Chapter Text
It isn’t as if Alucard hasn’t read about this type of thing before.
The endless books and tomes in his father’s library — knowledge collected and lost throughout time — sometimes spoke of what the humans would now call soulmates. Dracula had told Alucard, back when he was still just Adrian, that the name may change with the time period, but the general consensus is that your lifetime partner was once a part of your own soul...that you were once one soul, one being, together. Something splits you apart, but just like the metals that his mother magnetizes in her laboratory — you will forever be drawn to the other half of your soul.
Alucard knows his parents were telling the truth; they had found each other even though Vlad Tepes had died well over a thousand years ago. As Alucard grew older, he theorized that perhaps Dracula had to wait a thousand years to find his soulmate to atone for his sins over the millenia. God knows how well that worked.
It isn’t as if he doesn’t believe in the existence of soulmates, or that he believes he doesn’t have one. It’s that he isn’t expecting his first encounter with his other half to be a fucking battle for his life underneath the shit filled streets of Gresit.
It’s when Alucard has the Belmont by the hair, fangs bared, and the fucking bastard is laughing in his face, that he first notices it; the slim, gleaming, blood red thread wrapped tight around his index finger. In the moment, he’d ignored it, but as he’d been talking with the Speaker magician and the Belmont was glaring at him all but intimidatingly, he saw it.
The thread was wrapping around him as Trevor moved to retrieve his whip.
And, sure enough, when Alucard quickly checks Trevor’s hands, the string has unrapped and is pulled taut, leading straight to the bloody fucking Belmont.
At first, he thinks this has to be some kind of curse or magic, something of his father’s doing. Make his son think he has to spend the rest of his life with a brutish Belmont, as some sort of last hurrah, a cruel joke to play with Alucard’s human side. But upon further inspection of the thread (alone), Alucard realizes a few things.
One is that clearly, Trevor has no idea it even exists. Alucard remembers reading in Eastern folklore about the red string of fate, that it only reveals itself to the person that believes it could even be there. Alucard, being the stupid fucking half breed he is, has believed in love and anything related to it his entire life. His parents gave him an immaculate example of how true and pure love can be, and only when that love was taken away abruptly and violently did it turn into something it was never meant to be.
Two; Alucard has never been in any sort of close proximity to Trevor Belmont his entire life. There can’t have been any chance that Dracula knew anyone had survived the extinction of the Belmont clan, much less found a way to bind his son to them. But now that Trevor is close enough to Alucard, the thread appears to him and him only. It gives him no kind of explanation, no warning, no words of wisdom. It’s just — there. And while Alucard knows fully and wholly what it represents, he has absolutely no idea when or how he and Trevor will ever get to a point where they could be considered just friends ...he has no earthly clue how he could possibly get the Belmont to like him as more than that. This isn’t his father’s doing, it’s fate. Cruel fate.
And lastly, three, the prophecy regarding Alucard states that he along with a Scholar and a Hunter will take down Dracula together. Nowhere does it state that Alucard will have a tryst with either one of them, or even share a profound platonic bond with them. They’re only supposed to save Wallachia together. As much as Alucard wants to think that coincidences do not happen, he can’t deny that this is one hell of a coincidence. Fate might have made his other half a Belmont, but the stars aligned just at the right time to have that Belmont be the one to awaken him from his restorative slumber and fight his father alongside him. A coincidence to put all others to shame.
Therefore, Alucard has come to the ripe conclusion that his soulmate is a vampire hunter, and he is a vampire.
Even if he’s half human, doesn’t need blood as often, can tolerate sunlight, and has far more emotions than just lust and rage...he knows that Trevor Belmont won’t see that as making any kind of difference. Hunters see fangs and they kill. Alucard has fangs.
Realizing all of this after being awoken from a year’s long sleep, as well as the impending doom of finally fighting (perhaps even defeating) his father...it’s almost too much if Alucard is honest with himself. He can keep this to himself for the foreseeable future, especially because the more he’s around Trevor Belmont, the less he cares about the bloody string attached to their fingers because the man is a slob, a brute, he stinks beyond all imagination, he’s crude and derogatory, and he absolutely despises Alucard. If the three of them are going to spend the next however long living and travelling together, then Alucard can ignore the insistent tugging on his finger. The only red he’ll focus on is the blood of the demons they fight.
But then, the words Belmont spat at him while he had a stake lodged into Alucard’s chest ring through his mind.
Killing you is the point, living through it was just a luxury.
Trevor will die to fulfill his family’s purpose. In the short few days that Aucard has known him, Trevor Belmont already seems like the type to thrust his own life into danger for the “greater good,” which in Alucard’s opinion, is the worst kind of martyr. If you have no regard for your own life, how can anyone else trust you with their own?
