Stitched Up Hearts (Alucard X Fem! reader)

Born To Eat And Be Eaten

(Six years prior) 

"Where are you going?" Adrian asked me, standing in the doorway of my room watching me lace up my tall walking boots.

"I'm going crazy being stuck inside this huge maze of a castle. The weather outside is so beautiful today, so I thought I would go for a walk." I explained. It was true, the weather was lovely. The sky was bright and only a few fluffy clouds hung above our heads. The wet fall had faded into a cold, snowy winter which then ran away to spring. The snow was all melted by now, and the only remnant that winter had been there was the breaths of cold air that blew outside.

"May I join you?" he asked. He accompanies me on walks almost every time I go, since I got attacked once he hates the idea I could be alone again and something could happen to me. I still bear those scars.

"I would enjoy your company, but if you are busy I can manage alone." I say, shooing him away and closing the bedroom door behind us.

It was warmer outside than I expected for early march. Spring came early this year, and the snow melted off the ground completely by the middle of January. Flowers had begun popping up from the damp soil in early February. "Oh, Adrian look!" I run over to a bush that is practically bursting with berries. "Your mother likes these, right? I think I remember her saying something about them."

Adrian nodded. "Yes, they are her favorites. I'm surprised you remember."

"Let's pick some for her, she deserves it. And we could even bake with them, muffins maybe?" I said, glad I had the forethought to take the baskets with me. I'd always enjoyed finding things on my walks and taking them back with me, my affinity for small treasures never leaving even with age. Small shiny rocks, nearly intact bird eggs or feathers, animal bones, anything I could get my hands on. When I lived in Targoviste, I remember finding lost jewelry, and gaining quite the collection from those that I didn't sell.

Adrian helped me pick berries, occasionally offering me one that he thought looked particularly nice. I noticed a crawling feeling working its way up my hand, assuming it was just leave tickling my skin. I glanced down to brush the leaves off, only to see a massive spider working its way up my skin. I shrieked like a banshee, frantically swatting the bug off my arm. Adrian's head whipped in my direction, confused as I practically began to climb on him to get away from the spider.

"What in god's name is the matter with you?" he asked, dropping his handful of berries to support my thighs as I clung to his back, my arms clinging around his neck. Luckily I had not been holding the basket when I noticed the disgusting arachnid, so we didn't lose all the work we had just put in.

"There was a spider on me." I mumbled, embarrassed, from his back. It had been so long since I was this close before, close enough to smell him again. The smell of leather bound books and floral, like a rose. My fear of the spider had seemingly outweighed my fear of being rejected by him.

He laughed out loud at my words, so hard I could feel his whole body shaking with amusement. "You shriek loud enough to burst my eardrums only because of a spider? You- the woman who is half vampire, who kills men twice her size, who has spent her formative years sleeping in the streets- is afraid of a tiny spider?"

"Stop laughing! It's not funny!" I pout, my face still flooded with heat. "It wasn't tiny, it was huge? And I'm not getting down from here until it's gone."

Though he didn't stop laughing, to his credit he did look around for the spider. "I don't see it." he reported, dropping my thighs and allowing me to slide down his back and back to the ground, properly embarrassed by my outburst.

"I'm um- I'm sorry for climbing on you. You just happened to be the tallest thing in my vicinity." I mumbled, picking up the basket and deciding I'd had enough of sticking my arm into bushes with who knows what other kinds of creepy crawlies.