All and all, it was turning out to be a very pleasant evening. It felt good to be…to just be. It wasn't their typical night. No, usually they found themselves with raised voices, exchanging angry words. Not tonight. She found that it felt…good.

"I hardly see Dumas expressing that sentiment through Chateau d' If," said Integra, in a duel of another sort. "I would think that the representation on a completely different nature-"

"Ah," said Alucard, interrupting what might have broken the mood that had been so carefully set. "Perhaps this is an argument for another day. The hour is late, Master."

Integra bit her tongue; it was difficult to hold back her opinion on a whim.

"Indeed," she confirmed. "I do believe this is one of the longer days I've had in a while."

They sat in silence for a moment, contemplating what lay behind them. It was a very bittersweet silence. Too quiet, too unknowing.

Integra began to pat at her chest, looking for a cigar that wasn't there. Stupid Alucard, took her security blanket.

She sighed.

He scowled, noticing her gesture.

"Those things are going to kill you one day," he told her firmly.

"Oh," she replied. "I'm glad you've finally given up."

Alucard, if possible scowled even deeper.

"I have never expressed any desire to kill you Master," he told her, an exhausted look in his eyes. "I have always opted to save you from death, not bestow it."

Integra looked at him. Many times they had this conversation. Every time it was brought up in a roundabout sort of way, every time he would temporarily put his heart on his sleeve, and every time she would shoot him down (sometimes literally) and humiliate him.

Her methods didn't seem to be working.

She decided to try his.

"Alucard," she began slowly. "I am not-"

She stopped. "And what if I said yes?" she asked in an angry tone.

He said nothing, but he cocked his head and she knew he was wondering where their pleasant evening had ended.

"What would you do Alucard?" she asked, hurt evident in her voice. "How long would it be before you tired of me?"

He opened his mouth to protest in anger. She didn't give him the chance.

"One hundred years? Two hundred?" Her eyes were merciless, defending the one thing she had left. "I refuse to be some rag doll for you to play with and cast aside."

He was oddly quiet, waiting for her to finish, and even as she was talking. She knew that he was angry, and it was out of that anger he kept his silence. It felt peculiar to be sitting up straight in a nightgown of the likeness she hadn't worn since she was quite young and try to make her case against a dark creature…she felt devalued and it made her try even harder.

"You see," she said in a whisper. "If I say no….if I die Alucard, that's true immortality. Instead of casting me aside, instead of me being a trophy in your history…I will be remembered to you as something dear, someone that you-"

She cut off there abruptly there. She had been on the verge of saying "love" and she didn't now where she had got the notion. Silly girl.

Alucard said nothing. He simply bowed his head.

"Integra," he started. "My Master."

"-Don't you 'My Master' me-" she interrupted, he ignored her.

"You will never be…a mar to my memory. Clearly, you can see what you mean to…me…" he seemed to be choking out the words in an effort to be rid of them. "Perhaps… I feel…," he stopped again, gathering his thoughts.

He raised the head that had once been bowed and looked at her, eye to eye.

"Perhaps my emotion is one that is of an eternal sort," he said, saying everything and nothing at once.

He might have been about to say more, and she was probably in the process of snapping at him, but they were-

knock knock knock

"Sir Integra?" called an elderly voice from outside the door. "May I have a word?"

Integra looked at Alucard in surprise. Her eyebrows were raised in a fashion that said 'how did he know to find me here?' and 'what the bloody hell does he think he is, interrupting us?'

Alucard looked back with a very different expression, one that read 'He is Walter, all knowing and we can't hurt him because we like him too much.'

"Sir Integra?" he called again after a moment. "Is this a bad time?" (Secretly he was wondering if they were finally having amazing pig sex out of frustration after all these years, but he would never ask. He left those behaviors in his younger years.)

"Please enter Walter," she replied, smoothing out the wrinkles of her night gown on her lap.

Alucard waved his hand and the door to his chambers opened by themselves, promptly followed by the entrance of the butler.

"How did you know where I was?" asked Integra genuinely curious.

"Simple," he replied, looking at her as he used to when she was young and she'd done something mischievous he thought was too funny to punish her for. "I'd looked everywhere else."

