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Pins and Needles

This is for Jess who wanted a pierced Dirk going for the Egbooty.

AO3 Mirror

1/2/?

Your name is John Egbert and most of what you know about Dirk Strider has mostly been gathered from whispered rumors and the gushing words of his younger brother. He rides a motorbike your dad disapproved of, he had enough piercings to make him more metal than some of the robotics he studied at college, and you heard that he's banned from the local cinema for getting too heated with his ex-boyfriend in the back row.

Despite being best friends with his younger brother, you're fairly sure he doesn't even know your name. Until, one day you catch him looking your way, and he seems determined to convince you otherwise.

The tattoo and piercing parlor sat on the edge of the city center, squashed between a liquor store and a strip bar which had long since closed down. It was the type of area your dad would have driven through only after having rolled up all the windows in his car, and it was the type of street where two seventeen year old's should most definitely not be. But here you were, staring up at the sign which had once read 'Pins and Needles' but now only boasted 'in Need' since half the letters were missing.

Coincidentally, the new name seemed to suit the place, with the black paint beginning to crack and peel from the door, and half the front window haphazardly boarded up where the glass had been smashed. Tinny sounding radio rock music spilled from the cracked open door, reaching you on the sidewalk where you stood next to your best friend.

"Dave, are you sure about this?"

You hear him clear his throat, and when you tear your eyes away from the shop in front, you catch him give a quick shrug of his slouched shoulders. He turns a set of shades your way, and you can see your unimpressed expression in the reflection of the glass.

"Yeah man, this is where my bro gets all his stuff done. He has this friend doin' the same thing as him at college and he works here part time, says I can get my tongue pierced half price."

"But is he, uh, good at it?"

The unease was obvious in your tone of voice, and as much as Dave was trying to seem cool about it all, you could see a slight tension in the way he stood, revealing that he was nervous too.

"Well, he has to be, yeah? I mean my bro comes here and you've seen how many piercings that asshole has."

You find that you don't have much to say in return to that, pressing your lips hard together and letting your attention flicker back out over the store front.

Dirk Strider did have a lot of piercings.

But Dirk Strider was also the guy who'd been kicked out of his school's anime club for bringing in a real katana, and who'd given himself his own first tattoo when he was only the same age as you were now. Two years later, and nineteen year old Dirk Strider seemed just as fearless as he'd always appeared in your eyes, with his still expression giving nothing away, pointed shades hiding eyes which might have been looking straight at you or staring right through you without any way to be sure.

Honestly, Dave's older brother intimidated the fuck out of you.

"Are you two gonna go inside or stand here wettin' yourselves outside some more?"

Speak of the devil.

You hadn't even seen him approaching, a plume of smoke slipping past his lips as he comes to a stop beside Dave. You glance his way but he's not looking at you, and you can see his eyelashes from down the side of his shades, a darker blond to Dave's. He takes another drag from his cigarette, dropping it to the floor to extinguish under a heavy biker boot with toes so scuffed they barely resembled the color black any more.

"We were waiting for you, it ain't like we know this Equinox dude."

"Equius."

"Whatever, the guy has a fucking weird name," Dave gives a quiet sniff and you see Dirk's lips give the smallest of twitches downwards before his expression slips back into an unreadable mask. You think he might be glancing your way but it was impossible to tell.

The inside of the parlor faired only a little better than the outside, the walls lined with different tattoo designs, with the papers curling slightly at the corners as though they might all fall from the wall at any second. A glass cabinet displaying metal studs and rings was pushed up against a counter which cut off the front part of the shop to the back, where a distinct sound of a buzzing needle reached you over the sound of the music.

Dirk simply walks up to the counter and lifts himself up on top of it, heavy boots and skinny jeans swinging over the top to land himself on the other side in one swift motion. He gives a shout out, which is returned from someone at the back of the store, and when you feel Dave shift the tiniest bit closer to you, you drag your eyes away from the walls to fall on the seven foot tall wall of muscle which could only be Equius.

The guy had long black hair falling straight around his face, the tattoo of an arrow running down one tree trunk of an arm and a horseshoe inked on his other. When his lips part, you can see that one of his front teeth were cracked, and he looked just about ready to start a fight with anyone who accidentally bumped into him on the street. He towered head and shoulders over Dirk, but the Strider seemed far from intimidated as they talked together, in fact, it almost seemed as though Dirk was the one who left him seeming nervous.

"How does your brother know this guy again?"

"They study mechanical engineering together at college," Dave says, and you can't help but catch his eye and share a smirk, ultimately thinking of the guy bending metal with his bare hands, "Apparently he idolizes Dirk because he scored the highest in their robotics class."

