Chapter Text
✪
Koga has always seen himself as a lone wolf, a bad boy who wants to live his life in solitude. Which is why the moment he had graduated from high school, with plans to study in a university far from his hometown, he practically high-tailed out of his family home and began living in the university’s dormitory. His parents were supportive of his endeavors to become more independent, so thankfully, there weren't many arguments leading up to his moving out.
Finally free from the confines of his old school life, Koga figures that today begins a new era in his life. Taking up his dream course in music production, he hits it off easily with praises of his genius playing from his classmates and professors with his good ol’ electric guitar. Although when it comes to his general subjects, his performance is average at best.
But whatever, right? Not like he cares about shit like that. What’s important is his music, after all!
His first year flies by in a breeze, with his grades in his majors soaring compared to anything else. Koga has gained a reputation around campus as the “cool lone wolf who’s really good with the guitar,” and he won’t deny that it does put a smile on his face hearing it. The people like him, or at least, most of them do. Thankfully he hasn’t gotten involved in a fight with anyone, and he’s sure that he’s going to give them a good beating if anyone will!
Despite all the praise he gets, Koga doesn’t particularly have anyone he can call a close friend. The closest he can of who can fit in that category is his roommate, Akehoshi Subaru, mainly because they share a common bond of having the best dogs in the whole wide world, and Sakuma Rei, his senior who he (secretly) looks up to but he can also be very, very annoying. The vampire wannabe bastard always goes on and on, teasing him mercilessly that he is a dog (he’s not!) and bothering him at the worst times. But even so, Koga finds himself drawn to him, perhaps because despite everything, Rei is actually nice and can give good advice when he wants to.
His second year starts with a realization that he needs money. Sure, his parents give him a monthly allowance wherein he only uses half by the time the month ends, but he thinks it’s not enough. There is also the factor that he wants to learn on how to earn an income, which will take him a step closer to living just like a lone wolf, independent from relying on his parents' own money. Koga decides to look around the town where his university resides to find part-time job openings.
The town is quiet and small, giving off a very rural feeling compared to the very urban and modern atmosphere he’s used to back home in Tokyo. There are mostly small buildings, which are homes to small businesses, and residential homes. He asks around all over for an opportunity to work, and he’s disappointed to hear that all of the places he’s visited so far aren’t accepting any.
Koga finds himself in front of a flower shop after walking around town for an hour, sitting down on the open bench next to it. As he slumps down his body to the bench, he watches as an old lady exits from the shop’s front door. In her hand is a watering can, probably with the intent to water the bed of flowers found outside the shop. She lets out a soft gasp upon spotting the tired Koga.
“Oh, young man! Are you alright?” She walks up to him, concern etched on her face.
Koga, finding himself unable to deny her inquiry, lets out a sigh and explains to her about his situation, “Uh...I’ve been goin’ around town lookin’ for a part time job. But all the damned shops are closed for any of that, so I’m stuck!”
“Oh! What a coincidence!” The old lady perks up in glee, “I’m actually looking for someone who can part time here. Would you like to head inside and we can discuss it?”
Koga hesitates a little, since becoming a florist isn’t exactly a job he wants to take, but seeing the old lady’s smile twists the gut feeling in his stomach, knowing that he will feel guilty if he refuses. Letting out a sigh and mumbling to himself that he hopes he’s making the right choice, Koga follows her inside the shop. The place is quaint and very serene, and the aroma of flowers immediately fills his senses, but it’s not that bothersome or overwhelming and he quietly thinks that he kind of likes it actually. The old lady takes him further inside the shop, which seems to be like her living room. Koga realizes that she also probably lives here as well. They head for the kitchen, where she gestures to him to take a seat, and she goes all around the kitchen to prepare something quick. After a minute, she hands him a cool glass of ice tea, and Koga thanks her quietly.
The old lady, who introduces herself as Ayaka, is nice and very accomodating, Koga realizes, as they quickly discuss the terms and conditions to be able to work here, like what he needs to do and the pay he will receive weekly for his service. In turn, Koga tells her his university schedule for the first semester, and they negotiate back and forth over what his work schedule will be.
