Chapter 2 – No rest

It was only 3 o'clock when I got home, I told the blue-haired man all about the cat and how I couldn't get rid of her. Renji must've missed me, I've been away for 2 hours already. I took off my headphones as soon as I stepped out of the bus. I saw his red hair walking through the room as I ranged his bell. "You took some time, Ichi" he said and let me in, "where's the cat?" he asked and I smirked. I told him about the man and how he asked me to get a bite to eat. And then it hit me, what if I would never see him again? I was shocked by my own thoughts and shook it off. "O yeah, Renji, the ink you wanted?" I gave him the bag and made myself some coffee. "Yeah I don't think the client is coming, he should've been here half an hour ago".

"Shit" I ran a hand through my hair and looked up at the clock once again, I was already late.

I ran out the door and grabbed my backpack as I did, I could make it if I took the bus. I saw the next bus just peeking around the corner, I put up my hand and stepped through the doors.

The next thing to do was to relax, nobody I'd seen had recognized me yet, except for that kiddo.. Couldn't be trouble right? Only 10 minutes later I stepped out again and made my way through the door of the tattoo shop. A blondie looked up and shouted something through the shop. He smiled and looked at me straight "you're here for Abarai, aint ya?" I nodded and took a seat in the left corner of the room. I looked around me and was amazed by all the kinds of art pinned up on the walls. On the ceiling there was one big painting of fish and flowers, it was truly beautifull. "So, you must be the anonymous caller of this morning, mr. Jaggerjaques, isn't it?". I looked up and saw a red haired man making his way to me, I laughed and shook his hand. "So what's the plan, you told me something about a panther?" I stood up "Yeah, I wanted a back-piece of a panther, but come to think of it, I want some flowers in it too" I said and looked back up to the ceiling. "Did ya make that?" I asked him and looked up once again. "No, Ichi did though, he works here too" the name sounded familiar, but I couldn't make anything of it.

The coffee was my saviour of the day, really. I hear some voices in the shop and smiled, so he did come after all. I still had to do 3 new prints before Friday and there was one pretty difficult in it too. I walked through the door that separated the living room from the shop and closed it behind me. The second I looked up, I couldn't move. That was the blue-haired one, couldn't miss him. I pulled myself together and walked up to Shinji. "The missing man again? You saw him this morning right?" he whispered and I confirmed with a little nod. I heard Renji walking to his drawing table and saw the blue haired man turn his head a little. He saw me.

A big smirk covered his face when he saw me, I must've looked like a scared bunny or something like that, cause I couldn't really move anymore. "Oooii Ichi!" he yelled and gave me a friendly slap on my shoulder.

I knew the orange-head had noticed me already, but he didn't turn his head at me, he was just standing in de doorway at the left side of the room. He started walking but didn't look me in the eye. "Oooi Ichi" I couldn't imagine he had forgotten who I was all of a sudden…

It wasn't really that obvious, right? Ok it was. But still I couldn't deny there was something strange about this man, something very off.

"Yo, what a coincidence" I finally reacted to his warm welcome earlier, I could still feel the hand burning on my shoulder. "What'ya doin here?" he asked and filled in his autograph on the paper before him. "I work here, for over 5 years already" he looked up again nodded and gave me the design of his tattoo. "Cool, right?" he asked and smiled, it was a lot bigger than I'd expected, but still, it was really beautifull. "So Ichi, if I may call you that, why don't you come over for a drink sometime?" I was a little shocked by his request, I just met him! There was a lot going on in my head so I didn't really answered his question. I just smiled.

It was already past midnight, the computer in the middle of the room started to make a lot of noise all of a sudden. I got out of bed and as soon as I did I felt my back aching again, o yeah, the tattoo. I saw some light coming into the room, it was full moon tonight. I slipped my jacket on and walked around the streets for a while, until I found myself sitting in front of the shop. There was something about this boy…

Still, I couldn't make a sound yet, while I was still being wanted. I climbed up the roof and sat down again. The sky was clear and so was my mind. through the window behind me I could see the red head and his back tattoos, it looked like maori more than it did like tribals.

Sooner or later I had to move again. This friggin world. The second my face turned angry, I saw him. The orange head stood in the middle of the room and stretched his arms out. I felt my face turn to peace again when I saw his smile and I smiled back, even though he couldn't see me from there.

I followed the windows until I found his shadows again, in a small, dark room on the left side of the building.

The moon looked very beautiful tonight, the light was shining into my room. It wasn't big at all, but we lived here with the three of us, so it had to do. My king sized-bed took the room over for the biggest part. There was a little desk and a chair. And my closet of course. Today had been a rush. The blue-haired man kept stinging in my mind, what was it about him, he was in the news today too. Something about a robbery or so.

I could have sworn I saw a silhouette outside when I turned my head. I pushed the big window above my bed open and looked around for a bit. Nothing? I was dead sure… I got undressed and the moment I did, I felt a weird breeze behind me.