Rukia took a deep breath and checked the time on her phone. 11:27am. It was the best she could do. She pushed open the door and climbed the narrow set of stairs that led to the second story studios of Demon Arts Tattoo.
To her surprise, there was a woman she didn't recognize sitting behind the reception desk. She had an extremely beautiful face, with big blue eyes and shoulder-length blonde hair that framed her face in tousled waves. Rukia was pretty sure that Momo was still out, but Renji had never mentioned any other women who worked at the studio.
The woman was cutting something out of a piece of red construction paper.
"Er, hello," said Rukia.
The beautiful blonde pulled a piece of tape off of a dispenser, attached it to her paper, then leaned over the front of her desk, and slapped a paper heart onto the front. There were at least six taped to it already. She had a lot of chest, and Rukia had just gotten to see most of it.
"Happy Valentine's Day!" the woman greeted cheerfully. "I bet you're Rukia!"
"I…I am, actually," Rukia managed. "I…sort of have an appointment? There was a cancellation? You aren't…Momo…are you?"
The woman laughed, a wonderful, musical sound. "I think that's the first time anyone has ever mixed us up! Oh, I'm going to tell her about that, she'll be tickled pink. No, I'm Rangiku. Momo's one of my best friends, so I'm just helping out a bit while she's out, keeping the boys out of trouble."
Suddenly, Renji skidded through the door of the reception area, puffs of smoke practically coming off the soles of his Converses.
"Can't do much about this one, though, he's basically hopeless," Rangiku teased. "Hey, Renji. Your client is here." She leafed through her packet of construction paper and pulled out a pink piece.
"You made it," Renji said breathlessly, barely sparing a look at the supermodel sitting behind his reception desk. "That was fast."
"You said to come in as soon as I could make it," Rukia frowned.
"I was just impressed! Th-thank you. I'm sure you had stuff to do with your day, and I really appreciate your flexibility."
Rangiku must have made a funny face or something, because Renji suddenly started glaring daggers at her. By the time Rukia turned around, the other woman was the portrait of innocence again.
"It's, uh, it's fine," Rukia said, turning back to Renji. "I really didn't have any plans, and I'm very excited about getting this tattoo."
"Great!" Renji declared. "C'mon back and let's get started!"
Renji led Rukia back to a little private room. It had a big padded table, a work stool, and a big industrial toolbox, like the kind you'd see in a garage. The walls were covered with an eclectic assortment of art prints, some famous, some comic book panels, some that Rukia recognized as having been done by Renji or one of his friends.
Renji held up a piece of paper printed with the tattoo design he'd shown her just a few days before. "You still happy with it?" he asked. "It's not too late to make changes if you aren't."
"It's still perfect," Rukia nodded curtly.
"Okay." Renji grabbed a pair of scissors, and started to trim away the excess paper. "We need to check the size next." He looked down at her lower half and frowned.
Rukia glanced down at the long skirt she was wearing. "Oh! I wore shorts! I just put this on over-top because it's cold out. I guess I can…?"
"Go for it," Renji nodded. "Let me know if it's not warm enough in here, I can goose the heat if you need."
"Oh, no, I should be fine," Rukia replied, shimmying out of her skirt.
"Go ahead and hop up on the table," Renji suggested, very focused on his cutting.
Rukia hopped. "I've thought about this a lot," she explained. "I put on my shortest business skirt before I came over, and marked where it comes down to on my thigh." She pointed to the blue pen mark she had drawn a few inches above her knee. "I'd like the tattoo to end above that line. For propriety."
Renji glanced up, his eyes scanning the line of her leg, presumably gauging the length from the piping of her gym shorts down to the tops of the tall socks she was wearing. They were striped and had little bunny faces on the knees. "If these socks are too tall, I can roll them down," she offered.
"Nah, they're, um, fine," Renji said, his eyes darting to the bunnies as he placed the paper cut-out against her thigh. "Cute, even. Um, you probably don't want to go all the way to the line, do you? It might peek out if you sit or, you know, cross your legs."
