Disclaimer: Yes, I own both Hellsing and X-men, not really, but I had to say it.
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Smirking, Arucard decided that he was in just the mood to annoy his master, Sir Integra Wingate Hellsing. With barely a thought, he moved straight through the wall and to her office, completely unaware of Kurt who was clinging on for dear life. Trying to remain calm, the blue mutant decided to go over the situation.
It was dire. He was stuck to this...man who smelled of blood and corpses and he didn't have a clue where he was. To top it off, the fact that the coat was over him meant that he had no idea where he was going or even if they had cleared the wall yet. Shaking from shock, and desperately hoping that the shaking wouldn't be noticed, he tried to entertain himself about the red eyed man.
He must have been tall, and strong too not to have noticed his weight. The walk was straight backed with a natural swagger, not nearly as pronounced as Logan's – the institute! What would they be doing about his disappearance? He started to panic. How would he get back if he didn't even know where he was. Suddenly, his mode of transport stopped.
"Arucard, I've no time for foolishness." It was a woman's voice, strict and strong. So it appeared that this man went by the name Arucard; at least that might prove useful at some point in time.
"But I love nothing more than teasing you, master."
Master!? Now what was that about? Kurt froze as the man turned, presumably moving to get closer to the woman. The vampire paused and shifted his weight, the added one of the mutant suddenly starting to get to him.
"Is this some sort of a joke? I know I called you the devil yesterday for mixing all the spice pots up, but I honestly thought dressing up was below you, Arucard."
"Dressing up?" The vampire seemed taken a back and he leaned forward. "Now what do you mean by that, master?"
The woman sighed heavily. "That damn tail."
Kurt froze and glanced down with as little movement as possible.
"What tail?"
"That one." The woman stamped on it hard and the fuzzy blue elf sunk his claws right into the vampire. As expected, Arucard leapt and tried to bat off whatever had clung to him. After throwing his jacket off, Nightcrawler included, he then tried to catch the mutant.
Wriggling free of the immense coat, Kurt looked around wildly and ported, landing upside down on the ceiling. Below him, the vampire was laughing, his fangs glinting in the light.
"So it wasn't a dream." Arucard was suddenly in the ceiling, literally as just his head and shoulders protruded from the white surface. Panicking, Kurt reeled back and fell, landing in a graceless and untidy heap on the floor. For the first time he noticed the woman and how could he have not noticed such a vision?
She was tall, not nearly as much as the vampire, but tall, definitely a rival for Ororo. The woman...Integra, she had piercing, intense blue eyes with hair so blonde it was almost white. Despite the fact that she wore clothes tailored for men, she had an odd feminine beauty to her. She poked him.
"What is it?" Integra sat back slightly to look at the black and red uniform then at the blue fur. The tail, that was the cause of the bother, flicked gently as the blue mutant drifted in and out of consciousness.
Kurt finally snapped into the waking world and he tried to bolt. Firm hands caught his slender waist and the vampire stood up, laughing at the futile efforts to break free. The smirk vanished when something caught his attention about the long haired youth and that was that he was utterly terrified.
The vampire frowned and dropped the struggling mutant, standing on the spade of the tail to stop any chances of escape. Carefully, Arucard crouched down and used the tail to drag the mutant over and within catching distance. From this angle, Kurt couldn't do anything but sit and hope that no pressure would be put on the delicate spade of his tail.
"Arucard? You have some explaining to do involving that demon." Integra sat down and lit a cigar, chewing slightly in thought. "Start with this 'dream'."
"Well, being the good vampire-" He was cut off as the mutant went utterly ballistic, trying to get away with added urgency. Interested, the vampire watched for a moment before leaning on the tail, creating an animalistic cry of pain from the mutant who was running out of ideas.
"Du bist gebenedeit unter," Kurt had started to pray fervently, "den Frauen und gebenedeit ist die Frucht deines Leibes -"
"Are you quite finished?" The woman asked Kurt coolly but didn't wait for an answer. "As you were saying."
He had decided to avoid the V word. "I was contemplating on all sorts of lovely ideas when I went out for a little fun in the sub-dimension. I stumbled into a house full of..." He curled his lips in distaste, "humans and they attacked me. One could go through walls-"
"Kitty!" Kurt twisted, grabbing the vampire by the lapels. "I hope to god zat you didn't hurt her."
