Short and Sweet

(I don't remember where Alucard's wine stash is discussed in the manga, so I might be contradicting it. Feel free to correct me. And yes, it's not very good, but I tried. Sorry.)

"Walter? Could you, ah, help me with something?" Seras poked her head tentatively into the kitchen.

"I suppose the dishes could wait, Miss Victoria. What do you need?" he replied.

"I, ah... there's something downstairs that's... out of my reach. Since you're taller, I..."

"I understand," he answered crisply and followed her downstairs. Seras lead him off the usual paths and to a small, disused room.

"I had forgotten this was here," Walter smiled, looking around the room. Bottles of wine were stacked neatly along the walls. He told Seras how Alucard had been assembling the collection before World War II. He'd heard that some of it was brought from Carfax Abbey with Abraham's permission, but had no idea if it was true.

He retrieved the bottle Seras pointed out to him, a dusty one on the top shelf. "Why this one, Miss Victoria?"

"Oh, I just... thought the bottle was pretty..."

"You have a good instinct for wine," he told her. He pulled a corkscrew from his pocket - Seras wondered if he carried it in case of a wine emergency - and opened the bottle, handing it to her.

Seras blinked at the bottle for a minute, then took it from him and held it to her lips. She hadn't had wine since she decided to destress from studying for A-levels by sneaking into his father's wine cabinet. It was good wine, though, as much as she could tell. After a minute she handed the bottle to Walter.

"Aren't you going to have any?"

"Oh, it wouldn't be proper."

"Why? Who's going to know but me?" She smiled at him like a co-conspirator, and it seemed like a good idea, suddenly. And so they drank and they talked, and if they did a bit more than that, who would know?