Rukia hummed. "I did consider that, actually."
Renji blinked a few times. "Okay!" His voice sounded slightly higher than usual. He held the paper cut-out up against her leg. "Well, if we line it up there, you've still got some space up top. Would you, ah, say these shorts are…on the shorter end of ones you usually wear?"
"They are," Rukia agreed. "They're the shortest ones I have. I actually think it's good where you've got it. The top of the tattoo is its li'l scythe, so people will still be able to see its face, even if the top gets covered a little. Also, it'll look good when I'm in a bathing suit."
"Yes, I agree," Renji nodded. "With all of that. The entire assessment. Okay! I'm going to go make a transfer of this, I'll be right back!"
Rukia hugged her knees to her chest and looked around the room while she waited. Her stomach felt like it was full of a thousand butterflies. She hoped Renji didn't notice how nervous she was. She was sure that if he did, he would probably just assume it was about the tattoo, which was…partially right. But even so, she desperately wanted to be cool about this, the sort of girl who got inked like a champ.
Renji popped back in with a piece of plasticky paper in his hands. "Got your stencil ready," he announced. "Now we gotta prep the area." He moved the work stool next to her table and pulled on a pair of nitrile gloves as Rukia stretched her legs back out. Renji sat down and brushed his fingertips over her thigh. Rukia swallowed thickly and tried to look away. Renji looked up at her. "I'm gonna need to give you a little shave. That okay? Even really fine hairs can be a pain."
"Yeah, of course," Rukia shrugged, her heart hammering in her throat.
Renji unwrapped a fresh disposable razor, and went to work removing the hair from her leg with swift, sure strokes. This is not sexy at all, Rukia lied to herself. Not even sexy adjacent. When he finished, he wiped down her leg with rubbing alcohol, and then peeled one side of the paper off the stencil. "Here we go," he said, pressing it into her leg. He ran his hand firmly down the length of it, then eased away the backing to leave a temporary version of the design on her skin. "Go check that out in the mirror. I want you to be completely happy with it. It's no problem at all to wipe it off and do it again."
Rukia hopped down, and with only a little hesitation, examined her leg in the full-length mirror mounted on one wall. She turned to the side in order to better appreciate the overall effect. The stencil was purple, and not as crisp as the final product would be, but it certainly got the idea across. She turned back to Renji. "It's really good, right? I feel like I'm biased, because it was my idea, but it just looks really incredible, doesn't it?"
Renji tipped his head to one side. "To be fair, I am also biased, because I drew it, but yes, it does. The big question is, would it be even better if it were more to the front or back or up or down?"
Rukia considered this. "No, I think we got it."
"I love it when that happens on a first try," Renji declared. "That'll need to dry, but I have some stuff to get ready." He peeled off his gloves and tossed them in the trash. "First things first." He pulled a bandana out of his back pocket, and after raking back his bangs with his fingers, tied it over his forehead. It was black with orange tiger stripes. "This is how you can tell I'm being serious," he explained.
"Don't you wear one of those under your bike helmet?" Rukia cocked an eyebrow.
"Riding the bike is serious business!" he protested. "And so is the next question, which is, do you want to listen to music while we do this?"
"Ummm," Rukia hesitated. "What do you prefer?"
"To be honest, I do like a little noise," Renji admitted. "You probably know by now that I'm kinda chatty. I prefer to talk while I work, but not everyone's into that, and music's better than quiet for me."
"Why would you think I wouldn't want to talk to you?" Rukia asked, hopping back up on the table. "Of course I want to talk to you. We could have some background music, too, though. That would be nice."
"Cool, cool," Renji said, scrolling through his phone. "We've never talked about music, have we? I have a bunch of playlists made up to cover most of the major genres. Heavy metal. Grunge. Carly Rae. Smooth jazz."
