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"It's going to be fine," Gwen told herself, taking a deep breath.
The taxi she’d come in had sped off the second she'd paid the driver the appropriate fare, and now the time had come to fulfil the promise she’d made to herself. Pendragon Ink loomed in front of her, its bright, intimidating exterior challenging her decision with as much intensity as her father had initially. His disapproving brown eyes flashed in her mind, and she winced, wishing she wasn’t the cause of such emotion. They’d come to a compromise on the matter, yet the guilt she felt about their whole disagreement still lingered. Regardless, she’d made her decision, and she wouldn’t let either stop her. Nothing short of a nuclear apocalypse could do that.
She pulled her shoulders back, trying to appear more confident than she felt and counted to three before walking inside. The inside of the parlour was as bright as the exterior with white framed pictures of tattooed men and women, wide open windows and a glowing neon sign all set against vivid crimson walls. Spacious booths also lined both sides of the room, their walls too high to see inside from where Gwen was standing. She took in her fill of the room and then went up to the front desk near the front where a guy with short black hair, a lip piercing and tattoos running up and down his arms smiled at her. She tried not to ogle at his tattoos, but found it a difficult feat, amazed at the detail and beauty of them. In the quick glance she let herself have, she could see an oak tree, the biggest tattoo he appeared to have, covering practically the whole of his left arm, and a sparrow, resting on one of its branches.
"I have an appointment," she said nervously, resisting the urge to keep looking at his arms. "For Gwen Smith?"
The guy pulled open a draw and retrieved a leather bound book, setting it on the table and flicking through the pages until he found the appropriate one. "Yep, we've got you down. Have you decided on a design yet?"
"No." She bit her lip. "Is that a problem? I was told I would be shown some designs?"
"No, no," he assured her. "That’s true, we have pre-made stencils of all the designs. I'll just get you to look at this folder here." The item he needed was on his desk this time and he handed it to her with a smile.
She turned the page, slightly hesitant, and was greeted by a number of beautiful tattoo designs. She frowned at the sight of them. Any one of the designs would be an artwork on her skin, worthy of admiration by all. Some were stunning in their intricacy, others simply screamed badass. She flipped through a couple more pages, finding her decision no easier.
“How can you ever choose one?” she asked.
The guy chuckled. “You’ll know when you find it.”
Supposing he knew more about tattoos than she did, she turned a couple more pages, and was astonished when her eyes found the one she knew was it. For, it sang to her in a way the others hadn’t. The design was of a grey crown inlaid with pink gemstones, suitable for a queen.
"I want this one." She pointed towards it, feeling a rightness settle into her at this decision.
He nodded and took the folder from her and winked. "Nice choice. I told you you’d know." He then gave her various paperwork to fill out, standard forms that asked for her name, address, phone number, and a consent form. She slid them back across the desk once she’d completed them.
“Am I ready to go then?” she asked.
He nodded. “Just in a minute.” Then he turned to where the booths were and called out, "Hey, you two! I need one of you to ink up this customer. Sophia’s requested me to do a touch up, and she’ll be here in five.”
A woman in one of the booths stood up. "I will. I still don’t understand why she always wants you to do it. I’m just as good, if not better."
Gwen’s heart quickened and she felt her cheeks turn pink.
Oh god, she was hot.
Her hair was long and black hair and partially obscured the three silver piercings on her upper ear and the tattoo of a raven on her right arm. Her skin was as pale as the moon and her eyes were bright green, made all the more brighter by her dark eye-make up. They stared at Gwen with obvious interest, and she fought hard not to stare back.
In her struggle, she barely noticed the guy from the front desk shaking his head or the guy from the other booth stand up. She registered he was tall and blonde but that was about it.
"Just go over then.” The guy at the desk told her, handing her back the folder and breaking her out of her daze. “I'm Merlin, by the way."
"Thank you, Merlin," she murmured, smiling shyly at him. She followed his instruction and made her way over to where the hot girl was still standing in the booth, not appearing to have moved. Her heart pounded, almost making her feel dizzy, and she couldn't tell if it were due to the fact she was getting an irreversible mark on her skin or the attractive tattooist.
She supposed it was probably a mix of both.
"Take a seat," she said warmly. "I'm Morgana."
"Gwen," she held out her hand for her to shake. Morgana smiled at her and Gwen felt a rush of warmth. God, Gwen was in trouble.
"Have you ever gotten a tattoo before?"
She shook her head.
"Don't worry, it's a very safe procedure and the pain isn't too bad depending on where you want it done. Are you good with pain?"
