Hello. :)
This is one of my first stories I have translated from German to English so some feedback would be really awesome.
I should probably say that English isn't my mother tongue so any grammar mistakes aren't intended.
But nevertheless I hope you'll like this story.
Disclaimer: Sanctuary isn't mine
...
"Honestly Nikola! How you can be so irrational is beyond me!" Helen Magnus raged.
"I know you can be childish and irresponsible at the best of times but this was the last straw!"
The Serbian genius listened – unusually quiet – the lecture of his best friend.
By god she was really amazing when she was mad.
She marched in front of him, wild and furious, and her dark hair wafted forth and back whenever she changed her track.
He couldn't help himself she fascinated him every day anew and Nikola just knew he would never get tired of looking at her beauty.
The physicist clearly remembered the first time he met her.
This beautiful woman with her striking blood-red dress and her golden curls appeared to him like an angel.
The way she walked through the corridors by the side of her father – Doctor Gregory Magnus – so gracefully and proud at the same time… It literally knocked him off his feet.
The last thing the Serbian remembered was a dull impact with a – somewhat hard – tree trunk and an unexpectedly meeting with the ground.
Today he was glad nobody else was in the courtyard at that time.
The next thing he remembered was that the golden angel – who was responsible for his meeting with the tree in the first place – bent over him and for the first time he looked in her shining blue eyes.
From the first moment on he was – and is still – hopelessly lost in her.
Nikola didn't listen to her tirade consisting of sarcastic comments, loud fits of rage and unpredictable screams anymore. Instead he focused more on her looks than the things she threw at him.
His attentive blue-grey eyes scrutinized the elegant woman in front of him, beginning with her long delicate legs up to her beautiful, immaculate face – the face that was so unmistakable Helen Magnus.
Her movement was like an angry lioness, graceful and deadly at the same time.
While Nikola was mentally absent he didn't notice that Helen's diatribe had stopped and that she now looked at him confused and unsure.
At the beginning she hadn't noticed the unusual quietness of her brilliant friend as well as his lack of counter arguments and his obviously lack of interest in her words.
Also the expression in his eyes was strange. His usual clear and calculated look was totally focused on her yet it seems that he neither noticed her presence nor his surroundings.
In their common study time at Oxford Helen had seen her reserved friend very often in this state. But normally he had looked out of a window and never to a person.
She had to admit that his somewhat dreamy look was kind of endearing. In general Nikola had fascinated Helen right from the very beginning.
He not only came from an entire different land with a different culture, no, he also didn't behave like the normal Britain gentleman Helen was used to.
Nikola was quiet, a little bit shy but nevertheless brilliant and ingenious like no other and she knew from the first day that this man would have a great future.
An unusual tentative smile formed on her lips when she recalled her first meeting with this shy young man.
It was a sunny fall day in the early 1880s.
Helen had been so nervous about her first day at the university. Her father had talked to many men and called for a lot of favours but finally his brilliant daughter could attend one of the best universities at the time.
In celebration of that day Gregory had bought his girl this beautiful red dress and Helen had worn it with huge proud.
Her father had demanded to walk her to her first course, even if the young woman had thought that it wasn't necessary but she was too nervous to protest for long.
Gregory and Helen Magnus walked through a corridor when the young blonde heard a dull impact. Father and daughter stopped and looked into the courtyard and saw a young man lying on the ground. Obviously the unknown student had run into a big tree.
How someone could overlook something big like a tree right in front of him was a mystery to the lady but nevertheless she did not hesitate and ran to the gentleman on the ground.
On her first impression he seemed unharmed although his look was a little blurred. Apparently the shock wasn't fade away completely.
But he focused remarkably quickly and soon she looked in clear blue-grey eyes.
"Are you hurt, Mister?" Helen asked politely.
The stranger didn't answer immediately.
"No, I am fine." He replied with a surprisingly distant voice and a strong Slavic accent.
All at once Helen's curiosity was roused – This man came from far away. He must have seen a lot of things in his life already!
Helen had never ever really left London in her life apart from the visits with her uncle on the land.
Immediately the inexperienced young woman wanted to ask the stranger so many things about the world.
"Let me help you up, please." Helen said and offered the man her hand.
