[The name of my OC is Lydia Romanoff and is made up by me.]
"Where are we going?" I asked, but Schrödinger didn't answer my question.
It could only be one of two reasons; he was sent by someone and didn't know himself, or he didn't want to talk to me. I had asked the same question three times, so it would be nonsensical to assume that he didn't hear me, especially with those ears of his.
We walked through halls I hadn't seen before on my stay here and I was starting to get really nervous about what would happen. It was much darker in this part of the airship and the white clinical, almost hospital walls had been replaced with large plates of metal. The floor was dirty and the air smelt burnt, like the after-scent of fireworks.
We entered a huge door and stepped into a smaller space where two guards were standing in front of another gate of some sort.
"Inspected?" a bold man asked. He took a step forward and examined me head to toe. I noticed that he didn't even sacrifice a glance at Schrödinger, so apparently, my chest and hips were more interesting than a mere Nazi boy with cat ears.
The man's gawking eyes made me really uncomfortable. He put his weapon aside, preparing himself for something that had to do with me because he couldn't keep his stare away. He seemed to even expect an answer from me and just when I was about to open my mouth to ask what was happening, Schrödinger was one step ahead.
"Leave that to me." he quickly said and pulled me away from the man before I even could even blink. I was pushed to the sheet metal wall roughly by a familiar and underestimated strength. The front of my body was pressed against the cold surface and a firm hand was pressed firmly in the middle of my shoulder blades. My wrists were in chains so I couldn't do much resistance. Only an unhappy groan escaped me, because it actually hurt.
I was completely taken off guard by his sudden recklessness.
"What are you up to?" I whispered with difficulty, more to the metal than to Schrödinger since my face was mashed to the wall. "Sorry." was the only thing I heard him say, and I wasn't even sure if it was a very silent whisper, or an apology that he had planted inside my head. Whatever it was, it was the first thing he'd said to me since he woke me up in the middle of the night.
He kicked the insides of my ankles outwards to separate my legs and put his knee in-between them as he began touching the back of my thighs and down my calves, searching and feeling after something that I might be hiding underneath my clothes.
He even went all the way down to inspect my ankles and the inside of the hem of my socks. When he came back up again his hand roamed each side of my hips and groped my rear before separating my legs further with his knee and even inspected my crotch briefly, which made me squirm and whimper in discomfort.
Then his hands began caressing and patting my back, as in apologizing to me again; gentler hands going around my sides and to my belly. He was more careful when he inspected my front, since the two men couldn't see what he was doing in-between my front and the wall.
After inspecting my chest and my armpits, the worst had come to its end and it did not take long before he was finished with my arms. His both hands secured the handcuffs before they grasped my own hands in a less barbaric nature.
Schrödinger had pulled me away from the wall ever so slightly, so he could look over my shoulder if everything was in its order. I could feel his breath hit the side of my chin and neck and for a moment I thought he would plant a kiss somewhere on my skin.
"Clean." he confirmed, perhaps in a tone little too soft to belong to an inspecting guard, but he lived up to the labor once again as he tore me away from the wall and pushed me towards the gate. I got to enter the next room on my own.
Schrödinger did not follow me. He's just disappeared into the open air and I turned around to look for him, but the bold man simply urged me in without even questioning the messenger boy's sudden disappearance, perhaps because he knew about him, perhaps because he was working the night shift and had gotten used to being delusional.
I walked the path of a long dark corridor, thoughts and speculations of what just happened were flying around in my head like mosquitoes. Maybe, just maybe, Schrödinger had chosen to escort me to this strange department, only so he could inspect me in such a disgraceful way. Not because he wanted to do it, but because he didn't want anyone else to do it.
I began hearing voices speaking in both German and English as I stepped inside an entrance hall of some kind. I got ordered to stand on a low platform in the middle of the room, from where I later on could see Rip Van Winkle and Zorin Blitz stand beside each other on the floor further away. Even though I was a few inches from the ground, the two women still towered over me in the almost inhuman height.
"You okay, girl?" one of them asked and to my surprise, Zorin had asked that question of concern. I nodded timidly and would just blabber out a wimpy reply when she spoke again. "Never mind - Your nose is bleeding again!" she accused in a way that sounded like it was something I was in control of and doing on purpose, but I wasn't even aware of that myself until she told me.
