Time Enough

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, neither do I profit from this.

Summary: Alucard makes a mockery of Integra's marriage.

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"You don't love him."

"Oh?" She arched a brow. "Do you know what love is?"

He might have screamed, "Yes, I too can love," but contented himself instead with, "Why don't you enlighten me, Master?"

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrong doings. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." Her voice had a slightly dull quality, as if she were reciting something learned by heart.

"Ah, there are some beautiful passages in your Bible," Alucard remarked carelessly, "but don't tell me that is what you feel for him."

"I don't, but I may. I respect him enormously."

"I am given to understand that love comes with time. It requires a foundation of years of acquaintance. The Police Girl tells me she would never marry if there was no love."

"Unlike you or Seras, I don't have forever. There is a window of time I must not miss."

"Do you think you are ready to be a mother?"

"You were siring children left and right while you were still a 'child-brain'," she pointed out.

"No comparison can be made between the two of us. Our circumstances differ wildly."

"Alucard."

"Yes, my master?"

"When I have a child—regardless of when that happens—promise me you will protect her with the same bloodlust you did me."

"Bloodlust?"

"If your fierce watchfulness during my formative years was not because of your desire to taste my blood, then it must have sprung from your delight in destroying your enemies."

"It was both of those reasons and all of the ones in between."

"Ultimately, your motives are irrelevant," Integra said, striving for indifference.

A pause.

"You said 'her'. You hope for a girl?"

"A daughter, yes."

He put a gloved hand on her flat belly and whispered, "Hope for a son, Master. No girl could survive the constant comparisons with you that I would make in my mind."

Integra trembled. "You will love her," she said with awful certainty. She wasn't sure whether that was an order or a prediction. She told herself the pang in her heart was certainly not due to jealousy of her unborn, unconceived daughter—that was patently ridiculous.

"Don't love him, Master," Alucard murmured in response, cupping her cheek. "I can be patient." He kissed her cheek. "I can be kind." He brushed her lips with his own. "I will protect." He licked her jawline. "I will persevere." He mouthed the pulsing artery in her neck.

"Enough," said Integra, but without any real force. She pushed him away, but he could tell she did so against her will. Alucard bowed and smiled. They might not have forever, but he had made progress, and his master's window of time was time enough for him.

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A/N: Integra quotes I Corinthians 13:4-7.