#also fuck that potted plant. drawing that stupid thing was difficult and believe or not its only half-done

[aro4aro-t4t-gabv1el]

mirage in places ive taken pictures of that i draw in a dect-like style part 2

[mxliv-oftheendless]

Writer’s Month Prompts Day 26

Day 26: Tattoo Artist/Flower Shop AU

I know, it took me this long to write up the prompt that was officially supposed to be written on Day 1 XD. Hope you enjoy it!

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“Aw, c’mon, baby, why don’t we talk it out over a drink?”

“Fuck off,”

“Ooh, nice mouth. What else do you use it for?”

“I said fuck off!”

Heather sighed and turned to smile amiably at the customer she was assisting. “Would you excuse me for a second?” She left the counter and went across the flower shop to the door, where outside was Paul and the stupid tattoo artist from across the street. “Hey!” Heather snapped. “He said fuck off, so fuck off, Sixx.”

Nikki scoffed and rolled his eyes at her. “C’mon, I was just having a little fun—”

“Yeah, you’ve been giving me that lie for three days straight now. Try it again and I’ll call the police and make a harassment complaint.”

Nikki was silent as he glared at her, no doubt trying to think of something to say. Heather just crossed her arms and glared right back. Finally he sighed, looking more like a lectured teenager than a grown man. “Fine.” He turned around to stalk across the street towards the tattoo parlor. He was about to enter when he turned around and, in a rather childish move, aimed his middle finger right at her Heather made a big show of rolling her eyes and turned away.

Paul sighed. “Finally. I thought he’d never leave.”

“I bet if you just ignored him he’ll go away,” she suggested as they headed back into the flower shop.

“I should start bringing my lunch from home,” Paul just mumbled. He smiled at her gratefully. “Thanks for stepping in.”

Heather smiled at her best friend. “No problem.” She went back to the counter while Paul went into the greenhouse. “Sorry about that. Now where were we?”

She finished helping the customer fill out their order, and after sending him on his way she went to go help Paul in the greenhouse. She pulled on her gardening gloves and went over to the zinnias. “How’s everything looking?” she asked over her shoulder.

“Good so far.” Paul was silent for a moment, then sighed. “Is it bad I keep thinking about earlier?”

Heather turned in his direction. “Why?”

“Just… How do you handle a situation like that? Someone refusing to leave you alone? Without hurting their feelings?”

Heather frowned at him. “Well, for one thing, don’t care about their feelings. They’re the one harassing you. Second, just stay away from the tattoo parlor.”

“How can I do that when they’re right across the street from us?” Paul deadpanned.

“Just avoid them whenever possible. You’ve seen everyone who works there, and how they act. All those guys are nothing but trouble.” Heather calmed down from her small tirade and smiled reassuringly at him. “We could call their manager and complain about Sixx harassing you.”

Paul brightened. “That would work, probably. Just call him and let him take care of it.”

“Yeah, exactly,”

Heather would later wonder if some divine power had heard her comment on how all the artists at Motley Crue Tattoos were nothing but trouble, because at that moment they heard the bells above the door ring.

“I’ll get it,” Heather wiped her gloves on her jeans. “You prune the dahlias.”

“But you do such a better job on the dahlias than me,” Paul grinned at her. “They’re your pride and joy.”

Heather grinned back. “I think you’re finally ready for the responsibility of pruning them. Do not prove me wrong, Paul Stanley.”

“I shall not fail you!”

Laughing, Heather opened the door to enter the shop floor. She caught sight of a man looking over the flower pots, looking like he was trying to blend in with the surroundings. It was a bit difficult for him, though, since he was clad in all black, with a black leather jacket and black boots, as well as sunglasses. He looked about as invisible as a drop of black ink on a sheet of paper. There was also a sketchbook tucked under one arm. He looked rather familiar, but Heather wasn’t sure where she had seen him before. She still put on a smile and headed towards him. “Hi there. Welcome to the Dahlia Shoppe. I’m Heather, how can I help you?”

The man looked at her for a second. What was he doing? He finally said, “I was wondering if I could go back into your greenhouse.”

Heather blinked at him. “Why would you want to do that?”

“I’m, uh… an artist. I take commissions. And a lot of people request flowers. And I knew you grew good flowers here, so…” The man shoved his hands into his pockets. “Wouldn’t be bothering anyone. And I wouldn’t touch any of the flowers. Just thought I’d ask if I could come by and practice drawing ‘em sometime.”

Heather thought for a moment. Then she shrugged. “I guess it wouldn’t be a problem. Come on, I’ll show you the greenhouse.” As they were walking over to the door, she asked, “By the way, what’s your name? Just so I know who you are if you stop by again.”