As long as I have you to distract me, she thought.
"I guess so, but I am a little bit scared," she admitted.
Morgana nodded. "That's normal but I promise I'll try my best to make it as least painful as possible. I'm an expert at multitasking so we can talk while I ink you. That is, only if you'd like that."
She nodded. "I'd like that."
"Excellent." Morgana smiled again. Man, her smile was beautiful. "It's a lovely design you've picked. Does it mean anything?"
"Not really," she admitted, feeling a little embarrassed. "I just wanted something beautiful on my skin."
"That's a good of a reason as any," she told her. Gwen smiled to herself. Most people she'd told thought it was stupid she wanted to get something without any meaning. Her reason wasn’t valid enough, according to them. "Where would you like it?"
Gwen tapped just under her hipbone. "Here, if that's okay."
"That's perfect," Morgana said. "I guess we can get started then. But just before we do that, I need to see your ID. You know, protocol and everything."
"I understand," she assured her, fishing in her tiny white bag for her wallet. Given the bag’s size, it wasn't hard to find. She unzipped it and found her driver's licence, giving it to Morgana who inspected it and then gave it back. She hadn’t had much use for the thing lately with her car being in for repairs.
"Have you taken any aspirin in the last few hours?"
"No?" Gwen said, not sure why it mattered.
"Oh, good. It thins the blood, makes you more likely to bleed."
"It's a good thing I didn't take it then," Gwen said weakly, not liking any mention of blood. Blood was all fine and good when it was on TV, but when it was her own blood and it hurt…
Morgana nodded.
"It sure is. Well I better get you inked up now then, take a seat."
Gwen did so, heart hammering. Morgana picked up a cotton ball, tipped a bottle of what looked like a cleaning substance onto it and patted the cotton ball to her hip. It tingled a bit and she resisted the urge to squirm.
"I remember when I got my first tattoo," Morgana said cheerfully. "It was my eighteenth birthday and my brother Arthur, that one over there, wanted us both to get our family crest tattooed somewhere."
Gwen looked over to where she was pointing to see the blonde guy shaking his head, amusement clear in his features. "That one? I’m glad to hear you think so highly of me.”
Morgana poked her tongue out at him and continued. "I was unsure of what I wanted to do with my life and Arthur was doing graphic design at uni, so we decided to open up a tattoo parlour, and here we are a couple of years later."
Gwen smiled, mind off the procedure for the second. "That's so great. You've got a good reputation online from what I saw."
Morgana looked pleased. She threw the cotton ball into a trashcan by her desk and got a purple disposable razor from the same desk, dragging it lightly against the appropriate area of Gwen's skin. "Just to make sure there's no stray hairs that'll get in the way," she told her. "Anyway it's good to hear our customers have been happy with our work. They generally give that impression but you never know."
"Are there any other people that work here?" Gwen asked.
"Not many. We have three more but they're not in today. Tuesday's generally not a very busy day so we usually only have three people working. That's why Gwaine and Alice aren't here. We also have Mithian but she’s on leave. I’m pretty sure she’s in Paris at the moment with her boyfriend. What I’d give to go there… "
"Me too," Gwen said, thinking of her childhood dream to go to Paris. One day she would, when she and Elyan had saved up enough money. Until then, London would have to suffice. Morgana had now put away the razor and come back with the stencil of Gwen's tattoo design.
"So you definitely want it on your hip?" Morgana asked. “You can change your mind about where you want it. It’s not a problem.”
Gwen nodded, trying to look self-assured. "Yes, I’m sure." She’d thought it over a billion times so she doubted she’d regret her choice of placement.
"Alright then!" Morgana exclaimed and pressed the stencil against Gwen's hip with both hands. "I've just got to keep this here for a couple of minutes so I can see where to draw the ink on."
"Right," Gwen said, a little breathless. Morgana’s fingertips were warm.
"So, what do you do for a living? Are you studying?” Morgana asked.
"I'm studying engineering at uni," Gwen told her, trying not to think of the amount of assignments she still hadn’t finished. "I'm a fourth year student."
"That's cool." Morgana looked genuinely interested. "You must be amazing at maths then. That was definitely never my forte."
Gwen blushed. "Fairly good."
Fairly good was an understatement but Gwen didn’t want Morgana to think her immodest, or weird.
She liked numbers a little too much.
"So you want to be an engineer? Unless there’s more things you can do with the degree?”
“The goal is chemical engineering, but I’m keeping my options open,” Gwen told her honestly. “You never know what might happen.”
