#holi photo frame online

[canirove]

In The Name of Love | Chapter 19

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Masterlist

"How long until you arrive?" Pedri asks.

"5 minutes according to the gps."

"Are you ready?"

"To spend the weekend celebrating that my ex boyfriend is marrying a woman I hate? I'm ecstatic" I reply.

"Lucky you, you have me" Ferran smiles.

"Will you take care of her?" Pedri asks him.

"I will" Ferran says, quickly looking at my phone's screen and then back at the road.

"What was that?" I laugh.

"Uh?"

"That look you two just shared. Is that some bro code or something?"

"What?" Pedri says.

"Yeah… Something only you two understand."

"It was just a look of I will take care of your girlfriend so she doesn't do anything stupid like running away or killing the bride" Ferran says.

"Why would I run away?"

"Love that you are asking that instead of why would you kill the bride" Pedri laughs.

"I have reasons to do that. But running away?"

"That's what you did during their engagement party."

"Because we had had something like an argument and you were all I could think about."

"Awww, Val" Pedri smiles.

"Guys, please don't get cheesy while I'm present" Ferran says. He tries to make it sound as a joke, but I've noticed the way his grip on the steering wheel has tightened.

"Anyway, we are almost there. I will call you later or tomorrow morning, ok?" 

"Yeah, sure. Enjoy tonight's party or whatever they are doing" Pedri says.

"White party they've called it. So original" I scoff.

"Try to enjoy it, Val. You too, Ferran."

"Thanks, bro" he says.

"And again, don't do anything stupid. That goes for both of you."

"Yes, mum" Ferran and I say at the same time before starting to laugh.

"And then I am the kid" Pedri sighs, rolling his eyes.

"Yes. My favourite one" I smile.

"I love you, Val" Pedri smiles back.

"I love you too" I say before hanging up.

"So…" Ferran says.

"So."

"Ready to fake again that I'm your boyfriend?"

"Are you?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" he chuckles. "I said yes to this, didn't I?"

"I know, but…"

"Holy shit."

"What? What happened?"

"Val, are you sure this is the right address?"

"Yes. Why… Oh, wow" I say when I look at the road. At the end of it, there is a… palace? A castle? Both? I had seen photos of the venue online, but it was nothing compared to seeing it in real life.

"I feel like I'm going to have to call you my lady during our stay" Ferran laughs. "My Lady Valeria."

"Lord Ferran actually sounds like the name of someone who would have lived in a place like this" I chuckle.

"See? I can be posh too!"

"More like royal."

"That's cooler if you ask me. So, for the rest of the weekend, you may address me as Lord Ferran Torres" he says, straightening his back.

"Yes, my lord" I laugh, his weird faces and poses making me relax and forget about what is ahead of us. 

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"It feels wrong, you know? Throwing a white party in a freaking castle…" Ferran says from the bathroom. "We should be dressing as kings and queens, not like this. I've always wanted to try on those puffy shorts men used to wear."

"Puffy shorts?" I chuckle while putting on my shoes.

"Yes. The ones they wore with white tights."

"Maybe for your next birthday you should throw a party where people have to dress like that and make your dream come true."

"Maybe I should, yes" he says from the bathroom's door. When I look up, I see him leaning against the door frame like Pedri always does, his arms crossed over his chest. But it doesn't have the same effect on me. Not even when I catch him checking me out as I stand up.

"White suits you, tho."

"That isn't going to work, Val" Ferran laughs.

"What won't?"

"Flattering me. I'm not signing for Real Madrid even if white looks good on me" he smirks.

"Who says I want you on my team?" I tease him.

"Yeah, you prefer having me close to you" he says, slowly walking towards me and closing the space between us.

"Pedri" I blurt out. "I haven't called him and I told him… I should…"

"You should, yes. I'll wait outside" Ferran says, his voice sounding different. Cold. 

The moment he leaves the room, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. 

We are off to a great start.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

"I envy you so much Val… He is yummy."

"He is what?" I laugh.

"Yummy" my friend Alicia says. "Where did you find him?"

"I believe you can usually spot him at the Camp Nou" Sara chuckles. The two of them, Silvia and I, met when we were just 6, and we have been part of the same group of friends with Marc and some other boys since then. Though since he and I broke up, we haven't seen each other as often as we would like to. 

"I meant how did they meet" Alicia says, rolling her eyes. "You've kept him hidden from us, Val. Though I get it. I totally get it" she says, looking at Ferran from head to toe for the millionth time while he chats with some of the boys.

"I was on a night out with Silvia and we just met" I shrug.

"Just like that?"

"He offered to buy her a drink and 5 minutes later they were making out. What?" Silvia laughs when I give her a murderous look.

"It's ok, Val. I would have done the same" Alicia sighs. 

"Did you know who he was?" Sara asks me.

"Nope. He had just moved from Manchester, I wasn't familiar with him yet" I tell her. That was the story we had decided to tell everyone, a mix of how I met Pedri and a few lies here and there. 

"The sex is the best you've ever had, isn't it?" Alicia suddenly says.

"Careful there" Sara chuckles when I almost choke with my drink.

"I'll take that as a yes. He is young and a professional athlete, I'm sure he lasts longer than the average guy. And he definitely knows what he is doing, doesn't he?" Alicia smirks. "Just look at you, Val. You look hotter than ever!"

"Yeah, just look at the colour of her cheeks" Sara laughs.

"Urgh, ignore her" Alicia says, giving her a little push. "You've always looked great, don't get me wrong. But you've never looked this good, Val. You are glowing!" 

"And when you walked in, I saw a few guys looking at you" Sara adds.

"They probably were looking at Ferran because they recognised him" I say.

"No, they weren't. They were checking you out. So if I was him, I would not leave your side just in case." 

"And if I were you, I wouldn't leave his either" Alicia says, her eyes fixed on Ferran once again while taking a sip from her drink.

"Girls!"

"Oh, dear" I whisper when I hear Isabel's voice.

"Aww, girls. It is so nice seeing you here!" she says, hugging Alicia, Sara and Silvia. "Hello, Valeria."

"Hi" I reply.

"Congratulations, Isa!" Sara says, trying to lighten up the mood. "Are you nervous about tomorrow?"

"Where is he?" Isabel asks me, completely ignoring her.

"Who?"

"That boyfriend of yours."

"Right here" Ferran says as he shows up next to me, putting his arm around my waist and kissing my cheek. Before the party we had agreed about the arm, but not the kiss. "Isabel, right? It's a pleasure to finally meet you. Congratulations" he says with his best smile, taking her hand and kissing it, his eyes fixed on hers. He is giving her his fucker look as Pedri, Eric and Gavi call it, the one that gets him the girl 9 times out of 10.

"Hi" Isabel giggles, clearing her throat to try and hide it. But we have heard it. All of us have. Ferran's charm has worked on her too. "I thought you wouldn't be able to come and poor Valeria would be all alone" she says, back to her usual self.

"Almost, but you chose the perfect weekend to get married. Just after the preseason ended and before the season starts" he smiles.

"Ready to kick Real Madrid's ass?" Sara asks him before looking at me.

"She will kick my ass if we dare to win them" Ferran laughs. "Won't you, Val?"

"You will be sleeping on the sofa for a month, yes" I reply.

"If that's the case, my bed is very comfortable" Alicia smirks.

"Ali!" Sara laughs.

"What? I had to shoot my shot" she shrugs.

"I'm very flattered, but I only have eyes for one girl" Ferran smiles. 

"Yeah, well… Let's not get cheesy in public, shall we?" I say, feeling my cheeks on fire. I'm pretty sure he wasn't lying or pretending when he said that.

"Yes, please. It is my day, not Valeria's" Isabel says, reminding us that she still is there. 

"Of course. My apologies" Ferran says, using his famous look once again. Now Isabel is the one blushing.

"Yes… Umm… I better go find my future husband. Goodbye" she says, turning around and walking away as fast as she can.

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"Did you do that on purpose?" I ask Ferran once we are back in our room, the party finally over.

"Do what?"

"Flirt with Isabel and use your fucker look on her."

"I did, yes" he grins.

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to see her reaction, if I could get to her. And I did. I'm sure she's spent the whole night hating herself because she has been turned on by her nemesis' boyfriend."

"Her nemesis" I laugh. "But she probably has. You made her giggle."

"I know" Ferran smirks. "Right or left?"

"Uh?"

"Which side of the bed do you prefer?"

"Oh, left. I like sleeping looking at the window."

"Ok" he says, taking off his shirt.

"You don't wear pyjamas either? Is that a Barça thing?"

"What?" he says, getting in bed.

"Pedri also sleeps in his underwear."

"I actually sleep naked, but, you know… I didn't want to make it more awkward."

"That's… that's very thoughtful. Thank you" I reply, quickly getting in bed too and trying to hide that I'm blushing.

"Yeah, thoughtful" he chuckles. "Bloody hell, Val."

"What happened now?"

"Your feet! They are frozen!"

"Oh, yes. Sorry. They are always like that" I shrug.

"Always?"

"Always. 24/7."

"How can Pedri sleep next to you when you have two blocks of ice for feet?"

"He doesn't mind. And he says that if he gets hot through the night, he can always count on them to help him cool down."

"That's… weird. But ok" Ferran chuckles.

"It's Pedri" I shrug again. "Anyway, good night. From the three of us."

"The three of… Val!" he complains when I touch his leg with my feet.

"Night night" I smile.

"Night night, yes" he replies, sticking out his tongue and moving his legs as away from mine as he can. 

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

"At first I wasn't going to wear flat shoes because, who wears flat shoes for a wedding? But I don't know how to walk on heels, so in the end I said, fuck it. You can barely see them with the dress, and by the end of the night everyone will be barefoot and…"

"Val… Val!" Pedri laughs over facetime.

"What?"

"You are rambling."

"Am I?"

"You are" Ferran says while retouching his hair in front of the mirror.

"Sorry, I just… I am a bit nervous" I sigh.

"Just a bit?" Pedri laughs again.

"Yes" I reply, sticking out my tongue.

"You'll be fine, Val. You don't have any reason to be nervous."

"Don't I?" I say, trying to nod towards Ferran without him noticing.

"You don't" Pedri insists. 

"If Isabel tries something you know we can use my charm on her" Ferran says, still busy with his hair. It is taking him a lot more time than it took me, and he has a lot less.

"The fucker look almost never fails" Pedri says. "So relax and enjoy the day, ok?"

"Ok" I sigh again.

"You look beautiful, Val" he smiles.

"Do I?"

"You do. Doesn't she, Gavi? Gavi. Pablo!"

"What!" Gavi says. He is sitting next to Pedri, waiting for our call to end so they can go back to playing FIFA.

"Doesn't Val look beautiful?"

"Oh, yes" he replies, not lifting his eyes from his phone.

"Thank you, Pablo" I chuckle. "He is talking to her, isn't he?"

"When isn't he?" Pedri says, rolling his eyes.

"Don't let the teenagers know that the it boys are currently taken, their hearts may not take it" I smirk.

"Meh meh meh" Pedri replies.

"Ok, I'm ready" Ferran says. "You?"

"Yep."

"Then let's go."

"Have fun, guys" Pedri says. "And Val…"

"I'll try to relax and enjoy the day."

"I was going to say that I love you" he says. "But that too." 

"I love you too" I smile before hanging up.

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"I'm glad Isabel left you out of the bridesmaids" Ferran says as we watch all the girls walk down the aisle.

"Why?" 

"You look stunning on the dress you picked, but if it had been down to her, I'm sure she would have chosen the ugliest one she could find."

"Definitely" I chuckle. "Do you think anyone has noticed?"

"That you look more beautiful than them?" 

"That I am the only one from our group of friends she left out" I say, trying to ignore Ferran's compliment. Again.

"Nah, I don't think they care. And here she comes" he says when the music changes, everyone looking at the end of the white carpet that leads to the aisle. "100€ she looks our way when she walks past us."

"Ferran, I'm not gonna bet any money" I laugh.

"Ok, fine. No betting. But she will definitely look. Should we do something?"

"Something like what?" I ask.

