Chapter Text
The small bell by the door went off and Iwaizumi looked up from the drawing he was a working on for a customer.
“Oikawa,” he mumbled when he saw the brunette, putting his pencil behind his ear.
“Yo,” Oikawa waved and entered the shop. He leaned down on the counter Iwaizumi was standing behind and placed his hand underneath his chin.
“What can I do for you today?” Iwaizumi asked while busying himself with something small behind the counter, avoiding any eye contact with Oikawa.
“Was thinking of getting another one,” Oikawa stated, his hands already reaching for the drafts that Iwaizumi had spread around his counter. “These look pretty,” he mentioned.
Iwaizumi ignored Oikawa’s grabby hands and instead focused on what he had mentioned before. “Another one?" Oikawa nodded. "Interesting. What plans have you got for this time?"
Oikawa shrugged. "Didn't really have a big plan for it? I thought I'd leave it to you and have your freeform on me today. I liked the thought so I figured I could easily go with that."
Right... is all Iwaizumi could think of. He was pressing his jaw shut tightly, thinking about him designing an original piece for Oikawa, right there, on the spot. Was he going to freehand? Not use a stencil at all or use one of his older drawings that he's never used on anyone before...
It was a hard decision to make, since it was going to be on the skin of his... best friend forever. It's not like he hadn't tattooed Oikawa before, but it somehow felt different before.
Apparently Oikawa had seen him deep in thought and decided to take a seat, flip his phone out and busy himself with… doing nothing but looking absolutely perfect.
Iwaizumi caught himself staring.
Fuck.
When taking out a piece of paper, Oikawa suddenly finds himself in front of Iwaizumi, and stops his hand from placing a pencil to the paper.
“Freehand on me,” his sweet voice said to him. Iwaizumi looked up, his eyes wide with shock and forgetting to move.
Oikawa’s brown eyes are staring into his and Iwaizumi feels lost, drowning. Switching his eyes from Oikawa’s eyes down to his mouth and back up.
It was quick, but not quick enough. Oikawa hadn’t missed it. After all, they were inches apart from each other, staring into each other’s eyes. He smirked.
Iwaizumi’s breath got stuck in his throat and he quickly averted his eyes to, um, busy with the paper again, yeah.
Oikawa didn’t agree with that. He took the pencil from Iwaizumi’s hand and put it to the side, moving that same hand over to Iwaizumi’s chin to raise it so that their eyes would meet again.
“Freehand on me,” Oikawa said again. “No stencil, no pre-made drawing… Just… freehanding.”
Iwaizumi was blanking. “But I never really freehand,” he tried saying while still avoiding Oikawa’s eye contact — he never did because of his terrible lack of precision when working without a stencil — but Oikawa doesn’t want to hear anything of it and simply shook his head and took his hand in his. What was he…
“You’ve tattooed on me before and I don’t know why I can’t trust this mighty machine with your trustworthy hands.” He presented a flat hand to point at the machines behind the counter, behind Iwaizumi. “Really, Iwa-chan, I trust you a lot and I’ve seen you draw for over such a long time.” Oikawa squeezed his hand softly.
Again, Iwaizumi doesn’t know what to say. If Oikawa really trusted him that much then he had no choice but to go on with it. Right?
Was he really going to be persuaded that quickly?
Yes. He didn’t know why he hesitated. The answer would be yes for at least a thousand times. Tattooing on Oikawa was like tattooing an angel. The way he would just sit still and be the best customer Iwaizumi could wish for—yes.
There was never a moment in time Iwaizumi would be able to ignore Oikawa’s puppy eyes. Even when it came to permanently marking his body with ink.
“If you say so,” he finally decided, wringing his hand out of Oikawa’s and moving his papers to the side, taking out a few markers. “Okay,” he said, determinedly. “Let’s go and have you take a seat on the chair.”
When he was walking ahead of him, Iwaizumi missed the playful glance in Oikawa’s eyes, showing a win. Feeling satisfied, he skipped after Iwaizumi on his way to the chair to start drawing on Oikawa.
They started small talk around making the tattoo for Oikawa. Iwaizumi tried hiding it, but Oikawa could see from the way he was roughly sketching on Oikawa’s body that he had been having this thought for longer than just the previous five minutes.
His eyes were fixated on Oikawa’s leg. He was going to freehand another extraterrestrial being for Oikawa. He didn’t say that he already had enough, because when would an fan of otherworldly creatures think they had enough.
Oikawa watched him draw. Draw with his hands but had his eyes follow his every move. He nearly had his tongue stuck out of his mouth for concentration. Oikawa smiled.
He felt the marker make lines on his body had to resist getting goosebumps when he felt Iwaizumi’s finger trace thoUse same lines. It was a strong but soft touch. Oikawa couldn't help but smile.
"Do you like it?" Iwaizumi suddenly asked, throwing Oikawa off guard. It made him not reply for a few seconds before coming back to the conversation and focusing on the tattoo again.
"Of course I do," he absentmindedly said, not even paying much attention to the tattoo and simply trusting Iwaizumi's handy work. "Let's get started!" He clapped his hands and rubbed them together, all too excited to get a new piece drawn on his body.
"Okay," was Iwaizumi's only answer as he got to work. He gathered his machines and colors and spread them out over his trolley. He went over the color schemes on Oikawa's leg, trailing the drawn lines over and over, fixing some irregularities here and there before he was finally satisfied.
"Starting now," he softly announced before filling his machine with ink and placing the needle against Oikawa's leg. Oikawa shivered against the touch, the coldness of the needle pressing itself into his leg was nothing compared to the same feeling from last time he got inked.
Maybe it was because of Iwaizumi. Maybe. However, he couldn't tell. He was way too focused on Iwaizumi's now gloved hands running over his legs softly wiping away the excessive ink. The paper was rough but barely scratched him as a result of Iwaizumi's soft hands.
He had to suppress another shiver. The needle felt cold — so cold that he didn't even feel the pain it was giving him. It wasn't... It wasn't like the previous times at all.
There was a high possibility that was happening because of the recent upgrades happening in Oikawa's thoughts about Iwaizumi. Why Oikawa started passing by the shop more often and bugging Iwaizumi with new tattoo designs if he thought of any, or just because he wanted to talk to him.
That last point became more and more apparent when Oikawa found himself going over to the shop when he found himself more and more interested in the tattoo artist who stuck out his tongue while drawing a new design. Or watching his fingers when trailing said design, picturing how it would look on a person's body. That concentrated touch and those hands... the soft touch of those hands when brushing over Oik-- a client's newly set tattoo.
Reasons enough for Oikawa to keep coming over in hopes to grow closer to Iwaizumi day by day. Reasons enough to keep getting a tattoo and have his gentle way of tattooing roam his body. Reasons enough to fall in love.