Work Text:
“Hey there! What can I do for you sweetie?” Marissa grinned with her fake customer service smile as she put on her best customer service voice after she saw an unknown person walk through the door of her tavern. It was morning and light was pouring in through the large windows that ran down the sides of the long open room. Nobody else was in the tavern at that time of the day, and Marissa had been caught quite unawares by this newcomer; she hadn’t been expecting anyone to come in. The lodgers of the tavern were all off elsewhere, either out on quests, training downstairs in the basement, or still asleep in their rooms upstairs.
The newcomer came striding in confidently, yet they also gave off the vibe that they were wary of everyone and everything. They weren’t that tall, only a few inches taller than Marissa, and their appearance was hidden by a large hood and a black bandanna tied across the face, so that only their eyes were visible at certain angles. The hood was connected to a long, dark red cloak that went down to the person’s ankles, and was completely wrapped around their body. In one hand they carried a longbow that had been painted black and in the other hand they carried a piece of paper. Marissa couldn’t quite make out what was on the paper, but she did notice that the ungloved hands carrying these items were a bright red in colour. A red hand slammed the paper it was carrying down on the bar, the loud thud startling Marissa a little.
“This man. Have you seen him?” Judging by the voice, Marissa could tell that this person was young, probably only in their early to mid twenties, yet they sounded stern. Marissa’s expression shifted to one of confusion, arching an eyebrow as she picked up the paper and looked at what was on it. What she saw almost caused her to burst into laughter.
The paper was a makeshift wanted poster, for a tiefling that specialised in fire magic and was classified as a highly dangerous individual. The tiefling in question had bright red skin, long white hair that brushed over collar bones covered in crimson scales, said scales also covered the neck and the parts of the upper chest and shoulders that were visible under sleeveless, dark turquoise robes. The face carried no scales at all, but it did have a wide mouth containing long, sharp canine teeth, a prominent and pointed nose, blank white eyes, and atop the tiefling’s head were crimson horns that twisted like an antelope’s but curled outwards and forwards like a bull’s. Marissa instantly recognised this image as one of her lodgers, Alyrstaire. Internally, she laughed and thought ‘what has he done NOW?’ but she also remembered that back when they first met, she made a deal with Alyrstaire to protect him from people who came hunting for him.
“I’m sorry, my darlin’, but I don’t recognise him,” Marissa said calmly, raising her eyebrows and shrugging after placing the poster back on the bar in front of her. The stranger grunted in annoyance and snatched back the poster.
“Are you sure?” they said irritably. Marissa frowned before nodding and folding her arms. The stranger grunted once more before turning around to leave. Marissa pulled a disgusted face, not liking this person’s attitude at all, she didn’t even know what they looked like! And she wanted to know.
“Now wait a minute there!” Marissa shouted testily after the stranger had taken a few steps towards the door. They paused before spinning round to face Marissa again. Marissa hesitated a little before saying, “ain’t you gonna show me what you look like and give me your name? Just in case I do see 'im, so I can let you know?” The stranger sighed deeply before yanking the hood off of their head and pulling down the bandanna that covered their face.
“The name’s Natki, and if you do ever see him… let me know ASAP,” the stranger said, a stern frown fixed on her face. Marissa was taken aback by how pretty she was, along with some other features that she carried. Her skin tone was almost exactly the same colour as Alyrstaire’s, she had the same crimson red scales scattered across her face like freckles, and her hair and eyes were the same brilliant white as Alyrstaire’s. Her canine teeth were shorter and blunter, although Marissa believed that Alyrstaire’s canines were longer and sharper than a normal tiefling’s due to his ‘condition’. Natki’s thick horns weren’t twisted and they curled downwards, ending only a few inches away from her jawline, but they were the same dark crimson as her scales. Her hair was tied up into two small bunches, with two strands flowing down the sides of her face and tapering to a point just below her jawline. Marissa could see pain in the woman’s eyes, but before she could see any more, Natki hastily pulled her bandanna over her face again before spinning around and quickly walking out of the door. Marissa, who had been carrying a calm expression, finally let her jaw drop open and her eyes widen.