"Can I improvise?"

"I don't like it when you improvise."

"I won't kiss you, I promise."

"You better" I say before turning to look at Isabel. She is very close to where we are, smiling and saying hello to everyone. And she looks beautiful, I can't deny her that. "Shit!" I jump when I feel Ferran's arms around my waist, hugging me from behind.

"It's part of the plan. Relax" he says next to my ear. "But you should put your hands around mine."

"What?"

"Just do it, Val."

"Ok" I sigh, doing as he says and interlacing my fingers with his. 

"She's gonna look" he whispers, resting his chin on my shoulder.

"She…" She is looking at us. At first she looks all smug, but after noticing Ferran behind me, her face changes. And when he kisses my shoulder, she quickly looks away, her smile gone.

"Told you" he chuckles. 

"I thought we had said no kisses."

"On the lips."

"Yeah, well. We should… You know" I say, letting go of his hands. "The ceremony is about to start."

"Yes, of course" he replies, moving his too. But he does it slowly, definitely taking his time. 

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

"They look cute" Silvia says while we watch Isabel and Marc do their first dance as a married couple.

"Yeah, I guess" I say, trying to focus on them dancing and not on Ferran standing behind me, his hands resting on my shoulders while his thumbs make small circles on my skin.

"Aww, and now their parents. Marc's mum looks so nervous…"

"Uhm…" I reply, Ferran's thumbs now moving to the back of my neck and slowly massaging it. Why am I allowing him to do this? It isn't part of our arrangement.

"Oh, our turn!" Silvia says, taking Pau's hand and dragging him to the dancefloor as everyone else joins the bride and groom and their families.

"Are we dancing too?" Ferran asks me.

"Do you want to?"

"I am not the best dancer but sure, why not?" he says, his hands finally moving from my body. "My Lady Valeria" he smiles, now offering me his hand.

"Lord Ferran" I chuckle, taking it and following him to join the others.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

I don't know for how long we've been dancing and singing, but I do know that I am having the time of my life. Maybe because I've had a few more beers than what I am used to and I am a bit tipsy, maybe because the dj is playing hit after hit.

I've sung my heart out with Silvia, Alicia and Sara, we've had a battle of boys dancing vs. girls, Alicia made her dream of being all over Ferran come true while they danced together and we all cheered for them, and now… now it is him and I the ones who are dancing together, barely any space between us.

My back is against his chest, his arms around my waist, mine around his neck. And his lips are leaving small kisses on my jawline, making me giggle while we just move to the rhythm of the music. 

When it changes, he pulls me closer towards him, moving his head to kiss my neck. At first I barely notice it, but as he gets closer to the spot that makes my knees feel like jelly, I can feel my body tensing, one of my hands moving up and down the back of his neck. And then, he finds it.

A gasp escapes my lips, goosebumps going down my spine as the hand that is on his hair looks for something to hold to like it is used to. But it finds nothing. Because this is Ferran. He isn't…

"Val" he whispers into my ear, the feeling sending another wave of goosebumps over my body and making me forget about what I was thinking before he quickly turns me around, the movement making me feel a bit dizzy. His hands still are on my waist, pulling me even closer to him and then… then his lips meet mine.

He is kissing me. Ferran is kissing me again.

But unlike that day at the school, I don't freak out. This time I find myself wrapping my arms around his neck, letting him take control over the kiss and be the one in charge while I just let go.

[aalyssah]

All Mine

Pairing: Serial Killer!Patrick Bateman x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Cursing and Mentions of Abusive Relationship, Mentions of Killing, and Possessive!Patrick.

Word Count: 1,769

Summary: Your Tinder date takes an unexpected turn when you find out your date is a serial killer, and not only that, but your abusive ex boyfriend shows up as well, causing your date to show the real side of him.

A/N: I haven't wrote for Patrick in a minute, so I hope this makes up. Hope You Enjoy!

You finished putting the last bit of lipstick on, blowing a kiss at the mirror. You have a date with a very handsome man.

Surprisingly, you met him on Tinder. You usually don't trust the app, scared of creeps, predators, or even killers, but this guy was perfect.

His name was Patrick Bateman. He looked rich in his profile picture even on FaceTime. You both talked for almost 2 months before you finally agreed to go out.

You were touching up some mascara when a cat calling whistle started you, making you mess up. "Woah, you look hot Y/n." You grumbled at your best friend, wiping away the mascara. "Thank you, it's for a date with a hot guy." You smiled at the thought of him.

Your friend walked to you, looking at your outfit. "Well he must be rich by the way you're dressed." You nodded your head. "Yep, he's the CEO of a building and he's super hot."

Your friend began to grow curious. "What does he look like?" You passed her your phone. "Go into Tinder." She gave you a suspicious look.

She doesn't really trust any online dating sites either. She looked at the photo, feeling herself grow hot. "Holy shit he is. Where were these men when I used Tinder!" She playfully cried out. You chuckled, cleaning up your area. "He should be here soon."

You walked around your room, grabbing your purse and putting stuff in it. "Make sure you're home by 10:30, take your pepper spray, and call me if you need anything." You laughed at her mothering words. "Okay mommy." She gave you a stern, but knowing look.

A knock at the door made you jump. You were now getting nervous. You slowly walked to the door, fixing your hair before opening it. There stood Patrick in a fresh black suit. "Hi." You greeted awkwardly.

He smiled down at you, seeing how nervous you sounded. "Hey darlin' you ready to go?" You nodded your head giving your friend one last look. She looked different, almost worried. "Uh, wait, can I talk to Y/n for a second?"

Patrick nodded his head, waiting outside. "What? What's wrong? Why do you need to talk to me?" Your friend looked back at Patrick's frame. "I don't know about him. He looks hot, but something’s off."

You cocked your eyebrow up in confusion. "Off? What do you mean?" She could only shrug her shoulders, not knowing how to explain. "He- I- Sorry, I can't find the words, just promise me you'll be careful?"

You took her hands in yours, giving it a reassurance squeeze. "I promise I'll be careful. I'll even come back at 10:00 if that makes you feel better." You gave her a kiss to her cheek before walking off. "I'll see you."

She let you leave with Patrick. "Sorry about that, just a little friend talk." Patrick brushed it off. "It's alright, can't be mad at someone as beautiful as you." You blushed, looking away from him.

He guided you to his car, a black Cadillac Brougham stretched limousine. He held the door open, helping you in before returning to his side. You both buckled up and went to the restaurant.

-

As Patrick parked you looked around seeing how beautiful the outside looked. It was decorated so elegantly. Patrick exited his car and opened your door, holding a hand out. You took it, walking towards the entrance.

As soon as you stepped foot through the door, a waiter came by, seating you two. You smiled, looking at all the people. They all had their eyes on you both as you and Patrick walked to a table. "Would you like to start off with drinks?" The waiter asked, pulling out his notepad.

Patrick ordered some wine. "Uh yeah can I just get water?" The waiter nodded his head. "Yes ma'am you can. Water for a pretty lady." You smiled at his compliment as he walked away for your drinks.

Patrick gave a deadly glare at the waiter as he walked away. "We need a new waiter." You looked at him confused. "Why?" Patrick shook his head. "I don't like how he was flirting with you, and you smiled!"You jumped at his slightly raised voice.

His tone changed from calm to angry in a matter of seconds. He must've noticed how nervous you looked because he took a deep breath. "I'm sorry baby, this is our first date and I don't want you getting attracted to anyone else."

You smiled, grabbing his hand across the table. "You don't have to worry about that because between you and me, you're the hottest in the room." Patrick's eyes darkened in color as he looked at you.

He licked his lips at your sweetness, wondering how you taste. "Thank you Y/n, you're such a sweet girl." You dropped your head away, avoiding his eyes.

You were so precious to him. You're not like the other cheap whores he's killed, you're different. The waiter came back with your drinks and asked for your order of food. Patrick ordered and now it was your turn. “Can I get a salad?”

The waiter rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on. Just because you’re on a date doesn’t mean you have to eat healthy. Get a burger or steak!” You gave an awkward laugh not knowing what to say. “If I was your date I wouldn’t care what you eat. You don’t have to act all healthy for this guy.”

The waiter kept going, but still wrote a salad down. “I’ll be back with your order.” Patrick grumbled something under his breath, watching as the waiter went to the back room. “Patrick?” Patrick’s attention went back to you with a smile. “Sorry again, I think he needs to watch his mouth, especially when talking to you.”

You cleared your throat, changing the subject. “Do tell me how your day has been.”

-

For the next 20 minutes it was good. You both ate and talked about everything. Patrick seemed like a great man, but what would catch you off guard is when the waiter would come talk to you.

He would stare at him with a threatening look, and the waiter didn’t seem to care. But mysteriously after Patrick went to the bathroom, the waiter stopped coming, in fact, you didn’t see him the rest of your time there.

You were finishing up some dessert when you caught Patrick looking at you. “What?” You giggled, Patrick shaking his head. “You think you’re all innocent, licking that whipped cream like that?” You gave him an ‘innocent’ look. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

You both shared a laugh, but your laugh soon stopped when someone very familiar from your past. Your ex boyfriend. Not only was he your ex, he was abusive. You froze, watching as he walked around the restaurant with some brunette girl hanging on his arm.

Patrick looked confused at your reaction, following your gaze to the man. “Who’s that?” You gulped. “He’s my ex boyfriend. He abused me for 2 years and went to jail, but he’s back.” Patrick’s tongue poked at his cheek at the thought of somebody hurting you.

“I’m over him, but god seeing him unlocked a whole lot of memories.” You stood up, brushing your dress off. “Imma go to the bathroom and then we can go.” Patrick let you go, eyes instantly locking onto your ex.

Patrick went up to him, calling him outside. Meanwhile, you were in the bathroom, touching up your face when a text notification came to view. You opened it, seeing your friend texted you.

Friend: ‘I told you something wasn’t right, he’s a killer! GET AWAY FROM HIM NOW!’

The text was followed by a wanted picture of Patrick on the news, with the caption. ‘Serial Killer on the loose.’

You could feel your body shake at the new information. Now you had to make up an excuse without getting killed. You slowly walked out, but Patrick was nowhere to be seen.

Confused, you asked a waitress near the door. “Excuse me, have you seen a man that I walked in here with? He’s tall, wearing a black suit, hair slicked back.” The lady nodded. “Yeah, he came out 5 minutes ago with a man.”

A man?

Something in your mind told you to look around and when you did, your ex was missing, the brunette girl sitting at the table. “Oh no.” You headed out, looking around the streets for him. “Patrick?” You called out, but got no answer.

Just as you were walking you could hear gurgling screams. You rushed to the sound, and ended up near an alleyway.

The sight almost made you pass out. It was Patrick on top of your ex, a hammer in hand, brutally bashing his head in the concrete, blood spilling out his mouth.

Your eyes were wide, body frozen, as Patrick mumbled things under his breath. “You wanna fuck her, huh? Make her yours again?” By his words you could only assume what your ex boyfriend was saying.

You heard an old lady let out a horrified scream behind you, causing you to jump. “Oh my god, it’s Patrick Bateman, someone call the cops!” People looked on at the gruesome scene, Patrick looking at you.

He quickly grabbed your arm, dragging you down the alleyway. “Patrick let go of me, please let go!” You struggled to loosen his grip as he dragged you into the dark woods.

He carefully walked through the woods until he reached a small cabin. He pushed your inside, locking all the doors and windows. You sat on the floor scared, wondering what was gonna happen with you.

Patrick noticed you, feeling a little bad, but not really. “What are you gonna do with me?” Patrick struggled his shoulders, grabbing a rag to clean some blood from his clothes. While he was distracted, you attempted to pull your phone from your purse, but Patrick was quick, grabbing it from your hands.

He opened it, looking at the message your friend sent. “Hm, it seems you know who I am.” He smashed the phone on the floor, stepping on it with his fancy shoes.

You cried, feeling all hope leave your body. “W-when can I go back h-home?" It was silent except for the small chuckle that rose in Patrick's throat. "Home? Darling, this is your home now. You're all mine."

This day would change your life forever. You should've listened to your friend and never went on the tinder date.

