Ok, this one is dedicated to all of my wonderful reviewers, including FadingBackground, WillTheWatcher, Empress-Eerian-Sadow, felicita, and, a most special thanks to mslcat who gave me much needed suggestions and ideas in the most detailed, wonderful, all-encompassing review ever! Thanks again – you all rock my immortal soul! This one is just for you guys (and especially you mslcat!) – so R&R, all!
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"The documents you requested, Sir Integra," Walter's crisp voice was accompanied by the sharp clicking of the silver tray on the desk. Integra immediately frowned upon inspection of the rather slim pile of documents held there upon.
"Is this all?" she balked, nearly gaping at the pile – or rather, the lack thereof.
"I have only gone through the most perused records in your library – which, logically, are vampire and alchemical documentation." The older butler bowed respectfully. "I will, of course, be continuing my search –"
Thumbing through the papers and scanning the highlighted photocopies Walter had brought, Integra heaved a sigh of exasperation. In all reality, he had a sharp eye like no other. What sparse information he had managed to find was from obscure passages in books and was mentioned in a 'by the way' kind of manner. More side notes and passing mentions than the kind of concrete information she was looking for.
It would seem that finding information on her newly acquired lycan servant would prove to be almost as difficult as controlling that before mentioned servant.
Integra shook her head, setting the papers back down upon her desk. In one fluid motion, she pushed her chair back from the desk and stood. "Excellent, Walter – you clearly did a top notch job combing through these documents. However, I believe that in the interest of finding more pertinent information quicker, I will join you for the rest of the afternoon."
Walter bowed respectfully. "As you wish, sir."
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Saki frowned, shamelessly pouting in the confines of her room.
'What is a girl to do to please her master?' she thought sullenly.
The vampire Alucard seemed to be Sir Integra's chosen warrior, and so Saki had been certain that if she were able to wield his chosen weapon that she would gain her Master's favor. That incident certainly hadn't turned out well. Hell, that was putting it mildly! It was nothing short of a catastrophe…
Master seemed to be on good terms with the police-girl fledgling, and that girl seemed to fit in well here, so she had figured that if she dressed the part that perhaps her Master would be more willing to accept her. Again, it seemed, she was quite off base in that assumption.
The only other person in the household that Integra seemed to hold in extremely high regard was the butler, Walter - and Saki had a feeling that he wouldn't be nearly so forgiving if she borrowed his clothes from laundering...
Besides, he was the one who did the laundering – and something about the butler Walter seemed… well, not-quite as it appeared. Somehow, Saki knew that that plan would be foiled with even greater ease than the other two.
Though Walter was clearly the eldest member of this pack (erm… household), he bowed before Sir Integra, clearly respecting her as the alpha. It was an odd pecking order, if Saki were one to judge. In her clan, it was the eldest who ultimately called the shots, with the singular exception of elders who were not entirely sound anymore.
Walter, quite clearly, did not fall under the 'not entirely sound' category. In point of fact, he reminded her of the arctic foxes she had spent so much time watching as a child. Sure, they looked harmless – and sometimes, the creatures looked like they were just meandering around aimlessly. But, in the end, they were almost impossible to catch – and they always seemed to get their prey. They were sly, and there was definitely more to the wily creatures than met the eye.
Yes; Walter was a fox, alright, and Saki wasn't about to cross his path. Besides – he was the one that fed her – and hadn't Grandfather always told her that it was unwise to bite the hand that feeds?
But, the truth about Walter aside – Saki still had the issue of pleasing her master to deal with. Best intentions in mind, the young lycan leapt from her bed and immediately set off across the mansion to Sir Integra's office.
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She thought it strange when no one answered her knocks on the office door. Tentatively, the young lycan cracked the door and peeked in, and was doubly shocked to see her master's expansive office entirely empty.
Pouting, the young werewolf stood in the hallway shifting impatiently from foot to foot, at a total loss for what to do. Granted, she could probably come back later to have this much needed 'talk' with Integra – but she wanted answers now!
'Well… maybe she'll be back in a few minutes…' Yes – Sir Integra surely wouldn't leave her office too long. She was far too engrossed in her duties – she would be back anytime now. Saki would simply let herself inside and wait for her.
With the best intentions possible, Saki padded quietly into her master's office and plopped down patiently in the chair before the desk and waited.
And waited.
With each consecutive, incessant tick of the clock on the wall, the likelihood of Integra's immediate return seemed to dim. Seconds gave way to minutes, and minutes gave way to scores of minutes, and scores of minutes may even have given way to hours before she started to sweat.
Numbers aside, the werewolf soon began to squirm and flinch, very nearly whining as time passed and she was left alone in the office. The black and white checkered tiles, though admittedly visually impressive, soon lost her interest, as did the clock on the wall, and soon, there was only one real thing left in the room to focus on.
Integra's expansive desk was covered in neat piles of papers, a device that Saki had recently learned was a telephone, a little information box Walter had kindly informed her was a 'computer' – and many closed drawers which conspiratorially beckoned her…
'Well – I mean – since she isn't around… maybe I can find some information inside her desk?' Saki twitched. 'Just a peek around wouldn't hurt, right?' Her fingers itched. 'Just a little peek…'
After a final glance down the hall to assure no one was near, Saki plunged headfirst into what she saw as the Holy Grail – the most promising place to discover the gateway to her master's favor – the place her master seemed to spend a great deal of her waking hours. Leaving no folder unturned, the werewolf began her inquisition (all the while thanking her lucky stars that Grandfather had seen it fit to teach her to read and write this language).