The discussion ends quickly and Koga finally is hired for a job. Though he isn’t very knowledgeable about the work field of a florist or even about flowers, Ayaka assures him that she’s going to teach him the ropes on flower maintenance and meanings.
For the next weeks, months, and now becoming a year, Koga learns a lot about flowers, it’s meanings, and how to take care of them, thanks to Ayaka’s teachings and guidance. He slowly finds it in himself to appreciate them, even if they can be a bit too cute to his tastes sometimes. But it’s not like he cares, because flowers are actually really cool!
He ties up the purple apron around his waist, as he readies himself to get to work. He gives himself a once over at the mirror, satisfied with his appearance. Koga turns around and opens the door from the employees’ room, seeing the familiar face of Ayaka and the regulars coming in to buy flowers or flower seeds today.
“Welcome to Ayaka’s Flower Boutique. How can I help ya?” He greets them with his signature toothy grin.
✪
At the start of his third year, Koga realizes that he wants to get a tattoo.
...
Okay, okay! It’s because Rei has a trail of bats tattooed on his right arm, and Subaru has a star one behind his neck, and Koga thinks quietly to himself that it actually looks cool, so it won’t hurt to have one too, right? But he also wants to keep that tattoo a secret from those two, otherwise they’ll think he’s copying them and he knows the stupid vampire bastard is going to tease the hell out of him, calling him a dog again and what not because he “copying” him apparently. Which in fact, he’s not! Really!
So whatever, Koga decides to have one located on his inner thigh. If he has one there, no one will ever find it! That tattoo will remain in that spot, hidden from the eyes of everyone he knew, for the rest of his days.
After his work shift ended during the afternoon, Koga heads for the tattoo parlor that he had read about the day before from the town guidebook he was given back when he first arrived two years ago. Apparently, there is a popular family of tattoo artists living in the town, and he had heard that is also where both Rei and Subaru got their tattoos, so he figures that he should go there to have one. Thankfully, it’s just two blocks away from the flower shop he works in, so it’s a quick trip from work to the parlor. Koga changes quickly from his work clothes to a more casual attire, wearing plain beige-colored shorts and a plain black shirt with a print of a wolf at the front. He bids farewell to Ayaka, before he starts making his way for the tattoo parlor before the time of his scheduled appointment.
Koga quickly spots the parlor from it’s bright, white sign on top of the shop front, it’s name “Otogari’s Tattoo Parlor” displayed in black, cursive handwriting. Koga sneaks a peek inside from the windows displayed at the front of the store that it has a very punk-rock aesthetic. He can see framed posters from various rock stars and on his left, and on the other side a black-red-purple graffiti wall painting of what seems to be a vampire playing a guitar with bats and fire wisps surrounding him. The floors are designed with black and white tiles, and there at the area below the framed posters is a big, red sofa. In the area beyond, taking up most of the space is the cashier, a lone man sitting on the high stool preoccupied on his phone, with the remaining side on Koga’s space being another entrance to a more secluded room. There is only a red curtain separating the two areas, and Koga figures that must be where the studio where the tattoo artist works.
Koga enters the parlor, the jingle of a bell signalling his entrance as he swings the door open, and the man at the cashier immediately looks up from his phone. His hair is dirty blonde in color, with light brown eyes that spark up momentarily as his and Koga’s eyes meet, before his eyebrows furrow to disappointment. He sighs dejectedly, before turning his full attention to Koga right as he is at a close distance to the cashier.
“Welcome to Otogari’s Tattoo Parlor, how can I help you?” The man asks with lacking enthusiasm, and Koga glances at the nametag pinned to the side of his chest. ‘My name is Hakaze Kaoru!’, it says.
Ah, so that’s the Hakaze person he was talking to on the phone yesterday.
In the depths of his mind, Koga found this guy annoying the moment they had first talked on the phone. Thank god this is the only time he’s ever going to see him though, so he guesses he can bear his presence for a bit. He hopes he isn’t at least the tattoo artist in this place.
“I want t’get a tattoo, made an appointment yesterday afternoon ‘bout it too. Oogami Koga is the name.” Koga explains, sounding a bit more harsh than he intended to.
