Chapter Text
“Eren, I’ve got a task for you.”
Hanji and their papers fluttered around the front desk to stand next to me.
I gave them a curious look- ‘a task’?
That was different. Hanji never worded it that way. I was cautious when it came to Hanji and with one measly sentence, there were already red alarms going off in my head.
“What do you want.”
“I’ve got this friend…”
I raised an eyebrow and waited for them to continue. I wanted to reply with a salty remark such as, “Oh, do you?” but since they were my boss, I bit my tongue.
“This friend really needs to get a tattoo.”
Oh.
Why...were they being so sneaky about it then?
I narrowed my eyes.
“Why are you beating around the bush here?”
Their eyes widened and they immediately started waving their hands around, feigning innocence.
“What do you mean? It’s just that since it’s my friend, it’s a little more important than usual, y’know?”
“Uh-huuuuh. Have them come talk to me then.”
They squealed, placed a kiss on my cheek then pranced away into the distance.
I’m not sure what Hanji does most of the day. Throughout my year working for them I’d only seen them tend to a customer once; it was a tongue piercing.
That customer came out saying they barely felt any pain and that Hanji was somehow magic.
I’d heard customers talk about Hanji and they basically had a whole bunch of rumors floating around about them?
Hanji was apparently some famous tattoo artist that travelled around the world visiting different tattoo shops before opening up their own and…? Hiring me I guess.There were a handful of other tattoo artist working with us as well, but we were working the most often.
My mind travelled back to Hanji’s strange request and I became slightly concerned by who this ‘friend’ would be.
Was it going to be...some cry baby I’d have to deal with? Is that why they were being so weird about it? Or maybe it was simply a rude customer they didn’t want to deal with and pawned off on me? I mean normally Hanji took care of any rude people, but maybe they were just that bad.
Eventually, I shrugged it off and continued lazily scrolling through tumblr.
--
A few days later Hanji came bursting through the front door running like a maniac. I didn’t ever see them leave the store, but whatever.
They bounced over to me and panted, “My friend’s here! Take care of him, ok?” then they sprinted to a back hall and after a lot of banging, there was silence.
I frowned and looked around, thoroughly confused by that encounter.
In the distance a car door slammed and loud footsteps approached the shop. Damn, not just foot steps, running footsteps and this person was fast. I was beginning to wonder if this ‘friend’ was like a thug Hanji had hired to make me battle with and prove my worth- ‘cause let me tell you, that’s the kind of messed up thing they would do.
After mere seconds the door swung open and a rather short person swiftly entered.
He stalked in, clearly on the hunt for something, paused to look at me, raised his eyebrows, then took off down the hall Hanji had disappeared into.
I stood there and shook my head. I wasn’t sure what had happened but that dude sure didn’t look pleased to be there, and that was probably why I had to deal with them. Hanji had indeed shoved the troublesome customer onto my lap.
A few seconds after the short man disappeared, a giant man came in the shop calmly.
He looked like a classy white dad and was sipping a capri sun as if he was chasing after two children that he didn’t give a fuck about. His caterpillar-like eyebrows seemed to smile at me as he nodded and walked away.
I considered what to do for a minute, then decided on going back to my seat at the desk and get back on tumblr.
After seeing a few too many doge memes. I gave in and went to go investigate the commotion.
I found it was pretty easy to identify which room they were in as only one door was closed. Hoping it wasn’t locked, I approached said closed door and turned the doorknob.
The situation was slightly anticlimactic.
The tall blond man was sitting on one of our tables (no longer drinking a child’s beverage), merely observing the other two who were leaning against a counter on the other side of the room.
Hanji had their back to the counter and the short man was holding the collar of Hanji’s shirt obviously threatening them.
Hanji seemed fairly amused by the shorter man and that seemed to add fuel to his anger. I don’t know what happened between them, but I was willing to bet Hanji was in the wrong.
“May I ask what’s going on in here?” I interrupted.
The large blond, whom quite frankly creeped me out a bit, patted the spot next to him and I shook my head.
I turned back to Hanji and the other man. It was then that I’d realised he was actually very, very handsome.
I mean very. Like, honey, take me now handsome.
His hair was a deep black which greatly contrasted his fair skin and light grey eyes. He had on a long sleeved, slim fitted, black, v neck shirt on, and black skinny jeans. The most striking feature about him was his... collection of piercings.
I didn’t know any piercing terminology. I hated piercings; they freaked me out. I would get as many and give as many tattoos as wanted but never piercings. Never.
He had two on his left eyebrows, two on his lips, one on his nose and then like five million or something on his ears. I briefly wondered where else he might have piercings...no, stop that Eren.
My presence seemed to annoy him more. He gestured towards me angrily.
“And this? Above all you get a child to do it?” He spoke as if he were lecturing a toddler. I was actually wondering if maybe the two men were Hanji’s fathers.
Wait a second-
“Excuse you??” I butted in.
I know I look young but come on. I’ve got like approximately one thousand tattoos and have done maybe five times more on other people, and children just don’t have that kind of repertoire.
He then released Hanji’s shirt from his other hand and approached me. He poked my chest threateningly and glared up at me, “Listen here brat-”
“Again, excuse you, I think the one closest to classified as brat in this room is the one who barely reaches three feet high,” I snapped.
Behind me the large eyebrow man coughed loudly and banged something which almost made me laugh, but I knew I had to look tough.
It felt like a pity to have to be salty with such a handsome person, but I had a short temper and quite frankly, I couldn’t help it.
The short man’s anger melted away quickly and was replaced with surprise. Which then almost immediately was replaced with annoyance.
“Look I didn’t mean to offend you. Do you want a piercing?”
Then my anger melted away as well. Quickly replaced with confusion.
“What?”
“Do you want a piercing or not?”
“Of course not.”
He turned on his heel and stomped back to Hanji.
I on the other hand, was trying to recover from the heat and leaned against the door.
“Your employee doesn't want a piercing,” the short man started.
“He doesn’t know what’s best for him,” Hanji quickly defended.
“Kid, how badly do you not want a piercing?” he called out to me.
“Very badly,” I answered.
“On a scale of one to ten.”
“Negative eighty-eight.”
He gave Hanji a glare that could kill, and after glancing at me, Hanji finally gave in.
“Okay, fine! I just thought it was ridiculous that both of you work around tattoos and piercings, yet you refuse to get a tattoo because you think it’s too painful and you refuse to get a piercing because you think it’s too painful,” Hanji dramatically admitted.
The piercing man and I immediately turned to stare at each other then both uttered, “What?”
“Piercings only hurt for a few minutes. Most don’t even feel sore after.”
“What about dick piercings.”
“Oh it’s not the piercings that make people sore,” he hummed before turning back to Hanji.
“Okay you’re exaggerating here, piercings are totally sore afterwards,” Hanji argued.
Ignoring their subject change, the short man continued as if Hanji hadn’t spoken, “I feel like there was a better way to go about this than your chosen method.”
“Well if I had flat out told you, both of you would have immediately turned it down!!” Hanji whined.
“Ok, everybody quiet down,” the large man interrupted, “Hanji, you can’t force the two of them to do this. Let’s leave them alone to discuss it and if they decide not to, then they can live with the fact they’re giant chickens- but it’s up to them.”
Did not see that coming. I wouldn’t have expected the eyebrows to possess that much salt.
“You’re a dick, Erwin,” the short man deadpanned.
‘Erwin’ grinned. “The largest,” he winked before exiting with Hanji in tow.
I guess that left me alone with the small bitter man.