Work Text:
It wasn’t Trevor’s fault, really.
At least, that’s what he would later tell the others when they interrogated him with exasperated worry.
He wasn’t sure how he’d really ended up in the frigid water, only that they had been in the midst of a battle with some of Dracula’s leftover army- not that there were even that many left to begin with. Trevor had, through the chaos of fire and ice and vampires fucking everywhere, separated slightly from the other two and had found himself inadvertently in the middle of the icy bridge that overlooked a roaring river. The same bridge they had been arguing about on how to safely cross when they’d been ambushed by the gang of bity boys, as he affectionly liked to call them.
Being of the unlucky sort to have been born with the most unfortunate of timing, Trevor’s boot, in an attempt to distance himself enough from his current adversary, landed on a particularly slippery patch of ice. It came as a surprise to him, then, when he found himself suddenly on the ground with the wind knocked from his lungs. He had just enough time to see Alucard, who was all the way across the clearing from Trevor, lock eyes with him and begin a shout of warning. His enemy, using the temporary distraction to his advantage, slammed into Trevor with an attack that sent him sprawling right off the bridge and into the polar river below.
Having already been attempting to catch his breath before he fell,Trevor was completely unprepared for the absolutely numbing shock that came from his sudden plunge into the rushing river. In that brief moment of sheer panic, where his body and mind were desperately attempting to play catch up with the world surrounding him, Trevor found himself reflexively trying to breathe in as his body strived for the oxygen it was being deprived of. Unfortunately for Trevor, he just so happened to be fully submerged in the water while he was doing this, and was subsequently exposed to the sharp sting of the water, rather than the air his body was expecting.
Unable to catch a reprieve, Trevor found his body rapidly failing him as his adrenaline quickly gave into exhaustion. He realized that he could no longer tell up from down at this point, so even if he had the strength to fight he didn’t think he could have made it back to the surface. With the current (heh, current, he thought sluggishly to himself) speed of the river, he knew he was already well away from his companions who were likely still wrapped up in their own battles. He realized, with an inward sigh of disappointment and regret, that no one was there to save him this time, and there was a very good chance that he was going to die that night. He felt the world around him grow cold and dark, as a final wave of exhaustion threatened to crash into his remaining resolve.
‘What a stupid way for a Belmont to go,’ was his last conscious thought before he finally slipped into darkness, letting the river carry his body off into the night.
Alucard had never moved so fast in his life.
One moment he had been on one side of the clearing, staring in mute horror as he watched Trevor, momentarily defenseless, get punted straight into the roaring river that he had been arguing was too much of a hazard to cross not even ten minutes prior. The next moment, he found himself soaring across the clearing with little regard to the few enemies that still remained at that point. His throat burned with use, and if his hearing wasn’t blocked by the rush of panic that was threatening to overwhelm him at any moment, he would have realized that he was screaming Trevor’s name.
He reached the edge of the river bank and stared into the murky water, eyes searching frantically for any signs of his comrade getting up. Seeing nothing however, a cold, awful feeling that had settled in his stomach grew achingly bigger. Before his brain could start rattling off terrifying statistics about human survival in these types of situations- things he knew for a fact, being that his mother was a human doctor- he took off down the direction of the river.
He switched rapidly into his bat formation, as he had both better vision and maneuverability in this form- skills that would aid him as he searched the rushing water for any hint or shadow of the man he was looking for. It was oddly quiet for a moment, Alucard using every ounce of his concentration to focus on his mission, pointedly ignoring everything else about the world around him. It was just him and the river below him, nothing else mattered in that moment. Until suddenly, his sharp eyes caught a glint of metal reflecting the moonlight brighter than the rest of the water, a glint he instinctively knew had to be from the Morning Star.
He dove immediately into the river, transforming back into his vampiric form as soon as he was in the water. Propelling himself further forward with strong kicks from his legs, his hands began to search about wildly, feeling for any portion of Trevor’s body he could snatch on to. His stellar night vision was all but naught in the dark depths of the murky river, leaving him to rely on touch alone. He could feel his desperation threatening to overwhelm him as his hands came back empty, and he cursed himself for wasting precious time.
