A.N: Shesh you people and your demands upon my person x.x actually I love it. Lots of reviews telling me to hurry up and write always get me off my bum and onto the keyboard. Well not sitting on the keyboard....well you know what I mean!
Ok so here is the official pairing vote tally(romantic or otherwise) at the time of me writing this: AxI:11, PxS:9, AxS:8, SxI:6, ExI:6, HxY:5, WxS:4, AnxS:4 ,AnxI:3 , AnxA:3, IxP:3, ExAn, SxE, AxH, and Alucard/the Queen all had two votes each, and YxE, YxS ,HxI, WxA, HxE, YxI, WxY, HxAn, AnxY and WxRenaldo(I hope to god you mean in a non romantic way) each had one vote. A LOT of people requested something with mistletoe, four people requested threesome pairings, four people said they hated a particular pairing, three people said they liked everything, three people suggested something that included Heinkel and Yumiko singing, and one person requested an orgy (yes, thank you for that Thess). I'll do my best guys!
Merry Christmas to: everyone, and special thanks to my beta Nepenthe.
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Integra looked at the pristine flowers in front of her, and fought down the facial tick she was quickly developing. The Queen's orders for them to get along like good little children played through her head, and she forced herself with wooden movements to reach out and take the flowers.
"They are lovely," she said with a forced smile that was more frightening than warm. His fingers brushed over hers as she took the green foil wrapped planter, and she squelched down a flutter that was half morbid fascination and half something else.
"I knew you would like them," his sickly sweet smirk never left his face as he straightened from his little bow.
"Ahem," Integra blinked for a moment, at a loss for what to say that wouldn't be overtly hostile. "Walter, would you take these and stick them...somewhere?"
"Right away Sir Integra," the faithful butler said with a bow before taking the flowers.
"So...Maxwell," Integra glanced between the people he had brought with him for a moment. A nun, about a dozen priests and bureaucrat types she had never met, Father Renaldo and...Anderson. The very sight of the man riled her more than even Enrico, if that was possible. She still hadn't forgotten what he had done.
"Allow me to introduce my entourage," he said, taking the initiative, "these are sister Yumiko, and sister Heinkel," he said indicating the two women. Integra blinked at Heinkel for a moment; she was dressed as a priest. After a few more moments of the two tall blonde women inspecting each other, the Hellsing leader decided if she herself could dress like a man, who's to say a nun couldn't as well.
"You have met Father Anderson and Renaldo, have you not?" he asked with that saccharine smirk before going on to introduce the rest of his group...
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After all the pointless introductions were made, Walter showed their guests up to the rooms they would be staying in for the night. Integra took the opportunity to continue on to the kitchen, which had been her original destination.
The large room was warm and filled with holiday smells. Not really sure what she was looking for, Integra poked around before grabbing a fresh gingerbread man and sitting at down at the scarred dining table in the corner.
"Ah here you are. I was wondering where you were hiding Sir Integra," Walter's reassuring voice washed over her as he sat down next to her.
"I am not hiding," she said evenly before biting the head off her gingerbread man.
"Ah indeed. Let me get you something to drink," the older man said before rising and walking over to the punch bowl of eggnog. He ladled a generous cup full, and added an extra shot of rum. He figured Sir Integra was going to need it if she was expected to keep up her cool façade.
"Thank you," she said as she took a long sip of it. Her eyes watered slightly, but it warmed her insides and seemed to instantly relax her tense muscles.
"I just don't know what's going to happen when Alucard and Seras get up," she said darkly, before finishing off the heavily spiked nog and starting again on her cookie man. Walter considered telling her not to spoil her appetite, but quickly decided against it.
"I'm sure they'll manage to conduct themselves affably, assuming the Iscariot do. Let's just hope they have as strict orders to foster good will as we do," Walter trailed off, before getting up to pour himself a glass of nog. He really hoped they could keep the bloodshed to a minimum.
Just then the door opened with a lazy slap against the wall, and several of Hellsing's mercenary employees piled into the kitchen with much noise and laughter. Pip at the head of the group walked in backwards still talking with the person behind him, before turning around, intent on pinching one of the cooling cookies off its rack. He stopped dead in his tracks as he noticed Walter and an obviously sour tempered Integra sharing a moment of companionable silence.
"Oh hello," Pip said slightly startled, "what are you doing here?" he managed to refrain from saying 'what are you doing in our spot', referring to the old dining table. He had always assumed it was originally put there for the "help" to dine at, but they had adopted it as their spot outside of the barracks.
"I would ask you the same," Walter said raising an eyebrow at him, "I am still quite busy preparing a few dishes," he didn't make any excuse for the actuality that he was in fact at this moment sitting on his bum and drinking eggnog, this was his kitchen by God, at least until the cook got back from vacation.
"Right then...We'll just get out of your way," he said, eyeing Sir Integra a bit warily before starting to back up.
"No, no don't be silly," Integra said with a wave of her hand, "have a seat. I think we all need to formulate a strategy anyway if we expect to survive the night."
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Seras woke slowly with a strange feeling lodged in the back of her brain, almost like a warning signal was going off in her head. She forced herself into awareness, letting go of her good dreams before pressing the button to raise the lid of her coffin. Crawling out she glanced at the clock: 5:30, it was still at least a few hours until sunset but she just couldn't sleep any more.
