Ice Cream and the Thames

OOC: A small section of the Thames where people go to eat, with a medium 24 hours ice cream shop and a few benches the place is relaxed and quiet and is frequented more by locals with most tourists going on boat rides.

Maia gave a small smile as she saw the small shop, ice cream, the prospect of it was amazing. Especially since she’d not had since she was a little girl, so as she parked the car and got out the Jew flexed a little. Her wound had recovered for the most part, the hour drive to get here turning it into a shallow-ish scabbed over wound that could be hidden by her coat.
She looked around and took out her purse, calling to the boy to get out she asked him a question of great importance “what flavour kid? My treat for giving me the blood”

Ben had been following her this far- she hadn`t said a word about what she was going to do, though he had noticed they weren`t heading back to the mansion right away... instead, she pulled over to a little tourist site with an icecream stand and she was buying him some. He didn`t expect that, he hadn´t thought Maia would be the type to enjoy ice cream... but then again, he didn`t know Maia all that well in general. She seemed very introversed, very locked away and only slowly opening up to him.
In a matter of ways, there she was, handing him a signed peace treaty- or a bond of friendship.
"I.. i`m not sure, its been a while since i had ice cream too... i always liked chocolate, so, i guess chocolate it is. ...are you sure we can eat that?" He asked the second part quietly, trying to make it discreet as if they were allergic or something, not demihuman.
He`d already left his insignia and the armored vest in the car, so chances were they weren´t going to look at him in an odd way anyway- aside from, you know, the tall, muscular woman buying him ice cream like a mother would do to her child.

“Chocolate for you then, I’ll have Vanilla, if we can drink then I’m sure we can have something that’s just frozen milk” Maia said absent minded, she bought the Ice cream and got flakes with them. She went and passed it to him, beginning to eat hers she patted him gently on the shoulder an went to sit down on a bench. There were weirder things than this, a muscular short woman buying ice cream for an American.
“This is another thing Ben, tell anyone I’m buying ice cream and they’ll think I’m going soft, so don’t mention it ok.”

She sat quietly for a few minutes before speaking up again, she turned to him and gave a sad smile.
“So when was the last time you had ice cream”

Ben sat down on the bench, deeply in thoght as she mentioned this. It was an october evening, the shops were closing down, and he was out with Vanessa...
They were just strolling through the streets, chatting, laughing together- while she said she wasn´t hungry for dinner, she did agree to eat ice cream with him...
So they did, chocolate, just like today- out of a single cup, they both ate some... thats when he noticed her tongue, it seemed- oddly long, but she said it was just something she was born with, so he didn´t mind all that much.
They were going to head home- he´d take her home, then go back to his parents house himself... and halfway there she stopped, her eyes were.. glowing, and... his memories tore apart, fragments of him being rammed against a wall repeatedly, fangs like a shark´s maw errupting from Vannessa´s pretty face, a terrible pain in his neck- and then, gunfire. The pressure on his shoulders turned to dust, his body slurped to the ground- a blonde woman in a yellow dress was talking to him, but the next thing he knew was Integra Hellsing´s face as she told him he was a vampire now.

Tears came up in his eyes as he refocused on the chocolate ice cream in front of him, and he was having trouble not to break out in sobs.

"Half... a year ago. The night that i died. Thats the last time i ate ice cream, and the last time i´ve seen Vanessa."

Gulping Maia listened to him stutter, trying to stop the tears from falling, she felt like she had to say something yet couldn’t. He was tough for a kid, but in the end he was still a boy. She moved slightly closer to him and patted him on the back, she was dead but there was some maternal instinct still there. She didn’t say anything; there wasn’t anything to say, she realised listening would mean more than anything at this point.

“Tell me all about it Ben, I assume you’ve never talked to anyone about this before so you should get it off yer chest.” She sat silently, her hand resting on his shoulder awaiting him to find the courage to speak. In the end she decided to appeal to curiosity, she was in a strangely social mood and they might as well get to know each other.
“Here’s the deal, you tell me all about it, get it off your chest and I’ll never repeat a word or mention it again without your say so. In return you can hear all about me, and how I ended up here ok?”

It wasn`t like he didn´twant to talk about it, it was more like the words just won´t come as his throat sealed up in sorrow... he took a minute, and a deep breath, and tried to clear his mind, look at things reasonably, like a machine, simply review things.

