Expectations.

Disclaimer: Hellsing belongs people who are not me. I am making £0.00 out of this fic, it is written purely because I have a burning need to create. Although I would like to own Alucard . . . then he'd be mine.

Rating: G

Authoress Note: Seras decides that Alucard is not 'Dracula'. AU setting/Cannon divergence – Seras realises Alucard is Dracula shortly after the Valentines attack. Before Brazil.

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Chapter Four

"You realise this will end in tears," Alucard muttered looking exhausted. "Your tears."

"So, you keep saying," Seras said. "But it worked before."

"When?" Alucard scoffed. "Tell me when we did this exact thing previously?"

"When the Wild Geese joined, it worked well then," Seras glared at her master. Alucard met her stare and held it for a moment before smirking. "What!"

"I remember that very differently to you," he leaned back. "I recall you demonstrating your physical strength by prodding the captain,"

"Well, I flicked him," Seras said.

"I came in …" Alucard continued.

"Through the wall," Seras interrupted, Alucard nodded.

"And the vast majority of them soiled themselves," he finished, Seras smiled. "At no point did anyone shoot me."

"We need to teach them what they are up against," Seras pinched the bridge of her nose. "Right now, they're still making goo-goo eyes at you, they aren't afraid enough."

"Goo-goo eyes?" Alucard frowned.

"Bedroom eyes," Seras elaborated. "What happens if they make bedroom eyes at some freak, it's not going to be as amused about it as you are, it will just kill them."

"Correct," Alucard nodded. "But you do realise that there are certain kinds of stupid you cannot cure?"

"This is not one of those kinds," Seras said. "We can fix this."

"By encouraging them to shot at you?" Alucard said.

"I'll show them that for us getting shot isn't as big a deal as it is for a human, it will frighten them, make them more aware of what they are facing."

"It won't work," Alucard said firmly.

"Why not," Seras snapped. "They just need a bit of further education, the last stunt helped, they're keeping their distance from you now but they still look at you like lovesick teenagers."

"It won't work," Alucard said slowly. "Because you are overestimating yourself." Seras opened her mouth to argue. "Getting shot hurts, regardless of your species."

"I've been shot before, by you," Seras said.

"And you recall this do you?" Alucard said.

"It didn't hurt," Seras said.

"Because your body went into shock," Alucard snapped.

"You laugh off bullet wounds all the time," Seras said.

"They still hurt," Alucard rolled his eyes. "But I can heal them in moments, so the pain is there and gone again, and it's not the gunshot wounds that are funny it's the reaction when gunshot wounds don't stop me."

"I'll heal," Seras said quieter now.

"Yes, if you avoid getting shot in the heart or the head, you will heal. But it will take hours."

"What!" Seras snapped. Alucard looked for a moment like he would bang his head off a wall, Seras noticed that for a split second his expression was almost identical to one Integra wore often.

"You're an infant," Alucard said very slowly. "An infant who won't eat properly I might add. You will heal and you will do so faster than a human but do not expect to heal instantly."

"So getting shot," Seras said slowly.

"Will cripple you, quickly," Alucard said seeming relieved that the message was finally sinking in. "It won't be scary, it will be sad."

"Shit," Seras sighed. She brightened quickly as an idea struck. "What did you do to the guy in the basement?"

"What?" Alucard asked.

"When the ghouls attacked headquarters, we could hear you over the intercom, he called you a monster then there was a lot of screaming." Seras blushed, "I don't remember much of it, but the council were all very uncomfortable afterwards and I doubt it was me they were afraid of."

"You tore apart ghouls on their doorstep," Alucard reminded her, looking pleased.

"But Integra stopped me, then I threw up." Alucard looked less pleased.

"I see." He said slowly with an air of disappointment. "To answer your question I ate him."

"Ah, well, we can't do that," Seras said.

"Integra would disapprove," Alucard nodded. "We'd never hear the end of it."

"Really, you behave because you're worried about her nagging," Seras snorted. Alucard shook his head but did not elaborate, Seras felt the tension in the room rise and coughed awkwardly. "We need to do something."

"Why?" Alucard shrugged.

"Because I'm fed up watching people die, its bad enough when it happens at all but I don't think I could stomach it if it happened because they were dumb."

