Who: Alistair Theirin and Cullen Rutherford What: The King of Ferelden is going to get a tattoo When: Backdated: Early May Where: Tattoo Parlor Rating/Warnings: Family Friendly Status: Complete!
Alistair had been thinking about where he was going to put his tattoo for awhile now. His poll had split with half of his friends saying shoulder and half saying side. He liked the idea of both, but his side would be easier to hide than his arm if he needed to. The fact that Isabela and Cullen were two of the ones who had voted for his side was what swayed him though. Isabela clearly knew what what was sexy and Cullen had already expressed his feelings on him getting the tattoo on his side.
Not wanting to go to the first tattoo parlor he saw, Alistair spent a little time researching and visiting some before choosing one and making an appointment. He’d thought about getting it done then showing Cullen, but he decided instead to ask Cullen if he’d want to come with him. On the day of the appointment, Alistair had stopped by Cullen’s apartment to pick him up then they had headed to the tattoo parlor and were currently waiting for one of the artists to draw up the Grey Warden symbol from a picture Alistair had taken of his Grey Warden shield.
It was a bit harder for Cullen to get himself out of the house for more than work these days, though he was doing much better than he had been initially after his dream of the Ferelden circle. Alistair’s company helped, as well as the fact that the man wasn’t a mage, only a hero and a king. The time Cullen spent with him also made him feel...normal again.
He was quite happy to go with Alistair to his appointment, even though he knew it would take a couple hours to get the work done. He didn’t mind a bit. It was sort of like a date, he supposed, sitting beside the Warden in the waiting area of the parlor. There were plenty of people he could’ve asked with him, but instead he chose Cullen. The thought made his heart pound in affection.
“Are you nervous,” the blond asked, filling the silence while he shifted sideways on the bench to stare.
“I’d be lying if I said no,” Alistair said, turning his head to look over at Cullen. “I’m pretty good with the whole pain thing, but I have no idea what to expect.” He’d read about how the side usually hurt, considering they’d be tattooing over his ribs, but he’d also read that how much it hurt usually differed with every person so there was no way of knowing until it was actually happening. “Thanks for coming with me, by the way.”
“Well, you can squeeze my hand as hard as you need to...just, don’t break it, please?” He was mostly teasing...though he knew Wardens had their supernatural strength and all that. Cullen wasn’t overly worried, Alistair wouldn’t hurt him. He’d been a sort of rock for the Templar the past few weeks, patient and understanding after the dreams.
“I think I should thank you for dragging me out of the flat for something other than work.”
Alistair smirked, “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.” To tell the truth, Alistair had been hoping that Cullen wouldn’t mind if he held his hand if it hurt, but at the same time, he was a little self conscience about what other people, like the tattoo artist would think if he did hold Cullen’s hand during the tattoo. “Have you not been out other than work?” He didn’t like the idea of Cullen avoiding going out.
“I’ve been out with the dogs, I suppose. But that’s...about it,” he admitted with embarrassment, moving a hand up to scratch at the back of his neck as he looked away. He knew he couldn’t completely avoid his life -- he had work and his animals to take care of, and it was just enough to stop him from turning into a recluse since his dreaming. Logically, Cullen was aware it would only make things worse, but he had to take it little by little. He had to adjust.
“I know how it makes me look… I’m sorry you have to put up with all of it, though it’s your choice, of course. It’s just that I’d already been through so much when I was in the service, then afterwards. I’d felt like I’d recovered. Now it’s like I have to experience it all, all over again.”
Alistair turned to Cullen and reached out to rest his hand on his forearm, “I just want to make sure you get better. You’re not in this alone, Cullen.” He wanted the other man to know for sure that Alistair didn’t see any of this as a chore or a burden, “I’m not going to abandon you.”
At that moment a woman came over to them, “Alistair?” She asked, glancing down at him, “I just wanted you to check this out and let me know if there’s anything you want changed.” She held the sketch of the Grey Warden’s symbol out to him.
His heart most definitely stuttered in his chest with affection at Alistair’s words and intense stare, his hand warm on the Templar’s arm. He was probably blushing as well, but luckily Cullen didn’t have to worry overly much about the embarrassment settling in as the artist came over soon and interrupted things.
Cullen leaned in towards the Warden and looked over the art, grinning and nudging him. “It’s bloody gorgeous.”