"Okay... fine." He began, calming down. "There was... Vanessa. I´ve never gotten to know her last name, and i don`t even know if that was really her name.. she was a pretty girl. Tall, sleek, long black hair, square black rimmed glasses, soft brown eyes... and a gentle voice... she had a great sense of humor and a kind of adventureous tick to her, like she wanted to explore new things, try different stuff. We went to the cinema together five times and each time we watched a different kind of movie because she wanted to know what those were like... and sometime, we kissed, i mean, we kissed a lot that day. I´d never kissed a girl before, but with Vanessa it all felt so natural, she was guiding me in and i grew proficient with it in a few seconds. She was an amazing woman.... and i was naive. I never questioned why her body always seemed to be chilly.. and i believed her when she said that tongue of hers was something she was born with. "

Ben sighed a bit, clutching his forehead. "I´m getting off track, you wanted to know about the ice cream thing, right? I`ll get to that in a moment... just need to start somewhere from where you`d understand it."

Maia looked at him with a little frown, she had never really had time for romance but she knew about it. She nodded slowly as he carried on with the story, putting bits and pieces in her head. “No problem, carry on,” she said slowly. He was naïve, and she had some thoughts that he was still in love with her. She may have been right but questions would be at the end, before she ‘fessed up about her own life.
She started eating her flake; it was a nice treat but was soured by the conversation. Nonetheless her face remained grave, he had been turned into a bloodsucker because of love...maybe a useful lesson in teaching him

"So one night in October... a few months after i first met her, we went to the movies and before we headed home, we went through the city for a while, ate ice cream together.. and thats when it all went wrong. We ate chocolate together, just like today... out of a single bowl, we.." He chuckled a bit at the memory. "We were licking it each others tongues, i think. She had some wierd ideas sometimes. As time progressed though, she got... colder, her humor died down, and she seemed nervous. So in the end i took her home early... i would`ve gone back to my parent´s house after that, no funny business, Vanessa was too good of a girl to take advantage of.. when.... ah, i can´t.. really remember... i think i saw a flash of red, that must´ve been her eyes, then i was rammed into a wall, again, again, and again. I tried to push her off me, but she just dislocated my arm... as i stopped resisting... " Ben swallowed hard. "As i stopped to resist, my neck was in a state of pain like you wouldn`t believe, it was as if someone tried to decapitate me and stopped halfway. Then there were noises... gunshots, i fell to the ground, i smelled... ashes, like of a furnace, and someone was talking to me, it must´ve been Seras from the blurry look i got at her, and then i came to at Hellsing`s. Thats the whole story... I know what you`re thinking now. I was naive, blinded by love, something like that. Its not like that at all. She behaved completely normal and i had no idea that vampires actually existed. As far as i was aware, she was a normal woman, and i was her boyfriend... i... i´m trying to tell myself that she never really liked me and was just setting me up for the kill, but a span of five months of dating and kissing and making out seems a bit far fetched for that theory."
Finally, Ben finished his ice cream and looked blankly at the thames.
"I don´t feel a thing for her anymore. I feel like i should´ve acted, should´ve taken her home before that and maybe this wouldn´t have happened... i feel guilty, and i feel responsible, but i no longer feel love for the woman that killed me. In the end, that memory stays vivid.. and i keep telling myself that Vanessa was not a bad person, but she turned into a monster because of the vampireisim."

The Jewish lady put her head in her hands for a second; she seemed to feel numb now. The taste of the ice cream was sickly on her tongue as she felt herself almost shed a tear, he’d had a rotten run of luck made all the worse by not being able to cope. She sat up and sighed, turning to him she gave him a small reassuring smile with another pat on the shoulder. “You shouldn’t feel so torn about it Ben, she may not have been bad to start with but she lost the battle to the vampirism. If she had no choice then why didn’t she leave you when the hunger started building, it’s a bad thing to happen to anyone and I know how you must feel, but try not to let it take over you, it will be hard but you have to move on if you’re going to do anything with yourself.”

She paused for a second, “and no I don’t think you were naïve or blinded, I’ve never really been in love so I don’t know so I won’t just assume things. No need to worry about me judging you kid, so are you ready for a slightly longer story about yours truly?”