She picked up a hair brush and ran it lazily through her thick, if short mane of strawberry blonde hair before looking at her calendar of 'twelve months of adorable kittens'. Her eyes slowly focused on the date, before its implication took root in her brain.
'December twenty-fourth- The Iscariot arrive' was hastily scrawled in red pen on the unassuming white square. Instantly she could feel herself break out in a cold sweat, God this was going to suck.
She quickly dressed in jeans and a fuzzy Christmas sweater covered in snowflakes before creeping over to the door. Slowly she opened it, peeking out into the dark corridor and then slipping out into it without a sound.
"Going somewhere Police girl?" the deep mocking voice of her Master asked out of the shadows to her left, startling out of her what he thought was quite a satisfying shriek.
"Wha-what? I wasn't going anywhere Master. I just wanted to see what was going on," the blonde vampire said with a little frown, why did he always pick on her?
"Ah, so you sensed their arrival as well? And you are sure you weren't planning on sneaking out of the manner before the big-bad Vatican wolfs get you?" he asked, slipping out of the pool of shadows and pinning her with a fangy grin.
"Of course not Master," she said with an indignant sniff, "I'm not afraid of them," the lie sounded forced even to her ears, even if she was really only afraid of one of them.
"Good! Then you can join me in greeting them! Come along Police girl," his grin widened as he motioned for her to follow. Seras gulped and unwittingly followed. Yes this was really not going to be her day at all.
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Enrico pursed his lips, surveying the more than generous accommodations. He had half expected to be sleeping on a cot in the dungeons for his stay, but the fact that his room had lights and a comfortable sleeping surface didn't do much to lessen his suspicion.
He sighed before finally tossing his suitcase unceremoniously on the bed and starting to unpack it. They had been informed by the quite frankly unsettlingly polite butler that a sort of "get-together" was planned in honor of their arrival. He wouldn't put something past Hellsing or one of her filthy pets like putting poison in the punch bowl; he would have to make sure to only eat out of the same dishes as them.
With one last harrumph he unpacked his bag and started to change his clothes. The sound of hushed talking from the hallway caught his attention, and instantly he stopped what he was doing and slunk over to the door. With nary a sound he cracked the door open and peered out. For a moment he wasn't sure what he was seeing, but slowly the images in front of him made it all the way to his brain. That hell beast Nosferatu was standing across the hallway from him with a tallish blonde girl in a horrendous holiday sweater holding a large cellophane wrapped gift basket. He seemed to be trying to persuade her to do something...
"Please Master don't make me," Seras said imploringly as her gloved fingers dug nervously into the clear plastic, crinkling it slightly.
"Oh really Police girl, it's not a big deal. Just knock on the door and say 'Merry Christmas Mister Paladin, here is a token of our esteem' then give him the basket and you may leave," Alucard told her with a maniacal grin, before straightening the red poinsettia sitting in his breast pocket.
"Ca-can't you do it please?" she said in that same small voice, knowing that it was useless to try and reason with him.
"What on earth..." Enrico heard himself say out loud before he could stop himself. Seras instantly snapped around to face him and let out a little shriek before jumping back. One of her hands shot out to catch herself on the wall, but instead of stopping her like she expected it continued to sink into the seemingly solid wall like it was water. She shrieked again in surprise, before moving it around experimentally.
"I...what? This has never happened before," she said, her head starting to ache from the constant stress of being startled so often.
"Ah Police girl, you must finally be manifesting some of your abilities!" the master vampire said with a laugh before he grinned at the equally startled Iscariot leader.
Seras tried to smile, before attempting to pull her hand back. It stuck fast.
"M-master! I can't get it back out!" she said, nearly breaking into tears as she tugged against the inky black portal that had formed around her hand.
"Well then put it in farther naturally! See if you can walk through the wall," Alucard laughed, and poked her in the center of the back.
"But-but, he's in there!" she said pleadingly and she tugged with renewed fervor.
"Don't forget the basket!" he laughed, putting it back in her other hand before shoving her through.
With a muted thump they heard her land on the floor on the other side, and then all was quiet for a moment.
Seras quickly rose to her feet, her fingers still gripping onto the handle of the basket before her eyes locked on the sight in front of her. Alexander Anderson was standing not a half a dozen feet in front of her, and appeared to have just gotten out of the shower. There he stood before her all equally shocked as her six foot seven of him in nothing but a towel. The young vampire struggled to gain her voice as her mind was torn between fear and some sort of sick fascination.
Finally when she managed to move again, she closed her eyes and thrust the basket into his arms. "Merry Christmas Mister Paladin, here is a token of our esteem!" with that said she quickly turned around, opened the door, and fled.
"Good job Police girl!" Anderson heard the demon named Alucard call after the girl as she tore down the hall. Quite confused at this point, he looked down at the gift basket. It contained some fruit, a whet stone, and a wide assortment of bandages and antiseptics. This was certainly going to be an interesting dinner.
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Ah and the OOCness starts to read its ugly head. Well maybe not too much, but it's for the sake of comedy I say!
Now I would like to stress that despite what couple you "vote" for, that doesn't mean I'm going to exclude less popular ones! Like I said, there will be multiple endings to make everyone happy. But I must say, I think the core pairings will each be getting a full chapter to themselves (2k words), and the lesser alt pairings may only get a shorter chapter (1k words or so). But it all depends where inspiration strikes. And again I say it doesn't have to be romantic (as some pairings will be very hard to write in a romantic light), but I'll try my best to fulfill everyone's wishes.