As of right now, nobody has said yea or nay about the mistletoe thing. If you wanted it to turn out differently, you should have said something sooner. So right now, I have improvised a sort of compromise between yea and nay. And honestly, I was planning to make them do something like this anyway, even if someone had chipped in. So, not to be blunt or cruel, if you don't like it, SUCK IT UP AND DEAL! Thank you. Today was not a happy mood day for me. I don't know why. Sorry if I snapped electronically at you. I'm just grumpy. If this was an anime I'd have had a little tiny thundercloud trailing behind me all day. I shall attempt to release it through writing, so if anyone, besides the obvious, is out of character you can be upset, its okay.

Techno's POV:

I stared in horror at Soarece, who appeared to be listening to something. "There are people coming." She whispered, looking terrified. I felt a moment of panic. She suddenly straightened her shoulders, and I blushed. I would never live it down if I kissed her, I knew that. I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting to see what would happen next. I felt something soft brush my cheek and my eyes snapped opened. Soarece had just kissed my cheek, and had backed off a little, smirking at both me and Alucard. He looked extremely disappointed. "You know, they never specified how you're supposed to kiss either master." Seras said, watching with urban amusement.

He scowled, looking down at the both of us, and I was aware I was blushing uncontrollably. Soarece was a faint pink, which probably meant the same thing for vampires. "We never speak of this again." I said, my voice cracking a little. Soarece nodded enthusiastically, and Alucard sighed. "Spoilsports. Well, that was so disappointing that I really don't see the point of spreading rumors." He phased away, still looking sad. Seras dropped down from the roof. "I promise not to tell." She whispered, before phasing off as well. Now we were alone, and I was blushing even more.

"Umm…" I said, not really knowing what to do now. She snickered. "I just wanted to throw them off the track. This is what I really wanted to do." She threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly, in fact so tightly I saw stars. "Ach…ing…Soarece!" I managed to choke out, flailing a little bit. She loosened her grip slightly, and I could breathe normally. "Thanks, I had a great time." I cautiously patted her back. "Yeah, me too. See you tomorrow?" she giggled. "Of course silly, we live in the same house!" She suddenly tensed. "What?" I asked, letting go. She shrugged, looking puzzled. "I could have sworn I just heard someone yelling "YES" but I guess that was just me."

Zara's POV:

I clapped a hand over my mouth, but I was still screaming on the inside. Alucard was next to me, smirking. "I wouldn't have put it past her to try something, but this was far sneakier. Did you have to be so loud?" I shrugged sheepishly. "It was a yes moment. Haven't you ever seen someone yelling "YES!" when they have successfully completed a goal? That's a yes moment, and I just had one. So there." I stuck my tongue out at him. He rolled his eyes, looking at the clock on my bedtable. "You should be asleep." I put the binoculars down resentfully. "No." He grinned, and that was all the warning I got before I was pinned down on my mattress, him leaning casually on my arms. "Yes."

I struggled. "Get off me!" He smirked. "No." I sighed, going limp. "This is payback for when I called you Uncle Roger that one time, isn't it?" His grin widened. "Yes, and for when you stopped petting me, and for when you stabbed me with silver, and for when you got yourself attacked by a shark." I glared at him. "Get off me now, or I'll mind-call Soarece over here." He sighed, letting me sit up. I rubbed my wrists, even though he hadn't pressed down that hard. "Now go away and let me sleep in peace." He sighed again and phased out of the room. I changed into my pajamas and climbed into bed, tossing around a bit before settling down. I still hadn't gotten used to sleeping in a bed with no cats.

I couldn't just walk into a store and buy cats like everyone else, because how would you feel if one of your schoolmates came by your house and decided "Hey, I want you to be my friend," and made you do everything with them afterwards? Yeah, that's how buying a cat at a pet store would feel for me. I felt the mattress sink down slightly with a creak, and lunged out of bed, but I wasn't fast enough. Alucard wrapped his legs around mine, pinning my arms to my torso with one arm, completely immobilizing me. His other arm slid around my chest, pulling me close to him. "Much better." He said in my ear, and I sighed. "Go away and let me sleep already! What is wrong with you?" I couldn't see his face, but I knew he grinned.

"You could never sleep by yourself for love or money. I am assisting you." I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, so why can I not move? Surely assisting me can be limited to sitting on the side of the bed or something? You don't need to pull a full body hold on me." There was a pause while he considered this. "No, but I enjoy it immensely. It's so nice to have something warm to snuggle up to." For a moment, I was briefly consumed by rage, but I came to within a few seconds. Alucard had made the most of those seconds, and I was now lying across his chest, my arms still pinned to my side. He also still had my legs immobilized, so the only thing I could do was wiggle. "Get off of me!" I spat, feeling extremely angry.