"What do you listen to during Skeleton Drawing Hours?" Rukia asked.
Renji peered up at her over the top of his phone. "You want to listen to my super secret Spooky Monster Times playlist? It's very personal, I'll have you know."
"I just want you to be in the proper headspace," Rukia sniffed. "Like I'm going to judge you for listening to nine straight hours of 'Dragula' and 'Monster Mash' on repeat."
Renji started to say something, then covered his eyes with one hand for a moment, his shoulders shaking in silent laughter. A few moments later, he was ready to try again. "Okay, rule number one, you cannot make me laugh like that once we get started, understood?"
"It's not my fault I am naturally hilarious," Rukia replied. "But I shall try."
"And just for that I am going to make you listen to my weird collection of werewolf songs." He tapped something on his phone, and Wolf Like Me by TV on the Radio started blaring out of a pair of speakers he had set up on the back of his work station.
"This is a good song," Rukia commented.
"Thank you, I know," Renji replied. He put his phone away, and started pouring ink into a little cup. "So, how worried are you about the pain?"
"Not really concerned about it," Rukia said off-handedly.
"That's good," Renji nodded cheerfully. "A lot of people are really apprehensive about that part, and it's almost never as bad as they think it will be. We're going into a big slab of muscle, which is generally less painful than when you're up against a bone. And you're tough. I have complete confidence in you."
"Which of your tattoos hurt the most?" Rukia asked, expecting he'd probably say the brows or maybe the ones on his hand.
"Oh, the ones on my ribs, for sure," Renji replied, pulling on a fresh pair of gloves.
On his… on his…?
Renji hauled a little tray on wheels over next to the table and moved his work stool next to it. "You ready to get started?"
Rukia tried to catch hold of her brain, which had floated out of her body at the staggering idea that Renji with his shirt off was orders of magnitude hotter than she had already imagined him to be. "Yeah! Let's go!"
"A little A&D first," Renji said, rubbing ointment over the stencil lines. His fingers were warm and strong and it felt very pleasant. "You sure you're warm enough? Your skin is kinda cold."
"I'm just like that," Rukia shrugged. "I'm fine, really."
"If you say so," Renji tipped his head. He picked up his tattoo machine, which looked like a fat pen and buzzed when he turned it on. "Deep breath?"
Rukia hadn't expected Renji to draw in a deep breath with her, but he did, and when he started to let his out as he started to etch the first line into her skin, she couldn't help but let hers out, too.
"Do you do that every time?" she asked, hoping her voice wasn't too shaky.
"For first timers," Renji replied pleasantly. "And anyone else who seems like they need it. How's it feel?"
"It's…not what I expected," Rukia frowned. She wouldn't say it was a pleasant sensation, but it wasn't the sharp shock of pain she had feared. "It doesn't hurt, it's just sort of…irritating."
"Yeah, that's about the long and short of it," Renji agreed. "It may get more irritating as your skin starts to get mad about all this, so keep in mind that we can take a break whenever you need."
"I'll let you know," she said. She couldn't really lean over far enough to watch his progress, but she could watch his face. He looked very different with his hair out of his face. It seemed a little silly to be so professional about doodling a grim reaper on her, but there was something about the way his jaw was set, his eyes narrowed, his entire focus on what he was doing that made her heart skip a beat. There was an echo of that fierce young soccer player in him still, she realized, the same iron determination, but matured and honed into…into drawing skeletons on people. It was charming, Rukia decided, that Renji brought more energy into his art than most people brought to their entire lives. "So what do you want to talk about?" she asked, as the digging gnaw of the tattoo machine began to lose its novelty.
"Well, I been wondering, actually," Renji said, dabbing away a bit of extra ink. "I mean, I love this design. I loved the idea the second I read your email, but is there…uh…a story behind it? Do you actually skateboard? Can you do a kickflip? Not that I would be surprised."
