It had been awful. Laying destroyed in the ruins of her own failure, unable to even put herself back together. Nikola had hated every second of it. Even now she resented that man, that stupid idiot, Jonathan and his little bunch of acolytes, who had ruined everything for her. She hated it when it was happening, and she hated it now. But things were different now. No longer was she a creature of plastic and fear, but instead the very thing she once hunted. Human. All fleshy and boney, no hint of her previous nature. She hated it. Though, she had to admit, being so… uncomfortably human was a better alternative to, you know, being scattered and discarded in some junkyard where she had virtually no chance of escape.
She was human now. Plain and simple. And, no matter how much she.. disliked it, she would have to come to accept it. She would have to learn to do all the stupid human things and learn all the stupid human rules just to fit in. Surely it could be so difficult? The Not-People made it seem so easy, so surely she could do the same, right? How hard could it possibly be?
Pretty hard, actually. In the months that followed, Nikola had tried and failed to fit in to society properly. She was “too uncanny”, bringing fear to everyone who saw her. Now, normally this would have absolutely delighted Nikola. But, since she was human and unable to.. eat the fear she caused, Nikola found it quite annoying rather than satisfying. The Stranger wanted nothing to do with her, not after her, frankly abysmal, failure when attempting the Unknowing. She tried to convince herself that it wasn't her fault, that it was that damn Archivist and not her, but she was failing at that, too.
Up until recently, Nikola had considered ending her miserable existence. Up until recently, Nikola didn't have anything to live for. That was before she had met you, though. Things, again, changed without her even realizing, and Nikola found it much easier to adjust with you as her friend. Even if you lived far away, Nikola had too much free time and could easily walk the distance.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Nikola knocked on the door three times like she always had, waiting patiently for you to answer. When you didn't answer, she got a little worried. She tried to suppress it, telling herself off for being so weak, but she couldn't help but feel.. concerned. She knocked again, this time more insistently, and waited just a little longer before she decided to take more… drastic measures.
After a few more moments, you finally answered the door. You had been showering, not anticipating Nikola arriving early. “Hey, Nikola! Sorry I didn't answer right away, I was, ahem, showering.” You smiled apologetically, moving aside to let her in.
“Its really no trouble at all, I did arrive early, after all.” She said simply, entering your home and closing the door behind her, playing off her earlier worry. Nikola couldn't help but notice how dishevelled you looked, your hair still damp and your clothes wrinkled. You looked nice like that, she thought. She realized just what that thought implied and quickly shut down that line of thought.
You took notice of how.. odd she was acting, moreso than normal, like something had been bothering her, but you didn't know how to approach the subject so you just left it alone. "So, Nikola, I figured it would be nice for us to get out of the house? I mean... I kinda already got us tickets to a movie and a dinner reservation. You've heard of Nosferatu, right?" It was a dumb idea, sure, but you wanted to do more than just sit at home with her.
"The, ah, vampire movie, yes? I've heard of it, never watched it, though." She wasn't exactly disagreeing to what was essentially a dinner date, but she wasn't really agreeing to it, either. She wanted to accept it, but forced herself to wait just a little while so she wouldn't come off as desperate. "I don't have any plans for tonight, so I may as well join you. It would be rude to refuse, after all..." She couldn't resist a little smirk, just a little one, as she accepted the offer. Nikola had never experienced such... Domestic little things like movies and dinner, and found herself more than willing to participate in such a trivial little thing. For her own entertainment, of course. No other reason. No other reason at all.
The sound of your voice snapped her out of her line of thought. "Great! It's, uhh, six..." You trailed off, looking at the clock in your phone screen for the time. "No, five. Okay, it's five now sooo... We could maybe go shopping or something while we wait? Oh! Oh! We could get new clothes for you!" You exclaimed excitedly, eager for her response.
"New clothes? Hmm. I suppose I hadn't thought of getting new clothes. I don't see why not. I bet you'd just love to see me undressed, hmm?" WHAT. What was she even saying??? She didn't know, apparently. The thought had just slipped out before Nikola could even process it. Her cheeks flushed a vibrant shade of red as she realized just what she had said.
Before she could say anything further, you interrupted her. "Maybe I would, but that's for me to decide... And you to find out." You said with a wink, trying to hide just how.. thrilled you felt at the thought of seeing her without any clothing on. Oh my god, you thought, am I really doing this? Yes. Yes you were. And you were enjoying it immensely.