Integra's eyebrows had peaked and she looked back to her servant. "Continue."
"Then there's a man with claws-"
"Logan!" The blue mutant paused, Wolverine could hold his own pretty well but he was still worried.
"Then a girl who turned into a wolf-"
"Rahne!" Kurt was pinned heavily to the ground, the vampire bored now of the antics and he was vaguely aware that a tail had wrapped itself around his wrist, trying to prise him off.
"We get the point." Arucard growled then smirked, finally taking proper note of the tail. "You know them, are they demons like you?"
"Demons? Nein!" Kurt kicked and tried to get out of the pin. He failed fruitlessly as the tail was pinched, causing another cry of pain.
"Then what are you?" The woman sighed, boredom heavily lacing her voice. She picked up her gun and made a show of clicking it in place. "And it had better be a good one."
Kurt froze; what to say? Arucard seemed to have noticed the hesitation and he pinched the tail again, gritting his own teeth as sharp claws sunk into his skin as a reaction to the pain. The vampire stood up and altered his grip on the youth to a more vampire-friendly one. This involved having the mutant's tail underfoot again and Kurt himself sitting a short distance away.
"I'm a mutant, ze next stage in evolution-"
"So we're all going to be blue? Cant really see the advantage of that." The woman retorted. "Start with the truth, demon."
"Mutants are often...spontaneous. Zere is no rhyme or reason as to vhat ve can do. I have met vuns who create fire, earthquakes. Some who can read your mind and others zat can do no more zan make a flower bloom." Pressure had started to build and Kurt warily looked over at his tail, not sure if the vampire wanted him to expand or if he wasn't even aware of how delicate the limb was.
"Uh-huh?" Integra smirked, the gesture not as perfected as the vampires, but a smirk all the same. "Then why haven't I heard of them before?"
"He said himself zat he vas dimension hopping." The blue mutant retorted then looked up at Arucard and tried to shake life back in his tail. Raising an eyebrow, the vampire smirked and leaned down on it heavily.
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He ported. He didn't know what else to do and Kurt staggered, trying to figure out where he was. Glancing around, he spotted a man who appeared to be a butler, complete with monocle, who had dropped his tray. The mutant had to laugh, sure as fate; his stomach had taken him straight to the kitchens.
Considering a hiss and scare tactic, Nightcrawler jumped onto the table and hid a wince as his bruised tail brushed the wood. The butler still watched him as he slowly reached into his pockets, wire coming with them on the way out.
"Does the title, the angel of death mean anything to you?"
"Um, nein, but I'm sure zat you are about to enlighten me." Kurt jumped back as the wire was thrown at him, catching his exhausted body and cutting into him. A whimper escaped Kurt as his vision blurred, his airways being cut by the oppressive razor strips of metal that dug deeper and deeper until he thought he was about to be cut in half.
"Drop him, Walter. He's harmless." It was the vampire's voice and Kurt glanced up to see him as the binds were retracted. Then he realised that he was being critically analysed by the butler.
"Quite scrawny; tail long and dextrous; blue appearance and..." The spandex uniform was smiled at. "Is he part of the circus?"
"He's a mutant apparently." Arucard smirked, easily catching the shattered creature in question. The smirk vanished as his gloved hand ran over part of the exposed face and he forced the teen to look upwards, bright yellow eyes trained on the ceiling. Slowly, the vampire removed one of his gloves.
"What is it?"
"Fur." The vampire smiled again, taking great pleasure in the obvious discomfort of the mutant as his face was petted roughly. He laughed as a sharp snap was taken at his hands. "German too."
"German?"
"That's what I thought."
"I can understand you." Kurt angrily tried to pull away. "And stop treating me like a pet, ja?" He was dragged into a tighter hold and froze as his tail was grabbed, the spade trying to desperately squirm out of the butlers grasp.
"I think it's quite sensitive." Arucard continued without heed of the previous outburst. "Certainly doesn't like you standing on it."
"I'm not surprised." Walter smiled, reaching out to pet the captured mutant. "And what does Sir Integra plan on doing with him?"
