Flatmates - Solangelo AU

FIFTEEN

FIFTEEN

Will followed the directions Nico had left him to get to Art 'n Soul, pulling up into the parking lot. "You must be Alice." Will said, once he reached the front desk. Nico had mentioned her several times, and unless another female with a half shaved head and pierced eyebrow worked there, it was a pretty safe assumption.

"And you're Will." She replied with a thick British accent Nico had failed to mention. "Nico is just setting up, you can just take a seat over there." Alice pointed to the corner of the room where there were several chairs set up along the wall. Will nodded and headed over, nervous. He knew tattoo's hurt, but he had no idea how much. Only one way to find out. At least he knew he trusted the artist's skill. Nico had made a point to show him several other tattoos he had done, in case Will was unsure of letting him do his. He wasn't, but he humored him anyways.

Five minutes had passed before Nico came out from the back and walked over to Will. "You ready?" He questioned and Will nodded, following him to the back. The room was a lot bigger than he would have thought, with the chair in the middle of the room and a tray set up with the supplies beside it.

"You can take a seat." Nico said. Even though it was his friend, he wanted to be professional about it. He sanitized his hands then pulled on a pair of gloves. Will had worn a short sleeve shirt under the jacket he had already taken off, so he didn't have to deal with sleeves. He cleaned the skin and grabbed his stencil that he had made up earlier. "Is this where you want it?"

"Just a tad higher." Will watched Nico adjust the placement, then nodded. "Perfect." Nico transferred the stencil ink from the paper onto the skin and looked up at Will for confirmation. At his nod, he continued.

Nico turned on the machine and started the design on Will's left forearm. It didn't hurt tremendously; more like the feeling of scratching a sunburn continuously for the half hour it took for Nico to finish. So it wasn't painful per say, but it wasn't necessarily pleasant either.

The end product was two dark pine trees, merged together with a series of lines coming down, overlapping with the trees and giving the effect of there being a forest.

Nico was really happy with the way it had turned out, and going by the smile on Will's face, he was too. After quickly running through aftercare they headed to the front so Will could pay. Nico wasn't too concerned about writing the instructions down considering they lived together. "Alice, is Winona in yet?" Nico asked as Will finished up at the front.

"She just got in. She's upstairs right now but told me to tell you she'll be 'down in a jiff'. So, let me see." Alice held out a hand for Will's arm. "Ooh, nice. Did you design it Nico?" She asked.

He nodded and was about to speak before Winona beat him to it.

"Hello my dears!" She called out as she came in through the front door. "Did you get that stencil done for me, son?" She asked Nico who nodded in reply. "Excellent, excellent. Shall we head to the back, then? Will, you're welcome to join us."

"Alright." Will smiled and followed them to the back to the other studio room. Nico sat on the chair, taking off his shirt before lying down fully. Will tried not to stare, but saw just how skinny Nico actually was. He made a mental note to .

Despite being old, Winona's hands didn't shake a single bit, and she was clearly talented. Will took advantage of this moment to take a closer look at Nico's other tattoo and take in all the details he had missed when he had only caught a brief glimpse of it.