road trip.

[43] RED DRAGON TATTS

taehyung focus
a sleepy taehyung struggles to keep his eyes open as he sits back against the worn bus seat, tilting his head slightly to look out of the windows at the fleeting streetlamps they pass by. on his right is jungkook who's hunched over in his seat, distractedly scribbling away at a piece of folded paper spread on his thigh. taehyung leans over slightly to get a look at what the boy was scrawling so earnestly.

"that's really good." taehyung hums, eying the flower design on jungkook's paper appreciatively. "you draw really well, kook." he murmurs before leaning back in his seat, rubbing his eye tiredly.

"o–oh, thanks." jungkook mutters, slightly embarrassed. he wasn't one to show his drawings; they were usually messy scribbles done on the back of takeout receipts — they were private, special things that jungkook liked to keep for his eyes only. so the fact that taehyung had taken a peek at his tattoo design and liked it, causes jungkook to squirm in his seat a little shyly.

"so where are we going?" taehyung asks, wrapping his arms around himself.

"a tattoo parlour." jungkook replies, recovering from his slight shyness. he refolds the piece of drawn on paper and holds the tiny square in his palm, the four blunt corners digging into his clammy skin.

"a tattoo parlour?" taehyung repeats, surprised. "why're we going to a tattoo parlour?"

"to get a tattoo, duh." jungkook rolls his eyes before adding on in a quieter voice, "im thinking about tattooing this design on my left hand — what d'you think?" he looks over at taehyung, expectantly waiting for his answer.

taehyung gasps, "you're going to have a tattoo of your own artwork on your hand?? that's so cool!" he says, eyes round with awe.

"it's not that cool." jungkook mumbles, feeling shy all over again.

"yes, it is!" taehyung argues back.

"jeez, don't yell in the bus."

taehyung lowers his voice at jungkook's words and murmurs, "yanno, ive had tattoos before."

brows furrowing, jungkook swivels his head round to face at taehyung, "what? you've had tattoos done before?" he asks, astonished.

a wistful taehyung side eyes jungkook, "hm? of course — every kid had them when i was younger. didn't your generation have them? i had an awesome spiderman tattoo on my knee and a batman logo on the back of my hand—" taehyung says rather proudly as he folds his arms over his chest. "— but my nanny made me wash them off immediately."

"kim. . . are you talking about those sticker tatts you get in those marvel candy packs?"

"so you do know what they are! have you seen them in store? do they still sell them or not?" taehyung asks excitedly.

"oh my god, kim." jungkook shakes his head, laughing.

+

after a short bus ride in which taehyung and jungkook argued about whether sticker tatts were actual tattoos or just body stickers (jungkook finally caved in with a sigh and let taehyung claim that sticker tatts were still tattoos, sticker-like or not), they walk away from the bus station they were dropped off at and head down to the street where the tattoo parlour resided at.