Page 87 of Habibi: Always and Forever

A LITTLE SURPRISE

I t was Daddy’s birthday in two days, and I’d managed to organize him the best present ever.

I just needed to be tricksy and sneaky about it and bribe the people at his tattoo shop to stay quiet about the surprise.

See, my Daddy was the best tattoo artist ever. In the last three years, he’d done three more tattoos on me, and I’d never had anyone else put their machine on my skin. Secretly I thought Daddy liked it that way, too.

For a tattoo artist, Daddy didn’t have too many tattoos himself. Tattoos. Tattoos. OMG I kept thinking about the word so much it lost all meaning suddenly.

“What are you giggling about, Bear?” Daddy asked as we walked together toward his shop.

It was lunchtime and we had just been to our favorite diner for food. What Daddy didn’t know was that I wasn’t just walking with him to the shop and then going back home to work. No, it was surprise time!

“I just thought tattoo is a funny word, that’s all,” I said breezily, swinging our joined hands between us.

We were almost at Magpie Ink, and he stopped and looked at me with that raised eyebrow of doooooom. I snickered.

“You’re being silly today. I like it.” He leaned down to kiss me, and I felt all happy-tingly inside.

Daddy looked so relaxed these days. He worked half days most of the time, his back wasn’t bothering him too much, and I had taken some courses in massage therapy to help him out when he was in pain.

I still ran the marketing for a series of clubs and bars, including a kink club we sometimes went to for the events that catered for Littles. Oh, and the annual emo disco, because that had somehow become a tradition, too.

“Wait up!” A familiar voice called when Daddy opened the door.

He frowned at Georgia, one of the artists working here. “How are you here? Isn’t it your day off?”

She shook her head, grinning. She glanced at me and I nodded subtly. “I’m taking over your trad tattoo. Yes, I made sure it’s okay for the client.”

Daddy looked so confused and grumpy, I giggled.

“What….” Then he glanced at me. “What’s going on?”

“Let’s go inside and I’ll explain?” I made sure to pull my adult self to the fore a bit more for this. Daddy loved it when I was freely Little most of the time, but this was partially work-related and that was when it was important not to not mix the little stuff in. Much.

He held the door open for Georgia and me.

We went through and she vanished to the back immediately to prep for the client she’d stolen from Daddy.

Again, it was kinda funny, but not at the same time.

Luckily it was a long-time client of Magpie Ink who had understood and was totally in on the whole thing.

Sara, the whatchamacallit overall boss person still worked here. I honestly thought that maybe they and Georgia had a thing going on but I wasn’t sure. At least they were both much happier now that Georgia had been back for a few months.

“What’s going on?” Daddy asked again, this time aiming the question at Sara.

They shrugged casually, looking oh so innocent. “I dunno.”

I took Daddy’s hand again and grinned. “It’s a surprise , Daddy.”

“I’ll say,” he muttered, his eyebrows scrunching up.

He looked so hot when he was being stern or annoyed. It wasn’t his default mode anymore, which was great, but… So. Hot.

“The surprise is in your room.” I tugged him, then let go of his hand so he could walk in front of me.

See, the thing was, Daddy had a few tattoo artists he wanted ink from. Just a few. There were, of course, friends who had tattooed him, including Zain who had been Daddy’s apprentice.

But with the kind of skilled artists who moved around the world going from conventions to shorts stays at shops without having their own location?

Those were hard to pin down. And well, ever since we’d met Daddy’s favorite tattoo artist two years ago at a convention in Germany, he’d wanted a tattoo from her.

Which is why I’d emailed her a year and a half ago to organize this thing, because she was incredibly busy and her wait list was over a year long and you needed to come to her most of the time.

Daddy opened the door to his workspace and froze on the spot.

Jameela did jazz hands and went, “Ta-dah!”

I ducked under Daddy’s arm to step into the room and then went to stand by the wall. I was grinning so wide. There was no question if this was a good thing. I wasn’t scared about Daddy not liking his surprise.

“W-What? How are you here?” he asked, completely dumbfounded.

“Well,” she said and then hugged him when he took a few steps to her. “There was a little bear who wanted to surprise his Daddy for his birthday….”

Daddy’s head whipped to look at me with so much awe and love in his eyes that I almost teared up. “How did you pull this off?”

“It was a group effort,” Sara said from the doorway. “We’ve been plotting this for what? A year?”

“Year and a half-ish,” Jameela confirmed. She grinned at Daddy. “I heard there was a chair available and I like Seattle, so….”

