Chapter Text
Zane inhaled and exhaled slowly, his hand tracing the stencil on the customer’s thigh methodically. The buzzing of his tattoo gun vibrated in his ears; the sound he’d learned to grow accustomed to.
Before opening his own shop a year prior, Zane had worked as a tattoo apprentice at his role model/rival/neighbor Gene’s parlor.
Despite the way Zane was treated by Gene in high school, he couldn’t help but hand it to Gene about how talented he was in his craft.
Of course Gene wasn’t too happy when Zane opened his own parlor halfway across town, but that was the beauty of it: the fact that it was halfway across town meant that Zane didn’t have to see Gene.
“Can we take a break?” Zane’s customer said through gritted teeth.
Zane pulled back the tattoo gun, shutting it off. “‘Course. Need anything? Water or a snack. .?”
“I’m good, just need a break.” His customer nodded, waving his hand towards Zane.
Zane stood up, setting down his tattoo gun on the rolling cart next to him and took off his black surgical gloves.
He made his way towards the front of his shop where his employee/neighbor was manning the counter.
Travis was thumbing away at his phone, a bored expression painted on his face.
Zane was never a big fan of Travis, but he was mature enough to acknowledge his talent and hire him anyway.
“All good out here?” Zane asked, making his way towards the water cooler in the lobby.
Travis yawned obnoxiously loud, earning an eye roll from Zane.
“Yep! We got a walk in a few minutes ago but since you refuse to let me actually work on anybody, I had to turn them away,” Travis said as Zane filled up one of the little plastic cups on top of the cooler with water.
“It’s not that I won’t let you,” Zane groaned, pulling his mask down to sip the water. “It’s that you’re not ready.”
“Zane, I’ve worked here since you opened. It’s almost been a year. How am I not ready?” Travis asked.
Zane couldn’t help the deja vu clouding his thoughts. Him and Travis had been having this conversation weekly for a few months now.
“Do you know how long I had to apprentice for until I was finally able to work on someone?” Zane gave his usual response, pulling his mask back up after downing the rest of the water.
Travis scowled at him. “A year and a half, I know but-“
Zane held up his hand, silencing Travis, and walked away without another word back towards his customer.
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“Your total is $12.37.” Nana smiled sweetly at the customer in front of her, holding out the bouquet of roses they had just bought.
The customer handed her the money and Nana quickly made change, handing it back to them and waving goodbye.
“Have a good day!” she called as the customer exited the flower shop, the familiar ring of the bell stealing the end of Nana’s sentence.
She breathed in deeply, closing her eyes and letting the familiar floral scent take over her senses.
Nana had been working at her close friend’s flower shop for almost a year now and she couldn’t be happier.
Next to baking, flower arranging and gardening was Nana’s favorite hobby. To get to work with plants every day had slowly begun being her number 1 reason to get up every morning.
“KC!”
Nana heard Aphmau calling her name from her office behind the counter.
“How many hydrangeas do we have in stock?” she asked, her voice slightly muffled through the layer of wall.
Nana glanced over at the hydrangea section, scanning her eyes over the flowers.
“4 of the blue ones and 3 of the pink ones!” she called back.
“Thank you!” Aphmau sang.
Nana smiled to herself, tightening the apron that was fastened around her torso.
It was definitely boring to some: her life. Her roommate and best friend Katelyn definitely thought so.
But to Nana, she couldn’t ask for anything else.
Yes, there was the constant loneliness she felt every time Travis, Katelyn’s boyfriend, was over.
And yeah, Nana quite often felt immense amounts of guilt for lying to everyone around her about who she was.
But other than that, which Nana had convinced herself was not a lot, she couldn’t be happier.
Or maybe she could.