"There is a story behind it." Rukia said slowly. "It's basically the story of how Ichigo and I became friends after I crashed his skateboard. It's…kinda long."
"Perfect," said Renji.
"Say 'cheese'!" said Renji.
"Cheese!" Rukia flashed him a toothy grin, brilliant as the sun.
"Got it!" Renji checked the picture on his phone, and then turned it around so Rukia could see. "What do you think?"
"It's the most beautiful tattoo anyone has ever had! Are you going to put me on Instagram?"
"Normally I would, if that's okay with you. You've got a more important reputation to maintain than my usual clients."
"Of course you can! I want everyone to see your brilliance! Just don't use my name, use my initials or something."
Super sick piece for the cutest girl in the world, Renji mentally captioned it. "Sure," he said out loud. "No problem."
"You'll send that to me, too, right?"
"Of course. Do you want me to take any more before we wrap it up? You'll have to keep it bandaged up for a few days, so if you want to show it off, you should get your pics in now."
"Oh, for sure! Can you take one where you can see more of me?" She struck a pose and made a fake-flirty face. "I want to sext Orihime."
"Yeah, sure," Renji chuckled, and took a few more shots. It was not lost on him that if Rukia turned him down, he was going to have to somehow deal with the 6000 pictures of her that had mysteriously ended up on his phone over the past three weeks. Pull it together, man! he admonished himself. Think positive!
"Next order of business," he said, shoving his phone into his back pocket after texting Rukia her pictures. "You're going to listen very carefully and follow all of these instructions for taking extremely good care of my artwork and also your beautiful skin, right?"
"Yes, sir," Rukia replied.
"Excellent." He pulled a sheet of Saniderm off of his workstation. "We used to wrap new tattoos up in Saran wrap, but this stuff is much nicer. It's oxygen permeable, and you can get it wet. Don't go swimming or anything, but showers are fine." He trimmed it into a rough oval shape the size of Rukia's new tattoo. "I'm putting this one on now, and giving you one to take home. You're gonna leave the first one on for 24 hours. The easiest way to get it off is, while you're in the shower, rub some soap around the edges and they'll loosen up. Unscented, gentle soap only. Dove is good, or mild hand soap."
Rukia listened carefully as he continued his spiel, nodding solemnly from time to time.
"All this is on our website, anyway," he finished. "And you know you can text me if you have any questions or you need extra bandages or you just want to whine about how itchy it is. You are not, under any circumstances, allowed to scratch it. But you can complain at me, and I will send you pictures of Zabimaru. He has to shed his entire skin a couple times a year, and will be very sympathetic to your plight."
"Do you offer this service to all your clients?" Rukia asked, tilting her head cutely.
"Absolutely not," Renji replied. "But Zabs is very fond of you."
"I did give him that strawberry once."
"It's true."
And for a moment, they stood there, just looking at one another.
Whatever happens next, Renji thought to himself, I liked being your tattoo artist, Rukia Kuchiki.
"Renji?" said Rukia, her lovely eyes wide and questioning. "What's next?"
"What…what's next?" Renji echoed stupidly, before she was still talking about her appointment. "Oh! Nothing! Nothing happens next! We're done! We're done, aaaaaand you are probably ready to leave and continue on your day."
Rukia gave him a withering look as she pulled her skirt back on. "We're not done, I still have to pay you."
"Right! That's very important and I will get yelled at if I let you go without doing that. We have to go back up front for that."
Rukia gave him a firm, but not unkind glare as they headed back to the reception area. "You are very good at tattooing, but you are really not very good at running a business."
Renji shrugged. "Whatever. Rangiku would put you in a headlock if you tried to leave without paying. She's tough."
"Oh, my," said Rukia, and Renji was suddenly reminded of the effect Rangiku tended to have on people who were just meeting her for the first time.
Fortunately for him, Rangiku was also a queen among wingmen, and also occasionally a legitimate mess, and in this case, it didn't actually matter which. "Renji!" she cried the second he walked through the door. "Renji, can you watch the desk for me? I need to make a phone call, it is des-per-ate-ly important!"