"Seems like you can't stomach much," Alucard muttered. Seras glared at him, he glared back at her but after a moment his expression softened and he smiled. "Which could solve your conundrum."

"I doubt me vomiting will scare the recruits," Seras said, feeling sorry for herself.

"No," Alucard agreed. "But your almost as naive as they are and Integra has been 'nagging' at me to train you better."

"I'm not naïve!" Seras snapped.

"I was being charitable," Alucard snorted. "But tell me where should your stupid humans be now?"

"In the mess hall probably," Seras said, her master's grin was getting bigger and she was starting to feel deeply uncomfortable.

"I think it's time we improved your combat tactics, indoors, at close range."

"I don't think I like this job," Gemma said.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked. "You were right keen on this one."

"Yeah but I don't know, I thought the whole fighting monsters thing would be cool, like in the movies, but it wasn't cool."

"You really thought it would be cool?" Harry said. "Fighting is fighting regardless of who it's against, it's not cool, its nothing like the movies and you know this, you've been part of the troop now for five years."

"I know, but we weren't raiding a village or fighting insurgents, we were fighting monsters, and hell we were fighting with Dracula. Sounds like something out of a story, it should have been cool or at least … I don't know." Gemma sighed.

"Disappointed?" Pip asked walking passed the table the recruits were gathered around.

"A little yes," Gemma said. "I re-read the book when I learned where we were going to be working and I expected something a little more…"

"Lace nightdresses and capes?" Harry asked. Gemma blushed.

"Maybe," she admitted.

"Seras would look good in a lace nightdress," Pip said but stopped and frowned before he could say more. "What is that sound?" he walked towards the entrance to the mess hall and was knocked flat on his back when Seras barrelled through the door.

"This isn't funny!" she was yelling as she bolted across the hall followed by the seething black mass of eyes, teeth and laughter that was her master.

"What the fuck?" Harry scrambled out of his chair as Seras lifted a pistol from the table she was now standing on and fired a few brief shots. Her master stopped laughing and semi emerged from the mass of shadows.

"Really?" he said to his fledgeling before shadows emerged underneath Seras knocking her off her feet. She hit the ground hard and yelped rolling out of the way when her Harkonnen fell from the shadows and landed heavily behind her.

"I can't use this indoors!" she yelled.

"You're in trouble then," Alucard's voice came from the shadows as they sunk into the floor, disappearing. The hall was silent for a long moment before a table by the door, long enough to seat twelve men was upended. The table shot directly upwards several feet before landing upside down. Then the next table did exactly the same.

"What's going on?" Gemma yelled.

"Everybody out!" Pip called over the deafening clatter as Alucard trashed his way through the mess hall towards his fledgeling.

"I can't even bloody see you!" Seras yelled as people ran for the door only to be stopped when two of the upturned tables were thrown at the door.

"Fuck," Pip snapped. "Oi monster you want to harass each other then fine but let us out first."

"What's he doing?" Harry said to Pip who was ordering his men up against the walls.

"I don't know I …" Pip stopped, taking a moment to see what Alucard had done to the mess hall, all the tables were upturned and thrown against the walls. There was a big empty space in the centre of the hall. "He's making space?" Pip said.

"This isn't funny," Seras snapped when Alucard's laughter came from the shadows along the walls. The shadows moved seamlessly into the centre of the room and wavered for a moment before the hellhound stepped out.

"What the fuck is that thing," Gemma shouted.

"That's the wolf you were petting yesterday," Seras couldn't help herself from yelling. She dodged backwards as the oversized K9 form with far too many eyes and teeth lunged at her. She wasn't fast enough and shouted when teeth closed on her arm, and she was lifted off her feet. She felt the wind go out of her when she struck the wall, thrown across the hall by the hound.

"Try harder," the voice of her master came from the beast. Seras had only a moment to blink the flashes out of her vision before the hound ran at her. She managed to roll away and the beast went through the wall.

"What the fuck is he doing!" Pip yelled when Alucard was gone, running across to Seras.

"Practice," Seras managed, still winded from the blow against the wall. "Close combat against freaks within a civilian population."

"Oh… shit." Pip said. "Well, I'm not a civilian." He pulled a gun from his side holster and turned to face his men. "He'll be back," he shouted. "We need cover."

"What's going on captain!" one of the men called.

"Don't care," Pip said. "Pull those tables down now." The men snapped to the task, pulling tables away from the wall and turning them into cover.

