Chapter Text
Declan wasn’t sure what lured him in. Maybe it was Jiang’s tattoos, or his nimble fingers that could throw an expert punch, maybe it was just the way Jiang looked after a fight. Nose bloody, but smile bright enough to blind the world. It didn’t matter either way, because Jiang was sat beside him on his dorm bed, humming quietly under his breath.
Textbooks lay around the room, some on the floor, most on the bed. Jiang was reading something from one of them and Declan looked up from his own textbook, trying to make sense of Jiang. Their study sessions usually went like this - both of them working their way through the material on their own and then reciting what they read to the other. This time, however, Jiang was awfully quiet, frowning at whatever he was going over. Declan wondered if he had done or said something to upset Jiang.
He was about to comment on it, but then Jiang looked up as well, smiling as he noticed Declan had been watching him.
“What’s up?” Jiang asked and Declan rolled his eyes, shrugging his shoulders slightly, then pointed to Jiang’s textbook.
“You were frowning at it. What is it about? Do you need any help?”
Jiang checked the open book, then set it onto Declan’s lap, nudging him a bit. “You’re Irish, yeah?”
“Yeah...So?” Declan thought that Jiang had known that all of the Lynch brothers were Irish and that they were proud of their heritage. He didn’t understand why this was brought up all of a sudden.
“See,” Jiang gestured to his book, “This chapter is about the Celts and I was wondering: if you’re Irish, you should know a lot about them, right?”
Declan’s expression turned sour. Sure, he was Irish, but he had grown up in Henrietta and did not know of any relatives in Ireland. All he knew about Irish culture - and the Celts - were things he had picked up from his father or from his history lessons, and as his father had always liked him the least, the things didn’t amount to much.
“I don’t know much,” he said after a while, sighing as he pulled the textbook closer, letting his eyes drift over the information about the Celts and their culture. Most of the information was known to him, they had covered it in History the year before and he had been (un)lucky enough to write an essay on their culture and their travels. “But I’m sure together we can get through this.”
Jiang grinned, kissing Declan’s cheek and grabbed for his notebook, which had lay on the ground. “Thanks, Dec. You’re a lifesaver.”
There was a harsh knock at Declan’s door. He slid from his desk chair and walked across the messy room, opening the door to Jiang, who was dressed in black. Jiang had a smirk on his lips as he stepped into the room. It was early in the morning, and Declan imagined he was the only one awake on his floor. Jiang greeted Declan by shoving a coffee into his hands and tossing his backpack onto the floor next to the bed.
“Planning on staying over?” Declan asked, a small grin on his lips, soon hidden with the coffee cup.
“Nah, K, has some shit planned for tonight and we’re supposed to be there,” Jiang replied, taking his own sip of his drink, “How do you feel about my drawings?”
Declan shrugged and set the cup down next to all the empty ones he had meant to clean up. “They’re fine, I haven’t looked at many, but I like all the ones you’ve showed me, why?”
“Just because,” Jiang shrugged, putting his cup beside Declan’s, kneeling down to rummage through his bag instead. He pulled out a small package of paints and the smirk on his face was back in full force, “You’re going to be my canvas today.”
Even though Declan was sceptical about it, he took off his shirt, carefully folding it together as he walked back to his bed, laying down on it. He turned his head to the side, folding his arms to support his head and watched as Jiang walked over, opening the paints and taking out the brushes.
Jiang’s hands on his back were cold, but as Jiang first simply massaged his back, kneading the skin, Declan relaxed and let out a soft sigh, letting his eyes close. He didn’t notice Jiang taking out something that resembled a pencil and only hummed, when a very gentle line was placed on his back. Another few lines were added between his shoulderblades and Jiang moved downwards, mapping out his lines and the overall placement. When he put his hand on Declan’s side for a second, a little laugh escaped Declan’s mouth and he blushed.
“Ticklish?” Jiang asked, the smile on his face evident in his voice, but he didn’t stop tracing blue lines onto Declan’s back.
Declan hid his face more to his hands. “A little.”
Jiang chuckled, but soon finished the sketch, then grabbed for his brushes and the paint. He uncapped the blues, mixed some of them together to get a desired hue and then sat comfortably onto Declan’s ass.
“These might be cold,” He warned, then started filling out the lines. The gentle touch of the bristles was enough to let Declan know something was happening, but they weren’t enough to make him laugh from the feeling. Jiang painted with precision and the soft strokes transferred the paint to Declan’s skin, staining it from tanned to light blue.
“The Celtics were one of the first tribes in Europe to get tattoos,” Jiang’s voice was as solid and as gentle as his movements with the brush, “They used needles to puncture the skin and then rubbed some kind of a paste into the fresh wounds. When everything was healed they had the most badass blue tattoos ever.” He reached to the side to dab some more paint onto the brush and then continued filling in the lines he had previously done.
“Usually warriors had the best tattoos, you know, to freak out the enemies before they even got to bashing each other’s heads in.”
Declan gave a soft ‘aha’, trying to imagine what Jiang was drawing onto his back, but then Jiang switched to a smaller brush and what Declan had imagined turned hazy as more and more lines were added. Jiang started to colour in smaller lines, making the design on Declan’s back more intricate. He mixed together more shades of blue, adding different layers and shadows.