“Mick Mars,”

“Heather McMann. Nice to meet you, Mick Mars.”

She wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw the corner of his mouth lift up in a smile. She opened the door and showed him inside. “There you go. Just go tell Paul,” she pointed over to where Paul was meticulously pruning a dahlia plant, “I said it’s okay for you to be back here, and he’ll leave you alone.”

“Got it. Thanks.”

“Sure. Let me know when you’re leaving.”

Heather closed the door behind him and went to go straighten up the racks of seed packets. Customers were always rifling through them and putting the packets back out of order. But she hadn’t even been doing her task for five minutes when the door opened and she looked up to find Paul hurrying onto the shop floor.

“Heather,” he said quickly. “That guy you said could sketch the flowers in the greenhouse…”

“Yeah, what about him?”

“He’s the manager of the tattoo parlor!”

Heather froze. “What? Really?”

Paul nodded. “Yeah, I’ve seen him closing up before. I think he owns the place.”

“Oh…” Heather set down the seed packets she was holding. “Stay here. I’m going to go tell him right now.”

“But I thought we were going to call him!”

“Paul, the manager of the tattoo parlor where the guy who’s been harassing you works at literally just walked into the shop. On the same day. When’s this going to happen again? I’m going to go tell him right now.”

“But I don’t know if you—” Paul began, but Heather was already striding briskly to the door of the greenhouse. “—should,” he finished, and sighed.

Heather shoved open the door and stalked over to Mick, who had his sketchbook out and was in the middle of starting a sketch of the daisies. “Hey,” she demanded, making him look up. “Are you the manager of Motley Crue Tattoos?”

Mick looked taken aback by the question, but nodded. “I own the place, actually,”

“Yeah, okay. Tell your tattoo artists to stop harassing me and my friend.”

Mick frowned. “I didn’t know they were…”

Heather crossed her arms. “We are directly across the street from each other, and you just happen to not notice your one worker, Sixx, harassing Paul in broad daylight for three days in a row? If he does it again, I will call the cops on him. Tell him to stay the fuck away from my store, and from Paul, or I’ll have the cops do it.”

To her surprise, Mick got an annoyed look on his face. Then he sighed frustratedly. “Fuckin’ teenager went and fucked up again,” he grumbled, then he looked up at her. “I’m sorry about him, and I’m sorry he did that. I’ll talk to him about it.”

Heather frowned. “You’ll talk to him? Forgive me, but that sounds too much like a simple slap on the wrist to me.”

“Then how about this: I’ll talk to him today, and tomorrow morning when you open I’ll drag his ass over here so he can apologize. Trust me, I know how to get through to that kid.”

Heather clenched her jaw. “What happens if I don’t accept his apology?”

Mick sighed. “You’ve got every right to not accept his apology. I’ll suspend him from work. I mean, I was already going to, but I didn’t tell you that.”

For a moment, Heather was taken aback. She had been expecting him to argue with her, even say some crap like “oh he’d never do that”. But no, he wasn’t. He actually believed her. From how he was acting, it didn’t seem like this was the first time Sixx had gotten into trouble. And he seemed genuinely sorry…

“I… I guess that’s fair,” Heather finally sighed. “You’ve got a deal. Suspend him from work, and drag him over here to apologize to Paul, and I won’t call the cops on him.” She let Mick relax for a second before continuing. “But… if he ever does it again, I will file a harassment complaint.”

Mick nodded and held his hand out to her. “Deal,”

After a moment, Heather reached out to shake his hand. “Okay then. I’ll, uh, I’ll leave you to keep sketching.”

She turned and walked away to exit the greenhouse. Paul was still waiting by the seed racks, drumming his fingers against his leg anxiously. “So what happened?”

“I talked to him, and he said he was going to talk to the guy and make him apologize to you.”

Paul blinked. “Really?”

Heather smiled. “Yeah, really. He was really understanding about it.”

“I can believe it. He was real polite when he came over to ask where the best flowers to sketch were.”

“He was? That was nice of him.”

Paul grinned at her. “But I thought you said tattoo artists were nothing but trouble,”

“They are… but this guy’s not. There can be exceptions.”

“Or maybe he likes you,”

Heather gaped at him and smacked him on the shoulder, laughing. “Shut up, he does not!”

Little did she know, Mick couldn’t help but overhear their conversation, and flinched a bit at Paul’s teasing words. Shit… was it obvious? So maybe he had just a little tiny thing for the blonde owner of the Dahlia Shoppe. That didn’t mean anything, or that it would go anywhere. Besides, Heather was probably out of his league anyway.

Mick sighed and went back to sketching. He could wait until after he finished and left to figure out his stupid feelings.