Michael was a tattoo artist. His shop was the biggest one in Sydney. One day, Luke gets dared by his friend, Niall, to get a tattoo. He had heard of Sleeve by Sleeve, Michael's tattoo shop. That's where Harry and Louis had gotten all of their tattoo...
"Luke wake up the twins please!" Michael yells from downstairs. I pull on a shirt and go to the nursery where the boys are sound asleep. I wake them up and get them dressed. I change their diapers into fresh ones and pull on their thing one and thing two onesies. I pull on jeans and search for matching socks. Once I find some, I slip those on along with their baby Timberlands. I pick them up and carry them downstairs where Michael is making bottles. I clip them into their car seat and he grabs the diaper bag as we walk out to the car.
We drive to their doctors office to get their monthly check up.
"Ah, Mr.Clifford and Mr.Hemmings. Good morning. Doctor Apante will be out shortly." She says and we nod, sitting down with the boys. Connor sits up on my lap wish his dummy in his mouth. This appointment will not be fun for them. Due to the way they lay, they will have to get a helmet this time.
"Clifford twins?" Dr.Apante calls and we hop up. I carry Connor in my arms as he plays with my lip rings and Julian sleeps on Michaels shoulder.
"Good afternoon. It's great to see you two back. The boys are getting big." He says and I nod. He leads us to a room where I sit Connor down on the bed.
"So are there any concerns we would like to go over before we start?" He asks and Michael nods.
"Julian hasn't been reacting to sound like Connor." Michael tells him.
"Well it could be that he's behind but if you'd like we can to a hearing test. Just to ease some of your worries, you know?" We nod and he starts looking over Connor since he's awake already. Connor ends up with his stethoscope as he's moving on to Julian. Once he's done he turns back to us.
"The helmets for them are ready, here are the guidelines. Connor is developing faster than we anticipated. Almost crawling already and even sitting up. Julian seems farther behind but if we find something is wrong with his hearing, we could get it fixed easily. I'll take Julian with me and we'll be back shortly with results and helmets." He says and scoops Julian up. Ten minutes later he returns with a few papers, Julian and the helmets.
"So after the test he is unresponsive to everything but very loud sounds directly beside the ear. Your two options at this point are get hearing aids for him or not. If you do get hearing aids, you can do them today and walk out with them, taking about two hours or so, or you can come back at another date. Which would you like to do?" He explains. I take Julian as Michael sits on the bed with Connor.
"If we were to get them today, do you think it would help him catch up to his brother or do you think it wouldn't make a difference?" I ask.
"I do believe that if he is able to hear you guys, it would greatly improve his current state." He tells me without hesitation.
"I think we'll go ahead and get them today. Try them out." Michael says and I agree. They take a mold of his ear and within 2 and a half hours he has new hearing aids and seems so shocked at everything.
"Julian." I say and he turns around to me. I smile as he hasn't done that before when we called his name.
"It's already helping it seems. Alright, we should see you back here for the 6 month. I expect these babies to be all healthy and have a round lil' melon by the time they get back here." He says and we say goodbye. We walk outside with the babies in our arms and Julian is looking around at everything with wide eyes. Me and Michael laugh a little before setting them in their car seats. The drive home is calm and once we get back to the house, they go down for a nap.
"I...am going out for a little while." I say once we exit the nursery.
"Where to?" He asks and I shake my head.
"That's not for you to know right now. I'll be back in a while. I might be gone until dinner or later though." I say and don't give him another chance to talk as I grab my leather jacket that's hanging on the railing and run out the door with the bike keys. I drive down the road into the city again and stop at the shop.
"Hey Luke. You aren't working today." Ryan says.
"Not here for work. Merely here as a customer. Where's Cal?" I ask.
"Right here boss." He says and appears out of no where.
"Calum. The best artist here. Let's go to your room." I say and I see him swallow hard but this is good. Not bad, like he thinks.
"So what's up?" He asks.
"I want a sleeve and you're the most creative tattoo artist I know. I was hoping you'd make me a sleeve." I say and he immediately relaxes.
"Of corse mate. Whatcha got in mind?"
~*~
"I'm home!" I yell as I hear silverware scraping across the plates and the boys babbling and hitting the table.
"Bout damn time. Where the hell were you?" Michael says and my eyes go wide. I didn't think he'd be pissed that I left for a little.
"Out." I say. I don't want to tell him yet.
"Oh really? Where?" He presses. I don't respond and he sighs, taking my arm and starts to drag me into the dining room but I flinch and he stops. He looks at me with a concerned face. He pushes up my shirt sleeve to see the plastic wrap around my new ink. His eye brows furrow and he pulls my shirt off, exposing the whole thing.
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"So that's where you went for 10 fucking hours huh?" He asks and I nod.
"I wanted to surprise you I guess." I say shyly.
"Well you could've told me! I thought you went out to hook up or...even as it got later I thought you might've died and yeah it's an over reaction but with what you've done and you've been distant lately I wasn't sure." He says and I frown. He thought I left to go kill myself. Why would I do that? I have everything I want now. Except maybe a bit more ink but I wouldn't kill myself. And have an affair? I've got two little boys to look after, I can't do that. Not that I even want to. I love Michael way too much.
Heavy ending. Oh well. Sorry this is late. I got stuck after the appointment. It's up now though. The babies in their little helmets are at the top.
