Take One Last Breath

..::Austin’s POV::..

“Oh great,” Ville said in a sarcastic upbeat tone, “It’s fucking Steve-O,” He smiled from ear to ear, but you could tell he was purposely making it fake to add to the effect.

“Valo, your words hurt me,” Steve-O retaliated, placing a hand on his heart and making it look as if he were in emotional pain.

“I was hoping so, dear,” Ville matched his tone of voice, which was as if they had broken each other’s hearts. His smile then broke out into a real one as he finished teasing Steve-O.

“Man, go back to mother fucking Finland. We don’t want you here,” Steve-O muttered, and Ville’s smile fell, and I stifled a laugh, “So besides Hanna getting drop kicked in his fat head, what’s going on?” he took a seat at the table with everybody.

“Hurtful,” Hanna wined towards Steve-O.

“Quit whining, fat head,” Ryan hushed him quickly, and Hanna shot him a look.

“Stop moving,” I said quickly, and Hanna instinctively jerked his head to look at me, running his eye right into the icepack.

“Mother fucker,” he hissed before putting his hands in his face, and I couldn’t help but start laughing, as did everybody else, “You did that on purpose,” He quickly accused, and I couldn’t get the words out of my mouth. All I was able to do was shake my head as I laughed.

“So where did you take the two, again?” Ville asked Ryan, and he was barely able to stop laughing to answer Ville, shrugging before he answered.

“Just some random fucking hotel out of state, don’t ask me to go get them, because I couldn’t find it again if you paid me,” he continued laughing, and Hanna snatched the ice pack from my hands before placing it on his own eye.

“Did they get to take their phones?” I asked, wondering why they hadn’t called yet.

“Nope. We packed their bags quickly, and purposely didn’t throw their phones in there,” Knoxville smirked, and I shook my head as I stood up.

“Well, I’ll let you guys continue your antics. I’ll be doing….I don’t know, other stuff,” I said as I started walking towards the kitchen door. I would not tell them I was going to take a shower, because I’ve figured out well enough that they like to fuck with people who are taking showers. I was going to convince Ville to go with me to get a tattoo afterwards. There were a few things I wanted to get over, and today was the day. I didn’t really have any other ideas on how I would do it, but I did know that when I went to get my first tattoos, I felt amazing afterwards. I already had one on each foot; each had a rich light blue background, with Stay on one foot, and Strong on the other in sverige cursive, highlighted by whites and golds. Lately I had a side piece I wanted to start getting worked on. It was an old abandoned lighthouse over a dark ocean. There would still be a dim light coming from the house, though. It was to symbolize that I’d never let my light out. A lot of bad shit had happened lately, and I just didn’t want to let go of who I was.

I got dressed as soon as I got out of the shower. I pulled on a pair of blue jeans, which were ripped up in every which way, and pulled over a Marilyn Manson tank top. I dried out my hair before putting it up into a sloppy bun, and then did the bare minimum as far as makeup went. I walked back into my room, where Ville seemed to be sleeping on the bed. I couldn’t help the smile that slowly weaved onto my face much like a spider web. I quietly crawled into the bed, and lay right next to him. He made a small “hmm” noise as he turned towards me, throwing an arm over me.

“Hey,” he said in a sleepy tone as I rested my head in the nape of his neck.

“Hi, there,” I said, giggling a little bit. I hadn’t been tired at all, but I didn’t mind laying in Ville’s arms.

“What do you want to do today,” he asked, still sounding tired.

“You won’t believe me,” I challenged, and he drew his head back to look at me.

“I have no reason not to,” he said, smirking a little bit.

“Don’t laugh,” I instructed, and he searched my eyes before answering.

“I promise,” he kissed my forehead, “Now, what is it?”

“I want to go start another tattoo,” I said, not being able to take the smile away. I was a bit excited about it.

“Are you sure?” He asked without any concern in his voice, and I nodded happily, “Alright, let’s go,” he started sitting, and I followed his actions. I got my bag, checking to make sure my wallet had been in there, along with my phone. I threw it over my shoulder as Ville got his shoes on. I slipped into a pair of Rainbows and led out the door. We didn’t bother telling anybody that we were leaving, or where we were going to. We walked out to Ville’s rental Chevy, and I got into the passenger seat, and he into the drivers, “I had work done here, so I know a great place,” he said, and I nodded.

“Great,” I beamed.

“Do you know what you wanna get?” he asked, and I nodded again, except more eagerly, “Are you not going to tell me?” He asked, and I shook my head.

“You’ll have to wait to see it,” I looked at him, taking his hand in my own. He smiled a small bit, and then looked at me.

“It’s not my name is it?” He did now look a tad bit concerned.

“Oh man, yah caught me. It’s gonna be right next to your face, too,” I said, playfully rolling my eyes.

