Chapter Text
Remus had to see Virgil confident again.
The thought had been on his mind since the emo had come to the flower shop where he worked. Because when he'd done that he'd been the same quivering emo he'd been at the party, and it was just so incredibly weird. He wanted to try and see that confidence again.
Which is why he was going back for another tattoo.
Sure, it had only been about a week since he'd gotten his last one. Which wasn't the greatest, considering his first one was still healing, but it's not like he was planning to get another tattoo directly overtop the first one. No, he had an even better idea.
He'd booked a consultation. When he walked into Virgil's tattoo shop this time Virgil was already waiting and he didn't look impressed.
"I'm pretty sure I just gave you a tattoo," Virgil said, raising an eyebrow at him, Remus grinned.
"Well I decided I wanted another bigger one!"
"Sure you did, and that's the only reason," Virgil rolled his eyes, "What do you want?"
"Oh hey! The flowers!" Remus said brightly, seeing the bouquet in a vase on the windowsill. He's noticed them coming in, but Virgil's beauty had distracted him.
"Huh- oh, yeah, they're not dead yet," Virgil said, "Pretty good for my track record, i think - thank you for helping me with them by the way. I know I'm so annoying when I'm anxious like that."
"Hey, it was no problem," Remus said brightly, "It's like - kinda my job."
They quickly got to business, with Virgil pulling out his drawing pad and Remus sitting down backwards on a chair to talk to him. What he had in mind was a big one - one that would need at least two sessions for the lines and the colours. He wanted a set of octopus tentacles tattooed onto his back. And of course Virgil's sketch had ended up perfect.
So he was scheduled to come back in just a few days to actually get it done, and he was as excited as can be.
He wanted to talk to Virgil, he wanted to be able to talk to him whilst he was still being all confident, and talk they did. Of course the tattoo took a few hours, and there were parts Virgil needed to concentrate for. But Remus enjoyed pain which made it a whole lot easier to be chatty for the hours he was int he studio.
"I can't believe you're allowed to decorate for Halloween this early," Remus said as Virgil worked on a section on his shoulder. Virgil hummed.
"What do you mean?" He asked, a hint of confusion in his voice. Remus glanced around at the shop. The area around them was clean and sanitary, but on the walls were painted spider webs and ghosts and various other halloweeny things. There were string lights hung up around the walls and a neon sign featuring a couple of ghosts.
"All your decorations and stuff, the bats in the windows, the sign, the stuff on the walls?"
"Oh- well I just have that up all year round," Virgil chuckled, "I think they're neat and if people are allowed to keep Christmas stuff up I'm allowed to keep Halloween stuff up, besides this is a tattoo parlour, I doubt anyone cool enough to come here is gonna berate me for decorating how I want."
"You're allowed to keep this up all year?" Remus asked with wonder, "They barely let me have two weeks of Halloween over at the flower shop!"
"Well yeah I'm allowed; I own this place," Virgil huffed, "The only one who's gonna stop me from decorating awesomely is me and I'm not gonna do that because I'm not lame."
"Wait you own this place?" Remus nearly yelled, Virgil let out a hiss.
"Don't move, idiot, you'll fuck up the tattoo," Virgil said, shaking his head as Remus went back to being still.
"Honestly I'm shocked I've stayed still this long," Remus laughed.
Virgil just hummed in response, "Do you need a break? Because we can take a break if need be."
"Nah," Remus chucked, "The conversation is pretty damn exciting."
For a short moment, Virgil was quiet and Remus wasn't sure if he'd said something wrong, before Virgil took a deep breath, "...Thank you."
"What, don't hear that often?" Remus asked.
"...No, not really," Virgil admitted, voice a little quieter.
"Not even from other clients?" Remus asked, now feeling even worse for the poor emo than he had before.
"I mean - sometimes they're happier to talk with me, I like doing it because it makes some people more comfortable when they're going through pain, but I've never been told I'm exciting or fun to talk to before..."
"Well they're lame then," Remus said, "Because you're awesome to talk to - I mean, I wanna hear about how the hell you ended up owning your own tattoo shop - this place is awesome."
"Thanks - I- um- well- it's kinda a long story-"
"We're gonna be here for at least a couple more hours," Remus reasoned, and he could almost feel Virgil's smile burning into his back, "I got time."