"Give her a cloth or something…" she muttered with disgust and unwilling effort. In response to this whole situation going on, my fingers instinctually reached up to touch my face and when I looked at my fingers, I could see that she was in fact correct. My nose is bleeding again. I tried to remain calm. Blood is supposed to stay inside the body after all.
After being taken cared off by a kind nurse with dreamy eyes and a ribbon tied in her hair, I thought that I didn't have more blood to sacrifice. Ann's hit was right on the spot and clear as a bell-ringing. I was a bit confused at how I could be bleeding again, but then I remembered the impact from Schrödinger's inspection and how my face got a big smooch from the metal wall. The nurse told me that nothing was broken, but that my nose bone had gotten badly beaten and I needed to be careful, but that it wasn't more serious than that.
But after this experience, I began getting paranoid. The more I thought about it, the more it hurt and the stronger the pain become.
What if Schrödinger had broken my nose?
I began feeling anxious and I looked at the two women helplessly. Zorin got a fancy little napkin from an unhesitant Rip Van Winkle, which the manlier female received with almost caution, grasping it with two of her black-dressed fingers. She looked at it like it was intoxicated with a virus. The whole interaction between the two of them was a bit humorous in all honesty. Something told me Zorin wasn't fond of feminine things.
Zorin stepped in front of me, leaning down after changing her limp hold of the tissue to such a tight grip that she was about to take one of my teeth out from my gums.
"Enough. Remove your pitiable hand." she yelled at me, and I almost fainted.
Whatever she was going to do next was probably going to hurt.
She was so close to me and I could see every little detail on her tattooed face, and Winkle's napkin looked too fancy to be used for this matter, so fancy you would have to see it to believe it. It was a delicate silken handkerchief in an elegant pastel purple color, surrounded with lace that seemed to be handmade by nibble fingers.
I did whatever I had to do to survive, for myself and for Rip Van Winkle's hankie. I refused.
"No no no it's fine. I can take care of this myself, its okay you don't have to-" Zorin wouldn't hear me out. She placed the hand with the soft handkerchief on my nose gently but firmly; her hand was so big that it almost covered all of my face. It was her way of shutting me up, and it worked because I could barely feel anything at all anymore.
All the pain was going away. Her inhuman narrow green eyes were staring into my own like she was reading my mind and she began muttering something foreign which I didn't understand even if I tried to and she used the same inimitable language that's exists within a magic spell. When she removed her hand, the blood was gone from my nose drills and the napkin looked just as spotless as it did earlier.
When I tiptoed and looked behind Zorin's muscular shoulder, I saw Rip Van Winkle standing and watching us with the most adorable grin baked into her proud expression, overjoyed to be able to help. It was hard to understand that she was the same woman who smashed a wrestler girl's face into her brain. She can destroy faces. She can fix faces. She's remarkable.
I looked back at Zorin and discovered that one of her eyes had a darker shade, but it's rude to stare so I mumbled an awkward and quick "Thank you." before looking down at my feet; which she only snorted at and the handkerchief got tossed like a scrambled piece of paper behind her, much to Winkle's distress. She yelped and leaped towards the napkin and caught it before it touched the floor, and folded it neatly before putting it in her invisible chest pocket.
Zorin turned around and kept an arm-length distance from me, which I did not complain much about.
"Another is dead." Zorin said like she was talking about the weather.
Oh! Look. It's raining again.
"You people from Hellsing are as fragile as rotten leaves. There will be no war. This will be a silly little farce." she said, almost sounding disappointed, but a ghost of a smirk was seen on her face. "But if you ask me, this time, it was a splendid choice. I remember the first time I saw your little group of imbeciles. Emo-girl would be the first I'd pick from the tree and let root on the ground."
She sighed at the memory, like a mother remembering her child's milestones.
"Rip Van Winkle has been naughty." she said, keeping her eyes on me and not looking at the mentioned woman but she was talking louder so she would be able to hear."And the reason for that is protecting your poor little ass. You should consider yourself lucky for still standing, girl."
It was difficult to know if she was talking in a genuine caring way or in sheer sarcasm. But however it was, Zorin was right. If it wasn't for Rip Van Winkle, only God knows what would be of me. Ann's death was horrible, but I was happy that I was still alive. I deserve to live.