[awalkonthelightside]

Hi there! I've just stumbled upon your blog and Holy hell, I feel like you've just come into my life at the perfect time. I'm genderqueer/trans masc and a sex worker. Before being on T I did a lot of lingerie/boudoir photoshoots for work. I've been on T for about 2.5 years now and my body has changed a lot, to my delight! But I've still been working as a "girl" for SW, haven't done any updated photo shoots for work, and have been struggling to reconcile a desire for sensuality, curves and grace for my SW persona with my new more square and muscular frame.

Your photos came across my dash like a breath of fresh air and a slap to the face simultaneously. Like, of COURSE I still have that sensual nature, of course macunlinity can still be beautiful, graceful AND strong, and there's definitely an audience and market for that. Thank you for helping me see that with your gorgeous and thoughtful work. I'll be booking in a new photoshoot soon.

Thank you so much for your kind words. It's nice to have something more positive in my inbox for a change!

Whilst I would never dream of trying to speak for any particular group of people I hope the message I bring to people is more inclusive regardless of gender, sex or age (even if I can really only approach it from my personal direction). The terms masculine and feminine have become polarised to a degree, especially with online expectations about how genders are supposed to present themselves. But nearly all characteristics are universally human. Women can be strong, and men can be vulnerable for example; I just try to showcase that, hopefully, I can still be exactly the same person even if I'm showing my body in a way that isn't the go to "presentation method".

[happyislamicnewyear]

Muharram is an Arabic word.This day is a holy day in the Islamic calendar which is celebrated by many Muslims including fasting.and greet each other.And now in the online generation people place more wishes on online platforms.For that there is a best option on our platform.

And that is add Your Name to Muharram Photo Frame for Islamic 2023. And for that this platform has the best collection of Islamic year Pictures. And now you can also add your own name to that picture so that the photo frame looks like your own. Are you ready to celebrate your Islamic with such a creative frames?

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week #128 (Year 3/Week 24):

Nils Malmros’s Tree of knowledge (”Kundskabens træ”) has always been my favorite Danish movie, and also one of my general All-time Top-Five favorites - Ever. Together with Truffault’s ‘Small Change’, it’s also the best movie about the pains of puberty and the joys of adolescence.

It was hard to find online, and seeing it again after many years, is like meeting an old lover after 40 years apart, and they hasn’t age a day. It’s a perfect masterpiece without a single faulty frame.

A nostalgic trip to provincial Århus at the end of the 1950′s, Malmros spent two years filming a group of teens as they struggle with first loves and heartbreaks. A tragic story of innocent lost. (Photo Above).

Later Edit:

A second viewing the next day confirmed that it is indeed an impeccable classic, subtle and precise. So many Friday night jazz parties where for their first time the kids are allowed to dance in the dark cheek to cheek to Gershwin’s ‘The man I love’.

“You probably don’t get that there’s only has to be very little for people to talk”:  The misery that befalls Erin as she turns from the popular girl into a pariah is crushing. 10/10.

🍿   Lourdes, my 1st film by Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner, starring the incomparable Léa Seydoux as a young nun with a twinkle in her eye. A rarely seen subject of Catholic cripples and handicapped pilgrims who flock to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, searching for a miracle. With priests who look like Cardinal Mahoney, Holy water sprinkled around and piously praying invalids, it feels very much like a blanding of Buñuel and Haneke. It must have been shot with the permission of the church, as much of it looks like part of the real rituals going on there. However, it hides a certain unorthodox subversiveness. 7/10. 

🍿   

2 more by British director Michael Radford:

🍿 “...If you want a vision of the future, Winston, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever...”

Nineteen Eighty-Four, the original hopeless dystopia. Orwell’s frightening vision of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, thought-police and total repression was anti-Stalinist when he wrote it, but it became a real-life blue-print for today’s hyper-Capitalist societies too.

Many of the scenes were shot on the days noted originally in the novel. The scene where Winston Smith writes in his diary, dating the entry April 4, 1984, was filmed on April 4, 1984. It was Richard Burton’s final film, and was photographed by Roger Deakins. 9/10.

Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil’ came a year later and also described a doomed love story in a cheerless bureaucratic nightmare. But unlike Brazil, 1984 had only dark and painful reality to deal with, no flights of surrealism and fancy.

"...Oranges and lemons, Say the bells of St. Clement's.  You owe me five farthings, Say the bells of St. Martin's...”

🍿 Lovable 80-year-olds Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer fall in love in New Orleans in Elsa and Fred. He’s reserved and bitter, she’s exuberant and over-whelming, and there’s a Picasso drawing of her that is used as ‘Chekhov’s gun’.  Also, it was George Segal’s last film. 5/10.

I love it when an unusual musical note in a movie signifys an emotional high-point, and when checking the clock, it’s exactly 47:30 minutes in - the middle of the movie!

Maybe it’s time to watch Fellini’s ‘8 1/2′ again [The Anita Ekberg dive in the Trevi Fountain is the film’s driver].

🍿

The Farewell Party (’Good Death’ in Hebrew) is a tragic-comic story about old age and mercy killing. A group of seniors at an assisted living home develop a machine for self-euthanasia. They reluctantly use it on one of their dying friends, but once the word gets around, more and more people want it. 7/10. 

🍿   First watch: Bergman’s magnetic, early romance film Summer with Monika. It was considered scandalous at the time, because of “frank” nude scenes. Star-making vehicle to young rebel Harriet Andersson (still alive and 91-year-old). 100% score on ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ and no argument from me there. Terrific Mise-en-scène, crisp cinematography and rich visual story-telling.

It featured Åke Fridell (’Plog’ from ‘The Seventh Seal’) as her father. On the official Bergman site, there’s a good list of many of his other collaborators.

[There are some early Bergman’s films I haven’t seen yet, which I have to remedy ASAP] 🍿

2 more with Robert De Nero: 

🍿 Sergio Leone’s last, overrated film, Once upon a time in America, the 229-min. Cut. It’s a crime saga about Jewish gangsters, a Spaghetti Godfather if you will, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Coppola’s. ‘The Godfather’ is perfect in spirit and execution, and every element in it works. Leone’s facsimile is epic and stylish, but most of it feels like a vacant rip-off. Some good performance from De Nero, and some great romantic scenes (Jennifer Connelly reading the Psalms, and reuniting with Deborah again), but the young characters (and many of the others, including wooden James Wood) are bland and unauthentic.

Without Ennio Morricone’s swiping score elevating every scene it plays with, the film wouldn’t get half the accolades it received. And the brutal, unprovoked rape scene was shocking and uncalled for. Not a superb film - 5/10. 

RIP, Treat Williams!

🍿 Ellis, a short (15 min.) poetic evocation of the large hospital complex in Ellis Island. Basically it’s Robert De Nero, “The immigrant”, walking slowly in abandoned corridors, accompanied by some vaguely-moody piano chords, reciting in a somber voice-over some vaguely impressionist lines about dreams and immigrants and yearnings. 1/10.

🍿 

2 very different documentaries:

🍿 Close to Vermeer is a very moving Dutch documentary about the staging and preparation of last year’s Rijksmuseum Vermeer exhibition, the largest ever mounted. Only 34 paintings are universally attributed to him today, and the museum’s curators were able to bring a total of 28 of them for this magnificent event. Scholars and researchers, collectors and art historians participate in this sober, quiet and passionate exploration of the enigmatic 'Sphinx of Delft‘.

Close to transcendence - 10/10.

(The trailer in inferior to the film itself.)

[This is the 3rd Vermeer film that I’ve seen (after Penn & Teller’s documentary ‘Tim’s Vermeer’ and Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’, both terrific!). As a completist, I now discovered 6 more films that I will watch in the near future: ‘All The Vermeers In New York’, ‘Brush with fate’, Dan Friedkin‘s ‘The last Vermeer’ (That one sounds odd!), the Dutch ‘A real Vermeer’, and two more documentaries, ‘Vermeer: Master of Light’ narrated by Meryl Streep, and the newest ‘Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition’, about this same exhibition at the Rijksmuseum. Can’t wait!]

🍿 The art of the prank is a fun 2015 documentary about provocative Culture Jammer Joey Skaggs, who had been staging elaborate media pranks since the 60′s. Like previous hoaxers ‘Coyle and Sharpe’, and later ones ‘Yes Men’ and ‘Improv Everywhere’, he builds ‘Fake news’ performances art events, designed to stir shit and embarrass the inane world of television news. Things like ‘Cathouse for dogs’, ‘Celebrity sperm bank’ and ‘Comacocoon’.

🍿  Hacksaw Ridge, my first film directed by known homophobe / antisemite Mel Gibson. [Watched after encouragement from Ahmad]. I’m not big on war dramas, even when they’re about a real-life conscientious objector. Trying to combine the opening from ‘Saving Private Ryan’ with ‘Full Metal Jacket’ boot camp hysterics. But I still can’t stand Andrew Garfield, Vince Vaughn is no Lee Ermey, and the war parts were simply not interesting. 4/10.

🍿 

“I Really Don’t Like Netflix” X 2:

🍿 Inside the mind of a cat, a typically-trash Netflix documentary, narrated by a highly-irritating “pleasant” voice. The only way to endure it is by turning of the sound and reading the subtitles. Lazy and un-inteligent, but “Hey: Cats!” - The second most-common reason to go on the internet.

🍿 After years of anticipation, Season 6 of Black Mirror finally dropped. Was it as good as some of the previous ones? An Emphatic No!

Episode 1, ‘Joan is awful’, was awful. An average woman is stunned to discover that Netflix has launched a prestige TV drama adaptation of her life, in which she is portrayed by Salma Hayek, and taking a shit in a church. Inception-like Meta-Netflix labyrinth with an unlikable cast making fun of themselves. 3/10.

Episode 2, ‘Loch Henry’, a meta-making of a True Crime series about a notorious serial killer who tortured his victims in a quaint faraway Scottish village. Unoriginal horror tale. 2/10.

Episode 3, ‘Beyond the sea’ too was sub-par on every level. A sadistic sci-fi, all superficial with no depth of emotions. Using Charles Trenet’s “La Mer” improves any movie immeasurably, from the opening to LA Story to the ending of Mr. Bean. But here, in a typical Netflix appropriation, it felt 100% fake. 2/10.

Episode 4, ‘Mazey Day’: Another hit-and-run thriller + unscrupulous paparazzi + LA Thomas Guide (which means it’s the early 2000′s!) which turns into a gory ‘American werewolf in London’ fantasy-thingy. 4/10.

The set up of Episode 5, ‘Demon 79′ was ridiculous: “A young Indian Sales Assistant accidentally frees a ruthless and handsome demon-in-training who is required to damn a soul to hell in order to become a full-fledged demon. The sales assistant is told she must kill three people for the demon-in-training, with the demon threatening to cause a nuclear apocalypse if she refuses”. But it was the only episode in this season that worked, and the only one that will be worth re-visiting. It was directed by the guy who also did ‘USS Callister’, another absurd concept that he got right. 8/10.

🍿 

2 shorts from ‘Nag:

🍿 Morocco Arise, by nomadic vlogger Brandon Li. His ‘Director Commentary’ was just as captivating.

🍿 Greenpeace takes aim at “fossil fuel party” with Don’t stop, a star-studded Fleetwood Mac cover. Exec-produced by Steve McQueen.

🍿 

Throw-back to the "Art project”:  

1984 Adora.

Adora with the pearl earring.

Black Mirror Adora.

🍿  

(My complete movie list is here).

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The tradition of Raksha Bandhan dates to 1905 when Rabindranath began it as a protest. Especially, against the bifurcation in Bengal by Lord Curzon. Even since then, people all over India are celebrating Raksha Bandhan as a divine festival. 

Raksha Bandhan Celebrations All Over The Country 

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[teddy06writes]

the quackity + karl irl stream but add y/n ✨ (and maybe sapnap if that's not too hard to write 😳😳)

quackity x karl x reader (I tried to Fit in Sapnap but it didn’t work with the way the meet up actually went)

trigger warnings: swearing

premise: you finally get to meet your long distance boyfriends in person, the stream that follows is WACK

(y/s/n) - your screen name

(y/n/n) - your nickname

“Blep” talking

‘blep’ texting

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“WE’RE POPPING OFF! WE’RE POPPIN OFF!”

