Chapter 5
The sun rose gently over the Scottish hills. Nikola rolled over in his sleep, pleasantly dreaming again. He hadn't gotten this much sleep in over thirty years. He must be bored.
He snuggled his face against the pillows. The sun peeked inside his bedroom, landing on his face and warming it up.
He was perfectly content. Sleepy, comfortable, dreaming...
"Cock-a-doodle-doo!"
He jumped awake, his morning piece instantly broken.
"Damn you bird!" he cried tossing a pillow at the window that the rooster stood just outside of.
It barely budged.
Nikola growled.
He had gone to sleep in nothing but his trousers and suspenders.
His bare torso now chilled from being so abruptly removed from its warm enclosure. He grabbed the blanket and threw it over him again.
He was going to have five more minutes of peace and no mutant chicken was going to stop him.
He relaxed again, burying his nose into the warm cushions.
He was just about on the cusp of dreaming when...
"Cock-a-doodle-doo!" cried the rooster again.
Nikola snapped his eyes open.
"That's it!" he cried, throwing the blanket off.
~~~~Elsewhere~~~~
Laren yawned as she stepped out of her bedroom carrying her robe and towel to the bathroom.
She had a pleasant sleep and was ready for the new day. The maids were waking up, getting ready for the day's chores and she was sure she wouldn't get any trouble from Nikola on this beautiful Sunday.
Her morning reverie was broken by a loud shriek.
"Bah-kah!"
Nikola's bedroom door shot open.
"Come back here Franken-rooster!" he cried flying out of the door.
Murray the rooster came running out of the room.
"Bawk!" it cried.
"You better run! Cause once I catch you it will be breakfast time! I'm thinking chicken fricasee!"
"Bah-kah!" Murray ran past Laren and Nikola came stumbling after.
"As much as it amuses me, are you about done terrorizing my rooster?" she said with a hand on her hip.
"He's not a rooster, he's a freak of nature," growled Nikola.
"All the same, leave him alone, he's only doing his job," smirked Laren.
"He would be working for you, you probably bribed him with an extra handful of corn," Nikola eyed her suspiciously.
"Two, actually," she teased back.
He snickered sarcastically.
"How was your sleep?" he asked.
"No bed bugs," she smirked.
"Shame," he shrugged and turned on his heel, heading back to his room.
Laren semi-admired his bare torso as he strutted away but caught herself and waved it off.
She went into the bathroom and started her daily routine of showering.
Nikola finished dressing and walked out of his room casually.
Just as he walked past the bathroom he heard Laren curse and he snickered.
Somebody was out of volume intensifying and fortifying herbal shampoo.
He took her momentary distraction to slip into her unguarded room.
The bedroom was not much different than his, just more candles and a few more picture frames.
There was a nice old oak dresser in the corner and he smirked.
He pulled out the drawer and scooped up the neatly folded clothes.
He'd leave her just enough so she wouldn't be strutting around the castle in the nude, but just little enough to make her feel embarrassed.
He grinned at one of her old shirts. Perfect. It was hideous. Underwear, bra, all that, and he even took her shoes, leaving her with the ugliest pair of rainboots he'd ever seen in his life.
He was going to hide the rest in various places. She'd be searching for them for a week.
He was careful in his choosing and spent all of an hour hiding every last article of clothing.
This was why you never crossed Nikola Tesla.
~~~~Later~~~~
It was his day off and he relished in the gorgeous sunshine and the shimmering water of the river.
He went for a long swim and then set up a lawn chair near its banks and sat in his shorts, soaking in the warmth of the day.
He loved Sundays.
He'd stolen a book from the small book collection Laren had and was happily mewling over its words as a shadow crept towards his pleasant relaxation.
He looked up from the book and grinned.
"Well, don't you look just fashionable," he teased.
Laren of course was wearing a hideous multi-colored blouse, a frumpy skirt, the rain boots, and a big wide-brimmed hat.
"We agreed that you would stay on the premises on your day off," she said sternly, ignoring his remarks.
"And I am, I'm within ear shot," he said matter-of-factly.
Laren huffed at him.
"What did you do with my clothes?" she asked.
"Put them here and there, none of them are ruined I assure you, but as to where they are specifically...you know, I - there was just so many of them I can't remember," he shrugged innocently.
"You are a real dick Tesla, if that's even you're real name," she crossed her arms.
