A/N: Originally for an Oxford Teslen prompt, but this spiraled way, way out of control, so the actual prompt fill will be a prequel to this. Set in an AU where John doesn't exist and Helen is engaged to Nikola instead. This might be the most self-indulgent thing I've ever posted haha, enjoy! XD
Nikola glanced up as a warning boom of thunder sounded somewhere overhead. This was the third one in the matter of only a few minutes, and it certainly looked like rain was coming. Covering the drab grey sky were inky clouds that had already blotted out the sun, and the wind had picked up, ruffling the hair around his temples and making him shiver.
He had attempted to keep the shivering to a minimum unless no one was looking at him. Unfortunately, being out of the watchful gaze of Helen's extended family members wasn't a situation he was likely to find himself in any time soon.
He hadn't realized she even had very much family outside of her father, but according to Helen these were relations of her mother, and she and her father tried to pay a call on them at least once a year. From Helen's expression, he had gathered the two sides of the family didn't get along very well, and she had admitted that it was mostly a gesture on her father's part to honor her mother's memory. This year, Gregory had decided that as her fiancé, Nikola should come along and meet them too.
Helen was of the opinion that Gregory had invited him to make the visit more pleasant for her, which was why she had agreed. Nikola was of the opinion that Gregory had invited him to inflict as much hell as possible on him. Helen's mother's relations were a good deal wealthier than Gregory Magnus and his daughter, and most of them had made it blisteringly obvious that they did not approve of Nikola in the slightest.
Whether it was because of his nationality (not English, which seemed to be enough for these people), his personal wealth (low), or the fact that he was encouraging Helen to pursue an unladylike career in the medical profession, he couldn't say. A combination of all three seemed likely.
Unlikelier, because no one here but himself, Helen, and Gregory knew, was the possibility that they scorned him because he was an immortal vampire who drank (animal) blood to survive, though in moments of extreme boredom he had toyed with the amusing idea of informing them all of this fact.
Rudeness to himself Nikola could and did tolerate, since he cared very little about their opinions anyway. Besides, he had gotten in a few good retorts himself. What really bothered him was that they were extending it to Helen. At least it didn't seem to trouble her very much. Either long experience had made her cynical about her extended family, or she was simply better at concealing it than he was.
The thunder and wind hadn't upset the woman next to him in the slightest; she chattered on, telling him all about her daughter Margaret and her son Henry and her other son William. It wasn't the most thrilling conversation he had ever experienced, but Nikola didn't mind too much. For one thing, it was nice to let someone else bear the brunt of the conversational load, and for another, Helen's Aunt Adelaide was one of the only people who had been not only civil but friendly to him since their arrival.
Gregory had proposed a walk around the manor grounds after luncheon, possibly to avoid the icy stares that had begun to be cast around. The path was wide enough for only two to walk abreast. Nikola would have taken Helen's arm, but Gregory had gotten there first. He seemed to suspect that the two of them would use this visit to sneak off and engage in improper behavior somehow, even though they had enough chaperones for a small army of young engaged people. (In fairness to Gregory, they had already done just that. Nikola smiled at the memory.)
The rest of the group began to split off in pairs and follow them, skirting Nikola by a conspicuously wide berth. It was beginning to look like he would be relegated to trailing after the others rather pathetically, until Adelaide swept up to him, taking his arm and pouring out an entire conversation's worth of words in the space of a minute.
Nikola didn't like very many people, but he found it difficult not to like her then, as she tugged him along the path with an iron grip. He had liked her even more when she shot a glare at one of Helen's other aunts, the ironically-named Charity, who was constantly giving Nikola glances that ran the gamut from "askance" to "loathing."
"Ah, do you like the rain?" Aunt Adelaide exclaimed as his smile widened, breaking off her current topic (William's deplorable gambling habit, which Nikola had thought it best not to remark too much upon) and switching to a new one with the ease of long practice.
"Yes," Nikola said truthfully, even if it had little to do with his mood improving. More thunder rolled above, and he felt his spirits lift slightly. Well, maybe it was helping after all.
Lightning in particular filled him with sheer exuberance, even if it was a bittersweet pleasure now, when he was trapped so far away from his work at Oxford.
"Oh, so do I," she said. "It always makes one feel so adventurous, does it not? As though you ought to run outside and fight monsters or pirates."
Nikola actually laughed. "Indeed," he said, and unbent so far as to add, "I met Helen in a storm, you know."
"Is that so?" Aunt Adelaide's eyes gleamed. This was more information than anyone had yet managed to extract from him concerning his relationship with Helen.
This time Nikola's smile was soft and reminiscent. "At the Oxford theatre," he told her. "We spent so much time discussing the play that we were caught in the storm on our way back."
Their "discussion" had been animated enough that they had been gently invited to leave, but he saw no reason to include that detail.
"It was on the first day of autumn."
Aunt Adelaide appreciated this poetic detail; he thought she gave a faint sigh.