Alistair nodded, “That’s amazing.” The drawing on the paper looked so much better than the picture he had showed the woman when he’d arrived and he was extremely impressed, “I love it.”
The woman smiled and gestured towards a doorway, “Then if you’re ready, follow me.” She turned towards the door and Alistair stood, glancing at Cullen to make sure he was coming as well. He was extremely nervous about doing this, but it wasn’t like facing an Archdemon or Broodmother and with Cullen there, he felt a little less nervous. Once in the room, Alistair was told to take off his shirt and lay down on the padded table in the middle of the room. Doing as he was told, Alistair grabbed the back of the collar of his shirt and pulled it over his head, hand a hand through his hair to fix it then laid down on his side so that the tattoo artist would have access to the side he was getting the tattoo on.
The Templar followed after on the man’s heels, staring into his back and soon taking an offered stool on the opposite side of the table where Alistair would be getting tattooed. He perhaps stared a little longer than he should as the Warden tugged his shirt off over his head. Cullen shifted on the stool and fought back his attraction by sheer force of will -- perhaps the Templar training from his dreams helped a bit.
He gave Alistair a reassuring smile and patted his arm.
Alistair hadn’t actually noticed Cullen staring at him, not that he would have minded exactly. After all, it was more than obvious that they shared a mutual attraction to one another and they had kissed, even if it had been to calm Cullen down after his dreams, but it wasn’t as if Alistair would get mad if he’d noticed Cullen staring or anything. The tattoo artist however, had noticed Cullen staring, but didn’t say anything. She simply went to transfer the drawing onto transfer paper then came back and asked Alistair where exactly he wanted the tattoo.
“Right about here.” He said, glancing down at his side as he used his fingers to show her exactly where along his ribs he wanted it placed.
It felt like the perfect time for Cullen to have a look around the tattoo shop, admiring the different artworks and photographs displayed on the walls. He’d never been an artist himself, but his little brother was -- bloody talented too. Maybe one day he’d be into doing tattoos, as much as it would probably drive their mum and dad crazy.
Once the transfer was placed on Alistair’s side and removed, leaving the template of the tattoo, he checked it out to be sure that it was exactly as he wanted it and nodded, “Looks good.” He then laid back down, glancing over at Cullen as the tattoo artist got out a new needle and the colors she would be using. “Is it even?” He asked, mostly to get Cullen’s attention.
Bright eyes moved back to focus on the Warden’s face, then down to the tattoo transfer along his bare side. Cullen leaned into the table a bit and smiled. “Yes, it is. She certainly knows how to make those transfers straight,” which came out incredibly awkward sounding and perhaps Cullen just needed something to say, as idiotic as it was. Or maybe he shouldn’t say anything because his foot would land squarely in his mouth.
He wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself. He didn’t want to stare at Alistair, or the artist, or other people. Which really left Cullen sitting on his stool with his hands in his lap. He decided to not make smalltalk with the artist, just because he didn’t want to distract her.
Alistair smirked at Cullen and got as comfortable as he possibly could, knowing this was going to take a while as the tattoo artist came back with everything she would need for his tattoo. “Just relax and try not to move.” It was easier said than done, but Alistair decided to employ some of his various training for this and took a deep breath as he heard the buzz of the needle.
As the needle touched his skin, Alistair sucked in a breath and reached out with his top arm to grab Cullen’s hand. He knew it was going to hurt and while he’d been stabbed and clawed at in the dreams, this was nothing like any of that. He’d read that eventually the area being tattooed would go numb, but for the moment that wasn’t the case.
He stared as the artist came back and readied her machine, soon enough pressing the needle against Alistair’s flesh. Cullen didn’t quite expect the Warden to reach out for him suddenly, but he didn’t complain, his hand immediately finding the man’s. He gave a comforting squeeze and smiled down at him gently, his other hand moving to brush over his forehead. “Do you want me to talk about something to distract you? I could talk about Sam or Mere, or the rescue, or my family.”
Alistair squeezed Cullen’s hand at the same time he squeezed his eyes shut as the needle dragged over his skin, “Yeah. Say something to distract me.” He didn’t know what could possibly distract him from the pain of the needle. He hoped that it would go numb sooner rather than later. “Tell me anything. Anything at all.”
