Disclaimer: If it's from the movie, it's not mine.
She doesn't go back to that club, and she doesn't text him, but she sees him again not even two weeks later. He walks into her parlor, does a double-take, and clearly considers walking right back out the door. He has a friend with him, though, a girl wearing black and purple to his black and red, and she doesn't seem to notice his sudden indecision. She walks right in, leaving him no choice but to follow.
They avoid eye contact as long as they can, her talking to his friend and him admiring the artwork on the walls. She came for a tattoo, she says, something that will remind her of her boyfriend. She raises her eyebrows at this, determinedly not looking at the man she hooked up with not even two weeks before.
"How long have you two been together, then?" She asks, turning away to pull out the paperwork. She hears the girl snort, and Warren makes a choking sound.
"Not this blockhead," she says, giving her companion a good-natured shove. "He's just my chauffeur. My boyfriend goes somewhere else."
She nods, and that's the end of it. She sketches something for the girl, a few designs, and she tries very hard not to give away that she knows Warren - or the boyfriend, or the girl, for that matter, because she recognizes them all. Even if she didn't get it right away, she would still put it together once the girl starts describing things that make her boy unique - he's got so much energy, you know, like he never runs out of battery, and he's always so positive, a real light in my life, et cetera. She only gets the irony because she knows them both - and that's why she ends up with a design that really would remind the girl of her boyfriend.
She can tell the girl is impressed, but she can also tell Warren is looking at her now. She dares a glance up at him, immediately caught in his stare, and it's sort of unfair that he's just as handsome when they're both sober.
He schedules an appointment for a tattoo for that evening, and she knows it's so he can talk to her alone. He noticed that she knew the girl's boyfriend, even if the girl didn't.
So when he comes in, she makes sure to draw the curtains around her station, and she asks him to tell her what he wants, and where. He's got a few tattoos already, besides the ones she knows her father inked onto him when he was sixteen and angry. A nice one on his upper arm, and one on his back. She thinks there might have been one on his hip, too, but that's more blurry in her mind. She didn't see that one in the morning.
"Draw me something," he says, shrugging, like he doesn't care. It's a test, she knows, but she pulls out paper and a pencil like he's any other client, and ask him for some ideas. Usually, everyone has some idea of what they want.
"Something that will let people know who I am," he says, and she cannot help but glance at his wrists, covered now by fingerless gloves. He catches her looking, and she shrugs it off. She doesn't think she can get away with this much longer - she knew from the moment she recognized him that he would end up knowing.
It's not like she's hiding. She doesn't have anything to hide, really. It just makes her itch. She moved out here to get away from Maxville, and all that lived in it.
She looks at her paper, and at him, and wishes she could blink. That's what she would usually do, hide her paper and open a moment and sketch it until she was satisfied, and then close the moment and show it to them like it took her only a short conversation to do. It's how she's got such a good reputation, but he's watching her too closely.
She sketches something dark, something half in shadows, something noble. It's an eagle, wings outstretched, feathers like fire behind it, half a bird of prey and half a phoenix. She leaves it as it is, a rough sketch, grey and white and shaky, but she grabs a yellow pencil to do its eyes. It has golden eyes.
She doesn't look back up at him until she's done, and she knows she's taken at least ten minutes on this - but he's watching her with just as much intensity as before. She's close enough to see his pupils dilate when she flips the sketch around to show him, and she can see his arousal through his jeans - if there weren't others in this parlor, she would certainly consent to be fucked against her own tattoo station.
But there are, so she can't. It's disappointing, because he's here to get answers out of her, so he can't either. He clears his throat, looks back up at her, fights down his arousal. She does the same.
"I like it," he says, softly. Her smile is fleeting, but it is real. Then she looks down at the sketch, and back up at him -
"Do you actually want a tattoo, or would you like to ask your questions now?"
His eyes narrow, but it's not like he was subtle about it, so he can't blame her.
"You know me," he says. She nods, more reluctant than she thought she ought to be.
"We went to school together," she says. "Mira Maroz. I was a year ahead of you, but we weren't - well, we had different classes, you could say."
"Maroz," he says, slowly, like he is trying to remember. "You hung out with that girl, the quiet one, right?"
"Salma," she breathes, feeling the name hitch in her throat. It still feels like a fishhook in her chest to think about Salma.
Salma, who could take away sounds but could not make them louder. The quiet one indeed.
"I didn't know Alek was your dad," he says. "I thought it was - um, I can't remember his name."
She snorts, because Warren can certainly remember Electroshock's name. He just can't remember his alias.
"Craig's my stepfather," she says. "I lived with my dad."
"So your mom is -"
Flicker, super speed.
"Annie," she says. "Annie Brightman, married to Craig Brightman. My parents got divorced when I was young."
He doesn't look at her with pity. She knows he, of all people, wouldn't. Maybe that's why she says -
"If you don't want this tattoo, maybe we could go grab dinner or something?"
He looks startled, and then he smiles, and she can feel her heart skip a beat at that. She's not sure she saw him smile that night, and certainly not like this.
"I would like that tattoo," he says, "But I could be convinced to wait."
"I've got all the time in the world," she says, laughing, even though she's not sure he even knows about her power. He'll find out soon enough, she's sure.