Daughter of Demeter

[Calla Lily]

A/N: The accompanying fic to this is <i>Planting Seeds of Desire.</i>
Subject: Hades, Persephone, pomegranate
Summary: A pomegranate - just one pomegranate - is enough to satisfy my want for a kiss that you will not give to me.



<center><b>Daughter of Demeter</b></center>


A pomegranate is a queer, delicious thing. Its seeds are many and its skin is tough. It has been in existence for many years, for centuries, and it continues to exist today. It is a cross between an orange and a grapefruit, its colour ranges from a soft yellow with blushes of pink and red overtones. Its taste ranges from sweet to sour to tangy, to somewhere in between. It is a symbol of birth and death, of health and illness, and of fertility and infertility.

Hades, Lord of the Underworld, fell in love with Persephone, daughter of Demeter. One day when her mother was absent, Hades took Persephone down to his kingdom and there he bid her eat from his table to satisfy her hunger. He offered her a pomegranate.

In turn, Persephone took the fruit and ate it, swallowing several seeds. And thus they were bound to each other. Hades married Persephone and she became queen of the underworld - because the pomegranate is also known as the fruit of the dead. Because the fruit bound her to him, as it did to her. It was a promise that could not be broken, a seal stronger than marriage, stronger than blood.

Alucard couldn?t have thought of a more fitting fruit to give to his Master.


<center>~</center>


?What is this, Alucard?? Integra questioned, sipping her late afternoon tea quietly before setting it down beside her spectacles. The vampire materialized from the ceiling and hung upside down, much to his own amusement. His yellow glasses gleamed from the reflection of the hazy orange sun through the windows, the only light in the shadowed room.

The butler had already come and gone and all was quiet in the room save for the monotonous tick-tock of the clock on the other side of the study. His master?s solitary presence, her face parallel to the warm setting sun, her body half-shadowed in darkness, made a very inspiring and yet melancholy picture. As if Integra paid no attention to the world outside, the sunlight direction people and their cars and their jobs, hour by hour. As if Integra waited for something else to happen, something extraordinary.

Grinning mischievously, the vampire threw a weighty object at the Hellsing director.

?Catch,? he said.

She caught it deftly with one hand. He raised an eyebrow.

Alucard watched his Master eye the fruit curiously, turned it gently in the palms of her warm hands, before setting it down. She picked up her teacup again, not caring to take a second glance. She didn?t seem interested in his offering, and that always irritated him to a minor degree. Whether they pleased or displeased her, his trinkets meant that he thought of her. It would be nice to be appreciated once in a while.

He growled low in his throat and dropped from the ceiling, righting himself properly at the last moment, several metres away from her seated figure. The vampire bowed gracefully, one hand in front of his chest like a gentleman, and hoped to win a glance his way. She gave in and raised her half-lidded eyes, pretending that his presence meant nothing to her. She was having her afternoon tea and wished to be undisturbed.

?What do you want, Alucard??

?Do you like your present, Master??

Integral scoffed and picked up the fruit again, turning it over in the hazy sunlight, bathing the pomegranate in a red glow. She?d been given gifts before, by many different men with many different ages, her own vampire included. She knew not to take present from a man without a grain of salt and a cocked gun, because there were always underlying motivations. This time the gift was a fruit.

Alucard?s eyes widened, drinking in her figure when she brought the fruit next to her cheek, the blush complimented his Master?s honeyed skin very well. She looked delicious. He saw her face change expression as a thought flickered across her features, the thought rainbowed across the room between them and into Alucard?s mind. She was deciding whether the gift was worthy. Her slender fingers inspected the skin carefully, feeling its texture and its weight.

?What is it?? Her voice was flat, uninterested; something that he expected. Integral would not show her curiosity openly, she had to be coaxed and convinced that it was worth her time. In that way, it made his Master more fascinating than all the other women he had known before. Any other woman would have raised her voice and leaned forwards, wishing to know the secret of the fruit. His master did no such thing; she kept her questions well hidden.

Alucard growled again, loud enough for her to hear his displeasure. Did she not know? Did she know recognize what she held in her hand?

