Thanks so much to the people who supported the continuation of this story! I hope I can meet your standards! Here's chapter two :)
Tris didn't sleep again that night, but when she was rushing to get showered and dressed for work the next morning, she didn't show anything but a smile. Her body was exhausted, but her mind refused to admit it. Her entire night was spent with her tablet and pen, sketching various designs over the picture of Tobias's back she'd taken.
Poe had been with her all night long, but he couldn't say he'd stayed awake the whole time. Tris teased him when he woke up, nudging his head playfully and asking if he'd had a nice nap, but she didn't mind much. He was a lazy dog, had always been, and she loved his calm. Besides, his snores reminded her that she was alive in the moments when life seemed pointless, late at night after a long day. He kept her going.
But even Poe noticed her difference in moods. She hadn't even scolded him for not hurrying with her, which had become an almost daily routine. Instead, while she was running all over the place, drippy-haired and barefoot, gathering up her supplies, she paused briefly to scratch behind his ears.
"You wanna come with me to work today?" she asked cheerily, and the Newfoundland's ears perked up. He didn't move, but she could see in his eyes that he would be right behind her once she left the house. She laughed, shook her head, then scurried to her bedroom to shove on some shoes.
As predicted, Poe clambered to the front door as Tris finished getting ready, and by the time she was at the door with him, he had his beady eyes trained fixedly on her motorcycle outside the window.
She laughed again. Usually, when she had Poe with her, they walked to the shop. But today she'd brought it to the last minute as she finished up her sketches, and the only way she'd be able to open on time was for her to take her Harley.
Which meant harnessing Poe into her side car.
His tail was clumsily wagging as she reached around to fasten him in. He was huge, and the movement was making things quite a bit more difficult, but she knew better than to scold him. His tail rarely wagged, and he didn't get to ride with her often. In this moment, he was genuinely happy, and who was she to challenge that?
Tori laughed, watching Poe's ears flying back in the wind, his mouth open and his tongue flopping as they neared the parking lot. Her boss spoiled that dog too damn much.
"Let me guess: Poe wasn't in enough of a hurry, and now he's made you ten minutes late," she teased, reaching for Tris's bag so she could get her dog. Tris locked the motorcycle in place against the back of their building, removing her helmet before moving to Poe.
She shrugged at her friend, a wild smirk on her face. Poe was her brother, her best friend, and it wasn't uncommon knowledge that he had a track record for taking the blame on her behalf. He always made her late.
She led them inside the shop, flipping the sign to "Open" on her way to her desk. Poe moved to his cushion in the corner of the lobbying, lying down as soon as he made contact with its soft fabric. Tori chuckled at his apparent tiredness. "You're dog's almost as lazy as you," she called, turning on the lights.
"Shut up!" Tris returned, but she was smiling as she eagerly dumped out what she'd finished last night. She'd never been so excited about a tattoo before, and hadn't been able to stop thinking about the assignment since she'd met Tobias.
He was giving her something she'd never experienced before - freedom. All of her artistic inspirations and imaginations were coming into play on this one, and she could actually do whatever the hell she wanted. A part of her was still skeptical, worried that he'd end up regretting letting her put the tattoo on him without seeing it first, but he was very adamant. He insisted he didn't give a shit what that tattoo was, as long as it covered him.
There were papers scattered all over her desk now, most of them scrawled with blackout sketches, designs she'd never used before, and it made her smile widen. This was going to be fun.
However, as she contentedly sank into her chair, she remembered she had other clients to work for. There were two consultants she had today before Tobias's, and both of those were designs she'd done hundreds of times. Of course, she loved what she did, even though it became tedious, but she couldn't pretend like his request wasn't refreshing to her.
Her first client was to come in at ten. An hour. Tris forced herself to put away Tobias's back, to shove all of those designs into her bottom drawer, the one designated for personal projects. She wasn't sure why she'd put them there, or why that was her first instinct, but she didn't move them.
"Okay," she muttered to herself, trying to force focus into her mind, "Christina's first today." She dragged the watercolor compass sketch in front of her. They'd already done the outlining for this design. Today was coloring. Okay, she thought as she wheeled her chair to the mobile cart against the wall, coloring is fun.
And it was true. When she'd started to study tattooing, she knew for a fact that she wanted to do watercolor. She loved seeing different colors together and how they complimented one another. It fascinated her. What she hadn't expected was becoming enthralled by geometric designs. But she was exceptionally good at them, especially ones that included a lot of detail, so she combined the two arts.
Compasses weren't exactly geometric tattoos, but their basic structures were. And the watercolor splash was something Tris had been looking forward to since Christina had entered the shop.
"Hey, Tris?" she heard her client's voice now. She called her into her office, and the woman made herself at home, plopping into the seat across from Tris with a wary grin on her face. "You know there's a dog in your lobby, right?" Her tone was incredulous, as if she thought Tris was stupid for letting such a wild beast in her shop.
