"Where the hell are we going?!" Sara hissed, her voice the only other sound on the deserted sidewalk of downtown Calgary besides Tegan's sneakers slapping against the pavement with each hurried leap she took.
Tegan didn't reply but her fingers tightened around Sara's tiny wrist and she took a sharp corner, stopping abruptly in front of the glowing tattoo parlor. Half of the bulbs in the neon signs were burnt out, and the ones lucky enough to still be kicking, buzzed loudly and flickered in random bursts. The shop was a hole in the wall, cheap, and certainly unsanitary, but at least they were open.
"I want to get a piercing." Tegan uttered with uncertain excitement, turning her head slightly to the right to watch Sara's face go from annoyed to downright pissed and irritated.
"You dragged me out of bed on one of the two nights we can finally be together to get a fucking piercing?!" Sara seethed, stomping her foot against the concrete.
Tegan bit her lip, nodding slowly. She knew Sara would be upset, taking time away from the rare privacy they found in their shared bedroom at their father's apartment every other weekend, but this was worth losing an hour or two of cuddling over.
"Just c'mon!" Tegan exhaled loudly, once again grabbing Sara's wrist and pulling her inside, bells jingling as they passed through the door. The tattoo-covered piercer looked up, grunting upon seeing them, and lifted his feet from the counter to drop them back down to the floor.
Tegan dropped Sara's wrist and gripped the ledge of the metal bordered glass counter and tapped them across it nervously, leaving her greasy fingerprints. "I'd like to get a lip piercing." She said politely, adding her foot to the tapping of her nervous fingertips. The man grunted again, getting to his feet with a huff, and waved her and Sara back, where he pointed to a piercing chair. Tegan sat and quickly glanced at Sara, throwing her an anxious smile, and pointed to the spot right under the center of her bottom lip. The man gave a slight nod and cleaned Tegan's lip carelessly before marking the spot with a little black dot and pulling her lip out with a clamp, centered over the target.
Tegan closed her eyes in anticipation and Sara winced, distracting herself with an aftercare brochure. She scanned over the words quickly, not actually soaking in any of it until she skimmed the worst combination of two letters she could possibly imagine.
No Kissing.
Sara's head shot up and Tegan was already licking a little bit of blood away from the inside of her lip. There was a faint throbbing coming from the new addition but it didn't hurt at all like Tegan thought it would. Yeah, definitely worth it, Tegan thought, paying the man and leaving with a shocked Sara trailing close behind her. They had barely walked a quarter of a block before Sara jerked Tegan into an alleyway and pushed her against a dirty brick wall.
"I hope it was worth it Tegan. Not only did you take away tonight from us but we can't fucking kiss until that stupid piercing is healed! And fuck you if you think I'm sleeping in your bed tonight!" Sara fumed, getting into Tegan's face and pushing her chest flush against hers.
Tegan could only smile stupidly, immune to the backlash and unable to stop staring at Sara's mouth. Sara felt her walls weaken, the cracks starting from her heart and spreading out like veins, and her anger turned to hurt. She caught Tegan's eye and slowly Tegan's smile faded until she was gaping at her like a fish.
"Why did you have to do this now? Why was it so important?" Sara asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Never letting her gaze drift from Sara's, Tegan lifted her hand to Sara's face and delicately traced the pad of her thumb across the scar which her piercing was now identical. And throwing caution to the wind, Tegan kissed her sister until she knew too that it was worth it.