Shingeki ink
Chapter 1: Apprenticeshit
Eren
This bench was really beginning to hurt. How long have I been sitting here? An hour, maybe? What I was doing was stupid, childish even. I was questioning what I'd gotten education for. What I thought I was ready to do with my life.
Do I still want this for myself? Of course, the answer was obvious. I want people to look at my work and want it on their body for the rest of their lives.
Some people would disagree with my opinion, but tattoos are absolutely amazing. They tell stories of peoples struggles and shows that you aren't afraid to stand out. I dedicate my life to becoming a well known tattoo artist. It's the next best thing to getting tattoos.
My eyes slid across the parlor name once again, reminding myself why I was here. Shingeki Ink in big, bold, cursive pink above an awning with a flashing open sign in the window. My heart told me to get my sorry ass off of this public bench and get my apprenticeship, but my head told me that I won't get it, that I'll be laughed at. Demeaned in front of a very important person. I rubbed my tired, dry eyes, inhaling a deep and fresh breath, I stood on knee-knocking legs. Making sure my stuff was secure in my back pack, I began crossing the road. Through an opening of cars, I rushed across the street. My Vans splashed water back on my jeans. As I entered Shingeki Ink, I noticed how high end this place really was. There was a front desk with a tall man standing behind it. His back was to the front door, so I didn't see his face. He was conversing with a woman with short, red hair. They both had bright and precise tattoos all over. The guy had sleeves with intricate designs and color. The guy turned his head to look at who had walked into their shop. His hair was neatly placed on the side. Everything about this man screamed precision. Finesse. The man looked like a Captain America look-alike. He was stunning. My tongue swelled in the back of my throat, making speaking difficult.
"Hello." His voice broke me out of my stupor. I ran my fingers back through my chocolate brown hair. I chuckled a little and stepped closer up to the desk. He smiled at me with straight, pearly white teeth. I felt the need to stop a blush going up my neck from reaching my cheeks. It worked, so I spoke.
"I have an appointment with Levi Ravaille." I told him. Big, blue irises followed every nervous twitch of mine. My front teeth gnawed on my lower lip, seeking comfort.
"For a tattoo? Piercing?"
"Apprenticeship request." I said with a nod. His eyebrows rose as he chortled.
"Levi hasn't been a mentor in a long time. None of the others really caught his interest..." He droned off at my frightened expression. "Sorry, I didn't mean to lower your confidence. I'm sure you'll do great. What's your name again?" He smiled a great, large smile. My insides melted slightly.
"Eren Jaeger, and thanks, I guess." I muttered, embarrassed. He came around the side of the desk and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder and showed me to a waiting area with a few chairs and a magazine stand. The, obviously built, man told me to wait until Levi was ready to see me. I nodded my thanks and again with another dazzling smile, he left. My leg began to bounce anxiously on the floor. Before coming here, I had never thought Levi Ravaille would be stubborn choosing his apprentaces. What if he doesn't like me? Where else would I want to be an intern at? Shingeki Ink was the best of the best in New York. The artists are all payed well and known to many popular tattoo magazines. The owner and founder of Shingeki Ink, Levi, has appeared on the covers of many public reads and gains customers every day. He's majorly successful and I want to work for him.
Wanting something to do with my hands, my right one snaked into my pocket to pull out my phone. I opened up a message to send to Mikasa, telling her what the man said and confiding my fears of failure. She told me to stop being so negative all the time. Mikasa is my rock when my confidence is low and I feel like becoming a tattoo artist under one of the best in the world isn't possible, she plays the overly-protective sister roll.
Suddenly, the extremely attractive desk manager comes in. He let his eyes wonder over my face before his pink lips twisted into a smerk.
"Levi will see you now." He walked me past the desk in the middle in the room where the woman with short, red hair followed me with her eyes. She smiled encouragingly.
The man, who I haven't gotten the name of, brought me to a set of stairs. They had windows that overlooked the city. I stopped, my face turning to one of wonder. There was a breathy chuckle from the amazing man. "You're a sucker for pretty sights, I see." I looked back at him, my cheeks slightly rosy. I wasn't willing to admit I was. Instead, I shrugged and smiled at the white clouds against the azure sky. "Erwin, by the way." He said while running his fingers back through his hair. He looked like an Erwin.