Alucard smiled.

"Good," she said, relief evident in her voice. "I'd hate for you to automatically assume I was shacking up with the family's vampire like some sort of common harlot."

Alucard growled.

"I do not entertain harlots," he defended. "I keep very select company."

Instantly Integra was bombarded with images of Alucard licking chocolate sauce off the queen. Oh, she'd have to punish herself later for such blasphemy against the crown.

Walter and Alucard shared confused glances as she laughed to herself.

"Yes, well," Walter said, tugging slightly at his collar as he stood in the room, at what he thought was a reasonable distance from the insanity. "I just thought I'd come down and inquire about the presence of the naked man I discovered in your bathroom, Sir. I was unsure of what to do with him…or if you were quite finished yet."

Integra almost balked. Then she almost laughed. Leave it to Walter to help her; she should have gone to him in the first place. So what if it lead to an awkward conversation? There was no one in the world quite as clever when it came to ruffling Alucard's feathers, except perhaps Integra herself.

"It seems that he was quite dirty," he continued. "I suppose that I could clean up all the things you used, clean up all the juices and such, if you're finding yourself too busy."

Integra knew he was speaking of bath soaps and blood, but Alucard, oh poor Alucard. His eyes were as wide as saucers.

"Eh?" he asked.

"That would be lovely," she told Walter. "I was going to have Police Girl come help me with various things earlier, but I think you'll do a satisfactory job."

It was amazing what she could say without actually wording it.

"Indeed," he replied turning on his heel to leave before he got caught in the crossfire.

It was an eerie quiet that followed after the sound of the door shutting and relocking itself after Walter's exit. It took all her steel to keep a straight face.

Alucard said nothing. He stood up and looked slightly angry, but said nothing.

He looked at her, something angry and…surprised in his eyes.

Then, in the blink of an eye, she swept across the room. And she was almost frightened, almost.

"Alucard!" she said as he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her body towards him. He began sniffing her neck and rubbing his face against hers in a catlike manner.

"Do you like toying with me, Master?" he asked, as she tried to break free. "You still smell like a virgin. You still squirm like a virgin."

He opened his mouth and gently licked her bottom lip, just for revenge. He ignored her interjection of disgust.

"You still blush like a virgin," he whispered to her. "Therefore, my darling, I'm willing to bet that you're still a blessed virgin."

"I don't know about the blessed part," she mumbled uncharacteristically.

"You almost had me for a moment," he told her, pulling her to him. "My mind jumped to a conclusion that…despite my ears and my eyes and my nose, I still believed.'

Immediately she knew she had crossed a line and regretted it.

"It's a rare privilege to hold that power over me," he confided. "I do not trust lightly and I do not allow for second chances…not usually. Why tamper with this delicate situation? I have honored this one line, I expected you to do the same."

She wanted to apologize, but something stopped her.

He laughed bitterly.

"And yet," he chuckled. "And yet, you claim I am the one to play with toys and break hearts."

He stopped laughing. He was still clutching her to him, but now she was clutching back.

"Be gone," he said in a dead pan voice. He pushed her away from him harshly and watched her stumble to regain her footing. Alucard glared in a hurt sort of way. Integra felt as if she had kicked a puppy.

"Go back to your chambers, little girl," he called to her as he walked away. "Come back when you've grown up."

She fled. She fled away to the empty hollow of her room to think about what she'd done.

She was going to have to find a way to gain forgiveness from her maker.

But, as she raced up the stairs, she realized Walter would still be cleaning the mess she made, so she made an unexpected turn and found herself somewhere she hadn't expected.

Her rooms, the ones she had hidden from Seras in, the ones she had grown up in, the ones that had remained unchanged since she moved into her fathers rooms were pink blanket around her, feeling younger that she had ever felt before. She fell asleep to the sound of memories.

A/N- So, mystery man is back next chapter, along with some good ol' fashion drama. But the thing is I don't know what to name our dear little runaway soldier, so I need suggestions. I'd love to hear from you, so drop me a line. I promise to use one of the suggestions I get.