VIOLENT DELIGHTS ━ gotham

I ━ the best is yet to come.

Niko continues to admire the tapestry and lights of the circus, not once looking in front of her, and because of her own stupidity she crashes into a person in front of her. She gasps as she trips, hands moving of their own accord to maintain balance. The person she clumsily slammed into grabs ahold of her wrists, stabilizing her balance and keeping her still. Niko blinks in surprise and looks up to find a pale boy with fiery-red hair and freckles scattering over his cheeks.

Her mouth opens and closes before she stammers out an apology, "I'm s-so sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going, stupid of me — I know," Before Niko can ramble on more about how idiotic her tumble was the boy chuckles, "It's fine, though maybe instead of admiring the view, you could watch where you're walking? Ya never know who you might stumble into next."

At the boy's warning, Niko straightens up and nods her head. She was extremely glad she bumped into him instead of some psychopath with anger issues, who knows what might've happened if that had occurred. "Uh, thank you for catching me. You could've just let me fall on my face, but you didn't — so, thank you."

The boy looks down at her hands, finally noticing he's still holding onto her wrists and lets go of them. He looks away from Niko for a moment, his tongue prods at his cheek as he thinks before he states, "Ya know you might've given me a concussion — I might need your name later to tell the hospital who I'll have to send the bill to." Niko tilts her head, not fully understanding the joke until it clicks, she then laughs.

She stretches her hand out to the boy, smiling wide as she says, "I'm Nikolette, but my friends call me Niko." The boy takes her hand, shaking it before letting go. "You actually might have a concussion, most people in Gotham don't let others bump into them without some kind of altercation." He shakes his head at her words with a smirk, "I'm not from Gotham, so I think I'm okay."

Niko 'oh's' at his reveal, nodding her head before stopping herself from asking where he was from, she didn't know him and it didn't seem all too polite to just ask some random where they came from. The boy watches as she bites at her bottom lip and he chuckles once more, "You can ask, ya know." Niko grins from ear to ear and proceeds to ask him where he came from originally, to which he responds, "Born and raised at this very establishment, Haly's Circus."

He raises both his arms, gesturing around the two with a sort of boyish charm. Niko smiles at the act and opens her mouth to ask her next big question, "Does it ever get boring? You know, the clowns and trapeze." The boy hums before shrugging, "It ain't so bad, once you get used to the music." He jokes with a grin causing Niko to mirror it.

Niko tilts her head in thought, blonde strands falling in front of her face with her movement. "I never did catch your name, stranger." The boy smirks before wittily replying, "I didn't throw it," Before Niko can pout at his wit, he continues, "The name's Jerome, a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Niko."

Jerome bows with finesse, pretending he has a hat atop his head as he tips it toward Niko with a wide grin. Niko playfully rolls her eyes at him, smiling so hard her cheeks are beginning to burn. She's never met someone with this much charm in their entire body much less their pinky finger, and she's liking it a bit too much and it scares her since Jerome is from Haly's Circus — a traveling circus that only stays around for a week at most, and there's only three more days before their departure. 

A moment passes before the two of them, a calming quiet washes over them between the robust noises of the traveling circus around them. Niko digs her hands into her jacket pockets, no longer shivering from the cold as she looks up at Jerome, who looks down at her with a tilted head. "What are you doing tomorrow?" He questions Niko suddenly, causing her to blink in surprise. "I have school but after that I'm free."