Disclaimer: I don't own Hellsing. Blah. Blah.
Part One
It was winter and, like it does every year, Hellsing froze over. It meant a break from private school for Integra and endless opportunities to annoy her for Alucard. Walter had scheduled Integra some private lessons with a fencing instructor, a ballistics specialist, and a ballroom dancing instructor. The roads were closed, though, due to ice, and all the lessons for this week had to be cancelled.
Integra had started off the week waking Alucard up in the morning. "Oh, you think it's so unfair and so cruel," she stated primly when the vampire growled at her from inside his coffin, "but, I seem to remember a certain nosferatu who enjoyed waking me up during the school year with wet hellhound slobber and writhing centipedes." To this the vampire would grumble and begrudgingly open the lid.
However, Integra quickly tired of this and sought out other adventures. It was that search that brought the 14 year old outside in the snow that calm and cold day. Under her thick winter coat and scarf, she was warm and ready to build that year's snowman. Still capable of enjoying a skirt every now and then, the young Hellsing director and master of Alucard wore a long light blue skirt that matched her winter coat. Beneath, she wore a warm pair of leggings (an: I don't know whether you would call them leggings, tights, stockings, or what. I think you get what they are though, right? Hope so.), and thick socks inside her light blue snow boots.
The landscape beyond Hellsing's front door seemed foreign, masked by a blanket of white snow that covered everything. The snow in the immediate area around her had been shoveled off and was not conducive for snowman building. So, Integra walked down the drive and looked left and right for a good patch of snow. She was not too far from the house when she spotted a clearing visible from the drive. She didn't rush out there; she knew that somewhere there was a pond and she did not want to risk falling through the ice and into it. She carefully scanned the clearing and chose a spot where she could see bushes and other vegetation just beneath the layer of white. There were several trees all around as well, so she didn't worry about the pond too much; it had to be further a long.
He could see her well from where he emerged at the front door of the mansion. Once outside, he shut the door, eyed the young Hellsing mischievously, and then changed into hell hound form. It was much more pleasant this way. The sun glinting off the snow and ice didn't bother him in this form. He leapt off of the step and landed with a wet crunch in snow that came up to just below his stomach. He growled. It would be slow going, but completely worth it if he managed to knock his master down…a few times
Back in her tiny clearing of snow, Integra had built up a pretty good base, packing snow nice and tight and beginning to shape the upper body. While she worked, Integra kept hearing noises. At first she ignored them, but now they sounded like they were getting closer. She looked up and around, but couldn't spot anything. She was just about to continue packing her snow man when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned, half startled, and saw that it was only globs of snow falling from high tree branches as the sun's rays warmed the atmosphere. She was immediately relieved. She returned to her business with the partly whole snow man and didn't think anymore about any noises she heard. So, ignoring her surroundings, Integra didn't notice the hell hound creeping surreptitiously around snowy mounds toward his unsuspecting master.
Integra was just finishing her snowman's upper body, rounding it out, smoothing the bumps, when she heard an all too familiar pant directly behind her. Alucard, she thought. She stood up, brushing off her skirt, and turned to face the beast. Immediately, she regretted standing up. She recognized that mischievous leer of his eight eyes. Oh no. Before she could lift a heavy boot to move out of the way, the black hell hound snickered and pounced forward onto its young master. "Alucard!" she shrieked as two large front paws landed hard in the middle of her chest, pushing Integra over backwards and right into the body of her snowman. She crashed into him in a wet, cold, crunch and didn't stop falling until she was lying on her back on the level ground, the remains of her unfinished masterpiece piled in messy clumps around and on her. The chuckling hell hound stood on top of her, a look of accomplishment painted across its hairy face.
"Why you—" Integra was quick to roll over and pin the hound on its side, but he reacted by kicking her off with his back paws and scampering out of her reach. She was on hands and knees, glaring daggers at the beast who was laughing and taunting her in her mind. She growled and lunged at him, but Alucard moved swiftly out of the way, letting her stumble forward in her heavy, awkward winter clothes. When she was lying on her stomach and vulnerable, Alucard decided that it was high time to make her blush if he could; he just loved it when her blood rushed up to her cheeks like that. He leapt the short distance toward her and grabbed the end of her skirt with his teeth.
"NO! Let go!" she yelled, grabbing handfuls of her skirt and trying to yank it out of the hound's jaws. Alucard planted his feet and jerked at the fabric. It gave a little, pulling downward so that the top of the skirt tightly hugged her waist. Now, he jerked a second time and heard a long rip, after which he fell backwards, a long piece of material still between his teeth. He heard her shriek and looked up to see one of Integra's white legging-ed legs. The other leg was still covered by the skirt. The fabric of the leggings was tight and, although rather mundane, it gave Alucard a pretty big thrill to see the shape of his master's thighs, even if it was only one. He was already looking forward to when his master became more of a woman. The hell hound was prematurely roused from his day dreaming by a swift slap to his head. He looked up to see a fuming Integra, but this, of course, only succeeded in amusing him. He jumped up before she could react and pulled the already unwinding scarf from Integra's neck. The action brought her tumbling forward as Alucard ran off with it hanging out of his mouth. Now this Integra couldn't ignore. That scarf was old; it survived many cold winters, many games in the snow with Walter and her father. She ran after Alucard, furiously, screaming his name and a few choice others that she made for him. As he could not run as well in the deep snow, Integra caught up with him after a few yards. "Alucard! I hate you! I hate you! Give that back, now!" she shouted. He didn't turn around, except to glance back at her position. When she felt she was close enough, she dived forward, landing on his back and tackling him into the wet snow. She grabbed her scarf and thus began a tug of war. "If you rip this too, I swear I'll--" but before she could finish her threat, she heard a loud cracking sound and looked down to notice that they were no longer in deep snow. In fact, below their very bodies was something harder, different, and it was cracking more and more.
