Stela awoke the next morning to find her brother seated next to her and scowling at a wall, a small stick in his hands as he stabbed it into the ground.

"Adrien?" She called out, sitting up and trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes. The scowl was replaced with a surprised expression before it shifted into his normal brooding expression with a hint of a smile.

"Good morning little sister." He greeted as he dropped the stick to the ground. "Sleep well?"

"A lot better than I used to, find any demons lurking in the shadows?" Stela responds.

"No, or at least none I could find."

"Good, because I managed to kill several last night while you were getting to know our new friends."

Alucard glanced over at Trevor, who was still asleep and snoring softly. "May I ask why were you two asleep under your cloak?"

Stela blinks in surprise. "Pardon?"

"Earlier this morning when I came back from patrolling to make sure you were alright, I found you both asleep under your cloak. You were still both asleep when I moved you away."

Stela tried to come up with an answer, but how could she if she didn't know what her brother was talking about?

"We both fell asleep apart from each other, I don't know what you're talking about." She admits with a small frown. "Adrien are you seeing things?"

"Absolutely not!" The dhampir exclaimed and scowled at the sleeping man. "Then can you explain why does he have your cloak?"

"Because he was cold and I didn't want him to die on us." Stela responds. "Nothing happened while you were out patrolling the city, I'm fine. And either or both of us probably woke up feeling cold and just got under my cloak and blankets."

"Nothing better have happened, otherwise I'd be burying our hunter right now."

"Adrien!"

"Shut up...I'm trying to sleep..." Trevor groaned from under the cloak.

"Get up." Alucard stormed over to where the hunter slept and yanked the cloak off. "Now!"

"Fuck off." Trevor muttered and swatted at the vampire's hands.

"Fighting so early in the morning?" Stela heard Sypha ask as the sleepy Speaker approached her yawning.

"Apparently my brother found us asleep under my cloak and is probably assuming the worst." Stela responds as Trevor tried to blindly grab the cloak back, complaining about the cold.

"Well I'm sure nothing happened between you two, Trevor mentioned last night you've slept together before."

"Don't say it like that, all we did was fall asleep next to each other under the same tree."

"I'm fucking tired, and you're already pissing me off!" Trevor yelled as he got to his feet. Alucard didn't even cower at the harsh tone the other man used, instead he just glared at him.

"I'm warning you Belmont, if you so much as lay a hand on my sister or do anything inappropriate to her, I'll see to it myself that you'll really be the last of your house."

"That's enough, both of you!" Stela snapped as she got between them, placing a hand on their chests to push them apart. "We're supposed to be working together to save the world, not tear each other apart! If you two can't get along by yourselves I'll force you to get along, understand?"

Alucard gave Trevor one last glare before nodding. "Very well, but just to let you know, I'm only being defensive about you because as your brother I'm supposed to protect you from idiotic men."

"You dare accuse me of-" Trevor began before Sypa got between him and Stela.

"Enough, both of you!" She scolded. "It feels like I'm working with children, and even a pair of fussy toddlers are better behaved than the two of you!"

"Stela is right, you all can't be at each other's throats like this and expect to defeat Dracula while you fight amongst each other." The elder said from the other side of the house where the other Speakers were packing up their blankets. "How can you all expect to work as a team when you all fight amongst yourselves?"

"You two need to blow off some steam, Trevor, come with me." Stela said as she gently pushed her brother back and grabbed the hunter's hand to pull him away. "A good way to blow off steam is to hit something, and I know just the thing."

Alucard started to protest as his sister dragged their hunter out of the house and started to move when Sypha stopped him.

"Do you not trust your sister well enough to be alone with a man?" She asked with a frown. "I may have only known them both for a day but from what I can see, Trevor would never hurt your sister. Also even if he did try to hurt her she can defend herself."

"She's been alone for an entire year, of course I'm going to worry for her safety!" Alucard tried to argue before Sypha silenced him with a look.

"I get it, you're worried he'll try to assault her, but Trevor is a good man and honorable enough to not hurt Stela like that. Have a little faith in them, they'll be fine alone."

💫💫🌟💫💫

"You want me to teach you how to fight so you won't feel useless when we have to go fight your father?" Trevor asked and Stela as they stood in the courtyard of the city that was empty, save for a few townspeople trying to remove a pile of corpses and shoo some crows away from the bodies. She nodded and he noticed her cheeks turn pink in embarrassment.

"Yeah...I know I said I picked up a few things over the past year but you saw how useless I was during the bar fight the other day." She admitted. "And then the fight on our first night in Gresit against the horde I was no help at all, unlike you and Sypha I didn't really do anything."

"You took down several demons on your own when Sypha and I fell under the city, that doesn't mean you did nothing to help." Trevor pointed out. "And you managed to knock out a fully grown man who was taller than the two of us by hitting him in the face with your elbow earlier this week, now I'd say you're not too shabby in a fist fight. Also you have silver knives, those are used to kill vampires and werewolves."

"Throwing that one by your head was complete luck." Stela said with a small laugh. "Really Trevor, I'm terrible at fighting. When we were younger, my brother taught himself to sword fight and offered to teach me but at the time I wasn't interested because I was busy learning how to be a doctor like our mother. Kind of wish I took up his offer before she was killed, that would have come in handy when we confront my father. And I don't want to have to ask my brother to teach me, he's never killed demons or gotten into an actual fist fight with anyone. And I feel like he's going to be mostly lecturing me on something stupid instead of showing me what to do."

"Alright you do have a point on that one." The hunter let out a small laugh. "Fine, I'll teach you how to properly fight. Maybe even show you how to use those knives too so you won't accidentally stab someone who's not a vampire. Better yet I'll show you more than fighting techniques."

"Let's just keep this professional, please?"

Trevor gave a small laugh before he took Stela's hands and arranged them into fists and then into a fighting position. "Alright, you're going to want to properly punch someone, and you want to hit the right places to knock your opponent over or gain the upper hand in a fight. Try to hit me."

"In the face or in the chest?" Stela asked, lowering her hands slightly.

"Anywhere is fine, just try and hit me."

She raised her hands to their original position and threw a punch fight at his face, but he managed to catch her fist.

"You'll have to be faster, you'll have a better chance taking someone by surprise." Trevor said as Stela threw another punch with her other fist and he caught it with his free hand. "Not bad really, but you could use some practice."

"I grew up in a house where I wasn't allowed to get into fist fights, and I had to watch bar fights to see what fighting looked like." Stela said as she quickly threw her knee up. Trevor quickly released both her hands and used them to block her attack.

"Predictable, but you could have tried headbutting me in the face instead of going for the testicles."

Stela continued to throw punches and kicks, aiming for different places as Trevor continued to block her attacks. At this point she was already starting to grow exhausted, but she wasn't ready to give up yet, not until she was able to land at least one punch or kick on Trevor or cause him to fall over.

"You sure you don't want to take a break? You look exhausted." The hunter commented as he blocked another punch that his companion threw at his chin. "Don't want your brother telling me off for overworking you like this."

"I'll stop when I finally land a punch." Stela replied and threw another punch that was caught. "I'm not going to stop until I do one thing right."

"You really don't know when to give up do you?"

"It's all part of my charm Belmont, you should know that by now."

"Alright stop." Trevor said as he grabbed both her wrists to stop her. Without warning, Stela's knee flew right up and Trevor gave a loud yelp of pain before releasing her and fell right onto his knees clutching the sore spot. "Oh fuck..."

"Oh-oh my God I am so sorry! I didn't mean to do it that hard!" Stela yelled as she dropped to the floor to help him up. "A-are you alright?"

"Fine, I'm fine." Trevor assured her as he sat up. "Oh that's definitely going to hurt."

"Ah, I'll get Sypha!" Stela yelled, as Trevor weakly tried to get back onto his feet. "No no stay down- SYPHA!"

💫💫🌟💫💫

"She did that to you?" Sypha asked, trying not to laugh as the hunter laid curled up in a ball on the floor where he had been sleeping earlier. "She's so small compared to you and she inflicted that much damage?"

"Took me by surprise, wasn't expecting it." Trevor groaned and let loose a weak chuckle. "She's not that bad at fighting."

"I'm surprised she even came to you for advice." Alucard commented from his corner of the house. "Where is she now?"

"Outside of the house." Sypha pointed to the ruined door where Stela was on the floor holding her knees to her chest with her face buried in them.

"I said I was sorry!" She yelled, her voice muffled. "How many times must I apologise?"

"Stardust come back inside, there's no need for you to feel so guilty about pulling such a cheap trick on him."

"Is she always like that?" Trevor asked as Stela walked back into the house with an embarrassed look on her face. He was honestly glad the Speakers had left the house to aid Gresit some more before they left and to pack up their belongings since they were planning on leaving later that afternoon. Last thing he needed was a crowd of strangers staring at him while he was trying to ignore the pain Stela had delivered to him.

"She was raised not to fight, first time she and I ever got physical with each other, she locked herself in her room and didn't come out for a few hours spewing apologies to me and our parents." Alucard explained and gave a small chuckle as his sister sat down next to him. "My father was actually more impressed than angry. And he found it funny that we actually got in a fight over a book."

"She punched you in the face over a book?"

"We were at that age where siblings tend to fight over simple things. After that she tried not to get physical with me over books."

"I was ten!" Stela protests, her cheeks turning a darker shade of pink now. "Also it was a book on astrology too, and stop telling them embarrassing stories about me!"

This drew a laugh from Trevor, who was still curled up in the corner, and Sypha as well but she quickly stopped.

"So, what were you trying to accomplish outside with our hunter, sister?" Alucard asked, amusement in his tone.

"He was teaching me to fight...I don't want to be useless..."

"You're the farthest thing from being useless Stardust, I've heard you killed some nasty demons who stayed behind and tried to run away. And you can heal our mortal companions, that's not useless either."

"I can't wield a sword Adrien, you think I'm just going to be throwing knives at our father when we have to fight him?" Stela snaps, the embarrassment leaving her face. "I don't have magic like Sypha, or a magical whip like Trevor, or speed and a sword like you!" "If you think punching our father is going to solve anything, you're thinking like a Belmont." Alucard stated, ignoring the glare Trevor was giving him. "And since I'm here, I think it's about time you had that sword fighting lesson I was supposed to give you. Here, found this when I was out patrolling last night, figured you could put some use to it."

The vampire handed her a cloth covered object and unwrapped it to reveal a short sword.

"Adrien-"

"Come on, it's time we put that sword to good use."