"I am grateful." I said, expecting Zorin to be annoyed by my voice, but she looked more pleased when I had admitted that and nodded back with a strict attempt to a smile, perhaps because she was a person easier to talk to alone. I felt the tiredness grab hold of me and took this opportunity in hand when Zorin was less… terrifying.
"Why am I here?" I asked, finally feeling like we could communicate on the same level. But this time, my words weren't heard at all.
"And when it comes to yourself; confronting a gruff girl like that for a mere messenger boy is brave." she complimented instead of answering my question, and all of the sudden I wasn't sleepy any longer.
I didn't know what to say to defend myself. In order to defend Schrödinger, I had shouted at Ann in front of everybody, perhaps even being the person who had gotten her dead, and now leaving me unable to defend myself in this matter. I could not deny it. There are no more reasons for my outburst, other than backing up Schrödinger, and perhaps making my dignity justice.
"You're right." I had to admit. "I protected him."
Zorin chuckled at my little declaration. "Protecting!" she spat in whispering mockery against my words. "Such creature needs no protection." she explained casually, without looking at me.
"Fräulein…" Rip Van Winkle interrupted carefully, capturing both of ours attention. "I cannot agree with you." she said more liberally and a bit childishly, making Zorin turn to her with a scold on her face.
I smiled at finally hearing her light voice. Van Winkle continued.
"I can assure you that I didn't jump on that girl only for our inmate's sake. Ann did not just disrespect her, but also Schrödinger." she explained, whilst pronouncing Ann's name like she wasn't a person, but an object of no value.
"Your interaction got another of our inmates killed and you are surely aware of Schrödinger's abilities." Zorin said slowly and sternly, and I began feeling a bit awkward in the middle of their conversation.
"She made her nose bleed." Rip Van Winkle said with the stubbornness of a child and pointed at me like Zorin hadn't seen me before in her life. Zorin rolled her eyes at her meek reason for murdering a young girl.
Rip Van Winkle stepped towards me.
"I apologize but I can't help it. I have grown fond of this Fräulein and I refuse to let anyone treat her like that." she explained, swollen with pride in a firm posture and was just about to embrace me but Zorin blocked her path before she even could nudge a hair of mine.
All of the sudden, I could feel something hard hit the side of my face and it took me a while to realize that it was the back of Zorin's hand. Her hit wasn't as purposive like Anne's and I didn't fall to the floor, but it was still valid and it still hurt.
It felt like a pain that some unfortunate children might have felt in their childhood whilst being raised by a very strict mother. The purpose was not to harm but to prove a point. I was surprised at how nonchalantly she had slapped me, yet my whole face was aching from the spontaneous clip with her knuckles.
Rip Van Winkle screamed and covered her mouth in shock; this appeared to be a much more serious matter than her falling handkerchief. She appeared next to me and began checking after injuries. Zorin looked seriously at her.
"Are you going to kill me too now?" she asked with an amused smirk on her face.
Van Winkle didn't do anymore than muttering something in German. Then she longingly snaked her long arms around my being as in symbolizing that her emotions for me hadn't changed. Zorin looked at me with no trace of regret on her face.
"Inmate. She needs to learn a lesson from this." she said stone coldly. It wasn't an apology, but I somehow believed that it was. I held my cheek, not knowing if it was okay or not. It still stung. I was more surprised than offended. I was more violated and scared than sad or angry.
"I would like you to do something for me as a punishment for your bad behavior at the gathering in evening class. You were involved after all." Zorin told me, making Van Winkle let go of me in wary suspicion, but I had a feeling that she already knew what Zorin would say.
"Okay…" I said slowly and began preparing me for anything.
"That boy." she stated, and at first, I thought she meant Schrödinger but then she said "That boy in your trainee group." And I instantly asked "Kevin?" And then a smirk plastered itself upon her features.
"Kevin…" she said, testing his name on her lips for the first time and that made me cringe. It was pretty obvious from the very beginning that Zorin had had her eyes on him but it still didn't make me less surprised when she asked, "Is he a virgin?"
Miss Blitz was wondering if Receptionist Kevin have had sex with anyone.
"I don't know." I answered stiffly in all honesty, because I had no clue. Her intimate question didn't make any sense to me and the second-hand embarrassment returned to me like a slap in the face (I apologize for my choice in words and the irony).
