Hyukjae was surprised when he saw Donghae come through the door of the tattoo studio. He had purposefully scheduled the brunet's appointment far out to give the man time to regret his decision and cancel the appointment. He hadn't seen or talked to the brunet since their first meeting, to further dissuade the man, but now that Donghae was here, he felt a little guilty for not contacting him sooner.

It didn't take Donghae long to spot Hyukjae. The artist’s outfit was different today, there were no chains or cuffs for one thing, but he was still the only employee without colored hair. Despite how things ended between them last time, Donghae had been looking forward to seeing Hyukjae again and he felt giddy as he approached the artist. Today Hyukjae was dressed in all black. Black skinny jeans, this time without any rips, a black sleeveless shirt made of fishnet, and a black vest that was professionally tailored to emphasize his slim body. His lip piercing was gone, Donghae wasn’t sure if Hyukjae simply took the hoops off or if the piercing had been fake to begin with. Today the artist’s piercing of choice was a silver cuff on his ear, and his only makeup was a bit of eyeliner, but he was far from looking plain. Very far indeed. His outfit was simple because it was designed to emphasize his incredible tattoos, and the overall effect projected an aura of masculinity and power.

Hyukjae’s left arm and shoulder were covered in ink that curled and intertwined around while emphasizing the muscular curves of his body. The tattoos were all so expertly blended together that none of them stood out more than another, and rather than a patchwork of tattoos, it was one busy but beautiful scene. The tattoos were all in bold black ink, which contrasted beautifully with his pale skin and served as the perfect accessory to his all-black outfit. Many of the tattoos were inverted, Hyukjae’s milky skin served as the outline of the image, while the rest of the tattoo was filled in with black ink. The shading of his tattoos was also unique; it wasn’t a smooth gradient, but a combination of many dots of different sizes which gave a masculine appearance and an interesting texture.

Donghae’s mouth went dry when he finally got close enough to Hyukjae in the dimly lit room to fully appreciate his appearance. In contrast to his previous outfit, nothing about this concept was submissive. The brunet had also put some extra effort into his appearance today. He styled his hair up, wore a pair of trendy ripped jeans, and since he didn’t have any piercings to take advantage of, he put on every ring he owned instead. But after seeing Hyukjae’s new concept, he almost wished he owned some accessories just so that he could play into the fantasy the artist had created.

“You came?”

Donghae’s eyes went wide, and his face flushed red as he momentarily misunderstood Hyukjae’s words, but he quickly pulled himself together. “Of course. I was freaking out on the way here, but now that I’ve seen you, I feel better. Are you ready? Do you need me to wait? Should I wait here? Or in one of the doctor rooms?” Donghae never thought of himself as before, but now he desperately wanted Hyukjae to give him some orders to obey.

Hyukjae grinned at the eager brunet. “Sunny is on the phone, but it shouldn’t take long. You can wait wherever you feel comfortable.”

Donghae watched the artist nod his head towards a woman with hot pink hair and Donghae recognized her as the same woman that had taken over after Hyukjae had bailed on him last time. “Sunny?” he asked in confusion.

“Yeah. She’s awesome, you’re going to love her. Plus, she’s Sunny… you’re Hae… it’s practically fate.”

Donghae felt all of his excitement and giddiness sink to his toes. “Are you serious?” The artist gave him a confused look, which made the brunet huff in irritation. “You never came back to say goodbye the last time I was here, you never called me to talk about what happened, and now you’re pawning me off on one of your coworkers? You’re obviously avoiding me.”

“Is that your way of saying you missed me?” Hyukjae’s lip curled up into a small smirk. “I didn’t schedule your appointment with Sunny because I’m avoiding you. I’m a tattoo artist, not a body piercer. Do you really want someone like me, who has no idea what they’re doing, to poke holes in your ? I scheduled you with Sunny because she’s the best. And when I say the best, I mean the best in all of Korea. Most people wait months to get an appointment with her, but you only had to wait two weeks. Trust me, you don’t want to turn her down.”

“You’re really not going to do it?” Donghae pouted.

Hyukjae chuckled and shook his head. That pout was his kryptonite. “Come here.” He pulled the adorable brunet closer and whispered into his ear. “Did you come here for a piercing or because you thought I was going to play with you? I still think this piercing is a terrible idea, so if you want to give up on it, I will gladly play with you after work.”

