Chapter Text
“Keep that bandage on a few hours, but hey, when you post pics on Facebook, tag me!”
Another happy customer, granted, with a stupid taste in tattoos- but hey, at least he got quality work.
The bell dinged as the customer exited, and then Emerald snorted, looking up from the girl whose ears she was piercing. “Did he really think that Chinese character meant 'Peace'?”
“Yup!”
“Did you think to tell him it meant Rice?”
“Nope!”
Emerald snorted and pulled away from her customer. “If you get tattoos in another language, don't get it from him. He will let you make a mistake.”
The poor girl just nodded.
“Kay, you're good. Just keep the piercings clean, and be careful they don't fall out. Have a good day.”
After the girl scuttled out, Emerald glanced at a picture of several different types of piercings hanging off the wall. “So, should I get a septum piercing or not?”
Mercury snorted and flopped down in the seat recently occupied by the foolish customer. “For the last time, I don't care. You already have like twenty holes in your body.”
Emerald glared and seemed to contemplated throwing the chair at him, but decided it wasn't worth it.
To be fair though- Emerald already had quite a few piercings. There was like a dozen holes in her ears alone. Plus two eyebrow piercings, that really cute belly button piercing, and now she wanted one in her nose. She had shortened her options to the septum or just the traditional nostril piercing.
Having a job at a tattoo and piercings parlor really let you go wild.
Mercury couldn't complain though- working at 'Wicked' was basically a dream come true. His manager was, along with being a total babe, a total badass. She'd run Junior's parlor out of work, and she kept in a pretty steady business.
Emerald was the piercing queen, she'd done Mercury's left eyebrow when they first met. In return he tattooed a quote from some old book below her right collarbone: 'A man dies through a slip of his tongue, and not through a slip of the foot, a slip of the tongue costs him his head, while the other can be cured at leisure.'
Yeah. Lil bit pretentious, but Mercury felt it was a job well done.
Then there was Roman, who was currently snoring loudly at the front desk. Clearly someone had one too many drinks the night before. The redhead was talented though- mostly just traditional style, but their manager was encouraging him to branch out into lettering like Mercury had.
Neo was out making a lunch run, their resident New School expert who Mercury had gladly tattooed a gray wash skull on her left hand. She didn't speak, Mercury had found out through Roman she couldn't, but she was a pretty good teacher for sign language. Mercury had picked up a phrase or three.
Then there was their manager. She was in the backroom working with someone, Mercury was pretty damn sure the tattoo involved shirt removal and they didn't want everyone to see their 'tatas'. Speaking of which, they were out now.
“Come back next month and I think we'll be able to finish.”
Cinder's customer hurried out, looking extremely pleased. Cinder stepped out, heels clicking on the ground. The woman was positively covered in ink, work that would've taken hundreds and even thousands of dollars to complete. Mercury's favorite of hers at the moment was the one he did- the black heels on her back that shaped a heart. Cinder had trusted him to put ink on her, and at the time, it was terrifying- but considering most of her shirts rode low enough in the back to see it, it always made Mercury's heart swell with pride.
Once she was out, Cinder cracked her knuckles and picked up a water bottle. “Anyone come in?”
“Just some hipster. Gave him what he wanted and sent him on his way.” Boy, that idiot would regret that someday.
Cinder nodded and glanced at the clock. “It's almost noon. Roman?”
Roman awoke with a snort, yawning before glancing at the clock. “… Fuck me,” he grumbled, stood up and cracked his back. “Didn't hear the phone go off all morning though so we're good.”
“It went off once. I had to answer it because Roman was snoring.” Emerald ignored the glare and the grumbled 'tattletale' from Roman. “It's another piercing appointment for a party of four, apparently it's Neon's twentieth birthday next week and she wants her entire group to get pierced up before they hit the club.” Ah, Neon, one of their most consistent customers. Neon and Flynt had enough ink to start their own parlor.
Cinder seemed slightly put out. “Only one call? It's a slow day.”
The bell dinged as Neo walked in with several bags of Chinese take out. She set them all on the front table and took a deep breath before flopping down with a container of sweet and sour chicken.
Clearly food now, talking later. Mercury dug through the bag. “Okay, this smells like shrimp, think its lo mein.”
“Mine.” Emerald snatched it and the chopsticks.
