Starved For Affection

Ketti: I'm actually not too sure how many people will be happy about this, since it's a new story instead of updating a current one. But I've had this written for a few years now, and my post-birthday resolution is to actually put my stories up regardless of them being finished or not. Mostly posting this so JuJu has KCI, but, hey anyone else who enjoys it? Rock on.

Chapter One

Seras paced restlessly through her rooms, she knew them like the back of her hand, the lights her constant companion. Something was nagging her, it felt… she didn't know. Frustrated, she flopped into her desk chair and turned on the computer, flipping to her favorite program; the screen saver shifting through different scenes in nature. A smile touched her deathly pale face as she stared at the pictures, always finding something new; a leaf of a different color, or a frog hidden in the grass. She wondered what grass felt like, and longed to touch it. She'd never felt rain (showers didn't count) or sun or wind (fans didn't, either) or even fresh air. She'd never felt a human touch not provided by her own hands.

Her whole life had been spent in these rooms, the days didn't mean much to her when the lights never dimmed or went out. She slept when tired and meals were provided through a special fridge, she'd tried to open the back slider once, but found it locked, and it was durable enough that she couldn't break it. A bell rang and she grunted, meandering over to the kitchen to see her newest volley of pills waiting for her with a bottle of apple juice.

The computers that taught her explained she needed these pills to make up for her lack of outside exposure and to help her maintain a healthy weight. She had a feeling that there was more to the pills than that, vitamins alone could only do so much. She was actually quite smart, believe it or not, with nothing to truly distract her from her studies.

Idly, she counted the pills, then frowned. There were three more of them today, they hadn't increased the numbers in … She couldn't remember. Years?

That strange feeling curdled in her stomach and she turned away from the counter, she'd take them later. Maybe.

Prowling over towards the pool room, the blonde tugged absently at her tank top, feeling uncomfortably warm. Odd. Face scrunching in thought, she whipped the material over her head and threw it to the floor, kicking off her shorts a moment later to leave her in regulation cotton undergarments. Without pausing, the girl dove headfirst into the deep end, flipping in the water and emerging in a spray of crystal fine droplets to gasp in a breath of air. She frowned as she tasted it on her tongue, then stared suspiciously at the walls before diving back beneath the water and making her way to the shallow end, movements lithe and graceful like a mermaid. Learning to swim had taken a lot of practice, but with her water wings and inner-tube, not to mention the ever present robotic voice that would scold her for making a mess or acting dangerously – don't go in the pool without the water wings. Don't climb that, you'll break your arm. Don't eat that now, you dropped it on the floor… - she had figured it out. She had the vague feeling that she'd nearly drowned once. She'd woken up in her bed, attached to a breathing mask with an IV stuck to her wrist.

The people that kept her in here took care of her. She'd almost call them parents, but that'd be a lie.

Unease rattled her nerves and she clambered from the pool, leaving a dripping trail in her wake as she turned right to the seldom used playground equipment, and dropped herself into the big kid's swing. Concentrating on pumping herself up until gravity threatened to unseat her, she grinned as the self made breeze dried her short spiky hair.

That strange smell tickled the back of her throat and she moaned as her head started to feel swimmy. Slowing down, bare feet skidding on the cushioned floor, she gulped in great heaving gasps of air, only making herself feel worse. Oh, oh damn. The sleeping gas. They hadn't dosed her in so long she'd almost forgott-…

Alucard made his way casually through the abandoned hallways of the facility, peering idly into different room as he passed them. The vampire that had been posing as a scientist had been silenced, but not before he hit a few interesting looking buttons, and Alucard found himself curious as to what they did. One of the other doctors had seemed upset at the target's actions before succumbing to unconsciousness via blood loss. So, Hellsing's Trash Man was exploring.

The place was empty.

But clearly there must be something here? Tilting his head back he sniffed at the air, and found nothing. An almost suspicious amount of nothing. Narrowing his eyes in thought, he back tracked a few feet, and found that the air in this corridor had been sterilized recently. Perhaps one of the buttons? But an odd thing to do, since humans didn't have the sense of smell a vampire or other supernatural creatures did.

Red eyes narrowing in thought, he slipped the amber glasses down his nose, and watched the walls more carefully his second time through. There, nearly invisible, was a seam in the wall. He touched it, and after a moment It whirred and slid to the side, revealing a room full of cameras. But nothing was showing on them, and the images looked nothing like the building he'd been meandering through. Intrigued, he stepped closer, and found a red button pulsing just in front of the abandoned chair. Well, why not?

He pushed it.

The cameras flickered and something caught the vampire's eye in the bottom right corner; it looked like an unconscious girl, lower half still propped on the swing she must have fallen from. Or perhaps she was dead?