"That’s true. In many aspects of life," Morgana agreed. “In any case I hope you enjoy whatever you end up doing.”
"Thank you," Gwen replied, smiling. "Do you know any engineers?"
"Can't say I do," Morgana said, pulling the stencil back and reaching for a mirror on her desk. Gwen looked down at her hip to see a faded blue outline of what was to be her tattoo. Morgana handed her the mirror. "Is this exactly where you want it?"
Gwen angled the mirror so she could see her hip properly, and nodded. Morgana took the mirror and put it back, then grabbing a jar of ointment. She began dabbing Gwen's skin with it and Gwen tried not to flinch at the cold feel of it.
"Does anyone else in your family have tattoos?” Morgana asked. Gwen appreciated her continuation of the conversation, not knowing how she would’ve continued it herself.
"No, my Dad isn't a big fan of them, but I bet when my brother Elyan sees mine he's going to want one."
"He certainly is," Morgana said confidently. "Yours is going to look amazing. I promise. Do you know what kind of tattoo he’d get?”
Gwen thought about it for a minute.
“Probably something meaningful. He tends to find meaning in everything. So maybe a sword since he loves fencing?”
“Well if he wants one, you know which place to recommend.”
Gwen definitely did.
Morgana then put away the ointment and then grabbed what Gwen supposed was the tattoo gun from her desk. The sight of it made her heart race and her hands clenched into fists on her lap. It’s a needle not a gun, she told herself. She had nothing to fear from it.
“If you’re ready, I'm going to start the outline. Bear in mind that most pain is brought on by fear. So as long as you don't panic, everything will be good."
Gwen nodded, feeling sick.
"Ready?" Morgana asked, looking a bit concerned. "I can give you a bit more time if you'd like."
"No," Gwen said, her voice coming out high and squeaky. "No, that's alright. Just get it over with."
Morgana grimaced and then knelt down, tattoo gun in hand. She then slowly moved it closer and closer to the outline on Gwen's skin. The closer she got, the more Gwen felt the urge to bolt and never return. Her breath was shaky now, erratic.
Why had she thought this was a good idea? She'd had a bad experience with a needle when she was in primary school which involved fainting and tears and a tattoo was pretty much the same thing right?
The tattoo gun edged closer.
"Stop!" she shouted, seconds before Morgana would have breached the skin.
Morgana halted instantly.
"Would you like to stop the whole procedure?" Morgana asked. She sounded almost disappointed.
"No, just can you please..." she paused, trying to reign in her terror. "Distract me…tell me about anything. I just don't want to think about the needle."
Morgana nodded and said softly. "I can do that. Just breathe deeply, okay."
Gwen took a deep breath, forcing herself to do exactly that. Her breathing was out of her control so it was difficult.
"Er...well...god this is harder when I have to do it under pressure...um…I'm going to an Avalon concert tomorrow night so that's cool."
Gwen gasped, forgetting all about the needle for a second. "No way, I love Avalon! They're my favourite band. I'd be going too but the tickets sold out before I could get them. Not a fun day for me," she said, unable to stop herself from gushing on about them.
She'd loved the band Avalon for five years, ever since Elyan had given her their debut album for Christmas after she'd been complaining the month previous about how she had nothing new to listen to.
To meet a fellow fan, a hot fellow fan...that was amazing.
"That's perfect! I love them too!" Morgana said, eyes wide with delight. Gwen felt an insisting feeling of pain around her hip area and forced herself to just look at Morgana. It wasn't too hard, Morgana was nice to look at with her cool hair and her beautiful eyes and her red lips and…oh fuck the needle hurt.
"What do you love about them?" Gwen asked, jaw clenched in pain.
"They sing about real things, about life, about it's high points and it’s low points while still being super catchy. Also their guitarist is amazing."
"Exactly, yes to all those things," Gwen said. " They're really comforting to listen to when you have a crap day."
"Agreed," Morgana said then smiled slyly. "I'm guessing you're going to blare them when you get home then. This can't be fun."
"I think I'll blare them either way, but it hasn't been a totally crap day. It's been nice talking to you."
Morgana's cheeks turned pink. The colour suited her. "Same to you. Not everyone likes to talk when they get their tattoos done. Some prefer silence. It's more boring for the both of us though, I'd think."
"Yeah, doing this in silence would've been brutal," Gwen said honestly. “There would be nothing to focus on.”
"Well it's good we get along so well then," Morgana said, grinning.
"Yeah," Gwen grinned back. The pain had started the decrease a little, it still hurt but not to the same degree. "If I ever get another I'll be sure to come back."
