Ink - Bumblebee (Patreon)

“What do you think about this one?”  Pointing towards a picture hung on the wall, Yang turned to Blake for approval.  Or, in this case, a shrug and an expression that clearly said ‘meh.’

“No?” Yang asked, taking another look at the drawing of some foreign symbol she couldn’t even read before moving away.  If Blake didn’t approve, then it wasn’t happening - no way was she choosing something Blake didn’t love.  Not when it was permanent.

“What about this one then?”

This time, a realistic-looking black panther caught her eye.  Tilting her head to the side, she imagined the prowling creature taking up residence on her shoulder, looking fearsome and sleek with its perfect curves and amber eyes - 

“I hope you have a good reason for picking that one.”

When Yang turned around and found matching amber eyes watching her closely, she flashed a confident smile and waved her hand.

“I’ve loved panthers for like - forever,” she fudged.  “They’re powerful and...sexy.”

From the way Blake’s ears flicked, she hadn’t fallen for the lie.  However, it was an indirect compliment, so she let it slide.

“I was thinking something more like this,” she replied, crossing the room and putting her finger beside a drawing of a yellow dragon.  Its tail curled intricately around itself while a hint of smoke unfurled from its nostrils, but, overall, it was pretty...mellow.

“Are you saying I’m a cute, little dragon?”

Yang thought Blake would scoff at the question; instead, she smiled and gently stroked the picture hanging on the wall.

“My little dragon...” she whispered as she did so, and Yang instantly lost any resistance to the idea of having a dragon live on her skin forever.

“Done.”  When Blake looked at her, Yang smiled and nodded.  “That’s what I’ll get - I’ll get this little guy on my shoulder.”  After motioning towards the spot on the back of her shoulder that they’d both decided upon, she waved towards the rows of pictures they just walked through.  “What about you?  Find what you want yet?”

As soon as Blake sighed, Yang had her answer.

“Nothing really sticks out to me.”

“Remember, you can get anything you want,” Yang prodded.  “These are just examples to help give you ideas.”

Sensing another sigh on the horizon, Yang took Blake’s hand and led the girl back towards the front of the tattoo parlor where they’d decided to get their first (and probably only) tattoos together.

“Maybe you should get the panther,” Yang suggested, again stopping in front of the creature that reminded her of Blake in multiple ways.  “Then it’ll be like...we’re getting our spirit animals.”

“You think a panther is my spirit animal?”

When Blake sounded genuinely surprised, Yang laughed and squeezed her hand.  

“Cunning, silent, quick, and drop-dead gorgeous,” Yang checked off the fingers on her free hand before grinning.  “Yup, sounds about right.”

‘Hmm’ing at the response, Blake gave the drawing a longer look, analyzing the details while trying to decide whether it was worthy of such an irrevocable decision.  While she did that and Yang waited patiently for whatever the response would be, the door beside them opened and an employee walked out.

The open doorway released a buzzing sound into the waiting area - an intermittent bzz bzzz bzzzz that caught both of their attentions.  When Blake leaned to the side, Yang followed her lead so the two of them could peek into the room beyond.

The girl who’d arrived before them had her arm laying across a table while a man holding what looked like an oversized pen worked on a patch of color on her wrist.  The machine emitted the buzzing sound whenever he pressed it to her skin - and she cringed when he did so.  And it wasn’t a ‘wow that joke was bad’ type of cringe…it was more like a ‘please don’t remove the skin from my arm’ type of cringe.

Thankfully, the door closed then, blocking the concerning sight from view.  In the few seconds of silence that followed, Yang tried to think of a joke, but Blake spoke up first.

“I thought you said this doesn’t hurt,” she said, looking at Yang with an expression that silently demanded an explanation for what they just saw.

“I mean - yeah, that’s what Nora said.”  

“Did that look like it didn’t hurt?”

When Blake motioned towards the closed door and the now-muffled buzzes coming from within, Yang knew there was no arguing with the observation.  That poor girl was clearly in pain.

“Maybe she’s just a wimp?” Yang offered, but immediately shook her head when Blake pursed her lips.  “Ok, so maybe it hurts a little bit.  It’s probably not that bad, and it’ll be over before you know it!  Right?”

Before Blake had the opportunity to respond, another door opened and an employee stepped into the waiting area.

“Blake Belladonna?” the man read from a pad of paper before looking at the two of them.  “Which one of you is Blake?”

When Blake stiffened at the question, Yang knew she had to do something - but what?  Lie and say that she was Blake?  Lie and say that neither of them was Blake?  

“Uh…”

***

“How long has it been?”

“Twenty seconds.”

Nodding at Blake’s answer, Yang held still for a little while longer.  She didn’t know if it was super important for her to remain absolutely motionless, but she aired on the side of caution and didn’t move a muscle for the next ten seconds.

Once ten seconds were up, she set the damp washcloth on the desk before slowly peeling the small piece of paper away from Blake’s shoulder.  As she did so, a smile appeared at the sight she saw.

“Perfect!” she exclaimed.  Taking a deep breath, she blew on the area for several seconds before leaning away with a smile.  “It came out really well.”

After running her thumb across the black and yellow bee now residing on the back of Blake’s shoulder, she moved out of the way so that Blake could see her new ‘ink’ in the mirror.

“What do you think?”

For a few seconds, Blake didn’t say a word.  Instead, she stared at her reflection while moving back and forth to examine the little bee from every angle.  Apparently she liked what she found, because she met Yang’s gaze through the glass and smiled.

“It looks good.”

“And now we match!” Yang added, turning around and pulling down her sleeve to show an identical bee placed in the same spot as Blake’s.  “We’ll be the cool kids with matching tattoos -”

“Who just run out of a real tattoo parlor because they were afraid -”

“Shhhh.”  Pressing a finger to Blake’s lips, Yang laughed and shook her head.  “No one needs to know about that.  All they need to know is that we -”  Gesturing between them, she grinned.  “Are awesome.”

With that said, the two of them looked in the mirror and marveled at the spots of black and yellow marking their shoulders - for now.  According to the package, the tattoos would last for about three days - 

“You realize Weiss and Ruby will notice when these wear off,” Blake commented.  “Then they’ll know we chickened out.”

“We didn’t chicken out.  We decided that we needed more time to think about it before making such a big decision.”  When Blake playfully rolled her eyes at the answer - looking not at all upset about how things had worked out - Yang gave her a kiss and smiled.  “Plus, that’s what these are for.”  

Grabbing a plastic sleeve from the desk, Yang held up a package filled with identical bee tattoos - four hundred and fifty of them, to be exact.

“We’re gonna be temporary-tattoo pros in no time!”