Chapter Text
There was a certain charm to the ceaseless rain of London. Billows of fog crept along the cobblestone streets and rose up to wrap around the trees surrounding the penthouse that Pip had found himself inside of.
Rainy days like this had always quieted something inside of the Frenchman's heart. After spending a couple years in this country, he developed a ritual for a day such as this – he would crack open a window, pullup a chair, and light a cigarette. The air outside pulled the smoke through the crack and swirled slowly through the night, and he studied how the rain changed it's shape and direction.
In the midst of such a gruesome war, Pip had come to appreciate the dreariness of this city, and gave in to these moments of quiet for the reflection he had avoided ever since he learned that he came from a long line of mercenaries. Sometimes his adolescent guilt would manifest with wide, tear stained eyes in the back of his mind, and Pip would wonder where that child went. It always felt as if he were looking onto the memories of someone else.
He heard rustling beside him, and the floorboards beneath him creaked as he shifted in his chair. On the floor beside him lay a coffin of tremendous size, and within it's ornate exterior, slept The Unholy King of Vampires.
The Hellsing Organization contacted Pip and his boys just a few days prior with a proposition that was too interesting for him to turndown, and with a check far too big to refuse.
Now, it seemed as if every horror movie he'd ever seen had come to life.
These past few days had been a lot for Pip to process. He couldn't help but feel as if his life was moving fast toward a fate that he couldn't avoid. The unshakable feeling of impending doom had been weighing him down, and these quiet nights became his only safe haven.
Never before had he been hired to protect someone, yet he felt an odd sense of duty to ensure the survival of this enigmatic creature.
Sir Integra had sent Alucard and himself to an area in London that had been especially riddled with rogue vampires and their ghouls. Pip was ordered to keep watch over Alucard as he slept, and figured it would be better to send them off alone. Sir Integra found it important for them to get acquainted with one another to ensure the success of the team.
The sun had set only moments ago, and he was far from tired. Indeed, the new circumstance he found himself in made it impossible for him to get a full night's rest.
During these sleepless nights, he wondered how the vampire looked as he slept. Were his hands crossed over his chest, as portrayed in the movies? Did he ever turn to his side, adjust his clothing, or even snore? He had all the time in the world to study the movements he heard within, and came to the conclusion that Alucard was, indeed, a very restless sleeper.
And so, with the setting of the sun, Pip anticipated the wake of said vampire. His long braid fell off his shoulder so that the ends of his hair dipped into the glass of wine he was nursing.
"Merde!" He cursed under his breath, tossing his braid back over the other shoulder. He took a long, deep sip of the vintage red, the bitter liquid dripping down his neck and soaking his collar. Alucard had gifted it to him just before he crawled into his coffin.
It had an expensive taste, smokey and tart, pricking his tongue and throat as he drank. An image of Alucard consuming the blood of his enemies entered his mind, and he couldn't help but feel as if that were a similarly intoxicating feeling.
He couldn't shake the memory of watching him feed for the very first time, the way his throat bobbed as he drank, the vein in his neck swelling with each greedy gulp of blood. He had turned to face Pip, pressing his cheek against the dying human's, with glassy, half lidded eyes, and a slight grin that revealed his overgrown canines. He recalled the way his heart raced at the scene, afraid that he maybe next, but oddly intrigued by this gruesome act of sanguine pleasure.
It was in that moment that Pip felt the distance between them shorten –they had both been Bringers of Death, brought together only by the long trail of blood left in their wake. Destruction led them both to this very moment, and Pip felt as if the Vampire's smile was his way of acknowledging this new connection to one another. Pip felt... seen.
Pip also thought that maybe he had just become too accustomed to the company of The Undead.
The sleep deprivation probably didn't help, either.
Just now opening the wine, are we?
Pip cocked his head to the left, watching as the coffin lid slowly opened, revealing the half-awake Nosferatu who had recently begun speaking to him through powers of telepathy. He seemed to enjoy being able to pry into the mind of the Frenchman, and he especially enjoyed flaunting this violation of privacy. It was a shameless display of his vampiric dominance. Pip knew that he was nothing in the face of this powerful creature.
"Drinking on the job is often looked down upon," Pip remarked, crossing one leg over the other.
Alucard let out a low chuckle, almost too quiet for him to hear, as he sat up in his coffin. The air around him seemed to swirl and distort, his long, black hair curling and flowing as if it had a life of it's own. His pale neck was bare, the collar of his shirt unbuttoned to reveal sculpted shoulders, sharp collarbones, and a wide chest rippling with dense muscle.
"Yes, or perhaps you were just waiting for me."
Pip felt the blood rush up the back of his neck, causing his ears to burn a bright red.
