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Nesta
When Feyre had suggested that the three Archerons get matching tattoos a few months ago, Nesta had initially been a little hesitant. She’d never gotten into tattoos the way Feyre had, and even though times were changing, she’d always been a little wary about getting something that would be noticed at work.
Surprising no one, Elain had been the one to convince Nesta to do it. It wouldn’t look right if only me and Feyre got one, she’d said. We’ll pick something little so you can cover it up at work if you want.
Nesta had caved under the combined weight of Elain and Feyre’s puppy dog eyes, and from there, their group chat had been about nothing but tattoos. Which parlors to go to, which artists had the best linework, and of course, what design they were actually going to get.
Feyre had been the one to find a design they all liked. It was a simple, cute tattoo – the moon, the sun, and a star, with a different symbol filled in on each sister’s wrist. It was quickly decided that the moon would be for Nesta, the sun for Elain, and the star for Feyre. After that, they’d just had to make the appointment, which had of course fallen to Nesta as the oldest sister.
Her sisters had sent plenty of suggestions, but she was the one making the actual phone calls. They’d gathered in Nesta’s apartment that day for their usual Sunday meal, the three of them lounging in the living room scrolling through Google and Yelp reviews and the tattoo parlor’s website before Nesta decided to just call the place and get it over with.
“You Gen Z kids and being on the phone,” Nesta had said, rolling her eyes as she dialed the tattoo parlor they’d decided to make an appointment with. Feyre had really liked one of their artist’s work, and although it was going to be a small tattoo, Nesta wanted the best they could find. It was permanent, so they needed to trust who they were working with.
“You’re literally born in 1995,” Feyre had muttered under her breath. “You’re just as Gen Z as I am, thank you very much.”
“Big talk from the 2000s baby,” Elain had teased back, sticking her tongue out at Feyre. She’d laughed as Feyre grabbed the nearest pillow and tossed it half-heartedly at her head. “What? It’s true!”
Nesta had quickly confirmed their tattoo appointment and pricing before sending a mock-glare Feyre’s way. “First of all, I’m a millennial, thank you very much. Second of all, stop throwing my pillows everywhere!”
That had resulted in a pillow fight that lasted for nearly ten minutes until Nesta and Elain had teamed up on Feyre to take her down, Elain holding Feyre down while Nesta relentlessly went for Feyre’s soft spots.
Now, they were finally in said tattoo parlor, waiting for their names to be called. Once Feyre and Elain finished filling out their paperwork, Nesta primly gathered all their clipboards and returned them to the guy working the front desk. He just told her their artist should be out shortly, so she said thanks and made her way back to where her sisters were sitting.
“You excited?” Feyre asked once Nesta sat back down next to her. “Scared? Nervous?”
“A little nervous,” Nesta admitted truthfully. She held up her hand and pinched her thumb and index fingers together, leaving as little space as possible between them to show how much. “But only a little.”
“It should be quick, if it makes you feel any better,” Elain offered.
Of course Elain was going to try and make her feel better. Nesta gave her a small smile before replying, “I know. I’ve just never gotten one before.”
Nesta had done plenty of research about the tattoo process before she’d agreed to get one, falling down many a Reddit hole as she learned everything she could. They’d decided to get their tattoos on their left wrists, which hopefully wouldn’t be too painful, but everything she’d seen online about how bad it would hurt had been wildly unhelpful. Nesta had tried to console herself by reminding herself that at least the aftercare process didn’t seem too bad, but she hated going into things without knowing exactly how they would play out.
“You can hold my hand if it makes you feel any better,” Feyre told her, smiling as she reached out to squeeze Nesta’s hand. “I’m an excellent hand holder.”
“Okay,” Nesta agreed, squeezing her sister’s hand back. They’d decided Nesta should be the one to go first, partly because she was the oldest and they wanted to do everything in birth order, but also because she was the most likely to chicken out of doing it. “I might take you up on that.”
They didn’t have much time to make conversation after that, since their tattoo artist came to get them shortly afterward. Tarquin was so genuinely warm and friendly that Nesta was immediately comfortable with him, and she was glad they’d picked him once they’d gotten through all the placement and stenciling. He didn’t have a single problem with answering any of their questions, nor did he complain once about having to redo Nesta’s stencil until she was satisfied with the placement.
“It’s going on your body,” Tarquin said with a shrug after he’d placed the stencil for the last time. “You can ask me to move it as many times as you need to.”
“I think it looks good here,” Nesta said back once she examined the stencil with a critical eye. It was perfectly down the middle of her wrist like she’d wanted, and although Tarquin had explained the tattoo would of course shift as she moved her hand, she felt pretty good about how it looked with her wrist completely relaxed. “Okay. Let’s keep going.”
“Great,” Tarquin replied. He started bustling around his little station as he got everything ready, and Nesta turned to her sisters for some extra reassurance. Elain flashed her a big smile and a thumbs up while Feyre reached for her phone to take a picture before everything became permanent.
After a few minutes, Tarquin came back over and laid out all his tools. Nesta was pleased to see he was wearing gloves and everything looked properly sterilized – at least from what she could tell, anyway – and she took a few deep breaths as he tilted her arm exactly where he wanted it.