He had nothing better to do, as his Master had forgotten to order him to return promptly, and so he chuckled in dark humor as he made himself intangible and walked through the wall. It took longer than he would have thought to reach the rooms on the security feeds, and when he emerged from the wall, the first thing that hit him was the overpowering stench of gas. It burned his nose painfully, so he stopped breathing, an easy feat for one such as himself. Without scent to guide him, he wandered, amusing himself by guessing at what each room would hold, until he found himself at an indoor pool, with a puddle of water leading away and presumably towards the female he'd seen on the floor.

When he reached the room he recognized from the monitor, he was further amused to find the girl in her underwear. How indecent!

Freely admiring her lithe form and generous breasts, he knelt by her and checked her pulse, confirming that, yes, she was very much alive. She shivered, even in her unconscious state, and mewled, inching closer to him with a look of longing on her porcelain white face. The girl looked as if she'd never seen a drop of sunlight, and he found that he liked it. She reminded him of a pretty vampiress he knew centuries back.

"What are they keeping you in here, for, hmm?" His deep voice rumbled in his chest, echoing slightly in the noiseless room, and she sighed, a smile curling her lips as the strange girl rolled towards him. How interesting, a human that craved a vampire's presence.

Well, he hardly felt like leaving his newest find here to rot, and it wasn't as if he cared a whit about human laws most nights. So he'd take her with him back to Hellsing. She'd prove a few weeks amusement if nothing else.

Spotting a brown blanket abandoned on the ground to his left, he used it to wrap the girl as he picked her up, finding she weighed no more than a feather. The unnamed blonde purred and cuddled into him, nuzzling her cheek affectionately against his shoulder. Amused, he allowed it, and opened a shadow portal easily in the wall. His target was silenced, and the clean up crew would be arriving any minute now, so, with his mission complete, the vampire was returning to Hellsing.

"-ere you thinking?! You had no right to-"

"Would you rather I leave the girl, Master? How cold."

Seras shivered and scrunched her face up as the male voice rumbled through her very bones. It felt terribly strange. Wait… Male?

Jerking back from the unfamiliar sensation of leaning on something firm, yet somehow warm, she hit the floor with a thump, nearly cracking her skull open in the process. She grunted, rubbing at her sore scalp as she stared wide eyed up at the pair of legs in front of her. Her breathing hitched, shoulders twitching as she tensed. She'd always dreamed of escaping her rooms and visiting new places, but she'd retained a secret hope that she'd be able to accomplish this without ever needing to meet another human. Anxiety rolled in her gut, threatening to make her sick and she scrambled back hastily, only to bump into something that moved back, voicing a muffled 'oomph'.

Alarmed, Seras jerked her head back to take in the sight of the long haired ma-… no, woman in a suit, and she jumped. Two people. Real. Live. People.

The blonde's eyes darted wildly about the room, and she focused in on the window. Without another thought she rushed the glass and nearly made it when the female barked a single command; "Stop her!"

Faster than a blink, she was captured, and she screamed like a wild thing, kicking and biting and clawing without remorse. The red clad creature that held her laughed, dangling her up in the air, her bare feet kicking wildly as she snarled and struggled.

"Alucard, that is enough, you're frightening her." The woman-is-a-suit spoke sharply and approached the pair. Seras bared her blunt teeth and kicked out violently at the female, who looked surprised as she dodged the attempted assault. "What is the matter with you, girl?" She snapped, and Seras flinched minutely, "show a little gratitude for getting you out of that place."

Seras froze, eyes wide and darting about wildly, taking in everything, yet seeming to see none of it. Her heart was racing in her ears, and anger burned in her core that she had escaped her rooms only to be held prisoner once more. It was worse, so much worse, because the window, the outside was just behind her. Just out of reach.

"That's better…" The woman grumbled, eyeing her warily as she approached, and Seras shrank back. The stranger's brows furrowed behind her glasses and she reached out for Seras, who cringed, then slapped the hand back without thinking. The man holding her by the scruff of the neck shook her, and she felt her teeth rattling in her head. Oooh…Don't do that! Seras howled mentally, too shaken to speak aloud.

The woman frowned at her, then grunted as she reached up to adjust her glasses, "Do you have a name, girl?"

Seras looked away from her, refusing to answer.

"You do understand me, correct?"

Seras held her silence.

"Alucard?"

Seras felt terribly uncomfortable, dangling a good three inches from the ground, and when she felt something brush her hair, she flinched at first before pausing, then humming as she leaned into the caress of his palm on her scalp. That felt nice.

"She understands perfectly, my Master."