“Ah! So, you’re Koga. Alright, please take a seat on the sofa and wait for your name to be called.” Kaoru points to the only sofa in the room and Koga nods, mumbling his thanks before walking to the sofa to sit down.
When he finally sits down, he feels his body sink to the soft cushion and the soreness in his body from walking dissipate instantly. He stays like that for a while, the only sounds heard all around are from the rock song playing softly in the background and the whizzing sound of the air conditioning system. Kaoru’s attention has returned to his phone, and Koga observes him with a suspicious look as he every so often laughs to himself.
Eventually he hears footsteps shuffling from the room next to them, and comes out two tall figures. One is wearing a black hoodie with the familiar logo of his university, plus denim pants and sneakers. He recognizes who he is immediately, anyone would with the red-black hair he bore and those sharp green eyes he had. It was Kuro Kiryu, the tough-looking dude from the Fashion Design Course.
“Thanks again, Otogari.” Kuro smiles at the stranger, “I’m sure Nito would be surprised when he sees it later.”
The other guy next to him seems to be the tattoo artist, and, oh . Koga is immediately smitten by him, feeling the beating of his heart increasing.
Standing next to Kuro, is a dark-skinned guy around Koga’s age, with purple messy hair and soft golden eyes. Though his face looks stoic, almost hard to read, he was very handsome. And it didn’t help that he could see the outlines of his muscles from his shirt, which looked like it barely fit him. He wasn’t even that muscular compared to those gym freaks Koga saw in university, but he had enough muscle to swoon just about anyone who would see him for the first time. And the sleeves of his shirt , it was hugging tightly on the muscles on his arms, which were covered with tattoos of what he assumes are to be trails of fire.
Oh. Oh. Oh no, Koga thought to himself, feeling his cheeks burning bright red.
“It’s no problem, Kiryu-san.” The guy called Otogari responds, “Thank you for coming.”
“Yeah, yeah. See you soon.” Kuro waves at him nonchalantly as he’s stepping out of the door already. Kuro leaves without even noticing Koga’s presence, but Koga doesn’t care right now because all of his attention is fixated on the tattoo artist standing before him.
“Hello.” The deep voice calls out for Koga and his golden eyes meet another’s, with the former trying really hard not to lose his composure, “I’m Otogari Adonis, I am one of the tattoo artists in this establishment. Are you my 4 o'clock appointment?”
Koga bites his lip, sharp teeth sinking into the skin of his lower lip but not deep enough for it to bleed, thinking the pain will make him forget this sudden burst of feelings momentarily and actually talk to the tattoo artist. He nods furiously in response, digging his hands deeper into his pockets.
“Yeah, ‘m Oogami Koga! Nice to meet’cha.”
“Nice to meet you too, Oogami.” Adonis smiles, and it’s the softest smile Koga’s ever seen and he’s really, really trying not to die here before getting the tattoo, “Please, follow me inside.”
Koga follows Adonis to the other room covered up by the curtain, and when Koga enters the hidden area, he isn’t surprised to see even more of the dark and edgy aesthetic the parlor had going. The walls are purple in color, and painted on the walls are bats flying around a dark forest filled with leave-less trees. Nailed on the walls are black shelves filled with collections of horror books, as he can read from the titles displayed. At the center of the room, is a lone tattoo chair made of black leather along with a lone stool at the side, with a lamplight and small table, with an odd looking pen contraption on it, at the side, and at the other end of the room is a work table where some other equipment can be found, probably for the process of tattoo making.
“Take a seat, please.” Adonis instructs him, and Koga immediately sits down, the feeling of the soft leather on his butt relaxing him a little. When he looks up, he sees Adonis looking at him with a curious expression, and he can feel his gut twisting itself slowly at the uneasiness of someone attractive to him just watching him like that. But Adonis immediately speaks up after a moment, dissipating whatever tension Koga felt, “You mentioned to Hakaze-san during the call that you already have a design in mind for the tattoo. May I see?”
“Yeah!” Koga fishes out the small, folded sketch from his pocket and hands it over to Adonis quickly. He isn’t one to draw, but the design he had in mind was very simple for him to at least draw it. It was of an outline of a wolf head facing on it’s left, with minimal details on its face, and on the top right of its head is a crescent moon.
