#fading ink

“My staff prefers a variety of warm drinks,” she said as she waved toward a small area stocked with sugar, creamer, hot cocoa packets, stir sticks, and various brands of tea. “Not too many of us drink coffee so I brought that for you, but if you want sugar or cream you’ll have to add it yourself.” She got out her own mug and nabbed two tea packets before sitting at the desk in the corner. “Please feel free to ask if there’s something you might need. Or if you’d prefer tea, that’s also available.”

“What?” it took less than a second for his brain to realize what she’d said. “Oh, thanks.” He took the cup over to the counter and began mixing things to suit his taste. The lever on the kettle switched off while he was on his way back. By the time he sat down, Marinette had poured out her hot water and pulled out her sketchbook.

“As our special guest you get the first choice of the pastries,” she said as she pointed toward the plate she’d filled with a variety of morning breads. 

“Oh that’s not necessary,” he said with a small smile.

“Oh, but it is,” she said as she continued to get out pencils and erasers and wake up the computer. “When I told maman and papa that I had a client dropping by my shop in the morning, it became very necessary for you to have a plethora to choose from. Please, grab one.” She looked at him archly. “You don’t want to break mama’s heart, do you? Make sure you pick a couple to take home with you, too.”

“This seems a little excessive,” he said as he put a warm cheese danish and a flaky croissant on the napkin in front of him.

Marinette chuckled. “It is a lot excessive, but Papa lives to feed people and Maman does what she can to help support our mission. So tell me Mr. Couffaine-”

“Luka, please.”

“Okay,” she smiled warmly at him. “So tell me Luka, what are you hoping to achieve here? Do you want to just modify or completely disguise the design? Did you want to connect it with others you have? Or do you want to have it covered with color that basically matches your own skin tones?”

“I hadn’t thought about it too much,” Luka said unable to look up at the artist. “Maria asked me to get rid of it because she didn’t want to have anything connecting me to her, but- I didn’t really think of the how.”

Marinette reached out and put a comforting hand on his forearm. 

“That sounds like a really painful conversation to have.” He nodded and she continued, “Tell me Luka what does that tat mean to you?”

Luka took a deep breath. “Maria was my first real, my first serious relationship,” he confessed. “We were both young and we both knew that there was a chance that it wouldn’t last, but-” he broke off. He looked up into her eyes begging her to understand.

“But you wanted it work?” she asked quietly. "And you wanted something that would last as long as your love for her?"

He nodded.

“Do you regret getting that ink?”

He shook his head. “I don’t regret any of my ink, maybe some of my placement decisions,” he smiled as he tapped the side of his neck that had a small snake nestled there, “but not one drop of ink.” Took a deep breath and released it. “I learned a lot from Maria. I learned how nice it is to have a hand to hold, a heart beat to fall asleep to that isn’t your own, what love is and even what it isn’t. There was a lot I learned about the importance of actually communicating with each other openly and honestly. I learned what betrayal and heartbreak feel like. And I learned that I could survive all of that, even when I didn’t think I could.” He paused, “I don’t want to forget that even if she wants,” he took a deep steadying breath, “wants to forget me.”

“Those are all admirable lessons, no wonder you’d want to preserve them,” Marinette said quietly. “I’d suggest that we find something that has the same meaning for you, while erasing the design that stands for her.” She patted his arm and then sat back and picked up a pencil. “I’m very sure that we can help you through this.”

Luka took another deep breath and a small smile found a way to his lips. “Thank you.”

They spent the rest of the morning discussing possible images that had special meanings to Luka, his favorite designs among the various look books they had, and other choices that he would have to make. He showed her some of his other tattoos that were in the same area as Maria’s design, and Marinette took the time to note them and their placement on his arm and shoulder. The last thing that Marinette did before Luka had to leave was to trace the design to have the actual size and outlines to know how to design the covering tattoo as well as taking a couple of pictures to get a good idea of the colors involved.

They set up another morning meeting for him to go over potential designs and Luka hurried home clutching a few of the remaining pastries with a lighter heart then he’d had since he  answered Maria’s call.

After the second meeting, they spent the next two weeks texting back and forth as Marinette asked clarification about symbols and pictures Luka had chosen as meaningful and how he might want them combined. She also asked about his surrounding tattoos and their backstories. Luka asked about how she got into her profession and why her shop was so adamant about removing tattoos that people wanted erased. Once they had exhausted the topic of skin art they moved on to Luka’s music (he sent her a few links so she could listen) and Marinette’s role as permanent taste tester for her parent’s baking experiments (she promised him an opportunity to have the full Tom et Sabine guinea pig experience once he was back in town). They discovered that they had quite a few places around town that they both enjoyed going to and Luka was surprised that they hadn’t run into each other before this. Marinette listened as Luka told her everything about his time with Maria and she reciprocated with stories of her past partners. They talked about their heartbreaks and laughed over silly moments and clever memes. 