You roared with laughter, doing your best to stay out of the way as Alex and Karl started swinging guitars around.

~~

two and a half hours earlier:

You had gotten off the plane in NC, practically buzzing with nervous energy, or maybe it was the coffee you’d gotten on the plane, combined with the two energy drinks earlier in the day, but hey! it was a long flight, and it was already late.

It was nearly 10:30 by the time you got your bag, and pulled out your phone to check the new messages from Karl and Alex.

You had all planed to meet up originally at Karl’s house but then plans had changed when you and Alex figured it’d be cheaper to uber together, even if it ruined the plan of all of you meeting at once.

‘I just got my bag where are you?’ you texted Alex.

‘I only just got off the plane, I should get down to baggage claim soon tho’

You smiled, ‘I’ll see you them <3′

‘nerd’         ‘<3′

You stood against a wall, quietly scrolling through twitter as you waited, until a new message from Alex popped up.

It was a fairly blurry photo of a crowded airport, with a red circle drawn around one person.

‘that is you right?’

You chuckled, zooming in on the picture to determine that is was indeed you, ‘yup, that’s little ole me... stalker’

You looked up as you sent the text, rising on your toes to look over the crowd, trying to spot him, pulling out your camera you quietly explained what was going on and then:

“(Y/n)!” Alex emerged from the crowd, and immediately you grinned, throwing your arms around him.

“Alex!”

You pulled away long enough for Alex to ask, “Can I kiss you?”

Laughing you nodded, and his lips met yours, as your hands came to rest on the sides of his face.

When you pulled away Alex muttered, “wow.”

“That bad? Sorry.” You glanced down sheepishly.

“Not that-” he said quickly, taking a half step back, “It’s just- wow, you know. Like, we’re actually here together, and about to go meet up with Karl, and wow.”

You chuckled, “I guess that makes sense.”

He garbed your hand, “C’mon, I already called an uber.”

~~

The whole way to Karl’s you sat nervously fiddling the cuffs of your hoodie, occasionally glancing at Alex, who smiled back reassuringly.

You sent a message to the group chat the three of you were in saying you would be there in two minutes at which he sent back a long string of emojis you could only take to mean that he was excited.

The car pulled up in front of the house and you got out, thanking the driver as Alex got your suitcases from the back.

Quietly you pulled out your camera, just as you had at the airport.

“Why are you filming everything?” Alex asked as you walked up to the house.

“We’re gonna do what George could never.” You laughed.

“Yeah but the lightings gonna be shit, it’s dark out here.”

“It’ll still be better than George!”

Alex laughed, high fiving you, “True!”

Almost as soon as you knocked, the door opened and Karl came barreling out, tackling both of you in a hug, “YOUR HERE!”

Alex barley kept him from falling over, “Yeah!”

“It’s almost like we planned it.” You couldn’t help but scoff at the camera.

Karl grinned, quickly pecking at your lips, and then Alex’s as he let go of you, “I am so excited that you guys are here!”

“Woah Karl where's the consent?!” Alex feigned shock.

“Oops?” He giggled.

You rolled your eyes with a chuckle, “Can we come in? It’s cold out here!”

“Oh, yeah, sorry, come in, come in!” Karl quickly moved back inside, waving you and Alex in, “Sorry.”

~~

After getting your suitcases inside and being formally introduced to Shaun, Karl all but demanded for you to take pictures together, resulting in many shots that were blurry from too much laughter, but a few good ones, like the picture with the boys on either side of you, kissing your cheeks, which later went up on Instagram, and a picture of Karl, mid laugh looking back at you up on Alex’s back.

All of your previous anxiety was very much gone.

You laughed, looking at Karl’s phone as he showed the picture, “Oh my god!”

“That is amazing!” Alex agreed, leaning over you to look.

“It’s gonna be the stream announcement!” Karl declared, pulling up twitter.

You glanced at your phone, “Karl it’s almost one in the morning, no one would show up to a stream.”

Karl laughed, “You seriously underestimate the fans.”

The next thing you knew you were up upstairs, sitting off to the side of Karl’s streaming set up as Alex grabbed the guitar from the corner, “Karl you don’t even actually play, why do you have this?”

“Because I can?” He said absently, starting to set up for a stream.

The air was thick with excitement as Karl hit ‘go live’, and handed you and Alex extra sets of headphones.

Alex was still messing with the guitar, and you barley stifled laughs as he began to sing Country roads in a strange accent, and the chat filled with people.

“It’s pop off time!” Karl announced in a high pitched voice, making you laugh even more.

The face cam was turned on, and the yelling began.

After a few moments, and a couple more terrible bars of country roads, Karl grinned, “Everyone! This is, Quackity, our, uh, our guitarist for the day!”

Alex laughed, “We’re poppin off! We’re poppin off!”

“And (y/s/n)s here too!” Karl dragged your chair further in frame, “Welcome! Welcome!”

“It’s pop off central tonight boys!” You chuckled.

The alert box went insane as did the chat as Alex finally sat down next to you, and Karl stopped laughing enough to sit back up.

“Guys! Chill! You’re gonna break the alert box!”

You laughed again, “Yeah just tell your chat to stop, just knock it off, leave we’re done!”

Alex snorted, “It’s over!”

Karl pulled his chair closer to the desk, “Thanks for uh, being here, with the boys, uhh.”

He turned to Alex who was now essentially just spamming random chords, yelling, “I can’t hear you!”

You berried your face in your hands, trying to control your laughter.

Karl sighed and pulled his headphones off, “You know what? I’ll be right back, I’ll be right back.”

You immediately hopped seats as he left, “Hello chat! Hello!”

Alex leaned over, trying to grab the mic to pull it towards him, “hell-” part of the stand snapped, “Oh my god!”

“Oh my god you fucking broke it!” You yelled, pushing away from the desk.

“Oh god, hold on!”

He did his best to fix it, leaning in to talk to the chat, while Karl came back with another guitar.

“Why do you have two of them?” You laughed.

Karl grinned, “Technically it’s Shaun's!”

“OH WE”RE POPPING OFF! WE”RE POPPING OFF!”

You roared with laughter, quickly moving back out of the way as Karl jokingly swung the guitar at Alex.

Once you calmed down you caught a glimpse of the chat, “Guys I think you fucked something up!”

“Oh god!” Alex muttered.

“Wait- hold on- did-” Karl examined the mic, “Wait its unplugged!”

It took a few minutes to get things sorted out, and as Karl and Alex went back to yelling about popping off you spun around in your desk chair, “Pop off crew! Pop off crew!”

Things settled down again when you moved your chair back to between them, a sub goal was set for a height check, and you started to try and get things some what orderly.

“So yeah this isn’t just a Minecraft stream, I think we’re just hanging out, Popping off, you know, we’re gonna talk to chat-”

Karl began to laugh, and Alex tried not to chuckle as he said, “He’s laughing at you (y/n) he’s just laughing at you! What are you gonna do about it?”

“Listen man, I’m trying to get your fucking stream in order. If you just wanna fucking ignore me then fine!” You held your hands up in surrender.

“Well, I mean-”

Karl started to stand up, and you knew he was going for the fit check but Alex screeched, shoving his chair back, “Fuck off!”

“Wha?”

You laughed, “He thought you were going for the Hight check early man!”

“Dude it’s the fit check!”

Alex laughed as Karl sat back down, “Holy shit- cash app with the hundred tear ones!”

You giggled at the message, “They wanna see the height check! Who wants to see the height check? Who wants to see the height check chat?”

“No no no no! No height check early! It- it doesn’t matter, cause height is stupid, and a choice!” Alex struggled for words.

You shook your head whispering, “He just looks short next to Karl and he’s scared.”

“Shut up!”

~~

A while later, after both Karl and Alex’s stream descended into chaos or partial chaos, you found yourself tucked between them on the couch.

Karl’s fingers were intertwined with yours, and Alex’s head lay on your shoulder.

“I’m glad to have finally met you guys.” You murmured.

“Yeah,” Alex hummed, “Actually being able to cuddle is much better than the online thing.”

Karl hummed in agreement, “I wish you guys could be here all the time.”

“Let’s get a house somewhere.” You mused.

“Somewhere convenient for you two nerds to go to school.” Karl chuckled.

Alex yawned, “Somewhere near good take out.”

You smiled sleepily, “Anywhere with you guys is fine by me.”

Distantly a clock on the wall read 4:23 am.

[kaunis-sielu]

A Thousand Words: 6

You wait anxiously, eye to the camera focused on the opening between the two worlds. You can hear Sy, you know he’s talking but the pounding in your ears overwhelms you. Come on, come on, he’s gotta come back. It feels like an eternity, but suddenly the hole in space starts to shrink. What the hell is going on? You pull your eye from the camera for a split second and see that the woman is pushing the spear point into the machine while an older man that you didn’t notice before works on what you assume is a computer. From here it’s hard to tell, he could be using some sort of alien technology to work it. You fire off a few shots of that before looking back to the sky. In vain hope that Ironman is going to come tumbling out of the hole to space.

You’re glad you do because just as the opening closes Iron Man comes tumbling out of it.

“Yes!” You cry as you take pictures of him falling toward the ground, “he’s alive Sy!” You breathe but he might not be for long if he doesn’t slow down. “Come on, come on!” You mutter again, then the Hulk comes out of nowhere into your camera frame and you take a few shots of the Hulk saving Ironman. “Oh my god.”

“You good Bug?” Sy asks gently and you think you are but holy shit what did you all just experience?

“Yea, what the fuck just happened Sy?”

“I don’t think you’ll be the only one who asks that in the next few days.”

You can’t see what happens on the ground, you do hear a loud roar a few moments after Ironman and Hulk had fallen out of your view. You take some wide shots of the city, the smoking rising into the sky in some areas, you know you’re the only one that will have this perspective of the city.

“Wish you’d been here.” You tell him and he lets out a chuckle,

“No you don’t. Your ass woulda been locked in a room the whole time if I was.” You scoff as you register the feeling someone’s eyes on you and glancing to your left you see the woman looking at you and talking into her wrist. Looks like your time is up. You head back into the building and make your way quickly over to the stairs. Hopefully you can escape before she stops you, she might be little but you’ve got a feeling that you wouldn’t stand a chance in hell against her.

“Hold on.” The woman says from the other side of the room, “Cap wants to talk to you.”

“Who is that?” Sy asks,

“I don’t know.” You mutter to him before you say to her, “I’m sorry, who are you?”

“Natasha Romanov.”

“You hear that Sy?”

“What?” She asks and you tuck your hair behind your ear so she can see your headphone. “Oh.”

“Yea, nothing comes up online, it’s either a deep cover or she’s a spy.”

“You a spy?”

“Way too beat around the bush Bug.” Sy grumbles as she laughs.

“I guess you could say that.” She agrees, “Although I have a feeling that’s not going to be the case after this. Cap is on his way up.”

“Great.” You deadpan, “Last time he talked to me he locked me in a room in the basement.”

“Speaking of which, how did you get out of there?” She asks stalking over toward you. She has blood on her forehead and a cut on her lip but she’s still absolutely stunningly beautiful. And completely awe inspiring.

“Uh, power surge.” There’s a soft groan from the crater in the floor and she pulls her gun from it’s holster on her thigh blocking you from the man in the crater. “Who is he?” You put your camera back to your eye and as you hoped she glances back over her shoulder at you and you snap a photo. She gives you a narrow eyed glare and you shrug before she answers your question.

“Loki. He’s the leader of this little invasion. Stay there, the rest of the team is on the way up and if I let you get hurt now Cap’d be pissed.” She doesn’t look away from Loki again.

“Sy, can you-.”

“Norse god. Brother to Thor the god of lightening.”

“Thank you.” You tell him, you wonder if the blond guy who was flying around with the hammer and controlling the lightening.

“Um, Ms. Romanov? Was the guy with the cape Thor?”

