Disclaimer: Kouta Hirano owns me something, he took my soul when he created Hellsing.

(Re) Building an Empire

First Month

Finished that day work, Integra practically strolled back to her room. While putting on her pyjama, she glanced at the kid sleeping on the other side of the room. On the king size bed where once five girls and three boys used to sleep cramped under the covers, it only remained one. Tufnell House had sent two more kids the other day; thankfully Duke was skilled for tracking people, he had found the whereabouts of those boys' relatives some hours upon their arrival; no wonder how he had figured out the Iron's manor address from day one.

It was a shame most of those kids had orphaned during the London attack, however it wasn't the case of that particular boy. She was expecting Barnabas to grow up as a normal british citizen, oblivious of his true origins. Anyway it wasn't like he minded, he seemed truly happy for living with them, and Integra counted that the boy would forget any trace of his abused past. The only thing she was certain of was that there was only innocence on Barnabas' mind.

Integra removed her eye patch to place in on the nightstand table, turned off lights and dove into deep sleep. Or so she expected. She wasn't sure if it was vigil or dream, she felt a chill running along her neck. She mused if the windows had been left open, remembering having closed them just before putting on her night-clothes. The coldness disappeared and she wondered why it hadn't bothered her at all. She went back to dream land.

She felt the same shiver on her feet. Half asleep she sat up to reach for the blankets, they had fallen off by the bed's edge. She pulled them and rolled inside them, secluded she no longer felt the chill.

When something chill grabbed her chest she yelped wide awake. Her fingers twitched frozen before pulling the trigger of the gun she usually hid under the pillow, she didn't want to scare the kid in the room. She opted for hitting the aggressor with the grip. A thud announced that even in the pure darkness she had managed to hit that person's skull and made him fall on the floor. Her firm hand turned on the lamp on the nightstand table while standing up, ready to fire in case of need. The illumination revealed Seras on the floor rubbing her forehead.

"What the-" Integra held back the expletive. "Officer Seras, may I know what are you doing in my chambers?"

"I was..." she trailed off, getting sure that Barnabas was still sleeping despite the fuss. "I was hungry, Sir."

"And in which way this room is in the way to the kitchen?" She placed the gun back under the pillow, she didn't want the kid to wake up with the scene of she pointing at someone.

"None but..." Seras stood up and scratched her arm in discomfort. "I hadn't told you this because you looked so busy these days that it wasn't a good idea to disturb you with unimportant things, but Duke has been drinking most of the blood supplies. And I think it's a good thing because he's working hard with the spells for creating a new seal and anyway, he was in an awful shape when he got here so...".

Actually it wasn't unimportant issues, the fact that the old vampire was getting stronger was a matter of worry. It was a problem, especially since she relied on the vampire's weakness to subdue him when the time came. Why hadn't she noticed? Integra pulled a note in her mental agenda pointing this had to be fixed tomorrow. On a side note, there was the main issue that bugged her, Seras had entered her room without permission.

"Seras, I understand you've worked hard the last days and you deserve to feed. Still, that doesn't explain your intrusion tonight."

The Draculina faked a laugh while her arms moved frantic from crossed position to scratch her chin, to aimlessly clutching at the air, all the motion shared with her face red as if the lack of blood hadn't affected her at all. Integra raised an eyebrow and waited patiently, she really wanted to go back to the bed but this wasn't a disobedience she would let slip by. Losing her temper, she urged her subordinate to stop the charade and go ahead in her explanation.

"I smell blood, Sir. I was worried that you could be injured..." Integra understood immediately, how incautious she had been! Maybe it was because Aucard was no longer with them, she dubiously though the Draculina would be different by the sole fact that both were female. Other times she would have locked herself in her room the whole week, with the strict order for the No Life King to do not approach her not even if he considered it an emergency. Duke seemed out of question, the vampire had shared the office with her the entire day and hadn't said a word about her monthly visit. Now that Seras had pointed that out, in the middle of the night, the gray pyjamas Integra was wearing weren't enough for covering how naked she felt. She thought to cover herself, but that would only worsen things out; instead, she stood up as straight as she could to show some superiority, crossed her arms and muffled an annoyed.

"Very well, as can you see I'm fine you can leave now."

Seras looked around, again back to where the kid was in deep sleep and then to Integra again.

"Sir, I'm feeling restless." Figures, it's who knows what hour in the night and you are a vampire. Integra rolled her eyes in thought. Like she had just read her boss' mind, Seras corrected. "What I mean, with your aroma all around the house I can't sleep. The last time I ate was three days ago, and I'm afraid of attacking someone in the mansion. You should better keep an eye on me, at least tonight?"