“Beef and Broccoli.”
Roman didn't even speak, he just took it out of Mercury's hands and pulled a plastic fork out of the bag.
“Vegetable fried rice.”
Cinder just held out her hand, and Mercury handed her the container. That left him with the container of Beef Fried Rice- delicious. All of them took seats around the parlor, Mercury and Neo sitting closest to the window.
Roman pulled out his phone and started playing Candy Crush. “So Cinder, what's with this customer? How long have you been tattooing them?”
The woman tapped her chopsticks against her chin. “A while now. We're almost done though, I think she'll be interested in something more traditional next though. I'll point her towards you.”
Roman grinned toothily before scrambling in the bag for egg rolls. “Who's helping Emerald with the piercing party?”
Mercury shot up a hand. “I can. I'll try to convince them to come back for a tattoo later, too.” The tattoos people chose drunk. It was priceless.
Neo giggled silently before glancing out the window… and then she frowned. Roman noticed it first. “What's up, Neo?”
She pointed and everyone looked up… before Cinder set down her take out and walked to the front. Mercury joined her shortly.
“… Who are they?”
It was a girl in white and a taller one in black, on the sidewalk next to a truck. Both of them were currently talking, the white girl much more animated, but what was more interesting was the fact they had a second hand tattoo chair between them.
Emerald spoke up first. “Isn't that Junior's old shop? I thought it was bought out by a record store.”
“I heard the deal went south real fast. Only hipsters want records,” Roman said. Neo glanced up and signed something too fast for Mercury to catch, but Roman glared and responded by ruffled her hair.
The girl in white seemed annoyed now, throwing her ponytail over her other shoulder- aha. A tattoo. On her neck. Mercury couldn't make out what it was though. The girl in black had a lower arm sleeve tattoo as well, looked like black work but again- distance was a bitch.
Then someone else hopped out of the truck.
Long blonde hair, jean shorts and a yellow tanktop. She seemed to calm the argument between the other two girls before she teamed up with the girl in black and they hoisted the chair into the store. The girl in white seemed pleased with whatever decision they had made and followed them in.
Mercury broke the silence.
“I think we just got some competition.”
Cinder sighed before smiling. “Doesn't matter. Did you see those girls?” She glanced around. “They don't look like the experienced type. They'll figure out soon enough they won't have enough business to stay here.”
Right. Who would go to a bunch of amateurs? Everyone snickered and Emerald threw in the next jab. “I give them a month before they're moving that chair right back to the sidewalk.”
Roman grinned roguishly. “I'll take that, I'll give them… three weeks. They'll have a fight or something, then it's bye-bye business.”
“Month and a half- they'll cave before the two months mark for sure though.” Mercury was definitely laying money on this.
The girl in yellow came back out, and Mercury immediately wanted to get closer to her. She had ink, on both arms. Looked Asian style, dragons to be exact. Wasn't amateur work at all, this was nice. Wonder how she afforded that.
But it wasn't a big deal. Everyone went back to lunch and ignored the 'competition' across the street… and the little girl with the red hood passing on by.
~*~
“See, I told you two we'd know where to put it once it was inside!”
Yang brushed off her hands before setting them on her hips. Weiss glanced around the shop. “It's a little… musty.”
“That's why we brought cleaning supplies.” Blake glanced around. “… Where did Ruby go?”
Like summoned, Ruby bounced into the shop, pulling down her hood. “Heyhey guys! There's another tattoo shop across the street! They're soso cool, there's this girl who dyed half her hair pink and a guy with gray spiky hair and a girl with green hair and sooo many piercings and just- do you think dad would let me get an eyebrow piercing?”
Yang snorted and shook her head. “Ruby. You're eighteen now. You don't have to get dad's consent to get pierced or tattooed anymore. An eyebrow piercing though? You sure about that?
“Yeah, you're right… maybe I'll just get an Auricle piercing so I'd look all magic-y.” Ruby beamed and glanced around their shop. “We're actually doing it guys- we have our own tattoo parlor! This is going to be great!”
Weiss finally managed the first real smile since they put down the deposit on this place. “You're right. Let's get the buckets and start making this place look like the place we want!”
“Yeah!” Yang fist pumped into the air before glancing across the street.
Look out you guys- RWBY is here to stay.