A/N: Ah, the comeback. It's been so very long, my loves.

While I am updating the rather dated writing of my medieval setting fic, I feel the need to spice things up by adding another short story to my collection. A two-shot that explores what happens the night Alucard returns home. Been done a thousand times before by other, better authors, but I just can't help myself. Here's my own addition to the tapestry.

Reviews are always welcome :3

Disclaimer: I own nothing, as usual.

.•*´¨`*•.

Return

Integra wrapped her finger with a band aid and sat back down on her bed.

"That will be all, servant. Expect to give me a full report tomorrow at dusk. Now leave me. It's the middle of the damn night," she climbed back under the covers.

Alucard stood up and brushed himself off, licking the last remnants of her blood from his lips.

"A full report? Not a casual update? Be still my unbeating heart. The Iron Maiden missed me," he said with relish.

She huffed irreverently. "You mad dog. Go chase your tail around other delusions. I will summon you when I am ready. Now leave."

A haughty grin split his cheeks. "I missed you, too."

"For the love of God, get out!" Integra threw the book on her nightstand at him. He dodged it effortlessly.

Despite her bristly composure, Alucard could sense that she was pleased. A long-entrenched tightness in her chest had finally relaxed upon his arrival. The root of its cause might have been somewhere adjacent to affection, but at its crux he was ultimately a means to an end for her. A weapon to be wielded to destroy his own kind. All but one other, that is.

He bowed briefly and turned on his heels, exiting the room.

Without having to think, he felt Seras trailing right behind. She closed the door and followed but curiously hadn't said a word, aside from screeching 'Master!' three octaves higher than was necessary in that lovely, ear-splitting song. If Seras had a working heart, he was certain it would have burst by now. Yet still, her silence was more and more interesting by the second. He had assumed a barrage of stop-start squeals and fumbling words would have assaulted him in Integra's bedroom, certainly by now walking through the hallway. However, she seemed perfectly pleased walking behind him through each corridor not uttering a sound.

Taking a moment to get his bearings, he roamed about the manor, ambling up and down its vast length, and noticed that nearly everything was still in its rightful place, just as it was before his disappearance at the turn of the century. Untouched.

But something had changed, he thought as he regarded Seras's presence.

During London's apocalypse, it only took one look for him to know she was capable of defending the manor; one look to see she had finally shed her human visage and embraced her true midian form. Up until the moment Seras had drunk Pip's life essence, he was unsure if she could inherit his same powers to take on familiars. But once she had drunk her fill, he could sense her energy transform into a likeness nearly identical to his own; a signature power he recognized from within and felt coursing through her body. It was electrifying to know such a thing was possible.

Since they were out of earshot, he turned to her.

Seras stopped and met his gaze, smiling cheerfully but still remaining silent.

He looked her over with a keen eye.

Her reticence was highly unusual. He searched her mind for an answer. Seras freely let him in, of course, but all he could see was happiness and long years awaiting his arrival, never doubting his eventual return, and remaining steadfast when all others doubted. Out of all the humans, only Integra stayed convinced. There was also pain; he could feel it. The loss of comrades during the span of his absence; people who Seras had considered friends and who were eventually collateral damage. Many humans had died during several other uprisings, among them allies to Hellsing. The world had changed now that the existence of vampires was an open fact. There was clearly no turning back after London.

Yet through it all, she and Integra persevered, just like he knew they would.

He smiled down at Seras.

What splendid ladies.

Now they're mine, Walter.

Mine alone.

Alucard felt a swell of pride. He reached out and brushed aside a lock of her hair, looping it around an ear while his thumb stroked her cheek. Her skin was warm to the touch, and he felt his fangs lengthen in response. She'd been feeding before he barged in, starving for Integra's blood to revive his emaciated state.

God, he was starving still.

Then Seras did something he did not expect. She walked up to him, closing the space between them, and wrapped her arms around his midsection, finally resting her head onto his chest.

Amused and not unwillingly, Alucard encircled his arms around her small frame and pulled her in until their bodies were flush against one another. Seras molded her form to his instantly and heaved a big sigh, blissfully content. He gently rested his chin atop her head as his own body instinctively relaxed in her touch.

No matter how successful the bonds of Hellsing servitude were at repressing the full power of his senses, no matter how practiced he was at controlling himself to preemptively avoid the searing pain of the seals on his gloves, nothing could break the bond between master and fledgling. The unholy magic of that accursed bond predated anything Abraham and his lackeys could have concocted down in the laboratory dungeon.

The two of them would be tethered together until the end of time. Like a chord that thrummed when plucked from either direction, from either person, they would feel each other's emotion and share each other's pleasure and pain. What a strong line they had, now that Seras was fully grown.

He felt her lightly squeeze as she nuzzled his chest, inhaling his scent and purring.

He sensed a wave of deep and abiding love wash over her. Though he had originally ignored her infantile puppy love when she was first turned, what he felt now was something quite different. Something new.

Something old that he had not felt in centuries.

And here she was, a fully matured, formidable vampire in her own right. The fact that Hellsing Manor was still standing was proof enough. All this time Seras had dutifully taken care of his master, but he still sensed her loneliness in its undertaking.

A twinge of empathy tugged at his unbeating heart.

Even though thirty years could be a mere blip over the span of a vampire's lifetime, being apart from one's own flesh and blood was excruciating in its own way.

Master and servant. Sire and fledgling. One without the other was simply...incomprehensible.

Seras slowly lifted her head up, lost somewhere between a sleepy state of euphoria and reality; as if this could all be a dream, one of a thousand she had had every day sleeping restlessly and yearning for him to come home. He sensed a part of her even now doubted that he was really here, embracing her. Actually embracing her. It seemed much more likely that this was a dream, and a cruel one at that.

He chuckled, which caught her attention.

They locked eyes, and surprisingly, Seras did not bashfully avert her gaze or shrink inwardly away from him.

Although, he reminded himself, she is a grown woman now.

Instead, she let her gaze trail lazily down his face, taking in every contour, every shape and aspect, marking the sharp features of his nose and jawline and his softer features, finally ending at his lips. She exhaled an unconsciously held breath and swallowed, knowing instantly who else was privy to her thoughts.

Alucard hummed savoringly, relishing in her thought's conjured image and how tempted she was to cross that line. A full vampire, Seras no doubt felt the primal need to indulge herself - a natural sensation now compounded over the course of her master's decadal-spanning absence, and now made even harder to control upon his long-awaited return. The unexpected, however, was Alucard, King of Vampires, unsure that he could resist her if she took that final step.

Then, without fail, his jaw clenched as the seals of his gloves began to burn in admonishment, reminding him of the price he would pay for free reign to feel what he desired; the price of releasing his restriction levels without the expressed permission of his own master.

He openly defied his cage once, many years ago after being captured and imprisoned. Like an untamed stallion, he resisted his chains, challenged their strength, and provoked his captors. They had to beat him into submission an innumerable amount of times.

But times had changed. He was alone then, with his failed attempt at turning the love of his life leaving him no choice but to walk the earth as a forsaken revenant of the night.

Until her.

Pacifying the seals, Alucard released Seras, her touch leaving its own searing impression into his skin.

Tilting his head slightly back, he sighed. How he would cherish burning in such sweet agony, as master and servant were meant to be.

Then again...

He grinned, phasing through the ground into the bowels of his lair, motioning for her to follow before all of his atoms deconstructed and disappeared.

Pleased, she phased through the ground, her body tingling with anticipation.

.•*´¨`*•.