(very belated) day 1 prompt from @theworldofprompts oc-tober, featuring @wayhavenots rider! (thank you so much for letting me use him, pd! i hope i did him justice)
human!tanner x rider ~1.9k pg13 (cursing + a few mildly suggestive comments) day 1 prompt: bat
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"Can I see the boss?"
Tanner's eyes close and he lets out a heavy sigh when he hears the words from the front counter beyond his office.
"Come on," he mutters to himself, glancing at the time on the screen of his computer. Ten minutes before closing and some jackass chooses now to come to him with an issue.
He gets to his feet with a groan, already at the door when there's a knock from the other side. He pulls it open and nods to his apprentice.
"Yeah, yeah, I heard," he mutters before the kid has a chance to say anything.
But he doesn't expect to see a familiar face grinning at him when he reaches the front of the shop. Not overly familiar, but familiar enough that he actually remembers this guy's name. Rider. He relaxes instantly and leans against the counter, offering his own grin in return.
"Well, well, well," Rider begins, looking around the shop before his eyes return to Tanner's face. "And here I thought you might have been lying about being the boss to impress me."
Tanner laughs, then raises a brow slightly. "Well? Are you impressed?"
"Very," Rider replies before a short silence falls between them.
"So, you really came all the way in here just to verify my story?" Tanner asks after a moment.
"Well," Rider begins, looking slightly nervous for the first time since Tanner met him a few days ago. "Yes, and no. On the off chance you were telling me the truth, I thought… you might be interested in having the honour of giving me my first tattoo."
Well, that's unexpected.
"Oh! Um, yeah, definitely. Just, gimme a sec to send this lot home, yeah?"
"I didn't mean right now! I thought I could just make an appointment, or something…" Rider trails off when Tanner waves his objections away with one hand.
"We'll just talk ideas and then see what happens, 'kay?" he offers with a wink before gesturing for Rider to sit down.
He's not exactly sure why he's entirely willing to go out of his way and work after hours for this guy, but he finds himself pushing his artists to hurry up and clean up their stations, eager to get them the hell out of here so that he can bring Rider out back.
He was very interested when he'd met Rider at a friend of a friend's party the other night, but unfortunately had already been, well, taken care of, by a girl who's name he doesn’t remember anymore.
So, they'd spent the night just hanging out, and he can't remember the last time he just hung out with someone new without the promise of something more at the end of it.
It had actually been a lot of fun. Different, but surprisingly not in a bad way.
Finally the shop is empty, and Tanner locks the door and flicks off the main lights, leaving the front room illuminated by only the dim lamps fixed to the walls.
"Not creepy at all," Rider comments with a laugh. He's gripping a sheet of paper when Tanner glances back over at him.
"Yeah, got ya right where I want ya, now," he says with a grin. "C'mon," he nods toward the back of the shop, indicating for Rider to follow.
It's brighter back here, the fluorescent lights above each table still buzzing away, and now Tanner can see that there's something drawn on the paper that Rider's holding. He's drawn his own; Tanner didn't even realise that Rider could draw.
"That your design?" he asks, nodding at it as Rider takes a seat on the edge of the closest table.
"Yes," Rider replies hesitantly, keeping the paper out of Tanner's reach.
"You- uh, can I see it?" Tanner asks after a few more seconds, and Rider slowly extends the hand holding the paper.
"I don't know how good it is," he mumbles when Tanner takes it from him. The nervousness is a vast contrast from the confident and bubbly person he'd spent hours with the other night. It might be a little bit adorable.
Tanner takes a seat on the stool beside the table, grabs his glasses from his workstation and puts them on to take a decent look at Rider's design.
There's a series of small bat outlines in the centre of the paper. Simple, shouldn't take too long, but Tanner's impressed nonetheless.
"You didn't mention you could draw," he says, setting Rider's drawing on the small desk beside it.
"Because I don't know that I can," Rider mumbles, and all Tanner offers is an under his breath "psh" in response. He grabs an album from the desk and spins his stool around to drop it on the table beside where Rider's sitting.
"These are good, but if you're not happy," he begins, flipping through the book until he finds the pages he's looking for; a series of photos of bat tattoos. He runs his finger over them as he continues, "we can colour them, shade them, black fill them-"
"Ohh, I didn't think of just black!" Rider cuts in. "Why didn't I think of that?"
Tanner laughs and closes the album again. "Because you got in your head about it. So you want them all black? You sure?"
Rider nods, pushing the sleeve of his shirt up and lightly slapping his bicep. "Here."
Tanner doesn't even try to pretend that his eyes aren't lingering on the other man's muscular arm, before giving him a small smirk and remarking "nice arms" before spinning back around to face the desk and grabbing a sheet of tracing paper.
"Nice hands," Rider shoots back as Tanner tapes the two sheets of paper together and begins tracing his picture.