“Ready?” Tarquin eventually asked, looking up at Nesta for confirmation.
Nesta reached out her right hand for Feyre to hold, immediately reassured when Feyre didn’t hesitate to grab it and squeeze down. “I’m ready.”
“Okay. Let me know if you need a break,” Tarquin told her. He turned on the tattoo gun and Nesta squeezed Feyre’s hand hard, taking another deep breath before the needle touched her skin. “How’s that?”
“It’s… okay,” Nesta answered slowly. It hurt, of course, but it wasn’t as bad as she’d thought it would be. “It feels like cat scratches.”
“I’ve heard that one a lot for wrist tattoos,” Tarquin responded with a smile. He turned back to the tattoo and Elain picked up the slack in the conversation, ready to keep Nesta distracted for as long as necessary.
“Sooo,” Elain began. She moved her chair so she was a little closer to Nesta without getting in Tarquin’s way, pulling the fabric of her skirt closer to her body as she changed her position. “What are we doing for your birthday, Nesta? You never told us.”
“Uh…” Nesta replied, her mind going blank. The pain wasn’t overwhelming, but it was a little hard to think with a bunch of needles pressing into her skin. “We, um… I was thinking we could do brunch next weekend?”
“Next weekend?” Feyre asked curiously. “Do you have plans on your actual birthday that don’t include us or something?”
“I met a guy,” Nesta told them, looking away from the surprised looks on her sisters’ faces in favor of checking Tarquin’s progress. He’d finished tracing the outline of the moon and was now onto the sun, his linework just as impeccable as Feyre had said it would be as he traced the stencil. “Don’t be weird about it. Please.”
“No one’s being weird,” Feyre said, rolling her eyes. “It’s just – different.”
“What Feyre means to say,” Elain replied, shooting the evil eye at Feyre before turning back to Nesta, “is that we’re happy for you and we can’t wait to meet him. If it gets to that point.”
“Well if he’s taking her out for her birthday, it sounds like it might be at that point,” Feyre fired back.
“Is it?” Elain asked. “At that point?”
“Maybe,” Nesta answered. She really liked Cassian, with his gentle way of handling her even when he was trying to get a rise out of her, and part of her wanted to stay in their little honeymoon bubble instead of sharing him with everyone else. But a bigger part of her wanted her sisters to like him, so she decided telling them a little bit about him wouldn’t hurt anyone. “I met him at my kickboxing class a few months ago.”
“Months?” Feyre echoed, shocked. Nesta squeezed down on her hand in warning. “Woah. You must really like him.”
“I do,” Nesta agreed with a small smile.
Tarquin chose that moment to announce he was done with the tattoo, and they all looked down at Nesta’s wrist to appropriately ooh and ah. It was strange looking down at her wrist and seeing that small bit of ink on her pale skin, but Nesta decided she liked it a lot more than she’d thought she would.
From there, it didn’t take long to get done with Elain’s tattoo. Nesta swapped places with Feyre so she could hold Elain’s hand this time while Feyre scrolled through Cassian’s Instagram, shooting impressed looks Nesta’s way as she went further down the rabbit hole.
“He’s cute, Nesta,” Feyre said, approval lacing every word. “Does he have any brothers?”
“Actually,” Nesta said back, thinking back to all the things Cassian had told her about one of his brothers, “he does.”
“Say no more,” Feyre muttered under her breath. It didn’t take long for her to find Rhys’ Instagram account after some dedicated snooping, and she quickly switched over to her own phone so she could look through his life from her own account. “If this works out, I owe you one.”
“You’re welcome,” Nesta replied wryly. She turned her focus back to Elain and squeezed her smaller hand. “You doing okay, Lainey?”
“I’m okay,” Elain answered. Tarquin was filling in the sun on her wrist now, his motions steady and sure as he filled in the circle with black ink. “Trust me, watching you two has been more than entertaining enough.”
From there it was Feyre’s turn to sit in the chair, and Elain dutifully offered up her hand for Feyre to hold while Tarquin worked his magic. Feyre’s tattoo seemed to go by even faster than Elain’s, and in no time the three of them were done. They took a bunch of pictures to commemorate the moment before letting Tarquin run through his aftercare instructions, Nesta making sure to take notes so she could send them to her sisters before they went to the front to pay.
“I’m so glad we did this,” Feyre said excitedly as they left the parlor and headed toward Nesta’s car. “They look so good!”
“Me too,” Elain agreed. She slid into the passenger seat while Feyre took her place in the back, immediately rolling down the windows so they could enjoy the feel of the spring air on their skin. “Are you happy with it, Nesta?”
Nesta turned to look at her sisters with a smile. “Yeah. I am. Thanks for talking me into this.”
“Always,” Feyre replied, matching Nesta’s smile with a big one of her own. “Now let’s go get something to eat. I’m fucking starving.”
As Nesta made her way through her pizza and her sisters good-naturedly argued over whether pineapples belonged on it, she couldn’t help but think there was nowhere she’d rather be than here.