Work Text:
Aqua wiped the sweat from her brow as she lifted her tattoo gun from her customer's skin. Taking a deep breath, she smiled and slid her special healing lotion over the newly finished roaring tiger tattoo. She sealed it off with plastic wrap and took the man to the lobby to get the final payment from him.
As she put the money in her till, she watched the man exit her small shop, onto the busy street outside. She stood still, watching the cars go by, and let her thoughts drift.
It had been two weeks since she had opened this shop, and she was so damn proud of herself for coming this far. She had gone from a grubby kid found behind a dumpster charity case to a real business owner.
At that moment, her apprentice, Axel, entered the lobby. Parting the curtains that separated his tiny studio and yawning, he asked, "Hey Aqua? I think I'm going to go grab a coffee. Want me to get you anything?"
She watched as he scratched his flame red hair and stretched so far he almost touched the dingy ceiling. His shirt that had been tucked into his belt rode upwards as he yawned.
Grinning, she poked him on his exposed stomach and laughed when he gasped in surprise, while she replied, "Yeah, an iced mocha, extra sugar."
"What was that for?!" he complained loudly.
"Any weakness shall be exploited, young padawan," she chuckled putting her hand on his shoulder and lead him gently to the door. "Now, off you go. Fetch thy teacher the heavenly elixir."
Axel grumbled and pulled his keys out of his jeans pockets, "Anything else, Great Master Aqua?"
She shook her head smiling and replied, "See you later, padawan."
Watching him exit the shop and walk to his car, her smile faded. She had told him that she didn't have the money to hire him as a full tattoo artist, and yet, he still chose to learn under her. She felt awful about it, like she was holding his ambitions up.
She sighed deeply, flopping into one of the old beat up, but comfortable chairs she had in her lobby for customers to wait in. Placing her head in her hands, she began mentally going over her bills again.
Eventually, the numbers just started to jumble in her mind and she just couldn't focus anymore. Her thoughts shifted to her art, trying to decide on the color pallets she might like to use on her next tattoo for herself. Perhaps something nature related? Warm browns and greens?
When the door to the shop opened again, Aqua's head darted up. Immediately, she had to squint, as the sun's glare was now filtering in through her glass door.
A warm masculine voice asked softly, "Do you work here miss?"
She held up her hand to shield her eyes as she stood up, trying to get a good look at her visitor. As she stepped out of the sun's glare and into the fluorescent light she had installed herself about a month ago, she almost swallowed her tongue in her attempt not to gasp.
It was a remarkably handsome man with a strong jawline, high cheekbones, strong aquiline nose, and glittering blue eyes. His hair was as brown as freshly dried mulch, the kind she had put on her window ledge garden box this morning.
He cleared his throat and looked at her questioningly.
Quickly finding her voice, she said, "Yes, this is my shop. Welcome to The Guiding Key."
He nodded and looked around curiously, "I'm thinking of getting a tattoo done, and I was hoping to see if maybe your shop could do it for me."
Swallowing her nervousness, she nodded and darted behind her counter that held the register, to pull out her portfolio from the shelf beneath. She carefully opened it, and placed it facing him on the plain white surface.
He perused her art with an inscrutable expression that made her nervous. It seemed to take him hours just to turn three pages, when in reality it was only a few minutes.
Clearing her throat, she said, "I have an apprentice artist....if....if you'd prefer to see his work instead."
He shook his head, still staring at the book, "No. I think I already like what I see."
When he glanced up to meet her gaze, she immediately blushed, and internally cursed herself. But to her surprise, so did he.
"I meant, your art...." he muttered, obviously embarrassed.
She nodded quickly, trying to save the moment with professionalism, and replied, "Of course. What can I do for you?"
Rummaging in the pocket of his khaki pants, he pulled out an intricately carved skeleton key. It's strange square shape intrigued her immediately as he held it up for her to view.
"This was the key to my father's study. He passed a few years ago.... and well, I'm not the best at keeping up with things. So I though it'd be a good idea to have it where I couldn't lose it"
Aqua nodded again, tucking an ocean colored lock of her hair behind her ear and ducking under the counter again to search for her pencil and sketchbook.
"Where do you think you'll want it?" she queried as she found her tools.
"Over my heart," he replied as she lifted up too quickly and rammed her head into the lip of the counter by accident.
"Damn," she cursed loudly as she dropped both to grab her head as it throbbed.
"Are you alright?" he asked anxiously.
She groaned a moment, but waved away his concern while blushing even more brightly. She picked up her sketchbook and pencil and stood, avoiding his gaze, mumbling, "I'm fine."
Over his heart? Oh dear. He'll have to take his shirt off. And with all that muscle.... Oh jeez. She was in trouble.
"Are you sure?" he interrupted her thoughts.
"Huh? Oh yeah, of course," she replied, quickly forcing herself back into professional thoughts. She encouraged him to place the key on the counter, examining it closely when he did so. The sketch began smoothly, scratching out a rough shape on her favorite sketchbook, across from an unfinished rose on the opposite page.
"I suppose I'll just...." he trailed off, pointing to the chair she had occupied previously.
She looked up briefly, he mind still completely focused on her work, following where he pointed. "Oh, sure. Make yourself at home."
Her gaze dropped again to her work. When she heard him settle, she asked absently, "So, any particular reason for a key, and not some other memento?"
When he was quiet for a moment, she glanced up again to see him staring at his hands. "Sorry, didn't mean to pry."
He shook his head, and she returned to sketching. He spoke softly, "Ever since he died, I feel like I've been locking myself away. It's been years now, and I keep going back to his study, like I'll find something in there to fill the hole he left in my life."
He sighed and paused, seeming to listen to her scratch the pencil across the paper. "But I realized recently, locking myself away isn't going to fix this. The longer it goes on, the lonelier I feel. More separate. Different."
She stopped sketching and looked up to find a deep sadness she recognized written on his features. Putting her pencil down delicately on top of the rough outline of the key, she replied softly, "I understand."
He looked up from his hands to meet her gaze, and indeed a feeling of understanding passed between them. Two lost and lonely children reflected back at each other. She could see the lost kid she used to be dwelling within him, and she felt....strange.
Clearing his throat, he said with much bravado, "Anyways, thanks for taking this for me. I've wanted to get this done for a while."
"Of course. It's no problem. I love walk ins with a challenge," she told him gesturing to the key. "Do you want color on this?"
He nodded, "As good of an exact replica as you can would be best. I'm willing to pay whatever you think is reasonable."
"I'll have to take photos of the key so I can have a reference. I'll need a couple days to finish the full picture," she explained, while walking to her portion of the studio and grabbing her camera off one of the cluttered counters.
He agreed easily. She felt his eyes on her as she angled the camera to capture the best lighting for the pictures. She snapped several very quickly.
"We'll make an appointment for the actual tattooing. I'll need three days. What's your availability?"
He looked thoughtful while she grabbed her shiny new appointment book. It only had three past names and times written in it, but she was still so proud of it.
"I'm free this Friday at 5pm, if that's open for you," he replied musing.
She smiled slightly, and slid the book towards him, indicating he write his name and the date and time for his appointment. "I can do that easily."
He returned her half smile and quickly scratched his signature in the book. Looking up, he asked, "I don't think I ever caught your name?"
"Its Aqua," she replied quickly, her smile widening.
"Well Aqua, my name is Terra," he held his hand out for her to shake. When she did, he continued, "It's been good meeting you. And I suppose I'll see you on Friday?" He let go of her hand, and walked toward the door.
"Of course, it's a date....appointment, I mean," she corrected herself, blushing deeply.
He grinned at her, said, "See you then," and left the shop.