Tala

Niko- A backstory

Niko- A backstory.

The bar was never empty, except for when it was closed. Sometimes it was crowded, and sometimes there was only one somber face, sipping away at their scotch. Today, the crowd was lukewarm, a comfortable congregation of people.

The door swung open as the small bell chimed. A young, dark-skinned girl, seemingly too young to be there, waltzed in. Her hair was long and straightened, dark chocolate in color. A large, white faux fur shawl graced her shoulders, covering her form-fitting black romper. She held her stilettos in hand, it was clearly hard to walk in those. She seemed out of breath, she must have been running. She sat down in an open seat at the bar's counter, and slid her fresh ID to the bartender.

"One glass of your strongest." Niko directed.

"Miss, why not try something lighter-" said the bartender, stopping mid sentence as Niko glares at him. He shuffled away nervously to get her drink.

She was 18 as of today, the age she could drink, she could drive, she could move out, do everything an adult should.

Her family was rich, her father the CEO of LyonCorp, the second richest smartphone company, and filled with toxic asshats.. When the blast first happened, her parents hated mutants. To this day, they still did. But, Niko was an accident that they didn't want in the first place. She knew it. They got her a private tutor to teach her, every day for a year, until she was two grades above her own. Born in 2026, entering second grade at the age of five after skipping both kindergarten and first, graduated high school in the class of 2041, age fifteen. During school her parents made her cover her beautiful golden scales with foundation, made her wear dark brown contacts, and they once tried to get her naturally split tongue sewn back together, though it was no use. The day after the surgery, the stitches had snapped apart, and no scars from the stitches remained, either. At school she would scrub off the foundation, remove the contacts and be who she really was.

After she graduated, her parents sent her to law school. She went to a tech school instead. And last week she came home for her birthday, like always. They always threw her a grand party with their work partners. Except this time, they had found out about the school switch. They planned against her, a punishment for what she's done. She would be eligible for cosmetic surgery the moment she turned 18. They were going to get someone to skin her scales off the day after she became an adult. She overheard this at her own party, and fled at once. She only happened to stop at the bar because she ran out of breath.

The bartender slid her the shot, Niko caught it and downed it. She slammed the glass back down on the table, not hard enough to break it, but loud enough to make a point. Her mind became clouded as all her cares disappeared. She ordered another drink.

The bell at the door rang for the first time since she arrived. A fuzzy figure, coming in and out of focus walked towards the empty seat by her. The figure had pale blue curled hair, beige horns, and what seemed like a grey oversized hoodie rolled up to the elbows due to the huge beige horns just below their elbow.

The figure started to speak to the bartender, Niko could only make out a few words.

"Woah... bud? I'll....of whatever she...." said the figure. Niko saw the bartender grab the same bottle and a tall glass, more than twice the size of her own, and poured the substance until the glass was full to the brim. The figure drank it in five seconds flat.

"Good ol' Everclear and it's 95 percent alcohol rate," said the figure, "wait. She drank two shots of this?" Nikos vision came to focus on the figure. A worried look came across their face, and all Niko could think is how they were the most angelic being to walk earth and grace their eyesight. "I'll pay for her drinks, put it on my tab. I'll pay you back tomorrow." Suddenly, she felt like she was flying. She was being carried by the beautiful stranger who had graced her moments before. Time was slowed down as it sped up, forwards was backwards and left was right. But she didn't care, she just focused on the angels face bringing her to a safe place. Fading in and out of vision, Niko saw the dark night turn a light, golden yellow. What was a cold october night now was a warm summer's day, fading into a steel chamber. They went down- or was it up? In this chamber before being swallowed into the golden yellow light once more. She was brought into darkness, and placed on what felt like a cloud. She passed out as soon as she hit the mattress. The figure grabbed a blanket and some pjs and went to the bathroom to change. They slept on the couch.

Niko woke with a massive headache, throbbing, pulsating pain flowed through her veins. She would've clapped a hand to her forehead if she wasn't afraid that it'd cause more pain. After a few minutes of pain, she smelt an exotic, captivating scent. It was definitely food. She stumbled into the dim kitchen, barely making out two pills and a glass of water. She didn't take them, worried on what they could be. For all she knew, they could be cyanide.

"Don't worry, it's not poison," said a voice coming from the living room. She turned towards the noise, unsure of where she was. She vaguely recalled entering a bar, and- oh god. This person had taken her home. "You're probably doubting me now, don't worry, those are just non-prescription painkillers. Advil," said the voice. The figure was doused in dim light. She could barely make out horns, two on their head and two on their forearms.

"W-Who are you? Where am I? You better start talking-" demanded Niko. The silhouette had a mass of blue curls covering their head. Soon she was able to make out the figures face. They had a diamond shaped face, with deep set eyes. Their nose was slightly longer than usual, upturned. Their lips-

"First," they started, "My names Tala Sever. Don't question it. Second, you're in my apartment. Not much to look at, but, it's home. But, enough about me, what about you?" Niko couldn't place which gender they were.

"Niko. My names Niko Smalley." she said, nervously. Once their introductions were complete, Tala elaborated on the events of last night. Niko took the pills, eventually trusting Tala.

"So," asked Tala, "Why were you there in the first place?"

"It's kind of a long story," uttered Niko, rubbing her arm.

"I have time."

"Well, basically, my parents are rich assholes. They hate people like us. Mutants. Anyways, they pretty much made me fake my age and pretend to be human. I'm two years younger than most of the people I went to class with. I had to cover my scales, and wear contacts, and I wasn't allowed to speak, due to this. " She pulled up her lip, revealing a retractable set of fangs, similar to a snakes, and stuck out her tongue. It was split. "Anyways, it was fucking dumb. I washed off the makeup and took out the contacts. I went to school with a mix of everything. Reapers, Humans, Mutants, etc. But besides that, I graduated at 15. My parents wanted to make me a lawyer or some bullshit, sent me to law school. I declined and went to a tech university. They didn't know. I come home for my birthday, they ask me to. But this year they found out about the university, and, they didn't take it so well. They wanted to get someone to skin me of my scales. I only heard during my own party. I fled, stopped at that bar due to being out of breath," she finished."

"So, you have nowhere to go?" said Tala.

"Now that you bring it up, yeah."

"Then stay here. I enjoy the company," said Tala. Niko genuinely wanted to stay. What she would say next would affect the next four years of her life

"I'll stay."

(A/N I hope you liked this chapter, Niko doesn't get enough credit lol.)