Ben forced himself to bring up a smile, but blinked in honest surprise at one of the last things she said before asking him that question. It puzzled him, and left him curious about her story.
"So you`re way older than me to the point where you call me a boy, or a kid all the time and yet you`ve never loved anyone...? ...sure, go ahead i guess. I`ll buy the next round if you like. We could have drinks after our ice cream, what do you think?"
Nobody in the force really knew a thing about Maia. He`d asked around, but they all shrugged their shoulders. Now he knew she didn´t talk to anyone, except him, in any sort of detail.
So maybe he would get to know something the others didn´t... even if he felt this wasn´t the kind of thing to brag about, it made him feel a bit proud.

“Well, no-one except my parents, never really gave anyone the chance to love me I suppose…” she sniggered slightly, making light of her stand-offish nature. She nodded at the mention of the drinks and proceeded to start, leaning back and looking up at the night sky she shakily started talking.

“I was born in 1922, to two Jewish parents. My father had been a sniper in the First World War and my mother was a normal housewife, with my father taking up boxing after the war things went smoothly and overall it wasn’t a bad childhood. Though it was the Nazis that ruined it all, National pride and stomp out all ‘foreign parasites infesting Germany.’ It came to a small head in 1923, they tried to have a small uprising; although I was too small to remember it apparently one of my cousins was shot in it during all the chaos. Violence became a common thing when Hitler came to power, so when I was 16 we decided he wasn’t going to stop with merely making things difficult for us. That was when we left to go to France, for two years we remained in hiding in a small town, but when France was invaded we had to resort to small shelters we’d set up. That was hard, thought the best one we had was in a small barn basement. But in 1944 France was liberated, so just before that the SS decided to raise a little hell.
The town we’d been in had all the people taken to the town square, men stayed there and the women and children were sent into the church. The church was set on fire, the men all shot and the corpses looted. Later on in the night my father went on ahead, we were moving shelters and he wanted to make sure it was clear. Never saw him again, so I and my mother went to check for survivors. There were none but I was bitten by a strange man, and when I awoke he was dead, and so was I. We went to the barn and rested, and then we were liberated but my mother died of grief. I stayed alive and now look at me, mercenary work what I don’t want to talk about came along for my strength, 54 years spent in the Middle East. Killing and murdering for fuck all, and now I’m here…”

Ben didn´t know what to say, for a long time of her story. It was long, but at the same time painfully short. And grim. Really, really grim. At the end of everything, at the end of the story, there was no light, just even more darkness. She was thrown into a cold war without knowing it, and now she was here, telling that story to someone who didn´t even live a quarter of her lifespan so far.
"I.... i... i... Jesus Christ, Maia, how... how can you still stand and look at me like that? How does one recover from things like those? People have gone mental after the second world war. Others still feel like they`re fighting it... ...don´t tell me, you`re... you´re one of those too, aren`t you..?"
It was rude, and it felt like he was trampling on her feelings that bursted through after this but he needed a moment. His story seemed like a fairytale by comparison.
"I.... wait here for a moment, i`ll be right back.... the drinks, and all that."
He stood up and walked back to the ice cream guy, ordering drinks with a shakey voice, then went back. Thinking how to respond, how to act. How she would like him to respond was clear- take it like a man, maybe pop a joke about it, but he just couldn´t do that.
Instead, when he handed her the drink, he pulled her off the bench and wrapped his arms around her, drawing her close, embracing her tightly.
"Thank you for sharing that story with me. I think i´m beginning to understand... why you prefer to be alone."

“Doesn’t matter whether I still fight it or not, wars are wars and genocide is nothing new. All the same in the end, little sick minded fucks with big dreams of purity through mass…” her voice broke off as he got the drinks and pulled her up. She looked at him strangely as he embraced her; no-one had hugged her since her mother’s death all those years ago. Yet for a second it was strange, she enjoyed the sensation of someone else as she grew slightly red in the face. Then as the seconds ticked by she felt her walls break down, her arms wrapped around him into a crushing hug. The small woman put her head into his shoulder, and then the sobs broke out.

She cried, she hadn’t cried in years yet the boy had come along with an emotional hammer to smash down her walls. The memories had never left, like old silverware they’d been put away for a rainy day so she could get on with life. But now the images returned the smells and the sounds of crying in the distance. The faceless marching men on the streets, all the parades and all the violence bubbled over in her mind. “It never g..goes a..a..away B..Ben, it just comes back fresh in my mind every time I close m.m..my eyes.” Then her eyes grew moist again, and her words were washed away in a trail of tears.

