33 In Memoriam

'Thank you?? Was thank you all he was going to say in response to that!?' Tiza screamed internally.

He took a minute to digest what Aosh had just said, what he had just confessed.

For a moment Tiza thought of doing those things with Aosh. It seemed like a lot; birthdays, dinners, and starting gardens. It sounded like a big commitment and Tiza thoroughly ignored the fact it almost sounded like a marriage proposal. It was a big commitment but as much as it was it also didn't... sound...that bad. With how heartfelt Aosh's words were Tiza couldn't just leave it at thank you.

"A garden. I...want to start with a garden."

It was the least intimidating of the options Aosh gave even though the man said they could do whatever Tiza wanted. The Alpha perked up like a puppy, if he had a tail it would be wagging. Aosh gave Tiza's hand a small squeeze.

"Well the growing season is almost over, but we can get you something small that will do well indoors until springtime. How does that sound?"

Tiza looked off towards the house. The sun was hiding behind the building while it started to sink beyond the horizon and he used the angle to hide his face from the other. His freckled cheeks burned from Aosh's enthusiasm like a garden was such a big deal like the man didn't deal with plants every day.

He sees Aosh's parents in the window that looks into their kitchen. He catches a moment between the two, Kellan washing the dishes and Ryuji coming up from behind hugging the larger man before reaching up to capture the Alpha's lips in a kiss. A picture-perfect example of what fated mates should be.

"It sounds great," he says, barely above a whisper.

A noise sounds between them and Aosh checks his phone. Tiza hears him pocket his phone and stand up.

"I know it's getting late and things didn't really go as planned today but...do you want to come to one more place with me?"

It's almost dark now and Tiza checks his phone. It was already past the time Sean would be home. Any minute now he'd get a text asking where he was, what was he doing, and why wasn't he home.

He switches his phone to silent.

"Sure why the hell not, I've got nothing better to do."

............….....…

Tiza didn't have an idea where Aosh was taking him, but he didn't ask. This evening had been weird but he was enjoying himself and was in no rush to hurry back to the inevitable shit storm that was surely waiting for him when he got back home.

Honestly, he shouldn't be surprised that they turned up at a tattoo parlor, but when they pulled into the parking lot of a historical-looking two-story building on the edge of town Tiza was surprised and albeit a little intimidated. He didn't know what to expect and that bothered him.

The fidgety Omega followed the Alpha inside like a shadow and took in the change of atmosphere.

Although the building looked old it was in excellent condition inside. Everything was trimmed in a matte black from the baseboards to the staircase, large leather couches made up a waiting room slash lobby area where they entered and frames of tattoo art cluttered the walls. Being in such a sophisticated yet artistic atmosphere calmed Tizas nerves just a bit. A bell rings as soon as they enter and moments later a heavy-set woman descends the staircase.

"It's about time you showed up." She said with a smile that accentuated the piercings she had on her cheeks.

Tiza takes note of the myriad of colors and pictures that painted her skin from where he's still standing behind the Alpha. He tries very hard to not stare to try to get a better look, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"Sorry, my parents didn't want to let me leave." He chuckles.

Actually, his parents didn't want to let Tiza leave. They tried to coerce them to stay with promises of coffee and dessert. Which was probably another one of his Pop's attempts to embarrass the living hell out of him. How did his fathers know that coffee and desserts were one of Tiza's only weaknesses he'll never know. Aosh made up the lamest excuse he could think of and dragged Tiza out of there like a bat out of hell. The Alpha made a mental note to treat the man to some coffee and sweets later to make up for it because it would definitely be a while before he took Tiza back there. At least until they calmed down.

"I see you brought a friend, when's the last time that happened?"

"Ha, you're hilarious. Darcy this is Tiza. Tiza this is Darcy."

Tiza gives a wave that matches the small 'Hello' that comes out of him. The man was still a little overwhelmed coming to a place like this.

"Wow, all I get is such a lame introduction. I'll remember that." She curls a finger at Aosh and turns to ascend the stairs. The Alpha follows and Tiza sticks to him like glue.

They enter into a small room that is decorated much like the rest of the parlor but all the artwork inside it follows a specific theme.

Flowers.

'I'm starting to see a theme here...' Tiza thinks.

