The Devil's ToyBox

Ketti: Yes, a new oneshot series. I was going to post this anyways, but I'm going to try updating every day for August since I'll be vanishing in September for my next eye surgery. (That's why 2012 was so silent from me, actually.) This series will be special, because each chapter comes with it's own summary for once. Gasp!

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Chapter 1- Please…

It's been thirty years. Seras has been waiting, and she has but one request for her Master.

Master… He was home. Finally. After thirty long years of waiting, he was back. She had so much to say to him! So much… but… when she watched him with Sir Integra, that little insecure part of herself that had tormented her during his long absence got the better of her, and she fled. Like a child. She scolded herself harshly as she paced her room, anxiety filling her. Oh god, what if… what if it was just a dream? She'd wake up, and he'd still be gone. Her heart ached in her chest and she gasped to smother the moan of pain. Her left arm throbbed and the vague shape dissolved into a writhing mass of blood and shadows as she slumped against the wall, burying her face into her knees.

Master… Please…

That was how he found her, wrapped in a protective cocoon of her own shadows as she hid in her room. His 'alone time' with Integra had only lasted five minutes, as she had complained of the cold and her weary bones needed more sleep. He was still dreadfully hungry, but seeing his wayward Childe came first.

"Police Girl."

She jerked her head up, staring at him with wide eyes, almost as if she couldn't believe he was even there. He felt… insulted. The abject relief spreading over her features briefly confused him before the small blonde figure blurred and tackled him into her bed – no, coffin, he amended himself as he noticed the roof. Sir Integra had given her a nicer sleeping place, a four poster coffin, he would have laughed were it not for the armful of sobbing fledgling clinging to him like a leech.

"Don't leave Master, please don't leave again."

He was torn between two reactions, each a polar opposite of the other; laugh at her mockingly, and push her aside, or…

His gloved hands settled across her back a bit awkwardly as he peered down his long nose at the top of her blonde head, brows arched. "Did you miss me, Police Girl?" He asked wryly, skin soaking up the blood tears through his quickly staining shirt.

Her answer was a choked laugh-sob as she coiled around him like a snake, tangling their legs and twining her shadow-arm around his back. He eyed the limb curiously, recalling that she had looked thus thirty years ago. "You still haven't regenerated?"

She flinched, and he almost felt regret. He didn't mean it to sound so demeaning, and ran the gloved fingers of his left hand through her hair in apology.

Her mumbled words were muffled by his cravat, and he tweaked a strand of hair, "Didn't quite catch that, Police Girl." He was teasing her, falling back into old habits easily.

"Said…" she hesitated, "I don't know how. I drink the blood, and have a familiar, but…" she trailed off, and in his curiosity, he prodded their regrowing mental link, catching her thoughts clearly. But you left me! How am I supposed to learn to be a vampire without you, Master?

Rather than saying this aloud, she continued after an unneeded breath, "Books can only teach you so much." She refused to look at him.

He pulled gently, but firmly, on her scalp to meet her red eyes with his own, expression mild, "How many of your powers have you mastered, fledgling?"

Her gaze flicked about nervously, and she looked down at his nose rather than meet his gaze, "Shape shifting, shadow travel, phasing…" she trailed off, looking a bit uncertain.

"You can shapeshift, but you can't regrow your arm?" His voice was flat.

Again she flinched, looking hurt. He sighed.

"It's the same concept, Police Girl. Just remember what your arm looked like and tell the shadows to take the shape."

The curtain of red and black uncoiled from his body to spread out at her side before compacting itself into a roughly cylindrical shape. The darkness leeched from the pseudo-arm, skin replacing shadow until she had two matching arms. She wiggled her fingers, looking amazed, and he snorted.

Again she threw herself at him, both arms wrapping around his neck as she clung harder to his much larger form. He almost grunted at the impact, and stared up at the lid of her coffin-bed blankly as she mumbled incoherent nonsense against his throat. He sighed, a growing habit around the girl, and patted her head.

He was tired, and while the night was still young, he allowed himself to close his eyes. With Seras 'pinning' him, he felt rather comfortable, and within moments, he was asleep. The first real sleep he'd had in three decades.

"Why don't you just drink the blood, you idiot?" The scornful words burned and she looked away in shame – but, no, wait, I… Master! - before Walter interrupted them to share his new toys. Seras felt a growing tightness in her chest as she stared at the red clad man out of the corner of her eye. Something bad was about to happen, she just knew it.

Time seemed to blur around her, and she felt nausea brewing in her stomach as she found herself crammed into a tiny closet, staring out of the tiny opening at the red moon and her Master's silhouette in the penthouse window. The door burst open and the men opened fire, literally blowing Alucard to pieces. Seras had to bite deeply into her knuckles to keep from screaming his name and revealing herself. Master! – Don't leave me, oh gods, Master! – When he pulled himself back together, she felt relief wash over her, but another part of her cringed and looked away as he killed the men.

Again her sense of time tripped her up, and she felt ill, as though she were trapped in a coffin, slowly sinking to the bottom of the ocean, where she would wither away to a dry husk.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself staring again at the man, but this time it was different. There was something… wrong. Something… - this never happened, wake up, you idiot. – He turned to her with a cruel expression on his handsome face and she flinched back, nearly cowering.

"You are weak," he hissed, lip curling back from his impressive fangs, "a disgrace to my name. What sort of vampire doesn't drink blood?" He mocked her, crimson eyes full of danger. "You disgust me," she rocked back, as if struck, clutching at her chest as tears welled in her eyes, "get out of my sight!"

She couldn't move, she was frozen, mind locked up with blind terror. No! No… nononono, please…

He sneered as he turned on his heel and walked away, his shadows swirling about his feet and slowly engulfing his form.

No! No, please, Masster, come back! – Don't leave me again, please, please… - With a helpless cry she lunged after him, but he was gone, and she was alone.

It was all her fault.

She woke with a start, blood in her mouth as she bit deeply into her fisted hand to not scream. Dull red eyes stared sightlessly at the lid of her coffin, replaying the dream over and over in her head and coming to the same conclusion. It was her fault, if she had been a better fledgling, if she…

Warm gloved hands descended from above to pull the abused flesh from her lips and her lashes fluttered, the haze of emotional pain clearing from her vision in time to see and feel the long tongue caressing the puncture marks marring her pale flesh. Her lips trembled as new tears welled in the corners of her eyes. He was here! It wasn't a dream.

Curling into the body at her side, the blonde buried her face against his stomach as her shoulders heaved with her silent sobs. It wasn't a dream.

"Please…"

He released her now healed hand to pet her hair lightly, humming low in his throat, "Please, what, Police Girl?"

"Don't leave again, Master."

He paused and his fingers stilled in their combing of her blonde locks, but continued after a moment and she could almost hear the smile in his words, "Did you miss me, Seras?"

"Yes," she whimpered, "don't go. Please."

He chuckled quietly, and laid a possessive hand across her hip, "No," he agreed, "I'm not going anywhere."