Donghae’s face flushed red, and he fought to keep one of those stupid grins from his face as his imagination went wild with possibilities. Was Hyukjae really flirting with him this time? Or was the artist just trying to talk him out of getting the piercing because he felt it was his duty? It was impossible to tell. “I want the piercing.”

“Are you sure? Think about it,” Hyukjae purred into Donghae’s ear. “You won’t be able to touch yourself for six weeks.” Hyukjae discretely ran his tongue around the shell of Donghae's ear. “And nobody else can touch you for six weeks either.”

"Stop it," Donghae whined. "If you get me hard there will be more blood when my is skewered."

Hyukjae suddenly stood up straight, clearly surprised, all thoughts of flirting gone, and looked at the brunet in awe. "How did you know that?! Did you study? I'm so proud of you!"

“I don’t want to make any more mistakes,” Donghae admitted. Believing that Hyukjae was actually trying to seduce him last time was more than enough motivation to cure him of his ignorance.

“Hi, Donghae.”

Donghae turned around to see who had called his name and wasn’t surprised to see that it was the woman with hot pink hair. She also had a bright smile that immediately put him at ease.

“We met briefly last time. I’m Sunny. Sorry I couldn’t greet you sooner, but I’m all yours now. Are you ready?”

“I think so.” Now that the time had come, all of Donghae’s nerves suddenly flared up and even with the woman’s soothing smile and melodious voice calming him down, the brunet felt like he was about to be sick.  

Sunny was shocked by the sudden change in Donghae’s mood. “Are you okay? Has Hyukjae been teasing you with horror stories? Don’t worry. I can’t make it painless, but I promise to make it quick.”

“Some guys like the pain,” Hyukjae mused nonchalantly. Donghae’s innocent eyes went wide and round before turning to glare at him, and Hyukjae had to bite his lip to keep his gums from showing as he smiled at the man.

“Don’t listen to him. He acts tough, but he’s scared of everything. Bugs, snakes, seafood. Do you know he’s even afraid of needles? Isn’t that ridiculous?!” Sunny scoffed at the artist and shook her head in pity.

“Hey! I don’t go around telling people your dark secrets!”

“You’re afraid of needles?” Donghae asked. “But you’re a tattoo artist…”

“It’s ridiculous, right?” Sunny couldn’t help but laugh. She could see that the conversation had totally distracted the brunet and he seemed to be feeling better. “Should we go into the exam room and talk behind his back? I have all kinds of stories you’ll love.”

Donghae grinned and started following the woman down the hall towards the exam rooms. Hyukjae growled and threatened the woman halfheartedly as they walked away, but Sunny just smiled sweetly in return. “Are you guys related?” Donghae asked out of curiosity.

“Heavens no! We’ve just been friends for a long time.” They reached an exam room and Sunny held the door open for Donghae. “I know we just met, but I’m going to have to ask you to hop up on that table and drop your pants.” Donghae’s cheeks flushed bright red, so Sunny tried to give him a reassuring smile. “Let’s do it one step at a time…” Once Donghae was positioned on the table with his pants down and sterile blue paper covering his lap except for the worksite, she explained the next step. “Like I said, I can’t make this process completely painless, but I can apply some numbing cream to the area, which will help a little bit.”

Donghae was about to get his pierced, but he didn’t feel like a badass. Actually, he was pretty sure he was going to die of embarrassment first. Looking down at his limp poking through the blue paper while a bubbly woman with bright pink hair applied cream to his with a giant Q-tip was easily one of the most embarrassing things that had ever happened to him. When she told him it would take half an hour for the cream to take effect, he was pretty sure he was going to have a panic attack. “You’re going to leave me here for half an hour? Alone?”

“There is nothing else to do but wait. I need to catch up on some other work and I thought it would make you more uncomfortable if I stayed.”

“Oh…” Donghae looked down at his lap. After applying the cream, Sunny had coved it in plastic and put a towel over his lap for privacy, but it was still pretty embarrassing. “That makes sense.” But what was he going to do by himself for half an hour? He didn’t bring a book, and he couldn’t touch himself. The only option was to slowly go crazy in the bright sterile room. “Maybe you can ask Hyukjae to keep me company?”

“Hyukjae? Why? He’s not really the type to do that kind of thing and I’m pretty sure he has a client soon. Oh! Unless you guys are friends? To be honest, I don’t even know if he’d do something like that for a friend,” she said with a chuckle. Donghae looked at her with the saddest puppy eyes she’d ever seen, and her laughter died in . “I mean… his lipstick was a