“Yes.” She says shortly as the elevator dings and the doors slide open. You take a few photos of them coming off of the elevator, Thor glances at you in curiosity, Tony Stark looks mildly irritated but doesn’t look at you. Neither does the guy with the bow and very few arrows. The Hulk pays you no mind either, thankfully, he’s so incredibly big that you almost forget to breathe.

“Sy, I gotta go.” You whisper then hang up and shove your headphone back into its pocket. Most of the group crowd around Loki but Captain America doesn’t. He comes stalking over to you, those bright blue eyes locked on you.

“You okay?” You ask and he looks momentarily surprised before responding,

“I’m fine. Are you?” He doesn’t look fine. He’s got dirt all over his incredibly handsome face. There’s a burn in the torso of his uniform, you can see his skin through it and the blood on the uniform but no wound.

“You don’t look fine.” You tell him, “were you hit?” You ask gesturing down at the burn.

“Yea, I heal fast though. Are you okay?” He asks again and you realize that you didn’t answer his question before.

“Oh, um yea. I think I’ll be processing for a while.”

“Capsicle. Quit flirting, he’s coming to.” Tony says and you grin as Captain America rolls his eyes at the other man.

“Stay over here okay? He’s a god so if he puts up a fight it could be ugly.”

“Oh. Okay.” You agree staying behind the bar like he asks and take photos of the whole group. Loki sits up with a soft groan and the guy with the bow and arrows draws it back as Loki sits up.

“I think I’ll have that drink now.”

Tag list:

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[writershapeholeonthedoor]

You Marked More Than Just My Skin - Supercorp

Read it on AO3

Kara’s first instinct was to blame Alex because, if she was going to be honest, Alex was the one to blame for many of her stupid decisions. Sisters' competitive nature or something like that. That's what their mother would say when they were teenagers and they randomly started a fight. A just adopted Kara who had just lost her parents was not letting an overly cocky Alex win without fighting back.

So, naturally, she was going to blame Alex for this. However, Alex had nothing to do with Kara walking down the street from her job one day and entering the tattoo shop she walked past by every day on her way home. No, it had started with Winn, her best friend, saying that Kara wasn’t the type of person to do things out of impulse. Which he wasn’t exactly wrong, although he hit a sore spot because "I can be very spontaneous!" had been Kara’s answer and everyone around them gave her that look that made it pretty clear no one believed her.

Then, just about a week after that, Nia was walking home with her after a stop at Noonan's for their killer milkshake and saw the tattoo shop still open even if it was past 10 pm. There was no one inside that they could see, but the sign read "open" in neon letters and Nia did a double-take when she saw the walls covered in drawings.

"Oh, my God! Look at that thing!" she had screamed. And that thing was a fairly beautiful drawing of a girl lying in bed with a cloud above her head as though she was dreaming about a myriad of things.

Nia grabbed her arm, dragged her inside and, ten minutes later, she was sitting on a chair while a young man that couldn't be older than Kara permanently marked the skin on her forearm with the same drawing.

"Did you draw it?" Nia asked and Kara could tell she was just a little bit in pain because she was clutching the arm of the chair and hadn’t stopped babbling for two seconds. Not that Nia ever stopped talking, actually.

"No," the man replied in an excited voice. Like he was happy to be doing a tattoo on a girl that had just ten minutes prior decided she wanted one. But Kara held back her tongue, took some pictures while Nia made her goofy faces and sat on a stool at the corner like the good friend she was. "My boss did. She does most of the drawings we have available."

"Well, she has a hell of a talent!" Nia exclaimed, bit her lip when the needle hit a soft spot and flashed another smile once it was gone. "You should tell her she's amazing!"

Jack, that was his name, Kara reminded herself, laughed like that was a big joke that only he was aware of, but nodded all the same. "She's in the office right now, maybe she will stop by to hear you say that. She loves when people pick her drawings, but she will never say it out loud."

The woman, whoever she was, didn’t leave her office, not even when they left, way past midnight, listening to Jack's careful instructions on how to take care of Nia's arm for the next week. In the end, Kara had to admit Jack was a nice guy. And he did an excellent job. Nia's tattoo was perfect. Perfect for her and perfectly done, and her friend had no problem showing it off the next day.

"Holy crap!" Winn screamed when he saw it on game night on Friday. "I didn't know you were into tattoos. It looks awesome!"

"Thank you! And I just decided to do it," Nia shrugged, as though deciding to do a tattoo on a Wednesday night at 10 pm after getting a milkshake was a normal thing. "Thank Goddess Kara was with me so she could keep me company."

"Wait," Winn eyed Kara with the same incredulous expression from a week before and she immediately felt defensive. "Kara was there and didn't try to stop you?"

"She did say I might regret it," Nia conceded with a smile. "About ten times, but she stayed with me."

Kara rolled her eyes, picked up the pizza box and sulked on the couch while her friends made fun of her lack of spontaneous nature. Kara was a planner. And she had learned her lesson when she decided to walk to the park instead of going home one day after school and returned to the Danvers' household to find out three police cars parked at the street and a frantic Eliza giving them a photo of her and saying she had disappeared. So, yes, Kara wasn't one to do things out of the blue anymore, but that was hardly a bad thing.

She tried to tell that to herself for the next week while everyone still awed and cooed at Nia's tattoo. She tried to remind herself of Eliza's panicked face while James, with his impressive looking dragon tattoo on his back, said Kara would never be one to make a tattoo because she would keep changing her mind. She tried to picture Alex's disapproving stare while Nia's boyfriend, Querl, made comments on how he loved Nia's carefree and spontaneous nature.

In the end, what pushed her to do it was her boss and Kara couldn’t even blame her, or Alex, or any of her friends. But she would, anyway.

"Kiera, the reason why people hardly remember your name-" she wanted to point out that Cat was the only one who had a hard time remembering her name but bit her tongue instead "-is because you are so... blank."

"Blank?" Kara had asked, trying and failing not to look so offended.

And Cat nodded because she knew how to get to her. "Nothing remarkable. You use terrible sweaters and write articles that everyone could write. Did you ever do something, I don’t know, remotely spontaneous in your life?"

Kara was sure - or almost sure because you can never know with Cat Grant - that her boss was trying to push her to fly to Midvale to write about the scandal surrounding some tech company there even though Snapper had decided William would cover that for CatCo. It was either that or to make her wear something that wasn’t in pastel color.

Well, all it did was send Kara straight to a tattoo shop where she hoped to find Jack and demand he did something as spectacular as Nia's tattoo. And she went on a mission, marching down the ten blocks from CatCo to the tattoo shop - that only that day she stopped to read the name of and what weird name they chose, Le Vintage Ink - her feet hitting the ground with a purpose, her hand pushing the door open with a vengeance, her eyes narrowed behind her glasses with one goal in mind.

It wasn't Jack she saw, however. She didn't see anyone at first, actually. The shop was empty like it was a week before and very silent, with the air conditioner doing a soft hum and nothing else.

The anti climax moment was enough to make all her determination wave off. Her shoulders dropped, her eyes rounded, her feet started to stamp and her determination, well, she didn’t quite remember it anymore. Nobody needed to know, Kara told to herself. Nobody knew she was going to do it, so she could just turn around, leave, go back to her apartment and try to do some online shopping. Maybe buy a red dress for once. None of her friends would ever believe she went back to the tattoo shop, so there would be no problem...

No. That was exactly the problem. They wouldn’t even believe her if she told them. They would laugh, call it a bluff, and keep teasing Kara for not being adventurous like they were. Alex does this long motorbike drives all over the state sometimes, and James goes hiking and jumps from planes from time to time. Winn would point out that the last thing Kara did without meticulous planning was to change pizza night for potstickers and that was only because the pizza place she always orders from was out of pineapples.

However, Kara reasoned with herself, instead of doing a tattoo, she could just go with Alex on her next trip. Maybe she could ask James to teach her how to hike. Querl adopted a cat he found behind his building, so maybe that could be Kara’s unplanned moment too. And what did Winn do so adventurous or spontaneous that he had the right to make fun of Kara? She couldn’t remember.

Yes, any of those things would be more reasonable. She could even do an impromptu visit to her mother. It would count for something. She knew Eliza would be happy and she loved making her mom happy. She could even pick Alex's old helmet so her sister could use it to ride with her girlfriend, Kelly, and Eliza makes a killer chocolate pecan pie too.

Already dreaming with the taste of the pie crust in her mouth Kara turned around. She must have been inside the tattoo shop for less than ten seconds and Jack hadn’t shown up yet, so that was a plus and a sign, even if she wanted to greet him and tell how nice Nia's tattoo looked after a week.

The second her back was turned to the counter, though, she heard a door opening and then a voice filled the silence. "Can I help you?"

That wasn’t Jack's voice. That much she knew. What she didn’t know was that someone could sound so... husky and still be so clear on the words. What she also didn’t know was why her body froze like she had been hit with lightning. Or why she ever decided to leave when a voice like that was inside the shop.

It would be rude to just keep walking, Kara told herself and even she knew it was a lame excuse for wanting to see the owner of that voice. But she still turned around, eyes blinking fast as she tried not to miss a second of what she was about to see, and then immediately felt her soul leave her body. That was the only explanation on why her mouth fell open and why her brain's function slowed down at least 30%.

Because the voice's owner was... for the lack of a better word, striking. It was a woman, looking a few years younger than Kara, with dark as coal wavy hair falling down her shoulders, green piercing eyes framed by some heavy eyeliner and plump lips painted with red lipstick. The woman was wearing a black t-shirt from a band Kara had never heard of, the v-cut being deep enough that she could see a black bra under it. The shirt looked like she had been cut at home - maybe she wasn't designed to have such a deep v-neck, maybe she had sleeves at some point and maybe the deep cuts by each side also weren't a part of the initial product. But, damn, it looked great on her. Since she had no sleeves and the shirt moved as she walked and showed a great expanse of her sides, Kara could see that the woman’s body was covered in tattoos.

Her arms, from shoulder to wrist, were almost totally covered. Her left arm almost looked like a flower shop, with dozens of flowers in different colors drawn all over it. Her right arm had tattoos from her shoulder to her elbow, and they were a mix of chemical elements and computer parts that, somehow, worked together in all black and white. Kara got just a few glimpses of the tattoos on her side - something that looked like a cartoon character, another one that assembled a lake, a few words that Kara couldn’t read from that far - but that was enough to make her lick her lips and try to picture what else was there. There were no tattoos on her chest area, that Kara could see, but there was a small musical chord on the left side of her neck, and Kara wondered if she had any tattoos on her legs. She couldn't see them from where the woman was standing behind the counter, and something dragged her feet forward before she could stop herself.

"H-hi," she choked out and her face immediately heated up with embarrassment. Her sister would call it 'gay panic' and make fun of her for three days, and Kara was suddenly very thankful for being alone. "I, uh..." The woman blinked, Kara mimicked her, and lost every coherent thought inside her head. "Jack."

The woman arched one perfect eyebrow, resting her hands flat against the counter, and Kara’s blue eyes were suddenly very interested in the long fingers spread over some papers. The papers, she noticed as a second thought, were unfinished drawings, but she could hardly tell what they were. Feeling her face get even hotter, Kara demanded that her eyes moved up and she was almost proud of herself when they paused for only a second at the woman’s cleavage. Of course, as soon as her eyes met the woman’s face again, she had a tiny smirk like she knew Kara was having a hard time being in the same space as her.

"I'm sorry, love," she said and Kara noticed an accent behind the last word, like she had spent years trying to get rid of it but still couldn't brush it off some words. "Jack doesn't work here on Tuesdays."

Oh. Well, that's a bit of a relief, Kara wasn't going to lie. No Jack, no tattoo, and she still could say she tried. She still wanted to say ‘hi’ but...

"Can I help you instead?"

Oh, boy. Kara almost turned around and ran away right then and there because the things she was thinking this stranger could help her with were kind of mortifying. Instead, Kara bit her bottom lip so hard that it went numb instantly, and leaned forward until she was resting her hands in front of the woman's fingers. She dared to glance down really quick, just to find out the woman was wearing black jeans and boots, before she looked up again - with a quick stop at the cleavage because good lord.