All Ben could do was sigh quietly and stroke her head and her back, trying to calm her down- his hand felt her muscles, under tension as she was trying to wring him into putty with her hug, steel wrapped in a silky skin. A personification of a tough nut with a soft core- and he had blown her wide open.
"I´m sorry Maia... i didn´t want you to live through this again." He said, quietly, watching the thames quietly splash from side to side, the tower bridge opening and closing as the city refused to sleep, cars still going over the thames at regular basis.
There was nothing he could say to ease the pain, all he could do was hold this fragile woman in his arms to keep her from falling apart.
"Maia... i.. i want to help you. I want to make you feel better, maybe help you forget... but i don´t know how. I`m not a psychologist, not a war veteran, not anyone special... But... i can learn so much from you, maybe you learn something from me... maybe we can help each other if we stay together, like partners."
An absurd thing to say- a sixty year vet and a one year greenhorn teaming up. And yet somehow he felt himself blushing like a teenage girl at that proposal.

Gradually as the minutes ticked by the Jewish lady became aware of herself again, the tears dried up and for a minute she just kept the hug going. It was nice to feel the touch of another being, they weren’t human nor was he warm, but the act itself was more than enough. At his words she felt herself go red for a second, but gradually she pulled away from the intimate moment. She wanted to carry it on, it was a good moment that she wouldn’t have minded to make last forever. But she was too old for stuff like this; it would be taking advantage of his youth and some inexperience.
She kept hold of his arms and gave a grim smile.
“I’ll never feel better about this Ben; I don’t want to forget either as it made me who I am. But if you really mean what you say then yes…having someone to talk to will help more than you think it will…and anyway, I want to know more and in time I have a few more stories to tell...” on the last note she grew slightly melancholy, she didn't know why she said it. To seem interesting, or to try and keep his attention she didn't know.

She took a swig of her drink and gave a little uncharacteristic giggle, looking at him she found herself smiling. “Teaming up is a good idea, without me to show you how things are done who will?”

Ben chuckled a bit, and while he could think of a few who could teach him things, none were as old and experienced as Maia was. At the same time, she could clearly need some private lessons on a few subjects... including love, something he didn´t even dare to speak about. Maia´s weak, tear filled smile warmed his heart in a manner of way he didn´t feel in a long while. Baffleing to him. He thought he was more into the quiet, but funny and adventureous type Vanessa used to be...
...but... thats exactly what Maia turned out to be. Quiet, yet funny and outgoing. Certainly more harsh and demanding than Vanessa, but in the end, she turned out to be a harsh monster too, so they were really alike.
"Maia... lets head back to the car, shall we...?" He finally said with one last gaze at the moon. "They´ll report us dead if we don´t show up after a while. Besides, we have a sparring match to finish."

Maia looked up at the taller man; she wiped away her tears and nodded. “Yeah, we should be getting back shouldn’t we? Anyway, you’re going to regret holding me to this promise you fuckass, you’re going to wish yourself dead once I’m finished with y,a” she playfully punched him on the arm before walking towards the car. She was slightly worried about being on even terms with strength with him now, the missions had made a slight change to him, he seemed slightly surer of himself and a good measure stronger than he had been.

She shook her head as she got in, not wanting to show any thoughts of weakness.

She would do just as well as ever; this meant she didn’t have to pull punches…

But could she hit him now, it seemed strange to fight him so soon after this. She had more feelings for him now; he wasn’t just some kid she had to look after. She looked at him, then she took one last good look at the moon “thanks for saving my life back there k-Ben, not many people would’ve done what you did and I mean that…”

Ben smiled at her in return, also coming back to the car.
"I would´ve done that for anyone, Maia. But still, hearing that from you means a lot to me."
She finally used his name, for starters.. that was a stepping stone up from being "just a kid".
Still, she probably wouldn´t salute to him anytime soon.
Getting into the car, he put his seatbelt on and leaned back, closing his eyes to let the night pass by... god knows, it had been long enough.

The woman got the car started, and then turned the radio on. The car moved onto the road, driving along with haste the driver sighed. “Ready to get some sparring done Ben?”