Luka was surprised how quickly it felt like he’d met up with his best friend after a long separation, instead of someone who was practically a stranger. There were people he’d known for years that he didn’t feel as comfortable to be himself around as he did with Marinette. 

By the end of the second week, she sent three possible designs for him to choose from. Luka was floored by what he saw. Each design was so different from the other, and yet he could tell that Maria’s tattoo would be well and truly erased, while the meaning would not. When he was still trying to choose over a week later, Marinette invited Luka to another early morning appointment to see if she could help him eliminate at least one of the designs.

Luka showed up carrying coffee for himself and tea for Marinette as well as a bag with breakfast sandwiches from his favorite bagelry. Marinette was frantically searching her bag for keys and Luka couldn’t help but laugh.

“I told you I’d pick up breakfast so you’d have time to beat me here,” he said when she whirled to look at him. He noticed the pink growing in her cheeks, but didn’t remark on it. “What happened?”

Marinette yawned before replying, “We had a group walk in about an hour before closing wanting to get matching tattoos. They were suspiciously sober and totally sincere.” She looked up with what looked like tears in the corners of her eyes. “One of their rugby teammates was in the last stages of an aggressive cancer. He’d been worried about his little girl growing up and not knowing who he was and what was important to him.” She stopped for a moment to collect herself. “One of them recorded the conversation and he’d listed several things,” she smiled weakly up at Luka as she pulled out keys and turned back to the security gate while continuing her story. “Later they realized his list contained as many items as there were teammates. The four who had visited him sent the video out to the rest of their team and asked for suggestions to put the guy’s fears to rest.” She got choked up as she flipped on lights and locked the door behind them. “They all decided to get a tattoo together. We came up with a very simple design: a rugby ball, one word from the list, and an infinity sign under it.” She grabbed a tissue to dab at her eyes, but continued to usher Luka into the office. “We only had two people that could do the actual inking.” She chuckled, “Ivan was so busy trying to get everyone prepped that I think he might actually skip his next practice because he can’t stand to see that ball again so soon.” Luka offered a smile as she continued to talk. “We just had to disinfect and reset because they’d already discussed placement and everything. They got all the guys from the team down here, too- including their coaches. They wanted to go by his house this morning to show off their idea.” She’d just switched in the computer when she looked at the table to see that Luka had set up a place for her to eat, she joined him at the table. “While they were getting their tats they talked about the guy. They talked about what he’d brought to their team, and what he’d taught them, and how much they were going to miss him.” She took a sip of her tea and sighed. “It was pretty emotional and it lasted long past closing time. But they were good guys. They ordered in pizza and we even found some cardstock so they made him a card to take by today, too.”

“It sounds exhausting,” Luka replied as he unwrapped his sandwich.

“It was.” Marinette reached for her sandwich, but decided to put her arms on the table and rest on them instead.

“We could’ve rescheduled,” Luka said. “I’m not an unreasonable ogre about this.”

“You’ve been a peach,” Marinette said through another yawn. “But I know that Maria has hounded you about not getting that taken care of yet.”

“You do?” Luka was surprised. He hadn’t mentioned it to anyone.

“Did you forget I follow your band on Insta?” she muttered. “There was some girl going off about you not doing the simplest thing she asked and then telling you you couldn’t have her design on your body for like-” she stopped to think “-twenty lines in all caps. I don’t know her personally, but I was pretty sure that was her.” She made herself more comfortable on her pillow of arms. “You deserve better treatment than that from someone you love.”

“Oh, you saw that?” Luka had blocked her and removed the comment as soon as he saw it pop up.

“Well, seeing as how she did it at least four times in thirty minutes that I know of,” she smiled through closed eyes at him, “Yeah. I saw it. It made me want to do two conflicting things.”

“Which were?”

“Redo the design bigger and better, but add neon and blacklight inks so that it shows up under any, and all, lighting conditions.”

Luka was sniggering at the suggestion. “And the other?”

“Put such a kickass design over her ink that she can’t ever claim to have that connection to you again.”

She said it with such warmth that Luka couldn’t help feeling a spark of happiness at her words. For the first time he was actually eager to have Maria’s tattoo paved over.

“I think we should go with that second idea,” he replied.

She sighed dramatically. “Well, you are the client so you do get to make that choice. But if you want to go the first route, I have some really excellent neons I’ve been dying to try out.”

They both chuckled, but were interrupted by the computer signaling it had finally booted up.

Marinette raised her head from the table, but hadn’t opened her eyes when Luka put a hand on her shoulder.

“You said you’d put the designs in an animation to show me what they’d actually look like on my arm, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Would it be okay for me to watch it while you grab a quick cat nap?”