“Are you going to sleep all fucking night, too, or can we get the hell on with it?” Trevor’s rough voice comes from above where Aucard lay in the grass, which prompts him to open his eyes, raising a brow but saying nothing. Trevor scoffs. “We’re already risking our lives more just to travel at night because of you, the least you can do is wake the fuck up on time.” When Alucard still says nothing, Trevor grunts in that frustrated way he does and turns to walk away, adding, “Bloody fucking vampire.”
Alucard, being the shit he is, smiles as he sits up in the wagon and stretches his arms out. “Half vampire,” he corrects. Trevor glares over his shoulder as Alucard quickly exits the wagon and catches up to him. “And I wasn’t sleeping. Simply lost in thought.”
“Then why the fuck couldn’t you have gotten up sooner? We should have left half an hour ago, and the horses ran off up ahead so we need you to help us find them.” The accusatory tone isn’t likely to leave Trevor’s voice any time soon, but it’s not like Alucard doesn't expect it from him. It’s just been a little exhausting, even for an immortal, to be constantly defending himself for no good reason.
With a heaving sigh, Alucard runs his fingers through his hair. A glint of red gleams in the pale moonlight as he brings his hand back down; the thread.
Alucard sighs again.
“Do you ever stop complaining, Belmont?”
“Oh, am I too negative for your royal bloodsucking highness?” Trevor spits back with as much force as that thick whip of his. Alucard actually chuckles, because the level to which Trevor seems to loathe him is actually amusing.
Before he can retort though, Sypha appears out of nowhere with dried meat in her hands, shoving it into both of their chests with a glare. “Will you two please stop your pointless bickering?! It’s been days of this! Christ in heaven, aren’t the both of you tired of it?”
Alucard and Trevor look at each other briefly before bursting into fits of laughter, which only prompts Sypha to glare more and make an incredibly frustrated sound, turning to walk ahead of them in the darkness.
Biting on the meat as they begin to move forward, Alucard nearly spits it back out immediately; it tastes like utter shit but he knows he needs the sustenance. Animal blood won’t fully sustain him, blood in general won’t fully sustain him if he’s being honest. He does enjoy human food quite a bit, but this is a far cry from what he’s used to. His mother had taught him to cook wonderfully before she died, and Alucard took to the hobby quite well. His father saw it as pointless, but still sat with them at meals to pick at the portions he was given. He always humored his wife, no matter how frivolous he saw her actions.
Alucard tries his best to engage in the small talk Sypha includes him in, but thinking about his mother almost immediately sends him into a pit of melancholic nostalgia of the worst kind. He misses his mother more than he thinks he will ever miss another person or thing on this earth. She made his days bright and gave him a sense of home and comfort that Alucard is sad to say his father could never provide, even if he wanted to.
Although, Dracula has not always been the suicidal perpetuator of mass genocide that he is today. Alucard remembers his father sometimes reading to him before bed, and even though the texts he verbalized were far from children’s stories, Adrian appreciated it regardless. His father used to race him through the castle at speeds only a vampire could reach, and when Adrian beat him he felt more powerful than he could even imagine. He realizes now that his father let him win, and knowing that makes him feel even more conflicted about what he has to do when they find the castle. Dracula holds no sentiment toward his son any longer, though, and hopefully that will make his death much easier for Alucard to bring about.
“Alucard?” Sypha questions, and it’s now that Alucard realizes he’s been completely silent as they walk through the dark. “I asked if you had a map.”
“Hm? Oh,” Alucard blinks a few times to gather himself, then reaches into his cloak to pull out his array of maps, handing them to Sypha. “My apologies. I was-“
“Lost in thought?” Trevor interrupts, shaking his head and rolling his eyes like Alucard is a child that continues misbehaving. If he weren’t in a mood now, Alucard would quip back, but he just doesn’t have it in him at the moment. Sypha is right; the constant bickering is exhausting. “With as much thinking as you seem to be doing, vampire, you should have a plan to kill Dracula all ready to go, no?” Trevor is walking backwards ahead of him, facing him, while Sypha inspects the maps in her hand thoroughly. She has a small flame lit between her fingers to give herself light.
Alucard clears his throat; not because he needs to, but because if he doesn’t have that small buffer of time to gather himself he feels that he may throw the hunter against a tree. “If you wish to say something, Belmont, I suggest you say it before it bursts from you in a rather violent way.”
“I’ll show you violent, you bloody fucking-” Trevor growls, reaching for the whip on his hip.