"He's like a fucking bulldozer."

"Don't let him hear ya, Egbert, he could probably punch you through the damn wind-"

"Hey," Dirk's voice cuts through your conversation, and you both snap your attention back in his direction, suddenly feeling like two little kids caught gossiping in the schoolyard, "Come 'round the back and he'll do it for you now." One gloved hand slips beneath the counter to unlatch a small door, pulling it open to allow the two of you entry into the back area. Dave instantly takes a seat on one of the recliner chairs, tight leather squeaking under his sneakers as he makes himself comfortable, leaving you to stand awkwardly by the counter beside Dirk.

The older Strider leans back against the wood, arms crossing over his chest and gaze fixed ahead of him on the chair rather than acknowledging your existence. Although, the guy had always been like that around you, no matter how much time you spent around Dave's apartment, you'd always be lucky to even receive a small grunt in return to the greetings you sent his way. You figure he doesn't like you all too much, but you couldn't imagine why not.

"Will the other one be getting anything done?" Equius asks as he steps out of a small closet at the back, carrying the piercing equipment with him on a tray. He doesn't look at you or Dave, his eyes nervously flickering across Dirk's face and a light sheen of sweat lining his forehead, as though desperate not to fuck up on impressing him.

"Hah, Egbert's too chicken to get a piercing," Dave cuts in from the chair, and you feel something bristle along your spine in annoyance, brow pulling down.

"Get lost, I'm not a fucking chicken."

"Then get a piercing."

"Maybe I will."

"Go on then."

"Fine!"

You catch his eyebrows tipping up above his shades in amusement, and Equius's hands shaking slightly on the metal tray as he looks to Dirk, seeming to wait for him to confirm what was happening. You exhale a quick, stubborn huff out of your nose, your fingers fumbling to pull your wallet out of your jeans pocket so that you can slap a twenty dollar note down on the counter.

"Give me a piercing, then."

For a moment, there was just a stunned silence in response, only the sound of a man in a separate chair getting tattooed and the crackly music from the radio filling the air between the four of you. You look to each of them, reaching Dirk last, and for the first time since meeting him, you can actually tell that he's staring right at you from behind his pointed shades, lips pressed in a thin line. He's the first one out of all of you to move, tipping forward away from the counter and letting his attention drift back away from you again so that he could speak to Equius.

"If you sort out my little bro, I'll do his friend for ya', you know I can do it," he says, sounding so sure of himself, you wonder if there was ever a time when he didn't sound so damn confident.

"You don't have the license for it yet, and there are no chairs free-"

"I'll do it in the back room, no one will even see, and come on Zahhak, you know I'm better than half the needlers in this dump without needing a license." Dirk's arms unfold from his chest, shoulders rolling back in a way which makes it seem as though he was smirking, despite his expression not even flinching. And you can see the conflict flash across Equius' expression, his face becoming more shiny before he quickly sets down the tray by Dave's chair and gives a quiet nod and growl of approval.

You only have a second to catch Dave's eye, his expression shocked and almost impressed, before you feel worn leather and coarse fingertips gripping against your arm, pulling you away through the parlor towards the back room Equius had collected his supplies from earlier. It's around this point that it sinks in what on earth you'd gotten yourself into, your stomach dropping in panic and your eyes wildly flying up to look at Dirk as he leads you into the small room.

The walls were lined with shelves and drawers, each housing different equipment, inks and studs, chemicals and documents. There was a slightly medical smell to it, mingled with must and dust which turned your stomach slightly, the bright white light hanging from the ceiling casting dark shadows into the corners of the room. It seemed like a dingy sort of place to receive your first piercing, and you knew that if your dad had been here, he would have dragged you quickly out of there without a single word. But your dad wasn't here, and you were trying your damn hardest not to think of how he would react to you coming home with a piece of metal shoved through your skin.

"Grab that chair from the corner, kid, put it in the middle of the room under the light," Dirk orders and you catch sight of a dusty wooden chair sat squashed next to a filing cabinet, dragging it out with an unpleasant scraping noise against the floor.

"What, uh, what do you think I should get pierced? I mean, I never really thought about it before."

You don't want to sound scared or anything, but you can't deny that your heart was pounding against your chest from nerves, blue eyes darting behind your glasses as you take a seat on the chair. Dirk steps up in front of you, the white light highlighting the sandy blonde hair where it was styled, seeming almost sharp when paired with shadows. He darts a set of fingers out to grip along your jaw gently, causing you jump slightly and frown up at him in confusion. It felt like an invasion of personal space, especially coming from a guy who had previously barely looked at you, never mind touched. But he doesn't release you, instead tilting your head slowly in each direction to analyse you, only releasing once he'd made a decision.