?It?s a pomegranate, Master. I thought it would go well with your tea.?

?I don?t entertain whimsies, Alucard. What do you want me to do with it?? she ordered, facing her vampire servant with cool, frosted blue eyes, a stark contrast to the warmth of her cheeks as she sat in the shadow of the sun. The vampire grinned in return. In an instant, his orange glasses disintegrated and the distance between them disappeared; he kneeled in front of Integra.

?Apples are overrated. I thought you might want something else to bite.? Integra narrowed her eyes and shoved the pomegranate right into his face. He looked absurd. He stared at the fruit cross-eyed.

?How do I eat it??

Again, that wicked grin. Integra has previous experience with gifts, especially from men. Once there was a gold chain, several bouquets of flowers, a gun, and even a worn out shoe that she suspected once belonged to a human, courtesy of her vampire.

To be given food was a rare thing. It was tricky, for Integral Hellsing was not one to be brushed over with chocolates and sweets. She had her own tastes.

But Alucard had never given her fruit before.

Silently her servant stood up, his towering figure hovered over her. Any other person would have felt intimidated, but not his master. If anything else she was fearless, daring. She commanded answers.

His master held the fruit towards him expectantly, waiting for his reply. Alucard placed his gloved hand over hers, the white fabric brushed against her clothed fingers, before removing the fruit from her hands.

Pomegranates are tricky to eat unless you know exactly what needs to be done. It is the arils, the seeds that one wants, and nothing else. Anyone with lesser knowledge might end up chewing the skin, or worse, the inner casings of the pomegranate, leaving an unwanted, bitter taste in one?s mouth.

Integra watched with mild fascination as the vampire sliced open the fruit with a knife, a very human gesture for him, instead of using his dark magic. With his thumbs, he broke open the pomegranate with a resounding crack and presented it to his master, a self-satisfied smile on his lips.

She looked down at his hands and her eyes widened in surprise, a rare emotion that was not lost on Alucard.

Inside, hundreds of red rubies twinkled before her. Each precious seed was encased in a fleshy red substance, and all of them glittered in the sunlight.

?Do you like your present, Master?? He teased, ?Do you want to try it??

With the grace of a gentleman, Alucard summoned a chair from the far side of the room and it glided across the floor towards him. Sitting across from his Master, their knees grazed against each other. He put the fruit on his lap for safekeeping, careful to mind any spilled juice, and physically removed his gloves. He didn?t want the juice to stain the soft, white cloth.

?What are you doing, Alucard?? Genuine interest glowed upon Integra?s face and the vampire felt very pleased with himself. He knew he successfully roused her curiosity with the way her blue eyes sparkled in the dusky light.

?Pomegranate juice stains permanently, Master. I am taking precautions to make sure that won?t happen.? She smirked at his words; her vampire was always so articulate about his appearance.

?I suggest you remove your gloves too, Integra.?

She obliged his request. And much to his delight, Integral leaned forward and parted her lips, impatient to taste the fruit.

He plucked several rubies from a cluster and one by one, he placed the dark cherries onto her waiting tongue. He could feel her soft breath against his skin, the hushed murmur of her heart as she waited to be fed.

As soon he removed his fingers, he deliberately brushed her lower lip with his thumb ? gentle, unexpected, like an admirer?s caress. Integral closed her eyes languidly and she closed her parted mouth. She bit down on the rubies. The muffled crunch of her teeth echoed in her ears as Integra worked her way through the seeds, seeking out only the juice. She didn?t see Alucard frown.

She didn?t know that she had to swallow the seeds as well.

Integra sucked slowly and methodically, the tangy yet sweet fruit washed over her tongue but did not completely satisfy her. Alucard had put too many seeds into her mouth and her tongue was inexperienced. Droplets of pomegranate juice trickled from the corners of her fruit-tinted lips and dribbled down her chin.

Alucard watched those red beads travel down her skin. It was as red as blood.

And in that moment, a picture appeared in his mind, an image of Integral standing on top of a mountain of dead bodies, some human, some ghoul, holding a bloodied sword in one hand and a stained glove in the other. Her blonde hair stirred in the evening breeze as a bruised and dusky sun died behind her, forming her silhouette. And in this battle, she was victorious.

