#natalya.

Knowing her childhood friend, was Reuben Garcia going to take to her surprise visit very well? Probably not. Well, it was certainly a lot more permanent now no matter if he liked it or not. Natalya Byrne, professor of Greek and Russian certainly had a nice ring to it. Her wandering was a lot less aimless than one might have expected, considering she was new to the campus. Still rather new to the town of Lennox, in fact. She had been all over the world, yet for the first time she had invested in a permanent residence here.

She couldn’t help it that she walked with a purpose. 

Her red-bottomed heels made a very audible click against the floor as she made her way through the hallway, scanning office numbers until she spied a familiar one. Red-stained lips revealed a cocky smirk as she rapped on the open door two times before finally making her entrance. 

NATALYA BYRNE // TASK ONE.

I can smell your fear, the only reason that I’m here

Tessa: Okay so I was talked into going to that Valentine's thing...

Tessa: Do you remember that blouse you were wearing the other night?

Tessa: Could I maybe pretty please borrow it for an important presentation next week?

Had Natalya expected to have faced what the town did a mere month after her arrival? Certainly not. While she had remained rather confident throughout most of the battle and had come out with only a couple minor injuries: one to her side and one to her forehead, she had been bandaged up and sent along her way rather quickly. Who she had been worried about had not been herself, but Reuben. Word had gotten around quickly about the dhampir he had been with, Regina. Natalya had seen her earlier in the evening, watching her like a hawk as she bet on her with her ward.

That felt so long ago.

Regardless, she had come by his place with the knowledge that Reuben had been attacked. Not that he knew, but she was using this time to be his extra line of protection. When she had first seen him after the attack with the injury to his shoulder, everything she had been worried about had come to life. When couldn’t find him, he got hurt.

It lit a fire under her ass, in a way. She was never going to let anyone else she cared for hurt ever again.

After her first interaction with Reuben since returning to the Academy, Natalya had spent quite a bit of time contemplating on how to tell Esme that she had arrived. In order to spare any more nice shirts, the brunette had decided that a simple text would be quite adequate. Somehow they ended up at Cool Beans. Natalya’s day had been filled with organizing -- considering her place currently looked absolutely horrendous. Why was it so difficult to find motivation to unpack? Was it because she was actually staying in town this time?