Work Text:
Slow days at the shop were always the worst, in Koushi's opinion. All of his clients had booked their appointments for first thing in the morning, so by the time mid-afternoon rolled around, Koushi had fuck all to do. He had been working on sketches for future appointments, but then he'd started overthinking and that was never good. His clients hated what he came up with when he overthought things. Everyone else was busy. Takeda was out to lunch with his partner, so he wouldn't be back for a while. Tanaka'd been working on the rest of Ennoshita's sleeve for a few hours now. Kageyama was off practicing on a melon. Everyone else had something to do. Koushi was just sitting at the receptionist's desk, bored.
Koushi was in the middle of an internal debate about giving himself a new tattoo when the door to the shop swung open. A man around Koushi's age stepped inside, giving the room a quick onceover before approaching the receptionist's desk. Koushi sat up straight; the man was incredibly attractive. He kind of had that average guy look to him with short hair, but he made it work. And he had killer thighs. Koushi was aware that he was starting to drool a little, so he shook his head and put on his customer service smile.
"Hey there! Welcome to The Crow's Nest," Koushi said. "What can I help you with?"
The man rubbed the back of his neck, a little embarrassed as he spoke, "Actually, I'm here for a cover up."
Ah. One of those.
"Okay, cool! We can do that. Did you have a design in mind?"
"I don't really," the man admitted.
Ah. One of those too.
"Well, um, we could do a consultation today, but I would advise against getting anything done until you've had time to think over the design," Koushi explained. "We want you to be really sold on your design so you don't have to get that covered up later too."
Koushi knew the minute he said it, it was the wrong thing to say. The man looked away from Koushi, his face red.
Nice one, Koushi.
"Sorry, that was kind of a dick thing to say," Koushi said.
"No worries, I get it," the man replied.
"Let me get you set up with a consultation," Koushi offered. "Did you have an artist in mind?"
The man studied the art on the wall. "I did, yeah. Who does those nature tattoos?"
Koushi perked up, "Oh, I do those."
"Perfect, then you're the guy I'm looking for."
"Let's head back to my station," Koushi said.
Koushi led his client to his station. He motioned for the man to sit down, then grabbed his sketchbook.
"Before we begin, my name's Sugawara Koushi. You can call me Suga."
The man held out his hand, "Sawamura Daichi."
Koushi grabbed the man's hand, giving it a firm shake. "Nice to meet you, Sawamura. So, what am I gonna be covering up?"
"It's on my back," Daichi said. "You don't mind if I-."
"Not a problem, like at all," Koushi said a little too fast. "I mean, it's not a problem, I'm a tattoo artist, it's totally cool and now I'm rambling please take your shirt off."
Daichi stared at Koushi. Koushi could feel his blush in his ears.
"You know what I mean," Koushi muttered.
Daichi cracked a smile, the first one Koushi had seen since he entered the shop. He lifted his shirt up and let it rest around his neck before turning his back to Koushi. Koushi allowed himself a moment to appreciate Daichi's back muscles before going back to being a functioning professional. Daichi had a shoulder blade tattoo, a cherry tree with a carved heart on its trunk and two sets of characters; given names, Koushi realized. The top of the tree was faded pink, and the trunk had some black shading. It would be an easy enough job, but…
"Do you mind me asking why you're covering this up?" Koushi asked.
Daichi stiffened. "I do mind, actually," Daichi whispered.
"Sorry, I didn't-."
"It's ok," Daichi said. "I just need something on my skin that's not this."
Koushi nodded, grabbing a pencil off of his desk. "So, you want another nature tattoo to cover that up. I kind of like the tree, but I could make it a different tree, give it a different shape and some color."
Daichi nodded, "That sounds good to me. I like ginkgo trees."
"Ginkgo tree it is, then," Koushi said.
He sketched out a quick outline of a tree, followed by a ginkgo leaf. He looked up at Daichi, studying his shoulder again before going back to his page.
"How about you come back in about an hour," Koushi offered. "I should have a few rough ideas of what you might want and then we can set up your appointment."
