Hellsing Fan Fiction ❯ TodesEngel ❯ Chapter 1

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

TodesEngel

Neko NoSei

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Author's Note: Bwa-ha-ha-ha! The first Yaoi Hellsing fic on the 'net! Well, it's not really Yaoi... yet. Chapter two will delve into this part more, and Chapter three will be frighteningly rampant--if I can write it. Anyway, this fic will be a field day for anyone who remembers the 80's as vividly as I do, a trip down memory lane. And it should be entertaining to anyone slightly freakish or fantastical in tastes as well (i.e., RHPS or Tolkien.) I also don't have a good reason for why I use Japanese terms, seeing as the series is set in Britain, I just like the pet-names and referrals to people better that way, especially concerning Walter. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. ***Warning: SPOILERS (at least as far as Ep. 8 if not further) and freely-roaming silliness*** These characters are not mine, though I'd be extraordinarily happy as Hell if I could say I created this awesome series--but I can't. Now read! ^_^

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It wasn't often that Alucard wandered the streets of human cities for no particular reason at all, but like humans, when his mind wouldn't rest he needed an outlet until it found what it was looking for.

On the rare occasions that this happened, it ended up simple, but rarely ever the same. One ended in the writing of a manuscript, it never reached the light of day, buried beneath layers of sands and soil. Another ended in the killing of a city official, there was no particular reason for it, he just wanted to. The man had made the decade rather uncomfortable back in those days, still no reason to kill him. The last time it had happened he slept for a month, mind littered with dreams he couldn't control or accept, dreams no human mind would've been able to handle or even begin to explain. Then again, Walter may have had a better chance than most.

Mm, Walter, he thought, a human beyond humanity--not in personality, but in ability. Walter, the only person he actually rather enjoyed knowing. Integral was a necessity he couldn't help, Celas a choice that not only she made, but he made. They both lived with the consequences, good or bad. Any of the others at the Hellsing Academy, Ferguson on down, meant nothing to him. Why would they? But Walter was different, even from the eons of other humans he'd known.

The rain fell in black sheets over the asphalt, the liquid air invisible unless backlit by headlights or streetlamps. The tickling sound was soothing, but it only served to lull memories from the depths of Alucard's musings.

¤¤

It had gone smoothly, the mission went off without a hitch. The Angel of Death and the Hellsing vampire were a match to be reckoned with, flawless and lethal in thought, let alone when they actually moved. They knew they were dead before they blinked an eye, scattered to dust or rotting pieces of flesh before their unlife ever began.

Walter sat perfectly straight in his chair, somehow comfortable that way, feeding invisible threads between his fingers in search of kinks. Every once in awhile a running line of silver gave away the deadly length that coiled up on one side and the other of him. A glass of deep red merlot sat on the table in front of him, off to his left.

Walter had been in his youthful prime then, pale skin taught over his high cheekbones and down his neck, the jugular and company only exposed when he pulled back his tresses. Right then, that hair, in all its ebony glory, fell down around his angular face, accenting the paleness of skin and the misty gray of his eyes that were framed by arching strokes of black called eyebrows. Alucard had found it somewhat amusing that Walter's hairline came to a point in front, like the portrayal of so many black and white motion-picture vampires.

Alucard sat opposite him, feet up on the table, chair tilted onto its back legs as he lounged in his post-mission contentment. Were he to be stroked, he would purr at the barest touch like a half-tamed cougar after a meal.

"What I want to know is," Alucard suddenly began, his voice tipping Walter off that it couldn't be very serious. "What is this strange ritualistic creation of fuzzy characters in American television all about? Talking and singing frogs and rounded creatures with tufts of strangely-colored hair that constantly eat the hard work of tiny people. I don't really understand how this could be constructive."

The side of Walter's mouth lifted into a smile and his head inclined upward to look at the vampire, hair shifting just slightly. One hand abandoned the garrot to lift the glass of merlot to his lips for a savory sip.

"Well, they certainly managed to get you to watch it, imagine how many people they have sucked in if they had the power to get you, for even a few moments, to do so."

Alucard responded with a smile. "You have a point there."

The vampire watched as Walter's half-smile turned into a joker's grin, no doubt imagining Alucard in front of a television watching The Muppets and Fraggle Rock.

"Do you sympathize with these creations, or are you simply wondering what dimension of mental psycopathy produced it?"

"I don't wonder which it was from, I know which it would've inhabited. And it's worse than me... Don't you find that frightening?"

"Hmm... They're not as bad some of the other things I've seen."

"Of which are you speaking--Arsenio Hall or Win Lose or Draw?"

"You watch too much television."

"Give me a better way to spend my time, and I'll gladly do it."

"Something tells me that if our enemies knew you had such a soft spot for the Snuffalupagus that they would be far less intimidated."

Alucard's deep, rolling laughter, like the purr of a Harley's engine, brought another smile to Walter's face. A gesture partially hidden behind the glass of merlot held to his mouth.

"You have your less-than-intimidating vices as well, Shinigami..."