It feels like the smallest sliver of time that Alucard feels the tug at his finger, eyes going to the now glowing red thread connecting him to Trevor. He has half a second to figure out what it means, and that’s all the time he needs to sense the vile creature flying straight toward Trevor with its mouth wide open.
Alucard immediately sends the sword by his side flying into the demon’s mouth, through its brain, and out the other side in a flash of gleaming reflected moonlight. Sypha and Trevor have stopped and are wide eyed, staring at the now bleeding and halfway beheaded demon on the ground. They both look up at Alucard.
“How did you…?” Sypha starts, blinking. Of course, he could put the blame on being a vampire. He could say he sensed the demon before either of them did because of his heightened senses of hearing and eyesight, or that he has some kind of connection to the nighthorde because Dracula’s blood runs through his veins.
He doesn’t say any of that, though. To avoid any further questioning, Alucard turns his attention to Trevor, eyes narrowing as he steps forward to come chest to chest with the hunter. “You should worry less about what I’m doing, Belmont, and pay more attention to your own well being.”
With that, Alucard presses past the both of them, stepping over the demon in the process. He hears Trevor mutter something about vampire reflexes as they set off to find the horses.
I’m trusting you, Belmont. Don’t make me regret it.
Hm. Everyone regrets it in the end.
Alucard has a lot of other things to think about during his shift to guard the others as they sleep, but these words seem to be nagging at the deepest recesses of his mind. Of course, he has no idea why, unless it’s that damned thread that he’s trying his hardest to pretend doesn’t exist.
The thing had glowed just before Trevor could have lost his life. It warned Alucard before it would have been severed from the both of them. Although, if he thinks about it hard enough, he supposes it would have glowed for either of them that could see it, not specifically Alucard.
But...why is he the only one that can see it?
It’s a stupid question, really, because why the fuck would Trevor Belmont believe in something as seemingly childish as a thread that connects two soulmates together? And why would he believe that it connects him to Alucard? If Trevor knew, he would most likely off himself before ever giving himself the chance to fall in love with a vampire. Half vampire, Alucard thinks. He laughs silently to himself, because he can’t believe he’s misrepresenting himself even within the confines of his own mind, just because he’s thinking how the Belmont would think of him.
Would Alucard end up regretting his alliance with Trevor? In the end, the three of them are all the world has left to hope for, but Alucard can’t help but to think that they’re just going to walk into their own deaths at that castle. Maybe fate hadn’t been cruel when it finally aligned he and Trevor together. Perhaps fate pitied him, because the both of them don’t have much longer left to live.
Whatever the reason, Alucard can’t afford to focus on getting Trevor to love him while they’re quite literally on a journey to find a way to save Wallachia, possibly the world. Why would he even try to focus on love to begin with, at a time like this?
His mother would have wanted him to. His mother would have told him that love shows up in the most unexpected of places, and to not question it. She would know; she fell in fucking love with Dracula of all people, of all monsters. Dracula.
When Sypha and Trevor wake, it’s nearly morning. They decide to wait for sunrise before setting out, as to avoid any run-ins with the nighthorde. A smart idea, if the two humans didn’t need a fire to keep themselves warm while they all talk. It ends up attracting the very demons they’re aiming to outwit.
Alucard takes on as many of them as he can and manages to take out at least two of them, but just as he thinks he needs to call Belmont and his ruddy whip, the sound of it cracking into two demons at once whirls around him. Trevor takes out the one that manages to survive.
The smile on Trevor’s face when he looks at Alucard is almost maniacal. Trevor seems to enjoy sending demons back to hell even more than Dracula enjoys causing mayhem with them. His eyes glisten with determination and it looks like they have a hint of gratefulness in them, but Alucard isn’t going to bet on it. He also won’t mention the faint tug on his finger; not even to himself.
After Sypha finishes off the last of the horde, they move on even though it isn’t sunrise just yet. There’s no point in sticking around for more demons to come feast on their dead brethren’s corpses. Alucard isn’t surprised when he tries to sit at the front of the wagon with both of them, Trevor gives him one of the most pointed looks Alucard has experienced in his life.
“Back of the caravan, bloodsucker,” he says, pointing behind him.
Alucard stands with a hand on one of the horses, eyes fixed on Trevor for a split second more before he walks around the wagon to sit at the back. He doesn’t have it in him to argue. The sun is finally coming up.
“You don’t have to be so consistently rude to him, you know,” he hears Sypha whisper, after a while of silence and Alucard has lied down and shut his eyes. His ears perk as he listens a little harder. “He has had plenty of opportunities to double cross us, attack us, even kill us. And he hasn’t.”
