Les Petites Choses
Inspired by and dedicated to my Mom.
Disclaimer: Hellsing and its characters belong to the glorious Kohta Hirano. No infringement on this copyright is intended.
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There were several things that made Walter C. Dornez arguably the world's greatest butler, such as how he managed to perform all of the duties of a typical butler as well as offer aid to Sir Integra at any point in time that she might need it, all within the limited twenty-four hours of the day and while adhering to a strict schedule. In fact, many aspects of his daily routine went unknown and unnoticed by Hellsing's staff, even though some of the tasks were the oil for the gears of the organization and induced the smooth operation of many day to day activities.
Up every day even before most roosters, Walter was already making preparations for the day, including: meals, laundry, cleaning and whatever else needed to be done. Certainly there were staff members underneath him, but only a few maids and Integra's personal driver, who was only called in if Walter himself had no time to drive her where she needed to go. In addition to the upkeep of the manor, he also, since being mostly retired, took care of a majority of intelligence and information-retrieval related work for Integra.
Walter had always been and remained still a very responsible, dependable, steadfast and hard-worker. If following his career, it would be easily noted that he had only missed a handful of days of work in over fifty years of service to the Hellsing family. Occasionally he was even up for days at a time working, depending on the situation or events of the day and evening. However, as he had aged, there were days where he found himself completely exhausted by everything he had dealt with in his seemingly unending work day.
Today had been one of those days.
Bereft of even the slightest bit of energy or drive, Walter made his way down the darkened corridors of the estate's first floor. His polished black Oxford shoes clacked along the cold, marble floors, his steps resonating one after the other along the hallway leading to the servant quarters, where his room was located. Strangely enough, no matter how tired he was, he could never bring himself to slouch his shoulders or neck, and he wearily strode forward, still taking measured steps with a ruler-straight backbone. It was at least half-past one in the morning, and if he went to bed without delay, he would be able to sleep for about three or four hours. He sighed quietly as he reached the door, and stepped inside as he turned the knob and entered.
Walter decided he was too tired for a shower and might end up falling asleep under running water, so he resolved to take one when he woke up instead. Upon making that choice, he sat down, untied his shoes and pulled them off before setting them on the floor next to the bed, and almost lifelessly changed into his bedclothes. The dress clothes he had changed out of, he placed into his laundry hamper, and went into the modest bathroom connected to his quarters to brush his teeth and wash his face. As he re-entered his bedroom, he set his monocle on the nightstand next to the neatly made bed, and reached down to set his alarm clock.
"I suppose I can go ahead and get up a half an hour later than usual even though I need a shower, if I'm quick about Sir Integra's breakfast tray in the morning. Five o'clock it is, then." He thought to himself as he finally released the "ALARM-SET" button.
Most nights, Walter would read a few pages or a chapter of a book before he lay down to rest, however, there was no way he would be able to concentrate for much longer than he already had just to prepare for a few hours of well-earned sleep. With that, he turned the light out and climbed into his bed, rolling over onto his left side and practically passing out as soon as his body was comfortable.
At the back door of the estate, as Walter was finally drifting off to get some much needed rest, Alucard was returning from silencing two chipped vampires out in Coventry. He could generally care less about who was woken up by his flamboyant re-entrances into the Hellsing house after his missions, as long as it wasn't Integra he had roused, but as he entered the house, he heard nothing but the sounds of sleeping people and Integra smoking a cigar faintly all the way up on the third floor. Standing briefly in the quiet, grinning rakishly, he didn't feel he really needed to announce his presence to a house full of sleeping servants. Moreover, it was among one of those rare instances in which he felt that he would rather walk all of the way up to his Master's office instead of dissolving into the floor and resurfacing under her desk. That had gotten him a kick in the face the last time he had done it, and while bruises and a broken nose healed quickly for him, he chose not to try it again since she might expect it.
With that, he began to make his way through to one of the back halls of the first floor, and his boots gave off a soft leather sound against the hard marble. Alucard knew that at the end of the hall was a staircase leading to the second floor, having spent the better part of close to two centuries in the service of the Hellsings. He also knew that the door he was currently approaching was the door to Walter's bedroom, and that the butler was usually reading quietly around this particular time of night, either that or struggling with insomnia and trying to decide on what to do with himself.
When the vampire heard only barely audible breaths coming from his old companion's chamber, he decided to check in on him as he was passing through. Alucard rapped gently on the door, slowly opening it only to stare into the darkness at Walter's body covered in bed linens as he slumbered.
"Walter is usually up at this hour; he must have been exhausted. How unfortunate that I missed him tonight." He thought as he eyed the clock on the nightstand. Walter was possibly one of the only human beings that Alucard showed emotion of any kind to, likely due to the fact that they had known each other over fifty years and spent almost all of their time together as lovers and close friends during the years of World War II (and a bit of time afterward) in Arthur Hellsing's service. While he could not exactly say that he had loved Walter, he certainly had grown accustomed to him and was very fond of him, which is what urged him to make his way into the man's room while he was in bed. Though they were no longer intimate, the vampire treated the butler with a different attitude and more respect than most anyone else.
He took a step forward, watching the bed for signs of waking, and when there were none, he slinked over to the alarm clock. He pressed down on the "ALARM-SET" button, noting that the clock would erupt in almost unbearable buzzing or beeping at five a.m., and smirked to himself. With a white gloved finger, he pushed the switch on top of the clock over to "ALARM-OFF" before backing out of the room, his greatcoat rustling behind his calves as he pulled the door closed.
Alucard was uncertain whether or not Walter would be irritated at the fact that his alarm had been turned off, but he believed that even though not many casual conversations passed between them any longer, the man at the very least deserved a few extra hours of sleep. Integra did not get out of her bed until sometime between seven and eight a.m. anyway, and Alucard figured that Walter could afford to sleep until then.
When Walter awoke the next morning, he recalled setting the alarm clearly, though he could not exactly remember getting into his bed. He raised an incredulous eyebrow, as he put on his monocle, at the glowing green numbers "7:43 AM" proudly displaying themselves in defiance of his typical routine's wake-up time. His first reaction was to question the reliability of the alarm clock he had been using for years. However, upon seeing that the switch on the top had been moved to the off position, he smirked slightly before hurriedly beginning his daily routine. He knew that the vampire would have been the only one able to change the clock without waking him up, and on the occasions where Alucard did little things like that, it always amused him. After all, when you have known someone long enough, not really much needs to be said. Just the little things are sufficient communication.