"Name one."

"You always get a dab of white on your nose because you can't go to bed without a bowl of cookies and cream ice cream."

Walter gave Alucard a look, indescribable because there was nothing to describe. Alucard knew how it felt to find yourself in the absence of what to think. Then the gray storm clouds sparked and Walter's soft laughter drifted from between his lips.

"Very well, I'll give you that... Honestly, I pity the fact your existence has come to such extreme boredom that you have to pay attention to my nightly habits."

"Ah, but they're interesting, my friend, all the better to black mail you with later."

"Next you'll be telling me there's something wrong with carbonated drinks."

"As a matter of fact," Alucard replied, Walter's eyes rolling with the pre-statement. "Why do people ingest drinks that eat away metal if given a chance?"

"I don't know, vampire, why do they?" Walter asked in a monotone, setting back into his chair and returning his eyes to the garrot wires.

"You're the human, I was asking you."

"I don't drink them."

"Ah... I knew I liked you for a reason."

"I feel like you're the Chesire Cat and I'm poor Alice sent through a land people by a drug-addict's wet dream..."

"Walter," Alucard's voice was slightly incredulous, soon Walter understood it was sarcasm. "What do you know of wet dreams? Care to share?"

The laughter managed to bother Walter more than the statement, but he refused to be ruffled by the red-cloaked creature. Time to change the subject, he thought.

"And what of American music culture?"

"What of it? It exists?"

"You think it doesn't?"

"It's like a religion... You have to have faith to believe it's there."

"Mm... Michael Jackson doesn't tickle your fancy, then? The loud and erratic Cyndi Lauper perhaps?"

"I like Cyndi Lauper."

Walter's eyes stared down a long moment before he looked up at him. "...What?"

"I like her. She's proud of who and what she is, no matter how unaccepted. Few people understand how advanced she really is, especially on a mental capacity with other humans. And she's entertaining. " He grinned his amusement.

"If you tell me you like the New Kids on the Block, I'll kill you out of pity."

Alucard actually shuddered.

"Shinigami..?"

"Yes, Alucard."

"Do you want to come to America with me?" Walter looked confused, so he went on. "I want you to help me kill these 'New Kids'..."

"Ahh... All right."

"Lovely..."

"Will it be a repeat of the 'Duck Hunt' incident? You still owe me a perfectly good telly..."

Alucard grinned again.

"Have you ever been mocked by that damned dog, Walter? Have you ever tried compensating your aim on that idiotic, neon-orange and gray, plastic gun so that it actually hits something?"

"Using real bullets loaded into Casull wasn't a bright idea, either--we never did get to watch 'Evil Dead' because of that."

Alucard pouted briefly, but the grinned returned with renewed force as another thought came to mind.

"Where did all the hippies go?"

Walter shook his head and took another taste of merlot before speaking.

"To the Gray Havens perhaps?"

"They were flower children, Shinigami, not elves... There's a subtle difference."

"You never know what inspired Tolkien..."

"Hippies didn't exist in the thirties."

"Not on this plane anyway."

"Are you telling me he saw onto other planes of existence?"

"God, no, he was a loon."

Alucard started laughing, his gloved hand splaying over his face as his shoulders shook, but when he was done, the moment had died. Silence was the third companion and it was his time to speak, leaving them both to think and dwell on various things.

Walter took another sip of wine then set it down onto the table top again and Alucard felt he knew that the man was thinking. That he was thankful for the silence as much as he mourned the loss of companionship through the conversation--even if it was moronic.

"I want a puppy."

He could see the 'Oh, God' on Walter's face. 'Here we go again.'

"You want a what...?" he asked.

"A puppy." Alucard said it as though it were the most normal thing in the world. In fact, it was, but for a person like Alucard to have such a normal desire made it odd, he knew.

"And why, may I ask, do you want one?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Eh... nevermind. You want a puppy. Let's leave it there."

They were about to fall back into silence, but Alucard wouldn't let it.

"I'm thinking, perhaps, a Doberman... or a greyhound."

"That's wonderful."

"Do I detect sarcasm?"

"Are you dead?"

"Is Barbie a freak of human creativity?"

"I give up."

"On what?"

"Tell me, Alucard, go ahead. What is so wrong with Barbie?"

"Well, if you had a waist smaller than your head, wouldn't you snap in half? Especially with a chest three times the normal size? And how fast to you think she'd die with the disproportion of her limbs? Or the fact she wears the most garish make up I've ever seen."

"Do you wear make up so often?"

"Yes... I mean--"

Walter's laughter rang out like church bells, full, deep, and rich.

"Oh, Walter...?" Alucard uttered quietly, then waited until Walter got some of his breath back. "You get to play Riff Raff next time I go to the theatre..."

"Hmm?" the Hellsing assassin failed to cover the touch of confusion in the noise.

Alucard grinned even more mischievously than usual, Walter's eyes giving away that he really wondered what playing Riff Raff meant, like it was some kind of game he had never heard of before. "Nevermind..." Alucard said. "Have you ever watched anime?"