"We should probably get to Levi if I even want to be considered for this apprenticeship." He belted a laugh as the ends if his eyes crinkled. Erwin agreed, so we continued on. We got to an apartment looking door and Erwin knocked. I gulped, waiting to see the famous Levi. The door swung open and he was there, right in front of my eyes. What a sight he was. His hair was perfectly straight and parted in the middle with an undercut in the back. Tattoos covered his body, or at least the visible parts. They went up his neck and disappeared under a beige sweater with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He wore blue jeans with a belt that had a chain running into his pocket. He had a septum ring in his nose and ring in his lip. His eyes were a slate grey with a hint of blue and a pair of black, rectangle framed glasses. They were disinterested as they stared at my figure up and down. Get this; I was taller than him. He was just a tad shorter than me and I assumed he wasn't happy with that. With a sigh, he opened his door wider and let me in. Erwin smiled at me and turned to go back downstairs. The door shut and Levi waved me to follow him. He sat in a chair on the end of a coffee table and showed his hand to the couch diagonal from him. I swung my backpack from my shoulders, sat down and let it rest on my feet. He stared at me for a moment before leaning his elbow on the armrest and rested his face on his hand.
"You're Eren Jaeger, right?" He asked inquisitively. His voice was deep and rich, with a slight accent. Giving his last name, I assumed he was incredibly French.
"I, uh, yes." I said with a nod. Levi closed his eyes.
"German?" He said in reference to my name.
"Yeah. My father is German and my mother was Japanese." He nodded his head slowly and opened his cold eyes to stare at me. His gaze was heavy and made me squirm.
"Be honest with me, brat. You're not actually here for an apprenticeship are you?" He said, his voice now a bit louder. Before, he was just barely whispering. My eyes widened and I went into stutters.
"Oh, yeah I am here for a apprenticeship. Is that hard to believe or something?" I asked, somewhat offended. Levi leaned on his hand heavily and watched me carefully.
"Well, I mean are you even out of highschool? You look seventeen." I almost flinched at his dig at my age. I sighed a little and opened my mouth.
"I'm twenty two." I said through clenched teeth. His eyebrows rose in surprise.
"Other than that, you look like you'd be scared to even walk past a tattoo parlor besides the ring in your nose." My fingers played with the ring piercing before I folded my hands in my lap.
"You're right. I don't have any tattoos. It's a shame I don't. I can't scar my body with works of art." I told him while finding a window to stare at instead of his questioning glare.
"I might regret asking, but why can't you get a tattoo?" I gulped and opened my mouth to tell him.
"There's something wrong with my nerves. My pain tolerance is so low it's not considered normal. Minor injuries feel like severe ones. The pain would be unbearable if I were to get a tattoo. My doctor suggests I don't even try, that the effects the pain would have on my body would be too dangerous. I was screaming in pain from my nose piercing. It's the only thing I have." Levi was silent but I knew he was listening.
"I've never met a tattoo artist without tattoos before." He muttered. In a thinking manor, he rubbed his chin. "You have some of your work with you, I assume." I reached into my bag and handed him a Manila folder with my art. I was the best at black and white shading, and detail. My works had dark twists to it. His face seemed impassive as he looked through my work. He snapped it closed and looked back at me. "You're interesting, Jaeger. Tell me more about yourself." Suddenly he had a smirk on his face. He was amused, somewhat. I wasn't sure why. I wasn't an amusing person, the last I checked. Nor interesting.
"Well, my mom died when I was ten. Cancer. My dad ran off at some point. I have no idea where he went off to. My sister and I bounced around in foster homes since we were both children. When Mikasa turned eighteen, she left the system and took me with her. Wanting a fresh start, we moved to New York. Three years later, here I am." Levi breathed in and out deeply. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't attracted to Levi. I knew he had been captivating on the magazines, but he looked even better in person. His skin was fair and pail. I wanted to sooth my hands over his delicate tattoos.
"You have quite the story, kid. I give out compliments generously because if not, it inflates their ego and no one wants that. But you have potential. Your work is fascinating and I'm drawn by your techniques." I smiled brightly. He looked away to the window.
"Thank you, sir." I replied.
"But you have a long way to go before you're good enough for my parlor. I'll be honest, Jaeger. I don't like having apprentices. So, I'm sorry. If I change my mind, I'll give you a call." My spirits fell at an alarming rate. Face slacked in the happiness I felt earlier, now sagged with sadness.
"I understand..."I mumbled, disappointment smacking me in the face. "I'm sorry for wasting your time, Mr. Ravaille." I swallowed the lump in my throat and stood. Levi Lead me to the door and opened it to lead me out. With shaking hands, I picked up my bag and walked towards the door with my face tilted downwards. He took me to the front door of the parlor and wished me luck.