Helen had worn crimson so vibrant she had outshone the autumn colors of the trees. They had talked of their work before the play had begun, and afterwards Nikola had been of the dazed opinion that she outshone the sun itself.
They had just left the theatre when the clouds burst, and he had offered to escort her home. His excuse was that he was partially to blame for her being out in the storm, but he was mainly hoping only to prolong the short time that he had with her. As it turned out, he needn't have worried. Before Helen had disappeared through the gate to her house, she had invited him to study with her the next day in one of the libraries. Nikola arrived back at his own rooms that night completely drenched but grinning like an idiot.
Aunt Adelaide might have appreciated those poetic details, too, but Nikola held them too close to his heart to share with anyone except Helen. He was not entirely sure why he had said even this much; perhaps it was that, in spite of the few hours together they were able to snatch here and there, he missed Helen, or at least he missed being able to talk freely with her, and not being glared at by a dozen people whenever he so much as took her arm, and quietly working with her in the laboratory they shared with each other and Nigel.
A much louder thundercrack crashed through the sky ominously, and the leisurely pace of the group began to speed up. Aunt Adelaide continued to ask him about Helen, and while he wasn't as forthcoming as she might have liked, particularly about the nature of their current projects, he answered more of her questions at length than he had expected to. Talking about Helen made the current barriers between them seem less, somehow.
They arrived back at the house before the rain started, and there was a general milling about as people handed their coats off to waiting servants. Helen hovered near the door, slipping out of Gregory's arm neatly and joining Nikola and her aunt as they came in last.
"I am sorry for monopolizing your fiancé, my dear," said Aunt Adelaide. "His conversation was most interesting."
Slightly unsettled by this, Nikola hoped his conversation hadn't been too interesting. He was trying to determine if he'd said anything that Gregory would object to when Helen answered.
"It's quite all right, Aunt Adelaide," Helen said cheerfully. "As a matter of fact, I thought I might show him around the grounds for a while longer."
At this suggestion, Gregory's head turned, and Helen switched to addressing both her father and her aunt.
"He has not yet seen the east gardens," she said, as if Nikola had expressed the slightest ounce of desire to see the east gardens.
"Of course," Adelaide said, smiling and nodding sagely. "He must see those."
"They are not at all at their best," Aunt Charity said with a sniff. "That worthless gardener of ours has not been at work for three days. Lying about in a drunken stupor, I am sure." The look she shot Nikola indicated she considered him unworthy of seeing the east gardens at their best anyway.
"Their natural beauty will surely make up for any shortcomings," Helen said with a particularly innocent smile.
"The rain – " Gregory began.
"Has not begun yet," said Helen's aunt smoothly. "I'm certain it will not start for at least another hour, don't you agree, Helen?"
"I quite agree," a rattling boom shook the house, "Aunt Adelaide," Helen finished.
"That's settled then," she said. "You will be just in time for tea when you return."
"Excellent. Come along, Nikola," Helen said brightly, and drew him out of the house and along the path heading the opposite direction they had come from.
Nikola was beginning to have an inkling of what was going on, though he had hardly suspected Helen's aunt of having such a mischievous streak, and he found some enjoyment in Gregory's bemused expression as they walked out.
As much as he appreciated Helen's efforts to get him away from her family for a while, he was so cold by that point that he might rather have endured the disapproving stares if it meant he was able to sit by a fire. When they were well out of earshot and hidden behind a cluster of trees, he said as much to her.
Ever since his vampiric transformation, it had become somewhat harder for him to retain body heat than a human, if the day was not already warm. It was an inconvenience only, as he never grew cold enough that it would pose a serious threat to his health, but it was uncomfortable, especially in the winter. Thankfully, when they were alone, Helen was quite happy to ease that discomfort in a variety of ways which both of them found highly enjoyable.
"I am sorry, Nikola," she said, tucking her arm more securely through his. "But I have something I very much want to show you before another day passes. I believe you'll enjoy it. Besides…"
She leaned closer and whispered something in his ear. Nikola's cheeks were very warm when she was finished, and the rest of him was on its way there.
He swallowed. "Later, then?" he managed.
She smirked.
They passed what was clearly the path to the east gardens, but Helen tugged him onwards, into a less meticulously groomed section of the property.
"What about the east gardens?" He was hardly surprised their destination was elsewhere, but his curiosity was piqued now.
The moment had worn off and he was starting to feel the chill in the air again. Still, his mood brightened as Helen pulled him farther away from the house. Cold as he was, wherever they were headed, it was wonderful to be alone with Helen for a while.
"They are remarkably similar to the west gardens," Helen said dryly. "If anyone asks, you can say that they were rapturously beautiful."
"Then they pale in comparison to you, my dear."
Helen rolled her eyes and he grinned. He was really beginning to feel quite himself again. They crested a hill, a forest appearing in their path as they reached the top, and she led him under the branches. The path was rougher here, clearly less traveled, and had not been kept up well.
