Page 31

AJ

When the directions led us into an alleyway so narrow that I was concerned my side mirrors would be knocked off, I pumped the brakes and told her to forget it, that we were walking. But she gave me a smile and jerked her head.

“What’s the matter? Not as good of a driver as you say you are?”

So, here I was, crawling along the alleyway, about to make a slight turn. I expected more of the same narrow bullshit, but the road opened up into a parking lot with another narrow street exiting out the other side. I parked, and we got out.

I followed Sydney up some black cobblestone stairs and into another narrow alleyway.

The shop was tucked in this alleyway, and you’d almost miss it if you weren’t looking for it.

Neon signs buzzed overhead, casting a warm glow over us.

A couple of black paper lanterns swayed in the soft breeze blowing through the passageway.

As we stepped in, I looked at the concrete walls with neon light strips around the ceiling edges of each room. Tattoo designs were framed in black trim, and half of them looked so good that they could have jumped right off the page.

The place felt almost sacred somehow. Like you didn’t just get tattoos here, you earned them.

There was no doubt in my mind that this was where Raven had gotten all of her tattoos. Of course, her sister would use the same place.

Sydney headed deeper inside the building, past other artists in their spaces, inking all kinds of different people.

She moved like she owned the place, her excited energy cutting through the low hums of the machines running in the background.

We came to a stop at the very back—an area twice the size of the others that we had passed.

A large black leather chair was off to one side, along with extra seating around the room.

Mirrors covered the ceiling and a wall next to the tattoo chair.

It was immaculately clean, and the smell of incense drifted lazily from a table in one corner.

A man walked out of a back room. He was thin with sharp cheekbones and slicked-back black hair. Sydney greeted him as Riku, and he gave us a nod. His arms were covered in old-school ink—colorful koi swam through cherry-blossom branches.

“Ahh, my favorite customer,” he said with a sly smile.

“You only love me because I don’t flinch under your heavy hand,” Sydney said with a laugh.

Seeing her so happy was odd. All I had known was the woman hardened by the loss of her sister. Today was giving me a glimpse of how she had been before, if I had to guess.

“You got my message about what I was thinking, right?” she asked as she slid onto the seat, setting her purse on a table next to it.

“It might be one of my most favorite designs I’ve ever done,” Riku said as he got his equipment set up.

A few minutes later, he stepped into the back, and Sydney turned her attention toward me.

“So, what do you think? Riku’s parlor is one of the best you’ve ever been to, right?” she said as she rolled onto her side to face me.

“It’s pretty all right. Nothing like this in LA that I’ve been to,” I said as I took another quick glance around the space.

“Knew it! Maybe one day, you can get a tattoo from Riku too. He’s the best.”

Sydney settled back as Riku returned with a tablet in hand. He held it out to her. Her eyes lit up, and she swallowed hard.

“Yes,” she choked out. She shoved her shorts down slightly to reveal her thigh and pulled her shirt off, covering her chest with it since she wasn’t wearing a bra.

He got to work, hand-stenciling it onto her thigh and side. I couldn’t see the whole design, but it looked insanely detailed. Then he prepped his needles and ink colors, and there were a whole lot of them.

As soon as the needle touched her skin, I couldn’t look away from her.

She didn’t flinch when the needle pierced her skin.

In fact, it was like it put her in a more relaxed state with each stroke.

That was, until he started to do the line work along her hip.

Then her face turned red, and I swore she moaned softly.

My dick hardened as I kept watching her.

Her eyes locked with mine as he hit a particularly sensitive spot, and her eyes almost rolled back into her head as she bit her lower lip in ecstasy.

“Easy there, imouto-san . Any more of that, and I’ll have to charge the other clients extra just to be in the same space as you,” he said with a wink and a smirk as he continued to black out the part of a branch he was working on.

She smiled, and after he was above her hip, she about damn near fell asleep as he worked.

A few hours later, he finished the last few swipes with his needle. Setting down the tattoo gun, he nodded over to the mirror.

Sydney slowly rolled over, got up, and walked over to the mirror.

She stood, staring at herself in the mirror, as Riku quietly cleaned up his station.

He laid out some Second Skin to cover it up once she was finished checking it over.