He was just about to resurface and try again, when his thumb caught the edge of a fabric and he surged forward, frantically grasping on to the solid weight that was Trevor’s leg. Relief crashed into Alucard like a wave as he fought his way up Trevor’s unconscious body, struggling to latch himself tightly to the hunter in an effort to not lose the man again. Not wanting to waste any more time, and eager to get them both out of the dangerous, too cold water, he pulled them up and out of the river with very little grace.
Hovering a second above the roaring river as he supported Trevor by his armpits, he cast his gaze about. He had to quickly decide what the next best course of action would be, now that he actually had Trevor in his hands. The drowned hunter was cold enough for Alucard, who’s natural body temperature was much lower than a human’s, to be able to tell. If that didn’t already send multiple warning signs blaring through his brain, the fact that said hunter wasn’t moving at all certainly would have. He had to push back another rising wave of human statics, knowing that he couldn’t afford to let that distract him in his current situation.
Suddenly, Alucard caught a bright burst of something out of the corner of his eyes, and found himself whirling around to look at it.
“Alucard, over here!” Like a beacon of light, Sypha was standing on the nearby river bank, using her fire as a bright flare to signal Alucard to her location.
A quick glance around assured him that no other threats remained in the area- it appeared that Sypha had taken care of all of them while he was busy with Trevor. He quickly flew over to the seer, careful not to jostle his precious load too much. Sypha immediately took off her outer robe and spread out on the ground, giving them a dry, warmer space to work with than the frozen ground. Alucard gently laid Trevor out on the fabric and, without hesitation, placed his finger on the man’s throat, searching for any sign of a pulse. His mind was entering doctor mode now, and he was going to do everything he could to ensure Trevor’s survival.
A tiny, weak twitch made itself known under Alucard’s finger, and he had to fight back a sigh of relief. It was a sign that Trevor was still hanging on, still fighting, but they were nowhere near being out of the danger zone. He brought his head right next to Trevor’s and titled it slightly so that his ear was just over the man’s mouth and nose, and listened closely for any sounds of breathing over the crashing of the river next to them. He listened, and listened, ears straining for any hint of air being exhaled, but there was none.
“He’s not breathing,” Alucard concluded with a choked voice, feeling as though he were the one struggling for air at the moment.
Behind him, he vaguely heard Sypha gasp in horror, not very aware of her presence in the moment or anything other than the dying man in front of him. Without any hesitation, he found himself doing chest compressions the way his mother had taught him many years ago, trying to force any obstructions from the man’s lungs and jumpstart his breathing once more. He fought to keep his movements precise and controlled, not willing to let his strength get the best of him lest he injure the man further. As he switched over from the chest compressions to mouth-to-mouth, being careful to to keep his breaths slow and even, he found himself praying for the second time in his life.
Alucard refused to watch another human die in his presence.
When Trevor first came back to awareness, his first semi coherent thought was that he must have died and cleary ended up in Hell. It was the only logical explanation as to why he woke up feeling so hot that he might as well have been on fire. While slightly disappointed with the outcome of his death, he was utterly unsurprised that his life choices had ended with him going down rather than up.
His second thought was that he and Alucard definitely needed to apologize to Sypha for teasing her about her beliefs, because clearly she’d been the right one all along. He only regretted that he wouldn’t be able to tell her in person.
“While I’m sure Sypha would appreciate the sentiment, you’re not dead, Trevor.” Came a familiar, amused voice out of nowhere.
Thoroughly startled, Trevor’s eyes snapped open and he attempted to lurch up (ignoring the nagging thought of when he had even laid down if the first place) only to find himself restrained by a seemingly invisible force. His vision swam from the exertion, and all he could make out through the kaleidoscope of colors was that he was near something very bright and fire-like. This boded neither well with his confusion, nor his conviction that he was actually in Hell.
Cool, boney hands, that could only belong to one person he knew, grasped his shoulders as he struggled to make sense of anything in the world around him, forcing him to lay back down. Immediately upon doing so, he felt less like he was caught in a strange whirlpool of the world and more like an actual person, so he thought it might be a fantastic idea if he just stayed that way for a bit.
