She hadn't been on top of her game at all, today. Alucard was beginning to run out of fingers to count off how many times his young master had been distracted throughout the day's meetings and prep work for the nights mission.
At the tender age of thirteen, Integra was proving to be a most intriguing master. Already in the short year he'd spent in her service, Alucard had found himself pleasantly surprised again and again at the challenges Integra rose to without fail – the resolve she carried herself with, the dedication to their bloody line of work. And yet, today, the young teen was practically ropeable. She'd already snapped at Walter multiple times and sent the mansion maids scurrying. The tension had carried through the air, and Alucard could almost smell it the moment he emerged from the basement levels. Until he was called upon, he had courteously remained out of sight and mind.
When he had been called upon, Integra and Walter had already left the mansion for the mission site; an inner-city suburb of London. Alucard had arrived to a relatively inconspicuous backstreet set up, where several of Hellsing's armed troops manned the perimeter of the little parking lot dotted with three Hellsing tents.
Now, he stood silently, listening to Walter prattle on at Integra's side as the afternoon waned on towards the evening. Instead of her usual garb, the girl was dressed down in a more casual looking attire – Walter, as he recited the mission plan whilst fixing the last touches of her outfit, was looking far from impressed as he finished braiding her long platinum hair back from her face.
"...And as we've discussed, Alucard will be at your side the entire time."
"Walter," Integra cut in. "You're babbling."
"My apologies, Sir."
She didn't acknowledge him, instead tilting her head to look over to Alucard, lurking in the shadows.
"You're ready to go?"
"As soon as you are, my Master," he bowed his head, sneaking a look at her from under his brow. As he'd guessed, she pulled a face and rolled her eyes. This new attitude of hers was most curious indeed; there wasn't many a time where Integra had remained in a fouler mood for very long, but this spell seemed to be lasting the entire day. Walter had passed comment to him earlier in the day that she'd been scowling since the moment he presented her with breakfast.
Integra waved her butler away, and the ageing gentleman stepped back for her to look herself over in the mirror propped up on the portable dressing table.
"I look ridiculous," she said sourly.
You look like an ordinary teenager, Alucard bit back the thought. Ridiculous indeed, but fitting for the mission at hand.
"Formal attire isn't exactly all the rage with your age group, Sir – if it were, blending you in with the crowd would be much simpler and a more comfortable task," Walter eyed his charge, before glancing at Alucard. "I'm assuming that you're going to behave yourself out there tonight. No shifting forms in plain view of innocent mortals. We don't need another headline in the newspaper."
Alucard smirked, stepping forward to present himself to them both. He was dressed down in a long sleeved grey shirt with a wide neckline, along with black jeans and boots.
"Am I not the pinnacle of fashion?" he grinned, and Walter snorted softly as Integra pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Shifting would ruin the look."
"Let's just get this over with," his Master sighed, turning to leave the tent, only to stop and still. She winced, almost imperceptibly, but it was enough. Alucard raised an eyebrow as she swallowed and took a deep breath, her hand to her stomach momentarily.
"Master?"
"I'm fine," she shot him a dark look, before straightening and striding past him out of the tent.
Alucard met Walter's eyes, the butler's mouth twisted in an uncomfortable grimace.
"What was that?"
"I'm not certain," Walter replied. "She's claimed an upset stomach and skipped both lunch and afternoon tea, but refuses to confide any details. Please. Don't just be on your best behaviour whilst you two are out freak-hunting. Look after her."
There was a parental tone of concern in Walter's voice, one that Alucard had heard plenty of times. Integra's independence and stoic personality required infinite patience; and Alucard had often heard Walter pleading with his charge to slow when work ran her down. He recalled the aftermath of Integra's very first field assignment without Walter or Alucard present, nearly a whole year now; the girl had faced off against a vampire thrall alone until Alucard broke rank and stepped in at the last minute. Integra had been taken to the Hellsing medics afterwards for stitches and treated for a concussion, but less than two hours after having her arm sewn back together she was up and filing mission reports – working doggedly into the night until she'd finally collapsed from exhaustion at her desk. Walter had ordered her to bed rest for two days after that.