I knew Kevin pretty well, and I'm aware of one of his former relationships, but it didn't last long because his girlfriend had been 'too clingy'.
Kevin is tall, fair-haired and blessed with blue eyes and white teeth, and the only reason that he's a friend of mine is that we were working together and had lunch in the staffroom with everyone else. I had never even spent a single minute with him on my free time. I didn't have his phone number, and I barely spent time with him here. Unwilling thoughts entered my mind then and I shivered at the idea of Kevin having intercourse with Zorin.
Zorin stared at me like she did the first time I was interrupting her in the evening class.
"I'm sorry but I really don't know." I said, but that didn't stop me from believing that he actually wasn't a virgin. He could get any girl or boy to fall in love with him without even saying a word to them. Kevin could get any woman he wanted to go to bed with him.
"I need that information." Zorin stated.
"Give it to me and I reject your punishment."
I was waiting for her to say anything more but that was it.
It wasn't more complicated than that. I grinned at her.
"Then I'll give you that information, Miss Blitz." I said, not believing that I actually had called her that.
"This is disturbing." Rip Wan Winkle groaned as she walked me back to my room.
"Winkle, why do Zorin want to know if Kevin is a virgin?" I asked her innocently, in the manner of a child asking an adult about something. Rip Van Winkle and I were holding hands whilst walking slowly through the night inside the never-ending corridors within the zeppelin.
Her slender and temporarily gloveless hand was chilly and barely even got sweaty, even though we had been walking hand in hand for a while now. Her skin was cool and smooth, just like her handkerchief and so perfect it was on verge of artificial. When I asked her about her gloves; she simply said they were in a better place together with someone else, and I decided to drop the subject for good.
"Well she hasn't been able to stop talking about that poor boy." she said, looking down at me like she was about to vomit.
"Does she love him?" I asked, making her laugh hysterically at the mention of love. She always laughed hysterically at what I said.
"Would say that it is impossible, with the lack of love in her being, but who knows!" she chimed, eyes going wide before another hysteric laugh left her.
"You think I should really tell her?" I asked mildly serious, ignoring her amused being and rebelling manners.
She was looking at me for a long time before she said, "Probably." then she calmed down and smiled at me warmly.
"Unless you prefer being punished in a different way of course…" she wondered out loud, gleaming blue eyes wandering up to the ceiling.
"But how is this my punishment? I'm not going to suffer from this or anything, will I?" I asked, feeling that this whole happening was too good to be true.
Schrödinger saved me from getting sexually harassed by a bold man. Zorin Blitz fixed my nose with some voodoo-magic and I got to hold hands with a marvelous woman. Then I'll be free from punishments on the condition that I will ask a question to one of the most harmless people on board and pass the answer forward.
"Listen sweetheart."
She let go of my hand and fixed my hair with a few swift movements of her hand, the nails gracing my skin appealingly. She leaned down and whispered closely to my ear, her odd but not disastrous scent invading my personal space.
"When you get away this easily for behaving badly: Never question it. Accept it and do what you want with it, perhaps even enjoy it, but for Devil's sake – Do not ask for punishment." she said, each word taken so seriously that I got speechless and didn't dare to do more than nod. She gave me a mad grin then.
"So where's my toy at?" she asked gleefully.
Thank Lords she reminded me, because I had almost forgotten all about it.
Before heading to the infirmary yesterday, I wiped my eyes dry from the emotional episode with Schrödinger and I made sure to hide her weapon in my room so nobody would see it in my hands.
Funny thing is; the barrel of the musket was so long so it was poking out from underneath my bed. But I tried, and I couldn't find a better place for it.
I've never had such a safe sleep in my entire life. The wimpy little pistol in my drawer was nothing compared to what Rip Van Winkle had up her sleeve.
I sat alone in my room after giving Winkle her precious musket. She left me with a smooch on the forehead and was delighted to leave me as a blushing mess.
I had a poor half-night sleep while considering the thought that I should go to the evening class or not. I didn't even know if it was a thing anymore, after the death of Ann and Penelope. But this was a chance to speak to Kevin and tell Zorin what she wanted to know so badly about him.
