#and again this is just a snippet. the cliffhanger isn't intentional (sorry but the rest is DEFINITELY cringe).

[musicrunsthroughmysoul]

I know I should just let my writing speak for itself, but...also, no.

Actually! I'm not really going to preface this before I post it, except to say that: I wrote it today (so it's bad), it's part of my WTH WIP, and I'm changing the writing style a bit from other parts that I've posted, so you'll technically get more details from this than from other parts I've posted before. (And you have a slightly better idea now of what Eric looks like! Yippee! ...I do love him, though.)

-💜-

As West leaned back, he accidentally brushed his nose against Eric’s, momentarily jabbing his own nostril with the gold stud on Eric’s nose. He laughed at the feeling.

“What?” Eric asked with amused curiosity in his voice as West put his head back on his pillow.

“I just never felt your nose piercing like that before.”

“Oh. Well yes, sorry, it’s there.”

“Ye dinnae have to be sorry,” West said, then added, almost timidly, “I like it.”

After a couple of beats, Eric asked, “Really? My stud?”

West nodded, then realized that Eric probably couldn’t see his nod in the dark, and agreed. “Aye. I like...all your piercings, actually.”

Eric hummed, intrigued. “Well, you haven't told me that before. Thank you.”

“When did you get them, anyway?” West paused, then added, “I just realized I’ve never asked you about ‘em before.”

Eric turned over onto his back, clasping his hands together on top of his chest.

“Well, let’s see...I first got my ears pierced – just one in each lobe – when I was 13, although my parents didn’t approve. My mum didn’t want me to get both my ears pierced – she said one was fine, ‘like normal boys get sometimes,’ but at that point I already knew I wasn’t a ‘normal boy’. Not that I was going to argue that point with her. I just wanted both of my ears pierced. So, anyway, I got them. Then I got my nose pierced when I was 17. And then, after that, I got two more piercings – the bottom two along my helix – in each ear when I was 19. Then, I was...20, I think, when I got the third and last piercing on my helixes. And then, when I was 21, I went with Penny and got my rook piercing while she got her eyebrow pierced. I only got the one in my left ear because it was so bloody painful that I couldn’t handle getting the matching piercing in my right ear.”

West shuddered at the thought of how painful one piercing could have been, considering that Eric had gotten at least six piercings before it, but he supposed that was why Eric had stopped getting any more piercings after that.

“So that one piercing put you off any more? Or tattoos?”

“Well, not exactly. But, oh, tattoos...I’m not really one for tattoos. I’m more of a piercing person, I ‘spose.” West made a noise of interest when Eric said ‘not exactly,’ but wasn’t able to comment before Eric asked him, “What about you? You don’t have any piercings or tattoos. I mean, I assume. I thought I’d seen enough of your body to know, but, maybe not…”

West laughed. “No, no tattoos or piercings for me. I havenae the ears for piercings, I think. Or...anything else, I dinnae think. Piercings just aren’t for me. But tattoos...well, I probably won’t ever get any tattoos, but I have thought that, maybe, if I ever got one, I’d maybe get…” He paused and bit his lip, unwilling yet to admit this aloud to someone. No one had ever asked him about tattoos before, so he’d never offered this information to anyone else, and he was nervous that he’d get ribbed for it.

He still didn’t say anything for over a minute, and as Eric turned onto his side again to face West, he brushed the backs of his fingers over West’s side as he assured, “It’s all right. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

West finally shook his head and sighed. “No, all right, I’ll tell you. It’s just...a bit embarrassin’.”

“I can’t possibly think of what you might say that would be embarrassing. Even if you said–”

“A ram,” West finally blurted, silencing Eric quickly. He clarified, “For Aries. My zodiac sign.”

Eric smiled through the darkness. “Well, that’s a great idea! I don’t think you should be embarrassed about that at all.”

West laughed sardonically, squeezing his eyes shut for a few seconds in embarrassment as he turned over onto his back.

To prove his seriousness, Eric asked, “Where would you get it?”

West started as he realized that Eric meant the tattoo. He'd never thought before about where he would get it. “Eh, I dinnae ken. Maybe on my back? Like, my shoulder, or between my shoulders. Not somethin’ huge or anythin’. But a reason to be shirtless more often, I guess,” he said with a grin. Eric chuckled.

“Yes, please!”

West laughed.

After a few minutes of companionable silence, West turned his head and asked, “So, you aren’t done gettin’ piercings, then? It sounded like you’ve thought about gettin’ more.”

Eric took a few beats to reply. “Well, yes. I’ve thought about getting another one. But...I’ve never made up my mind about it.”