Page 143 of Scrimmage

“Oh, there will be dicks,” I snicker. There’s a knock on the door as I pull on my gloves and let them slap my wrists.

“Can we come in?” Smith timidly asks.

Alexi grins. “Yeah, let’s make it a party."

I make him lay down, and Koda stands over me. “Can you give me some space, weirdo?”

He dangles the keys to the car in front of me. “Just wanted to know where you want them.”

“In the ignition, like I left them.” I shove him aside with my hip and dip the gun into the ink. The buzzing starts, causing Alexi to wince. “I haven’t even touched you.”

“Yeah, just preparing myself.”

I tap the needles to his skin, and he grips the leather.

“Want Koda to hold your hand?” I laugh. Koda balks at the thought and crosses his arms, leaning back in his seat.

“I’ll distract him,” Angel offers, pulling up a chair. I flip on my music and get lost in my head.

I don’t know how much time passes, but my back is aching. I look, and I shade. I stand, look at it from different angles, and sit back down. No one says anything to me, but they all chit chat. Alexi is in pain by the time I finish. I can tell.

“All done.” I finally sit back and stretch, tossing the gun onto the tray. Smith left at some point.

“Only took five hours,” he mumbles. Angel helps him sit up, and takes him into the lobby to look into the mirror.

“Holy shit, Ashy!” Alexi runs into the room. “It’s fucking perfect. It’s perfect.”

“Let me see,” Koda says.

Alexi turns around and shows us the winged god of love. I can admit that it’s fucking good.

“You like it?” I tried to hide my smile.

“I fucking love it.”

“Come here. Let me clean it and cover it.”

“You’re gonna help me take care of this, right?”

“Duh. Can’t have you fucking up five hours of work.” Alexi muses for a while and has Angel take pictures while he poses. I start to clean up. I almost forget that Koda is there.

Koda nods toward the door. “It’s really good, Ash.”

“Thanks.” I give him a tired smile. “You could have said Alexi already had the appointment.”

“It was more fun this way. Need help?”

I shove ink at him. “Put this away.”

He doesn’t argue, just takes it out of my hands and faces the wall. I expect them to be shoved anywhere and I’ll just have to deal with it later, but he has his hands hovering over it, speculating the placement. He puts everything exactly where I like it. I don’t know how he did it.

Koda catches me staring at him. “What?”

“How did you know?”

He’s confused at first, then realizes I’m talking about the wall. “You organize them by their vibes or whatever bullshit you would say.”

He’s right. I do. I place the last few things in my drawer as Alexi settles with Angel.

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