Author's Note: This ficlet could be set in either the anime or manga - it would fit in both. This is not a canon pairing but is one of my favorites: Walter & Seras. This would be set sometime before Seras met Pip in the manga or after the Valentine invasion in the anime.
Also I just want to let my readers know that some of these stories are set far in the manga (volume 6 & up) where characters are are very different from their anime counterparts and/or have changed drastically from the way they are at the beginning of the manga. Anderson, Seras, and Integral are very different by volume six then they are in volume one. So if they seem OOC, they actually are not. Kohta Hirano has just changed them that much. If you want, contact me and I can let you know (online) where to read the manga volumes that have not been released in the US yet.
Walter smiled watching Seras try to put her gun back together. She really was trying to learn parts of his job. Integral had insisted – just in case. Hearing those words had made him feel something. What was it? Whatever it was, Walter did not like it. These feelings, sensation and unease, did bring back some memories for the Hellsing butler.
He recalled his first day on the job, meeting Alucard, and the many times the vampire had tried to tempt to join him in the undead world. There were times - times like these that Walter wished that his answer had been different. And that he had said yes.
It wasn't because he wished to be that young man again. No, going through it once was hard enough. Walter even could deal with his fading memories and aching bones. Those were all just minor annoyances of life. No, it was her. She was the reason that Walter wished he would have said yes.
Seras Victoria, Alucard's fledgling vampire – she made him want to be young again. He wished that she could have known him as he was then – a rebellious, strong, and handsome young man. What would their life had been like if had been a vampire too? Walter almost blushed thinking of all the fun they could have. Now, they were merely missed opportunities. She would never look twice at him. Sure they were friends of some sort – the kind one has at work. He would never know what it was like to hold her in his arms, kiss her soft lips, or make love to her beautiful body. How many nights did he dream of such things? If only he had said yes.
Watching her from here, Walter's heart ached to touch her – take her in his arms and kiss her hard on the lips. Yet he would not. It was not proper etiquette and he was only the butler after all. A very old butler. She would not look twice at an old man such as him. She was so young and pretty, Walter was sure all of the soldiers had asked her out. He wondered if she had gone on any dates since her arrival at Hellsing. A pencil snapped in his hands – he had crushed it. Funny, thinking about her with another man would have that affect on me.
Finally, the word came to him – regret. He chuckled at the thought that he regretted not becoming a vampire as a young man. How ironic is that? But, if he had accepted Alucard's gift, things would be very different between them. He would look like a young man. They would have the same Master and the two of them would be vampires of equal power. There would be so many things that they could share. By now surely, the two of them would have become lovers. He had said no, however.
Instead of knowing the feeling of her body beneath his, he would only know how it felt to want something that was just out of his reach, a chance that never happened because of his answer to a question so many years ago. How could he have known about her back then? Yes, regret was the emotion that filled his heart. He regretted never having the chance to kiss her, share her bed, and to become intimate in the way that only lovers could. Walter was sorry that one day he would die and leave her alone in this world. Although his heart ached at the thought of her with someone else, he hoped that one day Seras Victoria would meet someone to love her as much as he. It would make him happy but Walter would still regret he never had a chance to love her as he truly desired.