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nikola

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Now that Helen had hidden herself away from the world, she finally had time to do things that weren't balancing a half dozen governments on her shoulders. Will was more than capable of handling the day-to-day running of the Sanctuary and it left her with more available time than she'd had in recent decades.

It was, in a word, unbearable.

Without something to fill up every waking moment of every day, Helen found herself dwelling on those she'd lost. This time of year, it fell toward Ashley, because her birthday would be in a few weeks and it was a day that always felt empty without her bounding around. Ashley was everything that Helen was not - impetuous, brave, brash and daring. Helen had ever been cautious about her life and had left nothing to chance. Ashley played everything for a lark.

So this particular evening, she wound up deep in the labs and saw only a few tufts of spiked brown hair bent over an unknown project. Nikola. Clearly that was the way to go, for distraction.

"Oi, what are you doing up so late, then? Burning the candle from both ends?" she teased, wanting to get a rise out of him.

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When he'd found his way here - eventually - it was as if the labs had been made for him. There was enough to keep him here until the next time he got bored and decided to wander off for a year or so. Maybe two. But the point was, he was here now.

Right now he was happily working on improving the new Sanctuary's defenses. Yes, Henry could probably do it, but he wasn't happy unless it was his work that was in them. At Helen's... unorthodox approach, he raised his head and looked at her. "Really, Helen? Oi? That's the best you have?"

"I felt particularly English today," Helen said, shrugging a bit. "Besides, it got your attention, didn't it? I've been successful in spite of your skepticism."

She grinned, feeling cheeky. "Are you still working on those defenses?"

"Someone who shall remain nameless," aka Will, or possibly Helen herself - it didn't really matter, "-keeps changing the specs on me. I'm hoping that eventually they will make up their mind." He wasn't really hopeful, just bored of it.

"I thought you were working on some kind of diplomacy? I'd have disturbed you earlier." Truth was he was absorbed in what he was doing. It would take a lot to pry him away from it. Helen normally was enough, though.

"I was working on tedium, yes," Helen said, voice snapping with a bit of irritation. "I'm damned sick of it, too, so I've decided I should take a break. You always seem willing to oblige me in that."

She offered her hand. "Dinner?"

He paused before putting down the tools he was working with and taking her hand. "There will be wine?" he hoped. It was Helen. Of course there would be wine but it was expected that he would ask, after all.

"I can live with dinner."

"All the wine you can drink," Helen said, then thought better of it. "Well. Possibly not quite that much wine. I don't want to go and have to adjust my budget in the middle of the fiscal year."

And, really, the damage that Nikola could do on a wine cellar was astronomical.

He began to open his mouth at the suggestion, then just burst into laughter. "Really Helen. Why don't you have more money for your wines? You know I'm going to be here for a while." Well. Until he got bored and took off, but certainly for the next month or so. Time enough to make a dent in her cellar.

"At the beginning of the year, when I was budgeting, you weren't here." It was an absolutely practical response in the midst of an admittedly absurd discussion.

"Next year, I'll make more allowances. I just can't do a line item edit in the middle of the year, the accountants will go mad."

"Fine. I'll make sure I bring some of my own." He might be pouting a little. It was ridiculous, but sometimes life demanded ridiculous, after all. "Though I'm a little hurt you didn't think I'd turn up eventually, no matter how much you tried to hide from me."

Helen shrugged one slim shoulder and gave him her best flirtatious smile. "I couldn't really just budget a possibility, could I? You might have decided you were tired of me after all these years, Nikola, and then I would have a wine budget and no one to spend it on at all."

He gave her a long look. "Do you really think that I would ever get bored of you?" he asked, softer than he would have normally. "I may get bored in general, but of you? Never." Even more so now John was completely out of the picture.

"I like to think I'm more interesting than most," Helen agreed. Over the years, their friends had dwindled one by one until she was the only one left aside from Nikola.

"It's just us now. Just us for the rest of eternity. It's a bit amazing, isn't it?"

"Something that we never thought about when we took the Source Blood," he said with a smile. "I suspect I was more concerned about living through the experiment." At least he was then. Now... he liked living forever if he were being honest.

"For a moment, I wasn't sure we had," Helen admitted easily enough. "It was hair curling, to say the least, and I've never felt like that since then. I've done a lot of things to this body of mine but that one is still the worst thing I've ever put it through."

She smiled a bit. "Though, also, the best. Now I get all the time I want to do anything I want. With, you know, some pleasant company."

Nikola knew just how bad it had been for him - the awakening of his dormant vampire genes had not been a pleasant experience for all involved. "I am not sure I would do it again, if I knew how bad it would be. But I'm glad I did."

He grinned at her. "How long are you going to spend in your self imposed exile? Or is visiting the world at large incognito still on the cards?"