Unfortunately, each and every paper she glanced over seemed to revolve entirely around work. Vampire incidents – vampire activity – missions – soldiers – pensions (whatever that meant) – payroll (as opposed to pay throw?) – round table (hm…) – Vatican (pretty word, she supposed) –
The werewolf was elbow-deep in papers, growling in agitation, when a sudden unfamiliar voice rang out in the silence. "You've got mail!" the odd voice called, and the young girl promptly had a heart attack and fell out of Integra's chair, landing bodily on the hard tile floor. Several moments passed and Saki remained curled on the ground, shivering slightly in fear – but, when no more words were spoken (and, more importantly, no chastising shouts), the lycan slowly – very, very slowly – peeked up.
A quick once-over revealed that there was no one in the room – and Saki frowned irritably at her own overreaction. 'What the hell? Tripwire?' Eyes darting about once more, Saki noticed that the screen of Integra's information-box (uh… computer) was now lit up, whereas before it had been darkened. A large envelope arced across the screen.
'Hmm… what's this?' Hesitantly, Saki sat back into the chair, placing her hand over the odd little semi-sphere-ish device that was connected off to the side of the main contraption like she had seen her master do. A few practice swipes showed her that moving the – thing – moved an arrow about on the screen.
On a hunch, the lycan clicked the envelope on the screen, and immediately the screen changed and there were words anew.
'She has even more documents in the information box' Saki gaped in amazement; who knew Sir Integra had a boundless supply of documents?
None of which were proving to have the kind of information Saki wanted… But still. Any knowledge gained was good, right?
Scanning the screen quickly clued Saki in to the fact that these documents were of a different caliber, however. This one was clearly some sort of an insulting dispatch. The words "reckless perusal", "lack of foresight", "colossal expenditures" and "lapse in judgment" seemed to jump off the screen, and without even thinking about it, Saki had already clicked on the little box that said "reply". Using the strangely marked keys in place of actual writing was a little odd, but Saki quickly caught on, and she found that sending her own scathing rebuttals was actually quite easy.
"I don't know who you are, but you would do well to show more respect to her most honorable Sir Hellsing. Sir Integra is the most accomplished, most spectacular hunter in the entire world, and you have no right to even speak her name, much less to be critical of any of her decisions! So back off, insect – or you'll have to go through me next time."
Clicking "send" filled the screen once again with another funny looking envelope swishing across the screen, and Saki couldn't help but to grin at the feeling of glowing accomplishment that the icon left her with.
Unfortunately, that action brought the lycan back to the "inbox", where she found a great many other disrespectful individual who required "a speaking to"…
It was only when she noticed a colorful looking email from one "SpiceUrLyfe" that she remembered the original reason she was poking through Integra's office to begin with. Nearly squirming with excitement, Saki couldn't believe her luck to find an email that was entitled "please that special someone!" When she opened the letter, however, it was only filled with a bunch of unintelligible letters.
'Shucks… just my luck…' the werewolf pouted, moving to click out – when she noticed her arrow turned to a little pointy finger when it hovered over the letters. Experimentally, she clicked – and another window popped up!
'Hidden information! Wow, master – you are sooo amazing!'
The different page seemed to be filled with some… odd things. Mostly a bunch of weird objects that she didn't understand, books, lace, see through – stuff, some whipped milk and chocolates, and lots – lots – of leather. Strange weapons, super skinny women with huge breasts like Seras's modeled the very, very uncomfortable looking… harnesses…
Saki began to despair. 'If that is what it takes… I'm doomed!' Clicking down and browsing through the… things… she finally found a box that gave her a little hope.
'Don't see what you're looking for? Search our website!' With a little renewed confidence, Saki typed in, "I want to serve my master!"
A whole slew of… stuff came up, much of it very, very strange. After searching for quite some time, she found an item that the 'website' assured her any self respecting servant should have at least one of – and, while Saki was new to this whole servant thing, she was willing to do just about anything if it'd please her master. And so, with renewed confidence, she clicked the "get it!" button. When prompted for when she wanted it, she of course chose the fewest number of days offered – why would she choose more days? That was just silly!
'Use ?' the site prompted, and Saki shrugged. "Uh – ok?"
Another window popped up, startling the lycan. 'Windows has previously saved your password information for this website! Would you like to use this information?'
"Sounds like a plan…" She clicked yes.
'Use previously saved credit card information for ?'
"Uh. Maybe?" She clicked yes again, wondering what a credit card was.
'Make this payment to EroticPleasures?'
"Sounds about right." The werewolf nodded with confidence anew, clicking yes once again.
'Congratulations!' the screen read. "Thanks!" Saki replied. 'Your order will be processed as soon as possible!' "Great!" Saki replied again, closing the window and grinning for her accomplishment. "Thanks again, SpiceUrLyfe! I owe you one!"
Making sure the information box – and the desk – looked about the same as it had before she had arrived, the werewolf variably skipped from the office.
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Needless to say, Saki is a little clueless when it comes to most of human civilization as we know it – but, she's still a "young dog", so she's learning new tricks at a rapid rate... Maybe a little too quickly for her own good, eh?
What'd'ya think? Integra going to kill her? And just what did she order online? Nothing good can come from this – or can it? Well, no – probably not…
And those emails probably won't be received too well…
Where do we go from here, my beloved reviewers? You let me know!