Surprisingly he accepted her help with a friendly smile.
He was so different from any man she ever met in the past. A typical English gentleman had never accepted help from an ordinary woman.
"Thank you." The man spoke with his thick accent. It didn't seem that he was in England for long.
"Are you sure you are unharmed? This looked pretty painful." Helen inquired again.
The stranger smiled calmly: "Ne brini, Miss. I am fine."
"If you forgive me the question but where are you from?" Helen asked but bit her tongue instantly.
You didn't asked something like that a totally stranger, girl!
"Um, forgive my curiosity, Mister..."
"…Tesla. Nikola Tesla." The man introduced himself and took immediately Helen's hand. "It is a pleasure to meet you and there is no reason to apologize, Miss…"
Now Helen also started to smile slightly and she answered friendly: "My name is Helen Magnus."
The man, Nikola Tesla, grinned then and showed his slightly sharp teeth: "A beautiful name for a beautiful woman. It is a great pleasure to meet you, Miss Magnus."
For the first time in her life Helen felt a strange heat in her cheeks. She never blushed before because of a man's words. But she also never met a man like him. His calm, easy-going way to speak with her made the young woman feel a little bit unsure about her.
The stranger's gaze flicked behind her and now he let go of her hand.
"I do not want to stop you any longer. I believe your father there becomes quite impatient."
Now Helen remembered that she had a class to attend and a short glance behind her confirmed it.
Gregory held his pocket watch in his hand and looked really impatient now.
"You are Right." Helen answered a little bit upset. "It was a real pleasure to meet you, Mister Tesla."
Nikola nodded: "Likewise, Miss Magnus. Let us meet again sometime."
Calmly he waved his hand good-bye and turned around but stopped on a second thought.
"By the way, I come from Serbia. This is my first year."
Without a further word he disappeared from the courtyard into the corridors of the university.
Quite fascinated Helen looked after him with a slightly dreamy smile on her lips.
"Nikola Tesla from Serbia." She murmured absently.
"Helen! Darling, hurry or you will be late!" Gregory informed her and his daughter came back to the reality.
"Y-yes, of course father."
As quick as possible she made her way back to the elderly man and together they began to wander down the corridor again.
"Who was this man, Helen?" Gregory asked curious his daughter.
A little smile appeared on her face: "Someone really interesting, father."
Confused about the answer of his normally rational daughter Gregory lifted an eyebrow but the girl didn't seem to notice his presence.
Now no longer nervous about her first lesson Helen was now very excited about her time at Oxford. He had said that it was also his first year. A happy smile formed on Helen's lips. They were both the same first semester so maybe they would attend some courses together.
With this thought in mind Helen lost the last of her nervousness.
Now her study time could begin!
The absent-minded smile on Helen's lips had grown a lot while she had been caught in the old memory.
With much effort she came back to reality and her eyes focused on the vampiric version of the man who seemed to be also far away with his thoughts.
The English woman tried to recall what had happened before her little flashback.
She knew she had been pretty mad with Nikola but why exactly she couldn't remember.
In that moment the eager protégé decided to appear in her office with his head deep in a file.
When he noticed the absolute silence in the room he curiously peeked over his paper and looked confused to the scene in front of him. His boss and the vampire were facing each other. They didn't talk. They didn't argue. Bloody hell Tesla didn't even flirt with Magnus.
What was going on here?!
"I beg your pardon?" Will asked with full caution and now Nikola seemed to finally come back from his deep memories.
Confused he looked to the young man: "William? When did you come here?"
Okay, now something was definitely wrong!
"Is everything all right?" The psychologist asked.
Helen and Nikola looked at each other for a long moment.
The Britain doctor was the first who caught herself and an angry expression appeared in her blue eyes but not so strong anymore like some minutes ago.
Magnus walked to the Serbian vampire and looked him straight in the eye.
"That will not happen again! Understood?" She asked in an angry voice.
Nikola absolutely didn't know what she was talking about but nevertheless he nodded like a good boy.
"Understood." The genius answered monotone and disappeared from her office in a hurry.
For a moment there was silence in the room until Helen turned around to her protégé and smiled at him: "Now, Will? What did you want to talk about with me?"