Disclaimer: I own nothing, I make no money.
Author's Note: Done for a tumblr prompt from the awesome goddesstiera, with the line "I can't believe you talked me into this." and a pairing of my choosing.
Permanence
"Smirking, Jack picked up the needle once more, and the even buzzing warned Miranda to the incoming pain. This time she didn't wince. 'Maybe I should tattoo 'property of Cerberus' or 'paid for in full' on your ass.'" - Jack and Miranda in mildly domestic bliss. If you squint.
"Quit fidgeting," Jack hissed as she brought her tattoo needle closer to the smooth flesh along Miranda's ribs. The dark haired woman sat along one of the beds in the upstairs of Anderson's – Shepard's – apartment, while the party from those on shore leave raged downstairs. Her burgundy dress shirt was thrown across the bed sheets and Miranda sat with only her slacks and black bra on as Jack knelt on the floor at the edge of the bed, ready to tattoo a still-debating Miranda.
"I can't believe you talked me into this," Miranda sighed, half in defeat, half in exasperation.
Jack glanced up, her eyes glinting devilishly. "You're surprisingly pliable, in the right hands."
Miranda's responding comment was choked short at her yelp of surprise and pain when Jack touched the needle to her skin. "Bloody hell, Jack, a warning would suffice," she growled.
Jack snickered. "You've taken worse, princess."
Wincing, Miranda turned her head from the sight of Jack tattooing along her left side, edging just beneath her breast, and decided to focus her ire on the potted plant in the corner of the room. Glaring at the offending fichus, Miranda raised her arm further to give Jack the necessary space. "I hate when you call me petnames," she grumbled.
The buzz of Jack's needle ebbed for a moment as Jack chuckled and dipped the needle once more into the ink on the floor beside her. "That's not what you said last night."
"I was highly intoxicated last night. You can't hold me responsible for anything I said." Her cheeks were tingeing pink even as she huffed the words.
"Shit-faced is more like it," Jack quipped, her needle returning to skin. "I believe your exact words were 'Call me whatever you want just don't fucking stop." Jack paused in her work and leaned back on her haunches to quirk a brow at Miranda's pinched face. Her lips curved into a smirk.
Miranda turned her narrowed eyes on Jack's mischievous ones and scowled. "Perhaps if you talked less and worked faster, I wouldn't have to use such crude vocabulary." She didn't think she needed to say precisely what 'work' that was but Jack's slow-spreading smile was enough to tell her she got the message.
"But I like when you talk dirty," Jack answered lowly, raising her eyebrows in one quick challenge before returning to Miranda's tattoo.
Miranda was mid eye-roll when the sharp pain at her ribs made her wince again. She sucked a breath through her clenched teeth and tried not to shift back from the needle. "You like anything that's dirty," she shot back.
"But especially you," Jack teased, eyes never leaving Miranda's skin, even as she licked her lips.
Miranda caught the laugh on her tongue and shook her head. "How long is this supposed to take? I thought you said you were good at this."
Jack shot a swift look of annoyance at the other woman and then looked back to her work, a steady smirk making its way along her lips. "Don't worry. I'm just finishing the 'y' on 'Daddy'."
"What?" Miranda shrieked as she pulled away from Jack, her previously raised arm coming down to smack Jack's hand away. "You didn't."
Jack leaned back out of reach, laughing a she set the needle down. "I wouldn't risk your wrath, peaches. Calm down."
Miranda scowled at Jack, opening her mouth for a scathing response to the 'peaches' moniker when Jack leaned up and braced her hands along the bed on either side of her, her face suddenly only a breath away. "Now, just stop fucking moving," Jack began, her breath fanning along Miranda's lips, "and then you get to do me." She let the words settle between them for a moment, and watched Miranda's eyes narrow at the purposeful vagueness. She reveled in the heaving of Miranda's chest in her indignation, before pushing forward and pressing her lips along hers.