“Alucard, I didn’t know you could talk to ghosts. Or whatever I am now. Never really followed up on the part that’s supposed to happen after you’ve died,” He slurred, keeping his eyes closed for the time being. “Unless you’re also dead, ‘course. That would kinda suck though. Sypha probably went to heaven, knowing her. S’always too good for us, that girl.”
“Trevor,” Alucard says again, and he recognizes this tone of voice. It’s his I don’t even know what to do with you voice. It’s one most people around him end up developing once they’ve spent enough time around him, like a disease of exasperation. “I want you to open your eyes and look at me.”
Trevor instantly obeys, not one to (usually) question when Alucard tells him to do something anymore. He opens his eyes again, this time with more success, to find a pair of golden orbs staring right back at him, as if piercing his very soul. Seeing as he has Trevor’s full attention now, Alucard gently grabs Trevor’s face, cupping it between his hands, as if holding him in place so Trevor wouldn’t dare try to look away.
“You are not dead. You are not going to die anytime soon, not as long and we have anything to say about it. Do you understand?”
Trevor nods, not exactly trusting himself to talk at the moment. With another sigh, Alucard lets go of Trevors face, and sinks back into the chair that he had apparently been sitting in. Now that Trevor doesn’t feel like he’s on the wrong side of gravity anymore, he’s able to focus more clearly on his surroundings. He recognizes where he is now, a single room in a small inn that they had been staying in while resting a few nights in a village they happened across. Though he was pretty sure they had checked out that morning, so finding himself back with no clear memory of why was a bit disconcerting.
It appeared that the the queen sized bed that was in the room- which he was evidently in, at the moment- had been pushed until it rested a safe, but close distance from the fireplace, which was currently burning brightly as if someone had been actively tending it. Trevor himself was wrapped in a tight cocoon of what looked to be every blanket they had in their possession and then some. With a spark of clarity, he suddenly understood why his first impression upon waking was that he was actually in Hell.
That only leaves one mystery, then.
“Okay, so,” Trevor begins simply, like he’s about to inquire about the weather. “If I’m not dead, then what happened? Because the last I remember was definitely me dying.”
“Alucard saved your sorry butt, that’s what.” Came a new voice from the doorway, thick with emotion, startling both occupants in the room. Sypha stood there, hands on her hips as if she were about to give him a scolding to remember, but her eyes betrayed the clear relief she was feeling. In the end, though, her softer side won out as she surged forward, practically throwing herself on Trevor as if trying to convey every emotion she felt at once through a single hug.
This left him completely unprepared for the next moment when Sypha suddenly pulled back and slapped him in the face.
“Ow!” Trevor cried out, more in shock than in pain. “What the hell was that for?!”
“For giving me gray hair early, you reckless excuse for a man! What were you thinking, trying to fight a flying enemy on a bridge coated in ice? After we had just been saying it was too dangerous to cross under the circumstances! No wonder you fell into the water! You’re lucky Alucard was able to fish you out when he did, otherwise we would be minus one Belmont.”
“It’s not like I did it on purpose!” Trevor exclaimed with a pout. “And to be fair, I didn’t actually fall into the water, I was pushed by that cheating vampire asshole.”
In that moment, Alucard and Sypha were both assured that Trevor had fully come to. Alucard sighing in displeasure, Sypha dismissively rolling her eyes. If he hadn’t known it would likely end in him getting into even more trouble, Trevor probably would have laughed out loud at the shared reaction.
The moment passed and Sypha delicately extracted herself from her attempt to smother Trevor in a hug. She walked past Trevor’s line of sight to mess with something near the small stove the room provided. Alucard also got up from his position in the chair next to Trevor’s bed, and went to go poke at the already strong fire. It was quiet, just a few clinks of cooking coming from Sypha’s direction and soft pops of the fire coming from Alucard’s. Lulled by the warmth and sense of safety, Trevor didn’t try to fight it as his eyes slipped closed once more, and he fell into a light doze.