He laughs again, focusing on the task at hand even while he distractedly replies "thanks. I'm pretty good with them, too."
"I have no doubt." Tanner can hear the smile in Rider's voice without looking at him.
He finishes tracing the picture, and can see from the corner of his eye Rider watching intently as he flips the tracing paper and places a new sheet on top to copy the drawing again with a stencil pen.
"Happy?" Tanner asks once he's done. Rider just nods, looking slightly worried again. "You sure?"
"Yep, c'mon, let's do it." He slaps his bicep a little harder this time with a wide smile, but Tanner recognises false confidence when he sees it. He's seen enough of it; not many people want to admit that they're freaking out over their first tattoo.
"It's not as bad as you're thinking," he reassures as he pulls on a pair of black nitrile gloves and grabs an alcohol wipe to clean Rider's arm.
"I'm not thinking it's going to be bad," Rider insists, and Tanner raises an eyebrow at him before pressing the stencil onto his arm and holding it there.
"Then it's gonna be a little worse than you're thinking," he only half jokes in response. He prefers that people are prepared for a little bit of pain.
"You're so reassuring."
"Always," Tanner grins at him and Rider gives an exaggerated eye roll in response. "'Kay, this good?" Tanner adds when he pulls the stencil away, and Rider turns to check out his arm in the mirror beside the table.
"Perfect," he says with a somewhat forced grin, and Tanner gives a quick nod before turning to prepare his equipment.
"So, this is gonna hurt a bit, right?" Rider blurts out suddenly once Tanner turns back to face him and gently pushes him to relax back onto the table.
"Little bit, yeah," Tanner answers honestly, pausing with the tattoo gun mere inches away from Rider's arm. "You good?"
"Yeah. Yeah, go for it," Rider tells him, glancing down at the gun in Tanner's hand and then resting his head back onto the table and staring up at the ceiling. "You're left handed," he adds distractedly.
"Mmhm," Tanner hums his confirmation, lowering the gun down onto Rider's arm.
Rider sucks in a sharp breath and his arm twitches despite the fact that Tanner can tell he's trying not to move.
"Hold still, sweetheart," Tanner murmurs, laying his other hand on Rider's arm above where he's tattooing. He holds the skin taut, and after a few seconds his pinky begins to soothingly stroke Rider's arm.
"You know what they say about lefties," Rider comments after a moment, relaxing significantly but obviously still trying to distract himself.
"Creative or some shit, right?" Tanner replies with a light chuckle.
"Super smart, too."
That makes Tanner laugh out loud. "Yeah, you give me a few more hours and I'll bust that one."
They make small talk for the duration of the tattoo; Tanner making stupid jokes with the odd flirtatious comment as distraction. While Rider directly, all out comes onto him and makes concentration incredibly difficult.
"Alright, here. Check it out before I cover it," Tanner says once he's done, gesturing towards the mirror beside the table before spinning on his seat to start on cleaning and sterilising his equipment.
"I love it!" He grins when he hears Rider's exclamation; this is always his most nerve racking, yet favourite part.
"Yeah? You sure?"
"Absolutely! I know where to come next time I spontaneously decide I want some ink."
When Tanner turns back around Rider's still checking himself out in the mirror, turning slightly every so often to see his new tattoo in different light.
"Alright stud," Tanner laughs, rolling closer to him on his stool and guiding him back to sit on the table. "Gotta hide it away for now."
Rider pouts, but holds his arm still for Tanner to give the ink one last clean and then stick a fresh bandage over the top of it. Once he's done he fishes a tube of ointment from his workstation and places it in Rider's hand, deliberately letting his fingers wrap around the other man's for a few seconds as he closes his hand around it.
"Put this on every day. No swimming, no baths and try to keep it out of the sun for a couple weeks, yeah?"
"Thanks, Tanner," Rider says as he follows Tanner back out to the front counter.
Tanner watches as he gingerly adjusts the sleeve of his shirt back down over his bicep. "It's literally my whole job, don't mention it."
"What do I owe you?" Rider asks, fishing a wallet from his back pocket.
"Dinner," Tanner blurts before he can stop himself.
What the actual fuck? Since when does he want to take someone out?
Rider just grins, slowly tucking his wallet away again before grabbing Tanner's hand and a pen from the counter.
"Text me when and where," he says, writing a series of numbers on Tanner's palm.
“Will do,” Tanner replies in something of a daze, still trying to figure out why the hell he just asked this guy out, and why the hell he isn’t taking it back.
Whatever the reason, he's not; instead he's moving to unlock the door to let Rider out, and letting him lift onto the balls of his feet to plant a kiss on Tanner’s cheek.
"Don't make me wait too long," he says playfully before turning and heading out onto the darkened street.
Well, shit. Looks like Tanner's about to go on his first ever date.