Chapter Text
Dee and Patton were polar opposites in the best of ways.
While Dee was a habitual liar and couldn’t keep himself out of trouble, Patton was a picture of morality and managed to keep his friend from getting in too deep. Personality wise, Patton was lighthearted, sweet, and always willing to be open to new friends and experiences, while Dee was shut off, wanting to keep everyone he had close and not expand his horizons.
It just didn’t make sense how Dee was a florist and how Patton worked as a tattoo artist.
Everyone who walked into the tattoo parlor saw Patton and usually wondered who let the pastel nightmare into the room with the designs of skulls, flowers, dark creatures, and other drawings waiting to be inked onto someone’s body. Their reactions only got better when they found out it was Patton who designed a majority of the samples. Meanwhile, Dee noticed that his darker style and persona was also seen as unusual in the shop, and the reactions he received were more of fear than of curiosity and shock.
Leaning on the counter, Dee watched as a couple girls browsed through a section of lilies before walking out of the store, still chattering on about something useless. When they had entered, they looked at Dee as if he was a piece of garbage that needed to be taken to the curb. Sighing, Dee picked at his old denim jacket, picking at the loose buttons he needed to sew back on in mild irritation.
Seeing no one nearing the store from the window, Dee moved to restock the shelves with soil and rearrange the pots and smaller succulents that were behind the counter on shelves. Hearing the bells attached to the door chime, Dee looked up from what he was doing to see Patton grinning down at him from the other side of the counter.
Standing up quickly, Dee said,“Pat, you’re not supposed to be in here-”
“Calm down Bumble Dee,” Patton said, teasing Dee with the old nickname,“I just wanted to know if you were getting lunch soon.”
Frowning, Dee stated,“Yeah, I am, but you’re busy. Didn’t you have that girl with the back dragon coming in again for her next session?”
Waving his hand, Patton stated,“She rescheduled. I wanna spend time with you if you’re not busy!”
As if on cue, Patton’s face froze momentarily only for him to sneeze loudly and cough into his arm.Rolling his eyes, Dee said,“You’re allergic to cats, pollen, and milk, how have you even survived this long?”
Giggling slightly, Patton sniffed and rubbed his nose with his sweater sleeve as he said,“I have you to look out for me!”
Shaking his head at his friend, Dee pointed outside and said,“I have ten minutes left on my shift. Go wait outside unless you want me to bail early.”
Eyes widening slightly at Dee’s threat, Patton hastily made his way outside, trying to hide another dad sneeze as he went with no success. Sighing, Dee took a moment to make sure the few arrangements that had been ordered were ready for pickup before turning his attention to the large analog clock on the wall. The decorated time keeper ticked the seconds away, the flowers painted on the face of the clock intertwining with the different numerals in a way that reminded Dee of some of Patton’s work.
Which he loved and hated.
Before he could think too hard, the clock started to chime, signaling that Dee had half an hour before he had to get back to supervising the floral arrangements. Finishing up, Dee trudged outside to be tackle hugged by Patton who grabbed his hand and started pulling him down the street.
Pulling Dee into their favorite cafe, Patton said,“Can you order for me? I wanna check something with Remy.”
Nodding, Dee waved Patton off and approached the counter where Emile stood staring intently at a couple sitting in the corner.
Leaning across from the pink haired psychology major, Dee asked,“What’s your hypothesis Doc?”
Emile bit his chapped lip and stated,“He shows all the signs of being romantically interested, but she’s lying about something constantly.” Squinting behind his glasses, Emile’s eyes widened as he said in a hushed tone,“Look! She touched her mouth when he gave her that gift just now! That could mean she said something she doesn’t mean, touching your face can be an indication that you’re lying.”
Shaking his head, Dee asked,“You know all that just by looking at them?”
“Well, no,” Emile admitted, adjusting his glasses, “I don’t have concrete evidence that she may be lying, I’m just basing my theory off the actions in my textbooks. Cheddar and ham?”
Nodding, Dee added,“And a Turkey without the cheese for Pat.”
A small smile crept onto Emile’s face as he said,“You two are adorable.”
Rolling his eyes, Dee said,“So are you and Remy, but I don’t go around announcing that to the world.”
Emile turned around quickly to make the sandwiches, just barely hiding a faint blush from Dee. Smirking, Dee fished in his wallet for cash as Emile finished making the lunches. Exchanging the currency for the sandwiches, Dee nodding in thanks to Emile who had gone back to people watching.
Spotting Patton in the far corner of the cafe, Dee walked over and sat down across from his friend and stated,“If Em actually gets his degree, I’m scared he’ll start calling himself a Betazoid from Star Trek, or an empath. He’s getting scarily good at reading people.”