Integral was glorious with the roar of the red tide, the clash of steel and metal. Blood sprayed the air and tainted the domed sky like a painter?s brush, obscuring the stars with a metallic glint of her own. Alucard was fond of the sunset, when the horizon is bathed in a rosy glow, the warm, brown earth melted effortlessly with the multi-coloured mauve sky of the night.

Very much like the way the sunlight played with Integra?s hair now. The way she sat in her chair and her pink lips glistened.

Alucard licked his lips ravenously. He wanted to know just how hungry his master was.

"Come, Persephone," he teased, mesmerized by the line of his Master's jaw, "Won't you swallow some seeds for me?" Integra stopped sucking on the seeds, stalled by his bizarre comment while the juice continued to dribble down her chin.

If she wasn?t careful, it could stain her white collar. And since pomegranate juice stains clothing permanently, especially white clothing, it would be a shame to ruin a perfectly good shirt.

Integral lifted a finger and wiped one corner of her mouth, the juice melted into her honeyed skin and painted it a slight pink, like a blush, like the memory of blood on her skin. Locking her eyes with Alucard, she smirked, knowing the gesture tempted him, that she tempted him. As expected, her servant snarled, his fangs gleamed menacingly, and he threw the rest of the pomegranate onto the table in frustration.

She didn?t say a word.

?You?re supposed to eat the seeds, Master.? Alucard sounded bitter, as if a favourite toy of his had just been unfairly confiscated. Integral smirked again, rolling the seeds around in her mouth. She now knew why her servant gave her the pomegranate, for no other fruit stained her fingers so much like blood.

<i>Alucard,</i> she touched him with her mind, her tongue too occupied to speak, <i>Why don?t you take these seeds from me?</i>

His head shot up and the vampire leaned forward, their noses touched. He stared piercingly hard into her eyes, his blood-red against her steel-blue, trying to unnerve her and to decipher just what level their little game had risen to. The sun slept restfully beneath the earth and the blush disappeared from her cheeks. In its stead were her untouchable blues. Hellsing challenged him, dared him to make his next move.

<i>Is that an order, Master?

It?s an order, Alucard, and you will follow it.</i>

Raising a bare finger to her vampire?s lips, Integra teased them open and it disappeared into his mouth. Integra watched as Alucard's eyes closed, savouring the taste of her salty skin. The look of content on his face brought a certain amount of satisfaction for Integra, more than the pomegranate had.

The moment was gone and she pulled her finger away. Integra was careful not to break the seeds and she sucked the last of the fruit?s sweet juice until only the taste of the shells remained. Like the dying sun, like the ending of Alucard?s dream.

<i>Persephone</i> - the name he spoke mentally rang through her mind like a muffled bell, as if he wished to speak to her in a land of whimsies, where everything was light and dark simultaneously, where one could not tell whether it was day or night.

She stroked the vampire's chin, bringing him closer to her. There was a spark in his eyes, full of hope and servitude and wars and betrayal. It was a look that made her blood quicken momentarily like a promise of the future. She touched his jaw and his cheek, and a feeling like an ancient butterfly grazed her skin, leaving goose bumps in its wake.

<i>Persephone,</i> Alucard whispered, closing his eyes expectantly, memorizing the soft pout of his Master's lips as they drew closer towards each other.

Integra also closed her eyes and felt the blood rush from her legs, from her stomach, all the way up into her head at such speed that it made her dizzy. And with that blood racing through her body, she understood what Alucard tried to tell her.

Their tongues met and held. Alucard relished the warmth that flooded his mouth and he cooled it with his own, bringing a cold hand to her face to relay that he did not wish to break their contact too soon. Rolling like lost ships on the deep sea, the pomegranate seeds tumbled helplessly between them.

<i>Persephone.</i>

But Integral did not swallow the seeds, they were unnecessary when stronger seals held them together. She took his gift and she opened it, but she wanted no part in the dead world that he reigned in. Her tongue pushed the seeds of temptation away from her and swiftly he swallowed them before they disappeared into the darkness.