Close Quarters

Ketti:Zomigaw, another update! Gasp! It's the apocalypse! Chapter 5, when I type it, should flow a bit better since I'm trying to wrap this up, sorta. We'll see how that works, yeah? ;P

Seras squirmed as she felt something caressing her side, and when it didn't stop, she slapped her hand at It, whining, and burying her head into the soft cushion of her pillow. The thing retreated for a moment, then returned, crawling up her leg. Eyelids flying open, she shrieked and threw herself against the wall of the coffin. Her Master was still asleep, or, at least, his eyes were closed, but his hands were creeping ever closer. Growling low in her throat, she phased backwards through the wood and hot footed it to the nearest wall. Oh hell no, she was not getting groped in her sleep again!

Sparing half a glance back at the innocent looking box, she stepped into the stone and allowed herself to float up through the different levels of Hellsing Manor, keeping hidden within the walls once she reached the upper stories. On a whim, or perhaps something more, she deviated from her path to sleep beneath Integra's bed, and phased up out of the floor under the woman's desk. Fortunately for the Draculina, she was facing the Hellsing Heiress as she pulled herself out of the tiles, and she caught the foot flying towards her face with the palm of her hand. That would have hurt. Catching Integra's eye as the woman leaned back in her chair, feigning a casual air, the fledgling gave her a pleading look. The elder blonde closed her eyes briefly before resettling herself in the chair and Seras gave a sigh of relief as she crawled the rest of the way out of floor to curl up as comfortably as she could beneath the massive desk.

"Something wrong, Hellsing?" An unfamiliar voice jeered from her back, apparently Sir had visitors.

"No," Sir drawled, "of course not. Now, what nonsense were you going on about, again?"

She could hear the men muttering, at least two of them, and resisted the urge to peek an eye out through the desk and spy on them further.

"As we were saying, Hellsing, we've heard rumors about the uprise in vampire activity, and can't help but to notice that your organization has been unable to halt their advance. We are willing to offer our services, for a… nominal fee."

Though she couldn't see them, she could almost feel the oily smirk he must surely be gracing Sir Integra with. Seras had the bizarre urge to throw him out the window, and good riddance to bad rubbish.

A foot nudged her, rather sharply, and she jerked, only realizing she had been growling when she stopped. Sir Integra, having grown up with vampires for the past decade, had caught the noise before her current company could question it.

"A fee. Of course." Seras' lips twitched a bit in her amusement before she yawned. Although still sleepy, a sneaking feeling had the hairs on the back of her neck standing straight and she resolved to stay awake long enough to ascertain if her master's master was in any danger from the seemingly harmless visit.

"You act so high and mighty, as though Hellsing is not supported by the British government." She felt herself baring her teeth at the man's tone, but she kept quiet and for the most part still.

"As if that is any business of yours." Sir Integra growled, fed up, "now, unless you have something productive to say, this meeting is over, gentleman. Good day."

Just then, Seras felt something ripple around her, and she glanced down only to jerk in surprise at the gloved hand protruding from the floor. Feeling a bit desperate, she tugged on her master's master's pantsleg to grab the woman's attention. The blonde shifted back in her seat to spare half a glance down at what was bothering the Draculina, and her lips pressed into a firm line as she stomped her foot down on her servant's hand. Bastard, it was all his fault that Seras had interrupted the meeting in the first place, she wasn't going to just give him what he wanted.

The gloved appendage vanished as quickly as it appeared, and the two males growled before standing and scraping their chairs across the floor, "If that is how it's going to be, Hellsing, then we have nothing further to discuss."

"You'll regret your rash decision." The second man swore, and it was only the legs that pulled her back to the chair that kept her from leaping out from under the desk and mauling the insolent male.

The door slammed quite loudly, and Seras slumped, growling under her breath. "I don't like them."

"Neither do I, Seras. Now then, since you're here… How about that report? Captain Pip's information only goes so far towards painting the picture."

