Blue Clouds: an Arcane Fanfiction

Chapter 1

"We're closed," Kaleb yelled, scrubbing the front counter.

After dealing with his brother's short tempered snapping all day, Kaleb was in no mood to humour an out of hours customer. Their ink shipment had been delayed due to vicious storms, and the ink vendor had demanded double the agreed upon price. Only his brother's ostensible ill humour and the promised brute violence in his body language had sent the vendor skulking back to his shop stand. But pissy customers, deadlines and shifty suppliers had left Kaleb to deal with the brunt of his brother's ire.

And he still had to clean up.

Turning angrily he opened his mouth to shout at the customer persisting in banging on the shop door when the knocking abruptly stopped. A moment passed, long enough that Kade assumed the customer had gone home. Probably a drunkard, Kaleb thought in disgust, returning his attention to the filthy counter. Does my brother ever clean? Jesus.

A flash of blue in his peripheral vision shattered through the shop window, leaving a thin girl standing in the tattoo parlour, waist length braids swaying behind her. Blue eyes flitted around nervously, like those of a trapped animal and blood welled from dozens of slices made by the glass. He might have yelled at her again, if she hadn't been trembling violently enough that he worried she would collapse on the floor.

Head angled down to avoid his gaze, she slunk into a chair, sliding a crumpled slip of paper onto the counter. Scribbled across the paper were blue clouds, drawn crudely, as though by a child some years younger than the 12-ish year old slip of a girl before him.

"I just packed up" he told her.

Her eyes flashed to his angrily, wiry muscles tensing on her small frame. A retort formed on her lips, but all that come out was a choked sob. She turned her head away in shame, wiping furiously at her eyes. 

Kade sighed, and began unpacking the tattoo equipment. He'd just have to be late home. Again. He barred his mind from the memory of the last time he was late. His mother kicked that piece of shit to the curb a month ago, but he wasn't in any hurry to weather her wrath either. 

"You sure you want those? You know tattoos are permanent, right?" 

Just say no kid, he prayed. 

She met his eyes defiantly, in clear affirmation. Kade sighed long-sufferingly. He jerked his head towards the cabinet. 

"There's paper towel in there. I just wiped the floors. You get blood on these, and you'll be cleaning it up."

She rolled her eyes, suddenly dry and clear, and sidled up to the cabinet blithely. Kade raised an eyebrow at her improved mood. 

She crouched down, swiping a finger across the grimy concrete. 

"Yeah," she snickered. "It looks real clean."

Kade scowled. "You try cleaning without clean water."

"You try cleaning without clean water" she mimicked under her breath.

His temper flashed. "Cut it, kid. And your mommy, or daddy, or whoever, had better replace that window." he snapped.

The girl's face darkened and she trailed back to the counter sullenly.

"Trouble at home?" Kade smirked, half taunting, and half curious. At 15 years of age, an age at which he considered himself to be an adult, Kade would usually be above provoking scrawny, prepubescent girls. But he was in piss poor humour. She'd broken his window, insulted his floors, and, inexplicably, he was helping her. Hurt lit up across her face before she quickly looked away, hugging her knees close to her chest.

"Just tattoo me."

Fine by him. He felt a flicker of remorse at having hurt her, but he was too stubborn to apologise.

"Your name, first." he asked coldly, bored. Her feelings weren't his problem, he reminded himself, shaking his head to clear it. The tattoo gun in his hand whirred to life.  

"Jinx."