"Well, you're the one who set aside two glasses..." Pip murmured, reaching out to grab the other glass, before walking over to retire upon the plush cushions of the couch beside him. He poured the vampire his own glass of the delicious cabernet and held it out for him to take with a look of playful disgruntlement.
Alucard had a commanding presence, being almost eight feet tall, and he was no less domineering when he was crawling towards him, limbs inhumanely bent, his eyes glowing a deep, fiery red. He seemed unaware of the subtle ways his facial structure changed, his eyes slanting ever so slightly upward, as if taking the shape of a feline playing with their food.
A low moan escaped from the back of his throat, something akin to a purr, as he rose from the ground and towards the Frenchman to take the glass from his hand.
Pip leaned back, until his head was almost touching the arm rest, yet Alucard kept moving forward, his icy breath brushing against Pip's quivering lips.
"Stop doing that," Pip whispered.
Alucard moved to close the distance, placing one hand upon the cushion beside Pip's body.
"Doing what?" The vampire whispered back, his mouth parting slightly.
Pip had been putting up with this for days, this flirting that the vampire defaulted to when alone in his presence. He knew that the vampire simply enjoyed watching humans squirm, and because he couldn't actually kill Pip, the only way he could satisfy his sadistic tendencies was to fuck with his head.
He knew that the only power equal in Alucard's ability to maim was his ability to hypnotize and seduce his prey. Pip had lived on battlefields and in the company of his men for so long that he hadn't realized how touch starved he'd become, that even the cold, dead hands of the immortal before him could cause him to doubt his own sexuality.
A pleasurable shiver ran down Pip's spine when Alucard grabbed his thigh, inching ever closer, his lips resting against the nape of his neck.
"Hypnotizing me," Pip answered, swallowing hard, "Just like with the boy at the front desk, you-- "
"Is that what you think I'm doing?" he growled, reaching up to grab Pip's chin with his gloved hand.
Pip had stayed too long, hadn't he, comfortable in this bourgeoisie hotel room, with this bourgeoisie wine, these bourgeoisie cigars...
"Your heart is beating so fast, I can almost taste your blood..." The vampire hesitated for a moment, his upper lip twitching, before retreating back to take a sip of his wine. Pip exhaled, unaware that he had been holding his breath, and slowly rose back up.
In a moment of pure insanity, perhaps brought on by lack of sleep and good wine, he couldn't help but entertain this back and forth dynamic the two had developed after a week of being around each other every moment of the day.
"What do you think I taste like?"
The vampire turned to look at him, stunned for a moment, and then a smile creeped over his face. Swirls of black smoke pooled around the vampire, and his eyes almost glittered in anticipation. He even seemed to grow taller, his hair floating above and around him.
"Is that an invitation?"
He felt as if the vampire were undressing him with his mind. No, he was, wasn't he? There was an image of Alucards hands fumbling with the buttons of his shirt, his arms over his head, his lips slick with saliva after... No, these weren't his own thoughts, this was...Alucard, placing these images in his head.
Pip took another long sip of his wine to avoid Alucard's gaze and leaned against the back of the couch. He was trying to conceal how truly flustered he had become, and suddenly sought to change the topic of conversation. Yes, he thought he could play along, turn the tables, even, but he was way out of his league.
"What do you dream about?" Pip asked, twirling the glass in front of him, watching the red liquid swirl inside.
The vampire sighed, turning to look out of the window. The moon reflected in his eyes a look of something akin to nostalgia. A weariness in him, a deep, hollow sadness had settled upon his face, an expression that Pip had never seen in the vampire. Something about this brief moment of reflection caused him to remember that he was human once. Being the creature that he was now, it was hard to picture. He wondered if he, too, had a difficult time grasping at the memories of a time when he was someone else.
Alucard turned again to look at Pip. His eyes were soft and glassy, the fiery, red glow from earlier reduced, now, to a weak ember.
At some point, they had both become someone that they could no longer recognize.
"It's the same things you dream about," Alucard spoke softly, "A past life."
In this moment, Pip felt as if his chest were cracked open, the secret pain and longing within exposed for the first time. He felt Alucard's mind prodding his own, but this time, not to violate, but for something to cling onto, to relate to... it was too much.
Pip was at a loss for words, and he stood up, walking towards the doorleading out of the penthouse.
"My job is done for today." Pip spoke, downing the last of his wine before placing his hand on the doorknob in front of him.
"Well," Alucard purred, changing his tone back to the vampire Pip had come to know, "I look forward to your next visit, Monsieur Bernadotte."
Pip scoffed, "Don't mock me in my mother tongue, Vampire."
Alucard bent his neck back and laughed a full belly laugh, and Pip closed the door behind him, not looking back to meet his gaze, in fear that he would get sucked back in.