“You’re a cheeky one today, aren’t you?” he asked, and I smiled as I looked down at his hands. I had a sudden sense of serenity. I already knew that I had been perfectly comfortable around Ville, but he had a way of making me completely calm just by holding my hand, “What are you thinking about,” he asked, sounding as if he were deep into his own thoughts.

“About this,” I admitted, not knowing how to explain it, or how I was alright with explaining it.

“What about this,” he said, giving my hand a small squeeze.

“About how I could do this forever, how you have an effect on me,” I told him.

“I hope it’s a good effect, or I hope it’s the one that you have on me,” he said.

“It’s a good effect,” I clarified.

“It’s called love, Austine,” It was like his words contributed to an epiphany. I did love him. No, I was in love with him. So much that it felt completely natural, and I didn’t even notice it. It had snuck up on me, and I felt completely blind sighted. Suddenly, my happiness turned to rage as he pulled into the parking lot of the tattoo parlor, “You’re crying,” he stated, and my sudden reaction was to wipe my tears away, “What’s wrong, love?” he asked, kissing my hand which was still wrapped in his.

“Don’t say that,” I said, knowing I didn’t make much sense.

“Don’t say what, Austin?” he asked, worried.

“The L word. Don’t say the fucking L word,” I hissed out, “You’ll ruin everything,” I said, not being able to look at him.

“Austin-“

“I fuck up everything, Ville,” I cut him off, then turned to look at him, “Especially when love’s involved,” I was quick to defend myself. I knew that as soon as he said love, I would end up hurting him. I don’t know what I’d be able to do if I hurt him.

“So if something gets fucked up, we’ll fix it,” Ville said calmly.

“I just don’t want to break your heart,” I said, the rage falling away, and Ville pulled me closer to him, and pecked me on the lips.

“You won’t. You’ve got to trust yourself just like I do,” I couldn’t help the smile as it found its way onto my face, and he wiped my tears away.

“It’s like you have magical powers,” I said, and he chuckled.

“If only,” he smiled again as he got out of the car, then walked around the front to open my door for me, and closed it once I got out. He clutched my hand as we walked into the parlor, to the man who was at the desk. He looked at Ville in awe until we finally reached the counter.

“Dude, I fucking know you,” he said, smiling. He looked to be middle aged, with slicked back black hair, a few grey hairs in there. He wore a horseshoe ring in his septum, and had on a red flannel shirt, his collar cradling his neck tattoos, “You’re fucking Ville Valo,” he said, smiling.

“I am,” Ville said, and looked at me before looking back at the man, “We’re here to get this lady a tattoo,” he changed the subject.

“Well, that’s what we’re here for. My name’s Paisley, I’ll be your artist,” He said, taking out a few forms.

“Austin,” I introduced myself.

“What were you thinking of getting,” he asked, and I started describing the artwork to the artist. He got out a sketchpad as I described it, scratching the picture onto the paper with a black ballpoint pen. I went silent as I finished talking about it, and in another minute, he turned the paper to face me. It had been almost exactly as I envisioned it, and all I could do was smile.

“That’s exactly it. It’s perfect,” I said.

“Excellent. Let me just get your side sketched out so I can do a proper size of this, and I’ll give you these forms to fill out,” he said, and I nodded. He placed a large piece of tracing paper over my side as I kept my shirt lifted up. He traced my rib area and went to the back. I stayed at the counter with Ville as I filled out the forms. I readied my ID as Paisley came back. He read through my forms and copied a picture of my driver’s license, stapling it to the forms I had filled out, “So as far as coloring goes, I was thinking we could put this in three sessions. Today we could do outlining. In two more weeks, we could do the basic coloring, and two weeks after that we can go into more detail,” he said, and I nodded.

“And what will the cost come around to,” I asked. I had a lot of money, so I wasn’t worried it would cost too much. I inherited basically everything from my dad, but I was still just curious.

“Don’t worry about the cost, sweetheart. I’ll get the tab,” Ville interjected, and I shot daggers at him.

“No you’re not,” I said, then went back to talking with Paisley.

“Around seven hundred for all three sessions,” he said.

“I can do that,” I said, smiling.

“Alright. Well I have the stencil all ready, if you’ll just follow me,” he said, and I nodded, grabbing Ville’s hand again, “So is this your first tat?”

“No. I have footwork done,” I admitted.

“Great. I love my job, but I hate breaking in virgins. Man it fucking sucks,” he said, and I couldn’t help but laugh a little, “And the best part about it is feet are one of the most painful areas, and I guess you seem to do well with it.”

“I’m really pain tolerant,” I said as I lay down on the table. He clipped my shirt up to the bottom of my bra as he placed the stencil on my skin.

“If you’d go have a look at that in the mirror,” he asked, and I nodded, getting up and walking to the large mirror, examining the stencil. Paisley sure as hell knew what he was doing. I walked back to the table, laying on it, “Good?”

“Perfect.” Ville got on the other side of the table as Paisley started tracing over the lines, and I grabbed Ville’s hand. This sure as hell beat sitting around the house all day.

©Shannon.