Seras yawned, feeling oddly comfortable pinned to the chair with Integra's legs, her lids sliding half closed over her blue orbs. "Well, Sir, it was a trap. They painted a strange rune on the floor in virgin's blood, I smelled it as soon as I got to the end of the upper floor hallway. I'm not sure what it did, but I couldn't phase through the walls, and when I looked at it…" she trailed off, shivering, "It was like my entire body went numb, and I just… fell. I had to crawl up the ceiling," she added helpfully to fill in the gaps, "they were expecting Master. Whoever sent them didn't say what to do with me." Her lips twisted wryly, "and that's when Pip and his men took them out."

"Indeed? What a troublesome development. It would seem whoever is setting these traps must be the ones responsible behind the runes deterioration…"

"What was that meeting about, Sir?" Seras questioned sleepily, turning her head to nuzzle her cheek into the other's knee, purring faintly at the body heat soaking into her naturally cold skin.

"Mmm… Nothing you need to concern yourself with, Seras."

The fledgling hummed, too drowsy to argue. She was back to sleep moments later.

Seras woke with the moon, and found herself tucked into Sir Integra's linen closet. Absolutely baffled at how she ended up there, she phased through the floor to land in the main kitchen, she was starving. Dodging the bustling soldiers getting their night shift breakfast, the buxom blonde made her way easily over to the last fridge on the end where the blood packs were stored. Keying in the simple code – they'd needed a lock after one too many incidents of drunk soldiers freaking out over the blood fridge – she hummed thoughtfully as she scanned the rows of blood types before picking up a pack of O- and an A+. "Hoy, men, listen up!" She shouted over the din, standing on the counter to tower over the Geese, "target practice in twenty."

"Yes ma'am!" They shouted cheerfully, and she stepped backwards into the wall, dropping soundlessly to her feet in the hallway. Sinking her fangs casually into the plastic bag, she sauntered off towards the yard

Seras hummed quite contentedly as she perched herself atop the parked tank's cannon, lounging in the moonlight.

A familiar scent wafted up to her nose and she peeked over her shoulder, before giggling and dropping back, hanging upsidwdown right next to Pip Bernadotte, captain of the Wild Geese. "Nice night, hm?" She grinned toothily at the Frenchman and giggled as he waggled his brows at her, "Now that you're here cher? Of course!"

The men tromped out onto the field as one unit, and Seras dropped, landing in an easy crouch, "Alright, what's your vote, men? Moving target or range practice?"

They exchanged glances, while Pip not-so-discreetly ogled her backside, before voting unanimously, "Range!"

The blonde vampire chuckled as she flashed them her pointy teeth, "Cowards." She winked to soften her teasing and darted off into the grass to set up the cardboard cut outs.

A handful of minutes later found the Geese in a line, trying to hit their newest targets at six hundred meters while their Commander made herself comfortable, critiquing their aim with gentle mockery.

All was going great until an ominous presence filled the yard, and a familiar red shape dropped from the sky to land behind the blonde. To her credit, Seras kept a perfectly calm façade, while inwardly she was cursing him for sneaking up on her. The men all jumped, and a few bullets went wild, putting new notches in the poor trees bordering the grounds.

"Master," Seras hummed as she leaned back into his knee, "nice of you to … drop in." She cracked a smile and waved a hand at the men, "I'm not sure they agree with me, however."

Pip scowled, and nodded, "Alright, men, back to work!"

There was a chorus of grumblings, and the vampire's sharp hearing caught an amusing question between her two more mischievous trainees, "Hey, d'ya think I could claim it as a misfire?"

"With Big Red sitting right there? Don't be an idiot. Wait 'til the Golden Lady moves, mate."

"Enough chit chat, ladies! Get shooting!" Pip intruded, and Seras burst out laughing, leaning more of her weight on her Master's legs as she tipped her head back to look at his smirking face.

He matched her mirth with his own and peeked over his lenses to grace her with his gleaming crimson eyes, "They want to shoot me."

"Can you blame them?"

"No."

"I thought not." Seras winked, and leaned her head back to watch the moon, feeling sleepy. "Sir doubts there will be another incident for at least three days, let's see if she's right."