As soon as I saw a bus stop, I dropped down onto the bench. Deeply, I breathed in and out for a few minutes. Levi Ravaille just told me he liked my work, and rejected me. I bent over and rested my head into my lap. Why doesn't he like having apprentices? Does he not like teaching or something? What if he just said that to spare my feelings? I brought my head up to look at the sky. It was blue with puffy clouds all over. It was supposed to rain today, but not until later. My phone buzzed in my pocket, someone was calling me. After pulling my phone out, I saw it was Mikasa. She's going to be so mad. We were supposed to go out for drinks after I got my apprenticeship. Obviously, that's not happening.
"Hello." I said into the phone in a quiet voice.
"Eren! How did the interview with Levi Ravaille go? What time are we going out? I was thinking we could go to this place more downtown and maybe bring Armi-" I cute of Mikasa, who was getting more than a little ahead of herself.
"Mikasa, I didn't get it. I didn't get the apprenticeship." I almost shouted. She became quiet instantly.
"You what? Why not? Your art is amazing! Who the hell wouldn't accept you?" She was livid, angry at Levi probably.
"He said he didn't like having apprentices. Otherwise, I apparently have 'potential'." My voice became soft and saddened once again.
Mikasa groaned. "Okay, well you know what? Fuck him. We'll go out tonight anyways. You don't need to apprentice for Shingeki Ink. There are plenty of other popular tattoo parlors. We live in New York for fuck sake." I smiled a little and chuckled.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm coming home. I'll see you in a little bit." I hung up and stood to walk my sorry ass home.
Later that night, Mikasa and I dressed as nice as we could and left to pick up Armin. We decided upon this bar downtown that had live music every night. Once we pulled up to Armin's house, he came walking out. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail to keep it out of the way. He swapped his wire framed glasses for contacts tonight. A light blue button up with a fold over collar and a pair of dark jeans was his outfit of choice tonight. The door opened again behind him, someone else coming out of the small, blue house. My eyes widened and my head whipped to look at Mikasa's guilty face.
"What the hell is he doing?" I asked my sister, pointedly at Jean making his way to catch up with Armin.
"I invited him..." She muttered, her hands tightening around the steering wheel.
"What?" I hissed as Armin and Jean climbed into the car.
"Hey, guys!" Armin said, smiling at us through the review mirror. I smiled painfully back.
"Hi." My cheeks burned from the spurious expression.
"Jaeger." Jean sneered, as if disgusted by my mere presence. Watch it, Horseshit.
"Horse." I replied with equal, if not more, attitude.
Jean's eyes narrowed. "Nice outfit. Mikasa has good taste." Jaw clenched at the dig, I assessed he meant that I couldn't even pick my own damn clothes out myself.
My reply was swift, knowing it would silence Jean for at least the rest of the car ride. "Oh, I know she has good taste. Otherwise, she wouldn't have rejected you five billion times." Boy, I was so right. Mikasa snorted at my comeback, not even bothering to chide me for being immature. It wasn't my fault Jean wanted to irritate me like that all the time. Armin simply rolled his azure eyes. You could practically see steam billowing from his ears and I didn't hear Jean's annoying voice for the rest of the way. When the quiet became inevitably still, I turned the volume dial up on the radio. AC-DC reverberated throughout the small Buick as we entered the nightlife of New York City. My fingers tapped the tune of "Back In Black" on my knee while we weaved our way through traffic. Finally, we arrived at the semi-packed bar. We showed our IDs to the bouncer, me hoping they would card Jean and claim his ID was fake. We don't always get what we want. As we searched the bar, Armin found us a nice table that was void from a lot of people. Being around too many make me kind of uncomfortable.
Mikasa ordered a pitcher of beer for the whole table, but I declined. Instead, I ordered a fruity cocktail.
"How did I know you were going to go for the girly drinks?" Jean decided to pipe in. I ran my fingers through my hair excessively.
"Beer tastes like piss." I argued. Jean rolled his eyes.
"You just don't have a man's taste buds." He said with a dramatic sigh. Mikasa glared.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, her voice wavering with pent up anger.
Jean paled. "N-Nothing."
"Anyways!" Armin jumped in, directing our attention to him. He cleared his throat and turned to me with a large smile. "So, how did your meeting with Levi Ravaille go?"
I looked at the table and followed the pattern of wood grain with my eyes.
"I... Didn't get it." Mikasa put her hand on my shoulder.
Armin whined. "Why not? Your art is amazing, Eren! How did he not see that?"
"He said I have potential. Supposedly, he doesn't like having apprentices." I replied while chewing on the inside of my cheek.
Jean opened his mouth and at this point, I would have preferred it to be a black hole coming out instead of words.