"Is it for your real job?" Renji asked, not that it mattered.
"I said it was important, silly," Rangiku flapped a hand at him, standing up and slinging her purse over her shoulder. "Do you remember Momo's sexy literature professor friend you gave a tattoo to last week?"
"Uh, yeah?"
Rangiku pinched her fingers together. "I am this close to getting myself invited to her Galentine's Day party!"
"Aren't those things supposed to be platonic?" Renji frowned.
Rangiku's eyes were ablaze. "Renji, you know how I love a challenge."
"Godspeed, Rangiku," Renji wished her. "I'll ring Rukia up."
Rangiku stabbed a perfectly manicured finger at him. "Do not undercharge her just because she's cute, Abarai."
"Go make your phone call, Rangiku!" Renji growled, feeling his cheeks go red.
Rangiku started to head back towards the breakroom, but she changed her mind briefly. "I want to see it!" she demanded brightly. "Your tattoo!"
"Er, it's hard to see under the bandage," Rukia stammered.
"Here," Renji said, passing over his phone.
Rangiku scrutinized the photo for a moment. "Oh, it's amazing! Renji, I would be mad at you for being so talented, except that you keep using your skills to make cute girls even cuter, so… keep it up, I guess." She turned her sapphire gaze on Rukia, who was turning steadily pinker. "Take good care of that, it's stunning!" And with that, she flounced off down the hallway.
"She takes some getting used to," Renji explained, sliding behind the desk. "She really is a nice person, though, and she's very generous with beauty tips. She gets at least sixty percent credit for my beautiful, lustrous hair."
"I guess I'm surrounded by heroes today," Rukia said, just a hint of slyness in her tone.
"Just doin' our duty, ma'am," Renji replied modestly. It could have been a huge mistake, he realized belatedly, exposing his bisexual crush to Hurricane Rangiku moments before confessing his feelings for her.
He told Rukia her total, and watched her fumble her credit card intp the scanner backwards.
What is there to worry about, though? he thought, a sense of peace filling his heart. I know she likes me. The moment he thought it, he knew it was true. Whenever he spent time with Rukia, she made him feel like she liked him. It was kind of a new feeling, one he could definitely get used to.
"There we go!" Rukia said, signing the screen.
Renji tried not to think too hard about the size of the tip she had left him, telling himself he would just spend it back on her, if she would let him.
"Email receipt or paper?" Renji asked, hoping against hope that she wouldn't make him wrestle with the terrible, cranky printer that, for some reason, only respected Izuru.
"Email is fine," she replied.
Renji closed out the sale, and Rukia's phone beeped. "Got it," she said, almost wistfully. "Er. I guess this is really is it, now, isn't it? The end of our business relationship?"
"Guess it is," Renji replied.
They stared at each other.
A single beat passed.
"Can I ask you something?" they both said at the same time.
They stared at each other for another beat.
"You can go first," Renji said at the same time Rukia said, "You should let me go first."
Rukia blinked twice, somewhat surprised to have gotten her way. "Er. Right." She was silent for a moment.
"Do you need me to take another deep breath with you?" Renji asked.
"Could you? That was remarkably calming."
"Sure."
Together, they drew in a deep breath through their noses and then out again, at which point, words began to pour out of Rukia as well.
"I know we talked the other day," she said, gaining speed as she went, "about wanting to stay friends after this. And I do! I definitely do! But I just want to be really honest with you, which is to say, I like you so much. I liked you right away, which almost never happens to me, but the more time I've spent with you, I just keep liking you even more. And I definitely would have told you before now, but I just didn't think it was appropriate, given the professional nature of our relationship."
Renji found himself nodding along as she talked, the words sort of washing over him and not quite penetrating his skull.
"All of this is to say-" Rukia closed her eyes briefly and composed her face, "-would you like to go out with me sometime?"
