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[Making sense of what he's looking at takes a moment. The hearth is not simply roaring with fire - it is alive. It is talking. It is...

...Sypha. Emerging from flames like a phoenix, and Alucard can only stare. Words try to form. Fail. Try again.

It happens for what feels like an eternity, the dhampir simply struck dumb with true awe. And so he manages, finally:]

What the fuck.

Before you say anything else, this was not my fault. I do not make mistakes when handling magical items.

[ Trevor relaxes at that, flopping down unto his side. Yup. That’s Sypha. He should probably be a little more freaked out, but pain and blood loss. He’ll process this new bullshit later. ]

It wouldn’t have survived the journey. Not without something to inhabit. It needed a place where God is not welcome.

[ And where has God ever been less welcome than in a speaker’s heart?

Not involved in Sypha’s version of events: the fact that she was only trying to remove the heart from the rest of the castle in order to keep it safe so it could regrow elsewhere. This just happened when she separated it. ]

I...

[Alucard stops, looking at the castle itself.]

Of all the things. You can't tie a lifeline to--

[No. Stop. Not a priority. Alucard sighs heavily, shaking his head. Right now it is easier to focus on Trevor, but he meets Sypha's eyes for one moment more:]

We're talking about this later.

[Right. Alucard sighs, walking over to Trevor and running his hand over the wound itself.]

Medical instruments, thread, needle, alcohol and bandages. Warmth and light are already seen to. Trevor, you're free to pass out at this point.

[ Sypha nods, taking the needed items from the medicine cabinet. Before long, she’s managed to get everything that’s been asked from either there or other fragments of castle and she’s moved on to sterilising the instruments by running them between her very on fire fingers. Trevor groans. By the time he’s back on the table, he’s started to fall quiet. The fresh pain from falling off the table is kind of overpowering, taken in tandem with the bullet wound. He jostled it too much. ]

Thanks for giving me permission.

[ He’s worn down enough that that actually sounds sincere rather than sarcastic. Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t last much longer before blanking out.

Of course.

[Alucard shouldn't be taking that so seriously. But he does, and then the work comes next.

He watched his mother do this before, dress wounds. They're cleaned with alcohol, so is the needle and thread, and then all gets sewn up. But first he removes the bullet with very sterile tweezers, the focus on the task at hand alleviating the millions of questions he has for Sypha's new situation.

There's no words said. The bullet comes out, and then there's blood. There's a little bit of blood that gets on Alucard's fingers, and that? That takes effort to not lick and consume. Sypha's presence helps.

Everything gets sewn quickly. Patched. Bandaged, and then Alucard sighs.]

There.

[But then ALucard looks to Sypha, blazing so bright.]

Are you going to be able to separate, when you must? You can't merge with this building, it isn't safe.

I think so. I hope so. Once it's stronger and we have a proper building for it to use.

[ That's a comforting amount of certainty, right? She looks down at her dark, angular, ever-spinning heart. Honestly, the only thing keeping her from panicking more right now is the fact that this makes her feel so energised, so powerful. ]

It was dying. I thought if I pulled this part out and sustained it with magic, then it could at least survive and eventually regrow. But the second I touched it it lashed out. I think it didn't see me, just saw something it could consume to survive. I tried to stop it, and- [ she spreads her arms in an annoyed sort of helpless gesture. ] -this happened. I'm a castle, now.

[ She huffs. The entire castle huffs, grumpily shrugging dust off itself. ]

[That isn't comforting at all. Alucard's quiet as Sypha explains, his eyes on the spinning heart. He wants to reach out and touch it, but it feels like a very bad idea.]

It wanted to survive, and knew you could make that happen. [It's only a guess, but it feels correct.]

But to do even that much requires a certain level of compatibility. Your fire and flames, perhaps. That may have represented energy in it's mind.

Perhaps.

[ She raises her hand to the spinning heart, letting its edges graze her fingertips. ]

It knows so much, things that nobody else in the world knows. I'd rather not be a castle forever, but I can't let that sort of knowledge die and do nothing.

[ The attack has left them all worse off than they were before, in one way or another. Sypha's hands move over the kitchen table and her eyes narrow in concentration as she searches herself for a more suitable- there, there's a guest room there. The table vanishes, replaced with a bed. She's just patching the castle together in whatever order is convenient right now. It can put itself right later. ]

It has almost a millennia of advanced knowledge in it, Sypha.

[But he's been gone for over half of it now. Alucard wants to think about anything else, and instead the--

--well, Trevor's on a bed, so that counts as an advancement. The blankets on it are hardly moth eaten, and so Alucard tucks Trevor in carefully.]

I can move the bed closer to the fire for now. You should rest too.

[ The observatory again. ]

-they don't like the sun. So they're more active in the winter. I thought all of them hibernated, but once I started observing them some of them seemed like they were moving from place to place throughout the year.

[ She spins the globe again, taking all of it in. Someone has just had northern and southern hemispheres explained to her by a dhampir, and it's set her off on a whole journey of babbling about her monster studies. ]

So if it becomes summer here in Wallachia, then it would be winter on the other side? So maybe that's where they go, when the nights get so short that they don't have time to hunt.