"I don't know, I..." Kara couldn’t even say her own name if the woman asked at that moment, let alone remember what she was doing there and where there even was.

The woman chuckled then. A deep, husky sound from the back of her throat that brought a small smile to her lips, and then she ducked her head - as though she had no idea that was the most blinding smile Kara had ever seen in her twenty-six years of living. Neither the chuckle nor the smile was mockingly, and her green eyes were just a little bit amused when she looked back at Kara.

"Don't get me wrong but... you don't look like the type of person that would get a tattoo."

Okay, what is it with people just assuming Kara is too boring to do something? Kara took a look at her own clothes. She wasn't even wearing a sweater that day! Sure, beige trousers and a blue button up hardly screamed "living on the edge" but come on! Was it the glasses? Alex always said she should use contact lenses, but she liked the glassed!

Feeling a new wave of determination, Kara set up her jaw and crossed her arms. "Well, that's exactly what I came here to do."

The woman raised both eyebrows now, clearly amused. "To get a tattoo?" She asked like there was any other reason for Kara to be inside a tattoo shop on a Tuesday night.

So Kara nodded, her blonde hair wiggling from side to side on her ponytail, and straightened up her back like she was about to enter a fight. Not that she ever fought before, not even when the cruel kids at her new school would call her weird and push her inside her locker. Alex would beat them up for her, so she didn’t have to, it was fine.

"Yes," she said and her voice only trembled for a second. "To get a tattoo," she confirmed like there was any other reason for her to be inside a tattoo shop on a Tuesday night.

"Okay," the woman said, clicking her tongue once before she picked up a pen from the desk, a smirk permanently spread on her lips. "Do you have any idea of what you want?"

Shit. Kara hadn’t gone that far. Maybe not even her own brain thought she would do it because she had neglected the most important part of the entire process. She had no idea what she wanted permanently marked on her skin.

(Permanently marked also sent a thousand of red lights inside her head because, you know, it was permanent)

It must have shown on her face because the woman’s smirk became more of a smile, not exactly gentle but not mockery either. "What's your name?"

"Kara." She was so glad her brain hadn’t come up with something ridiculous to say. She could remember when she met her cousin's sister-in-law and answered the same question with "mashed potatoes" for some reason she would never be able to grasp. Lucy never let her forget that embarassing moment.

"Well, Kara," and Holy Goddess of all the universe and beyond, how could her name roll out of her lips like that? "why don’t you take a look at the drawings we have here, see if you like one. If you don't, we can always come up with something for you."

She then pushed some heavy black portfolio across the counter towards Kara and opened the leather front cover to show her the first drawing. They were all separated by plastic, and she started the task of turning the pages while trying very hard to look at the drawings and not at the woman in front of her. She wasn't sure because she wouldn’t dare to look up, but she could feel green eyes staring at her and her blush returned full force.

"So..." she heard after a couple of minutes in silence. "What kind of dare you lost?"

Kara took full offense on that, glaring at her for a moment before going back to the portfolio. She had gotten on the dragon section and decided to skip it all together. "There was no dare."

The woman hummed, watched her for another minute, and then leaned over with her forearms touching the counter. She reached out, taking the plastic from Kara's fingers, and started skipping the pages until they reached the flowers. Kara looked up, catching a glimpse of the woman's arm, before meeting green eyes with a light glare.

The woman shrugged. "You look like a flower kind of girl."

"What else do I look like to you?" Kara mumbled back and stubbornly went back to the drawing she was seeing before - the ships and anchors section - even though she left a finger marking the flowers page.

The brunette seemed even more amused now, barely able to hide her smile, and she chuckled once when Kara turned the page to see another ship. "Like you randomly decided to get a tattoo because someone pissed you off."

Kara tried not to give her the satisfaction of being right, deciding to focus on studying every ship and every anchor. She heard another chuckle, but the woman wisely didn’t push the subject.

"You could save us a lot of time by just going to the flowers."

Fine, maybe she was right about that too. Kara would never pick a ship, or a dragon, or a coffee cup, or any other drawing she saw before. Although Kara never thought what type of drawing she would get tattooed. With a sigh, she went back to the flowers, throwing the woman a dirty look when she huffed a laugh.

"Hey," she said, raising her hands in playful defense, "if I'm going to do something that you will regret tomorrow, at least let me help."

"Aren't you going to try to talk me out of this?" Kara asked, remembering when Jack asked Nia five times if she was sure before touching her skin with the needle.

"No," another shrug. "I will get my money and you will get the regret. Works fine by me."

Kara scoffed and shook her head, but finally spotted something she liked. It was a rose, not larger than a paper ball, black and white with a few leafs to the side. She was almost pointing that one out when she heard a deep sigh and looked up. The brunette was staring down at the drawing with enough judgment that Kara changed her mind in a blink.

"What?" She still asked because it was a beautiful flower.

"Nothing, it's just... does that even mean something to you?"

Kara looked back at the rose and frowned. "I like roses," she defended herself.

"I like kale, but I won’t tattoo that."

"You like kale?" Kara didn’t mean to sound so disgusted by it but it was stronger than her. Her face twisted in a grimace, shocked more than anything.

The other woman laughed a real laugh this time, and Kara felt the sound into her xcvery core. "Please, don't ask me to tattoo a burger on you. You're too pretty for that."

It was like she knew exactly what those words would do to Kara because she winked right after, making her blush ten times more. "What do you suggest, then?"

The tattooed brunette smiled and tapped her finger on top of the rose. "If you liked this one, it's fine, but I would go with..." She let her voice die as she started turning the pages until she found what she was looking for. "This one."

Kara looked at the drawing and was immediately sold to the idea. It wasn't just any flower. It was a plumeria. Well, two plumerias side by side, with a few leafs to the sides and a mandala carefully placed behind them like it was the third flower. She knew she wanted that one the second her eyes landed on it.

"It would look good on you," she kept talking. "I wouldn’t add any color, though." Kara kept nodding although she was only half paying attention now that she had found the right one. Her silence must have sent twisted signals because the woman’s voice became softer. "I know I said I wouldn’t try to talk you out of this but... are you sure?"

Kara’s eyes moved up then, metting slightly concerned green eyes, and she smiled. "Yes. I'm sure."

The woman studied her face for a few seconds before she nodded once. "Okay, then. Where do you want it?"

Shit.

The panic on her face told her out again and the woman’s laugh filled the space around them like a melody. "Come on, we can figure it out inside."

‘Inside’ being a closed room very similar to the one Nia had gotten her tattoo, albeit it was clear that that one wasn't Jack's. First, it lacked the smell of cigars and heavy cologne that Kara smelled last time and made her nose itch. But it also held a more personal touch like more drawings and a few words scribbled on the black walls. Kara didn’t feel nervous while the woman turned the sign from open to close, explaining that she was the only one who worked on Tuesdays' nights. She also didn’t feel nervous when she entered the room and spotted the comfortable chair she would be sitting on. What made her nervous again was taking her shirt off so she could decide where she wanted the plumerias to be.

She placed the printed drawing on several parts of both of her arms, her shoulders and asked the brunette to hold it at some spots on her back as well. But Kara was only satisfied when she put the paper against the right side of her ribs, a few centimeters below her bra. The woman gave her a knowing look and arched one eyebrow when she said that was the place she wanted her tattoo.

"Are you sure? It can be quite a painful area to get a tattoo, especially if it's your first one."

Again, she wasn't making fun of Kara and she appreciated it, but she also wasn't going to change her mind. "I'm sure."

"Okay. I will put the outlines, then."

It was only when the brunette had her hands against her side and her face a few inches from her chest that Kara realized she didn’t even know who she was. "Hey, I, uh, I didn't catch your name before."

Green eyes glanced up, bright and slightly amused, before they returned to the task of perfectly positioning the flowers on her ribs. "Lena."

"Lena," Kara found herself echoing the name in a whisper before she could stop herself. Lena looked up again, even more amused than before, and Kara felt herself blushing. "It... it suits you."

She had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but Lena smiled and tilted her head to the side. "Thanks." She pushed back the stool she was sitting on. "Take a look at the mirror and see if that's what you want."

Kara took a step closer to see her reflection and tried very hard to ignore the fact that she was standing in front of a stranger in her bra. The plumerias were exactly what she wanted and exactly where she wanted them, and she said that to Lena, who told her to lay down after turning the chair into an improvised bed. While Kara tried to find a comfortable place to lay, she heard Lena slipping on rubber gloves and moving a few things around before approaching her again. She was half expecting her to ask one more time if she was sure, but Lena said nothing when she touched her skin with the black gloves, and raised the needle to her eyes level to make sure it was ready to go.

Kara wasn’t sure if the shivers were from nervousness, the chill air of the room, or the fact that this very attractive woman was touching her just below her breast, but she did her best to ignore it. Lena had pulled her hair into a messy ponytail, Kara realized, and she could see her sharp jawline more easily now. She also spotted five different piercings on the woman’s right ear. For a second, she wondered if Lena could feel her heart beating under her skin or if she could maybe even hear it.

"Be ready for some pain, but try not to move," Lena said while she lowered the needle to her skin. "It will take longer if you keep moving. You also don't want me to fuck this up," she offered Kara a smile to let her know she was joking - at least that's what the blonde hoped for. "Tell me if you need a break."

So, Lena wasn't lying when she said it would hurt. Nia neglected to tell her about the painful part and Kara would make her pay for it by typing down her next article, but, holy crap, it hurt. The first touch of the needle made her jump and hiss, and Lena pulled it away like she knew it was going to happen, giving her a few seconds to recover.

"Sorry," Kara whispered once her body relaxed again.

"It's fine," the brunette mumbled back, totally concentrated on her job now.

It went like that for a few minutes - Kara squeezing her eyes shut, biting her lips, clutching the sides of the chair slash bed, and hissing under her breath whenever she couldn’t hold it back anymore. Until she started to get used to the pain and allowed herself to focus on other things. Her eyes trailed to the few drawings hanging on the walls, taking in the delicate traces and the lack of colors from all of them. She decided that talking would help her with the pain.

"Jack said his boss makes those drawings," she commented lightly.

There was a brief pause before Lena answered her. "That would be me."

"Oh," the blonde breathed out in shock. "So, you..."

"I'm the owner, yes." There was another pause while Lena cleaned her skin with a soft paper. "I used to work for a tattoo artist back in Metropolis before I decided to open my own business. Jack followed me."

"Well, you certainly have talent. Your drawings are beautiful."

"On paper," Lena teased and Kara didn’t need to look at her to know she was smirking. "Let's see how it translate to your skin."

Kara wanted to play along and tell her to ‘please, don't make something awful that would be permanently marked on my skin’, but she found herself saying something entirely different. "Plumerias were my mom's favorite flowers. My dad would bring them to her every Saturday after work because those were the first flowers he ever gave her." She could still remember her father getting back home on Saturdays right before lunch with a bouquet in his hand to her mom and a box of chocolate for her, all smiles and offering hugs. If she tried hard enough, Kara could still remember the smell of her mom's stew mixed with the flowers' smell, could still taste the chocolate. "They died almost fifteen years ago."

Kara had no idea why she was sharing those things with this stranger wearing black rubber gloves and breathing too close to her ribs, but she also couldn't stop. Maybe it was a tattoo thing, like sharing too much about your relationships while cutting your hair.

Lena didn’t shy away, though. She made sure their eyes were locked before saying, "Let's make sure those are perfect, then," and went back to work.

Kara felt herself relaxing more after that, although she didn’t say anything else for a few minutes. "I work as a reporter to a magazine," she found herself saying. "My boss is... both of them are impossible to deal with. I dream about throwing them into space sometimes, but... I love my job. One of them is the reason I'm here today."

"Who should I be thanking?"

Kara blushed one more time, even if she wasn't sure it was said to be flirtatious or if she was just imagining it. "Cat means well, she just... push some buttons sometimes."

"Well," Lena stopped her movements to look at Kara again, this time with a soft smile. "I will be sending this Cat some flowers anyway."