"Yes," said Renji.
"And I want to be very clear that even if you're not interested, I still- did you just say 'yes'?"
"I would love to go out with you," Renji repeated, just so there was no mistake.
Rukia's eyes were very wide and very beautiful. "You understand that I mean, like, a romantic date? Like, with the possibility of kissing at the end?"
Renji nodded, a warm sense of elation starting to spread through his body. "Yeah. Yeah, that's what I assumed you meant."
"Oh," said Rukia. "Oh."
"Did you want to go right now?" Renji asked.
Rukia's cheeks reddened. "Well, no, you have to work, don't you?"
"No, I'm done for the day. I mean, I should clean up a few things, but that won't take more'n ten minutes, if you don't mind waiting."
"You- you said in your text! You said if I could come in today, it would really help out your schedule! I assumed you had another job afterward!"
"It did help my schedule! I really did have a cancellation this morning, which I didn't find out until I'd already gotten in. I coulda gone home, I guess, and spent all day lying on my couch, thinking about how on earth I was gonna make it to Wednesday so I could ask you out. That would have sucked. This is much better."
Rukia's eyes went soft and misty. "You were going to ask me out?"
"Yeah, what d'you think the thing I was gonna ask you was?"
Rukia buried her face in her hands. "Oh no! I stole your question!"
Renji slid himself out from behind the desk. "I said that's what I was gonna ask you. I'll just use my question for something else instead."
Rukia peered out at him from between her fingers. "Okay?" she said cautiously.
Gently, Renji took her hands and pulled them away from her face. He liked the feel of her hands nestled snugly in his, and he especially liked the idea that this was a thing he could just do now. "Rukia," he said boldly, made buoyant and invincible by the power of having been asked out by the most wonderful person he had ever met. "May I kiss you?"
Rukia's mouth fell open.
"I think I've been pretty upfront about the fact that I rush everything, all the time," he explained. "So if I gotta make it through a date first, I will, but just in case you've been thinking about it as much as I have-"
Rukia suddenly grabbed two fists worth of his t-shirt and went up on her tiptoes. It would have been a very effective and dramatic way to shut him up with a kiss, if it had actually worked.
"Oh, no, I'm short," she said in a very small and sad voice.
Renji laughed, loud and happy, and scooped her into his arms, careful to avoid squeezing her new tattoo. "You're fun-sized," he reassured her.
Rukia threw her arms around his neck and they kissed each other, long and sweet and so full of love that Renji never wanted to stop. "Wow," he murmured, when they were eventually forced to part for air.
"Not bad, huh?" Rukia replied.
In response, Renji kissed her again, just a quick smack on the lips, before carefully setting her back down on her feet. "So what do you want to do with the rest of our day? Maybe a spur-of-the-moment date on Valentine's Day wasn't the best idea I've ever had."
Rukia laughed, too, a nervous laugh that quickly turned silvery with relief. "Do you think your taco place will be too crowded? I'll buy you a taco and we can brainstorm."
"It is a bit of a romantic destination," Renji teased. "Might have to witness a proposal or two, but I think we should be able to get a table near the kitchen."
"Hurry up and go clean up, then!" Rukia swatted him. "And tell Rangiku and whoever else is listening at the door, so we can go! I'm starving!"
"I'll clean up for you!" Izuru's voice rang through the door. "Just go!"
The door opened about two inches, and Rangiku's arm appeared, dangling Renji's coat. "Good job, buddy! We're so proud of you!"
Renji grabbed his coat. "I'm pretending you two aren't here, but also, thank you very much. Tell the group chat I was very smooth."
Rangiku gave him a thumb's up.
Renji pulled on his coat and offered Rukia his arm. "You ready?"
Rukia ducked under his arm, tucking herself into his side, and pulled his arm around her shoulders. "Yeah," she said with a smile. "Let's go!"
~ the end!
