INKED - poly!cashton

one

- monday : week 1 -

Eve watches as Calum walks over to another artist's station and hands him the other cup of coffee. The man smiles up at him and they share a look. Eve connects the dots that he must be Ashton. She's wondered about his and Calum's relationship. They'd both posted some pretty intimate pictures of them tattooing one another, including a matching piece on their sides that says 'soulmate'

"Are you ready to start?" Calum asks with an eyebrow raise and Eve feels her heart rate increase. This is her dream and she nods. There's an empty station next to Calum's and she stands near it without claiming it.

"This is all yours," Calum smiles. "It's bare obviously, it's up to you to decorate. I got you your first gun and supplies, but you aren't going to be with clients for at least six months," he shrugs, "but after we learn the basics you can begin on some fake skin, move onto friends or yourself, and then when i'm confident enough for your to tattoo me, we'll talk about clients,"

Confident enough for you to tattoo me. That was more pressure than tattoo clients in Eve's mind. Calum Hood is covered in tattoo and he was constantly showing them off on social media. Adding a piece of her own to his own personal gallery was terrifying.

"I have a client in about a hour, i'm going to finish
up planning their piece, i want you to sit with me during the first half hour or so of their tattoo but when I'm not showing you something, i want you to start working on some flash sheets," he takes another drink of his coffee and Eve smiles and nods. Calum smiles back and she can't help but melt a little.

Eve sits at her area and pulls out her iPad. She gets to work with some doodles, trying to find a common theme for the sheet. This one was turned into decomposing skulls, with moss, mushrooms, and bugs.

"That one's sick," the voice makes her jump, and looking up Ashton stands next to her. The man is also covered in tattoos but his look is very different than Calum's. Calum looks like your everyday bad boy, with tattoos and leather jackets. Ashton is different, he wears a sweater and light washed jeans, his station is full of earthy colors and Eve finds Ashton to be a lot more welcoming.

His finger points to the picture of the opossum skull, mushrooms, flowers, and grass overgrown the skull and a centipede crawls out of its eye socket. Eve smiles up at him, "thank you," she says and he smiles back, dimples popping out of his cheeks.

"When you start on real people let me know, i need that," he pats his leg in the spot where she assumes he wants the piece before walking over to Calum. Eve is left to herself and she can't help but let a smile creep onto her face. World Renowned Tattoo Artist, Ashton Irwin, wants her art on him? She can't believe it.

They secretly watch the two as they interact. The way Ashton scrunches up his nose when Calum says something to make him laugh. Calum shows Ashton his IPad and Ashton openly critiques it, hand rubbing on Calum's shoulder.

Eve looks back at their own IPad before the front door dings and a client walks in. The man greets Luke before Calum stands up and walks into the lobby.

Eve doesn't pay attention to their conversation until they walk over to them and then they smile at the man. "This is my apprentice Eve, they'll be watching over me today for your tattoo," Calum says and pulls up the art. Eve listening silently as they discuss the concept and finally when it's decided he prints it out and brings it over.

"This printer is specifically for the templates," Calum says pointing to one of the printers behind the counter, "And that one is for any other images we need for the consultation," Eve takes notes in their mind as he speaks.

When he bring the template over he says, "you first make sure the area is well shaved and cleaned before just laying it on." he does as he says and Eve watches closely, taking in everything. They sit through the first half hour of the appointment, Calum carefully saying everything that they are doing before the client asks to take a restroom break.

"Keep working on what you were doing," he says as he hands up and slips a box of cigarettes from his side table into his pocket. Ashton looks over from his client,

"Look at their work, it's amazing," Eve blushes at his words and Calum smiles and walks over to look.

"These are awesome," he hums looking at the page closely, "I really like the style that you're developing,"

He walks away and Eve continues. He walks over to Ashton's station.

"That looks badass," he tells the girl that Ashton is tattooing and she giggles.

"Think so?" she asks and he nods crossing his arms. Eve looks over to see the girl bite her lip eyes checking out Calum slowly. They watch as Ashton looks at her before Calum.

"Smoke break?" he asks as he wipes her arm.

"Yeah I was heading out," Calum says and motions to the back door. Ashton nods and puts down his tattoo gun.

"Let's take a small break," he says and she nods watching as the artist stands up and follows Ashton out the back door.

In the station across from Eve, Luke is drawing something up. Eve loves Calum's style as much as the other two. He was more of floral artist, his wall being filled with images of different flowers and plants.

In the front Michael sits at the counter humming to the rock music that plays through the shop. The front door dings and a girl walks up to him and he begins to show her different jewelry that they have for piercings.

-

Eve feels a wave of relief flood them when the open sign is turned off. It's nine pm, much later than they usually worked at their last job. "Good first day," Calum smiles as he walks over to them packing up. "Tomorrow we'll start planning a tattoo for you,"

Eve's eyes light up, "really?"

"Free tattoos and piercings for the shop artists!" Luke smiles from where he's sweeping the floor.

Eve looks between all them. "Free piercings?" they question and Michael looks around from the front,

"Any time you want," he says, "I'll gladly stick you,"

Eve nods a giddiness filling their chest as they pull their bag over their shoulder. "I'll let you know," they tell Michael who just smiles and nods. "and I'll look over your flash tomorrow,"

"I'll tattoo you next," Ashton says as he walks in from the back with a bag and goes over to Calum's area putting a few things in the bag that the other man thanks him for.

"We also go down to the bar on Friday nights after our last clients if you want to join," Ashton continues, "I know i'd love having a fresh face with us,"

Calum rolls his eyes and turns off his lamp to complete his closing, "Anyways, we'll see you tomorrow, Eve," he says and gives Ashton a nod before they head out, Eve following their lead and leaving out of the front.