Nodding, Patton took the sandwich offered to him and started eating quickly, almost as if he was rushing. Taking a sip of his drink, Dee knocked on the table to get Patton’s attention, causing him to pause from taking another bite.
Swallowing, Dee stated,“Chew your food, Pat. You don’t have that client so why’re you rushing? Something come up?”
Patton chewed carefully, not looking Dee in the eyes until he had finished what was in his mouth and said,“Well I was thinking and I got something for you.”
Unintentionally groaning, Dee let his head drop before saying,“Pat, buddy, you know I hate getting gifts when I don’t have anything to give.”
“Okay, but just hear me out!” Patton said excitement creeping into his voice.“So I know you really liked that snake design I did last month while at your place, remember we had cookies and apple juice while we watched Winnie the Pooh. Well I went and-”
“No Patton,” Dee interrupted, his stomach suddenly deciding to do the flips.“I’m not doing a tattoo. I got a long ass lecture from Logan about the health issues, and that terrified me enough as it is, but you know I can’t.”
Shaking his head, Patton said gently,“No, no it’s not that I promise. And I know Logan gave you that talk, he did the same with me and it wasn’t fun, but at leats I learned something new!”
“Yeah,” Dee said rolling his eyes,“we learned about the gross slime in our body and how we’re similar to chickens.”
Snorting in laughter, Patton said,“The chicken comparison was really funny to me! But anyway, I got some henna stuff online if you wanted to do that. No chicken lecture, no Logan rants, and no needles.”
Feeling his eyes narrow slightly, Dee mumbled,“I guess that’s okay. You’re sure it’s fine?”
Nodding, Patton smiled brightly and rolled up the sleeve of his pastel blue sweater to show Dee a small flower drawn on the inside of his wrist. It was Patton’s handiwork alright, but it was slightly reddish and faint, not like the tattoos he gave to clients.
“I did that a couple days ago,” Patton explained with a grin,“I wasn’t supposed to get it wet for a while, that’s why it’s fading faster than it should, but that was my mistake. They only stay for two weeks maybe, you wanna try it out?”
Glancing at his sandwich, Dee shrugged and said,“I gotta be back in the shop soon, but whenever you’re free I guess I could try it out.”
Patton grinned brightly and returned to eating at a normal pace, talking occasionally about the different clients he had and what sketches he’d been working on. Before he knew it, Dee was back in the flower shop sorting out carnations for a drop in, while someone else quietly skimmed the displays. Adding another flower to the arrangement, Dee noticed the small smile on the girl’s face as she watched him finish the small bouquet. Finishing the transaction and going through the motions of getting one of the preorder arrangements ready for pickup, Dee spared a glance at the clock to see how much longer until he could get off.
Roughly four hours later, Dee was locking up the store with Patton jumping up and down next to him chattering excitedly. Grabbing Dee’s hand, Patton talked quickly about the different tattoo designs he could do, how he brought his sketchbook in case Dee wanted something different, and how he hoped this would work out well. Letting Patton lead him to their shared apartment, Dee yawned and messed with the loose buttons of his jacket with his free hand.
Entering the apartment, Patton said,“I’ll go get the paste stuff, you look through and find what you want.”
Shoving his sketchbook at Dee, Patton took off to his room excitedly. Sitting on the couch, Dee flipped through Patton’s sketchbook, pausing to look at different symbols and notes in the corners of the paper. Stopping on one drawing, Dee put the book aside as Patton returned with a grin on his face and several cones of henna in his hands.
Fumbling with a piece of paper, Patton said,“Instructions. I think I can do without them cuz I did well on myself, but just to be safe. You find one you like?”
Nodding, Dee pushed the sketchbook to Patton who grinned brightly at the drawing.
Taking a pair of scissors and cutting the tip off the cone, Patton asked,“Where do you want this snake thing? Arm?”
“Sure,” Dee said, pulling his shirt off as Patton squeezed a bit of the paste onto a paper towel.
Setting to work, Patton leaned over Dee’s upper arm and carefully drew a slightly modified version of the twisting snake over his friend’s limb. All the while, Patton remained quiet, something Dee rarely got to see unless his friend was intensely focused on something.
Sitting still for what seemed like forever, Dee bit his lip and asked,“How’re you doing?”
Patton made a small noise of acknowledgement before pulling away and saying,“Okay I think I’m done. No touching that until it dries and starts to crumble off.”
Nodding, Dee mumbled,“Thanks, Patton.”
Smiling, Patton rubbed the back of his neck and stated,“It’s no big deal! I love doing this stuff, especially with you!”
Ducking his head to hide a smile, Dee said,“You’re impossible to understand and I love it.”
