Title: Simple Comforts
Author: tenchisaz
Fandom: Hellsing
Summary: Seras is feeling blue and can't sleep.
Pairing: Walter and Seras freindship. maybe slight WxS if you squint and read it backwards.
Spoilers: None
Rating: PG 13
Disclaimer: I don't own Hellsing or any of the characters.
Note: Thank you to Nike for editing this. You're a wee star luvie.
Simple Comforts
Dragging her feet along the ground, she finally stopped outside her door. Resting a hand on it, she gave a heavy sigh, reaching for the handle and swinging it open. She noted dimly that her blood was already resting in the middle of her table, waiting to be consumed. Glaring at it slightly, she shuffled over to her bed before collapsing heavily on it. Flinging out her arms she lay there on her back, legs dangling over the side of the bed. Sighing contentedly Seras closed her eyes, savouring the silence around her and the feeling of sinking into the mattress. Exhaling loudly, she willed her tightly wound muscles to relax. It was proving harder than she thought. Taking deep breaths, she tried to still the whirling mass her thoughts had tangled themselves up into. The policewoman knew she would feel better if she slept, but it didn't seem to want to come to her. She couldn't understand why, though, as her body and mind were more than ready to comply with the command…but still it wouldn't come. It had been like this for the past couple of days. Seras kept telling herself it was because she was so busy thinking about missions and such, but deep down she could hear a little voice whispering something different.
She was lonely. There she had admitted it. She, Seras Victoria, was lonely. She gave a little snort as she thought about what the reaction would be if she happened to mention it to anyone. They would all laugh or give disapproving looks along with the sermons. She was a vampire now, an employee of the Hellsing Organisation. She had no time to be thinking such foolish thoughts. But it was still there in the back of her mind. As the soldiers went off-duty to be with friends and families, she would go back to her empty room, the walls seeming to echo with her thoughts, as she would lie awake in her cold bed staring at the ceiling of her coffin. She knew the pattern of it pretty well by now, including knowing the colour of it off by heart. It would be depressing if it wasn't so laughable - how tragic the whole thing was.
"Rough night?" came a smooth voice from the door.
Seras sat up, opening her eyes slowly to take in her visitor.
"You could say that," she smiled. The answering chuckle made her smile widen as she leaned back on her arms.
"What can I do for you Walter?" she asked.
"May I come in?" Walter enquired, standing outside her open door. She motioned with her hand and he stepped through, closing it behind him before walking towards her table and stopping. He hovered there for a moment, his hands still placed behind his back as he stared at the table intently. Seras frowned at him, unsettled by his odd behaviour.
"Walter is something wrong?" she asked, concerned. He glanced up and smiled weakly at her.
"It should be me asking you that question." She moved her head to one side, looking at him with blatant puzzlement.
"What?"
He looked at her with a stern expression on his face. "You seemed to have been upset about something. Plus, you haven't been eating." Her blond eyebrows rose slightly at the out-of-the-blue observation.
"Have you told Sir Integra or my Master about it?" she asked, concern edging her voice.
"No. I thought if we could sort this out between the two of us then I wouldn't need to," he stated simply. His expression softened slightly as she gave a gulp of relief. She stood up, slowly walked a couple of steps away from him and stopped with her back still to him.
"Thank you," she said gratefully. After a few moments of silence Walter raised an eyebrow.
"So, are you going to tell me what the problem is?" he asked.
"You are persistent aren't you?" came Seras's quiet response. "The truth is, I'm not to sure how to say this without sounding like a sad cow." Her voice came out stronger as she spun around to face him.
"Excuse me?" It was Walters's turn to have complete puzzlement written all over his face.
"I-" she choked "I haven't been sleeping," she finally managed to get out. While she blushed at the idiocy she was spouting, the look of bewilderment on Walters's face made her glance down and stare at the floor. She tried hard to ignore the voice in the back of her mind congratulating herself on being a total idiot.
"I don't understand. You can't sleep? Is it the bed? Is it uncomfortable?" he asked. Seras winced, seeing that he was trying hard to understand what she meant. Peeking at him from under her bangs, she wrung her hands as she tried to find the right words. She got startled out of her thoughts by the light touch of a hand on her arm.
"Miss Victoria?" His voice was gentle.
"I'm lonely, OK!" she yelled, scrunching her eyes shut, not wanting to see the look in his eyes. She could feel the last of her dignity slipping away.
Her eyes popped open when she felt warm arms around her.
"Walter?" she whispered into his shoulder.
The arms around her tightened as a soft voice whispered in her ear.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know"
"How could you?" Her own response was barely louder than a sigh. Her body relaxed and the muscles that had tried so hard to ignore her commands of unwinding earlier did automatically in the strong arms surrounding her. She let herself go and leaned against the body in front of her, moving her arms to his back as she gripped onto his shoulder blades. He stroked her hair soothingly as she breathed in his scent, surprised at herself for finding so much comfort in the simple act.
"You don't think I'm an idiot then?" she mumbled against his shoulder.
"Of course not. You're not an inanimate object… you think and feel; of course you must be lonely, down here by yourself. I'm sorry I didn't realise earlier." She let out a sigh and lingered in the comfort of his arms as he continued to stroke her hair. As her shaky breathing started to even out she let go and leaned back. A blush brushed across her cheeks.
"Erm, thank you Walter." she said in a quiet voice. He released her and smiled warmly.
"There is no need to thank me, Miss Victoria," he said, moving over to the door. He lingered there for a moment, looking back at her. "Have a good sleep. I'll see you in the morning."
Seras nodded, smiling at him. As he closed the door she moved over to the bed and lay back. Closing her eyes, she grinned as the sleep she longed for finally caught up with her.
xoxoxoxox
Moving down the corridor, Seras rubbed the back of her neck. After that mission all she wanted to do was sleep and not move. Ever again. Walking towards her door, she concluded that if she hadn't' had a good 'night's' sleep, she would be feeling a hell of a lot worse, and she owed it all to Walter. Smiling, she opened she door and made her way into the room, moving to her bed. Sitting down heavily on it, she started to tug off her boots when something caught her eye on the table. Puzzled, she moved over to it. There sitting next to the ice bucket housing her 'evening meal' was a something that the vampire really wasn't' expecting. In fact, she blinked a couple of times to make sure she wasn't dreaming. No, it was defiantly still there. Seeing a little card beside it, she picked it up and read the message:
Dear Miss Victoria,
If you should feel the need to talk to someone I am always willing to listen. I hope you don't mind me taking the liberty of giving you this. I thought you might like a little company.
Walter
Seras reread the note and carefully picked up the object beside it turning it over in her hand. Glancing at the note again, she grinned and set it down as she made her way over to get ready for bed. Quickly getting changed, she grabbed the little present and got into bed. Turning of the light she lay down, snuggling up, her new small teddy bear clenched tightly to her chest. As she drifted off she smiled, knowing that from now on she would be sleeping a lot better.