Flowering Tattoos

2: Totally Not Spying

"Why are you staring out the window like this is a movie?" Kayla questioned her brother.

"The dude with the brown eyes, Nico, I kinda... Got the impression that he's not doing great, money-wise."

"So you're spying on him?"

"No! Yes. I just want to see if he, like... goes home, I don't know. He seemed really cool, okay, I want to hang out more." Will defended.

"Still weird. They're open for another ten minutes, just go ask him out or something."

"I am not doing that. I don't want to ask him out, and going in there makes my hair embarrassingly fluffy."

"You're adorable when your hair is fluffy, though. Maybe he'd be more likely to accept your proposal of a date." Kayla reasoned.

"I don't want to ask him out! God, you ship people so quickly."

"Yeah, because you're a lonely gay disaster and he looked like one too."

"You cannot decide if someone's a gay disaster just by looking at them, you gaydar is not that great."

"I knew you were bi before you did."

"I had an obsession with Brendon Urie for months, of course I wasn't straight. And hey, remember when you predicted my soulmate would be a dude?" Will mused. Kayla pouted.

"My soulmate instincts are TOP, okay? I knew who Thalia's was, Thalia's brother's, I figured out that neither of our moms was dad's soulmate... How was I so wrong?"

"No idea." Will shrugged.

"...You still remember your words, right?"

"Of course. "I'd never treat you the way she did, never in a million years." I don't think I could forget it, really. I remember what day she said it, the context, everything. Plus when I said hers." Will sighed and frowned, not particularly in love with the topic. He thought of the tattoo covering his soulmate markings-a fairly large skull with floral patterns over the small words.

"It's shitty what happened, bro. Fate was fucking mean to you. You didn't deserve the bull you dealt with with her."

"Yeah, well. Fuck fate, I guess."

"That's the spirit. Are you staying over all night? It's getting late."

"Yeah, I think so. Why not, I mean, it's something to do, it's not as though I have any plans tonight. I'll just organize or something." Will shrugged, still watching out the window.

"Or you could come go home to your comfortable couch."

"That's boring, Kayla."

"You're so weird."

"You're the one without a soulmark."

"Low blow, Blondie. Low blow. At least something comes out of my soulmate issues, I can sense shit, you just ended up in a shitty relationship."

"Ouch. I don't love how this became a roast session, but I'm willing to fight you."

"I'm out, one of you have to close for the night." Thalia walked out, leaving Will and Kayla alone in the shop.

"I'm not getting in a roasting battle with you right now, Will. We both know that can and would last hours."

"True. Go home already, Kayla."

"You go home too."

"No, I uh... Like I said, I'm staying here. Why not."

"Alright, don't come crawling back to me if someone breaks in and kills you."

"I don't think I could crawl back to you, i'd be dead."

"...Don't come annoy me as a ghost if someone breaks in and kills you. And don't be caught spying on the flower shop, weirdo."

"Yeah, yeah. Begone, thot." And, with that, Kayla left Will alone in the little tattoo parlor.