"You'd suit a nose ring. But hey, it ain't up to me what you get."

He moves back across the room, pulling open drawers to grab the right equipment, and you bring a set of fingers to press against the side of your nose in thought. As you see Dirk pull out a covered needle, you find you're not as uneasy as you thought you might be, and as you come to a decision not to back out, all you find yourself worrying about was the fact that your dad was going to kill you for this.

"Sure! A nose ring sounds pretty cool, I mean you have one and it looks okay... Did it hurt? I bet it didn't hurt as much as your tattoos did though."

"It's gonna sting, and you're gonna wanna try not to knock your nose for about a week because it'll hurt like a bitch then," he half mumbles in return, tugging free his fingerless gloves to replace them with rubber medical ones, letting them snap against his wrists in a way which reminded you of some mad scientist. It seemed a little ridiculous, and you hold back a laugh in case it came across too shaky.

"Got it, no shoving my nose into things unless I wa- whoa, excuse me," You tense up instantly as a set of gloved hands grab against your knees to spread them, fingertips digging into your thighs as Dirk settles himself on his knees between your legs. He pays no attention to your little outburst, reaching up to grab the tray of equipment from the surface to the side and letting it drop to the floor by your foot with a clatter. You're pretty sure you've started to blush slightly, although you can't quite figure out why. The guy was only needing to be close to you, it wasn't as if he was unnecessarily deciding to kneel between your legs for the damn crotch shot, was he?

You clear your throat before continuing, "I guess it can't be that bad, I mean there really isn't all that much to a nose in that part is there? It's not like bone or anything, I dunno, and it isn't like it's as thick as getting your tongue done like Dave is. But he's a bit of a stupid ass so- I mean, shit, I'm not saying you've gotta be stupid to get your tongue pierced, I think your tongue piercing looks cool..."

His expression flinches, and for just the smallest of seconds, you see a smirk on his lips before it was gone again and he was back to sorting the items on his tray silently. You decide it was probably a good time to be shutting the fuck up then, instead taking the time to study each of Dirk's piercings in turn. Two in his eyebrow, a ring in his nose, at least five in each ear with bars and studs and stretchers, a pair below his lips, which you're pretty sure Dave had called 'snakebites', and then one through his tongue. Apparently he was planning on getting his cheeks and collarbones pierced when he graduated. You wonder how he made it through airport security without frying the metal detectors.

He gives a heavy sigh and you drag your eyes away from the two studs beneath his lower lip, watching him as he squirted a drop of gel onto one gloved finger. He straightens himself up on his knees, shuffling forward between your legs to come face to face with you in a proximity that has you swallowing hard and suddenly out of words to say. The gel is cool and wet when he spreads it across one side of your nose, explaining that it would partially numb the pain, although the sting would still be a kicker.

You give a small hum of understanding, picking out freckles across his nose and cheeks you hadn't noticed before, resisting the urge to tip your head back and put more distance between the two of you. Quite frankly, the close proximity made you nervous where you hadn't been before, one of your legs moving against Dirk's hip as you bounced on the toes of your sneaker in an unsettled manner. When he next speaks, you can almost see the movement of his pupils behind the dark glass to shift from looking at your nose to meeting your eye, his voice quiet.

"John, are you sure you want to do this? It ain't worth the pain, effort and money if you're only doing it because of a little bit of peer pressure."

His words leave you surprised, lips parting slightly as you stammer for a reply. You didn't think he even knew your name. He seemed genuinely concerned for you though, his brow pulled down slightly and his lips set in a thin line. You're half tempted say no, thinking that it was the answer he wanted to hear, but that seemed a little silly since you'd come this far and your stubbornness wouldn't let you leave without a piercing to rub in Dave's face. Besides, Dirk had said you'd suit a nose ring.

"Yeah, I'm sure."

His jaw tenses, and when you send him a toothy grin, he returns it with a slightly confused look, like he couldn't quite figure you out. But the moment passes quickly, and he reaches down for his equipment, giving a small nod and shrug. You almost feel disappointed that he doesn't bother trying to convince you further.

"Okay, you might want to close your eyes, sometimes it can get a bit freaky to watch the needle go through," he says quietly, the plastic of his gloves feeling cool on your cheek as he tilts your face slightly to the side. He hands you a paper towel, instructing you to hold it under your chin before he shifts himself closer again.

You close your eyes quickly, more so to try and block out his close proximity than anything else. You didn't want to be distracted by those unexpected freckles again.

