One Heart

Nathalie's POV

The house was silent when I got up the next morning, probably because Rae had gone home with Alex and Sophie last night after she suggested I needed a day to rest since I looked exhausted. She was right about that, but even with an undisturbed night’s sleep I still felt as bad as I did before, in some cases even worse if that was actually in some way possible. However if Sophie knew I was going to actually use this day to finish the detail on my star tattoo rather than resting she probably would take the tattooist's needle and would surely tattoo a lecture onto me. That was certainly one feature that she, Alex and Chloe all shared- their ability to give lectures that could make you feel thisbig.

I knew to ring ahead, since there was already a slim chance for a sitting so short notice so just dropping into the shop would probably be a bit stupid before ringing.

A male voice answered. “Hello Phoenix Tattoos, how may I help you?”

It was perhaps quite a lame reason that I had chosen to ring this shop out of all of the others because of the name, but for some reason I just had a… feelingabout it.

“I was just wondering if you had any free sittings today.”

“Just one moment,” he replied, from the sounds of it flicking through a book to check. My heart began to sink as time wore on, since I knew I could only get my tattoo finished when I didn't have Rae around to look after. “It must be your lucky day, someone cancelled yesterday.”

“Really?” That was one lucky feeling. “I'll take that, if you don't mind.”

“Of course. Could I take a name?”

“It's Nathalie Taylor.” The line grew silent, and for a few moments I thought it had cut off. “Hello?”

“Nat? Nat Taylor?”

“That's me.”

“You don't recognise my voice, do you?” He chuckled. “It's Luke you idiot.”

“Luke?! What the hell!” What were the chances? “You're working a tattoo parlour now?”

“Well I didn't really want to stick around Deviateif I'm honest, even if Chloe didn't fire me.”

“She didn't?”

“Well, would you have stuck around to find out?” He replied. “No Sam, it's not a personal call- sorry Nat, I've got to go. Just come by the shop whenever.”

–

After a quick shower I pulled on my black bikini and then a long pair of shorts, mainly because there was no point wearing a top over it since my tattoo ran from my left shoulder all the way down to my waist. I parked basically outside the parlour and walked inside; tossing aside the jacket I had worn for the journey and moved my sunglasses to the top of my head so that I could quickly find Luke.

“Nat?”

I turned to see him behind me, just stepping out from behind the desk that was at the door. It was probably inappropriate, but I couldn't help jumping up onto him and swinging my arms around his neck. “I've missed you so much!”

“Hey! This is Luke's professional hours,” he said with a smile, gently easing my arms from his neck and dropping me lightly to the floor. He probably only said it because the other tattoo artists were looking at him oddly, his voice soon lowering to a whisper as he added, “But I've missed you too. Now, what are we looking to get?”

“Looking to finish off something I got a couple of years ago,” I answered, twisting myself to show him the trail of eight stars down my left side. “I only got the basics done and I never had the time to get it completed.”

He tilted his head to the side- obviously to him, and anyone else- it would look complete as a star chain. What everyone else didn't know and through its assumed finished stage though was that each star represented someone important to me in my life, and I always wanted each star different to reflect who they were to me.

“Each star is someone in my life, but I didn't have the time to get the final details put on each star,” I explained. “They are all meant to be unique, like have different designs to reflect the people who I got them for. The two stars overlapping each other at the bottom are my parents, and then there is one star for Alex, Chloe, Jimmy, Val and even one for you.”

“I'm touched.” He smiled. “But you only said seven names. Who is the last one for?”

My gaze dropped. Even though I was no longer with him, he was still an important person in my life. “Brian.”

“Oh, right. Sorry.” He crossed back to the desk, sitting behind it and pulling out a piece of tracing paper. “So what are you looking at getting done? What ideas do you have?”

“Well I was hoping to do a ribbon design around the two at the bottom, then for Alex's I would like to fill out the centre with a pinstripe pattern, Chloe's I would like something like petals coming from it, Jimmy's is to have a pair of drumsticks crossed over it, Val I would like five smaller stars inside her one and then for Brian...” I paused. “For Brian I would like the wings from the deathbat on either side of the star and then strings wrapped loosely around the outline.”

“What about mine?”

“It's your star, you can choose what you like,” I replied, eyeing him carefully as he reached for a pencil and began sketching. “Do you tattoo people now?”

“Nah, I just draw out ideas, Sam tattoos,” he said, in a matter of minutes already having pretty much every star that I had described to him sketched out in a basic form. “Getting almost fired from Deviate really helped me out. If I hadn't left, I don't think I would have got into this business.”

I walked behind him, resting my chin on his shoulder as he sketched out ideas. “So you are a one job man now?”

“That's right.” He added in a few more lines and a bit of shading to one of the bat wings on the star before placing his pencil aside. “All eight stars finished. You like them?”

“They're perfect,” I murmured. He had gotten everything I asked for into each star, and added his own unique flair to it. Luke was always creative, but until now I hadn't really seen his work. Through all of his jobs, he finally found one he loved. “How come you haven't done anything to yours?”

“I've decided instead of a design, I would rather choose which star I have on your back, if you haven't already chosen the order that is.”

“Oh.” I pulled back, looking bemused. “Other than the top star and the bottom two, you can choose which one is yours.”

“That's good,” he replied with a smile, “because I wanted this one right... here.”

Thanks to the mirror positioned behind us, I could see that he had pointed to one in the middle of the chain, just about half way down my back. “How come you want that one?”

“Because this one right here, is right where your heart is.”

–

Following childbirth, the pain from getting a tattoo paled in comparison. Sam, the tattooist, was an excellent artist like Luke and they seemed to get along with each other just like they were brothers. It was quite sweet to watch really, that was when I didn't have my face buried in my arms when the needle ran just tooclose to my spine for comfort’s sake.

It was at one of these times that I heard the door open and another of their customers walked in, obviously seeing Sam hunched over my back and commenting, “I think I chose the wrong career. If I knew you got to get this close to hot girls, then I might have considered being a tattooist.”

Sam finished a line before replying, obviously wanting to be completely focused during his tattooing. “Shame that you are completely shit at art. You can't even draw a circle.”

“Maybe not, but I'm fucking excellent at triangles,” he replied proudly, his footsteps nearing to where I was sitting. “Wings on a star? Nice.”

“They are wings from a band logo,” I murmured, stealing a quick glance at who it was that talked before burying my head again, feeling the scratch of the needle once more.

“Which band? I'm in a band myself.”

“Avenged Sevenfold, it's the wings from the deathbat.”

“No shit.” He walked around me and from what I could assume sat down on a chair he wheeled over. “Why that?”

“The star represents someone.” I paused, propping my head on my arms and glanced up at him through the hair obscuring my face. “I wanted something to remind me of him, and those were perfect. He was a guitarist as well, so that's why there are guitar strings around it.”

“They must have meant a lot to you.”

“They did, and still do.”

“What is his name?”

I smiled, turning my head to the side, away from him. “The same as yours.”

“I never told you my name though,” he stated, sounding confused. “How could he have the same name as mine if you don't know it?”

“Because it is your star.”