"Then why does she refuse to speak?" The woman sounded frustrated and Seras sniffed, ignoring her as she sought more contact with the nice hand. It pulled back and she whined pitifully, straining in the grip of his other hand.

"Perhaps she doesn't like you," he suggested, sounding amused before turning the girl to face him. Blue met red in a stare down, and Seras tilted her head to the side curiously. He was very pale, like herself, but he had dark hair and lovely red eyes. He grinned at her, showing a set of impressively sharp teeth, and she liked the look of them on his face.

After a long moment, the blonde opened her mouth to speak, coughed, cleared her throat, and tried again. "Hullo."

His grin widened, showing every tooth in his head, "Well, hello yourself little wild thing."

"Can you put me down now?"

"Are you going to try and jump through the window again if he does?" The woman spoke, and Seras eyed her for a moment before ignoring her.

"My Master asked you a question," Alucard rumbled, and Seras' brow pinched as she realized he'd called the woman that before. How odd. Mulling the words over, she spoke to the raven haired man, "I might not."

He chuckled, setting her down, but not releasing her. Yet she didn't mind, in fact she leaned into the cool-and-warm of his hand on her neck now that she was on solid ground.

"What is her name?" The woman wasn't even asking her now, which suited Seras just fine, though why or how Alucard would know was beyond the petite blonde.

"it's Seras."

Seras jumped a bit, then looked up at him, startled. The way he said her name… It sounded much nicer than the machine voice that raised her. "How did you know?"

"That's my secret," he crooned, a strange light in his eyes that made Seras curious. Like amusement, but… darker somehow. "Oh."

"Seras," the nameless woman started, and the girl turned her head away, "why won't you look at me?" She was annoyed. Seras' lips twitched, viciously pleased.

Alucard's Master grabbed her arm, and she yowled as if scalded, turning in a fury to claw the woman's face with her fingernails, only to find her wrist caught. "Let go!" She wailed, kicking her legs out and struggling, "Let me go right now!"

The woman shook her, and Seras felt tears in her eyes as she shrank back and without warning started to cry like a child. "Le-aaah-ggoooh…"

Alarmed, the female released Seras, and she collapsed to the floor in a wailing heap, curling into a ball and shielding her head as if from a blow.

Alucard's Master knelt down and acted as if she were about to touch the girl again, and her crying grew louder, limbs shaking as she cringed and leaned back, cowering on the floor. The door flew open then as an elderly man rushed into the room and stopped dead, expression frozen in bewilderment.

Seras howled as if struck and scuttled back, taking refuge behind the red man's legs, her fierceness gone, replaced by a frightened child in the body of an adult. She clung to his pant-legs and wept, shaking violently, breaths wheezing in her throat.

"What is wrong with her?!" The woman demanded and Seras bit her lip so hard she tasted blood, her shoulders heaving as she tried to stifle her sobs.

"You're frightening her, Master." Alucard almost sounded pleased, which confused Seras a little. "The girl's never had any human contact. They kept her isolated her whole life."

"None?" The new voice must be the old man, and Seras snuffled noisily, trying to breathe through the snot leaking from her nose. "What in blazes for?" The woman sounded incredulous, then there was a slight rustle, and some part of Seras' mind decided that Alucard must've shrugged, for the old man spoke up, tone shrewd, "She seems rather attached to you, Alucard. I wonder why that is?"

"Perhaps she knows I'm not human?" Alucard offered, chuckling as he bent at the waist to inspect the pitiful sight hiding behind his legs. The girl's eyes were squinched shut, and her cheeks were flushed, tears making their steady way down to her chin where they dripped to the floor. He lowered a gloved hand to her hair and again she flinched at first before relaxing, leaning up and nuzzling into the cool material like a kitten.

"Sir Integra, I must admit I have no idea what to do with the girl." The old man was speaking, and she knew that the red man was Alucard… Perhaps that was the woman's name? How odd, to call a female Sir.

Then his words sunk in and she clung tighter to Alucard's legs, whining low in her throat. Do with her? Like, experiment with her?! She didn't want to go back to her rooms! "I don't want to go back, you can't make me!" Seras wailed, voice raw from her crying, she sounded as terrible as she looked.

There was a sudden silence in the room, and the girl felt nausea rolling in her gut again from anxiety, hunger, and the strain her crying fit had put on her somewhat frail form. "I…" she hiccupped, then went green, "mmabesick," she turned and threw up the meager contents of her stomach, mostly stomach acid which burned as it trickled out her nose as well. Blackness consumed her, and she would have fallen face first into the mess had Alucard not caught her by the shoulders.

"I like her," he chortled, "can I keep her, Master?"