Her shorts were shoved low on one side, and her top was still clutched in front of her.

The tattoo was a branch that twisted and turned up her side, with different flowers blooming along the side of her body.

Light-pink cherry blossoms were up by her ribs, the petals floating down around the next bloom.

A darker pink camellia bloomed in the center, strong and bold.

On her hip, a deep red spider lily flower was spread out, but raven feathers instead of leaves accentuated it.

It was sexy, clean, and detailed work, and judging by the look on Sydney’s face, she was blown away by it.

“Riku, it’s …” Her voice trailed off as emotion overtook her.

“Perfection,” Riku said as he patted the chair, ready to wrap her tattoo.

She lay back down, eyes closed as he worked to cover her tender skin. Once he was done, she excused herself to the bathroom, and I walked over to her artist.

“How much?” I said.

He looked me up and down before answering, “Depends.”

“On what?” I said as I sat on the chair.

“Size and reason. I don’t tattoo anyone off the street. How do you know Sydney?” Riku asked as he finished resetting his station.

“Through her sister, Raven,” I said as I tugged my hoodie off.

His eyes slowly rolled over the ink I already had as I gestured to my back, which was bare.

“Mmm. What do you want?” He pulled out fresh needles and ink holders.

I explained my idea, and he asked if he could take some creative liberty. I nodded. As long as it showed the element I wanted, it didn’t matter how he did it.

Sydney walked out right as he was about to stencil, and her eyes went wide.

“Wow. I’m shocked you won over Riku so fast. It took him two years after Raven told me about this place for him to finally do his first tattoo on me,” she said as she walked over to one of the other chairs and sat down.

The place she’d chosen prevented her from seeing my back that Riku was working on, and, damn, she hadn’t been joking. He had a heavy hand. The ink he was putting on my skin would go nowhere for years.

An hour later, he was doing the final rinse over the fresh tattoo on my skin and gestured for me to look.

I stood up, feeling Sydney’s eyes glance over at me as I stepped up to the mirror, turned my back to it, and took it in.

Sprawled across my shoulder blades was a raven, wings spread wide, head held high as it sat frozen in time mid-flight.

Sydney walked up next to me, eyes wide in disbelief as she looked at my tattoo.

She didn’t say a word, but as I met her gaze, I could see she was on the brink of breaking down. She twisted away and walked out the door.

“Don’t worry about the payment, yaro . Just get her home,” Riku said as he placed a large piece of Second Skin over my tattoo.

I nodded and grabbed my hoodie. “Thanks.”

When I got outside, she was nowhere in sight.

“Fuck.” I made my way back to where I’d parked my car, and when I got down the steps, she was leaning against the passenger side, facing away from me.

I unlocked the car, and she opened the door and slid in. She buckled up and stared out the passenger window as I got in next to her.

“You good?” I asked as I started the car.

“Mmhmm. Please take me home, AJ.”

Her response was short, and her body language made me aware of how upset she must really be.

We drove through the streets of Tokyo as the sun got lower on the horizon, turning the sky a brilliant shade of pink and orange. I went to ask her what was wrong, but as soon as I started speaking, she turned on the radio and cranked it up, drowning out my words.

Fine, someone’s in a shitty mood. Not how I expected her to react to me getting a tattoo to honor her sister.

I parked my car, and she rushed to get out. I pulled the key out of the ignition before opening my door and following her.

We walked in silence from my car to the front door of her place. I didn’t usually walk her to the door, but I had picked up on how different her energy was on the ride home. Something was off. I wanted to give her every opportunity to get it off her chest.

We came to a stop, and she turned toward me.

“Why would you …” Her voice cracked as she stepped to the side of me, reached up, and gently touched where my new tattoo was.

I shoved my hands into my hoodie pocket, staring down at her as I thought about my response. “Because I owed it to her.”

She furrowed her brow, looking up at me, her eyes full of sorrow.

“I wasn’t there for Raven when it mattered, but she had left a mark on me when we talked.

She was the first person I told about why I came here, and she called me straight out on my bullshit when I had made it out like it was no big deal.

She asked me if the choice I made was what was best for me.

It’s somethin’ I still keep asking myself. ”

Her shoulders slumped as she turned away from me, trying to hide from me as she wiped tears from her face.