“Wait, you’re here for me and you’re staying for a while?”

Poor Daddy. His mind was so blown.

“Three weeks to begin with. We’ll announce it online tomorrow.”

Daddy let out a disbelieving laugh. Then he ran his hand over his face in the way that told me he was a bit overwhelmed.

Jameela read the situation and quickly said, “Let me go use the restroom and then we can talk ink!”

She closed the door and then it was just Daddy and me in the room.

I went to him and hugged him hard. “You okay, Daddy?”

He chuckled a bit wetly. “Jesus Christ, Bear. Am I okay? I…. I love you so fucking much, you know that, right?”

I squeezed him harder. “I know. I love you too, Luukas.” It felt important to use his name. The right one, not Luke like most people called him because somehow it was supposedly easier.

He tugged at my hair so I lifted my face and then kissed me so hard I was out of breath, flushed, and more than a little bit stiff in my pants when Jameela came back.

“So,” she said as she walked around us and sat on Daddy’s saddle chair to grab her tablet off the table. “Bear had a couple of ideas on a tattoo already, but I can definitely draw up something else or we can do another design some other day while I’m here.”

Daddy took the tablet from her and looked at the image. Then he put his fist against his mouth. I could see the tears filling his eyes and hugged him from behind.

Jameela smiled. “What do you think?”

He cleared his throat. “It’s perfect.”

She had this very specific style that mixed realism with kind of cartoonish imagery. I’d asked her to draw a version of the first tattoo Daddy had made me.

This one had a little bear holding a stuffed tiger and a big bear with his paw around the little one’s shoulder in a protective way. He also had a tattoo machine in his big paw.

“Any thoughts on where you want it?” she asked as Daddy handed the tablet back.

I gave him just enough room to take off his T-shirt, then pressed myself against his skin. He was mouthwatering. I couldn’t help myself and kind of nipped at his shoulder blade.

“Put the teeth away, little bear,” he murmured without taking his attention off her.

She snickered. For a non-kinky person, she was really good at being around us kinky folks. I’d made sure, of course. I could’ve been my adult self today for her sake.

“How about here?” he asked, lifting his arm and showing the empty space opposite the nature tattoo on his ribs.

I gasped. That was prime real estate. I had thought he’d want it on his arm or something. Besides, on his ribs it would be much bigger.

She pulled on a pair of gloves and then inspected the area. “Perfect. About… this size?” She showed it with her hands, and Daddy nodded.

In no time at all, she had sent the stencil to the printer, and I ran to get it for her.

While she tattooed Daddy, I sat on his other side and held his hand, then leaned my head on his shoulder and uh… I might’ve fallen asleep.

I woke up to gentle scratching of my scalp.

There was silence in the room, and I jerked up, shocked that I’d fallen asleep.

I realized Jameela wasn’t there, and Daddy’s ribs were now covered with second skin. “Oh no, are you done already?”

He smiled in that tired way that comes from being tattooed for—I looked at the clock on the wall—over four hours?

My mouth opened into an O. “I slept for that long?”

Chuckling, Daddy kissed my forehead. “Yeah, baby. You were tired. That’s what you get for working so hard for Uncle Allen.”

He was one of our kink friends and my employers.

“I guess.” I pouted a little. Then I peered over him. “Is it good?”

“It’s incredible, baby. Thank you so much.” Daddy looked moved again. “I love you.”

I beamed and stood up to smooch him properly. “I love you too, Daddy.”

* * *

A couple of days later, we celebrated Daddy’s birthday in a big, private room at a restaurant where we had a really nice but non-fancy dinner with a bunch of family and friends.

My sister and her husband and kiddos had video called Daddy that morning from Ireland, and then right after his sister called, too.

His parents were at the dinner, because while they’d retired last year to Finland, they were back in the States for a vacation and to see their kids.

They’d presented Daddy with the deed to the apartment we rented from them as a present, and he’d been a bit speechless.

His mom, Sirpa, had told him that he could sell it to get a decent nest egg for buying something else if he wanted to, or we could just keep the place because we loved it so much and it was conveniently located.

I loved our home, but sometimes we talked about a little house somewhere. Maybe a bit of a yard and a dog.

By the time we’d lugged all the presents—luckily a lot of them were art or gift cards—back home after dinner, I was exhausted.

We weren’t done, though, not that Daddy knew it.

“You sit down and I’m gonna go do something over there,” I pointed to the hall that led to the bedrooms.