Come Get Me
Nico was hunched over the desk in the back of Loch Ness Ink working on a new piece for an old customer. When the eighty year old man walked in Nico had prepared himself for a verbal beating. Usually when the older generation crossed the threshold to his shop it was to berate or threaten him for having inked the virgin skin of their child or grandbaby, but the older gentleman had come in as a client. As it turned out, he had recently lost his wife and was having trouble dealing with the void her person had left behind. After talking to the man for over an hour, they had come up with a simple, yet elegant, memorial for his sweet Dottie. Now it was Nico's job to make it come to life.
Pushing himself back from the desk, he took a moment to look over the piece. He had about a week before he needed something official, but he didn't like putting anything off until the last minute. He worked well under pressure but refused to leave a permanent mark on someone else's body for a pressure cooker situation. His clients deserved better than that and he held himself, and his shop, to a higher standard. With a critical eye, he studied the piece. It looked fine enough but something was missing. Something… integral. Hewas still turning that thought over in his head when the message alert sounded from his phone, distracting him from his line of thinking.
'Can you pick me up?' Nico's brow furrowed, confusion coloring his features as he looked at the sender again. He was in the middle of typing out a reply to his overgrown Russian brother to ask if he was drunk, then to remind him that a drive from Queens to San Diego was not exactly ideal for either of them, when another alert interrupted. 'Let me rephrase, come get me before I freeze my balls off. I'm at the Queens airport. Why the f u c k did Tess pick this place to go to school? Remind me to ask her.' Nico's face lit up in a smile. Leave it to that weirdo to just fly out and expect someone to be able to pick him up. The truth about the man he called his brother was simple, even if no one answered, Sev would end up on Nico's doorstep in an hour anyway, he was crafty that way. Shoving the phone back in his pocket, he stood up and headed for the door. Looks like he was visiting the airport tonight.