Integra couldn't hold back her chuckle, the Draculina sometimes resembled a lot to her Master. Some nights when she was a teenager, Alucard always found an excuse for coming into her room whenever he felt lonely. It was hard to believe, but the ancient vampire experienced this more usually than the expected. He used his dog familiar shape to rest by her feet the entire night. She doubted the girl could be able to shape shift, so with sigh she gave up.

"Come in. The bed is big enough for more than two people."

Seras cheerfully glomp under the covers. She stretched like a cat and wrapped herself up with the blanket, that way the coldness of her body wouldn't disturb her boss anymore, who took a place on the other side. Picking up the remaining covering for herself, Integra was expecting to feel uneasy with the vampire sharing a bed while her natural scent was mixed with blood, even so she felt secured. Seras didn't have a seal, and yet she could trust her loyalty and respect.

"Good night Seras."

The Draculina turned around with a wide pointy smile shining on the half darkness of the nightstand table lamp, showing how thankfully she was for being allowed to stay the night there. Then she gave Integra a big, deep sniff, moistened her lips with the tongue, and closed her eyes.

"Good night, Sir."

Lights went out. Integra spent the night with the eye wide open, aware that her subordinate wasn't sleeping either, but not wanting to start a conversation out of the blue. For some reason she wasn't sure anymore that this had been a good idea.

Something clung at her that night, she could feel the warm body leaping under the blankets. A scream woke up Mary, who in a split second had turned the lights on and had her knives on the neck of the intruder. Ann was as taken aback as the boy who was desperately hugging her.

"Barnabas, you scared me to death!" Ann pulled the blankets out to reveal her partner the non threatening kid. "And you Mary, put that thing down for Lord's sake."

The younger maid did so and with a grunt she went back to bed. It was four in the morning and she wanted to catch at least one hour more of sleep. When everything went back to its serene state, the muffled sobs of the boy turned more audible.

"Hush, hush.." she soothed the boy "you are safe now Barnaby." The boy hated being called like that, but in the moments he was more vulnerable it worked fine. She had to stand up to grab some toilet paper from the bathroom, the boy trailed her as a shadow and back to the bed. Handing him the paper, he had the time to wipe his snots and calm down.

"I saw the Lady in Red in my room." He whispered the bitter confession. "She was with Miss Integra and... she ligkhed hfer and dhtey wferew fdonrfgin stughff and..." his speech went completely incomprehensible as another attack of weep hit in. Ann had to gather all the patience she thought she had ran out of from the days she was in charge for taking care of her little brothers and sisters. She waited for Barnabas to ease again.

"Hey, it was just a nightmare." Her balm voice and the thigh hug were giving results as the kid's agitated breath changed.

"No. It wasn't" The boy was determined to be afraid all his life. "I couldn't sleep when I finished the book Miss Integra lent me."

"And what book was it?"

"Dracula" Ann shot a mental swearing towards her boss. Who in her right mind would give a child such adult literature? Sir Integra Hellsing, of course, maybe because her last name is everywhere in the novel.

"Listen," she grabbed the boy's head so he could look into her eyes though the dim light coming from the upper window "that's a fake, just a tale for scaring silly children. And you are not silly, you are a warrior, you face death with a smile. You said that when the Tufnell House left you here, remember?"

"...you are right." In a deep though struggle between his fright and the bravery, he seemed to recover his senses.

"More else, you are the last kid in Sir Integra's chambers, you sleep in the most secure room in the entire house." Ann soothed. More boys and girls had arrived to the Irons household since they signed agreement with the orphanage. Sir Integra Hellsing, somehow less sensible as time passed by, asked to relocate the children in a separate room. Though the ones that started sharing room with her stayed the same until they found a new home. Unfortunately they haven't found someone to take care of Barnabas. The maid had half heard weeks ago the child had a relative in Italy, and was some way unnerving that Sir Integra was putting off contact with this person for some unexplained reason. "Are you a scary mouse? or are you a brave protector of Sir Integra."

"I'm not afraid!" Barnabas bounced on the bed, his cry bathed in determination and joy.

"Shut up!" Mary moaned from her bed and rolled over the other side of her bed.

"You better go and catch some sleep." Ann prompted the kid.

He agreed and pelted to the door, stopping halftrack.

"I'm not scared but... uh...can you walk with me to my room?"

Author's Note: Again a super long delay, I moved to France (yay!) but I've had problems with the language and suddenly English didn't enter in my head.

I know you were expecting hot yuri action between Integra and Seras but hey! I'm trying to keep them in character :P The most they could do was cuddling and sleep together ;)

Finally, thank you all who fav/follow this story, and special thanks for super useful comment from redchinese and also to Jo for the reasuring.