[ Another few spins, and then she moves her hand backward. It slots easily into Alucard's. The globe keeps spinning for a little while longer before coming to a stop. ]

I'm going to find out. I'm going to live. There's far too much I don't know for me to die here. You- you have to live, too. Live with me.

[ Trevor sleeps fitfully. But waking, waking is pleasant. He's in a warm bed. A warm, soft bed, the like he's not been in in years. The room smells like the good sort of fire, the kind that warms hands and bakes bread. Something hurts. He can ignore it.

It's only when he opens his eyes that he hisses out a profanity, scooting away from whatever the fuck that fire monster is that's decided to share his bed and predictably irritating his injury in the process. Fuck. Fuck, that hurts. ]

What the shit?!

I don't know if I--

[If I can what? Live? Deal with the guilt that will come from this action? Something else? Alucard doesn't know. He can't respond anyway, because there are lips against his and now he's promised to live.

But with her.

So maybe he can at least deal with the grief.

Trevor stirs, and so does the wolf on his chest. The Belmont was far too cold, and like this? Alucard could hear a heartbeat. So he slept, head over Trevor's heart, until Trevor's awake and the wolf is on the floor.]

Rrfffh.

[It's a snort-snuffle, and then the wolf is Alucard again.]

It was a way to monitor your heart rate while we all rested.

Appreciate the concern, but not what I had questions about.

[ What the fuck is that fire lady and why isn’t Alucard more concerned about her and- ]

Wait. Shit, is that her? Is she- okay?

Sypha is currently functioning as the castle's hearth which is incredibly literal and deeply upsetting, yes.

[He sighs, walking back over to the bed and sitting at the edge of it. Easier to whisper.]

She seems to be for now, but I don't like it much and I've no idea what an extended timeframe could do to her. It'd be better if I took on the duty, but I don't think it's safe to even attempt a transfer right now.

Shit.

[ It's a problem for all sorts of reasons. The main, obvious one is that Sypha is- whatever the fuck Sypha is right now. That's not great for her, and he's worried. The less obvious one is that that means that they don't have another source of blood. Even if hers is safe to take, which is a matter all of its own, he can't ask her for more when she's already-

-fuck. He doesn't want to starve Alucard. And he knows full well that he'll need a few days at least to perform 'healthy' to the degree that either of them will be comfortable with him doing any more bleeding.

It's a lot to talk about when he's still groggy from blood loss and his side feels like a train ran into it, so instead he talks about something else, his voice taking on a warmer, teasing quality. ]

So you were actually, literally, listening to my heart.

[ That's pretty gay, Alucard. ]

I was, yes.

[Alucard seems to be taking that comment seriously. At least with the way he tilts his head, making it clear he doesn't understand why it's the subject of commentary.]

We were worried that it might slow down too much.

I bet you tell that to all the guys who get shot.

[ It takes some effort, but he sits up. Everything hurts but it's good to know that he can at least manage that. By the time he manages the teasing tone is gone again and replaced with a raw sincerity. ]

But that's, uh- [ Honestly? Kind of touching. It's a lot more concern that he'd expect of anyone. But also weirdly intimate. ] -good of you. Thanks. You didn't have to give that much of a shit.

I do, yes.

[Alucard is bad at jokes, but there's sincerity in his voice. He can't joke about something like this, not even if he tried. He only listens, and then after Trevor speaks, adds:]

It is nothing in comparison, Belmont.

It's not nothing, it's- [ You know what? This is getting way too close to An Emotion. Backing off. ] -just. Thanks.

[ Shit, try to call a guy out on acting kinda gay, accidentally call self out for the same thing. He's quiet for a while, considering that. And then considering his other concerns. The blood. ]

How much are you going to need?

[When the silence settles, Alucard stills. Barely breathes, and for that it'd be so easy to assume him a statue. It's only the faint rise and fall of his chest that suggests otherwise and...

...he grimaces.]

A pint, at least. It'd be better if I took from two individuals, in truth.

A pint.

[ Well. Fuck. Yeah, even he knows he can't spare that much until he's recovered at least a little. And Sypha being so thin, it'd be a lot for her alone even if she did have blood right now. He's not sure she does. ]

At once? Or would a little each day be better?

No. To all of this, no. You're in no place to offer anything nor will you be for a fortnight. I'll find a way to deal with this.

[ He opens his mouth to argue but really, he can't. Not when he's pretty sure his legs would crumple under him if he tried to walk. ]

I know.

[ He sighs. ]

A week. A week, and if you think I'm not well enough then I'll drop it until you're satisfied with my recovery.

No.

[It's stern. The I'm an adult tone, even though Alucard's barely Trevor's age if one truly thinks about it.]

I will find a way to deal with this. Even in a week you would be in no shape to donate even half a pint. You need that blood more than I do.

[ He doesn't know what blood hunger is like, but he's been hungry before. Sobbing through the ache of it hungry. Bones visible through the skin hungry. Chewing the neckline of his own shirt hungry. Staying perfectly still to last longer hungry. Blue-grey fingers with the nails peeling away hungry.

He can guess. ]

How shitty is it going to be? Would a little take the edge off, or just make it worse?

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