Flowering Tattoos

1: Regular Meetup

"Be prepared, the flower kids are coming in again tonight, and I think some of them are drunk this time." Thalia warned.

"Awe hell yeah, sounds fantastic. I hope they bring some for us too." Will grinned, and was quickly lightly slapped over the head with a pamphlet.

"No drinking on the job, blondie. We do not need mad customers because you're too inebriated to do your job right." Kayla scolded.

"Like Cecil did?"

"Yeah, like Cecil did. Remember to be good, kind, and encouraging, all of you! Money money money!" Kayla announced to the whole shop. Will snorted.

"Mr. Krabs much?"

"Under capitalism, we're all Mr. Krabs." Thalia stated wistfully.

"That's the most fake deep shit I've ever heard."

"I already know that's not true, Will, dad's said a lot worse." Kayla argued.

"...You right, you right."

"We have arrived and we brought pizzas!" Someone with black hair and green eyes burst into the small tattoo parlor, holding up a stack of pizza boxes happily.

"Bad boy supreme has decided he wants a tattoo!" Someone else announced.

"Leo why did you even come with us? You don't work at persie's. You too, Percy." Yet another added, a smaller man with black hair and the darkest brown eyes Will'd ever seen.

"What, I'm not allowed to come with my friends to a tattoo parlor party?" Percy questioned.

"I never said that, it's just a shop tradition and you don't work there."

"What he meant is that Annabeth's busy and this is an excuse to annoy Thalia." Piper added.

"Speaking of Thalia, Leo, get over here and tell me what you want!" Thalia shouted at him. Bad boy supreme disappeared into a corner as Percy set down the food.

"Hey what pizza did you get?" Will rushed towards the boxes, like any good American.

"Every type in the goddamn world." The other black-haired dude answered. Will'd seen him often, of course, but he never once caught the name.

"Language." Percy glared.

"Fuck you."

"Young man-"

"What's your name?" Will pointed to the "young man," interrupting their little spat.

"Nico Di Angelo. I'm here every saturday?"

"Yeah but you're usually too busy following around that one girl with the floofy hair that I can't talk to you." Will explained.

"That girl with the floofy hair is Hazel, my sister."

"Ah. She seems sweet." Will smiled. Percy gave Nico A Look™ that Will didn't recognize, then walked off with a slice of pizza.

"She really is."

"Are you planning on gettin' a tattoo tonight?" Will questioned.

"I don't exactly have the money to do so, so no."

"Aw. Would you want to, you know, if you did have money?"

Nico thought for a moment, "I'd like to get one of a name. A family member that died. As a... Tribute, to her."

"Oh hey, I have my big brother's name near my shoulder, got it after he died. It's kind of small amongst the rest of 'em, harder to see." Will pulled up his sleeve, pointing out a small "Michael" along with some years.

"Oh. Thats... That's really nice." Nico stated, sort of quiet.

"He sort of encouraged me to get into this profession, so, you know. Thought it'd be a good idea. Anyway, tell me about yourself, Nico Di Angelo."

a/n wow i'm slightly less dead than usual. let's see how long this lasts