Taemin breathes out smoke, watching it curl in the chilled air as his cigarette hangs between his fingers. He pulls his leather jacket closer to his body and watches as people walk by. Hongdae is bustling at night, students hurrying in to shop and seek their thrills. Taemin watches him with a disinterested eye, sure, these trend-seeking students kept their tattoo parlor up and running but that didn’t mean Taemin wanted anything to do with him. Commoners bored him to death.
He brings the cigarette to his lips again, taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling. He scuffs his shoes on the pavement before the tattoo on his back warms in warning. Flicking as from his cig, Taemin looks up and immediately catches the eye of a broad-shouldered man who is watching him with dark, mysterious eyes.
Unintimidated, Taemin takes another drag, “Can I help you?” he speaks softly, unworried about the other hearing him. His eyes wander as the stranger lifts his chin and stares him down, attracted to the long line of his neck.
“Maybe,” the stranger answers. Taemin sighs, wondering why sorcerers always feel the need to play hard to get. He drops his cigarette and stomps on it with his boot before turning on his heel and disappearing down the stairs to the shop without a word. He knew that the other would follow him and wanted play hard to get too.
Stepping into the shop, Jinki looks up and flashes a smile at him while Key ignores him to concentrate on the piercing some little girl’s lip. He walks straight past them and catches Jonghyun’s eye over his sketchpad, his hyung’s eyes darting to look at the stranger behind him and raising his eyebrows in question. Taemin shrugs and leads them into the next room to his station, sitting at his desk. The stranger hops onto the reclined bed without hesitation and gives him a lopsided smirk. The hanging lights cast appealing shadows on his handsome face.
“I need an agility tattoo and I’ve heard you are the best.” he says, immediately getting to the point.
Taemin flashes a flirty grin and says honestly, “That’s because I am.”
The stranger lifts an eyebrow, obviously not convinced, “It’s not as easy as you might think.” Taemin rolls his eyes and calls, “C’mon let’s see them then.”
He tries to keep his thoughts professional as the man takes off his shirt, revealing the intricate pattern of tattoos that lies attractively across his tanned muscular upper body, picking out the different runes and shellwork with a careful eye. He has a ton of powered tattoos, not more than some of Taemin’s regulars, but more than most.
There is a complicated celtic knot, a tattoo of protection, that wraps around his left bicep that has more detail than Taemin has ever come across. Not that Taemin can blame the tattoo artist who did it, his tanned skin is perfect for artwork and obviously takes to magic well, based on the happy buzzing Taemin could feel from a foot away. The stranger was obviously a tattooer’s dream.
Taemin finds himself tracing at the other’s tattoos before he can help himself, a Maori design snapping at him unhappy as he does so. “That one is always a little overprotective,” the stranger chuckles.
He hums noncommittally, continue to trace through the intricate pattern that wraps around his chest, over his shoulder and leaves a surprisingly blank back. Taemin guesses, “I suppose this is where you want mine?”
The man nods, turning over his shoulder to meet his gaze. “You might be able to see that my magic takes to ink well.” he states.
The obvious doesn’t need to be said, Taemin filling in what he is supposed to read between the lines. His magic takes so well to tattoo’s that he probably has to be careful with how they interact with each other in case the power saps too much from him, he also has to continuously change tattooers, careful with how much magic transfers during the tattooing process.
It a bit of a challenge, but one Taemin feels confident in overcoming. Figures the handsome customers are the most interesting and challenging ones. Taemin’s fingers skate over the man’s back, his magic instinctively showing him where his tattoo belongs.
His eyes blur, focusing solely on the faint pattern he can just see, absently, he grabs a pen and starts to free hand directly onto the man’s skin. Idly, he can feel him shiver slightly underneath his hands, but he ignores it to continue letting his magic guide him through the pattern.
Taemin shouldn’t be surprised when the man’s magic calls for his, reaching to pull more from him and, somewhat stupidly, he lets it. Their magic intertwines and dances through his fingertips, quickly following it with his pen. It’s effortless in a way that Taemin has never experienced before, getting caught up in the rush of their combined magics. The tattoo grows and more details appear before his eyes, his hand following eagerly.
Some time has passed by the Taemin pulls himself from his magic’s trance and is slightly impressed by how still the man stayed throughout the process. He takes a deep breath, blinking to get his bearings, “Woah.”
The man turns to smirk slightly at him, “I think our magics like each other.” Taemin narrows his eyes at him and chooses to not answer, instead looking down at his sketch.
His eyes widen at the large, detailed pair of wings that spread across tanned skin almost as if they were about to spread from his back into reality. The wings fit so perfectly with his other tattoos, stretching over his shoulder blades and down the back of his arms, almost as if the man had perfectly planned in forethought how the other tattoos would look with his design.
Taemin swallows nervously. That’s impossible of course, the man would never be able to choose his own designs, those came from the tattooers themselves and with how many different artists he had to go to keep his magic in check. That is, unless his magic had directed the others to leave the perfect space for him.
He shivers, the hair on his arms raising ominously. That couldn’t be, no one’s magic was strong enough to influence the tattooer to that extent-
The man then turns around, his dark eyes landing heavily on his face, serious and solemn. He asks, his tone dipped low and only for his ears, “Why do I feel like we just started something big?”
Taemin searches the other man’s face for any signs of distress or deceit. All he sees is acceptance. “Glad I’m not the only one,” he confesses in a whoosh. The stranger tilts to smile thinly at the ceiling.
“No going back now, Master Tattooer.” he declares and instantly Taemin knows he doesn’t want to go back, even if he could.
His heart speeds up as the man gracefully slides of the chair, going to twist in front of the full-length mirror to take a look at his back, unable to tear his eyes away. The other’s dark, entrancing eyes meet his own through the mirror and he sees acknowledgement there. Taemin shivers again, just wondering what he got himself into as the man speaks up.
And Taemin’s heart flutters in his chest.
Note: My AU is inspired by the fabulous black_goose and umberela
