"Walter," called Maxwell, "I'm home."
The faithful butler stood at the base of the steps, a silver platter held neatly in his hands. "Welcome home. How was your day?"
The boy, now fifteen, stepped foward with a shrug. "Fine enough. We have grades for Mum to sign though." He placed his bag on the ground, knelt beside it, and began to rummage through it for the aformentioned papers. "Here," he said after he whipped them out, "I found my share. You'll have to wait for Susan to return to get what she has."
"Of course," he replied, setting the tray down on a nearby coffee table to scoop up the documents. He looked them over, a slight smile finding it's way to his smooth face. "If nothing else, you have your mother's smarts, Maxwell." His eyes were glazed over in pride as he folded the papers and looked back down to the child. "I'm sure she'll be a happy as I am when she sees this."
Maxwell gave the man another shrug. "I guess." With that, the boy packed up his things and sauntered past the elder to go up the steps. "I'm tired," he called over his shoulder, "if I'm needed, I'll be in my room."
"Before you go, would you mind telling me where your sister is?"
"I'm not her keeper, Walter," snapped the child before he dissapeared around a corner.
Walter let out a heavy sigh. "You've inherited her temper aswell." His welcoming demenor returned as soon as he heard the door creak open behind him. 'Seems that I'll have to oil the hinges again,' he thought, 'that or get a new door.' He focused his attention on the meek girl that slipped into the house, a smile spreading across his face as he bowed. "Welcome back, Young Master."
"Stand down, Walter," giggled Susan. "Integra isn't around so there's no need to treat me like that." She moved to him and pressed on his shoulders. "Come on now, chin up and back out."
With little hesitation, the youthful-looking man obliged her request. "Forgive me, I had forgoten you two had different orders." He stood back to gaze at the girl. As they had aged, the twins had grown apart mentally but stayed the same on the outside. They were both tall, both inheriting their mother's tanned skin and crisp blue eyes; however, Maxwell had grown sour and abandoned his innocence shortly after he began his life as a teenager while his sister tried desprately to cling to hers. Susan was humble to her superiors, and usually showed a hefty amount of respect to her peers which had earned her a very small, but loyal, group of friends. Maxwell had a much larger pool of aquantances, but was usually manipulating the ones he trusted enough to bring to his home to do whatever bidding he saw fit.
He ceased his staring when he notice her shift uncomfortably.
"Erm, Walter?" She picked at the few specks of dirt on her blouse. "I have a confession. There's something that was given to my classes that a guardian needs to sign." She tilted her head down to the ground, her long hair spilling over her shoulders. "My marks aren't too good in a few of the classes, but I swear I've been trying my hardest. Do you think you could sign it instead of Integra?" She looked back up at him then, her hands clasping together as if in prayer. "Please, Walter, I've just been so focused on training. If she knows that I've been slacking in my studies then she'll forbid me from doing what matters to me."
The butler's smile dropped at the plea. He was to hide something from Integra? It was obvious just how little the girl knew about her mother's strickness against lying. Ever since his fiasco with Millenium, the man had been kept on a tight leash; anymore slip ups of trust and the man would surely be expelled from the Hellsing mannor without a moment's notice - that, or slaughtered like a pig. Walter shook his head at the girl, his hand out for her papers. "Lying is a sin, Master Susan, now hand them over."
Susan's shoulders slumped but she obeyed his request. Slowly, she slipped her bag off of her and dropped it on the ground. It took a moment to rummage through the bag, loose notebook paper and crumpled notes littered the compartment, but she found what she needed to and handed them to the butler. "Here," she sighed, defeat marring her features. "That's all of them."
Walter's brows knitted together as he passed over the grades. "At least you're consistant," he finally said. "All D's." He watched the girl deflate with minimum sympathy. "How could you let it all slip away like that? If you ever needed help you knew to come to me - or your mother, you know she would love to help you."
