A/N: Written for the prompt "Tipsy kiss." Set directly post-Sleepers.

Nikola really hated being a human.

All of the shiny new superpowers in the world couldn't make up for the fact that he got through barely two glasses of premier cru with Helen before his head started spinning. Apparently over a hundred years had turned him into something of a lightweight.

Noticing that he was getting a little tipsy (giggling loudly over the metal tray he kept moving around may have been a clue), Helen had shut down their little sorrow-drowning + magnetism party, with some reluctance; he suspected that after days of struggling to find a way to revamp him, she had needed a drink or several almost as badly as he had.

She had offered to walk him back to his room, eyeing him in a concerned way as if she were afraid he was going to fall off a balcony or something. Ridiculous. It might have been a hundred years, but he could still –

Nikola listed to the left and nearly ran right into a small table with a vase on top, promptly giving it a death glare. Who the hell put vases in the middle of a hallway for unsuspecting, totally blameless ex-vampires to stumble into? It was the butler, he thought, his eyes narrowing. Anyone who binge-watched Operation Paranormal obviously had questionable clarity of thought.

He pushed himself off the wall to give himself a little momentum, but misjudged the angle and caught his foot on the thrice-accursed table with the vase, sending both of them crashing to the floor – the vase literally. Personally, Nikola didn't feel much better.

Nikola really hated being a human. Only a few days before, he'd fallen off of a skyscraper and, sure, it had hurt (a lot), but it had taken him mere seconds to heal completely. Now, he took one little dive and his entire body felt like somebody had run him over with a car. Which, now that he thought about it, had also happened recently, and he didn't remember it being this uncomfortable.

He was still groaning when he heard footsteps in the hall behind him – oh good, one of the babes in the woods come to have a hearty laugh at his misfortune.

"Nikola!" Helen exclaimed, worry evident in her tone, and hurried over to him, taking his face in her hands.

Suddenly, Nikola felt much less uncomfortable. Any number of witty remarks presented themselves to him. "Hi," he said instead.

Helen smiled, relieved. "Hello."

Nikola grinned what was supposed to be a roguish smirk and ended up more of a soppy beam. "You're looking radiant tonight," he informed her, his voice slurring.

"I think I'm going to have to watch your wine intake for a while," Helen replied, and dropped her hands from his face to pull him back up to his feet.

"Aww, Helen…" Nikola swayed a little and Helen took his shoulders to steady him. He glanced down appreciatively. "Dearest Helen, would you really torture me so?"

Helen raised her eyebrows. "Dearest?" she mouthed, then shook her head, putting it aside. "Alright, Nikola. Come on. Time to go to bed."

"Why, Helen," Nikola said unsteadily. "What exactly are you implying?"

Helen shook her head again, smiling in that exasperated fashion he'd become rather used to. "I'm saying, you need to get some sleep. As it is you'll probably be a zombie tomorrow."

"At least I could still be some member of the living dead," he said dejectedly.

"Well, don't give up hope," Helen said, patting his shoulder. "We may yet find a way."

He was still very unsteady on his feet, and Helen re-positioned herself so that she had one hand grasping around his waist firmly and the other tightly holding his hand.

"You're just saying that to make me feel better," he accused, still finding it a little difficult to speak clearly.

"And if I were?" Helen raised a challenging eyebrow, but she squeezed his hand, thumb running along his fingers gently.

"Well," Nikola said, realizing he didn't have an answer for that, and looked down at their interlaced hands. "Well…I would, I would just have to say…"

There were perks to being able to get drunk, he realized. He would never have had the courage to do this otherwise.

Nikola brought his other hand around to lift Helen's up in both of his, and kissed it lightly, letting his lips linger just a bit before he lowered their hands, still holding onto her and stroking her wrist.

"Thank you," he said softly.

Helen's eyes were warm, and her smile was not now her familiar exasperated variety, but a rarer, even lovelier tender one. She started to lean towards him, her hand turning in his to pull him to her. Nikola could feel all of the breath leaving his lungs as he closed the last short distance between them until their foreheads were just resting against each other, lips only inches apart, and Helen's earrings started floating towards Nikola as his new magnetic powers, already a little hard to control, went completely haywire.

Nikola's eyes closed, and he could feel Helen drop his hands and slide hers up his shoulders into his hair, pulling him ever closer until…

…until Nikola got hit by another wave of dizziness, and his eyes snapped open as he staggered to the side, nearly causing both of them to fall over.

Helen managed to keep a solid hold on him, though, and righted them both after his dizziness passed. She blinked and shook her head, as if to clear it and get back to reality. "Right," she said, suddenly businesslike. "Bed." Resuming her former position, she started walking them both up the corridor.

Nikola had never thought he would ever have reason to curse his beloved wine, but he wasn't on very good terms with it at the moment, and he spent the rest of the trip to his room turning over the last few minutes in his somewhat fuzzy mind.

Helen stopped at his door, opening it and then turning him around to face her. "Are you going to be alright?" she asked, and he wasn't so muddled that he failed to realize she wasn't just talking about him being slightly drunk.

He smiled a little bitterly. "I'll live," he said, trying not to think about that one too much.

Helen nodded, understanding. "If you need anything," she told him, pressing his hand again, "I'm right here."

Nikola didn't quite trust himself to answer that, so he just nodded back, dropping Helen's hand as he turned away from her.

Before he realized it, Helen had taken his shoulders again and was leaning in quickly to plant a brief but tender kiss on his cheek, and then she wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tightly and kissing his cheek one more time before turning him and giving him a little push across the threshold.

"Get some sleep, Nikola," she said, an expression halfway between amusement and sad fondness dancing across her face, and she closed the door.

The metal tray just to the left of Nikola skittered across the room to hit the wall with a clatter.

A/N: I took a leaf from one of my favorite FMAB fics and gave all the chapters magnetic terms for names. I am not a very good scientist, though, so I apologize for any inaccuracies.