Invictus

Scars

“You should get a tattoo. Cover them up.”

Alec startled, swirling around swiftly, and tugged his shirt back down.

“One of those days, I’m gonna change the locks so you can’t just barge in my apartment as you like,” he mumbled.

“You’re the one who gave me a spare key,” his sister said, wiggling the set in front of his eyes tauntingly. “But don’t change the subject. It still bothers you. Why don’t you cover them up?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alec sighed, pushing past her to head to the kitchen.

“The scars,” Isabelle said bluntly, because she had never been one to beat around the bush. “You could cover them up with a tattoo if they bother you that much.”

“You talked to Jace, didn’t you?,” Alec replied, his shoulders a tensed line as he rummaged in his fridge to find them something to eat for dinner.

“He may or may not have mentioned you making a fool of yourself in front of a sexy tattooed guy who looks like he invented everything sinful and probably wrote a few pages of the Kama Sutra. His words, not mine.”

Alec rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well Jace was literally gaping at the tiny redhead so he should probably keep his mouth shut.”

“Grass is always greener and all that,” Isabelle dismissed, pushing him off the way to close the fridge and grab the pizza takeaway number on the door, already composing the number on her phone. Once she had placed their order, she hung up and crossed her arms over her chest, levelling Alec with a look that made him feel like the younger sibling of them two. “Stop stalling.”

“What do you even know about tattoos?” Alec grumbled.

“Well, I’ve got one and I used to date a tattoo artist who used to talk about his job all day long so probably more than you do,” Isabelle retorted, curving a defiant eyebrow.

“You’ve got a tattoo? Since when?” Alec exclaimed bewilderedly, older brother mode full back on.

“Since I’m a grown-ass woman who can do what she pleases with her body,” she retorted and Alec rolled his eyes but kept his mouth shut. There was no denying that.

She pulled her tank top up and Alec asked himself how he had never seen it before. From her hip to the bottom of her breast, two snakes were interlacing, skin patterned with such realism that he had to wonder if they might start moving if he kept staring for long enough. Their heads were on opposite sides of the ink, like they had somehow lost their ways to each other in their sinuous paths.

“Wow,” Alec muttered after a while. “It’s beautiful.”

Isabelle grinned widely. “Right?”

Alec scoffed, reaching out to ruffle his sister’s hair. Her protest was muffled by the laughter underneath.

“So, the sexy beast next door… Is he any good?” she asked, a mischievous spark flickering in her eyes.

“I don’t know,” Alec replied with a shrug. “And I don’t think he could do anything for me anyway.”

“Hey, you wouldn’t be the first person to have scars covered up by a tattoo,” Isabelle said, in a soft, soothing tone that managed to tear a smile from Alec. “They do wonderful things with women who had to go through a double mastectomy.”

She typed something on her phone quickly, before handing it over. Alec stared at the pictures for a while, the contrast between the before and the after so strikingly beautiful that he felt a little dizzy for a while. He reached out to scratch as his scarred ribs without really thinking about it, but Izzy stopped him before he could, rubbing her thumb on the back of his hand soothingly.

Alec handed her the phone back when the doorbell rang, and he hadn’t realized for how long he had scrolled down the different pictures until then.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Great,” Izzy beamed. “Now, go pay for pizza, I’m starving!”