Chapter Text
Shifters weren't very well-liked where Niki was from.
It wasn't rare for shopkeepers to take one look at her pointed ears, at the tricolor tail raised hopefully behind her back, and drive her out of their stores with a broom and shouted insults.
Pest. Vermin. Stray.
She’d taken to hiding them, over the years. Long, heavy skirts over her tail to hold it down. Hooded cloaks to hide her ears, pinned painfully to her hair to keep them from flicking beneath the fabric. By the time she was fifteen she had mastered the art of ignoring how her ears ached, the itch of pushing down a shift. Of disappearing at the end of the day without a trace, vanishing into the most hidden alleys she could find and coming out only to hunt mice by the light of the moon. Of reappearing in the early morning, emerging as though from a warm home like everyone else, to spend her days wandering the streets looking for odd jobs so that maybe for a week or two she could afford real food. Of moving on to the next town before she could get to know anyone, before she could get attached, before she could be found out and kicked out again.
The first time she saw Tommy, she caught a glimpse of the child she used to be. Nine years old, dirty and flea-ridden, scrabbling furiously at the hand of a shopkeeper wrapped around his arm in a bruising grip. Hackles raised, bushy tail fur standing on end, ears that were too big for his head pinned back along with his lips as he snarled.
“Hey!” Niki shouted, surprising herself and causing two heads to snap toward her. She floundered for a moment at the sudden attention, but seeing the fear in the boy’s eyes, she steeled herself and pushed onward. “Get your hands off my brother!”
His eyes widened and eyebrows furrowed, but the second the man whipped back to face him, the boy’s confusion was smoothed over and replaced with a quivering lip and teary eyes. “Let go of me!” he wailed. He stretched a hand out toward her, reaching. “Help!”
She stormed over, snatching him out of the man’s grip when it loosened in surprise. When he was safely out of reach, she crouched down to check him over for any injuries. She wiped away the crocodile tears, fretting with only half-feigned concern. “Where have you been? Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
The boy replied with a “sorry” and a whimper, tucking himself beneath her cloak and hiding his face in her side. She could feel a mischievous grin through her shirt, and fought down a smile of her own.
Whirling on the man, she demanded, “What is the meaning of this?!” As she did, she took in their surroundings. All sorts of bread lined the shelves of the stall, assorted pastries and goodies hiding behind a counter. And abandoned at their feet was a now-dusty loaf.
Okay, hungry street kid. Niki could work with that.
Face red, the baker spat, “This little—! Little crook was stealing from me!”
“Now, now, I’m sure this was all just a misunderstanding,” she attempted to placate him, resting a hand on golden hair. She made sure not to touch the large, sand-colored ears on the boy’s head that swivelled at every sound, flicking back and forth as she and the baker spoke. “He would never try to—”
“The damn evidence is right there at your feet!” he accused, pointing down at the bread on the ground.
“Oh!” Niki acted surprised, pretending not to have seen it already, and bent down to pick it up. She looked it over, turning it this way and that as she brushed dirt and hair off of it. It was a sausage roll; not good for keeping long, but big enough to last a few meals and probably healthier for a kid like this than regular bread would be. More tempting, too. “Not exactly best practice to leave your merchandise on the ground.”
Even slightly muffled by her hood, her sharp ears picked up a surprised snort from the kid tucked into her side as the baker spluttered.
“I do not keep my—! This is—! That brat— It’s only on the ground because he tried to steal it!” A trembling finger pointed accusingly at the boy.
“I mean,” she continued, disregarding his excuses, “have you seen how much dirt is on this thing now? You can’t sell that.” As she said this, she plucked a hair off of the roll and held it up between them; thick and straight, a perfect match for the baker’s greying beard. She flicked it back onto the ground between them. “How about I just take this and throw it away somewhere for you, so your customers don’t have to see what looks like perfectly good bread in the garbage.”
The kid’s tail wagged slightly at that, and the baker’s eyes locked onto it, outrage roaring back to life. “BULLSHIT! YOU’RE JUST PROTECTING THAT DAMN VERMIN—”
“This ‘vermin’,” Niki seethed, “is my brother. And I will not have you speaking about him that way.” With shaking fingers, she fished a coin out of the pouch at her waist—less than she knew the roll was worth—and slammed it down on the counter. “There. It’s paid for. And we are leaving.”
Roll tucked under one arm, she ushered the boy away from the stall, fighting to keep her tail from lashing beneath her skirt. They ignored the baker’s raving about thieves, slipping seamlessly into the bustling market.
Guards started to approach after a few minutes and the boy tried to run, but Niki held him back, tucking him under her long cloak as they passed by without a clue. “Just act like you’re meant to be here, kid,” she whispered once they were out of earshot.
“I’m not a kid,” he muttered back through gritted teeth, but he went along with it, keeping his pace steady and tail still under the cloak.
They found their way out of the square without any further issues. She pulled him along normally for a while after that, making sure they were a safe distance away from the market before they finally ducked into an alley.
One second he was still a little boy tucked under her arm, keeping up the charade of a teen girl and her kid brother. The next he was a small fox leaping up to snatch the sausage roll from her arm before dashing off in a blur of sand-colored fur.
“Wait—!” she tried to call after him, but he was out of sight before she could get the word out. For a moment she debated shifting as well and going after him, but as the summer afternoon sun shone down between the buildings and the faint sounds of a busy city day echoed through the alley, she quickly abandoned the idea.
It was too public, too exposed. Too dangerous.
Besides, he had survived this long. Clearly he didn’t need her help. She had to focus on her own survival.
Niki sighed at the realization she was one coin poorer with nothing to show for it.