Cullen hummed, not taking too much time to think about a subject, as he just settled on his family. They weren’t something that he brought up often, at least not too deeply, but he supposed that he’d known Alistair for long enough that he was comfortable talking about his siblings. “Well, I’ve never told you about my siblings. I have a younger brother and sister, Branson and Rosalie, and then an older sister, Mia. She’s getting married and just had a baby not long ago. She likes to send me pictures and we skype once in awhile. Oh, her little one is a girl, named Marina. Once, she was all smiles getting to see her uncle over the computer, and then suddenly she was spitting up all over Mia and her laptop from excitement.” Cullen chuckled with the memory. “Soon I’m going to buy a ticket back home and see her for real. Lord knows my sister will probably be giving me diaper changing lessons.”
As Alistair listened to Cullen talk about his siblings he stopped thinking so much about the tattoo needle and instead focused on the man in front of him, chuckling along with him, “I’m sure she appreciated that. I can only imagine that trying to clean up any sort of vomit from a laptop would be difficult.” Considering all the nooks and crannies that a laptop had. “Do you think they would come out here?” Hearing about Cullen’s siblings made him miss his own brother and sister, but unlike Cullen’s his were only a couple of cities away and they could easily make plans to see each other. For Cullen it wasn’t quite as easy.
He suddenly looked more than a bit sad. It was a long trip and costly, and with Marina still being so young, Mia wouldn’t want to test taking her on a plane quite yet. Give it a few years. Still, even if he couldn’t see his family right now, he was at least happy to keep in contact with him. “No. I don’t think they would. Mia can’t with everything going on in her life, and it’s such a bloody long trip for my mum and dad. Bran and Rosalie might be up for it, but I doubt mum would want those two going to another across the ocean, then across the states, by themselves.” Cullen gave a slight shrug. “It’s fine though. I’ll be going back for Mia’s wedding and then I’ll stay for a couple of weeks at least.”
Alistair squeezed Cullen’s hand, “Maybe when they get older they’ll move out here.” Alistair winced slightly as the needle went over an area of rib and he squeezed Cullen’s hand again, “Will you take Sam and Mere with you when you go?” He wondered how the two pitbulls would do on a flight that long and he honestly wasn’t sure exactly how one would travel with two dogs like that. Samson might have been Cullen’s service dog, but people were still weary of pitbulls.
Cullen had thought about bringing the dogs along before, but he’d read stories about people who had, had their animals mistreated on flights, or they’d ended up dead. He couldn’t stand the thought of it. “I think I’d rather just leave them here, where they’re safe. I could get Max to watch them,” he said happily, remembering just how much Trevelyan fancied the dogs, like they were his children.
“I could always watch them. Probably have to stay at your place cause there are too many breakable things at my place.” Living with Lara meant that there were lots of old, breakable artifacts around the house and Alistair didn’t want to risk any of it accidently getting broken cause of the dogs.
“I suppose you could.” And he was blushing again, wasn’t he? “Owning dogs is a bit like having children -- you never know what they’ll get into. Keep everything fragile on the top shelves, along with any human food they might crave.” His eyes strayed away from Alistair’s face for a moment and looked over at the progress on his tattoo, steady lines drawing out the Wardens’ emblem.
“Well, I’m sure I’ve got plenty of time to learn anything I need to about taking care of them,” Alistair would not admit that the thought of some other guy taking care of Cullen’s dogs made him a tad bit jealous. Sure, Max was a nice guy from what he’d seen and him and Cullen were just friends, but that didn’t change the fact that he couldn't help but be a little jealous.
The tattoo artist glanced up at Cullen as she went to dip the needle back into the ink, “You two are pretty cute together.” Smirking, she went back to work on Alistair’s tattoo.
Cullen wanted to believe that this whole talk about babysitting his canine children was a way to get closer to him because Alistair wanted to spend more and more time with him. It wasn’t like he was at all opposed to the idea. “I’ll teach you… Then maybe you can teach me some things in return,” the Templar replied, realizing after that, that might have sounded more sexual than he meant for it too. Ah well.
When the tattoo artist commented on them, Cullen felt his entire face going bright red and to hide it, he glanced down and fumbled with his phone, saying thanks. Other than that, he was speechless. Apparently they seemed like a couple, and Cullen hoped that perhaps soon enough they really would be.