Friends

Disclaimer: Castlevania belongs to Konami, not me. I am making £0.00 out of this fic, it is written purely because I have a burning need to create. Although I would like to own Alucard . . . then he'd be mine.

Rating: PG-13

Part: Two of Three

Authoress Note: Lisa tries to enforce friendship on her husband.

So originally this story was supposed to be a chapter of Dracula suffering Human friendships and then a time jump to Adrian doing so. However, Drac took over. So, with that in mind, I imagine that Adrian will get his own story in the form of a sequel.

Italics = thoughts and flashbacks

Chapter Two

Work Text:

There were far too many people in his castle.

He was trying hard to not feel like he was under siege, but was failing. The entry hall had at least half a dozen women milling around commenting on the décor, the half a dozen men whom Dracula assumed were their husbands. We also milling around in a tight cluster. The men were squaring up to a suit of armour, as if expecting it to come to life at any moment. There were also at least fifteen bloody children, some cowering around their mother's skirts, some creeping around jumping at shadows, and one was trying to climb the armour.

"You didn't mention that you were friends with a village," Dracula muttered.

"Hardly a village." Lisa pulled him back from the door he'd opened a crack to spy on his guests.

"Just how prolific are your friends? I hope you're not expecting that many children out of me."

"Infant mortality rates are high," Lisa said.

"How mercenary of you," Dracula smirked.

"Plus, they are all couples who are deeply, deeply in love. Children are an expression of that love." Dracula snorted a laugh at that and Lisa's shoulders visibly relaxed.

"Oh, so that's how it is. You creatures breed like mice." Lisa smacked him gently.

"Don't lead with that in conversation." She grabbed his cape and pulled. Dracula lifted an eyebrow. "You need to take this off."

"Why would I do that?" he pulled back.

"Because you look less intimidating without the cape." Lisa smirked at him. "Plus, you're a very handsome man. People appreciate that more when you don't look like a Corinthian column with a head."

"How dare you?" Dracula tried to sound offended. "I like my cape."

"It's a lovely cape, but it hides you, closes you off. It sends out a very clear do not come near me message." Lisa continued to smirk and pushed the cape back off his shoulders and spread her hands over his chest. "There, so handsome.

"Flattery will not work." He captured her wrists.

"It's not flattery. I'm showing you off and I can't do that if you're hiding in cloth."

"My only condition was that I wouldn't have to wear anything foolish." He released her.

"These are your clothes." Lisa raised an eyebrow at him. "If I were to fully have my way, I'd lose the jacket too."

"You're trying to strip me in front of your friends." He leered at her. "Exhibitionist woman."

"Perhaps, but in all honesty, it makes you look far more approachable. You're a man, a wonderful man, and it's easier to see that when you're prancing about in your shirt and pants and not dressing like the vampire overlord of Wallachia."

"Fine, but I won't prance." He crumpled under the onslaught of flattery. His cloak fell from his shoulders into the shadows. His rich coat was taken off and crumpled to darkness.

"That's so convenient," Lisa muttered as she did every time he did this. She fussed a little with his shirt, opening the collar and rumpling it a bit.

"Most wives tidy their husbands."

"Most husbands need tidying. Now come on." She opened the door and suddenly faced with a room of people he was expected to be nice to, Dracula felt vulnerable. He took Lisa's hand and held it tightly. She smiled widely and interlaced her fingers with his.

Dracula had engaged with humans before.

He's spoken with merchants, scholars, drunkards, wizards, and geniuses. He'd only ever engaged with them on his own terms, however, and his terms were usually that he was interested in what they had to say.

This was deeply different.

The men were banished to what Lisa called a 'smoking room' Dracula had never used it for smoking in his entire existence within the castle, but he did not correct her. The room was small, with comfortable chairs and a large fireplace. Absently, Dracula conjured cigars in the room to lend credence to Lisa's claim that it was a room for smoking. The woman took their own small sitting room that was like the one the men now occupied. The children were let loose in one of the halls, where they were unlikely to hurt themselves or break anything.

Dracula had no idea where he should be. He didn't want to leave Lisa. He could effectively hide behind her and let her charming forthrightness do the talking for him. But he also felt that he should have probably gone with the banished men, although the idea of discussing farming or trade techniques did not thrill him. His indecision meant that Lisa used the opportunity to drag him into the woman's sitting room and was presently 'showing him off'.

The woman seemed timid at first, but Lisa was clever and openly manhandled him, shoving him around and fussing with him, it relaxed them quickly and Dracula was left feeling like an overlarge well-loved dog with an owner who was trying to convince people that he was just a big soppy, really.

"He's very patient," one woman said to Lisa. "My Gerald would have thrown a fit by now."

"Oh, he's terrified of you all, so he's behaving himself." Lisa squeezed his hand. The woman laughed quietly at the idea of him being afraid of them.

"Very quiet too," another said.

"He mostly communicated via eyebrows." Lisa teased. He frowned at her, then realised he was doing exactly as she said and communicating via his eyebrows.

"I can speak," he mumbled. The first words he'd said in the room. "But as in all things, my wife is correct." This again earned him a laugh.

"You're right," one lady laughed. "He is clever."

"Sometimes."

"Only sometimes?" He tried to sound disappointed. "You wound me."

"Yesterday you stared at a pot on an unlit stove for five minutes, wondering why it wasn't getting hot." Lisa reminded him.

"I was tired."

The women laughed again, and Lisa smiled gratefully at him. Crowds were often simple to manage, all you had to do was play to their expectations, and all women thought men were foolish. So foolish he would be.

He listened quietly to the conversation as it moved away from him and onto more mundane topics. He listened politely, offering a few words here and there when questions were posed directly to him. Mostly, he played up the façade of knowing nothing about things that women do. Thought he was interested when the topic moved on to children, one of the ladies was nursing and when the child had had its fill, it was passed around the group for everyone to coo at it.

The room froze when Lisa handing the infant to him.

Instantly, he made sure his claws were drawn in and made a show of being careful with the child. The tiny creature blinked wide blue eyes up at him and he was hit full in the gut with the idea that in a few short months, all being well, he'd being doing this with his own child. A lump the size of an apple formed in his throat and his reaction did not go unnoticed. The room was filled with coos and awws and a few comments about how tiny the child looked in his long-fingered hands.

"Aww, do you like children?" one lady asked. He shook his head.

"Too much gristle," he said without thinking. Lisa kicked him. "Sorry," he offered. "Not my best joke."

"My dad used to say the same bloody joke," one of the older women spoke up. "I think there's a pamphlet that goes around to all men when they come of age, telling them all the same jokes." The woman laughed again, and the baby started hard at him.

"Hello," he said to the child, aware that every pair of eyes in the room was on him.

"Her name is Claire," the mother offered.

"It suits her." He didn't know what else to say. He stood and walked to the mother, slowly and carefully offering the child back. "She's beautiful."

"Thank you," the mother took the child back. She could not quite hide her relief from him. "Look at that Claire. When you're grown up, you can tell everyone that Mr Tepes called you beautiful."

He sat back down next to Lisa, who looked knowingly at him. She took his hand and put it on her stomach. He could feel the strong, rapid heartbeat of the child inside her, and it thrilled him.

"Being a father is a wonderful thing," one woman said. "At least I imagine it is. My husband basically leaves all the dirty jobs for me and just plays with the children."

"Yes, well, you're not leaving this all to me." Lisa gestured at herself.

"I'll take the night shift," Dracula smirked and again that earned a few laughs, though they were slightly strained.

End Chapter Two

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