"Not that I wish to sound ungrateful, but…" He was about to suggest that instead of traipsing through the forest, they find a pleasant secluded garden bench somewhere and investigate a few of the interesting ideas Helen had offered earlier.
"Another minute more, Nikola."
Helen looked so excited about whatever it was she had to show him that Nikola couldn't possibly refuse to go along with it. Her eyes were sparkling in a way he hadn't seen since they had left Oxford.
So he let her pull him down the uneven path, deftly avoiding branches that had fallen and weeds which had grown up in the middle of it, until they reached their destination.
It was a pond, more of a small lake really, clearly natural instead of manufactured. Flowers and trees grew wild around it, and here in the shelter of the forest not even a strong wind caused a break on the smooth grey surface.
Beside it, at the end of the path, was a small gazebo. It was old, if the peeling white paint was any indication, but it looked as if it had been cared for more than the path had been, and there was a cozy-looking set of chairs and a bench underneath it.
Before either of them could say anything, the sky opened. A flash of brilliant lightning was all that announced it before rain started pouring out, soaking them to the skin almost instantly.
The timing had just been too perfect; they both started laughing, and kept laughing as they stumbled into the limited shelter of the gazebo.
They stood there for a moment, dripping water onto the wooden floor, as Nikola attempted in vain to brush the excess water off and Helen starting wringing out her hair and the parts of her skirt that she could reach.
"Nikola, what are you doing?" she asked, sounding exasperated.
Nikola had just slipped his coat off, intending to give it to her. Yes, it was just as wet as she was, but that was the gentlemanly thing to do, wasn't it? It might keep her a tad warmer. Besides, he liked seeing Helen in his coat, for reasons that weren't very gentlemanly at all.
Helen firmly ended that idea, putting a hand over his cheek and frowning. "Bloody hell, Nikola, you're like ice. Put your coat back on."
"Very well," Nikola muttered, and tried to neither shiver nor sulk as he obeyed.
"Perhaps I should have waited." Helen's voice was low as she considered him.
"Nonsense, my dear. I'm no colder than I would have been under the frigid gaze of your family, and the company is far more pleasant. What was it you wanted to show me?"
Helen smiled at him, like the sun coming out after a rainy day. Of course she knew he was only trying to cheer her up, but she liked it when he did that; he was one of the few people she ever allowed to try, or even to see that she was in need of it at all, which made him rather melt when he managed to succeed.
"This is what I wanted to show you." She swept a hand around her, encompassing their surroundings: the gazebo, the pond, the patches of wildflowers.
Nikola waited. "Yes?" he said after a while. "It's lovely – "
"It's yours," she said, watching him closely. "No one else knows it's here, not even my father. I know it can be...difficult staying here, and I know it's even worse for you. I thought perhaps you might like a place to come when you need to get out of the house."
Nikola stared at her. She was giving him everything he had been wishing for over the last week: blissful solitude, temporary freedom from social obligations, perhaps even a place to take a few of his notebooks out to when the rain stopped and do some work. She was incredible.
"I love you," he said fervently.
She laughed. "I know."
Then she was in his arms, kissing him. He knew she must be cold from the rain and the wind, but her lips were warmer than his, her arms wrapping around him and holding him close. Sheer delight overcame him; he lifted Helen up and spun her around, sending water droplets flying everywhere.
A few long minutes went by, sweet with the sound of rain and the feeling of Helen clasped in his arms, her lips pressed to his. Nikola was now quite warm, though Helen's hair was very untidy (she dismissed his attempts to fix it with a wave and said they could blame the storm).
They moved to a comfortable bench, watching the rain splash against the pond's surface. Nikola was still trying to put Helen's hair in some semblance of order, which was made all the more difficult by the fact that most of it was pressed back against his chest.
Finally, he abandoned that pursuit and slipped both arms around Helen, nuzzling her neck. She gave a soft sigh and turned her head, dropping light kisses onto his face.
Nikola had never expected to find such contentment here, listening to the rain with Helen's feather-soft kisses warming him. But he didn't want to cause trouble for her.
"Should we be getting back?" he asked after a while, his voice muffled in her neck. "We did tell your aunt we would return before the rain started."
Helen shifted in his arms. "I doubt she will be offended if we happen to be late," she said, with a twinkle of amusement.
"Your father might," Nikola said glumly.
"Don't worry about him. I am quite capable of dealing with the matter, and besides, I'm sure he will come around soon. You're simply an acquired taste." She kissed him again, and it was hard not to be reassured by the gentle pressure of her lips.
"Indeed?" His voice was only a murmur as he leaned forward, pressing gentle, languid kisses to her cheeks, her jaw, the smile lines above her mouth, before covering it with his and caressing her bottom lip.
Helen's fingers twined through his hair, pulling him closer; when they broke apart for air, she combed through it with a mischievous smile.
"Made all the sweeter by the wait to acquire it," she whispered, and this time it was she who leaned forward to recapture his lips.