"Alucard?" Walter repeated himself, bringing Alucard out of his wander down memory lane. "You will look after her."
"Of course, Angel," Alucard smiled around the honeyed words. "You shouldn't fret yourself so much. It'll give you wrinkles."
"Hmmph," the butler grunted. "Well. Happy hunting."
-:-
"God I hate it when he carries on like that,"
Alucard stifled the laugh building in his throat. Although his young Master had been snippy with everyone, she almost seemed to relax once the two of them had departed the cramped mission base had began wending their way into the London streets. The night had brought with it a gentle breeze, and Alucard could see the first little speckles of goosebumps rising across Integra's arms as she strode along ahead of him.
"You know he carries on whenever you get sent into the field. Especially without him."
"Stiff shit," Integra huffed. "If Sir Islands and the rest of the Round Table think I need more field experience, who the hell are we to say no? Defying orders like that will only get me barred from actually manning the organisation, and if jurisdiction and management is handed off to someone else until I'm considered of age, then it'd spell the end of a lot of things."
Alucard couldn't help but smirk. Hearing such adult talk from someone so young, someone already so burdened by the badge she wore, by her inheritance of the family business. Suddenly, his smirked disappeared as a scent hit his nose – under the layers of smells the streets carried; damp cement from rain earlier in the day, the wafting scent of frying food as they approached streets lined with restaurants and bars – under the smell of trash littering the drains.
"Master," his hand was on her shoulder before he could stop it, and Integra stopped and whirled so fast he almost walked right into her. "I smell blood."
Integra's eyes widened a fraction.
"The target?"
He studied her for a moment. No, the target wasn't yet close enough. It was a strange, bitter iron tang in the back of his throat that made his teeth ache. It was much, much closer. It was…
"It's on you." He stated, and Integra blinked. "You're bleeding."
"What? Don't be stupid, I am not." Integra's frown slashed her pretty brows together, and she held arms up, examining for any cuts or scrapes. "I would have said something if I were."
True to her claim, Alucard couldn't see and detect any injuries marring her skin, yet the craving feeling in his gut and the scent would not fade. He debated pushing the matter further, but Integra had already turned and begun moving again.
Biting his tongue, he followed. He was just the dutiful dog after all. But if she were to be hiding an injury, there was cause for concern. There was no event he could recall in the last few days that may have rendered her hurt – no fencing practice, nothing strenuous of the sort. Still, this could put them at risk on the mission.
They moved among the throngs of pedestrians and dodged through slow moving traffic in the more heavily populated streets, eyes peeled. The mission should be simple; locate the restaurant chain where reports of midian activity had been spotted, locate the vampire hiding within and dispose of it.
"Here," Integra's voice cut through the surrounding ambience of human voices, and Alucard obediently held open the door for her to step off the sidewalk. There it was again, right as she passed him, the ever-so-subtle hint of clotting blood.
A waiter seated them and handed them both menus, chatting away amicably. Alucard played his part, smiling charmingly back and giving Integra the occasional 'right, kiddo?' to send the unsuspecting waiter back on his way. As soon as the lad was gone, however, Integra's booted heel stamped right in the square of Alucard's foot.
"Don't ever 'kiddo' me again." She hissed, and Alucard sucked in a breath as she relinquished the sharp pressure after a moment of holding his gaze. "I don't care if we're pretending we're just normal people. Never, ever ever refer to me that way again."
"Order acknowledged," Alucard spoke through gritted teeth. A waitress approached with their drinks, breaching the awkward atmosphere.
"Uh, I've got a Chardonnay and a bitters?" she said, setting down the drinks before pausing, eyeing Integra for a moment. "Are we wanting any...appetisers this evening?"
