A/N: Tried something different with this one, yet again. As far as characters go anyway. I've been loving having MayBlade as an excuse to think outside the box a little.

Day 11 | Tala/Julia | Rated K+

Tattoo

"When did you get a tattoo?"

"Hello to you too, Tala," Julia said pointedly. She looked up from the article she'd been immersed in to eye him over the tops of her sunglasses. She'd never seen somebody look so out of place at a pool, but at least he was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and not his normal layers. "You're blocking my sun."

"You didn't answer my question," he said, showing no signs of moving. Clearly he was content to loom over her like some kind of monolith. "And your shoulders are starting to burn."

Julia gasped and checked, only to find out he was right. She tossed her magazine down onto the table next to her lounger in favor of fishing sunscreen out of her swim bag. She could feel Tala staring as she reapplied and shot him a warning look when she got to the low neck of her swimsuit.

He was one step ahead of her and already looking away in favor of pulling a neighboring lounger closer and perching on it sideways. Apparently she wasn't getting rid of him that easily.

"Did you want something?" she asked, squirting more sunblock into her palm. It was runny from sitting out in the heat all afternoon. "Or are you just here to interrupt my tranquility? I'm warning you now that I'm not talking about anything tournament-related today – it's my day off."

Tala arched one red eyebrow. It contrasted sharply with his pale skin. Julia thought if either of them should worry about applying more sunscreen, it was probably him.

"I asked about your tattoo," he reminded her, nodding to the artwork on her hip.

Julia was currently slathering it in sunscreen to prevent it from fading, but when she finished she twisted so that he could see the whole image clearly. It was a colorful spray of flowers, creeping from the top of her thigh up over her hip. She wore a high cut swimsuit to show it off and get better tan lines.

"Do you like it?" she asked and shifted back into her former position. Didn't want it to look like she was showing off more than the tattoo for him. "I got it during our last tour with the circus. One of the aerialists did it for me."

"Not the lion tamer?" Tala asked. It could be her imagination, but she thought his lip was trying to twitch into a smile, like he was joking with her.

Julia plucked her half-melted smoothie off of the table, stirred it, and took a sip.

"He offered," she said, sending him a mischievous look over the rim of her glass, "but he only works with black ink. I wanted color."

Tala let out a puff of air that was almost a laugh and said, "Of course you did." It was on the tip of Julia's tongue to tease him a little, ask him what he meant by that, when he added, "It suits you."

"Thanks."

She sat back in her chair, lazily swirling her smoothie around its glass. A few drops of condensation fell, but it was so hot that they didn't last long on her suit before evaporating. The chill of them felt kind of nice and she made a mental note that a dip in the pool might be in order once her sunblock set.

Tala was squinting off into the distance. There were other bladers lingering around the pool area, but he didn't seem to be searching for anyone in particular. Just sitting there, elbows on his knees, keeping her company in silence.

"You should get a tattoo," she suggested, mostly because it didn't feel very friendly to ignore him and go back to her reading. In the spirit of the reborn BBA, they were supposed to use their downtime to mingle with other teams, after all. "You'd look good with a sleeve."

That last part wasn't for the sake of the BBA. She could easily picture him with tapestry of designs decorating his arm. He'd be one for black ink and would probably have at least one wolf tattoo to honor his bitbeast. She was honestly surprised he didn't have something already. It would enhance the bad boy image.

"I've got enough marks on my body that I can't get rid of," he replied. When he turned to face her, there was an odd look in his eyes, like he was curious what she would say next.

Julia, for her part, was stunned. She hadn't meant such an innocent conversation in the sunshine to take a turn like that. Everyone knew at least one rumor about what The Blitzkrieg Boys had been through. Whether everything they'd heard was true was a different story. She didn't see the need to ruin either of their days by making him set the record straight.

With a wordless shrug, she took the time to finish her smoothie and leaned back to soak in some more sun. She thought he'd eventually get up and leave. Instead he stayed, relaxing as much as he probably ever did with his face turned into the breeze.

"Look," Julia sighed, when the quiet became too quiet. "I'm not trying to tell you what to do," she said, pushing her sunglasses up into her bangs so she could see him without the sepia, "but I think the best thing about getting a tattoo is that it's something you get to choose."

His expression shifted briefly at those words, the sun catching on a small scar on his eyebrow and making it shimmer.

"And you can always use them to cover something up," she added more casually, having done her share of serious for the day. "My stretchmarks don't bother me with roses on top."

Julia shrugged once more and made to pull her sunglasses back down. Tala, lightning quick, stopped her with a gentle hand and intense eye contact. She always thought his eyes were cold, but there was a surprising amount of warmth in them brought out by the blue backdrop of the summer sky. It must have been the heat making the moment feel heady and intimate.

"Do you want me to do your back?"

Julia blinked. "Huh?"

He gestured to the sunscreen, momentarily forgotten where it lay next to her tattooed thigh and didn't say anything else.

"Oh, sure."

Their fingers brushed when she handed it over. She turned around quickly to avoid the heaviness of his eye contact. As he rubbed the sunblock into her back, with more attention to detail than she would have expected, she shivered in spite of the sun beating down.

"For the record," he said in a low voice, "your stretchmarks look fine without the flowers, too."

A/N: As far as I can remember, I've never written this ship before. I'm not sure how confident I am in the characterization. It didn't feel awful to me, but again, haven't really written them before? If I have, I can almost guarantee it was not in character given the shit I used to write... So you'll have to let me know lol

Anyway, I had a good time with this one. I could definitely see Julia with a tattoo and I love Tala's awkward attempts to flirt/socialize/whatever this is.

As always, thanks for reading!