==> Mansion Gym

Archibald gently sat his round bottom on a very warm, and comfortable bench. His Cane in his right hand, a very enticing strawberry cone in his left. His seemingly never ending smile still held its integrity as he took two large bites of the cone with his abnormally large mouth. Done with his little treat, he placed both hands on his cane and enjoyed the bright and sunny day. Hopefully someone would sit with him on the bench, perhaps a beautiful lady that can't resist his old charm. He stared into the sky, the sky stared back, embracing him with a very nice atmosphere. From inside he could hear the TV News, nothing but small crime here and there, nothing really important.
    Suddenly, a uncomfortably cold breeze hit Archibald, and as if the breeze symbolized a rough change in the times the news station suddenly began reporting of a large ghost plane flying dangerously close to the ground, slightly off course. "Air control has tried many times to contact the pilot but have received no response" the news reporter conveyed in a panicked manner. Archibald gripped his cane tightly, with both of his hands. It couldn't have been Millenium he thought they would have tried to reach me about this operation. His vice on his cane became tighter as he was trying to put all the pieces together It had to be another Org. He continued to remain seated, with distant eyes and a large plastic smile, as the patrons began to crowd the TV, eagerly watching, and praying for a good outcome.

Christie joined up with Archibald, being called over by Integra to an urgent mission that took their priority- only to notice people gathering around a TV set rather excitedly, and to some degree, horrified.
She`d seen that before, three years ago in September.

And as she saw what they were about, she noticed why she recognized those faces- a jet airliner was off the radar, and hit something in London.
Running over to the fat man in the hat, she nudged him hard in the side.

"Hey..! Is that building on the TV what i think it is?! Did they... did they fly a fricking airliner into our mansion..?"

Hearing his fellow Hellsing member, he turned his head towards her, his smile still persistent "I'm sure our members have evacuated safely, it would be asinine for no one to see that loud, massive chunk of metal flying towards them. Its flight path has been on the news for quite some time before it crashed" He said, reassuring the distraught beautiful woman. Archibald gently released his left hand from his cane and lightly tapped the seat next to him, insisting on the beautiful dame to join him. "Come, lets enjoy each others company until we receive orders for the rendezvous" His warm smile and inviting eyes were trying their best to calm Christie down, into a peaceful state of mind. Panicking would get them nowhere, and a beautiful companion is just what Archibald was hoping for.

Christie sighed, groaned and sat down with him. This was complete bullshit, just sitting here... Oh well, she coulndt think of much to do about it either. She pulled out her cellphone and called up Integra Hellsing without lifting the phone up to her ear- no one picked up. Of course.. She was probably busy as can be. And then some, given the carnage. Oh well, she thought again. What can you do.

"Can you imagine, an arbitrary terrorist attack, with no one taking responsibility?" Archibald said aloud to himself and anyone within hearing distance. "It doesn't add up" he added calmly. Archibald himself didn't have a cellphone, he had to rely on Christie's communications "Have you tried contacting anyone else?" Archibald was a little worried, with the lack of communication, it seemed as if there were hardly any conscious survivors. He pulled out his handkerchief with his left hand and proceeded to wipe his face clean of any sweat or dirt with the comforting texture of expensive cotton.

Christie shook her head. "No one i tried gave any response whatsoever... But thats not surprising given the situation. I suppose we will just have to wait...ah?"
Just as she said that, her cellphone lit up with an incoming call.. Private Kuroi, one of the older, but somehow not high ranking members. Christie acceped the call within a nanosecond and brought the phone up so quickly she nearly slapped her face with it. "Hello?!... Oh thank god someone survived, at the very least...."

Archibald's ears perked in excitement after finding out there were survivors. He neatly packed his handkerchief back into his pocket and listened in on the conversation. Both his hands on his cane which was out in front of him, the ruby eyed silver snake that was on his cane gleamed in the sunlight. He stared innocently at the beautiful women who sat next to him, and continued to eaves drop on the unsuspecting woman. He really needed to buy himself a phone, or some kind of Comms. It was almost embarrassing that the only communication device he had was a direct line to his employers.

"Private Kuroi and Seras Victoria survived... Chad Baxter is with them too. Obviously Alucard is unharmed, but... no news on Sir Hellsing. They can´t reach her and they didn`t find her yet."
Christie informed her unlikely partner after the phone call was over, and she tucked the cellphone back into her pocket, a bit relieved, but also very insecure.
"No new orders as of yet.. so what do we do?"