The blonde chuckled at that. "Go back to work. I don't want to end up with a dragon on my ribs."

Lena hummed, eyes dropping back to the outlines of the flowers and needle touching skin again. "I wouldn’t draw a dragon on you," she contemplated. "You're more of an iguana kind of girl."

Kara gasped in faked offense and turned her head to fully stare at Lena with narrowed eyes. "How dare you? You know nothing about me!"

The tattoo artist shrugged, not bothered by her explosion. "Maybe a kitty." Kara huffed and puffed, letting her body fall back on the chair, and did her best to keep frowning. "Definitely a kitty," she heard Lena whispering under her breath, playfully and amused, and Kara was soon smiling. "So... will your boyfriend approve this?"

"Are you fishing for information about me?" Kara teased.

"Huh," Lena sighed. "You didn’t sound this confident when you were stumbling over your words when you first saw me."

She was sure her entire body turned pink with that and she mumbled weakly that: "I was nervous about getting a tattoo."

"Yes, of course," Lena replied and Kara blushed again.

"No boyfriend," she ended up replying because the other alternative was to dig a bigger hole to herself. "Or a girlfriend."

She was ready for another teasing from the other woman, but Lena pulled back instead and eyed her tattoo with her head tilted to the side. "I need you to hold your breath for a few seconds, okay? I'm getting to a delicate part and it would be better if you hold it for, like, ten seconds."

Kara nodded and got ready to pull in a breath to hold it while Lena got her needle ready to go again. When the other woman said so, Kara took in a large intake of breath but, as soon as the needle touched her again, she exhaled in surprise when the pain shot to every nerve in her body.

"I know," Lena said. "It's the hardest part. I promise to be done with it as fast as possible. Can we try again?"

There weren't many options since Kara was already in the middle of getting her tattoo done, so she nodded and waited for the new signal. Kara grabbed the chair with both of her hands, pressed her eyes tightly shut, bit her bottom lip and held her breath for the longest ten seconds of her life before Lena tapped her skin and pulled away with a smile.

"There," she declared in her husky tone. "Good girl."

It was embarrassing how those two words made Kara react. She gasped, the breath still stuck in her lungs almost causing her to choke, and her entire body went stiff when a shiver left goosebumps all over her skin on its way down her spine. She couldn't see Lena and that was a blessing because she could feel the pause that her reaction gave the brunette. So, maybe that was a weird way to find out a praise kink, Kara decided while praying that Lena would brush it as a perfectly normal reaction to have.

"That was interesting," Lena whispered and, this time, the blonde knew she wasn't supposed to have heard that.

The blonde bit her bottom lip so hard that she could feel the taste of blood and she was totally sure that Lena could hear how fast her heart was beating. She could probably feel it, and, God, that was so embarrassing. Kara had half a piece of mind to just pull back her shirt, leave and never go back there, but the other woman didn’t give her time to react before she was once more piercing her skin with the needle. It was still painful, although the mortification she felt numbed it a little bit.

Lena didn’t sound so cocky when she spoke again and she even had to clear her throat so the words would come out less hoarse and more audible. “Just a while longer and we will be done. Can you handle it or should we finish it another day?”

Kara didn’t trust herself to ever come back – and not just because of what had just happened but also because she didn’t think she would be brave enough to get any tattoo needle to ever touch her again. So, she exhaled slowly and nodded. Lena went back to the draw immediately after that and they fell in a half comfortable silence until the trickiest part was over. Or, at least, that’s what Kara thought the trickiest part was because it hurt like hell and Lena had this crinkle between her brows when she glanced back that made her look... cute. Even with the tattoos and the five different piercing sets on her ears, the black clothes, the black room and her undeniable confidence.

It wasn’t until Lena leaned away to get more ink that she spoke again. “Plumerias were very common where I lived.”

Kara thought back on their conversation and wondered aloud, “Metropolis?”

“Ireland,” she corrected gently.

“Oh,” Kara breathed out and then hissed when the needle was back to her ribs.

“Not many people know I’m Irish, so I’m trusting you with this secret, Kara.”

She could hear the joke in the woman’s voice and Lena even poked her side playfully, and Kara heard herself giggling like a schoolgirl. “Your secret is safe with me.”

“That’s not how it works,” Lena declared with a huff. “Now you need to tell me a secret of yours.”

“What?”

“Yes, so we’re even and I can make sure you will never tell anyone what I just told you.”

“It’s not like you just confessed a murder,” Kara argued with an eye roll that was quite too fond to be directed to someone who she had met only two or three hours before.

Lena looked up for a second and their eyes met, making Kara’s face flush red. She was pulling a very uncomfortable position to keep her head raised and turned to the side so she could watch the other woman, and she had just been caught doing that one more time. “No? Well, you shouldn’t go to my office then.”

Kara hummed, trying to sound unimpressed by the joke while fighting back a laugh, and shrugged. “I knew it was weird I didn’t see Jack.”

The brunette let out a breathy chuckle, her hot breath hitting Kara’s side and making her shiver again, before she pursed her lips. “I see you’re too fond of Jack already.”

“Jealous?”

Lena quirked one dark eyebrow and gave her a look – the type of look that Kara tried to pull out her entire life while trying to look all sexy and misterious and was never able to do it – that made the blonde’s entire body warm up. “I’m the one poking your skin with a needle right now, so I think he should be the jealous one.”

Yes, Kara couldn’t keep up with that. She was weird, she rambled, she stuttered more times than not, and just, overall, was terrible at the whole flirting thing. Lena, on the other hand, seemed to be a master on it. Kara didn’t really stand a chance against it, not even for a second. She could try, pull out a word or a phrase here and there, but, in the end, Lena would find a way to leave her blushing and flustered so easily that made her head spin.

(She couldn’t be sure if Lena was just that good or if Kara was just super gay, but, whatever it was, it was working wonderfully)

“Now, come on, spill a secret,” Lena said after a long silence that stretched between them while they just stared at each other’s eyes.

Kara felt hypnotized by the green eyes and that was so unfair. So, damn, unfair. “I get my boss’ coffee order wrong every day.”

Lena stopped with the tattoo again to blink at her a couple of times in what seemed to be confusion. Then, she tilted her head to the side, glanced to the ceiling and opened her mouth as if she was going to say something. No sound came out, she closed her mouth again, and she looked so adorable that Kara felt her rambling coming to the surface again.

“Cat has this really complicated order at Starbucks that makes my head hurt just to think about. 3% fat, quarter milk, a spoon and a half of organic sugar, or whatever that is. It’s my job to get her coffee every morning and there’s no Starbucks close to my apartment, so I stop at another place called Noonan’s and get an order from there.” Lena still hadn’t said anything and Kara couldn’t bring herself to stop talking. “I used to work there, so I have a discount. I can buy a coffee for myself too with the same amount of money I would spend at Starbucks. And she never noticed it!”

There was a pause where Kara tried to come up with more things to say before a loud laugh cut the space around her. She looked at Lena with wide eyes and only slightly offended by her reaction, but the other woman was too busy laughing at her expense to notice it. The brunette used the back of her hand to cover her mouth while she shook her head and kept laughing freely.

“I’m sorry,” Lena said, waving her hand, before being interrupted by her own laugh. “It’s just... Fuck! That’s the worse thing you ever did in your life?” The tattoo artist looked at her again with her eyes crinkling at the sides and Kara felt her anger melting away.

“What? Did you expect a murder?”

“I was hoping that you would say you spit on her coffee, at least.”

Kara gasped. “I would never do that!”

Lena narrowed her eyes at her, a tiny smirk adorning her lips. “But you think about it, don’t you?”

“Every day,” she admitted with a groan, letting her head fall back against the chair.

The brunette laughed again and a cold hand came to rest against her thigh, making Kara’s body vibrate from head to toe. “I won’t tell your secret if you don’t tell mine.” Lena winked – winked – at her and Kara felt her throat too dry all of sudden. The woman chuckled again when the blonde gulped before she gently tapped the hard muscle of Kara’s thigh. “We’re done here.”

“Oh.” Kara blinked in surprise and her eyes immediately fell to her ribs. The skin was red and swollen, but she could see the delicate lines of the flowers and the leaves, and she was hit by the urge to cry all at once. She felt like a little girl again, being six or seven, and running to the door to meet her father, seeing the plumerias in his left hand and the chocolate on his right.

“Hey,” Lena called her gently, ducking her head to be able to catch the blue eyes again. “You're fine over there? I had people regretting tattoos before, but not so fast.”

Kara laughed and shook her head, trying to discreetly brush a tear from the corner of her eyes. “Everything is fine. It’s really beautiful.”

“Well, don’t say that before you take a better look,” Lena pushed her stool away and got up with a refreshed excitement. “Come on, stand up so you can look at it in the mirror.”

That’s what Kara did, sliding off the chair and walking with slightly trembling legs to the full body mirror that she had seen before. The fact that she still didn’t have her shirt on was in the back of her mind while her eyes traced the ink. It looked even better on her ribs than it looked on the paper and she made sure to tell the other woman that, earning a smile that she doubted she would ever be able to forget.

"Here." She turned around to see Lena's hand reaching out a piece of white chalk between her long fingers and sporting a kind of smile that Kara hadn’t seen on her yet - satisfied, the type of smile you give after accomplishing a task that meant something to you. "All of my clients have to write something on the walls. It's tradition," Lena shrugged in the end.

Kara’s eyes swept through the room again, taking in the black walls and words written in almost every inch available under a new light. There were small praises, thanks, some jokes and even a few doodles, and Kara wondered what she could write that could sum up her entire experience inside Lena's tattoo shop. She took the chalk more out of instinct, her brain still working on finding the right words, and Kara took a few steps around the room until she found the right place to write.

It was just below one of Lena's drawings that were hanging from a string, between a Scooby-Doo doodle and the message of someone saying they loved their new rose tattoo. Kara’s handwriting wasn't the best one - sloppy and crooked - and it looked even worse when she was trying to write on a wall, but she managed to write her first and last name to make it look readable. Then, she added her phone number under it and put the chalk inside the small box she found just beside her. Kara turned around making sure her body would cover what she had just written, suddenly feeling too nervous about it, and accepted the plastic foil paper Lena handed her.

"Remember to put on the ointment I told you about and keep it covered so it heals. It should be all healed in a week, tops. You're free to call if you have any doubts."

Lena led the way out of the room and they found themselves once again at the reception desk. Lena picked up the pen she had played with before and scribbled something on a piece of paper beside the computer while Kara reached out for her wallet in the pocket of her trousers. Their fingers brushed when she handed Lena the money and her face flushed red for the millionth time that night. Lena gave her a knowing smile before putting the money away and just like that they realized that they would part ways soon. A small part of Kara, primal and shameless, tried to come up with any reason that would make her stay for a while longer. Anything would do, really.

Even so, there was no reason for her to stay and Kara tried to mask her unjustified sadness by joining her hands in front of her body and forcing a smile to look real. “Thank you again.”

Lena waved a hand dismissively, the pen still hanging between two fingers, before her hand came to rest on top of the other one on the desk. “It was my pleasure.”

“If I regret it in the morning, I will come back with a vengeance,” Kara joked, swaying on her heels, and the laugh that came from the other woman was worth any type of regret she might end up having in the near future.

“As much as I would like to see you again, I would hate for that to be the reason you came back.”

Lena winked at her and Kara’s mouth hang open before she could stop herself. That made the brunette laugh in delight, made a deep blush rise from her neck to her cheeks, and Kara started taking steps back before she could embarrass herself anymore. Alex, Nia and all of their friends were right: she’s a gay disaster. None of them would be able to judge her if they just saw Lena though, of that she was sure.

Stumbling over one of the chairs, Kara let out a nervous laugh and, to her utter terror, she pointed finger guns at Lena. “Have, ah, have a good night, ma’am.”

She missed the door handle twice before she was able to open the door and, by the time she looked at Lena again, the other woman was smiling broadly at her. Ducking her head, Kara walked out the door and let it close behind her. Once the slightly chill air of the night hit her face, she closed her eyes and resisted the urge to hit herself for some very stupid decisions made inside that shop. She wondered if she would ever be able to live it down if any of her friends ever found out she just did finger guns at a beautiful woman as a way to say goodbye.

