Needles 'n' Things

It wasn't exactly that Jaymie wanted a tattoo. Well, he did, but mostly he liked the tattoos and the idea of having one. Some of them were so, so amazing, like art folded into your skin. On the other hand, he liked his skin the way it was. Maybe there were magical tattoos that disappeared when you wanted them to. That would be awesome.

It might have been less of a problem if he hadn't spent every other day since school started finding some excuse to wander by the tattoo parlor, or if he had some idea what he would even get, or if he wasn't sixteen and pretty likely to get yelled at by his parents even if that was legal here.

Right now, his eyes were in the window and his mind was elsewhere.

The door to the tattoo shop opened and Micah leaned half out grinning. "Hey kid, walk by one more time and I'll charge you for the theoretical tattoo you're clearly in deep internal torment about."

Jaymie brought himself back to his senses, blinking as he processed Micah's words. He immediately put on a cool, unconcerned expression.

"Actually, I was planning on stealing your designs and opening up a competing business a block over using brownies to undercut your prices. I guess now you've caught me I'll have to go back to Plan A- do you know if there's a such thing as faerie civets?"

Micah laughed "Nah man, no faerie civets. But, I got to say, I like your business plan. I'd do it myself if my mom wouldn't kick my ass back to Arcadia."

Micah grabbed Jaymie by the arm and pulled him inside the shop. "Let me show you all of our trade secrets. They might involve honey badgers, be prepared."

"Damn. I bet faerie civet coffee would make a mint."

Jaymie grinned, not resisting too much when Micah grabbed his arm, embarrassing as it was. He wouldn't mind getting a better look at those designs... maybe even get inspired by some of them, he convinced himself.

"Like... the mean kind of honey badgers, or badgers made out of honey?" Hopefully that was a joke, either way.

Micah glanced around conspiratorially "Both man."

He closed the door behind him. He nodded over to the two women at the front desk. A Thai woman in her  late 30s and Hitomi. "This is my mother and my friend who isn't my mother, I'll let you figure out which is which. And, " He pulled Jaymie towards the back of the shop to the a small row of seats and indicated toward Aye who was in the middle of creating an intricate design in a sketchbook. "Is the glow worm of poor life-choices."

"Hello ma'am. Hi 'Tomi." He grinned and waved at them both, the feeling of impending doom passing when he saw Hitomi. If there was actually impending doom, she would probably say something about it.

"Hello!" He waved to Aye as well, resisting the urge to peek in her sketchbook. The last time he tried doing that to someone he got smacked in the face with it and nearly fell off a parapet.

"I greatly enjoy my life choices, thank you." Aye looked up at the sound of Micah's voice and grinned when Jaymie greeted her.

"Hi! Were you looking for a consultation, or did Micah kidnap you?"