He dodged a couple of monsters with ease; even without the weapon he was about to go retrieve, he had made his way around the castle easily so far. It was his powers; he had wondered earlier why exactly he could do it, but he knew now. He knew; he remembered everything.

There were members of his family he hadn't seen for 35 years, and he lowered his head a little as he walked. Memories of people he barely knew anymore, memories of friends he had lost but not known about it... He shook his head and looked ahead, determined. What he was here for took priority over everything though, and he was going to finish things.

"J?"

Julius turned to look at who had called him - and remembered. He did remember Arikado all too well. The man - or should he have called him a man, now that he remembered what and who exactly the black-clad person standing further away in the hallway was? - had kept contact with him over all those years, never telling the truth about where exactly they knew each other from. Not that Arikado - Alucard, Julius corrected his thoughts - hadn't become something more than just someone watching over him.

When did he let things go to that anyway? Julius laughed shortly as he looked at Arikado. He certainly didn't remember liking men that way, but the dhampir...

"You look strange," Arikado continued as he walked closer. "Did something happen?"

"You could say so," Julius answered, smiling slightly as he studied his companion. He then shook his head and laughed again. Alucard was a dhampir, Dracula's son. Julius grinned. How careless it had been of him - a vampire hunter sleeping with his prey. No, he caught himself. Alucard was not the prey, but one of them. One of the hunters, and also...

Arikado - no, Alucard; and the whole name was Adrian F. Tepes, Julius corrected himself again although he did know that the dhampir went by the name Genya Arikado these days - stopped in front of him and looked at him, appearing somewhat curious now.

"J? Is something the matter? What happened? Your eyes. There is a strange fire in them..." The black-haired man then smiled and raised his hand to touch the Vampire Hunter's face gently. Alucard stared at him for a moment then closed his eyes for a few seconds before looking into the other man's eyes. "And that fire..." He paused, then added, "...Julius?"

Julius nodded. "You were always observant... Alucard. Yes, that happened, although I suppose you were expecting it any time now. I regained my memory. It's strange really, to suddenly remember so much of... everything. Everything about being a Vampire Hunter too. I was about to go get the Vampire Killer; it's sealed around here."

"Is that so," Alucard answered, his voice somewhat melancholy. "But you are correct. I was expecting your memory to return soon. That is why you are here after all. I suppose I could congratulate you, but we have more important things to worry about."

"Yes. Dracula. He..." Julius suddenly frowned. "I have a bad feeling about this, but I'm going to need my whip first. Also, we need to think about stopping Graham. I just hope... No, it couldn't be."

Alucard looked at his companion but didn't say a word for a moment. He then sighed and nodded slightly.

"You do that, Julius. I need to go somewhere and see that..." He trailed off then turned away. With Julius' memory returned, there was no need for him to stay around. "You have your duty. I should warn you about something, but I do not think you would listen to me. You... never did listen to me."

Julius sighed as well then placed his hand on the other man's shoulder. "Arikado... Alucard. Damn it's hard to know what to call you anymore. I'm so used to Arikado by now..."

"Whatever you wish to use is fine," Alucard replied, preparing to leave. "You could just as well call me Adrian. The Belmonts are the only ones who would remember that name anymore anyway."

"Arikado."

The dhampir froze as Julius wrapped his arms around him all of a sudden. "Yes... Julius?"

"The hell if I'm going to pretend last thirty-five years never happened, you know," the Vampire Hunter said. "You seduced me, that you did. You little bastard, Alucard."

Alucard smiled. "I apologize, Julius. I needed an excuse to keep seeing you sometimes, and... I cannot say I didn't... need it. Your family, the Belmonts, have protected me for years and given me what I needed. I could not just leave you on your own after the incident."

"After everything, I owe you too much now, damn it all," Julius said quietly. "You could've said something, you little liar. Nice excuse there to stay around, let's start sleeping with him, hmm?"

"It was for the best to not say anything. I had hoped we would not end up here again, but as years passed..." Alucard turned around and hugged Julius suddenly. "It is good to have you back. Even though I... preferred some things about... J."

Julius raised his hand to stroke the dhampir's hair. "I'm sure. I have a lot of things to settle, you know. It doesn't change anything though. I'm Julius, but I'm still J. I might not be exactly the same, but I can't just pretend all the things never happened, Arikado. We'll have to get back to that later, for now's not the time or the place, but..."

"...But?" Alucard looked at Julius.

The Vampire Hunter smirked. "Ah hell, I'm not exactly someone who can talk about things that..." He stared at his companion for a moment then just grabbed Alucard by the jaw and kissed him.

They stood there kissing for almost a minute - then something dropped from the ceiling nearby, and they both turned to look at what made the sound. It was a small ghoul-type monster; Alucard quickly shot a Hellfire spell at it, and it disintegrated. He then glanced at Julius and lowered his face, almost appearing to be embarrassed.

"Right, um," Julius said. "That whip. Was supposed to go get it."

Alucard looked at him then and smiled warmly. "Yes. The whip. Other things... Later," he mumbled. "You need to clear your thoughts, and this is not the time for... this." He drew his fingers over the Vampire Hunter's lips, then turned into a bat right in front of him and headed to the other end of the hallway.

Julius shook his head, unable to stop smiling himself. "Damn you," he said, looking after his partner. "I'm way too old for this, you know."

He had seen that fire too, however, in the dhampir's eyes. He didn't know why but it was there, and he couldn't just pretend it didn't exist for them both.

Author's notes:

For the Castlevania Fanfiction LJ Community challenge with the title "Fire". My approach was, well, Julius regaining his memory, obviously, and his relationship to Arikado. Yeah. I like this pairing.

- Lady Harken (August, 2005)