It wasn't even a very good disguise – Alucard could smell the stale blood on the girls breath instantly. A young vampire, too young to be smart enough to know she didn't have to serve mankind should she not wish to. Integra waved her off with a brisk 'no thank you' and the girl went scuttling back to the kitchen. Then, she met his eye.
"You saw it too, right?"
"I did indeed, well spotted Master," Alucard smiled fondly. "You're certainly getting better at picking them out of a crowd."
"Don't patronise me," Integra snarled. "It was the way she said appetisers. The reports on the people that have gone missing from this place noted that none of them ordered past their entree's – however I doubt she'd consider us a target tonight; she's more likely to go for lone diners. No one was ever taken from a group of people."
Alucard suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. He briefly wondered how Walter had managed to go the whole day without cuffing the girl for her snark. Integra rose suddenly.
"Master?"
"I'm...I'll be right back." Integra gripped the table awkwardly, not meeting his eyes. "My stomach's not feeling right, the smell of the food in here is so off-putting."
With that, she made her way to the bathrooms at the back of the restaurant, and Alucard sighed, taking a long sip of his Chardonnay. Other restaurant patrons took no notice of him and continued to laugh and chat away, waiters and waitresses flitting passed. The target moved back and forth, running trays of food to and from table and kitchen like her undead life depended on it. Until his Master commanded, Alucard would not act, merely observe. Then again, with her predisposed…
A thought struck him, and he flagged down the waitress. She glanced around before batting her eyelashes at him sweetly.
"Sir? How can I be of service?"
"I'm afraid my young niece is has taken ill – she managed to make it to the bathroom but I'm quite concerned for her. Will you be a dear and make sure she's all right?" He poured the charm on thick, without needing any hint of hypnotism, and the waitress beamed an adorable, lopsided smile. Just enough to reveal an oddly large canine tooth – if that wasn't confirmation enough, Alucard didn't know what was. Of course, it didn't matter much to him – the girl was the only one in the whole place with no thrumming heartbeat. She was purely mimicking being human.
"Of course! I'll be right back."
She flitted away, and after downing the last of his glass, Alucard counted down from twenty. It wouldn't do to make a scene even in the privacy of a bathroom; plus, this was a mission Integra had been sent on. His usual orders of search and destroy were meant to be hers tonight.
However...when Alucard reached the countdown of zero, he got up and headed down the back of the restaurant himself, making sure no one saw him slip into the ladies instead of the gents.
It was silent within, seemingly deserted, and as he cast a look down the length of the row of stalls, his gaze landed on a crumbling pile of ashes. He cleared his throat quietly to signal his presence to his Master.
"Alucard," Integra's voice came from the stall at the end, right where the ash pile sat. His Master stepped out of the stall, scowling. "How fucking dare you."
She was still holding the handgun she'd been outfitted with, a silencer attached the barrel. There was a dot of sweat on her brow, but she appeared unharmed.
"I thought I'd give you a nice private space to silence the threat," Alucard smirked, crossing the tiles to stand before his Master. Kneeling down by the pile of ashes, he took a pinch of them to rub between his gloved fingers. "And by the looks of it, you've accomplished your goal very thoroughly."
"I was pre-occupied!" Integra struck him across brow with the butt of her gun, and he obligingly faltered sideways. It was then he saw the smear of red across her palm, the rough way her pants had been yanked back up around her hips.
A white hot-anger flared through him.
"The target…did she…Master..." he fought to keep the wave of anger and disgust just behind the floodgates. Integra looked down at herself, before wincing.
"No. Nothing like that. I...shit." She sighed, before leaning against the stall door and baring her palm for him to see. "I'm... I think I'm menstruating."
Something like a synapse short-circuiting in his brain made Alucard truly falter this time. Then, the overwhelming urge to slap himself in the face bid him do so.
"Of course. The blood I smelled earlier..."