"Perhaps, if I knew what you were talking about I could say 'yes'."

"Animated movies and such from Japan, they're becoming more popular these days."

"Interesting..."

"I watched a particular one called 'Vampire Hunter D'."

"Oh, Lord..."

"I enjoyed it. It was grossly inaccurate, but I was entertained."

"Is that so."

"Mm, yes, you see, it's a post-apocalyptic setting, of sorts, where futuristic advances couple with the old world. A time when vampires rule." He paused. "Hmm, perhaps it's not so inaccurate."

"What, that the world will end or that vampires will rule it?"

Alucard grinned lazily and switched the order of his lounging feet on the table, then he spoke again.

"You'll see one day."

Walter took another sip of the merlot.

"What makes you think there will be a 'one day', vampire? I could die anytime, without a hint as to my fate until the very moment it happens."

Alucard's smirk slowly pulled taught into a grim line.

"Is the Angel of Death so vulnerable to its own profession?"

"I'm not immortal, Alucard."

"Perhaps you should be."

Walter's stormy gray eyes gazed over the glass of wine in his hand at the vampire perched, still as a windless night, across from him.

"What are you suggesting?"

"You can't make me believe you're so daft as to not know what I'm saying."

"Point. Why are you suggesting it?"

"I wouldn't offer this to just anyone."

"Mm, exactly why I'm asking."

Alucard's hand came up and tilted the brim of his hat down a hair or two. He pulled his heavy boots off the table, planting them firmly onto the floor. He leaned forward, the angle of his glasses shifting with the motion, then he opened his eyes and looked at him with something the human couldn't have understood. Walter, he knew, hadn't even noticed the vampire's eyes shut until the sunset shades almost glowed it's abnormal color from the darkness cast onto Alucard's face.

"Shinigami, there are few true vampires in the world. Do you want to know why?" He fell silent, allowing Walter time to speak if he so chose. He did not. "Because there are few humans worthy of the status."

Walter didn't grace him with a response, he simply stared back at those vampiric hues and waited.

Alucard had patience. He could've waited centuries before speaking again, but Walter didn't have that same freedom, he would have to try to make him understand while Walter still had the time to choose.

"You are one of those." The slow, calm beat of Walter's heart, like patient gallops, became deafening in Alucard's heightened ears, nothing else made enough noise to cover it. "Will you?"

Walter may as well have been inhuman already. Not a breath disturbed the air, nothing of him moved as his misty eyes were held in a pensive, unchallenging gaze with the vampire. It was only after stretched out minutes that his eyes shifted downward.

"No."

If Alucard was ruffled by the response, he didn't show it. He was still another moment, then stretched back into the chair. His feet lifted onto the tabletop and he lounged once more, gloved fingers lacing together on his thighs. The shadow that fell from his hat, obscured most of his features, the only remaining ones were the reflection of dim light from his round glasses and the ever-amused curve of his lips.

"Another thing I have been wondering about is why hot dogs aren't made of dogs or why they come in packs of eight while the buns for them come in sets of ten."

Walter drained the last of the merlot from his glass, eyes still cast downward, then lifted a corner of his mouth in a little smile. Alucard would have given anything to have known what the human was thinking, some sense of regret, something that could change his decision. But his thoughts were perfectly shielded from him.

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Damn him.

Alucard's eyes tore away from the full, silver moon above him and glared at a random streetlamp. Walter's decision would change, he had thought, he had waited for Walter to ask. For years. It never came. Not even an inquiry as to why Alucard had ever asked.

He, himself, had never questioned it, he never needed to. He wanted Walter alive, that was the reason all along. Walter was not the kind of human that should ever die, a human that Alucard would mourn for if he failed to make it happen. He loved Walter, not in the terms that humans chose to define it in this day, nor in so very many ages before now. The ancient kind of love that Alucard was probably the only witness for, that still lived. Maybe he would try to formulate to someone one day the very meaning of it, the purpose, the need. He knew there were no words, but he would try.

A long, gray car pulled up beside him on the street, the window rolling down with an audible miniature-motor.

"You've been gone for hours," Walter's voice said, drifting out from the dark interior.

Walter always knew how to find him somehow, maybe it came from knowing the vampire so much better than anyone else.

"This isn't uncommon."

"Very true... Problem is, Integral-sama has been unhappy the last two. She wants to talk with you."

"I see. Tell her I'll appear soon enough."

"You know she won't take that for an answer."

"I do. Charm her, Walter, you're so very good at that."

Walter's soft, steel eyes appeared, followed by more of his pale face, aged over the decades, but still fine nevertheless. The eyes warned him, warned him with gentleness of an old friend.

"I'll be there, Walter. Go soothe the savage beast."

"Of course."

The eyes disappeared, a few quiet words were spoken to the driver, and the gray car pulled away just as the rain, in its natural suicide, began to fall again. Alucard made no move, even when it disappeared from sight.

Maybe twenty years was long enough to wait before asking again.

~To Be Continued in Chapter 2~