe in silly fantasies. Her and Alucard were doomed and nothing could ever come from their taunts and flirting.

"Leave me, I'm tired," she said glaring at him.

He looked annoyed which served him well. She'd been a fool to let herself kiss him back, a fool and a shameless one at that.

"I grow tired of this," he muttered running a hand through his hair.

Integra ignored him, as far as she was concerned this conversation was over. Perhaps Walter was right, it was time to find a suitable man she could marry and settle down with. No matter how much the thought repulsed her.

She was shaken from her reverie when Alucard grabbed her head in his powerful hands. "I would see this whole city in flames before I allow you to belong to someone other than myself," he seethed.

"You have no choice in the matter and stay out of my thoughts!" she snapped enraged that he would dare presume that his opinion on the matter mattered at all.

He kissed her, pressing his lips against her sealed mouth as she tried to push him away. "Stop it, Alucard!" she yelled angrily.

"No, you stop!" he yelled back. Alucard never yelled, hell she'd never even heard him raise his voice let alone against her. "How long must you deny the truth?" he demanded.

"What truth?"

"That we belong together in spite of it all," he declared.

Integra shook her head but Alucard was determined to shove the truth down her throat. "You think you do your ancestry proud by denying yourself the happiness I am capable of giving you."

"You aren't even capable of love!"

He glared at her than with such anger Integra for the first time wondered if he was capable of causing her harm. "This love which you know absolutely nothing about?" he asked gruffly.

"Leave me, Alucard I cannot deal with this," she said suddenly tired as the fight left her.

"You are mine Integra I don't care what lies you ease your conscious with but our coming together is inevitable," he said darkly before releasing her face from his hold. She watched as he stood up before stalking out her room, she decided he did that on purpose when he slammed the door behind him.

Her head pounded and her chest ached. Integra didn't even understand what was wrong with her anymore. How she hated that vampire for turning her into such a shameless mess!

/

Alucard stalked the halls like an ominous cloud. Over the years Integra had elicited various emotions but never had she incurred his wrath. As if he knew nothing of love! The absurdity of it all. He was the one who had lived for over five centuries. Alucard had loved and lost until they were all just names and faces nothing more.

This shifting in his soul was not spurned by lust. He could have sated that easily by now. No, it was his soul recognising it's mirrored self. And as corny and angsty as it sounded he knew it to be true. He was no poet not even in his previous lives so he could not even attempt to string his feelings into some lyrical tale.

He'd always believed actions rather than words spoke the loudest. That's why he had waited and not pounced when Integra had been at a vulnerable age where his affections would have easily overwhelmed her. He'd been chivalrous something he'd believed himself without. Never had he courted a woman with such care and tenacity. Always placing her needs above his own even when his selfish nature screamed to take what he wanted.

For the first time in centuries his head actually ached and he wondered if he would soon be found slashing his wrists, but just as soon as the thought crossed his mind he scoffed it away. He was not some love struck kid playing at being a vampire. His nightmares were very much real and the ghosts that haunted him straight from the pits of hell. He would not sparkle under the sun light or any other ridiculous ideals humans had of his kind.

He spun around even before his mind fully grasped his intention. This time there was no need to make an entrance as he phased through the wall and into Integra's room. She stood by the window and turned wide eyes when she noticed him.

"Alucard..." she uttered surprised.

"We are going to be adults about this," he announced wondering which fool was mouthing off all of this stuff. "You and I are going to confront our feelings and that is the end of it."

Integra arched an eyebrow. "Have I no say in this?" she asked incredulous.

"Unless the words coming out of your mouth are declarations of undying love then no," he said calmly.

Integra blinked at him in disbelieve. "Are you mad, what you are proposing is not only insane but blasphemous!" she exclaimed.

Alucard walked up to her. "Somehow I think you meant those words as deterrents only they come off as weak attempts at trying to stop what can't be stopped," he said.

"I'm not a damsel in distress..." Integra stated.

"Nor am I much of a knight."

"This could get messy."

"I happen to be at my element during times of chaos."

"You can't have the Police Girl in your room dressed only in a towel."

"You are not to entertain any of the suitors recommended by the Round Table."

"This will not change the fact that I am still your Master."

"I would not have it any other way."

"I'm going to ask you to kiss me now and-" But the rest of her speech was cut off as Alucard leaned down and captured her lips with his own. He grinned into the kiss. He could get used to this.