“Warriors got like knots on their arms and chests, but I mean, I know you wear white shirts and if the paint doesn’t wash off it’ll suck to walk around with a blue chest. You’ll be like a fucking Smurf.” Jiang lined something on Declan’s shoulder blade and leaned really close, trying to get it to be as detailed as possible. “The Celtic knots symbolize the connections in life, so family or just life journey,” As he said that, Declan could almost feel Jiang add three knot-like designs between his shoulderblades.
Jiang quieted then and Declan’s thoughts drifted off, imagining blue swirls and circles, all woven into something beautiful on his back. He trusted Jiang’s artistic abilities and knew that if Jiang had looked up Celtic tattoos, he wouldn’t just draw pretty flowers onto Declan’s back. Still, Declan wondered what it would look like. He knew that Ronan’s tattoo was influenced by their Irish heritage, but he doubted that Jiang would put a copy of Ronan’s tattoo onto his back; as much as Declan knew, Jiang hadn’t even seen Ronan’s tattoo up close. Or maybe he had. Declan didn’t know what his brother had been up to.
It took Jiang about twenty minutes to get the lines as he wanted and he gently ran his hand through Declan’s hair. “Hey, sleepyhead,” he mumbled, smearing some of the half dried paint into the tips of Declan’s dark hair. “Wakey-wakey. It’s finished. Can I take a picture before you go check it out in the mirror?”
He hadn’t even noticed he had dozed off. Declan yawned, rubbing his face against his arms and gave an approving hum. He was still a bit out of it, but he kept still as Jiang grabbed his phone and snapped a few pictures. The sound of the pictures being taken woke Declan up more and he looked over his shoulder at Jiang, a brow arched. Another picture was snapped and Jiang smiled sheepishly.
“Fine, fine. All done now. Do you want to see?” Jiang got off of Declan’s body and Declan got up, walking to the mirror that stood in his bathroom. It took some time for him to clearly understand the blue lines and what they made up, but when he did, his eyes widened in surprise and shock.
Jiang had drawn a huge Celtic cross on his back, it starting from the nape of his neck and running all the way down to the edge of his pants. The crossbar ran under his shoulder blades, almost extending to his sides, but stopping an inch or two from them. The intersection was a big circle, comprising of many Celtic knots, each one of them defined with darker and lighter hues of blue. Declan stood a bit closer to the mirror, examining the lines, some of them sharp and bringing contrast with their light blue hue, some of them nearly black, teasing the viewer with swirls and dips in the places Jiang felt they would be most noticed - under Declan’s shoulder blades where the crossbar lay and in the middle of his shoulder blades where the carefully placed brushwork brought out three bigger swirls, all meeting in the centre for a tender embrace.
“Triskelion,” Jiang said, coming to stand next to Declan. He traced one of the curves of the symbol, “The past,” Jiang said quietly, moving his finger to the middle. It stayed there for a second, then Jiang ran the pad of his finger over the second branch that extended towards Declan’s left arm. “The present.” As he touched the last curve, Jiang looked into the mirror and looked into Declan’s eyes.
“The future.” Declan said and Jiang nodded, shrugging a bit.
“It’s not much. Just-” He shrugged again and then took a step back, putting his hand on his neck, scratching the back of it. “I mean, it’s like, you know-”
Jiang didn’t get to finish his sentence. Declan leaned towards him and gave him a kiss, grabbing Jiang’s shirt to pull him even closer. Jiang gasped as Declan literally took his breath away and kissed back, almost melting into the touch. Paint-stained hands met with Declan Lynch’s perfect face and cupped his cheeks, leaving faint blue marks on the sides of his face, and when they pulled away, Declan snorted at his reflection.
“You were right about the Smurf thing,” he told Jiang, getting a towel and wetting a corner of it to wipe the paint off of his face. “This colour sure makes me look like one.”
Jiang smirked, crossing his arms. “A hot one.”
Declan laughed, throwing the wet towel at Jiang after he finished cleaning up.
Jiang repacked his bag and sat beside Declan. He took out his phone and pulled up the pictures he had taken, showing them to Declan.
With a smile, Declan paused at the last one, “Send me these, yeah?”
Jiang rolled his eyes and took his phone back, standing to pull his own sweater back on, “Check your phone.”
He pulled his bag back on his shoulders and put an arm on the bed, leaning down to press a soft kiss to Declan’s lips.
“See you tomorrow,” Jiang nodded, pulling away, making his way to the door. He paused, as if waiting for a response, but Declan was too distracted by his phone to notice. Jiang shook his head once and stepped into the now busier halls of the dorm, and headed back home.
Hearing the click of the door, Declan looked up to find himself alone again. He saved his favourite pictures and texted Jiang a ‘thank you’, before opening up Instagram. Sure, he wasn’t the most popular boy in Aglionby, but he had enough followers to earn a satisfying hundred to hundred fifty likes with every picture he uploaded. He cropped his favourite photo to focus less on him looking at Jiang and more on the blue on his back. Happy with the photo, he added a quick ‘#art’ and uploaded it. He didn’t tag Jiang because nobody else knew of their relationship and he wanted to keep it more mysterious. Almost immediately his phone was filled with notifications, likes from usernames he hadn’t heard before, and comments from usernames he had, most of them asking the same thing.
“Who is wearing the grey sweats?”