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Squinting and worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, she tried to recall GCSE Geography - not a lesson she’d ever paid particular attention in, and one that was frequently referred to as “glorified colouring-in”. She had always associated it with Father Christmas, as opposed to Sweden, which she associated more with… well, IKEA, if she was being honest. Perhaps she should find herself a geography tutor. At Toli’s display of horns, Stevie blurted out a too-loud-for-the-library laugh, clapping her hand over her mouth to muffle herself. A minotaur! Goodness, how intriguing - she’d never even considered that such beings were, well, real. “A m-minotaur, in S-Sweden? I, um, a-are you Greek in o-origin, then?” And then, as an afterthought, “I c-can’t say I’ve ever m-met anyone like me either, s-so, um, I… I suppose we’re in the s-same position..!”

Stevie blinked and shook her head urgently, scrambling to correct him, “N-no, you, um, m-mustn’t say that..! It’s not your f-fault if you find this difficult… I m-mean, um, d-do you think many of y-your professors c-can, um, speak as many languages a-as you do..? Everyone has their, um, th-their talents and their d-difficulties, d-don’t they? Surely, um, the f-fact that you’re h-here, at college, shows that y-you’re interested in learning..?”

Toli nodded, quick and excited. “Yes! Born there, in Crete. Kríti. My family is still there. Big, yes?” He pressed his palms together before pulling them apart, attempting to demonstrate. “But I have not been home in many years. I am a soldier,” he said, reaching again for his missing necklace. Hm. Perhaps he should consider having something “Picked for service in the north. My family is known for warriors, yes? It is an honor.” He smiled, chest puffing with pride. “Many cousins and elders have served, but I am the only one out of my siblings. It is very special. A valuable chance for me.”

His delight was… well, not exactly infectious - that would be too far even for hyperbole - but it made her feel a little more at ease, and she felt her spine relax a little as she tapped her pencil lightly against her knee. “Th-the… Lapplands? Goodness, um, I h-had no idea people could b-be so… well travelled..! And yet y-you’re here n-now… I suppose, uh, th-that’s one of the reasons w-why I like here - I m-mean, um, it’s always s-so interesting to m-meet new people, isn’t it?” Mouth twitching up into something halfway to a wry smile, she added, “N-now I sound like I s-should be taking, um, Super History.”

When he looked away, she finally allowed herself a moment to press one hand against her left temple, applying firm pressure for a second before putting her hand back in her lap as she felt his eyes on her again. The heat rose up her face until even the tips of her ears grew hot, and she was silent for a long moment before she found her voice again, “I… i-it’s, um, not really a… I-I’m always, um, like this. I-it’s- I m-mean, this is w-why I’m here.” With some apparent difficulty, Stevie forced herself to look up from the assignment - she would have to admit that she had barely been reading it to begin with - and gave Anatolius - Toli - an apologetic look. “I s-shouldn’t be making this, um, a-any harder than it is, really. H-here, um, let’s… um, let’s g-go over the assignment. I’m s-sure you, uh, don’t w-want to be spending any more time in h-here than you need to.” Good. She’d reeled it back in, crammed it in a box, and kicked it to the back of her mind. Reflexively, somewhere between rewarding herself and keeping herself relatively calm, she unscrewed the top of her flask and took a mouthful of tea. In hindsight, the tea would have solved these problems before they’d even arisen. 

“Right, ah, wrong word. Lapplands is Sweden.” Toli hadn’t realized, until he came to Llynhurst, how odd his worldview had grown. “Really, only two places before here. Not much travelling at all.” He wasn’t sure why he felt the need to clarify, to diminish his experiences, if Stevie found it interesting. Why not let her believe it was so, even if it was untruthful? “But I agree! I have not met many others. My family, and others like me,” he paused, wiggling his index fingers by his temples to mime horns. “Minotaurs. A few others from home, and then the elves.” He huffed out a laugh at the crack, shaking his head. “It is good to be curious. I think it is the, ah... The thing, the power, of a place like this.” That wasn’t quite right. Hm. Hopefully the point would get across.

Stevie swallowed. “T-Toli… yes, I, uh- yes.” Blood rushed to her cheeks, not for any real reason that she could fathom, and with one pale-knuckled hand she crossed out his name on her notes and added the shortened name instead. It would, truly, be much easier to pronounce with a stutter. It had been hard enough to say it aloud when he had arrived, and she had only managed that after several whispered practices on her walk to the library - not that she’d ever admit that to her newest tutee. Swallowing again, feeling a little like she could actually drown in her own saliva before this session ended, she hastily slid the assignment over and tried to look incredibly focussed as she pored over it with a little more intensity than needed. Blessedly, it was a relatively easy course - Super History was far easier to grasp than anything vaguely mathematical or scientific. Just the thought of numbers brought Stevie out in a cold sweat.