"...Yes." His Master wrung her hands together awkwardly. "It's...it's not something I anticipated. I have no idea what to do. It's not like Father ever gave me 'the Talk'...I had to get it from the maids."
His anger gave way to relief, and he stood, offering his hand to her.
"I must ask your forgiveness, then," he said as she took his hand and stepped over the pile of ashes that used to be a predatory supernatural creature. "Had I realized sooner, I would not have sent the target in with you in this condition. It was reckless of me."
"It was," Integra huffed, going over to the sink to wash her hands. "Don't ever do it again."
"Does this fall under the 'kiddo' category of never agains?" he asked with a smirk, and Integra eyed him in the bathroom mirror with a sour expression, before she softened.
"Yes. It does." Drying off her hands and holstering her handgun back into the waistband of her pants, she set about righting herself. "Let's go home. I'll make my report when we get back."
"I'll alert Walter to ready the car," Alucard nodded and followed her back out, and after paying the waiter at the host stand for their drinks, they disappeared back into the crowded evening streets. All that was left was a messy pile of ashes on the bathroom tiles of the ladies.
-:-
Ten minutes later, they were on the outskirts of the busier side London's food district, heading for the rendezvous point where Walter would be waiting to pick them up. As they passed a brightly lit convenience store, a thought struck him and Alucard paused.
"Master," his soft call was enough to get her attention, and Integra turned. Now that the mystery behind her foul mood was solved, she looked tired. Exhausted from being so guarded about her situation all day, having to face a midian hunt at the end of it.
"What is it?"
Alucard nodded at the convenience store.
"Do you have...necessities?"
His young Master turned a fantastic shade of red, and if they were in private surely she would have gone off at him for being so brazen, but instead she merely swallowed it all back. She regained her composure, and shook her head.
"I suppose not," she muttered, pushing her way through the swinging doors. Under the fluorescent lights, her skin took on a washed out pallor, and Alucard knew he undoubtedly looked even more undead than normal. They headed straight to the health and beauty aisle, and his little Master eyed off the feminine products warily. After a moment, she sighed and turned to Alucard. "I have...no idea what to get. This is the first time...this has happened."
He considered the items on display, before reaching for a soft-wrapped back of pads, swiping up a pack of painkillers as well.
"Less invasive than tampons," had this been any other day, any other situation, Alucard would have taken such glee in tormenting and teasing his Master over such a human trifle. But he couldn't even summon a smart comment. Integra, though not given many options, had to trust him with this private matter. The least he could do was set aside his usual snide heckling and actually try to be helpful.
He sent her back outside to wait whilst he paid the cashier for the items, to save her last shred of dignity for the night.
Another block over, Walter was waiting for them, and as they approached the car, Alucard unwittingly flinched when his teenage Master snuck her hand around the crook of his arm. She pressed in close for a moment.
"Thank you. This stays between us."
"Penance for risking your life," Alucard gave her a small smile. "And as far as anyone else is concerned, this never happened."
"Good," she stood back and let him open the car door for her, and slid inside to greet Walter. Alucard hung back a moment, casting his shadows around to ensure they were not watched or followed. No, the city night around them seemed to be completely oblivious to their presence. Just as it should be, really.
There'd be no headlines involving the Hellsing organisation tonight.
-:-
"All right. Spill."
Alucard snorted and up-ended the blood bag on the table of the kitchen with a grin. A few sluggish drops leaked and splatted across the hard wood tabletop, and Walter, across the room wiping down dishes, rolled his eyes.
"You know damn well that's not what I meant."
"Ah, but Angel, you're an easy mark to rile," Alucard said ask he returned the pouch to his lips, sucking at the punctured end. "You are wanting to know the truth of our lovely young Master's interesting mood today, aren't you?"
"Indeed," Walter nodded, shelving and stacking pristine white plates. "It seems you managed to mellow her mood after all."