A perfect symbol of a lone wolf like himself, he would say to himself. Koga was pretty proud of his design, and he’s sure that Adonis would bring his design to life in the way he wants it to. He seems very capable of being able to do it, even so much that Kuro, the one guy almost everyone in university is scared of, would so much smile at him for his services.
...And not because he’s also kinda attracted to him. He swears!
“I see. Would you mind if I redraw it?” Koga shakes his head and Adonis smiles, “Alright good, please give me a moment.”
Adonis turns back to the table and picks up a pencil and piece of paper from the drawer below. Koga watches as he sees Adonis’ hand move swiftly below, wondering what he’s doing. After a few moments, Adonis finishes his task and turns back to face Koga, handing him a paper with a perfect line per line drawing of his tattoo.
“Is it not to your standards?” Adonis asks, his brow furrowed in worry as Koga stares probably a bit too long. Koga can sense it in his voice and he immediately looks up to him with a smile.
“No, no! ’s great! Yer really good, y’know?”
Koga didn’t mean to say that, but now with that out of the water he can feel his cheeks burning from the sudden compliment he had given. Adonis seems unfazed though, and Koga’s worried he had messed up somehow. But after a moment, Adonis gives a smile at the compliment, and the butterflies in Koga’s stomach flutter about even more.
“Thank you.” His smile is kinda cute. Wait, fuck, “Well, if you’ll excuse me, I will start preparing the tools.”
Adonis turns around once again to his work table and fishes out gloves and a small kit. He returns back to Koga’s side, sitting down on the open stool, and turns to face him with a serious expression.
“Where would you like to have the tattoo placed?” Adonis asks.
“Here, in the…” A daunting realization comes to Koga as he remembers where he wants to have the tattoo placed, and, well...
Fuck , now he’s embarrassed, but he’s already here so he might as well suck it up.
“Oogami?” Oh no, shit, he’s worried.
“Here!” Koga quickly lifts up the sleeve of his shorts, revealing the skin of his right thigh. His finger points to the spot on the left side of his thigh, and quite literally a few centimeters away from a certain area.
Thankfully, Adonis doesn’t seem to pick up the bright red blush on Koga’s cheeks as he shows off his skin, and simply nods before putting on gloves to start the process. He grabs the kit on his table and opens it to reveal a bottle of alcohol and a razor.
“I will be dabbing your skin with alcohol and removing the hairs on your leg. Please relax.” Adonis instructs him and Koga follows.
He stays still as he feels Adonis outstretch his leg a little from his knee, while Koga leaves the sleeve of his shorts lifted so Adonis can work properly. Adonis starts by dabbing alcohol on his skin with cotton and he picks up his razor from the table, and begins to shave the going to tattooed area on Koga’s leg. Koga can feel the razor scratch through his skin gently for about a minute, before Adonis stops and dabs the skin once more with alcohol.
“You did a good job in staying still.” Adonis compliments him with a smile, “Now, please give me a moment.”
Adonis takes the tattoo pen from the table and turns back to Koga. He moves close to Koga’s space, probably too close for comfort that he doesn’t notice the cheeks of his client are burning red again, and pokes on the wet bare skin on Koga’s thigh.
Adonis looks up to face Koga, a serious yet determined expression on his face.
“Normally, people would have a sketch of their tattoo printed on their skin before the actual process begins. My family, who run this shop, usually do that process” Adonis begins to explain, “But I’m not like that. I can, line per line, be able to draw the tattoo design you want on the skin directly.”
“Oh.” Koga mumbles, thinking to himself that it would explain how good he was in being able to copy his sketch perfectly on the paper.
“And now, I must ask you this. Do you trust me, Oogami?” Adonis asks him seriously, with the tattoo pen in hand. Koga can feel the sweat trickling down his forehead at the tension around the room, but...
Even with all the queasy feelings in his gut, even with his heart beating so fast and his cheeks uncontrollably red, Koga already knows his answer.
“Yeah. I...do, Otogari.”