"Sounds good," Daichi agreed. He pulled his shirt back down, and left the shop.
Koushi watched him go. It was a little shameless, but hey, no one else saw him do it. As soon as Daichi was gone, Koushi resumed studying the sketches he had so far. He grimaced; he needed to Google what the hell a ginkgo tree looked like, because what he had certainly wasn't a gingko tree.
***
When Daichi came back an hour later, he came back with two coffee cups, which surprised the hell out of Koushi.
"Sorry, I didn't know how you took your coffee, so I went with black," Daichi said as he passed the cup to Koushi.
"You didn't have to do that" Koushi told him.
Daichi shrugged. "I know, but I felt like it."
Koushi could feel his face go pink. This was bad. Koushi took a quick sip from his coffee as a distraction and regretted it immediately. Daichi must have gone to the café three doors down, they always burnt their coffee. He'd have to triage it with some sugar and cream in a bit.
"Well, let me show you what I've got," Koushi said, gesturing for his extra chair. Once Daichi took a seat, he showed him the sketchbook and continued, "So, a common misconception about cover ups is that you have to go with some big, black design over what was there. But what we do is use an art style that's different from the tattoo you originally got, and use a bunch of shading, blending and detailing work to get your new tattoo where you want it to be."
Daichi nodded, his eyes glued to the designs in the sketchbook.
"For yours, I'm thinking we could do a mix of black ink and watercolor. We'll color the trunk in completely black, and then we'll make the top that goldenrod color you see in the fall."
"That sounds perfect," Daichi said, looking up at Koushi with another heart stopping smile. "When can you book me in?"
"Well, as much as I'd like to say today, you do need some time to think the design over," Koushi explained.
"Fair enough."
Koushi grabbed his planner, flipping through it until he got to the correct month.
"Looks like I have an opening next Tuesday at 11:30," Koushi read. "Would that work for you?"
"Yeah, that's perfect," Daichi said. "I can't work."
Koushi set his planner down, grabbing the page from the sketchbook and ripping it out. He made his way over to the shop's copy machine. Once he had a replica page, he took it back over to Daichi.
"Hold onto this," he said. "Study it this week, really think about it. If you have any reservations about this, call the shop and ask for me. I'll be happy to talk to you about it."
Daichi nodded, taking the page from Koushi. He thanked Koushi again before leaving the shop, still smiling more than he had been an hour previous. Koushi collapsed back into his chair and sighed. He really hoped the cover up would exceed Daichi's expectations. He'd hate to make the guy sad.
***
"Alrighty, you ready to get inked?" Koushi asked Daichi a week later as he snapped on a pair of latex gloves.
Daichi made a face, "As ready as I'll ever be after… whatever that just was."
Koushi grinned at Daichi. "You can trust me," he said. "I've never had a customer cover up one of my pieces."
"Yeah, but would they tell you if they did, Suga-san?" Tanaka chimed in as he walked by. "You're terrifying at the best of times, despite how cute and cuddly you look."
Koushi whipped his head around to stare at Tanaka, his best "I'm killing you with my eyes" smile plastered on his face. Tanaka shrank back, retreating back to his own station with a muttered, "That's exactly what I was talking about."
"Ignore him," Koushi said as he turned back to Daichi. "I'm not that scary."
Daichi nodded once, then sat down on Suga's spare chair. His shirt was folded on Koushi's desk, and he had his fists clenched tight. Koushi sat down in the chair behind Daichi. He grabbed the disinfectant, spraying Daichi's old tattoo and giving it a quick wipe down. Daichi jumped, unprepared for the sudden chill of liquid on his skin.
"I am, however, an asshole who will try to get you to loosen up," Koushi explained. "You're too tense."
"Sorry," Daichi said. "It's been a while."
Koushi hummed in acknowledgement as he applied the stencil to Daichi's skin. Now that he could visualize the new design on top of the old one, Koushi felt a lot better about what he had made. He picked up the tattoo gun and got to work.