Susan's gaze moved back down to the floor, her entire body cringing at his last words. Her psyche had long since been prepared for the butler's chewing out, but she could never seem to keep her cool when he used that word on her. To Susan, Integra was nothing more than an incubator bent on getting heirs to her throne - hell, the elder Hellsing even recieved artificial insemination just to preseve her hold on Alucard when a serogate couldn't fit into the budget - and any reminding that she was Susan's mother threw her off. The teen brushed past the old man, her arms wrapping around her body. "I just don't see the point in it anymore, Walter. I'll take over her job soon, I don't need to know the population of Canada or what the inverse of a parental sine function looks like; I need to know how to handle the troops, and how to defend myself if we're invaded. Everything else is a waste of time." She plucked a biscuit from the tray before turning to face him again. To her dismay the thirty-something year old man was shaking his head, perhaps in disappointment.
"Take your things and go to your room, I'll talk to your-" He paused. "I'll talk to Integra and try to get her to soften the punishment." He placed the papers over the tray before lifting the entire thing in his hands. "For now, I see no problems with you getting ready for your training." He walked past her and up the steps without another glance; he was too focused on what to say to the child's mother to convince her not to snuff out the girl's existance. He hardly noticed Susan mutter a soft thank you.
The girl did as she was told, scurring quickly to her room to wash and change into more comfortable attire, a fitted black turtleneck with blue jeans. She had her Bersa Thunder in it's holster that was strapped to her hip, the only present that the girl ever recieved in person from her mother. She took one last look in the mirror, her hands smoothing down her hair, when she noticed something was off about her reflected image.
"What in the..."
The image she saw had a growing smile. It spread across her face to form an impossible grin. When she moved her head, it moved the same way; when she moved closer, it moved closer. The refection acted just like a reflection should, sans the ever growing smile and crazed wide eyes. The sight of it frightened the girl somewhat, but she willed her nerves to steel. Susan glared and cleared her throat.
"I command you to show yourself, Alucard."
The rest of the dracul took over her image and he climbed out of the mirror. "You're commanding me? I highly doubt you're in any position to do such things."
Susan crossed her arms over her chest. "Excuse me?"
His toothy grin never ceased. "You don't know? Even I could hear her screaming on about your failures, and I was in deep sleep." Alucard slipped past the unphased child to sit himself on her bed. "I really must congradulate you though," purred the old man, "for being able to twist Walter around your finger so tight that he would go through one of Master's fits just to get you to be able to continue your training."
The blond's shoulders relaxed, her canine bitting into the soft flesh of her lower lip. "It's just a D," she huffed. "It's not like it's the end of the world." She felt awful for putting Walter through all of Integra's bitching, but she'd never let anyone but the butler know that. "What are you doing here? I have training to go to."
The vampire had busied himself with picking at her plush comforter. "Don't mind me, Little Master. I just figured I'd come to check up on your improvement." When he heard her laugh he looked up.
"Right, and me and Integra were going to go horse back riding right after practice."
"Integra and I," corrected the creature, his grin widdening. "Pigs have better grammar than you do."
"Just tell me what you want," she snapped. "Anytime you come to see me practice all you ever do is patronize me."
Alucard smirked as he got up. "Then I guess I want to get a decent laugh in before Master sends me off." He moved past her to open the door, giving the young woman a deep and mocking bow.
"Alucard," whined the girl, "would it really hurt you to treat me with a tiny bit of respect?" She didn't wait for an answer, she was already two minutes late by time she managed to rush out the door.
"Of course not, child," he purred as he followed her out the door, "it would just about kill me."
Susan turned to give back a snarky reply, but the dracul had dissappeared and left her alone in the hallway. She let out a heavy sigh and began to walk towards the courtyard; however, a cough to her right stopped her. Her fists clenched as she whipped around. "I'm getting really tired of you, A-" The hate in her body died as soon as her eyes focused in on the source of the cough and a smile began to crack it's way onto her face. "I can't tell you how glad I am to see you."
The perky blond returned her smile. "Thank you," she replied. "It's nice to see you too."
"What are you doing here? The sun's about to set, shouldn't you be in briefing for missions?" Susan closed in the space between her and the draculina; she was already ten minutes late, what's five more? As she came closer to the woman a dark feeling crept over her being. Seras looked stiff and uncomfortable, as if something had gone terribly wrong. Susan lifted a brow and tilted her head. "Seras?"