Well, to be fair, she wasn’t sure any of her friends would let her live it down when they found out about her very spontaneous tattoo.

God, Alex was going to kill her. Not for getting a tattoo, but for doing so without giving it enough thought. And, for Christ’s sake, Alex could be a real pain in the ass when she decided to lecture her for whatever reason it was. She was so not ready to deal with that.

It was only when she opened her eyes again that she realized she was still standing outside the tattoo shop – and that Lena could still very easily see her from her place behind the counter – and, with another blush, Kara pushed herself to start walking. Her apartment was only five more blocks down the street and she took that time to clear her mind from anything negative she was thinking about.

If her crazy and very unusual night taught her anything was that she had the thing inside her that could make her do some very adventurous things. She was capable of doing those things. Maybe randomly getting a tattoo wasn’t the ideal way to prove that to herself, but, damn, she had just renewed faith in herself.

Her poor attempts at flirting were the last thing on her mind when she pushed the door to her studio apartment open and stepped inside, making a beeline to where she had left her laptop earlier that day on the small kitchen table. She pulled a chair after turning the computer on and, reaching out for an apple inside the fruit bowl, she waited for the laptop to come to life so she could open a new file to start typing. She had an article to write, and a trip to plan.

 XxxxxxxX

 It was two days later – after Alex had scolded her for making decisions in a rush, after Nia took pictures of their tattoos side by side to post on her Instagram, after Querl had awkwardly given her a thumbs up, after James raised his eyebrows, after Winn yelped in shock – that something changed.

Kara was lazily reading something Nia had written so she could suggest some corrections before the girl submitted it to Snapper’s approval, when her phone buzzed from its place beside her mousepad – her rainbow mousepad, thanks to Winn. She picked it up, thinking it was Alex inviting her for lunch so she could yell at her a few more times, but the number who had texted her was an unsaved one. She frowned, but didn’t give it much thought before unlocking her screen to read it.

“Since you didn’t barge inside my shop to kill me, I take it that you didn’t regret it?”

The smile that curled her lips up came from within her and it was apparently too obvious because Nia, who was sitting across from her, gave her a weird look and arched one eyebrow in question. Kara shook her head, biting her bottom lip, and turned her chair around so the girl couldn’t see her anymore before typing a reply.

“I never said I was going to kill you.”

“The threat was clear to me,” came the next text just a few seconds later and Kara chuckled to herself.

“Please, don’t tell me you were scared.”

“Why do you think it took me two days to reach out?”

Kara paused at that. She had spent the last two days being sure that, despite their easy flirt with each other, Lena didn’t actually want to talk or see her again. So, to have her texting her now was really... reawakening something inside her.

“Who are you texting?”

Kara jumped on her chair, startled by Nia’s voice so close to her ear all of sudden, her phone almost slipping from her fingers and crashing on the floor. Thankfully, her reflexes were still working and she was able to grab it, but not without throwing a glare at Nia for scaring her like that. The girl gave her a sheepish smile, although she shrugged and didn’t back away from where she had perched on the corner of Kara’s desk to look over her shoulder.

“No one,” came the childish, and not at all convincing, reply and Kara didn’t need to look at her friend again to know she was busted. Now Nia was not going to let it down.

“Really? Because you have been smiling to your phone for five minutes and you just smile like that when Alex says she’s bringing extra potstickers for game night.” Nia smirked and leaned over, trying to read the texts again, but Kara quickly pressed the phone against her chest to block her view.

“Alex just invited me for lunch,” Kara attempted to throw her off.

However, Nia arched her eyebrows. “Really? Because I just texted Kelly asking her to go to that vegan place with me and she said she already has plans.” A pause. “With Alex.” Another pause. “For lunch.”

Kara groaned and turned her chair so she was facing her computer again, slipping her phone screen down on the table. “Fine, it wasn’t Alex, but I’m not going to say anything.”

“Okay.” Her friend gave up way too faster than usual and Kara watched her with narrowed eyes as the girl jumped from her desk to turn the corner back to her own cubicle. Nia was about to sit down when she tried to snatch Kara’s phone away with one surprisingly fast move, but the blonde was even faster, taking it out of her reach in the last second. “Damn.”

Kara rolled her eyes and pushed her chair back. She grabbed her jacket from the back of the chair, throwing it over her shoulders and slipping her phone inside one of the pockets, and threw an overly sweet, clearly fake, smile at Nia. “Now you will have to eat alone because I won’t have lunch with you either.”

Nia stuck her tongue out at her. “I will call Querl!”

Kara waited until she was safely inside the elevator before opening her texts again. There were three more texts since the last time she looked and a smile immediately spread over her face when she read them.

“Okay, I confess, I was a little nervous.”

“You still there? You didn’t change your mind, did you?”

“About the tattoo, not the... leaving your name and number on my wall thing.”

She barely noticed when someone entered the elevator a few floors below, too focused on replying to the texts.

“You? Nervous? You don’t look like the type of girl that gets nervous. And no, I didn’t change my mind about any of those things, actually.”

A new text only came after she was already walking down the street to Noonan’s, but she wrote a quick text to invite Winn for lunch before opening Lena’s text.

“I’m also not the type to text any of the numbers left on my walls. And good.”

“Do you get a lot of numbers on your walls?” Kara asked and she had to make a conscious effort to cross the street to Noonan’s instead of walking straight for a few more blocks to the tattoo shop. She could picture Lena leaning against the counter with her gorgeous smirk and her impressive tattoos – and even more impressive cleavage.

“Jack enjoys them more than I do.”

Kara was about to make a comment about Jack but another text came in before she could and she stopped in her tracks so suddenly that the man walking behind her shoved against her shoulder. She tripped over a few steps, but quickly held herself again to read the words over and over in disbelief. She hoped, of course, but that was... wow.

“I don’t want to be too straightforward here, or overly confident or something, but I have a client coming in five minutes, so I don’t have much time. This won’t sound romantic at all, but would you like to have dinner with me? Tomorrow?”

Kara didn’t have to think too much about her answer, of course. Alex would give her a piece of her mind for agreeing to go out with someone she barely knew – and ‘that’s the whole point of going out to meet people’ was not a good argument on her sister’s book – but Kara would deal with it later. Right now, she had a very gorgeous woman asking her out and she already knew what her answer would be.

“I would love to.”

“What? Really?” Kara chuckled at the rushed text she received back, but another one came just a second later. “Pretend you didn’t read that. I meant ‘okay, great!’.”

Chuckling again, Kara typed a new message. “I know you were the one who asked me out, but may I suggest a place? I don’t have a car and it’s close to both of our workplaces.”

“Whatever you want, just text me address. Let’s say, tomorrow at 7 pm?”

“Can’t wait.”

 XxxxxxxX

 “Hey, Kara?”

“Yes?” She asked, not taking her eyes away from her computer screen and typing away as fast as she could to be able to put all the ideas in her new article. She had never written like that before, but she wasn’t about to complain about small inspirations spikes.

“The front desk called and said there’s a pack for Cat downstairs. Can you pick it up?”

With a small sigh, not because she was mad at Winn for interrupting her but because she would have to go all out of the way to pick a pack she didn’t even know was going to come in, Kara saved her file and pushed her chair back. Nia glanced up and was about to remove her earphones, ready to follow Kara to whatever she was going to learn more about the journalism world, but the blonde made some gestures with her hand that she hoped meant ‘boring things, stay here’ before she started making her way to the elevator.

Jenny, the woman that stayed at the front desk, was kind, around Eliza’s age, and very chatty, which worked fine with Kara when she wanted to waste a few minutes talking along. “Good morning, Kara! How are you?”

“I’m great, Jenny. And you?”

“I’m fine. What happened? I recognize that smile.”

Kara tilted her head to the side, although she couldn’t stop smiling, doesn’t matter how hard she was trying. “What smile?”

Jenny narrowed her eyes and waved a finger at her playfully. “That’s the smile of someone who had a very good night.”

The blonde could feel her face heating up and a nervous chuckle escaped her lips before she could stop herself. She had been leaning against the counter, but she leaned her torso back and tapped her fingers against the hard surface nervously. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Right,” Jenny scoffed, rolled her eyes and started pulling out the packages that she would need to take upstairs with her. There was a yellow thing that was sent by one of the photographers of the last shooting they made, some letters and a few small boxes, which made Kara believe Jenny had been holding those things with her for at least a few days. Cat hadn’t asked for any of that, so it wasn’t a problem. “Don’t tell me then. You don’t have to. Is all over your face.”

Blushing even harder, Kara huffed an anxious laugh and looked down at the counter. She put one hand on her hip as the other one raised to push her glasses up her nose, but she kept her eyes down to avoid seeing the smirk on Jenny’s face. She would have to agree with her, if she did. Because she knew it was, in fact, written all over her face. She hadn’t been able to stop smiling since she woke up that morning – who was she kidding? It had been like that since dinner last night.

It had a reason – and the reason had a name – but she was not going to share any personal details about her life with Jenny. The old woman had the tendency to share everyone’s secrets – which was another reason Kara liked to talk with her so much, but she would never admit to being a gossip girl. She did tell Nia, mostly because her friend wouldn’t stop asking why Kara was fifteen minutes late that morning, though she had made the girl promise not to tell anyone.

It was still pretty new, she had argued.

“If you two slept together, it’s not that new,” Nia had teased back, making her face turn red so fast that James, that had been coming back from the bathroom, asked if she was feeling well.

Even if the whole ‘sleeping together on the first date’ thing was new to her, Kara hadn’t regretted it in the morning. Much like the tattoo. Although, it would be remarkably harder to regret sleeping with Lena when the said woman was spooning her from behind than it was to regret a tattoo that recquired a lot of afterward care. Either way, Kara was living the best morning in her life and it clearly showed on her face.

“Looks like you’re not the only one who’s having a great time.” Jenny’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts and Kara looked up in time to see the woman pulling a big bouquet from under the counter.

The flowers looked cheap and scruffy, which made it seem like someone had just thrown them together without much care. They were yellow and pink daisies, the colors clashed and didn’t work well together, but the card hidden between the flowers was black and easy to see. She knew she shouldn’t because it had her boss’ name outside the card and it was clearly not for her to see, but curiosity took the best of her – that and the fact that the card had been clearly already open, and by Jenny’s face she knew who had done it.

“Thank you – L”

Well, that wasn’t helpful at all.

Sighing and feeling silly for stealing a look, she put the card back and started to try to find a way to pick everything she needed to take back with her. She knew there was a small cart some other companies in the building used to transport stocks and other products, but she was sure she could use her hands if she just pilled everything right. Kara had just come up with a plan when Jenny spoke again.

“There’s also this one. It doesn’t have a card, but it came with the bouquet. Same delivery. The guy couldn’t say anything about it, but I’m sure we can find something if we call the shop and...”

“I think there’s no need,” Kara interrupted gently, without looking up from the growing pile in one of her hands, but she raised her head eventually.

Only to lose track of every thought she was having.

Jenny had put a single plumeria on top of the counter. As the woman had said, there was no card or any type of identification – who it came from or who was supposed to receive it – but Kara connected the dots quite easily. Smiling, she reached over to grab the simple flower and brought it closer to her face to smell it.

“Oh, I see.”

“I have to go!” Kara said suddenly, knowing everyone in the building would know she had just randomly smelled a flower at the front desk that morning. “See you, Jen!”

The look on Cat’s face when Kara gave her the bouquet, not offering any other explanation othan than that there was a card attached to it, was worth every step on the stairs she had to walk up, holding the woman’s coffee every morning. As soon as she was back to her desk, Kara pulled her phone from her pocket and sent a text before Nia could start asking any questions.

“Thought you said that you’re not good with romance.”

The reply didn’t come right away, Kara ended up putting her phone to the side and went back to work. However, as soon as it rang beside her, she grabbed it.

“Guess we’re both learning new things about ourselves. Want to have lunch together?”

And, yes, she totally did.