Swallowing the mouthful of medical blood, Alucard pondered for a moment what menstrual blood must taste like. It had been so many years since he'd had any opportunity to try, he couldn't imagine a time in his long ancient undead life where he had actually tasted menstrual blood. Different, certainly, to blood straight from an artery. Would it be more potent, or would it clot and thicken too quickly for his liking? Shaking the perverted thought from his mind, he cleared his throat.
"You're aware that our Master is now coming of age," he began slowly. "And tonight, Integra has taken her first step into womanhood."
The plate Walter had been towelling dry slid from the butler's fingers and crashed to the floor, pieces going flying and spinning across the floor.
"She – what?!"
"She's menstruating, Walter," Alucard growled, and immediately the same look of white-fury that had licked through Alucard earlier seemed to ease from Walter's expression. "I ensured she has the necessary supplies. And if she enquires, you and I never spoke of this."
Walter sighed in exasperation as he collected the biggest shards of plate scattered across the floor.
"You promised her your silence on the matter and yet you're actually telling me?"
"I thought it fitting that you be kept in the loop. You are, after all, her steward," Alucard reasoned. "Besides, you can feign ignorance and still be well prepared for when she's ready to tell you herself."
There was silence for a moment, broken only by the scrapes of porcelain on wooden floors as Walter finished gathering together the last of the plate pieces. The smaller shards he swept up and deposited the whole lot in the bin at the end of the counter.
"I suppose so," he said finally. "And I suppose I can take it that you minded your manners throughout the whole ordeal?"
Alucard chuckled and tilted his head back to roll his shoulders.
"Of course. I was the pinnacle of decency."
"Unlike the target, from the sounds of Sir Integra's report."
"Indeed. The lech wasn't even subtle."
Walter made himself a cup of tea and joined Alucard at the table, and for another hour or so, they sat in peace, knowing their mutual charge was upstairs, finally retired to bed for the evening.
-:-
When Alucard looked in on his Master later that night, he stayed within the shadows to not disturb her. Her breathing was not regular and calm enough for sleep – and after a moment, she shifted.
"Stop lurking over there, Alucard," she growled, her voice groggy.
Alucard smirked to himself as he approached her bed. Integra was curled up in a swath of blankets, one of her pillows cradled to her like a child would cradle a soft toy.
"I simply came to check in on you, Master," he said gently, coming around to kneel by her bedside. She peered at him with one eye over the pillow. "How are you feeling?"
"The painkillers have helped," she replied tenderly. "Every so often it's like getting kicked by a horse right in the stomach."
"I recall when that happened in earnest," Alucard couldn't help but reminisce. "That stroppy mare had had enough of your telling her what to do."
Integra nodded after a moment, a hint of a smile tugging at her lips.
"That's right. I certainly made a right fool of myself in front of Sir Penwood that day, claiming I could ride when I hadn't in several years. At least he had the decency to act concerned."
From the depths of his robes, Alucard presented to her the trophy he'd managed to score from the medical bay. Integra's brow lifted half an inch as the warmth from the object in his hand radiated outwards.
"Is that..."
"A heat pack," he nodded and offered it to her. Integra took it gingerly and tucked it behind her pillow, to her belly. After a moment, she visibly relaxed. Then, her brow creased again.
"You didn't tell Walter did you?"
Alucard's smile widened.
"He may have drawn his own conclusions, and he's likely to suggest seeing Doctor Trevelyan in the morning if your discomfort persists."
Integra eyed him wearily, before sighing heavily into her pillows.
"...Thank you, Alucard. That's all for tonight."
Bowing his head to his Master, Alucard waited until she'd closed her eyes and her breathing evened out, relaxed by the soothing warmth at her stomach. Then, he took his leave, melting back into the shadows and taking up the route he had begun to prowl when she had first released him from drained decrepitude – three whole laps of the mansion grounds, ensuring all was quiet for the night.