"Not too sure." The vampire grinned madly. "Do you think she'll let me keep him?"
The butlers reply was dry and held no hint of humour. "Perhaps you should order a matching lead and collar on ebay, no?"
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"Oh! Isn't he soo cuute!" Seras Victoria leaned forward and pinched one of the mutant's furry cheeks. "He's got fur! And little pointy ears! And a little pointy tail!" She crowed in delight, completely ignorant of the look of utter terror on Kurt as he reluctantly curled tighter against the other vampire who was carrying him roughly, his breathing quickening in fear.
Arucard was laughing and attempted to prise the mutant off him. He failed as Kurt really didn't want to be exposed to the hyper blonde vampire and so, sinking his claws in, he clung on for dear life. It was starting to annoy the male vampire and he dropped the mutant low enough so that the tail dropped on the ground and then he stomped, hard.
More chuckles greeted Kurt's reaction as he skidded across the ground, staggering on a combination of three fingered hands and two toed feet. He focused in time to spot the young blonde running to him and, using tactics that he knew Logan would be proud of, he jumped and used her to propel himself up to the ceiling.
"Come on, now." Red eyes flashed behind yellow glasses as Arucard gently caught Kurt as he phased in and out of the ceiling, coming up through the floor. A rumbling brought everyone's attention to the blue mutant who burned a deep purple, cursing his stomach in his native German.
"What do you think he eats?" Seras grinned and shoved her face less than four inches away from the mutants. The look of sheer panic was etched on Kurt's face again then he smiled wryly.
"Food?" He suggested, one eyebrow raising, a tiny tilt of the head and a roguish smile that revealed a glint of fang. It always worked at the institute, why not here? Unfortunately, it was a little potent.
"Aaww!!! Please can we keep him? Please master?" She jumped and laughed.
"I'm hoping to persuade master to that line of thinking."
Ok, it appeared that the boss woman was the male vampires master and that Arucard was the hyperactive blonde's master. "Um, food, please? I have a fast metabolism and I already missed a meal." Kurt smiled hopefully as he looked up to Arucard, unable to see the expression behind the yellow sunglasses.
"We'll see what Walter has." The ancient vampire gave into the pleading look; beaten puppies came to mind about its certain undeniable edge. Sighing, but still smirking, Arucard shifted the mutant's weight over his shoulder and moved off to the kitchen, Seras in tow.
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Walter stood at the table, enjoying the contemplative and relaxing bars of Mozart that filled his kitchen. The 'angel of death' was currently rolling out chocolate chip cookie dough whilst wearing a pink apron with white lace on it. His concentration was shattered with an ear piercing:
"Aaw! He looks so cute when he does that!" And Seras walked in closely followed by her master who was struggling to contain one suddenly hyper blue furry mutant in his hands.
"Why are you here, Arucard? I never realised that vampires ate."
"First time for everything, Walter."
"Indeed." He replied crisply as he eyed a ball of blue fuzz eyeing his slowly cooling, freshly made cookies which he was planning to give to Sir Integra when she asked for her evening tea. "Don't even think about it."
The mutant swallowed heavily. "Think vhat?" He raised his hands, a cookie half eaten in one as his tail cradled another dozen.
"Aaww!" The blonde laughed, her voice being drowned out by Arucard who was laughing fit to cry. The vampire dropped Kurt with absolutely no courtesy and watched, amazed as not a cookie was dropped.
The butler looked set to have a heart attack as the cookies where one by five devoured. "I made them for Sir Integra, especially."
"Vell I think she is very lucky; zese cookies are marvellous – a culinary example of genius." Kurt had become an expert on dealing with furious chefs and he flashed a one hundred watt smile. Suddenly, he realised that he had finished the cookies and his stomach rumbled again. "Oopsy?"
"Indeed."
Seras skipped over to Walter, a huge grin on her face. "Can we feed him, please?"
"And what does he eat? Besides my specially prepared -"
"And excellent!"
"- cookies? I don't believe I have any tinned mutant food in the cupboards." Walter noted with a hint of pride that the smile had vanished off the blue mutants face to be replaced with what looked oddly like seething hatred.