He grinned, pulling my face down to his with his free hand and whispering "Actually, you are the one on top of me. And if I'm not mistaken…" his lips trailed along my collarbone and I shivered involuntarily. "…you're enjoying it." I blushed, burying my face in his chest. I couldn't say anything without my voice betraying me, so I stayed like that for a little bit. I heard him chuckle and he started stroking my back gently. I waited until I could talk without squeaking and said hoarsely. "Please get off me." He abruptly stopped petting my back, and I lifted up my face, seeing his shock. "What's wrong?" he asked in concern. I avoided his gaze. "Nothing."

He sighed, looking resigned. "Zara, you've never asked politely for me to stop whatever I've been doing. What's wrong?" I swallowed nervously. "You know how I died?" he growled, and then nodded stiffly. "Yes. You were…incinerated by the explosion." I nodded. "And do you know how I got back?" He shook his head silently. "I was resurrected somehow, by my clan's spirits. They told me so that one day the doctor looked at me." He blinked, but didn't say anything. "They told me they enhanced me, and that they didn't like what I was doing with my new life. They were being very pushy about it." He cocked his head, looking confused. "What about your memories?"

I swallowed hard. "They wiped them. They said they did it because I had been getting close to the wrong…person, and they didn't like it. Whenever I saw something that might help me remember, they re-brainwashed me." I heard him snarl viciously and he pulled me even closer, like he wanted to protect me. "Why did they resurrect you in the first place then?" he growled. I blushed bright red. "They… they wanted me to produce babies!" I said all in one breathe before burying my face in his chest again. He made an incredulous sound and I winced.

I felt his grip on my arms tighten. "Anything else?" he muttered through clenched teeth. I shook my head, still not looking at him. "No. They said they made it really hard to kill me, but I'm taking everything they say with a pinch of salt." I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head. "You… oh. That's it. That's why you're always so jumpy around me nowadays, isn't it?" I nodded miserably. "I know you wouldn't mean it, but one smidgen of DNA in the wrong place and I'm pregnant, my reproductively's so strong." I said, starting to sob. He gently rocked me, murmuring softly "Shhhh, it won't happen. Think about other things. I'm here for you, and so are your friends. Shhhh, everything will be alright."

I sniffed, throwing my arms around his neck and clinging to him desperately as he rocked me. He whispered to me for about ten minutes before I calmed down. I felt extremely tired, and I felt him turn over so I was laying on the mattress rather than him, although he still kept his arms around me. I felt myself begin to drift away, still with Alucard lying next to me, solidly comforting even in my sleep. Little light flickers began to pop up in my field of vision, and I gulped. The only things that those reminded me of were…

"YOU STUPID, FOOLISH, IGNORANT GIRL!" I felt something whip across my back and yelped. Stop it! First and the other light orbs swirled around me, like a nightmare version of floating leaves. "Not even back for a year, and already bedding the vampire!" One of the nastier light-orbs stuck me again, even though it was three meters away at the very least. I screamed at them in defiance. I AM NOT "BEDDING" HIM! HE'S SLEEPING IN MY BED, TRYING TO MAKE ME FEEL BETTER BECAUSE OF WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME! LEAVE ME ALONE! They didn't, swirling around me faster and faster. First, who seemed least hostile, tried reasoning with me.

"He is not the right mate for you. You should not be sleeping with him. If he impregnated you, it would be a disaster." I was incoherent with rage. HOW DARE YOU SAY HE'S NOT THE RIGHT ONE FOR ME? WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE? And if I was impregnated by someone else, why wouldn't that be just as must of a problem, because I don't want to be saddled with a bastard! First was breathing heavily, or it sounded like it. "Your children will be a delicate mix, almost completely balanced between cat and human. Adding vampire genes to it is just asking for trouble. Most will be born dead anyway, and you will have several instead of just the one baby. That's if you don't have half-vampire children."

I literally felt like I was on fire with rage. I tried to keep my voice calm, with a little success. You say I will have at least two babies for every pregnancy, and several of them will be born dead, or with genetic defects. Maybe I should go get impregnated by a vampire, just to shove failure in your- (Thisbit is cut off, because I don't even want to repeat what I said in my head, much less out loud.) –slime ridden, firefly flickering pus holes! Yeah, that's what I said! I said all insults known to man or beast in one single beautiful sentence, and I'm glad I did!