***
To Daichi's credit, he only had to stop once. And in his defense, Koushi kind of wanted a break too. They paused for a few minutes for a water break. Daichi asked Koushi the standard questions—how long had he been tattooing, where did he learn, was he an art major in college—and Koushi avoided asking Daichi the question he'd been wanting answered since last week: What was the meaning behind his last tattoo? As Koushi got back to work, he found that the question was eating him alive. He wanted to know, but he didn't want to make Daichi uncomfortable. If only he could get Daichi to talk about it on his own-.
"I know you want to know," Daichi said, breaking the silence. "About my old tattoo, I mean."
Oh thank god.
"I mean, yeah, I'm curious," Koushi admitted.
They lapsed back into silence. Then Daichi spoke.
"I got divorced about a month ago. We'd been married for ten years."
Koushi was dumbstruck. He opened and closed his mouth once, twice, three times. He had no words. "I'm sorry," he managed.
"It's fine," Daichi whispered. He sighed, "It wasn't… We just didn't work out. There's nothing tragic about what happened. We were young and dumb and 20, and we had no idea what marriage would be like. We just didn't work out."
"Still, that's rough," Koushi said. "I can't imagine being married for ten years and it just not working out."
Daichi hummed in agreement.
"I kinda feel like an asshole for asking, but…" Koushi trailed off.
"It's okay."
"Wife? Husband?"
"Husband," Daichi said. "We played on rival volleyball teams in high school. Got married two years later. Celebrated with matching tattoos. He was a nice guy, and I hope he finds whatever he needs in life. It's just… hard, I guess."
"He was lucky to have you when he did."
Daichi looked over his shoulder at Koushi. He raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Koushi fought off the blush the best he could.
"You just seem like a great guy," Koushi explained. "Anyone would be lucky to be with you."
"You've only known me for a week," Daichi said.
"True, but I'm an excellent judge of character," Koushi countered. "Now hold still, I'm almost done."
***
Koushi was proud of all of his pieces, but this one really took the cake. Was he biased because he had formed a crush on his client? Sure, but still. The piece was incredible. Takeda had thought so, Ennoshita and Tanaka had thought so. Daichi certainly thought so too, he hadn't stopped staring at it in the mirror and thanking Suga profusely.
"This is way more than I ever would have expected, Suga, thank you so much," Daichi gushed, finally looking away from the reflection to beam at Koushi.
"All in a day's work," Koushi said. "Let's get you squared away with some cleaning stuff and then I'll take your money from you."
"What, no discounts for the divorcee?" Daichi teased.
"And get every divorcee down here asking for discounts?" Koushi asked. "Takeda might seem harmless, but I'm sure they'd never find my body."
They made their way to the front of the shop, Daichi slipping on his shirt as they went. Koushi explained the tattoo cleaning process to Daichi while Kageyama rang him out, and then it was time for Daichi to leave.
"I really can't thank you enough for what you did today," Daichi said for the thirtieth time in as many minutes.
"Honestly, it's what I do," Koushi told him. "And any time you want new ink, let me know. I'd be happy to become your tattoo guy."
Daichi laughed, "I'd like that."
Koushi felt his heart skip a beat. Fuck, he had it bad. Before he could stop himself, he grabbed a piece of paper and a pen. He wrote his number down, then pushed the paper at Daichi.
"And if you'd ever like to get coffee sometime, here's my phone number," he said. "Maybe I can take you to a place that doesn't burn their coffee regularly."
It was Daichi's turn to blush. For a moment, Koushi was worried that Daichi was going to turn him down, but then Daichi reached for the paper. His fingers brushed Koushi's as he took the paper and slid it into his pocket.
"I'd like that," Daichi repeated. "If you're free after work, I can meet you back here."
Koushi tried to keep his nodding at a normal speed.
"Great, it's a date," Daichi said. He turned around, leaving the shop and a lovestruck Koushi behind.
"It's a date," Koushi mumbled to thin air, smiling wider than he had all day. Sure, he had just asked out a customer in front of a subordinate, but hey, he had a date.