“It’s a little more complicated than that,” Marinette said as she got up. “But I’ll show you how to switch between the three designs and you can take your time looking.” She sat at the computer and pulled up a couple of programs, then motioned for Luka to come over to the desk.

“This is the file where your designs are stored. You just have to open it up and click on either the LC 1, LC 2, or LC5 to get the designs I showed you. This program,” she pointed to the one showing what looked like a generic 3D model of a human with a photograph of his arm superimposed on it in the display, “knows how to take the design from the file and put it in the right place and orientation. We can manipulate it later to get it just right, but you can turn the model and the arm to get a better idea of how it will look to you and to the people around you.”

She quickly demonstrated by clicking on LC 1 and the first design was up and covering Maria’s tattoo. 

“That’s pretty cool,” Luka remarked watching intently.

“This layer isn’t opaque, so you actually get a pretty good idea of what this will look like in real life. I know you were worried about how bright that green was but if you look at it now-”

“It’s exactly the shade I was describing to you,” Luka said with a little awe.

“See? I told you I knew what I was doing.”

“I never doubted for a minute.”

“You doubted the green for two days,” she reminded him.

“Well that’s not exactly a minute,” he said in his defense.

“True.” She couldn’t help another yawn. “I’m going to go drink my tea and eat the lovely breakfast someone so thoughtfully brought to see if I can wake up some. You can join me or play with this-”

The words had barely left her lips and Luka was reaching out to grab the mouse to click on the next design.

“Well that answers that question,” she said with a smile and exchanged places with him.

She showed him how to turn the arm and the model then sat at the table with her tea. She tried not to stare while he clicked and hummed at the different designs. But she stole a glance as often as she could.

She thought over what her job meant to people as she ate. Those guys last night were memorializing a fallen comrade. Luka was removing the last piece of a hurtful relationship. So many others had come to redeem painful mistakes from their past, or embed lost children forever into their hearts. Countless women had received freedom from abusive spouses or pimps through her work, those ones were always done for free. Good times, heartbreaks, family and friends lost and often ones found were all etched into the people that came through her doors. It was a privilege to be a part of so many people’s stories.

She became aware that Luka had stopped clicking and stood up to see what he’d chosen.

“I want this one,” he said as she drew nearer.

Marinette stopped in her tracks. “But that’s not even- I mean it’s not a final- How did you even get to that?”

Luka pointed to the file where his designs were stored. “I wanted to see what these LCS designs were.” He grinned at her. “Imagine my delight when I saw that you’d done sleeves to incorporate my new design with my old ink, too.”

“I was just doodling that stuff.” Marinette was still recovering from seeing his delight at the warm up practices she did. “It was like doing random drawing prompts or those cooking shows where you get five ingredients and have to make a meal. It wasn’t like a serious design choice.”

“Why not? This one is perfect! I has my music, my family, some of my other art interests and even a really rad snake that looks like it should be on my next record album. This is so my life tied together in a beautiful picture” He looked up at her. “This is totally what I’d want to see every day when I wake up. Please, tell me we can do it.”

Marinette nodded. “It will take several visits just for the line work,” she pointed out.

“I can make time for that,” he said with a grin.

“Only the part that covers the old tat will be at the low price I told you. Some of this will be a lot more expensive.”

“Okay. That’s fine by me but I only want you to do it. No one else from the shop.”

“But my apprentices can do the fill for so much cheaper-” she began.

“No, Marinette. I only want Maria’s tattoo covered by ink from the hands that took the time to find out who I am and what I need to be happy. I want it not only covered but I want the area around it filled with the music and love that you bring out of me.” He reached up and took her hand. “We can do that, can’t we?”

She stared deeply into his eyes and found nothing but love and admiration in them.

“When do you want to start?” she asked.

He broke into a grin. “How about now?”

“We have to wait for Ivan to get here, and I have to look at my schedule, but I think I can work you in.”

Luka let out a whoop and sprang up to be pulled into a tight embrace. He was leaning down to give her a kiss when she put a finger across his lips, halting him.

“No dating till after it’s finished,” she said. “Nothing good ever comes from kissing your clients.”

He laughed and pulled her in for another hug.

“Okay, but when it’s done I’m taking you out. Okay?”

She nodded. “Okay.” She took a step back from his arms and waved at the table where their half finished breakfast waited. “I can zap these for a minute and we can finish our food while we wait.”

In a couple of minutes they were sitting at the table and Marinette looked at Luka.

“I still say the expense is going to be pretty high for a struggling musician.”

Luka smirked at her. “M I regularly tour with Jagged Stone. I can afford to have you on retainer for the rest of our lives. I’m only struggling because I’m fronting my own band, with Jagged’s backing, and I’m not used to being the one everyone knows.”

The amazed look on the woman’s face made Luka laugh. Luka’s laugh made Marinette laugh. Marinette’s laugh made Luka laugh harder.