Adonis smiles, and Koga swears he can see his eyes sparkling at his response, “ I’m glad to hear that, thank you. I will get to work now.”
The needle prickles his skin right at it’s first contact, and Koga tries his hardest not to scream. Throughout the whole process, everytime Koga would make a muffled yelp, he can hear Adonis mumble out a sorry at each quiet yelp, or an “I’m here, it’s alright. It will be over soon.” Koga would bark back “It’s fine” in response to Adonis’ apologies, because really, Koga wanted this anyway.
The process ends after 10 minutes, and Koga feels relieved that it’s all over. As Adonis returns to his work table to pick up ointment and bandage wraps, Koga’s eyes sneak a peak on the area where his tattoo is. He gasps at the sight of the tattoo imprinted on him.
It’s...perfect, is how he can describe. Adonis was true to his word, he is really skilled as a tattoo artist. On his now reddened skin, he sees the same image he had drawn of the side profile of a wolf, with the moon on it’s upper right. He grins happily at the picture perfect tattoo on his skin, and fishes out his phone to take a quick photo of it.
“Do you like it?” Adonis asks as he returns with ointment and bandages, and Koga nods happily.
“Yeah! Love it a lot, thanks, Otogari.” Koga grins at him.
“I’m glad.” Adonis smiles in return, sitting down on Koga’s side to apply the ointment and bandages on his tattoo.
After bandaging up his tattoo, they leave for the cashier where Kaoru awaits for their return. As Kaoru handles the payment process for Koga’s tattoo, Adonis hands him an aftercare kit created by his family for Koga to use for the weeks ahead. When the payment has finally been made, Adonis leads Koga out of the door.
“Thanks for the tattoo, Otogari. Love it!” Koga exclaims happily.
Adonis lets out a soft chuckle and smiles at him, “You have said it many times, Oogami. But, thank you.”
Oh, fuck , Koga thinks to himself as the butterflies return to fly around in his stomach. All the excitement over the new tattoo has made him forget how smitten he was for Adonis. And now, when it’s all over, he may never see him again.
Shit.
“Well, uh...I’mma go now.” Shit, it can’t end like this. Right?!
“Yes, you should. I’ll see you around?” Quick, Koga! Think of something! Get his number, damn it!
“...Wait, Otogari.” Adonis looks at Koga curiously, “What if I need ya help with, y’know...the aftercare shit?”
“Oh, but I made sure that the instruction manual is written well enough for almost anyone to understa—” Adonis explains, but his words get cut off by Koga.
“No! Shit, y’know...uh, what if I still don’t get it? Can I...call ya or somethin'?” Koga asks hesitantly, frustrated that he had to be the one to spell it out.
Adonis ponders over his words, and like a lightbulb lighting up on top of his head, he gets it, “...Ah! I see.”
With a smile, he fishes out something from his pants pocket. His hand picks up a business card from within, the shop’s name, his own name, and a telephone number inscribed on it.
Telephone number.
“I hope this will be alright. You are free to call me up with this number anytime.” Adonis is still smiling at him, totally oblivious to what he had done.
“Oh. S-Sure.” Koga forces those words out as he places the business card inside his pocket.
“That’s great, Oogami. Well, I need to return to work now.” Adonis is already heading back for the parlor entrance, waving at Koga with a smile, “See you soon.”
Koga waves back to him, all the while a new feeling begins to build up inside him, “Yeah, see ya.”
The grey-haired boy finally turns around and starts heading back to the university dorm. Halfway through his path, he makes a shortcut through an alleyway he knows no one ever hangs around. This was a secret place where he would sometimes practice his guitar with.
But today is not one of those days.
When he thinks the coast is clear, he finally lets out all the enraging and embarrassed feelings building up inside him. He kicks around the trash cans and shouts out curses to no one in particular.
“Damn it! Damn that oblivious fucker!” He screams out with all the rage he can muster.
After a few more moments of thrashing around, he finally crouches down to the ground and a blush heats up on his cheeks.
Damn it.
Damn it, really.
He’s too smitten by Otogari Adonis to even hate him.
Well, fuck.
Koga just hopes, really, really hopes, that he’s going to get another chance at this.
✪