Slamming the door of his jeep in a non-aggressive manner, Stiles stuffed his hands into his jacket's pocket and threw a smile at Scott. Walking up to his best friend, Stiles fell in line with Scott's footsteps. They had purposely parked a block away, unlike last time which got them into a stern talk with Stiles's dad, despite Scott's mom already okaying Scott getting a tattoo.
"You sure about this?" Scott asked as they crossed the street. Sending him a look, Stiles reached out and opened the door, motioning for Scott to go first.
Just like last time, the scent of the shop came in one huge gust, almost knocking Stiles over, before he became used to it, though he could still smell the pigment used. Looking around, Stiles saw a guy getting a back tattoo of a skull, the tattoo artist being the same man who did Scott's. His thoughts were interrupted by the woman with an arm filled with tattoos and a nose ring come out from the back, drying her hands with a paper towel.
"Hi there." She nodded at them.
"Hello." Scott replied back politely before Stiles could.
"ID's?" Opening his wallet, Stiles took his out and handed it over. After Scott handed his over as well, the woman looked at them and then the ID's, measuring them up. "Looks good boys." She hummed, giving them back. "I'm Mrs. Z. That over there, the tattoo artist, is my husband."
"He gave me my last tattoo." Scott nodded.
"Great! So you already know how this works?" Right, cash first and then tattoo. Stiles reached back for his wallet as Scott responded.
"I do. My buddy here though, doe-"
"Actually," Stiles coughed, "I got a tattoo in Hawaii." He talked to Mrs. Z, pointedly not looking at Scott.
"Alright then," She nodded. "Do both of you know what you want?" Hearing them both say yes, Mrs. Z continued. "Awesome, follow me then." Both of them walked behind her to her own station, which was only a few feet away. "I'll be right back. I need to tell Becky that she needs to take over for the front if needed." And then she left.
"You what?" Scott wasted no time in turned around and staring at Stiles.
"I...uh…" Stiles nervously scratched the back of his neck out of habit. Scott's mouth dropped open.
"No way." Bashfully, Stiles nodded at Scott's statement. "Where is it?"
"Under my arm."
"What is it?" Scott's eyes went wide. Rolling his own, Stiles took off his shirt, despite Scott's eyes going as large as saucers with the action
"I'm not going to need my shirt anyway." He mentioned as he turned to the side, giving Scott a view of the surprise tattoo. It was about four 'n a half inches long, stretching across the side of Stiles's ribcage, and one 'n a half inches wide. The black outline of the surfboard was made of five names and the inside was decorated with shaded Hawaiian flowers. "So, what do you think?" Stiles hesitantly asked, watching Scott's reaction.
"That's awesome dude! What are the names? Why a surfboard?"
"It's of the friends I made down there. I didn't want to forget, you know?" He asked. Scott nodded and moved out to touch it. By instinct Stiles flinched, causing Scott to pause. When nothing was said, Scott lightly trailed his pointer finger on the outline, even doing the loops of the names.
"So, how drunk were you?" Scott joked.
"Scott!" He exclaimed, moving way and punching Scott's shoulder. Before Scott could say anything back, Mrs. Z came back out from behind and walked towards them.
"You ready, boys?" Stiles smirked at Scott and nodded.
"Bring it."
Scott went first, explaining how he wanted a pawprint on the back of his right shoulder. Refraining from laughing out loud, Stiles bit his lip and just stared knowingly at Scott, to which a scowl was shot his way. Due to it's size and location, Becky said it'd only be thirty dollars. "It's pretty easy." She shrugged as Stiles handed over the money.
As the needle was pulled out, Stiles winced a little before motioning to Scott with his head. "I'll go sit over by the window and wait." After he walked over and sat, Stiles stretched out his legs and tapped his thumbs together over his stomach. Logically he knew it wouldn't take long, half an hour at most. But nonetheless, that's still thirty minutes of just sitting. He could barely stand two.
Grinning with an idea, Stiles pulled his new touch screen phone out of his pocket and quickly tapped in his password. When it came to the home screen, his grin widened as he tapped on 'Trivia Crack'.
Stiles squirmed in the chair, trying to fall into a comfortable position. Once he did, he gave Mrs. Z a thumbs up. Pointing close to where his hip line meets his pants on his left side, Stiles started talking. "I would like a triskelion."
"Any decoration? Color?"
"Nope, just three curls. And black please." Stiles shook his head.
"How large?" Mrs. Z inquired.
"About two inches by two inches?" He held up his fingers in rough estimate to the side he wanted.
"Alright, you know all the procedures, correct?" Stiles nodded at her question.
"Who else would help him?" Pointing at Scott, Mrs. Z laughed for a few seconds before standing up.
"Let me just wash my hands again and I'll be right back." The second she stood, Scott was at his side.