"And what if it was?" he grinned at her.
"I would like to know which wizard is brewing immortality potions up for you and see what his rates are," she joked.
"His name's Fred, nice guy actually," Nikola teased back.
"Why are you like this?" she groaned. "I have never met a man so stubborn and closed off as you. You give nothing away."
"You never asked. You just decided on the spot that I was some kind of pig and I decided that I wasn't going to waste my time vying for your approval."
"There. You did it again. Always skirting around the issue, always stabbing back with a witty jab and never answering my questions."
"Well, what's your question?" he stood up.
"Who are you? And tell me straight," she asked.
"What do you want to know?" he asked back.
"I told you my background, what's your heritage?" she sighed.
"I'm born Serbian..." he started and she rolled her eyes.
"Please!" she cried. "Do you think I'm an idiot! You are not Nikola Tesla!"
Nikola smirked.
"Što je u imenu? Ono što mi zovemo ružu bilo kojim drugim imenom bi miris kao slatko," he said in his natural tongue and watched as her disbelief melted with his words.
"What was that?" she asked.
"Shakespeare," he smirked.
"I don't get you," she growled.
"And I don't get why knowing my real name is so darn important to you. I choose to go by whatever name, be it Tesla or Frankenstein. I'm still myself, it's not going to change me or how you feel about me. So what's the point?"
He laughed.
"You just can't stand me because I have entered your perfect little shell of reality and messed things up." They were standing nose to nose again, staring each other down.
"You think you know everything about everyone don't you? You think you can read me like an open book, don't you?" She put her hands on her hips. "You know nothing about me, and it grinds my gears that you think you do."
"It does?" he challenged sarcastically.
"Yes, it does," she bit harshly.
Suddenly a harsh wind came and blew her hat clean of her head and into the river.
"My hat!" she cried.
Nikola shrugged.
"Poor you," he sat down and continued to enjoy the sun.
"Well don't just sit there! Go and get it!" she cried.
"No, I don't think I will," he sighed.
"Oh you're really going to be that petty?" she growled. "That hat belonged to my late husband!"
Nikola opened his eyes and grumbled.
"Fine, I'll get it, only because I respect the dead," he walked past her and to the bank of the river.
"I doubt you respect anything," she glared at him.
He rolled his eyes and ignored her. He dove into the cool water and swam out to where the hat was grasping it firmly and swimming back.
"Happy now?" he held it up to her.
"Yes, very," she took it from him and shook out the water.
He held his hand up.
She stared at it.
"Oh come on, I got the hat for you," he cried.
She relented and gave him her hand.
He took a firm hold of it and pulled her roughly into the water.
She shrieked as she fell in.
"You bastard!" she cried.
"Fair's fair," he shrugged and easily pulled himself onto the bank.
He put on his white shirt hanging over the back of his chair.
"The water's quite refreshing isn't it?" he smirked as she pulled herself on to the grass.
"These are my only clothes, thanks to you!" she barked.
"They'll dry if you stay out in the sun long enough," she smirked.
"I hate you," she cried.
"Really, now I'm hurt, and here I thought we were becoming such good friends," he teased.
Laren stood up, grabbing a fistful of grass and dirt.
"You and I will never, EVER, be friends," she glared at him and brought her hand up carrying the dirt and smearing it across his clean white linen shirt.
Nikola gasped angrily.
"Ok, there is a line, and you just crossed it!" he growled.
Laren smirked.
"It will wash out, just go for a swim long enough," she teased, sweeping her wet hair out of her face.
Nikola suddenly picked her up and hoisted her over his shoulder.
"Agh! What are you doing?" she cried.
"You wanted a war, I'll give you a war," he said.
He carried her up the hill to the pig pen on the west side of the castle. There were only a few pigs lounging in the thick pool of mud. It was about knee high and very smelly. Nikola had avoided it all this time because of how bad it was but now it was perfect for his revenge.
He brought Laren up to the fence and sat her on it.
She clung to him.
"Nikola! Don't you dare!" she cried.
He unwound himself from her and have her a light push.
"Toodles!" he waved. Laren, at the last minute reached out and with all her strength tugged him over and into the mud pool with her. She landed with a splurge on her back he landed with a gurgle face first, head emerging moments later gasping through the mud.
Well, that had backfired.
"I can't believe you!" she began hitting him with the back of her hand.
"Well it didn't exactly work out the way I wanted it didn't it?" he growled.
"You idiot!" she cried.
"Oh I'm the idiot?" he turned and threw a handful of mud at her.
She dodged it.
"Yes, you're an idiot!" she cried. "And you're childish!"
"I'm childish? You're the one who started this whole thing the moment we met!" he cried tossing more mud at her. "And when have you ever said 'let's stop this fighting and approach this like adults'. You out of the both of us, loved it!"
"I liked putting you in your place!" she tossed mud back at him.
"You don't have a place to put me!" he rolled his eyes.
He got walloped by a huge slap of mud.
All words were lost and he tackled her into the mud, pinning her to throw as much mud as he could on her.
She struggled one hand free and grabbed a fistful of mud and threw it down his shirt.
He backed off to remove it. In his distraction she leaped on his back, pelting his face with mud, he stumbled blindly and lost his footing falling face down in the pool.
Laren straddled above him, she grabbed him by his hair and brought his face up out of the mud then back down, then back up then down.
He gasped and spat out mud. He turned around beneath her and tossed more mud at her. She tossed more mud back. Somehow through all the mud tossing the anger dissolved into giggles and it had become a game. Both forgetting really what had started it.
She began laughing and running, still throwing mud at him and he chased her, grasping her by the waist and throttling both of them back into the mud pool.
The pigs sat back completely frightened.
They rolled together in the mud, still throwing mud but with less efficiency and soon she had pushed up from under Nikola and was sitting in front of him.
They both were breathing heavily and were covered from head to toe with mud.
They stared at each other.
Both, in an odd way, had gained a new respect for each other, for some reason.
They shared a small breathless laugh.
"Ms. Hayward! Mr. Tesla!" cried the head maid. "Get out of there this instant! What do you think you're doing? Are ye five?"
The older Scottish woman was livid.
"Get out and wash up!" she ordered. "I have had it up to here with this silly rivalry and I won't stand for it anymore! But this has took the cake! And I thought him roaming around in his birthday suit was bad enough! No more fighting or I swear I'll put you in the corner for a time out."
She marched away angrily and Nikola and Laren looked at each other for a moment before bursting out in to laughter.
"She's right you know, we are acting like five year olds," said Laren with a sigh. "I wonder why that is."
Nikola chuckled slightly and for some reason decided this was the best moment to kiss her.
This infuriating, self-absorbed, childish, playful, immature, wonderful and new woman, covered in mud.
She was taken aback by his sudden kiss but was soon kissing back happily.
Her hands trailed into his muddy hair, the same hair she had gripped to plunge his face into the mud moments ago.
His arms wound around her waist as the kiss deepened.
They were interrupted by a loud clanging.
"I said out!" cried the maid. "You're scaring the piggies! Go, to the lake, wash that mud off, go!"
The two chuckled and backed away from each other, following orders and getting out of the pig pen.
Nikola graciously offered his hand to help her over the fence and they went in a comfortable yet forced silence. They both wanted to know what happened back there.
Soon they were back in the water, and cleaning off the mud.
Nikola suddenly chuckled.
"What?" asked Laren. Their backs were turned to each other so they could bathe in relative privacy.
"Is she always like that?" he asked, referring to the maid.
"I may own the place but she has been here and had ran it since I was a child, she runs a tight ship," Laren said with a slight laugh.
"I guess you have to respect that," he sighed.
"Well, I respect her," Laren sighed. "George loved it here."
"When I was young, my father had to go to this small town, bigger than our village, to fill in for their priest while the new one was coming over from Russia. This town, I can't remember the name of it, but it was a lot like this place. Stone buildings, livestock. There was a river, just like this one, just behind the house we were given to stay in. I loved the water, I practically lived in it for the whole three weeks we were there. My sisters weren't good swimmers though, they stayed on the banks and scolded me when I splashed them," he chuckled. "This stretch of river reminds me of that."
Laren smiled slightly.
"You have sisters?" she asked.
"Had, they died during the war."
"Oh. I'm sorry."
He chuckled to himself. He'd forgotten to mention that it was mostly from old age.
"It's all right," he sighed. "I have many good memories to cherish with them in it."
"Did you have any other siblings?" she asked.
"One, my brother. He died when I was very young though," he sighed.
"Was he in the first war?" she asked.
"No, he was crushed by a horse," he sighed sadly. "I've never ridden a horse since."
