Never Gonna Let You Go

The One Where it's All Elyse's Fault

So here is our kind of "Official Chapter 1" I guess. This should be interesting guys.

Enjoy,

--Ara and LTT

A woman with long wild blond hair laughed at her companion, a hand fisting her bangs above her forehead long enough to stare at his worried look. In this part of town, she looked like she might as well be from another planet, standing in an alley in a light grey jacket. Standing out in a crowd was never something she prefered, but being with those she cared about, she found herself blissfully unaware.

“Are you sure you want to get a tattoo from this place?” Looking over his shoulder, her dark haired companion shuddered and curled himself into his jacket, almost protecting himself. His hands dug into his pockets tightly as he jogged to catch up to his friend.

“Hey, you didn’t have to come along.”

“You asked for my help, and my opinion comes along with that help.”

Elyse rolled her eyes, “Come on Zayn, where is your sense of adventure?”

“Isn’t getting something permanently etched into your skin adventure enough? Do you need to contract some disease while you’re at it?” Zayn warily looked toward the opposite side of the road they were near, “Come on, I know this guy, he does great work, and I can guarantee he knows where his needles have been.”

He gave the building another skeptical look and muttered under his breath, “this place looks like his doorknobs may be cleaner than his needles.”

Elyse crossed her arms, trying her hardest not to giggle as her hip jutted out. She paused in front of a cherry wood door on the side of a graffiti building, “What, you think I don’t do my research?”

“C’mon you pansy,” Elyse laughed watching Zayn sputter. She walked up the small two steps before using her body weight to open the door, looking back at him as an afterthought. She just rolled her eyes before reaching to snag his jacket in her fingers and tug him in after her.

“I’ll have you know, this place has rave reviews.” Elyse was fighting a smile as she pulled Zayn into the dim shop. It was perfect; just what she needed. It was dimly lit, she was pretty sure half the bulbs in the shop might actually be blown. The large man at the counter was covered in a stereotypical amount of ink - including a considerable amount of skulls, and looked suitably terrifying. She could clearly see crumbs and other such remnants from who-know- what left on his counter, he himself looking none too sanitary as he ate the last bit of what she assumed to be his lunch. Wiping his hands on his pants he looked up at the people walking into his shop and at least had the decency to not speak with his mouth full, giving them a nod in acknowledgement as he chewed and swallowed. Elyse couldn’t help but smile a little evilly as she caught the slightly wide-eyed look of disgust, and possible terror on Zayn’s face out of the corner of her eye. Just to add to the whole effect, she whispered,

“Perfect.” This place was beyond what she was looking for.

~ ~ ~

She had been chatting with the man at the counter for a few minutes, discussing prices and policies as Zayn just stood over her shoulder, examining the parlor in slight horror, noting many things that he disagreed with, but almost too shocked to come out and say anything negative in the presence of the rather intimidating man.

Elyse finished up her conversation and waited just long enough for the frightening man to excuse himself and walk into the back room to grab her release form before snagging Zayn’s arm and scurrying out of the building,