A/N: Good gods, I can't believe how long it's been since I updated this fic. Alright, first things first. As you'll notice, dear readers, I've changed my penname from Comechatcha to Coffeetailor. It's still me, so don't start calling plagiarism please. Obviously, I still don't own Hellsing, Dracula, or Gundam Wing, and likely never will. They didn't even let me have them for my twenty-first birthday. Oh well. Read, enjoy, and maybe leave me a pretty little review on your way out.

P.S. Due to some brainspacing of mine, the second half of this chapter's been swapped. So if this is the first time you've seen this part of the note, make sure to go read that.

"Violet Turned Red"
Chapter Twelve
Missing Him


The kitchen was already bustling when Do slipped in for seconds, the members of the Geese scattered about a couple of long and unused prep tables as they squabbled over fruit and sausages. The sheer resemblance to the Sweepers made him grin, his concerns over what Alucard'd said being pushed to the back of his mind. It wasn't home, but maybe he could settle here after all.

Eyes sweeping the room, he caught sight of Pip trying to wave him over to where a few men seemed to be working together in an attempt to spoon feed Seras. It wasn't going so well from the looks of it.

"I said I'll eat later!" she protested, struggling while clearly trying not to hurt the men holding onto her. "Do you have to do this every morning?"

"Until you start feeding regularly we do," Pip piped up, watching with an amused grin. He turned to Duo as the vampire approached. "Morning kid. Sleep well?"

"Yeah, I slept fine… but would you mind telling me what in the world you're doing?" He folded his arms across Pip's shoulders to lean over him.

"Our mignonette here has a bit of an eating problem that we're trying to help her with," the mercenary said casually, ducking to avoid being hit by a flailing foot.

"Looks like you could use some help," Duo said with a chuckle. He winced in sympathy when one of the men was tossed off, landing hard on his ass.

"Duo!"

"That would be mighty appreciated," Pip said with a grin.

Nodding, Duo moved in to take the place of the men behind his sire, hooking his arms around hers to hold them in place. With her immobilized like that, the remaining men just managed to get her mouth open and a few spoonfuls of blood into it at a time.

"Enough!" Seras finally sputtered once they'd managed to half empty the bowl. "Try to give me any more and you will be getting flying lessons!"

"That's more than we've gotten into her any other day," Pip said. "You all heard the lady, back away."

"You did great, Mum," Duo said as he hugged her before pulling away. The female vampire stopped, looking at him oddly. It took Duo a moment to realize what he'd called her, a sheepish smile appearing on his face. But, the name seemed to fit. "Hope you don't mind the nickname. Better than 'sire' or something like that."

"Or police girl," she said after a moment of silence, smiling at him with a flattered pink in her cheeks. "I don't mind if you call me mum." The woman turned a sharp eye towards Pip when he made a cooing sound. "Don't you say a word."

"What? I was only going to say that you should try not to confuse people by being a virgin mother," Pip said with an innocent smile that quickly morphed into a fully fledged leer. "In fact, I could even help you with that part, non?"

There was an indignant screech while Duo walked over to the fridge to get out a bag of blood for his own breakfast. He nimbly stepped out of his old friend's way as he ran for his life, Seras hot on his heels with the clear intent to main him.

Watching them, he had to sigh. Damn, he missed Wufei.

While Wufei knew that he wasn't over Duo's death and frankly would never be, returning to work was so much easier than drifting around an apartment that felt too cold and empty without the other man. Still, it was no surprise that he was summoned to Une's office the moment he entered the Preventer lobby.

"Come in," the woman called when he knocked.

He opened the door, blinking in slight surprise to see Heero already standing in front of Une's desk. If she thought she was qualified to counsel them... The Chinese man shook his head and smoothed out his expression into one of mild disinterest. "You called for me."

"Chang, thank you for being prompt," Une said, holding a folder out to him. "Your new partner assignment. Po is transferring to the medical department. You have an hour to move to your new office. Dismissed."

With the speed that she gave him the information, Wufei didn't even have time to open the folder to see who his new partner would be until both he and Heero were standing in the hallway outside her office. Familiar dark blue eyes stared up at him from the photo clipped inside the folder.

"I requested you as a new partner," Heero said softly once Wufei had had a moment for it to sink in. "My other choice was one of the new recruits."

The Chinese man nodded, starting to head to his now former office with Heero following at his side. Wufei would need to pack up his desk. "A junior agent would slow you down on missions."

"Exactly." It was well understood that the only person who could stand in for one Gundam pilot would be another. Between two men like themselves, it didn't require stating. Even Une and Sally had understood that, speeding Heero's request significantly.

"You'll have to put up with Duo's artistic attempts at redecorating his desk with a pen knife," Heero said when they paused at the storage closet to nab a pair of boxes. Wufei's level of clearance would mean that he would have a large number of files to move. As for the desk, it wasn't even worth asking Wufei if he wanted to requisition a new one.

The other man stopped for a moment before going back to searching for the pile of lids that fit their size of boxes. "That's fine. He's done the same to one corner of the kitchen table." So many little reminders of where Duo had been, small marks that he'd left. Wufei wouldn't trade them away for anything except for the man himself. "They're attractive, honestly."

Heero wasn't all that fooled by the act, but kept his silence about it. If Wufei wished to cope by acting recovered, that was his business. He simply nodded in acceptance of the statement and settled the box onto his shoulder for easier carrying and followed Wufei the rest of the way to his office. Being on active field duty again would distract both of them.

They didn't talk while they packed up the papers and other things kept in Wufei's desk, leaving the office empty. Sally had already been moved out it seemed, her desk clean and ready for whoever the office was going to next. They ended up having to go for a third box, but between the two of them managed to clear the room, down to the tiny potted cactus nestled in between Wufei's stapler and favorite coffee mug.

The men carried the boxes down the hall, a passing junior agent hurrying to open the door to Heero's office for them. Wufei told himself to ignore the way that the slightly older man stared at his back, thankfully biting his tongue before any condolences were uttered to either of them. It was rather well known that the two Asian pilots were short tempered and far from being sentimental. Not to mention that Maxwell had always been a sore spot. The first agent who had put forth the idea that he'd been cheating on Chang with Yuy into humor had quickly transferred to L3 for 'health reasons.'

It didn't take a genius to know that the only threat to the man's health had been one overprotective partner and one outraged lover. He'd only been lucky that Maxwell hadn't chosen to get his own revenge.

Wufei set his two boxes on the desk, fingers tracing idly over the deep grooves his lover'd carved. He smirked a little as he recognized the familiar shape of a scythe wielding figure. His shinigami.

"How long until we start running missions again?" he asked, straightening up and once more hiding his sentimentality. This was neither the time nor the place.

Heero glanced up at him, a small smile on his lips, more characteristic of his time in the pilot's seat than now. "Tomorrow."

He nodded and opened the top drawer to start settling in. It seemed wrong for this desk to be so clean, even with the paperclip scratches on the surface. Damn, he missed Duo.