"Don't?" Seras said. "Just stay by the walls, he's not 'teaching' you."

"Shut up and help them get cover," Pip snapped at her. "Also pick up the damned cannon."

"It'll destroy the room," Seras said.

"We can blame the fucking monster for that," Pip said. "You've got twenty eyewitnesses of an unprovoked attack."

"It's not an attack," Seras snapped and was blindsided when the hound emerged from the floor and knocked her across the room. The blow caught Pip sending him rolling.

"Get behind cover!" Pip yelled getting to his feet and running as fast as his bruised body would move.

"The girls still out there," one of the men snapped when Pip made it behind the tables.

"Master this isn't funny," Seras was repeating, she glanced at the men hiding behind upturned tables and frowned. "Get out from there," she snapped.

"We need cover," Pip said.

"You're making more shadows," Seras said. "That's a bad idea." As if to prove her point, the shadows created by the tables sprouted teeth and a ridiculous number of red eyes.

"Shit! Move," Pip snapped. The men surged away from the tables and stood with Seras in the centre of the room. Watching in shock as the shadows tore the tables apart.

"That could easily have been you," Seras said to Pip.

"Why wasn't it?" Pip asked Seras could hear his heart hammering.

"Because he's not trying to kill anyone, he's teaching." Seras snapped.

"Worst teacher ever," someone from the back said, Seras had to agree.

"Ok," Pip swallowed and Seras had to admire him just a tiny bit, not many people could stand against her master and keep their wits. "Circle formation, I want eyes on all the shadows, when he comes, he'll come hard and fast."

"I always do," Alucard's very amused voice came from all directions at once.

"Really," Seras said under her breath. "Dick jokes now?"

"Here!" Gemma called, opening fire at the shadows in front of her. They retreated and Seras smiled noting the quiver in the girl's voice.

"Here," another called out the opening fire. But the shadows did not recede this time, they surged forward as the hound. Seras had turned before she had thought to do so and fired a single shot from the Harkonnen. The hound managed to avoid the shot but it threw off his charge and the group remained untouched as the beast disappeared into the shadows once again.

"Well done," Alucard still sounded like he was having far to much fun for Seras liking.

"Here!"

"Here!"

The cries went up simultaneously from opposite sides of the group. Both sides opened fire and two smaller hounds emerged and charged despite the gunfire.

"What the bloody hell is going on here!" Integra's voice cut through the gunfire and both hounds disappeared.

Integra stood at the doorway to the mess hall, her chest heaving from having run down the hall. Everyone had turned to face her but no one said anything as she glared at everyone.

"Alucard," she said quietly.

"My master," Alucard's voice came from behind the group, the entire group jumped, two of the men dropped their guns, and another fell over. Alucard grinned.

"What is going on?" Integra said very slowly, her voice calm but belaying a level of anger Seras had not witnessed yet.

"Training," Alucard said simply.

"Training," Integra repeated.

"Close quarters combat with a civilian population," Seras spoke up. Integra turned her gaze on Seras and Seras felt her stomach form icicles. Surprisingly her master closed his hand over her shoulder and pulled her gently behind him.

"An education to prevent needless deaths in future operations," he said to Integra still smiling.

"In the mess hall," Integra said.

"Not many freaks pop up in open fields," Alucard said.

"We have indoor training grounds that are not the mess hall, I don't see why …" Integra stopped herself. She took a slow breath before continuing. "I expect this room to be put to rights as much as possible, I want a report on the damage and I expect a better explanation from you two." She snapped at her vampires. "Right now, both of you." She turned and stalked out of the semi-destroyed mess hall. Alucard turned to his fledgeling.

"I think that was a success," he grinned. Seras looked at him for a long moment, before starting out after Integra.

"I can't believe you bit me," she snapped, her arm throbbing.

"It was a play bite," Alucard laughed as the soldiers watched them go.

"You threw me into a wall, with your teeth! That's not a play bite!" Seras snapped as they left the mess hall. "You're a bad dog." Pip turned to the men.

"You heard her, we need to sort this place out," he said.

"What was all that about?" one of his men approached and asked.

"I don't know and I don't want to know." He said firmly.

End Fic

Authoress Note: Thank you for reading, please comment/review, I'd love to hear what you think.

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