Before I could go on the other spheres wrapped around me in a blaze of light, and I felt a shredding, grinding source of pain coming from all points of my body. STOP IT! ALUCARD! The pain suddenly receded, and the spheres backed away in shock. "You called out to him…" They seemed almost awed. First drew himself up, looking solemn. "Your infatuation blinds you. He sees you as a meal, nothing more." I wanted to punch him. You have no idea what you are talking about. He drifted closer, and I saw a dim image, which turned out to be myself, sleeping. "He hungers for your blood." Alucard bent over my prone figure, and I saw his eyes glowing red. He lunged for my throat, but was repelled by the force field we had seen earlier.

"It is an aching need that drives out his reason. He craves it beyond all things." I saw Alucard snap for my throat again, and he managed to get closer this time before being bounced back. You're lying. I heard my voice crack, but I didn't care. That isn't him. That isn't me. It's an illusion. I felt displeasure leak from the others around me. "Punish her!" snapped the most hostile globe, on that had taken extreme pleasure in my pain before. "Make her regret lying with that vamperic scum." First's image faded, and the others drifted closer to me. "Regrettably, it seems the only way to keep you in check, my dear." He said, drifting with the others.

I'm not you dear anything. I said in a last show of defiance, bracing myself for the pain they would inflict. It took them a little bit to get around to it though. They would drift very close, and I felt a poke at my arm or side, then they would drift away. Then the prods came faster, harder. Soon they were painful smacks that knocked me back and forth. I knew taunting them wasn't very wise, but I couldn't help it. Beach volleyball, how horrible a punishment. I must say, you gain a whole new perspective being the ball. Who's winning? They stopped for a second, floating at different intervals, in a shocked sort of way. Then they started again. Even harder.

I felt something vaguely familiar rip across my back, and yelped. I was the center of a whirlwind of light, and occasionally they would deviate from their course and I would feel a stinging swipe across my back. I was knocked back and forth, blood dripping from my back, arms, legs, and front. It ran down my face from a cut in my scalp, and I whimpered as a bit got in my eye. I felt myself waking up, and desperately lunged for the light of the morning. I fell out of bed with a thud, panting hard. I looked back up at the bed to see if I had woken Alucard, but he seemed fast asleep. Thank god it was just a dream.

Then I looked down. I was a mass of bruises and cuts, scraping across my entire body and the stinging on my back attributed to more in that vicinity. The somewhat familiar feeling of the attack was explained when I held up my arm. Razor-thin claw marks, like those of a really big cat, crossed back and forth on my arm, on my whole body, like a blind man's game of tic-tac-toe-knife-style. I felt a panic attack at what I might do about hiding them. They're all over my body, and probably all over my face too! What do I do! And, to put a cap on it all, I heard Alucard stir and mutter. Oh crap.

Alucard's POV:

I felt myself rising to the surface of sleep, sensing Zara was no longer in bed with me. Then I smelt the blood. I whipped upright, momentarily relieved to see her sitting on the floor, where she had probably fallen out of bed. Then I felt a tidal wave of rage. Her face, and in fact her entire body, was bruised, like she had been pounded by a set of weights. Claw marks covered her, stretching along her arms, legs, and even one that streaked across her face. "WHAT. HAPPENED." I said, not quite yelling the words. She gingerly got to her feet. "First and the others apparently can influence my physical body."

I slid out of her bed, gently running my hand over her wounds, assessing them. "You should heal by lunch. Does it hurt?" She shrugged and winced. "It stings a little." I nodded. "That's normal. But you didn't answer my question. What happened? You can tell it like it is, because I can't get more angry than I already am." She leaned into me, wincing again. "Does it explain when I say First took the whole daddy-with-a-shotgun act way too far?" I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. "Yes. And if you ever think he's trying to influence you again, tell me. I'll spend my time trying to figure out how to kill him, again."

Ouch. She's going to need a whole morning of chicken noodle soup and tissues to get over this newest development. Sadly, we aren't done with First and the others. If you want to wring their necks, that's okay, you're supposed to want to do that. Personally, I don't bother with anything so mundane. BEAT HIM OVER THE HEAD WITH AN ACTIVE CHAINSAW! I can see it now, *brummmm-neooooow-splat-drip-gush-repeat-brummmm-n eooooow-splat-drip-gush- repeat *. Such an interesting mental image, isn't it? No, I am not in any way affiliated with homicidal maniacs. I saw a YouTube video(you should look, it's really cool) of a guy swinging a chainsaw(it was on a cord, he was swinging it like a…umm… hurling ball?) At his bushes, trying to cut them, and I thought that'd be really messed up to do to a human. Think about it… yeah, I know, so creepy! Review, Request (This is important, please try), Rcomment(which still starts with R, as all can plainly see). Auf Wedersien!