"A triskelion? Isn't that what Der-?" Scott stopped in mid-sentence, as if afraid that even saying Derek's name would send Stiles in a downward spiral. Rolling his eyes, he swatted at Scott.
"Derek? Yes, he has one on his back. But that's not why I'm getting this one." Seeing the question forming in Scott's eyes, Stiles jumped the gun. "It means past, present, future. I was weak in the past, I'm stronger now, and I'll be even stronger in the future." Scott made an 'oh' sound and smiled, breaking eye contact only when Mrs. Z was on her way back, to which he moved out of the way.
"A triskelion…" Mrs. Z hummed, picking up the tattoo needle. "Let's do this…"
Waving goodbye to Scott, Stiles put his jeep into first gear to pull out of Scott's small driveway. Making a left onto Elm Street, Stiles drove down three blocks before stopping at large field. Turning off the engine, he climbed out of his powder-blue jeep and walked to the closest edge of the field that was outlined with a mixture of vibrant gold, cherry-red, and slate-blue flowers. He pulled out the switchblade he carried everywhere in his pants pocket, Stiles knelt down and grabbed a handful. Lining up the blade to an inch below his grip, he cut away. After all the strands were efficiently free, Stiles stood back up and glanced around. Lightly smiling, he picked a few Queen Anne's Lace to put with the colorful mixture.
Then walking away, he hopped back into his jeep and drove to the end of Elms Street, taking a right on Bradford Lane, to which he continued down and turned onto Kennex Street. Sighing a little, Stiles parked on the side of the street.
Getting out once more, he walked up to the graveyard, flowers in hand.
His hand itched as a petal fell off one of the flowers he was carrying, lightly brushing his knuckles till it floated to the ground. Taking a breath, Stiles opened up the creaking metal gate to the graveyard. Not bothering to close it behind him, Stiles silently walked past the solemn headstones, pointedly looking away from the newly dug one. Walking twelve rows down, he took a left and continued down to the last headstone. Smiling, he knelt down and set the flowers, which ironically had wolfsbane blooms in it, against the gravestone.
"Hey Ma...it's been a while." Situating himself to sit cross-legged, Stiles blinked away the mention of tears in his eyes. "I went to Hawaii! Man, the weather was amazing, and you would've loved all the children. That, and the sunsets." Reaching into his pocket, he unlocked his phone. "Here; I even have photos to show you." Flipping his phone around, he showed the gravestone several pictures of the sun, as well as dolphins and flowers. The next set he went to were of his friends.
"The one with the shoulder length hair is Keanu. He and his girl, Akela, who's standing next to him, taught me how to surf. Who would've known I was good at it?" Scrolling to the next picture, it was of Mason jumping off a cliff. "Brad, his boyfriend, pushed him off. That was the third day into vacation. Danny's aunt is neighbors to Haukea, and somehow convinced her to let me join their group for the their summer evening fun. Totally thankful for that." Stiles mused.
He fell silent for a few minutes, listening to the birds nearby singing their melancholy tunes.
"I got two tattoos." A light laugh tumbled from his lips. "I know you always tried to hide yours from me, and I was good at pretending I didn't know about them. But I knew." Stiles said very softly. "You had Dad's name and my name written on your wrists. You'd always cover them with makeup or have one of the nurses do it. I heard you one time insisting they needed to."
"Anyways, the one tattoo I have is right below my arm on my ribcage. The embassy of the wolf pack in Hawaii did it for me. Kind of like how Deaton is a vet, the woman, Miranda, was a tattoo artist. Scott doesn't know that the pack there temporarily brought me in. Danny does though, and Lydia figured it out of course. It was great though." Stiles tilted his head back so it rested on whoevers gravestone was right in front of his moms. "They let me learn about pack dynamics and they were so kind. I actually got to learn a bit more of my spark, which Deaton hasn't mentioned since that Kanima incident I told you about."
Taking a breath, Stiles continued.
"The other tattoo is next to my left hipbone. It's the three swirls, same as Derek's back tattoo. Past, present, future; that's what it means. I've done some pretty self destructive behavior in the past Ma…" He admitted, "but I've learned and I'm starting to live for now. I mean, there'll always be triggering past memories but I'm starting to focus on today."
Once it fell silent once more, it stayed that way. Sure, Stiles wanted to talk some more, but he couldn't find the energy to move his mouth.
After a couple of minutes, or easily a half hour, Stiles looked at his watch and stood up.
"I guess we'll have to reschedule and I'll have to tell you more Ma. So much happened in Hawaii." Then, patting the gravestone, Stiles pivoted on his foot and walked away to get into his jeep, go home, and then make spaghetti for him and his dad.
Thank you to all! :)
Hope you enjoyed this chapter.
I have no clue how getting a tattoo done works. But I already know what I would like.
Action will start next chapter. :)
Until next time...