Glancing up to briefly meet his gaze before once again hurriedly looking down at the assignment, she nodded, before finding her words, “Ah, uh, y-yes… I suppose, um, our s-situations aren’t t-too different in that respect. That is t-to say, um, that I’ve b-been struggling with grades, b-because of, uh- c-circumstances, and this allows me t-to, um, to improve that.” Excellent delivery, Harker. The poor bastard’s struggling with English as it is, without you murdering the language too. Speaking a little louder than necessary, a futile attempt to drown out the snickering demon, Stevie said weakly, “That’s v-very, um, impressive. I m-mean I struggle with j-just one language most d-days so, uh, I think you h-have every reason to, uh… to ask f-for help- I m-mean, um, not that you, uh, h-have to need help… I- uh. Yes.” Christ. It was like having a mouthful of cotton. Fighting the urge to squeeze her eyes shut to centre herself, she drew in a deep breath and straightened her shoulders, making the effort to enunciate herself clearly, “W-with so many languages, you must b-be very well travelled. Have you, um, c-come far to come here?”

Toli grinned, watching her read over the papers. “That is good! I am glad to know this is good for you too. I would feel bad if it was not,” he admitted. That had been another source of stress for him. Selfishness, being the only one to benefit from a situation, it all went against his nature. It comforted him to know Stevie was getting something out of this as well. 

With only a few weeks left in the semester, it was fairly easy for Stevie to make a judgement on her first few months at Llynhurst. The judgement was, naturally, that it was bloody inconvenient to get through college with a demon alongside her. It wasn’t that she hadn’t expected difficulties - her situation hardly lent itself to optimism - but she hadn’t expected the difficulties to be quite so… well, difficult. She’d hoped that if she ever bombed out of college, it’d be in a haze of liquor and rambunctious escapades, but it was looking a lot more like her dismissal would be more comprised of an excess of coffee and nights spent trying to recreate an essay that had been deleted by a certain ill-tempered spirit. In short, it was a miserable situation.

Her only hope had been offered by her support officer, who had been the recipient of many a desperate text from her. There was, he said, an opportunity for her to sign onto the tutoring programme to earn extra credits - and even to earn some money, if the situation allowed it. Thus, Stevie had begun spending much of her spare time helping students from overseas with their language skills - it had taken a little getting used to, especially when they were older and larger than she was. As she sat in the library, restlessly tap-tapping on her metal flask, it appeared that this would be the case again; the man lumbering towards her, Anatolius, was quite clearly many years her elder, and built like he could put her through a wall. With her own weak smile, she raised a hand in awkward greeting before gesturing to the chair beside her. “A-and you, um, must be Anatolius..? Did you… ah, did you bring work w-with you?”

The stiff wave was returned with one of his own, and another, wider smile. “Toli, please. Anatolius is, ah... Long,” A fitting, if not obvious, descriptor. “No one uses it anymore.” His mother still used it in her letters, penned in her painstakingly neat Greek, but it’d been decades since anyone really insisted on using it. He sat where indicated, but not before scooting the chair a good foot and a half in the opposite direction, keeping personal space bubbles whole and unpopped. Her question only got a quick nod in response, corkscrew curls bouncing out of his loose half-ponytail. The assigned work was retrieved from his backpack and placed on the table, the sight of it already setting a furrow in his brow. Ugh. The concept of it seemed so simple, really, it was just words on a page - and this only made the fact that he couldn’t understand it more aggravating. Toli took a deep breath, sitting up straighter in his chair before turning to his new tutor.

Still keeping her patient, steady gaze trained on the smaller of the pair, a polite smile playing around her fangs, the vampire moved to her desk and walked bloodless fingers over the alphabetised files until she found the students she was looking for. She did remember these two, as she remembered the majority of those who passed under her scrutiny. The request had been an unusual one - although couples did occasionally share a living space, this was typically requested after a relationship on campus, and was rarely established prior to application. Returning to her bed, she ran her eyes over the necessary forms, before looking up to meet the gaze of the prince. It had become clear quite early on in the exchange that his partner would do little to ease the situation.

The ensuing almost-tantrum was laughable, bravado melting at the first sign of resistance. This happened every time someone managed to challenge Johanás, though 'someone' tended to only be his family. Most members of the courts and royal employees were wont to follow direction immediately from the higher ranking, and it was only his personal closeness that gave Toli the ability to ignore the more ridiculous requests and keep him in line.

Hazel had decided to branch out a little from her usual leisure activities. Setting aside her copy of Ulysses - well-loved, though still immaculate - she had taken it upon herself to begin a foray into podcasts. Many of the younger students were fond of them, and it would give her eyes a rest after long hours spent poring over lecture notes and request forms. The recent influx of new students had produced a sheer mountain of paperwork - bizarre requests, class options, and more besides - and she’d had little time to herself these past few days. Thus, the vampire had cleared a few hours of her evening to spend time alone and away from her work. It would be… bliss.

The coordinator’s room was quickly reached, a flurry of sharp knocks delivered, and instructions received. How rude, not even opening the door. Ah, well - just another thing to add to the list. Johanás entered the rooms, assuming a trained, diplomatic power stance as he began to speak. “I am Johanás Sven, prince of the Elven Lapplands, and this-” He paused to grimace, making a circular gesture with his hand. “-is wholly unacceptable.” The woman was not allowed a chance to respond before he launched into his full tirade, arms crossed tight over his chest.

Toli sighed deeply for the hundredth time as Hani rapped at the door, scratching absently at his jaw. This was not going to be good, not good at all. Travelling had been long, they were both tired, and for Johanás, this meant an increase in his levels of irateness. He could only offer his sympathies to the poor soul behind the door. He followed Hani inside after he barged in, nodding silently at the girl in the chair. Gods, she looked exhausted.