It was an odd thing to realize at such a time, but it had never occurred to Winters that the only time he'd seen Cross' back was when the woman was getting dressed. She didn't sleep on her stomach due to her overly large chest, and during sex he was too busy and distracted to pay attention, if he somehow managed to get her in a position where seeing her back was conceivable, and even when he did see it he was usually either getting dressed himself or half-asleep and trying to hide from the sun in his pillow. To actually be this close to her back while it was bare was a startling thing, as it made him realize that the woman had a very light tattoo.
He never would have seen it at a distance, the colors too light and the tattoo so big it covered nearly the entirety of her back, making seeing the difference even more difficult. She squirmed as he raised a hand to trace over it with his fingertips, craning her neck to look over her shoulder to try and see what he was doing as she paused in washing her arms. He didn't pay her movements any attention, busy trying to figure out what the tattoo was of in the dim lighting of the bathes. It was when he encountered the rather telling end of a wing after tracing the edge of a cross that he realized just what he was looking at. He glanced up at her with his eyebrow raised, wondering why she would get such a thing tattooed on her back, and in light blue, of all colors.
"What? I have plenty of tattoos, arschloch, you've just never paid enough attention." She had gone back to washing her arms, rubbing at what he could only guess to be oil, probably from cleaning her gun. That really wasn't the question he wanted answered, but it did leave him intrigued. Where would he have missed such obvious things as tattoos on her? Her back he never saw, so it would have to be similar places where he'd never notice them. He got an eyeful of her torso all the time, so he knew it wasn't there, and he saw her legs and feet frequently enough that he knew there weren't any there, either.
She growled in protest when he reached around and stopped her from starting on her other arm, lifting her hand for his inspection and making a little sound of triumph as he noticed it. It wasn't all that big, being on the webbing between her thumb and index finger, but the shape of a butterfly was rather obvious. More specifically, the butterfly-like blindfold of Grave of Maria was obvious, the black and red of the dead woman's mask standing out boldly against the paleness of Cross' hand. The other hand was taken captive next, pulled up for him to see as she growled at him and tried to tug at least one of her hands free.
He raised his eyebrow curiously at the shape of a heart made of some sort of music notes in the webbing of her other hand. He didn't know what either of the curved symbols meant, but he had to guess it was to represent someone or something just as the other tattoos did. And since it was a heart, he could only guess it was for a past lover, as he knew she hadn't been a virgin when they'd gotten together. Not that he knew any of the men she'd slept with before, but that she was willing to have something permanently inked into her skin in remembrance….
She yelped in protest when he wrapped his arms around her tightly, holding her against his chest possessively as he released her hands and nuzzled his face to her neck. If she was going to have the mark of a past lover on her, then that was fine, but it didn't mean he wouldn't do his damnedest to leave more of his own marks on her. Maybe he'd get lucky and she'd let him tattoo something on her as well, perhaps his own Innocence.
After all, she needed a little more Madness in her life.