"Yeah, okay. I bet he said that to spare your little feelings. Didn't want a sniveling shithead on his hands." Jean talked and talked. His words rattled inside my skull. What if Levi hadn't liked my work at all? What if I'm not as good as I thought? My pulse quickened and there was a burn in my eyes. Jean was a faint whisper in my ear as my mind worked a million miles an hour. Suddenly, I bolted from my chair and went for the door. Air. I needed fresh air. That bar was beginning to make me light headed. There was just one too many horses packed in there and I was feeling suffocated in that thick atmosphere. As soon as the cool, urban air hit my lungs, it was like a blessing. I sighed deeply and cast my eyes to the sky. The moon seemed to be mocking me as it half hid behind gray clouds.
I heard the door open behind me. I was ready for it to be Mikasa. Spinning on my heel, I opened my mouth to tell her to go back inside and that I needed to be alone. Instead, I came face to face with a man I didn't think I'd see again. At least not so soon. There was a cigarette dangling between his pink lips, waiting to be lit. My eyes widened and my mouth floundered for words. He didn't say anything, but held open a pack of cigarettes in front of me. He was offering me one. I shook my head.
"No?" Levi said. He snapped the lid closed and stuck them in his coat pocket. From the same pocket, he produced a lighter and lit the end of his cancer stick.
"That's not very healthy." I commented. Levi took a long drag, the ember glowing orange, the lighting casting shadows across my face.
"No shit. I try quitting, but it's harder than you'd think." He blew the smoke off to the side, making sure not to get it in my vicinity, which was greatly appreciated.
"I never picked up the habit." I said, scuffing my shoe across the pavement. Cars drove past us, people walked around us.
"Lucky you, then." There was kind of an awkward silence for a few moments. "So, you came here with friends. Why aren't you with them?"
I chose my words carefully. "Just got a bit overwhelmed."
"Don't go out much, kid?" Levi asked, smoke tendrils floating out of his mouth like an octopus crawling out of the depths of the ocean.
I shook my head no, honesty being the best policy.
"I heard that ugly motherfucker in there talking to you like that. The one with the two different colored hair and fucked up undercut?" I glanced at his hair with a raised eyebrow. His pale grey eyes rolled. "My undercut is perfect. His looks like he used a damn weed-whacker to cut it."
To my surprise, I laughed. It wasn't a hearty, overdone laugh. A chuckle, really. Or a giggle. Dear God, I hope it wasn't a giggle. "It's fine, I guess. Jean and I have always talked to each other like that. We push each other's buttons."
"Well, he was wrong anyways." His eyes closed while he inhaled another drag from the cigarette, it slowly burning shorter. I took this time to assess his attire this evening. He wore a pair of tight, grey jeans with black Chukka boots. They were sleek and fresh. His leather jacket was left unzipped over a black sweater with white stripes in the form of boxes all over. Levi's hair was pin-straight, as any other time I've seen him. His porcelain complexion was flawless and contrasted perfectly with his dark selection of colors, and of course tattoos peeked out under the neckline and sleeves. His blueish gray eyes opened and focused on me, so I acted like I hadn't just been checking him out.
"He was?" I asked, intrigued. Levi flicked ash off the end of his cigarette and nodded.
"Of course. I told you before, I don't sugar coat so if I said it was good, then it was."
"Right. And you actually just don't like having apprentices?"
Levi bobbed his head again.
"Can I ask why?"
"You can, but I won't tell you shit." I had a feeling that I was going to get an answer similar to that.
I laughed. "Fair enough."
There was silence.
"Eren?" Levi said. I glanced at him and there was some kind of expression on his face and I couldn't tell if it was a nervous look or something else. "Would you still be interested in being my apprentice?"
My mouth dropped. Did he just say what I think he said?
"Well, yeah." I claimed with a growing smile.
He dropped the cigarette and stomped on it. "Okay. Be there at ten AM tomorrow."
Surprise and excitement battled for dominance in my chest. "What changed your mind?"
"Honestly? I don't know. Maybe I just like you for some reason." My heart skipped. Levi liked me? He was okay with me? "Now, go back in there and tell that long-faced asshole to fuck off."
"I think he looks like a horse." I replied with a toothy smile.
Levi laughed suddenly and it was a wonderful chime. Once composed, he replied. "He does, now that you say so." I began walking back into the bar when I turned back around.
"Thank you, Mr. Ravaille."
"Eh, don't worry about it. And call me Levi, I'm not that old." He shrugged his muscled shoulders.
"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow, Levi."
As I went back inside, there was warm burning in my stomach and I felt delirious, but I doubted it was from the smell of cigarette.