With vision cut out, there's more time to focus on the solid chair you curled your fingers hard against, the occasional brush of your inner thighs against Dirk's hips, the quiet of his breathing compared to the seemingly noisy huffs you exhaled yourself. And then his fingers held against your nostril, barely a second passing before there was a sharp pain flaring up your nose, making your eyes tear up and your brow furrow.

Ow, okay, that did hurt like a bitch.

As the sharp sting dulls to a heavy throb, you release the breath you hadn't realized you'd been holding, feeling hot tears escape down your cheeks despite your best attempts to hold them back. Wow, way to go look like a damn baby by crying.

"Don't worry, everyone's eyes water, it's a natural response," he says as though reading your mind. His voice is low and soothing in the dark, and you can hear him shift to reach for his tray again.

There was some kind of uncomfortable shifting in your nose, and you feel something drop onto the paper towel you held under your chin. Panic hazes your mind instantly, and you jerk your head back slightly, Dirk's fingers leaving your nose and your eyes snapping open to a spinning room.

"Part of my nose fell out! Part of my nose, I felt it, I-"

"John. That was just the needle."

You look his way, eyes wild, and then you glance down to the towel in your hand and the needle sat on top from when Dirk had pushed it out when putting the ring in. It takes a second for it to sink in, your cheeks flushing in embarrassment and your mouth pulling into a fierce frown. When you look back up at Dirk, he was biting hard against his lower lip, unsuccessfully holding back a laugh since his shoulders were shaking and his lips were tipped up into a grin.

You'd never seen him really smile or laugh before, and the sight is almost enough to dull your mortification as you appreciate the straight white teeth and slight crease in his nose. But, yeah, you were still pretty mortified.

"Oh fuck off."

"Well, Egbert, that's certainly a first time I've seen someone think their nose was falling off."

"It- it wasn't my whole nose it was just, it felt like... god, shut up."

He tips his head down to hide his smile and you glare at the top of his head. You were more angry at yourself really, but it was easier to transfer it across to the smug asshole laughing at you instead.

"Can I finish now?" He asks, eventually looking up at you, the corner of his lips still fixed in a smirk, "The ring is in I just need to put in the fastening and clean it up..."

You send him a quick nod, slumping back against the chair and letting him take the paper towel and needle out of your hand. You hoped he wouldn't tell Dave about this or you'd never hear the end of it.

This time when he moved close again, you kept your eyes open, watching the way he chewed against his lip in concentration as he worked. There was still a dull pain in your nose, and once he was done, he peels off his surgical gloves with a slick plastic sound, letting them drop to the floor. You move a hand upwards, but it stutters to a stop as Dirk's hands reach your cheeks first, his fingers slipping along your jaw so that he could swipe each of his thumbs across your damp cheeks, wiping away any tears that were left.

It seemed like an unnecessary action, one that you easily could have done yourself, but there was something comforting in the notion and touch so you don't question it. You don't question the way he was staring at you through his shades either, as though desperately trying to catch your eye for longer than a second.

What the fuck was with this guy and either being completely aloof or embarrassingly intense?

"Would you like to take a look?"

And as soon as he'd been between your knees, he was tipping back onto his feet again, taking the tray with him and leaving you feeling almost alone, even in a room so small.

"Sure, of course I do. It's on my damn face after all."

You stand up eagerly from the chair, crossing your eyes to catch a blurry glint of metal in the light before you focus back on Dirk. He was putting things on the tray back into their correct places again, his indifferent attitude firmly set once more as he languidly holds a handmirror out in your direction over his shoulder. You accept it quickly, putting your back to him to face the light, tilting your head up into it as you raise the mirror.

The skin on your nose was red and sore, but there wasn't any blood like you might have expected, and the small silver ring seemed to fit just right. Excitement bubbles in your gut, a wide grin plastered on your lips as you forget about your previous embarrassment. This was probably the coolest thing you'd ever done, and you couldn't wait to show it to Dave, wondering if girls digged piercings. You think they do.

Your eyes shift in the mirror, and in the reflection you catch sight of Dirk behind you. And suddenly your train of thought comes to a stop, and you could barely care what your dad was going to say or if girls would pay more attention to you. Because Dirk Strider was looking right at you and he wasn't looking away, a ghost of a smile pulling at his lips and making something twist tight in your chest.

"I told ya it would suit you, Egbert."

And you want to make a witty response about how you even got to keep all of your nose, or you want to thank him, or laugh with him over how funny Dave might sound after getting his tongue pierced. But all the words are stuck.

All the words are stuck and you hate yourself for it, because all you can think of are the freckles across his nose and the surprisingly soft pads of thumbs swiping against your cheeks.

Oh fuck.

==> Chapter 2

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