Universe: Ultimate

Characters: Pip, Seras

Relationship: Seras/Pip

This time. This time, he was going to get it right.

He'd waited until early evening, so that they'd both be awake. He'd carefully avoided eating anything with garlic in it for the past week (but still made sure to give his teeth a thorough brushing, just for good measure). He'd made sure there were no sunflower seeds (or beans, or rice, or any other type of small seeds or grains) anywhere in sight.

Nothing was going to stop Pip from getting that kiss from Seras this time.

Normally when he was arranging a date he'd take a girl out to dinner, but since that obviously wasn't possible (no loss there, as far as he was concerned; if there was one thing he'd learned about Brits, it was that absolutely none of them knew how to cook), he'd made a point of eating early and then asked Seras to accompany him on a tour of the city instead. Sure, it was her city, but that gave him all kinds of excuses to ask her about her own vast knowledge on the local sites. Besides, if there was one thing that Pip had learned in his travels, it was that foreigners were often much more invested in exploring a place than locals—he'd bet that he'd be able to show her a thing or two that she hadn't seen before.

Yes. Every possible difficulty had been foreseen. Tonight was going to be absolutely perfect.

His hopes only got higher when Seras met him at the gates of the manor. True, she didn't seem to have made any special effort to dress up, but she had changed into civilian clothes and she looked adorable. Pip returned her cheerful greeting, and then they were off and into the city.

The two of them chatted comfortably as they switched from cabs to the London Underground to their own two feet, moving from this to that landmark or historical site without any true destination in mind. Pip let Seras take the lead; this was about showing her a good time, after all. They were chatting amiably in the back of a cab, just getting ready to cross London Bridge, when—

"Stop! Stop!"

The cab screeched to a halt. Horns blared out behind them as Seras threw herself from the vehicle as if it were on fire and then took off running back the way they had come. Pip opened the door to go after her, but was interrupted by the driver yelling for his fare. He stuffed some bills into the man's hand without checking the amount, and then ran through the sea of still-blaring horns in the direction that Seras had gone.

He found her huddled at the base of the bridge, staring out over the water as if it were a snake that might bite her. "What's wrong, ma chère?" he asked, already cataloging the ways that he could have possibly messed this one up. He'd made sure of both the garlic and the seeds, so what on Earth—

"I can't go across that," she panted, still shaking as if she'd just escaped a dangerous wild animal.

"What?" Pip asked, still confused. "The river?"

To his surprise, she nodded, and then shuddered.

"It's… it's okay." Already Pip could feel his shoulders slumping with disappointment. "I think it's about time we returned to the manor, no?"

Seras nodded with a look of relief. "Thanks for understanding, Pip."

"No… no, problem, ma chère." Damn it! He offered her his arm. Note to self: get permission to access the Hellsing library to see whether there are any other weird vampiric quirks that I don't know about.

A/N: According to Bram Stoker's Dracula, vampires can only cross running water at certain very specific times of day.