Lavender Bubbles °• Changjin

○ 1 ○

"Fuck, that's hot."

The air conditioning of the shop whooshed. The sharp breeze cut into his skin, the puffs of freezing air padding the pair in a wounded bubbles from the erratic weather outside. The cool callmed, sinking them both into the gentle hum of the equipment in the employee backroom. The leaflets and pamphlets pinned with cheap tacks of wild hues fluttered with every gust the air conditioning blew onto him, scattering his skin with goosebumps trembling at the intruding feeling. The feeling of a touch, foreign and unknown, pressing the palms of wind onto his ribs.

His hands bundled tight grip on the hem of his black t-shirt, fingers digging into the fabric as it was lifted to expose his irritated skin to the other. The curious eyes drilled holes into the spot he laid for the other to see. The spot stretched across the ladder of his riveted ribs, marked and filled with lines which swirled together, melting and seeping into each other with skillful artistry blending the monotonous colors stabbed into the layers of his skin. Earlier that day, he stood in the mirror, following that same position, his own awestruck gaze glued to the work a permanent part of who he was, and will continue to be. The black lines and shredded shade which pulled the needles across his skin, that ripping sensation and painful winces would forever be marked in his scabbed memory as a beautiful accumulation.

"Changbin, I just want to say to you, that you're the hottest person I know," His friend, Jeongin, leaned back in the break room table chair as he whistled up to Changbin standing tentatively near him to show off the freshly worked patch of skin. His hand fluttered up beside his face, the limb spreading fingers wide into webbed windmills as he quickly fanned his face in a teasing manner, "You got me feeling things. That's a very hot tattoo and it looks amazing on you, babes."

Changbin laughed as he relaxed his arms from their tight wrap around his chest, the shirt in his hand slacking and slouching down to cover up the protruding bones they revealed, "Babes?"

"Yeah, but, babes in a, 'You're my best friend and I think you're hot but you're just my friend and I only see you as a friend', kind of way," Jeongin answered as he straighted up from the crouched position inspecting the other's brandished ribcage, "You're just so magnificent, I don't understand how someone could be so perfect and still be desperately and pathetically single."

"Shut up," Changbin threatened with his own half-hearted smile poking his co-workers consciousness. He allowed the T-shirt to slip from his grip as he pressed himself from his leaning against the same table the younger sat at, the force of his leaving causing the table to lurch in protest. As he readjusted the shirt to set comfortably on the hem on his jeans, taking care to tuck the front of the shirt in to appear semi-professional during his shift. If the customers were kind enough to ignore the sleeve of tattoos on his arm, and the lack of uniform at the small shop. He flopped his arms around to readjust his shirt as he told, "I got it done a few days ago. Hurt like a bitch."

Jeongin pulled the straw of his blueberry slushie drink out and waved it around as he guffawed, "Uh, yeah? Ribcage tattoos hurt bad and even a good Puritan boy like me knows that. Are you going to get it colored in?"

"Probably not," He admitted with a shrug. The younger quirked an eyebrow at him, the edge of his lips working up into a teasing smile as he balanced the flung straw on his lip, pressing the pad of his finger to keep it from slipping off the round placement. Changbin threw a half-hearted glare at the expression pinning him down. He knew that look. The kind that thought his words were weak attempts at deception as the raking eyes picked the statement apart bit by bit. With a sigh, Changbin pressed his hair from his forehead. He defended himself, "Look, I have an addiction problem, okay? It's genetic."

"I know you have a problem, but you're still the best fucknozzle out there."

"Thanks."

"Always."