In her head, Integra heard her servant state one word and it wasn't so much the word, but the dread with which he said it. "Ice." She crawled off of Alucard slowly, taking note of how the noises were coming from directly beneath them and then branching out in a small radius around them. Alucard stood up on all fours and slowly started backing up. This way, Master, he said into her mind. Integra first grabbed her scarf and wrapped it around her neck. She then began to crawl away with Alucard, but she knew they wouldn't make it. The sound of cracking ice filled her ears with every little movement; she closed her eyes and braced herself just as the noises became one constant stream of fragmenting solid ice. She saw Alucard glance back at her right as the ice beneath him collapsed. She only had a moment to be amused by his sudden yelp before the ground under her finally fractured completely and fell away out from under her.
The water was absolutely frigid, even through her layers of clothes. It took the breath from her lungs and she found it difficult to even inhale, as shocked as she was. She could make out the sun shining brightly above her through a swirling, glassy surface and kicked her feet hard to find the air that was just inches above her. All was quiet around her until she emerged through the water and into the air. When she did, she quickly became aware of the hectic position she was in at the moment. Alucard must have been quite shocked, as well, for he was desperately dog paddling at the ice, only succeeding in breaking off more chunks with his sharp claws. Integra could feel her limbs trembling with every shaky breath she took. She managed to cling on to a tree root that had, overtime, grown down through the edge of the pond, through the water and into the soft soil beneath. She dusted off the layer of snow on the dry part of the root and used the bark as a grip. She pulled herself out of the freezing water and turned around. This time she remembered advice that her father had given her one winter. If you are ever on thin ice and the ice begins to crack, lay flat on your stomach, distributing your weight across the ice more evenly, and slide your way to safety. She did that now, slowly dropping her chest to the ground and inching her way on her belly to the edge of the ice. Once there, she reached out and grabbed the struggling hell hound by the fur on the back of his neck and pulled him to her. He turned when he felt the ice's edge behind him and, seeing Integra safe on solid ground, he began to frantically claw his way out of the pond.
"No, don't do that," Integra instructed. "Just don't move; you'll only break off more ice. Let me help." He did as she said and stopped trying to climb out on his own. She pulled him halfway out of the water; when his upper body met with the cold breeze, he once again started kicking and clawing. He wasn't aware of his sharp claws on his master's neck and arms as she pulled the rest of him out; it was just his instincts telling him to do whatever he could to get out of the water. All he knew was that it was damn cold out here and he wanted to get back inside, change into his vampire form, and sit by the fire.
Hissing from the sharp stings of his claws, Integra pushed the hell hound out of her arms and onto solid ground again. She crawled back a safe distance from the ice they had fallen through and shakily stood up. She trembled all over. Her lips were a purplish blue color, her fingers and toes ached inside her gloves and boots, and the cold breeze blowing over her wet body made her so cold that she could only barely move her limbs. She knew she needed to get changed into something dry, but she couldn't seem to get her legs to move for her. She stepped forward slowly, not feeling her feet or her fingers, shivering uncontrollably. Suddenly she heard the sound of boots crunching towards her. Before she could turn to acknowledge him, long, strong arms wrapped her with a warm, blood-red coat and pulled her back against a broad chest. Now those arms lifted her, one under her knees, the other supporting her neck. She didn't say anything to stop him; she just pulled the coat up over her mouth and breathed into it to try to warm the muscles in her face.
She was so small, so thin and fragile. As he carried her back to the mansion, Alucard couldn't help but feel guilty. It started off as fun, but, in a moment, it had turned incredibly dangerous. He could have changed into his vampire form in the water and teleported out to save her, but he panicked and his hell hound instincts took over. He cursed himself as he climbed the snowy steps to the front door. He paused before entering. He didn't want Walter to find out about this. He teleported with Integra to her room and set her down on the bed. He thought about getting her clothes for her, but was stayed by a small, wet glove on his arm. She was unwrapping his coat from around her and standing up, handing it to him.
"Go. I'll get dressed. I can do it now, I think." She was shaking as she said it and she smiled a little, knowing he noticed it too.
"Yes, Master." He vanished from her room and rematerialized in the library, before the fire place where Walter had built up a great fire earlier that morning. Alucard sat down in one of the plush, high-backed chairs and scooted it and the one neighboring it closer to the fire. There he sat and waited for Integra to come down, as he was sure she would; he had glimpsed her desire to sit by the fire as he left her room.