It felt like Trevor had just closed his eyes when he’s brought back to awareness by a gentle finger poking him in the side. With a grunt, he opens his eyes to see who would dare interrupt his sleep so he can give them a proper chewing out, only to find Sypha now sitting in the chair at his side. A bowl of something was steaming in the hand that wan’t insistently prodding his left kidney. With another groan, he stubbornly closes his eyes again and turned away, hoping that if he just ignores her for long enough she’ll give up and he can go back to sleep.
“Trevor, you need to get up and eat this soup. It’ll keep you from getting sick because someone decided it was a good to take a swim in river at night in January.”
He continues to ignore her, pretending to have fallen back asleep.
“Trevor.” There’s a hint of warning in her voice.
He adds in a fake snore for good measure.
“What are you, five? If you do not get up in the next ten seconds you’re going to regret it, Belmont.”
“I would listen to her if I were you,” Alucard adds helpfully from across the room.
He should have known better by now than to go up against the immovable force that is Sypha Belnades in a battle of stubborness, but apparently Trevor wasn’t done making stupid decisions that day.
The only warning he gets is a distinct, frustrated huff, before his nice, warm cocoon of blankets is ripped from him, leaving his body exposed to the significantly cooler air around him. He reacts violently to the sudden temperature change, sputtering as if she had dropped a bucket of ice water on him instead. He sits up quickly, desperate for the warmth to return, and is rewarded by having all of the blanket tossed back at him, landing with a solid weight on top of his head.
It’s only after he finally gets the coverings off his head and back around his body that he notices a rather crucial detail he had missed earlier.
“Hey... why am I naked?!”
“Well, you did fall into freezing water in the middle of winter, Trevor.” Alucard answers calmy from across the room, where he sits at the small table with his own bowl of soup. “We needed to warm you up as efficiently as possible, and staying in wet clothes would have only hindered that.”
“But, Sypha!” Trevor argues incredulously as an embarrassed blush fights its way onto his cheek.
“Oh please, Belmont,” Sypha says, rolling her eyes, “Do you think I haven’t seen a man’s private area before? Trust me, yours is nothing special.”
“Just give me your damn soup so I can go back to sleep,” Trevor grumbled while averting his eyes, completely done with the conversation.
Sypha perks up immediately at this, carefully placing the hot bowl in Trevor’s waiting hands. “It’s an old Seer recipe,” she tells him excitedly, “Handed down throughout generations as a means to fight off great sickness. I had to bargain in town for some of the ingredients, but I think it turned out great!”
“Sypha,” Trevor says as he stares down at the soup, trying desperately to keep his expression neutral. “This is literally just chicken noodle soup.”
Sypha looks confused. “Yes, those are the main ingredients. What of it?”
Alucard, the traitor, covers his quiet snickering by taking a rather large bite of his own soup.
Trevor, seeing as he had no help from his other companion, just bites back a sigh as he gives in. “Oh nothing, just observing your soup making skills.”
She narrows her eyes as if she doesn’t quite believe him, but evidently decides not to speak on it as she sits down across from Alucard and starts eating her own serving. The next few moments are only filled with the soft sound of the three travelers eating their dinner in compatibile silence and the crackling of the fire by Trevor’s bedside. It was a comforting environment, and Trevor couldn’t honestly recall the last time he had felt so relaxed, especially around other people. Before long they all three ate their respective servings, and a general air of contentedness filled the room.
Now feeling the beginnings of exhaustion creeping in, they start to get ready to wind down for the night. Trevor, fully clothed once more, fights briefly with the other two as they try to insist that he take the bed for himself for the night, but the argument of sharing body heat was hard to rebut. This is how Trevor finds himself sandwiched between Sypha and Alucard, both gripping onto his sides like he might disappear in the middle of the night if they didn’t. As he felt the heaviness of sleep take him over once more, he couldn’t help but let a small, satisfied smile grace his lips.
“What did a Belmont like me ever do to deserve these two.” Was his last fleeting thought before he finally succumbed to the darkness waiting for him.
Trevor had the best sleep of his life, that night.