âABOUT
Name: Nikolai âNikoâ Alexander Cirillo Age: 33 Birthday: April 30, 1988 Gender/Pronouns: Cismale, he/him Hometown: Seattle, WA Length of time in Seattle: Born and raised, returned one year ago Occupation: Pilot Faceclaim: Theo James
âBIOGRAPHY
trigger warnings: toxic relationships, terminal illness
Born in a small hospital outside of Seattle to the Cirillo family, Niko didnât have much growing up. They lived on a large plot of land on an apple orchard that his family had been taking care of for generations. Their home was a little outside the city but they still considered themselves Seattleites. A few years after Niko was born, his little sister Elena entered the world and with that, their parents were satisfied with their little family.
Niko grew up with all the freedoms in the world and he loved the life his family had cultivated on the orchard. He was never all that interested in pursuing a life inside the city limits and when it came time to go to college, Niko didnât think he wanted to. The thing that really interested him was aviation. Living outside the city, they had a family friend with a private air strip and a little biplane that Niko grew up watching him fly around in and grew fascinated. He built model airplanes and flew remote controlled planes all around as a child and by the time he was old enough, he knew he wanted to start training to fly.
He enrolled in flight school and it was all up from there. Two years later and Niko had finished his training and applied for a position as a pilot with a major airline, working out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. He loved it, every time he took flight it was a new adventure. He felt more free above the clouds than he ever did on the ground. When he was flying, he was most himself. He met a woman who was a flight attendant frequently on his shifts and felt like he was more than content in his life.
After a year or so of dating though, it became clear that a pilots life was hard to fit a relationship into and he broke things off with her, before quickly falling into another relationship. Niko had always been comfortable enough with his sexuality to know he enjoyed people of all genders, so it was no surprise to anyone when his next relationship was with a man.
Matthew was the one who really screwed him though. He made Niko feel like he was safe and like he was the most important person in the world, at least until there was any inkling of a problem and then suddenly they would be at each otherâs throats. It was messy, complicated, some might have called it toxic, but the two always found a way back to each other in the end. After three years of trying to make things work, finally Niko had enough and walked away, deciding that he needed time to figure himself out.
That was the day that incidentally changed his life forever. It was a few days before his 30th birthday when he stepped into the gas station and bought a lottery ticket. He wasnât expecting to win more than a few bucks at best, so imagine his surprise when he realized that the numbers on his card were the mega jackpot winning ones. It felt like a joke, surreal even to him. Niko wanted to call Matthew but instead he called his little sister and she went with him to claim his prize and that was when he met Josephine.
She was the other winner of the jackpot and together they split the millions of dollars. After a few days of getting to know each other, the pair decided that the best way to celebrate this moment was to go after the things they really wanted, seek the unknown and find beautiful places to make memories in. So they did. Niko bought a private jet and they started traveling the world together for the next two years.
Joey and Niko were fast friends and occasionally more than that but he didnât dwell on a label or an expectation. He liked her company and as they explored new places she was the perfect travel buddy. He found himself sharing his deepest secrets with Joey, telling her all his hopes and dreams on late night walks through historical cities and early mornings looking out at vast oceans and even thousands of feet above the ground as they raced through the clouds. If ever Niko had a best friend, it was Joey.
He would have stayed like that forever with her if he could, but even money couldnât solve every problem in his life and when he got the call that his father was sick, he knew it was time to go home and back to his family. Joey continued on her travels and Niko tried his best to keep in touch, but his ailing father was his main focus once he was back in Seattle. Itâs been a year and his father is still declining as the family makes final arrangements for him. He suffers from ALS and Niko has been one of his primary caregivers for the last year of his life.
While those who know him best would say that Niko is gentle and kind, from an outside perspective he can seem brash and cold. The situation with his father has taken up much of his attention and itâs tiring watching someone you love slowly disappear. He hasnât flown much in the last year and the itch to get back in the sky is getting unbearable so heâs started working again part time to try and soothe his soul a little.
