Who: Alucard and Irisa When: Beginning April Where: Training room What: A Request Rating/Warnings: PG Status: Complete
Alucard had set a difficult session today but Irisa hadn’t backed down. She had worked hard and Alucard was pleased. As they sat at the side of the room he watched her as she drank her water thirstily. “You did well. Your patience is improving and your guard is up at all times” he praised her, as much as Alucard ever did.
Gasping as she came up for air from drinking her water. She gave him a little grin as she screwed the lid back on her bottle. “You sound almost impressed,” she teased him a little and reached for her towel to wipe the sweat off her face and neck.
“Almost” he said, “You’re fairly close” lips twisted in amusement. “You are learning well Irisa” he added, “I will say that much”
“Thanks,” Irisa replied proudly as she took another deep drink from her water. Wiping her face again, she leaned forward on her knees where she was sat. “So, uh, you have...connections and stuff, right?” she asked, looking away and out the window of the gym.
Alucard frowned, “You in trouble, little bit?” he asked her, “Because you know you can come to me with anything” he said seriously.
"Oh no, not trouble, not really," Irisa shook her head. "It's just..." she sighed as she thought about what to say. "Did you know that I don't have a birthday?"
"How can you not have a birthday? Even I have one of those" Alucard said, wondering if this had anything to do with Nolan. He'd been tempted to hunt the man down and beat the crap out of him but he knew it would upset Irisa.
Irisa shrugged and screwed the lid on her bottle before placing it on the floor between her feet. “Nolan and I just...picked one. I have no idea when I was really born,” she told him. “I was rescued. From a cult of some sort when I was about seven or eight. Nolan and a S.W.A.T team came in and rescued me before they could...well, kill me or something. I don’t remember much,” she told him thoughtfully, gazing off into the corner of the room. “I remember being scared, people standing over me...then a lot of shouting, gunfire and then Nolan,” she told him with a little smile as she thought of Nolan. “He told me to look at him and not take my eyes off of him, so I didn’t and he...swept me up in his arms and carried me out to the EMTs to get checked out,” she looked down at that. “Afterwards things happened really fast; Nolan and I left and started a new life. Moving towns, chasing bad guys y’know? No-one ever thought to look for a birth certificate I guess,” she shrugged.
“Irisa” he breathed, before laying a hand on her head for a moment before stroking her hair once, “And now you want to know? You want me to find your birth certificate?” he asked her and he would. She was right he had the resources and he would use them for her.
“Yes,” Irisa told him, enjoying the physical touch, almost fatherly in his concern it felt. “But I can help and I can pay,” she looked up at him, not wanting him to feel like she was asking for a hand-out. She never had liked asking for help, she didn’t want people to think she was a freeloader or anything.
“You’ll do no such thing. I’ll need your help with as many details as you can remember, places and the like but I’m not accepting money from you Irisa. I’m doing this as your friend” he told her, and because there was a strange almost parental connection between them. He was her mentor and he took that seriously. “If your birth certificate is out there, I’ll find it”
Irisa opened her mouth to argue and shut it just as fast. If anyone was as stubborn as her it was Alucard. Frustratingly so since he was so calm about it. She nodded at him and gave him a tight-lipped smile. She knew he’d understand how much she appreciated his help. “Where do we start?”
Alucard understood without her needing to say anything so he simply ruffled her hair before asking her some basic questions to help him figure out where he would start.