"I'll never compliment your cookies again if you keep on like zat."
"Indeed."
"Get a thesaurus!" Kurt froze before bashfully lowering his arms, gave a discrete cough and looked anywhere but at the butlers face.
Walter laughed dryly, Seras giggled nervously and Arucard burst into a fit of manacle edged laughter as he clapped the blue mutant on the back. "I like this guy."
"Is that because he irks me so?"
"Indeed." The male vampire broke into a smirk, tilting his head down slightly so that his red eyes looked over his yellow glasses. "Now, I believe we have to find some food for the little guy."
"Kurt, my name is Kurt." He shook his head, hoping that the X-men would miraculously save him somehow. A sharp look from Arucard halted that thought as dread dawned on the blue mutant.
"Yep, I read minds."
"Verdamment."
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There was a problem. A very, very, very bad problem that Kurt found himself in. It had been decided by Integra that he could stay for 'the time being until such further action is decided upon' and he had been given a room in the guest quarters for the moment.
He found himself wondering how people could have such huge houses and such small guest rooms – it was a glorified cupboard! Or, how could someone who had their own army at hand, not be able to afford some decent furniture? He eyed the flimsy bed and felt his tail recoil.
"What do you think?" Seras grinned at him in an insanely happy fashion as she seemed to be permanently doing – if not trying to pet or groom him that is; even Arucard drew the line at the ribbons on his tail thing.
"It's..." He struggled for a word and found none. "Homely?"
"You mean small." Walter retorted crisply as he walked in with the mysterious silent ease of butlers everywhere – was there an academy for butler training that included a 'how to give your masters a heart attack' course?
Laughter echoed through the dark room, signalling that Arucard was snooping about in the mutants mind again. Shadows took form and the vampire strode into the pale candle light with a gleeful smirk. "I often find myself thinking so too..."
"Kurt." He supplied, again. It seemed that no one wanted to use his name. True, he referred to his captors as 'he' or 'she' but still, it would be nice for them to recognise him as a person.
Seras looked at them both blankly before shrugging, a nervously wide smile on her face all of a sudden. "Well you should probably just go to bed now."
Kurt waited.
She waited.
Walter waited.
Arucard smirked and leant against the wall and waited also.
Kurt nibbled his lip and examined his battered tail.
Seras looked up and started to study the ceiling that was littered with rafters and alcoves. Looking fairly like a bomb had gone off and someone had decided to build a broom cupboard under it in the guise of a guest room.
Walter waited with unwavering devotion.
Arucard had nearly given into the urge to burst out laughing, his smirk revealing all of his fangs now.
Everyone's pride was getting the better of them and if left alone, it could have lasted a very long time. However, thankfully, or unfortunately, Integra chose to walk in at that moment and looked at them all through her large glasses with one blonde eyebrow raised.
"What are you all doing standing here?"
"Nothing, just checking zat I'm ok. Vhich I am." Kurt slipped over to the bed and sat on it. "Ok, night. Auf weidersein." He waved and waited for someone, anyone to leave. It wasn't happening as they all watched him. He gritted his teeth; did he have 'just stare' tattooed on his forehead? Or was he an interesting specimen here too, like in his own dimension? Roll up, roll up, you can gawk at the ugly blue demon for only a dollar!
Arucard pulled a rather puzzled face.
Kurt mentally cursed and thought of nothing, then thought of a nice snowy field back home in Germany. Homesickness bombed into his stomach and he suddenly wanted to curl up and just wake up elsewhere. He even missed that bore Scott, for god's sake. Double drills with Logan – he didn't care. He wanted to be home.
Everyone was still watching and waiting.
A very sly thought came to the mutants mind. "I don't sprout vings or anything vhen I go to sleep." He grinned, a fake smile laced with fatigue. "And it doesn't involve any interesting spells or sacrifices. Virgins can sleep easy tonight."
Everyone was currently gawking at him, except for the male vampire who was just grinning and shaking his head.
Kurt decided to fill the silence again. "Vhat I vas trying to say is let me go to sleep!" He paused. "In peace." He paused again. "Please?"