Tris just laughed it off. She'd learned early on to not get offended by her clients, or to take what they say personally. It was another reason she'd been so flustered at her meeting with Tobias yesterday; she usually didn't let people get to her like that. But something about his eyes seemed to see right through her, they were so deep…
She shook her head a bit. Why does he distract me so easily? I need to focus. "Yeah, that's Poe. He's probably asleep by now," she said nonchalantly. Christina still had that judgmental look on her face. Tris quirked an eyebrow at her. "Don't let his size intimidate you, Christina. He can smell fear."
She looked very uncomfortable, and Tris decided she should probably stop teasing her. This woman wasn't the type to have tattoos, so Tris didn't suspect she'd be coming back, but she didn't want bad word going around about her shop, especially since Christina seemed very opinionated.
"Okay, so we're just going to be doing the coloring today," Tris changed subjects, standing and leading Christina back into her workstation, picking up a pair of latex gloves in the process. Christina made herself comfortable in the client chair, rolling up the sleeve of her top to allow easier access for Tris.
"Yeah. Hopefully that turns out as great as the compass part," Christina said nervously, but she tried to hide it with a breathy chuckle. Tris didn't acknowledge her anxiety. Instead she flashed her a calming smile and took a look at her left bicep. The black on the outline seemed to be healed nicely, and there weren't many spots in which it was fading. Tris ran her fingers across the weaker places, and they didn't smudge, which was good. Christina would just need to come back for a touch-up in a month. Not uncommon.
"It did turn out nicely, didn't it? You've taken good care of it." The compliment visibly eased Christina's worry. Tris kept the smile on her face. She'd perfected this technique with her nervous clients. "The coloring is a lot easier to maintain, and it doesn't take as long to heal. You'll be perfectly fine, I'm sure." Christina smiled now, too.
Tris turned to her worktable and unwrapped a needle to attach the machine. Then she picked out the first color, an off-white creamy color. Christina's skin was a deep caramel color, so Tris would need to use darker colors than usual, but that was only an extra challenge. It drove her determination to give an awesome tattoo.
Christina's pain tolerance was pretty high for someone who didn't like needles. But Tris knew the process was still bothering her, because she didn't talk much during the coloring. And Tris couldn't get her to shut up when they were having their meetings.
Without bringing attention to this, Tris gave her a ten minute break to get a drink and go to the bathroom and such. Tris spent this time grabbing a water from Tori's office's mini fridge, and then going to check on Poe.
She'd expected him to be asleep - he was always sleeping - but to her abundant surprise, he was fully awake, being pet by a crouching man.
It was Tobias. She'd recognize that back anywhere, after staring at it for hours and hours last night.
"You're early," she deadpanned, waiting for him to turn around and greet her. But he remained eye-level with her dog, only briefly flashing her a ghost smile.
"I didn't know you had a dog," he said simply, not bothering to answer her unspoken question. He knew his appointment wasn't for another three hours, but he didn't have to work today, and something about her couldn't keep him away. He wanted to see her again, to see her eyes light up as she talked about his surprise tattoo.
He'd never been so entranced by another person, but Tris was thoroughly fascinating to him. She was passionate about what she did, about the art and about helping people through it.
It was clear she'd covered scars like his before, and he couldn't help but feel grateful towards her. Tris was doing this amazing thing for him, erasing the memory of Marcus somewhat, and she was acting like it was no big deal, just another part of her job.
"Yeah. He likes to chill here." She paused. Laughed a bit. "Well, he likes to chill everywhere, but I like having him with me. He keeps me grounded." He really had helped her through a lot. She wasn't sure she would be standing here now if it weren't for Poe's unwavering loyalty.
Tobias turned around to look at her. She was watching the dog, her hurricane eyes glazed over a bit as she seemed deep in thought. There was a calm smile on her face, but he could see the pain in whatever she was remembering. He'd never had someone or something that held him to reality, so he wasn't quite sure what this dog meant to her, but he suddenly had the urge to wrap her in his arms and tell her everything would be okay.
But the moment passed abruptly as a tall woman made her way into the lobby, yawning a bit. "Okay, Tris, I think I'm good," she chirped, her eyes on Tris before slowly drifting to him. He felt very uncomfortable under her critical eyes, which were now moving suspiciously between him and Tris. He turned back to the dog.
"Alright, let's finish this, then," she replied kindly. Tobias had never heard her voice so light, so sweet. It didn't match her personality very much. He wondered how long she'd practiced being kind for the sake of others'. Perhaps as long as he'd rehearsed being stable despite his mind constantly tearing itself apart.
But that wasn't right, not entirely. She was kind. She was a tattoo artist because she enjoyed helping other people. It was just a different type of kindness, an underrated type. He smiled a bit at the thought that he knew that and other people were too blind to see it.
Tris glanced over her shoulder on her way to the office. Tobias was grinning, his hands rubbing behind Poe's ears, and she almost stopped in her tracks at the sight of his tail, gracelessly flopping side to side.
She grinned, too. She told herself it was because she enjoyed seeing her dog happy, but a smaller, wiser part of her knew that wasn't the only reason.
Oh yeah, just letting you know now, I am not going to be using the tattoo Four had in the movies. I used that one as inspiration, but the tattoo I'm having him get is one of my own design. It's the current cover page for this story (assuming that uploaded correctly XD ) Be sure to let me know what you think! Thank you! - Loopy