"I need to get out of this place," Helen conceded. "I thought that I could be truly content underground for the rest of my days but I simply can't. I miss the world at large, even if I have no interest in the politics of it, and that is part of the reason I've come to see you tonight."

Helen gave him a look that could only be described as...mischievous. "Do you still have that house in Italy?"

"Of course," he said with a nod. "It's on the edge of a vineyard, I like to see how my investment is doing. I can contact my housekeeper and have it ready in twenty four hours, which coincidentally is about how long it will take us to get there. How about that for fortuitous?" Beautiful scenery, good food, good wine... yes, he could see it was exactly what Helen needed.

"That sounds absolutely perfect," Helen said. Truly, it did. She needed to be out in the sun for a little while and while Nikola's house was in civilization, it was still fairly private and remote. It was unlikely anyone would recognize her there.

"And, you know, the company is going to be splendid."

He'd built up a very exclusive staff list based out of Italy, and even if she was recognized, they would be discreet. "I can put off what I'm working on. There's even a lovely little new restaurant there you might like to try. How long till you can be ready?" Between them, they could have a private plane ready quickly if they wanted, or they could fly under false passports. Nikola had several stashed in many places, and he was sure Helen did as well.

"You know that I keep myself prepared. Maybe a few hours? Just need to get my bags packed and decide what identity I'm going to assume." Helen had spent over a century perfecting the art of hiding in plain sight and she wasn't about to forget how to do it just because she'd been underground for a few months.

"Then it's just going to be us, and Italy, for the time being."

"A few hours works for me." A couple of phone calls and he would pretty much be ready. He didn't have to worry about much other than identity. "I'll get us flights booked as soon as you work out who you are travelling as."

He gave her a smirk after that. "That sounds like perfection, Helen." It truly did, even though his wine cellar would be getting the hit.

"Mrs. Nikola Tesla, I suppose, is not an option?" Helen said teasingly. In truth, her given guise was usually Patricia Bancroft these days and she thought she might dust it back off for this trip.

"Book it under Bancroft. Patricia Bancroft, UK citizen?"

"Hardly helpful for falling under the radar, Helen," he pointed out with a grin. "What a shame I don't have a Mr Bancroft passport, though. I can find a suitable one." Meaning less ostentatious than his usual travelling names. Anthony Myers was always a safe bet. "I'll be ready in about 30 minutes."

"It's true but it would amuse me," Helen said, smirking at him. "And amusement comes so rarely at this age. Still, Patricia Bancroft can have some fun too, I promise you that. Especially when she's finally away from the tedium of her daily life and can just relax."

"We will have to see what we can sort out for future." Because that would be amusing, though likely give them away. Worth it to do once, though. "Go. Get ready. I've a sudden hankering for Italian wine."

"Me too," Helen agreed. It didn't take her long to finish up the arrangements to be out of the Sanctuary for a few days and once she was well and truly ready, she came and found Nikola outside his rooms.

"Come on, then. I want to drink your wine for a change."

A few days? Nikola would keep her occupied longer than that if he could help it.

"My cellar is going to be emptied, isn't it?" he grumbled. There was some very nice wines in there, ones even Helen didn't know about. He shouldn't have raided her cellar so many times.

"Fair is fair, Nikola, and I have been a gracious hostess for a long while," Helen said, her laugh airy and light for the first time in a long time. Living as long as she had, sometimes it was difficult to take joy in things any longer but sometimes, a return to basics tended to recalibrate her center.

"This was a good idea. I've always preferred traveling with you over the others. James was always so stuffy and John used to drive me mad with the tempers and the teleporting."

He grumbled a little - he had a lot of expensive wines in his cellar, ones that he had been saving for a long time. Ah well, at least with him and Helen they were going to an appreciative home. Unlike with John, philistine he had been.

"Want to see what chaos we can cause on the plane?" he grinned at her in return. "I hated teleporting, if I were being honest. John used to take too much delight in making me feel disorientated afterwards."

"I'll prefer to just fly, thank you," Helen said primly. She didn't want to cause anyone to take notice of her and wanted, more than anything, to be incognito. If someone got wind of her being above the surface again, it would be hell to pay.

"I faked my death for a reason, Nikola, and I don't want to resurface for a lark."

"Fine." He'd sulk a little bit. Where was the fun in that? "On one condition." It was a fair condition, after all. "Venice. Carnivale. Masked parties."

"Oh, I haven't been to a masked ball in decades. Can we go to one? Do you know if we could get an invitation?"

Used to, Helen could get an invitation to any party she wanted. Now, she wanted the benefit of enjoying herself without making a scene.

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Whoops... tag went walk about... sorry hun!

Re: Whoops... tag went walk about... sorry hun!

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