“Don’t care,” is Trevor’s immediate response. Alucard could have guessed that much. “A vampire is a vampire. They have instincts. Better to be on guard when they finally kick in than to get attached to that human side of his and be blind sided.”
A pause, and then… “So you acknowledge that he’s half human?” The smirk on Sypha’s lips most definitely resonates through her tone.
Trevor stumbles over his words and it’s thoroughly amusing to hear; if only Alucard could witness it as well. “I’m not acknowledging bloody fucking anything, Sypha, your tricks won’t work.”
“What tricks?” Sypha questions, sounding a little agitated now. “You said it yourself — his human side. He has one, and if we’re being frank I don’t think he acts like a vampire at all.”
A loud scoff; Alucard can imagine in detail the level of eye rolling Trevor must have just put out. “Well, I’m not being frank, thank you very much.”
Sypha lets out a long sigh. “You’re impossible.”
“And I like it that way,” is all Trevor responds with. Alucard can’t help but be amused, because even if it’s at his own expense, it’s truly entertaining to experience Sypha and Trevor interacting with one another. They almost remind him of his parents.
It’s nightfall when Alucard wakes. Trevor is talking about his childhood, which leads Alucard to believe they’re getting close to the Belmont hold. Nostalgia always hits when one is in the most familiar places to them, his mother used to tell him. He wonders if it will strike him when he reenters the castle.
Trevor seems petrified when they finally reach the hold. It’s almost as if Alucard can see the memories flashing through his eyes and he thinks for the smallest of moments that Trevor finally seems normal. He hadn’t realized it, but Alucard has grown so exhausted of the Belmont berating him that he forgot Trevor is actually human. Cruelty can make anyone seem like a monster.
It gets easier to see the softness unfold in Trevor the deeper into the house they go. Sypha, in her usual manner, is asking him questions while Alucard remains silent and simply observes, until a nagging question makes its way to the surface.
“How old were you when your family home was taken?” He speaks low and tries to word it as sensitively as possible; he can see this place beginning to take a toll on Trevor.
It takes Trevor a fair few moments to respond, and he doesn’t even sound sure of himself when he does. “Uh...shit. Thirteen? Fourteen? Something like that.”
“You’ve been on your own since you were thirteen?” Sypha sounds incredulous, or perhaps shocked. Alucard is quite taken aback, himself. No wonder Belmont is so rough around the edges. Raising yourself can’t have been a fun experience.
Trevor shrugs as he kneels, looking for something on the ground. “Maybe twelve. Who even remembers that sort of thing?”
This stops Alucard where he stands. He looks over his shoulder at Trevor, contemplating what he was doing at the equivalent of being twelve in human years. He recalls breaking one of his mother’s glass medical instruments and crying for ages about it. He can’t imagine being out in the world, alone, at that time.
“Twelve…” Alucard muses, eyes drifting to the moon above them. Trevor makes a frustrated sound.
“Is there a point to these questions?”
Alucard doesn’t turn to face Trevor again as he speaks, trying to play off just how utterly in shock he is with a half hearted laugh. “I’m disturbed to find out that I had more of a childhood than you did.”
“And your dad’s fucking Dracula,” Trevor adds, with a scoff.
They all look at each other for a moment before a small bout of low chuckles sounds between them. Alucard hides his contemplative mood with it, and when the other two move on to a different place to investigate, he trails behind them a fair distance.
Alucard can’t even begin to fathom having his childhood abruptly stripped from him at the ripe age of twelve. Not only that, but every person he’s ever known, his entire family, as well. Dracula might not have blood relatives anymore, but he most certainly has vampire companions that he calls his family, and Alucard’s mother had a sister. Alucard has cousins, human cousins...not that he’s ever met them. But just knowing they’re there, that his mother’s blood runs through them, it’s enough to bring him comfort in his loneliest hour.
To have none of that, none of it at all, would be devastating. It would feel like the epitome of loneliness, like being in the bottom of a pit with no one to pull you out. Trevor has no one to pull him out, he has no one to lean on when things get dark. Alucard supposes that he doesn’t, either, but in the end he knows he could find his mother’s family and rely on them. Trevor doesn’t even have the smallest of backup plans...he’s been roaming the world aimlessly since he was a child.
Alucard is beginning to understand why Trevor keeps everyone that tries to offer him aid at an arm’s length, if not shoving them away completely. He’s beginning to understand Trevor Belmont, and he thinks that’s going to be a very dangerous game to play.
The next thing Alucard knows, the thread is pulling against his finger.
Wretched fucking thing.