Will is giving me a lot of trouble so I'm posting this in the hopes that someone can inspire me and make me not want to give up on this story...
Anyway, ignore my 'soul crushing depression' (couldn't resist just one little quote) :P Thank you to the two lovelies who have been reviewing, I hope y'all enjoy this one too...
xx
Nikola:
Tesla, Nikola: Selfish. Arrogant. Pain in the ass. Ridiculously attired. Rude. Dangerous. Cheeky. Obnoxious. Bane of her existence. Insufferable. Brilliant. Messy. Insane. Electrifying. Immortal. Fastidious. Uncouth. Abrasive. Sly. Sneaky. Trying. Challenging. Unpredictable. Predictable. Immature. Quick witted. Idiotic. Single minded. Sometimes mortal. Shootable. Snarky. Smirking. Unclean. Stupid. Genius. Demanding. House elf. Inappropriate. Stubborn. Smelly. Intolerable. Unbearable. Agonizing. Antagonizing. Egotistical. Thieving. Magnetic. Problematic.
Vampire.
The worst thing was, he was most of those things even before the blood though it had taken them all some time to realise it. When they'd first met him, Nikola had been quite, reserved and, although he had a quick tongue when it came to their lecturers, none of them had quite guessed at the magnitude of his jibes. Though he'd never doubted any of their brilliance, he always had to one up them, always had to be bigger, better, brighter. Out wit, out work, out shine. Every. Single. Time.
He'd fought against the name her father had given him. He rebelled against the idea that she'd owned him. He was independent and proud of it. But once, just once, she'd caught him using the phrase. It wasn't something she'd meant to do, it just sort of happened. She'd been hanging around outside the lab, waiting for John to return. Nigel and Nikola had were working and she'd caught the tail end of their conversation.
"Aw, come on," Nigel had complained, "we need a better name than 'The Five'. Something more, action hero and less pretentious."
Nikola had snorted and she could tell he hadn't even looked up from his work.
"Well then, what do you suggest?" he'd drawled.
"Oh I dunno! Just something," Nigel had countered. For as brilliant as his scientific mind might be, he had a knack for playing the child.
"Well, we can hardly go around calling ourselves 'her boys'," Nikola had countered simply. "As accurate as it might be."
The words had shocked her to her core, making little shivers of delight run down her spine. There was no animosity in his tone, no anger or resentment, just simple acceptance of something he considered fact. So he didn't hate her. There had been times when Nikola had almost refused to work with her and some days, Helen would have sworn she could see something akin to fear in his eyes.
Of course, she knew he didn't really hate her but once or twice she'd caught him ogling her body in what was clearly scientific curiosity.
She'd never mentioned the conversation to any of them but the sly smile she wore around Nikola for the next few days had made them all uneasy.
Then there had been Rome.
Well, in truth everything had changed the moment they faked his death but it wasn't until Rome that she realised just how different things were.
For one, the Nikola she remembered would never have kissed her like that. Not that she objected to such kissing, in fact she'd rather enjoyed it. Well, she did in retrospect. At the time she'd been so bamboozled by his presence that she hadn't register much more than shock at finding her lips on his. She'd briefly considered leaving them there but then she remembered who she was kissing and that it was probably a very bad idea.
Nikola was almost a different man in Rome. He was everything he used to be and so much more. She often wondered if he'd taken his modernization too far. He'd been almost too brash, too selfish, too single minded. But, in essence that was Nikola. She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting but plans for world domination, as 'Nikola' as the concept was, had come as a bit of a shock.
The protestations of love had sent her reeling too. They'd always had a bond, the two freaks amongst a group of freaks but their relationship had always been strange. Rife with a tension if took Helen the better part of a century to recognize.
And with that recognition, Helen knew he wasn't lying. Perhaps he hadn't always loved her but she was intelligent enough to realise that he'd felt something more than friendship.
Which, of course, made her feel guilty because she hadn't. Or didn't. Or something. After all these years it got a bit hard to tell. That and she spent so much time trying not to kill him or to make sure he didn't die that in the blink of an eye, she could want him in her bed and then want to put a bullet through his head.
Damn him. Snarky, smirking vampire that he was.
The only time she could ever be sure how she felt about him was in the few seconds between seeing him and comprehending exactly what shit storm he'd dragged her into this time. Those moments when their eyes locked and mutual relief flooded their bodies she could be certain that killing him would be a bad idea. Times like these she thought that maybe, just maybe, she loved him too.
Not that she'd ever tell him that.
Nikola was her reluctant boy but, somehow, he was the last one standing.
And maybe that did count for something.
Maybe.