Said woman tilted her head aswell, shrugged, and gave the girl a lopsided grin. "Oh, you know, just walking about," she said shakily. "Trying to avoid the enevitable." Her blood red eyes shifted to the corner as if something had been said far away. She let out a light sigh before returning her attention to the child. "How about we take a walk?"
Susan's brow furrowed. "Well, I have train -"
"It won't take too long," she chirpped as she walked off. "C'mon, Susan." The draculina was half-way down the hall before she heard the tentitive footsteps start. She knew what her mission was: tell the girl that her mother wanted to talk to her. However, what little humanity she still had told her that her master's master needed some time to cool down before speaking to anyone else, especially the one who caused all the anger; if Seras brought her there now, there would surely be a death in the family.
When the woman was sure the girl was close enough to hear her she spoke up. "So, how was your day?"
The teen shrugged and shoved her hands in her pockets as the pair decended down a flight of steps. "Started out nice, but now it's all seeming to go to hell." Her features darkened. "And then Alucard decided to jump in," she grumbled, "I can't tell you how much I didn't appreciate that. He's been bothering me so much lately. Doesn't Integra give him enough things to do?"
"Nope, Master is a very able man, you know." Pride seeped from her entire being at the statement. "He's everywhere and nowhere, the most powerful being in the entire world."
"One cannot be everywhere and nowhere at the same time, Seras," she just about laughed. "At the end of the day, he's a vampire and not a god. He may be stronger than a human, but I'm pretty darn sure he can't be in more than one place at a time."
It was the blond's turn to crack a smile. "Really? He's done it plenty of times before. Why, I'm sure when you take over, there'll hardly be anything for you to sick him on." She looked over at the leggy girl as they turned a corner.
"When I take over I'm locking that beast up like the dog he is," deadpanned Susan. "And I'll put the key in a silver locket and put that in a vat of holy water." It was quiet after that and the girl was afraid she'd run off the only person that hadn't looked down on her all day. She looked over and felt a pang of relief when the pale woman in red stood beside her still; however, she did feel bad at the hurt expression Seras now wore. "I'm sorry," she said softly as she looked away, "he's just irritating, that's all."
Seras let her gaze linger on the tan face for a moment longer before turning away. "He really isn't that bad," she said softly, her body stopping in front of a painfully familiar door. "I'm sure that, whatever he's doing, he's trying to help you in his own way." The woman paused and gave her a warm smile, her hand resting on the doorknob. "Just like her."
Susan grimmanced; she had been led, the long way, to her mother's office. Her head turned to look at the vampire and she gave a diluted version of the kind gesture. She inwardly denied her claim of Alucard trying to help her, as well as the claim about Integra doing the same. However, she did take time to appreciate that Seras had not called Integra her mother - something she usually did, because she couldn't stand seeing a mother and daughter at such odds with each other. Without another word, Seras opened the door and Susan gave her a nod of thanks before slipping into the large room.
"It's about time you've arrived, young lady; I was begining to believe you just ran away from your duties."
Susan's eyes narrowed at the voice, a frown nestling onto her face in an instant.
Integra took a drag from her cigar and blew out the smoke slowly. She reached out a gloved hand to signal the teen to sit down in the plush chair adjacent from the desk. As soon as she saw the girl move she added, "Not that it would really surprise me at this point if you did turn tail like a coward."
The younger blond flattened out her shirt after she got herself situated, and she took this time to look around her. The room was dimly lit, the only source of light coming from the tiny lamp on the edge of Integra's desk and the natural light of the moon behind her, and she noticed there was a slender siloette of a man standing to her right. When she looked closer she could see that it was none other than Walter, a very unhappy looking one at that. Her mother's voice broke her consentration.
"Do you have any excuses to tell me before we start?" Integra's voice was strained, as if she was forcing herself to refrain from flipping her shit too early. "No, 'the instructor lost my work'? No, 'I lost track of time'? Not even a pathetic 'Atleast I'm trying'?" Her eyes narrowed dangerously, not even skipping a beat to let her speak. "Then let's get started, shall we?"
And so, phase one of Susan's punishment had begun.
_ _ End _ _
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed.