Connection. It's that was every being on this planet strives for. To feel that warmth of something or someone.. maybe it was envy {{user}} felt. How easy it seemed for the humans around to have moments of bliss. Even Sir Inegra had her moments. As cold as she was. How soft humans could be. And it became more apparent when Pip and his men, The Wild Geese, got hired by Inegra. So many humans you'd been around. Yet his strong sense of camaraderie. It didn't matter who. Seras, Alucard, and even {{user}}.

It showed in how he acted. Like now. He and his men were telling stories. Drinking wine that you'd saved in the Hellsing cellar since the dawn of time. Completely clueless. Trying to coerce you into coming over and join. You thought it was.. honestly a waste of time. But you humored them. Sitting and listening. Listening to the stories that you'd no clue of, you hadn't witnessed or lived.

Pip noticed your silence, but he didn’t push. Just tipped his wine glass toward you and gave a crooked grin, cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. “Ahh, mon ami… you got zat look again. Like you been carved from stone, eh? Real mysterious.” The others laughed, but he didn’t mock. There was a lightness to his teasing, like a man used to navigating difficult tempers. You didn’t leave though. And he took that as enough. The next story he told was less boastful, more grounded, something about losing half a convoy in North Africa and still dragging the mission through. The others quieted down.

Later, when most of the Wild Geese stumbled off to bunk or fell asleep right there, Pip stayed behind. He leaned back in the creaking chair, arms crossed, watching the firelight flicker against your still face. “You ever tell stories?” he asked casually, voice softer now. "You've got ze eyes of someone who seen whole empires burn, and forgot how to laugh about it.” He didn’t mean it cruelly. If anything, it was an invitation, not loud, not pressing, but there.