A few hours later, Marissa was alerted by the sounds of footsteps coming from the staircase behind her, the staircase that led to the lodgers’ rooms. She turned round and saw Alyrstaire walking sleepily down the steps, wearing nothing but a baggy pair of trousers. He shuffled over next to Marissa and began to fumble around behind the bar, searching through the shelves under the bar and in the cabinets mounted on the wall at the back. Marissa smiled slyly as she polished a glass and Alyrstaire was crouched next to her, looking under the bar.
“Hey Alyr,” she smirked. Alyrstaire simply grunted in response and didn’t stop what he was doing. Marissa’s sly smile grew wider before she said, “do you have any siblings?” At this Alyrstaire’s sleepy eyes snapped open and he froze. Marissa had to fight the urge to laugh.
“Why are you asking?” Alyrstaire hissed defensively. Marissa had an even more difficult time trying to prevent herself from laughing. She had clearly hit a weak spot or a nerve of some sort, and she was enjoying see Alyrstaire squirm.
“Oh, only because some funny woman came in this morning, and she had poster with your face on it. She showed it to me askin’ if I had seen ya,” Marissa answered in a careless tone, looking at the glass she was polishing. She could sense Alyrstaire getting more wound up by the second, and his tail had begun to thrash around, a clear sign of Alyrstaire’s annoyance. So Marissa continued, “Oh! And I saw what she looked like too! I noticed that she had scales just like you do, oh and she had hair like yours, same colour and thickness! In cute little bunches too! Her teeth weren’t like yours though, but to be ‘onest no tiefling’s teeth are like yours, probably because of the whole werew-”
“FFFUUUCK!” Marissa’s rambling was abruptly interrupted by Alyrstaire suddenly standing bolt upright and slamming his tightened fists on the bar with a loud exclamation. Marissa paused in her polishing to look up at Alyrstaire’s face with an expression of exaggerated innocence.
“What’s the matter Alyrstaire? Did I say somethin’ to upset ya?” Marissa said in an over the top apologetic voice, batting her eyelashes. Alyrstaire snapped his head round to face Marissa, face scrunched up in annoyance.
“UGH! My bratty little sister has found me again! FUCK!” Alyrstaire snarled, yelling and slamming his fists down on the bar once again but this time there was a quick flicker of flames when his hands connected with the wood. The flames vanished as quickly as they appeared, but Marissa still noticed, falling out of character when Alyrstaire had hit the bar again, turning aggressive.
“Hey! Mind the bar will you? This’ll be expensive to replace and if you break it YOU’RE paying for it!” Marissa said, pointing angrily at Alyrstaire. The taller tiefling simply flapped a hand at her in response before turning back to the matter at hand.
“You didn’t tell her anything about me did you?” Alyrstaire commanded, glaring down at Marissa. She scoffed.
“Of course I didn’t! When I make a deal, I MAKE a deal,” Marissa replied, going back to polishing the glass. Alyrstaire sighed in relief.
“Ah, good. She’s been hunting me for a while, swore that she’d kill me or whatever, and no matter where I go she always finds me! I just can’t fucking shake her!” Alyrstaire explained, his face scrunching up once again. Marissa chuckled.
“It’s not like you’re makin’ things hard for her, you leave a path of destruction wherever you go!” she said, teasingly. Alyrstaire exhaled sharply, glaring at Marissa’s smug face and snarling. Seeing that she was unfazed, Alyrstaire sighed once again, folding his arms and leaning his lower back on the bar.
“Ugh, I guess I gotta leave for a bit, send her on a wild goose chase down a different path away from here so I can try and keep her away from me,” Alyrstaire said exasperatedly, casually waving a hand. He suddenly pointed an angry finger at Marissa. “You will keep my room for me though while I’m gone! I will return and I expect to return to my room exactly how it was before with no unwelcome guests in there!”
“Yes! Fine! Chill out!” Marissa piped, briefly looking at Alyrstaire with wide eyes. He sighed again and rubbed his face with a hand.
“I guess I got to go and prepare or something,” Alyrstaire said. Marissa nodded and made a little conformation noise, not looking up from her glass polishing. Alyrstaire stood up off the bar and shuffled back up the staircase at the back of the room, as Marissa held the glass she had been polishing up to the light.
“Man, I’m glad I don’t have any family because the drama sounds like too much work,” Marissa murmured to herself as she put away the clean glass and picked up another one.