After fixing myself up half-heartedly, I got out of bed and started to walk towards the classroom, even though I wasn't sure for how long I had been sleeping and had lost track of time and I had my doubts that it was actually evening. When I tried to open the door to the evening class, it was locked, and my heart jumped in my chest when I got caught in the act.
"Lydia?" I heard my name being called from behind me, and I would recognize that sweet voice anywhere.
I turned around and saw Naomi standing there, without her boyfriend.
"Hi." I said, pleased that she had the courage to speak with me after the absurd incident.
"Are you okay?" I asked her, and she almost laughed. Almost.
"I should ask you that. Are your nose okay?" she asked. I was surprised at how she didn't even mention Penelope or Ann. Came to think of it; she never was fond of any of them.
Pen had her history with Berry, and Ann could just be plain mean sometimes. I only nodded when answering her question.
"Have you seen Kevin?" I asked. It was a bit rude to jump on another subject like that when she obviously was worried about me, but I really wanted this out of my hair so my 'punishment' would be long-forgotten. I needed to save the chit-chat for later.
"He's playing cards with Berry in the dining room." she said. I was about to ask her if she knew if Kevin was a virgin or not, but then she would think that I was interested in him and I didn't want that.
"You're looking for him?" she asked and frowned with a sweet mysteriousness.
I only nodded again, and got relived when a genuine smile broke onto her slim face.
"I'm going there now. It's after lunchtime so the whole dining room is empty and the soldiers are busy. Shall we go together?" she asked, and I said yes.
Kevin agreed almost instantly when I asked to speak with him in private. I only had to wait for him to finish his game with Berry and I all of the sudden had him all by myself in the empty washing room that had been used for today. The backstage of the Millennium dining room.
Apparently, it was weekend, and there was less activity going on around the airship. All soldiers and guards were probably resting in their rooms. Perhaps that's why Zorin and Winkle took their opportunity to set meeting with me on a Friday night, because they hadn't anything serious that needed to be done.
"So…" he said, flashing me a smile.
He was leaning against a machine of some sort. I think it was the same machine that had broken down a long time ago. On the very same day I met Schrödinger for the first time.
Talking to Kevin was much harder to do alone, and I even started to blush at the realization that I was alone with an attractive boy with no one around and thousands of meters up in the sky. I didn't even like him that way, but I still couldn't help feeling flustered.
"What did you want to talk about Lydia?" he asked kindly, but I could see the confusion in his eyes.
"Um." I said, looking around the washing room. It smelled funny in here.
When he chuckled my eyes darted back at him.
"Calm down." he said, placing his hands on my shoulders. He didn't wear handcuffs, I realized. Neither did I.
"You can talk to me." His happy face turned to a one of pity. "Is it about Ann?" he asked.
Before I could say no or even shook my head, he continued talking.
"She hit you really hard… I know it's not your fault, what happened. I just want you to know that I'm with you in this, Lydia, Naomi and Berry too. Neither of us believed in Ann's brouhaha. We-"
"It's not that." I chuckled, feeling all too flattered and spoiled by his words that I simply had to interrupt him. But I didn't come here to hear all of this.
"It's about you." I said, surprising Kevin.
"Me?" he asked and blinked a few times, letting go of my shoulders.
"Y-yes I would like to-" I began, but I instantly didn't know how I should put it. It was an awkward start.
Kevin had obviously been dealing with girls like this before; he was used to girls being nervous around him, but me?
This was something completely new to both of us.
Slowly, a soft smirk took form on his face. There was the confident receptionist I learned to know.
"Kevin." I said, trying to erase my earlier words and start over.
"What is it?" he asked, leaning down so he could hear me better.
He was really tall. About the same height as Jack was, if not taller. How do you ask a person this question?
Have you made love with someone? Are you saving yourself for marriage? Do you like having sex? How many relationship have you been in? Who was your first? Have you done the do? Have you stepped over the line to adulthood?
All different ways of asking him melted into each other inside my head. I couldn't ask him this now. We were at the wrong place at the wrong time.
However I would put it, there was a huge risk that he would believe that I was interested in being more than friends with him.
"I just..." I began slowly.
"Would you ever consider sleeping with me?" I blurted out as soon as I realized that the word 'sleeping' was an innocent one. But "me" wasn't supposed to be in there!
Just like that.
Would you ever consider sleeping with me?