Laren looked back at him slightly.
"That's the most honest I think you've been with me since you've been here," she said with a slight smile. "Thank you."
"I thought I owed you that much," he chuckled.
"Still going by Tesla, though?" she asked.
"Yep," he nodded.
"Right, I guess I can respect that," she nodded as well.
There was a tight pause briefly.
Laren bit her lip, figuring out how to ask this delicately.
"Why did you, uh, kiss me?" she asked.
Nikola coughed slightly.
"Oh yes, that. I thought it would annoy you, playfully annoy you, or something...come to think of it I really don't know why," he chuckled.
Laren chuckled as well.
"Well don't do it ever again," she said half heartedly and she didn't try to hide it.
"You kissed back though," he said.
"Only to prove that I could," she teased.
"Well, now we know," he smirked and she nodded.
He threw his wet but clean clothes on to the bank to dry. He remained in his shorts though, and began swimming around.
Laren laughed and did the same, staying in her underwear.
He dove down and popped up in front of her and splashed her. She shrieked and splashed back, laughing at herself and at him.
They swam around and splashed for another hour before both were thoroughly wet and tired.
Nikola pulled her up on to the bank and they lay in the grass together looking up at the clouds.
"Duck," she said.
"What?" he asked.
"That one there, it looks like a duck."
He smirked.
"Yah it kind of does," he rested his arms behind his head. "That one looks like a walrus."
Laren laughed.
"No, it's a Viking ship," she corrected.
"Is not, it's a walrus, look there are the tusks, head and body, walrus!" he pointed it out to her.
"Mast, sails, ship, it even has the little paddles," she pointed it out to him.
"Are we even looking at the same cloud?" he sat up slightly to adjust his angle.
"I don't know," she giggled.
"You're crazy, it's a walrus," he said adamantly.
"All right it's a walrus," she sighed and giggled again.
"What?" he looked down at her.
"It's just funny, this morning we were mortal enemies prepared to battle to the death with each other, and now we're cloud watching as if we've been friends forever...life is just funny that way," she shrugged.
"It is," Nikola smirked. "All we needed to do was come to an understanding."
Laren nodded.
"No better way to do that than in a pig pen," she broke out into a giggle.
He laughed as well.
"So we went to the extreme to get there but hey, it worked," he shrugged.
He lay back down and closed his eyes, content to lay there and rest a while in the warm sun.
"Tell me more about the village where you grew up," she prodded.
"Not much to know," he sighed. "We lived near the chapel and the cemetery, my mom raised chickens and at one time or another we had pigs, and an old horse named...something."
"Was he?"
"No, he was an old work horse my father used to take the elderly to church. He'd hook her up to an old wagon, and cart around every Sunday morning to all the old villagers houses, help them in, then take them off to the church. He called it a service. I really think it was to feed his ego. He was the only priest for miles and he loved to hear himself talk."
Laren chuckled.
"He wanted me to become a priest but I swore, even from a young age I would never stoop that low," he chuckled.
"Sounds very charming," she smirked.
"What about you? Where'd you grow up?" he asked.
"You're looking at it," she smirked. "Born and raised in McKinley Castle. My father was born here and his father was born here. A whole clan of McKinley's dating back to when it was first built. Though when it was passed down to me, George and I used it more as a country home or vacation getaway. He worked in London, we had a social life there. But he loved it here, he always said "Darling when I'm old and ready to retire we're going to go and live in that castle of yours, it'll be great", but then the war happened, he was killed, and I realized that I would be happier here, where he was happiest." She bit her lip slightly. "Though this has been one of the most pleasant afternoons I've spent since I got here, despite the circumstances."
Nikola cracked his eyes open and smiled at her.
"You're welcome," he said with a grin.
She laughed and swatted him.
He lay back down and let out a long sigh.
"It's a walrus," he stated firmly, and Laren burst into a full out laughter.
~~~~Author's Notes~~~~
Hey Folks, Happy New Years readers! Been meaning to post sooner but Mac needed to check up so he was at the Mac Store getting cleaned and taken care of. He's back! Yay! Now I can post a new chapter. Hopefully finish off my new chap for Troublemakers, and then get on writing a new chappie for HWMA. I hope you all have been having as wonderful a christmas vacation as i have. :)
Read and Review.
Again, thanks to Chartie for all her spellchecking and general debugging, because i am too ADD for that! HA!