The spectators nodded then slowly filed out. Walter and Integra first, followed quickly by the female vampire. Arucard smirked before moving backwards into the shadows, his body vanishing as though absorbed by them.
"Finally." The mutant jumped off the bed and hauled off his spandex suit – eurgh! Who thought of spandex for a uniform? With fur? He rubbed some of the static out before giving up to just sleep and found that the blankets were starchy. Just his luck.
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In her shadowy office lit by just her computer, Integra smoked her cigar furiously before slamming it into the ashtray. She sat for a moment staring into the shadows and then looked sharply to her left.
"Arucard?"
"Yes master?" He slid out of the shadows, smirking at her.
"Stay there." The woman pressed a button and immediately there was Walters clipped British accent, did the guy never rest? Or did he not have basic human bodily functions that required him away from the phone for a moment? Now that she thought about it, she couldn't remember him ever popping off to the 'little boy's room'. She shook her head. "I need you to fetch Seras and bring up four cups of tea, I wish to discuss to you all about our new...resident."
Several minutes later and a new cigar, the required persons were seated; the male vampire was lurking about smirking as was his usual. She ignored him easily with the skill of someone who has learned the hard way of doing so.
"Now, we know why -"
"Can we keep him – please?" Seras smiled brightly then giggled nervously at the ice cold glare she was receiving.
"And why do you think we should keep him?" The boss sat back and smiled, waiting to be convinced that they had a need for the blue furred stranger. "Other than the fact that furs good on the eyes, why?"
There was a deafening silence that saw everyone thinking seriously. Surprisingly, it was Walter who was the one to speak first on Kurt's defence. There was a wry smile to his face that was rarely seen these days.
"He looks like a helpful lad; we could do with more of them. And perhaps he could be trained with the other men, he looks a good fighter. Athletic."
"And he's funny." Seras added. "Light humour, after...you know, we need more of that around here. And there is the fact that he's utterly adorable. You should see this little look he can pull." She giggled and was silenced by a raised hand.
Integra sighed. "I can see that Walter does have a valid point. Our guest seems harmless, if we can get him on our side, he may prove an asset. We'll see how things turn out though before I make a specific choice. You may all go." She waved them off and was annoyed to note that Arucard had remained on the side. "Yes?"
"Master, if you wish for my opinion, I think that we're all bound to like a part of him. Kurt has many sides, and his core needs help." Stepping back, the vampire vanished with the ease of shadows.
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Running. He was running in the forest, the branches catching and ripping his fur on his tired muscles. He had been running for so long, fatigue threatened with every harsh icy breath, pain ripping his sides. The trees twisted to cobbles and buildings, his fear growing stronger as still he fled from his pursuers.
Kurt ran into a dead end and turned to finally look at them, the humans who cried and taunted at this devilish creature, raising their pitchforks and torches. Declaring to burn the living thing in hells fire, to send it back to the devil, these humans who felt themselves more righteous and better than he. And what could he do but desperately move further back against the wall?
They had grabbed him, pulling and tearing at his once sleek blue fur, now matted and mangled with clotted blood and mud as they trussed him up onto a pole. There was straw at his feet and he watched with detached horror as they set a flaming torch to it. The acrid smoke burning his nose, filling his lungs, making him choke as fear began to rise. One flame licked his foot and –
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- He leapt awake, scrambling across the floor, throwing off the suffocating shroud of his blanket as he breathed in the cold, non smoky air. It was just a nightmare, and nightmares couldn't hurt you. No, it was when they did try to burn him that it hurt, not just his flesh but also his heart.
The mutant glanced sharply into the shadows, sure that he had seen a flicker of movement and yet his eyes, glowing yellow and cat like in their ability to spot anything in the dark, could see nothing. Then why did he feel watched?
It was the nightmares doing, of course. The nightmare.
"Perhaps I vill vake up back home in a straight jacket, ja?" He chuckled nervously in the dark, talking to no one or perhaps to that never ceasing presence he felt. Shrugging, he decided that the bed was too rickety and simply turned to the wall. "I alvays did like driving people up ze wall, now I've done it to me too." Kurt sighed at the shadows. "Ja, it's just me, alvays me." He rolled onto his back on one of the rafters and let sleep slowly claim him.
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