Miranda's mouth instinctually opened and Jack slid her tongue past her lips as she pressed further into her. Miranda's hands came up to hold Jack's face to hers as she deepened the kiss, slowly sliding off the edge of the bed to press into Jack. But Jack pulled from Miranda before she could make it off the bed and she moved her hands to the woman's thighs to hold her there. "I'm not finished yet," the biotic chuckled between pants.
Miranda snaked a hand into Jack's hair and brushed her lips along the other woman's, only barely, just enough to make Jack follow her mouth back as she pulled away. "Neither am I," Miranda breathed lowly, promisingly, her tongue darting out to wet her lips.
Jack swallowed and braced herself before leaning back into her kneeled position before the bed.
Miranda smirked triumphantly and resettled along the edge of the bed, back straight, hands held elegantly in her lip. Jack laughed at the image, shaking her head.
"Well?" Miranda began, raising her left arm to give Jack the space to work. "Don't keep me waiting."
Smirking, Jack picked up the needle once more, and the even buzzing warned Miranda to the incoming pain. This time she didn't wince. "Maybe I should tattoo 'property of Cerberus' or 'paid for in full' on your ass."
Miranda rolled her eyes, leaning her other arm back to brace herself along the bed. "And if I could find the space, I'd tattoo the same on you."
Jack shrugged one shoulder. "Wouldn't have been off the mark a few years ago," she laughed.
"I find your nonchalance about that highly disconcerting," Miranda said with a raised brow.
"I just know where I've been. No fucking shame in that."
Miranda eyed Jack silently as she pursed her lips in thought.
Jack glanced up at her sudden quiet and threw her a teasing look. "Quit with the analyzing, babe."
Miranda huffed. "I wasn't analyzing. I was thinking."
Jack shifted her knees to come closer around Miranda's side. "It's the same with you."
"If you believe that, then you obviously don't know what I was thinking."
Jack quirked a brow up at Miranda and caught her smirk. "Dangerous thoughts I'm sure."
Miranda's smirk blended into a smile. "Always, when it's about you," she said mischievously.
Pulling back from Miranda's side, Jack placed the needle back on the floor and placed her hands along her knees. "All done," she beamed up at the other woman.
Miranda's eyes lit up in excitement as she jumped from the bed and practically skipped over to the full length mirror on the back of the bedroom door. Jack pushed off the floor and followed her. "Now," the biotic began carefully, "it's not exactly what we talked about"
Miranda let out a huff of annoyance at Jack's words and turned to her before she could even make it to the mirror. "What did you do?" she groaned.
Jack smacked her lips in impatience and turned Miranda in her arms, pushing her toward the mirror. "Just look at the goddamn thing, would you?"
Miranda's face settled into a frown as she stood before the mirror, squinting at the small font reflected backwards at her. Jack stood behind her, winding her arms around her bare waist and hooking her thumbs in the belt loops of Miranda's slacks, anchoring her body to her own. Jack rested her chin along Miranda's shoulder and watched her face as the recognition slid across her features.
"My favorite mistake," Miranda read softly, body going slack.
Jack pressed a kiss into her shoulder and shifted her eyes to the tattoo in the mirror, so that she didn't have to look Miranda in the eyes when she said it: "And I'd make it again. Every time." Her voice cracked the slightest bit but she kept her eyes steady on the skin just beneath Miranda's breast, even as the other woman shifted against her to look at her.
Miranda watched her for a moment, silently, hesitantly. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. And when she saw the slowly hardening features of Jack's face, she moved her hands to hold Jack's along her hips. She turned back to the mirror and raised her chin, her fingers curling around Jack's. "It's perfect," she breathed softly, her eyes steady on her lover's face in the glass.
Slowly, achingly, Jack lifted her gaze to lock with Miranda's in the mirror. They stood there for many moments simply watching each other. Simply breathing together. Their touch, joined. Their eyes, unflinching. Their hearts, synchronous. It is then that they each finally understand permanence.
And then Miranda jutted out a hip and scoffed in mock derision. "That is, of course, not counting the crooked 'f' but I suppose I got what I paid for."
Jack's smile was brilliant, even as she tugged her back by the belt loops and dragged her across the room.
They fell into the bed laughing.