"You haven't even seen the tattoo yet," Morgana teased.
"True." Gwen laughed. "But I'm sure it's going to look great. If not, I take it all back."
Morgana grinned. "Fair enough. The outline's looking good though."
"I'll take your word for it," Gwen said, still wanting to avoid the sight of the needle, knowing she'd panic again if she did.
"It's really brave of you to do something you're scared of," Morgana said softly. "I admire that."
Gwen smiled widely. "Thanks. I guess I just don't want my fear to hold me back, make me miss out on things. It’s done that in the past and I’ve regretted it."
She thought back to when she’d been too afraid to join an art class in high school, thinking everyone would be so much better than her and that she should stick to maths.
"That's a good way to look at it. Fear is only temporary, regret lasts forever." From Morgana’s tone and the pensive look on her face, Gwen guessed she was speaking from experience.
"Yeah, exactly," Gwen agreed. "Have you done something scary before?"
"Setting up this place," Morgana admitted. "My father hated the idea of Arthur and I owning a tattoo parlour. He wanted us to take over his business company."
"That must've been a really hard decision," Gwen sympathised. There was very little she wouldn’t do for her own father.
Morgana sighed. "A little bit, but I always knew I never wanted to join his company. It was just telling him that that was the hard bit. He seemed so excited for us to follow in his footsteps. It turned out okay though. He’s okay with our profession now though because he knows it’s profitable and he can see we’re happy so everything went well."
"Either way, it certainly paid off," Gwen said, looking purposefully around the parlour.
"Yeah it did," Morgana said quietly, in thought. "It was the best decision Arthur and I ever made."
Gwen had well and truly forgotten about the pain once Morgana took back the needle from her skin and smiled up her. God, Gwen wanted to go out with her. She didn’t want their conversation to ever end.
"All done with the outline. Now onto the colour and shading bit. I promise this bit won't hurt, it just might feel a bit uncomfortable."
Gwen nodded. She could deal with being uncomfortable, especially if Morgana continued talking to her. Pain was something else entirely.
The colouring of her tattoo took a lot longer than the outline, with it feeling like a few hours had passed by the time she'd pulled back her tattoo gun. Gwen didn't mind about the time though, for she had Morgana to entertain her, telling her about various things, like eccentric customers, places she'd visited, places she planned to and the other bands she liked. It felt almost nice, aside from the slight uncomfortable feeling she felt under her hipbone.
"Finished!" Morgana said after having put another layer of ointment over the tattoo, in addition to a bandage. "It'll take a week or two for the tattoo to heal so make sure you clean it each day with antibacterial soap and apply some ointment. I suggest Aquaphor, that’s a good one to use. Keep on the bandage for one to three hours when you get home and try not to go swimming or the gym because excessive water or sweating can cause the tattoo to peel off.
Gwen nodded, brow furrowed. "Wait, could you repeat that please."
Morgana laughed. "Don't worry, I have a fact sheet I can give you."
Gwen sighed in relief.
"Follow me to the counter," Morgana said, making her way over to the place she'd highlighted. The guy from before, Merlin, wasn't there but she noticed he was in a booth in the corner, tattooing a girl with spiky purple hair and an impressive amount of tattoos. As Gwen waited behind the counter, Morgana punched a few things into the screen in front of her.
"Okay, it comes down to one hundred and five dollars."
Gwen gave her the amount specified in cash, and in return Morgana gave her the fact sheet she'd promised. Then they both stood there, neither of them seeming to have any intention to move. Gwen didn't want to leave, she'd enjoyed their conversation thoroughly, and although she was brave enough to get a tattoo, she didn't feel like she was brave enough to ask Morgana out.
You can do it, Gwen told herself.
But then Morgana spoke. "So...I was wondering if maybe tomorrow you wanted to come see Avalon with me, as you know a date."
Gwen grinned, feeling like a kid on Christmas. "I'd love to go on a date, but aren’t the tickets are sold out?"
Morgana’s own smile didn’t waver. "Well I was going to go with Arthur, but he didn't even really want to go in the first place so it's perfect."
"Are you sure?" Gwen bit her lip, feeling a bit guilty. It’d be the perfect date but she didn’t want to impose…
The guy in question laughed. "Please, go with her. No offense, but their music makes my eardrums bleed. I was looking for a way to get out of it anyway."
Gwen was so happy at the prospect of going on a date with Morgana and seeing her favourite band, that she wasn't even offended by his comment.
Morgana however, flipped him off.