There's the muted sound of a hard rock band playing from a speaker on a shelf. It sits above a clean workstation and a variety of ink bottles. There's an antique full body mirror edged in black in a corner next to a similarly colored chair Tiza assumes is for those not getting inked.

"So can I see it or is it going to be a surprise like last time?" The Alpha asks making himself as comfortable in the tattoo chair as he would sitting on his couch at home.

Darcy grabs the tablet that's sitting on a stool by the workstation and after some swiping turns it to Aosh. Tiza looms by them and takes a peek at the screen. On it is a drawing of a koi fish swimming amongst a small cluster of flowers.

"Looks perfect as always, I'm thinking right here," Aosh taps his right bicep.

"Alright give me one sec." She says setting down the tablet and steps out of the room.

In one swift motion, Aosh removes his shirt and places it in his lap. Tiza suddenly doesn't know where to look. His first instinct is to look at Aosh's…chest. But he diverts his attention to the floor.

"Sorry for bringing you here, but it's easier for me to come by while I'm already out. I hope you don't mind."

"If I didn't want to be here I would've had you take me home…" he wrings his hands together and is thankful when Darcy comes back into the room.

A sharp whistle leaves her bright red lips and she eyes the Alpha before going to her workstation.

"Oh, honey that view never gets old."

Well since she was looking it wouldn't hurt to look to right?

Tiza's gaze shifted ever so slightly from the floor to catch a glimpse of Aosh's round and rather large pectorals.

How did those things hide so well under his shirt? How did he not bust out of every shirt he owned? Those...those were some huge…assets.

"When are you going to let me do your chest?" Darcy asks as she gives one of the muscles a pat and a slight squeeze to get Aosh to sit back in the chair. It sounded as firm as Tiza imagined them to be.

The Omega imagined for a moment the idea of Aosh having chest tattoos. Maybe whenever the Alpha would bend over along with a slight glimpse of the muscles that hid underneath his shirt you would also get a slight picture of flowers or koi. Maybe a scrolling text in beautiful calligraphy. Any of those sounded very appealing.

Aosh let himself be led back and bared his bicep towards her so she could apply the applique before he answered. Darcy applies the applique to Aosh's arm leaving a light blue outline of her artwork after lifting the paper, the entire drawing about the size of Tiza's hand. Compared to the large canvas that was Aosh's arm it was on the smaller side of the other koi that swam on his skin.

"I'll get there eventually I'll probably start on my back before anything else I've got a couple of ideas." The Alpha catches Tiza's wandering eyes and shoots him a wink.

An explosion of heat spreads across the Omega's face and he promptly takes a seat in that lone chair in the corner. Far enough so he would feel less awkward being leered at but still close enough to watch what was going to happen.

Not long after, Darcy was set up and the buzzing of a tattoo gun blended in seamlessly with the music. Tiza subconsciously winced the moment the needles made contact with his skin. Aosh on the other hand looked totally unphased by the trauma his skin was being put under. Darcy spoke up, her nose stuck in her work.

"So Tiza, how do you know Aosh?"

"He was a student of mine."

"Wow, you look young for a professor." She says, looking up through her bangs.

"No, actually I was his ballet instructor."

The woman paused and snorted, shaking her head as she kept working.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Aosh questions.

Tiza was also curious.

"I just think it's funny that's all. That you look like this rough primal Alpha but you're really just squishy like a marshmallow."

"I hardly think taking ballet makes someone 'squishy'," Tiza said offensively.

Ballet was very physically intensive, few could accomplish what Tiza had in his training. That wasn't him being conceited it was just the truth. Guys like Aosh were nothing compared to a properly trained ballet dancer. If anything Aosh would only become stronger if he had continued his schooling.

"Sorry I didn't mean it that way it's just, well you must know how he is. I mean even the reason he gets tattoos is soft."

" 'He' is right here you know."

"Shush or I'll give the fish crossed eyes."

"What reason?"

The question had always sat at the back of his mind and of course, the Omega never thought to ask. Darcy became silent as she waited for Aosh to explain himself. The Alpha scratched his chin with his free hand.

"Well, I guess I should explain since you know about the other tradition. My parents have the little burial thing that they do when one of our koi fish dies but as much as I like that," he said dripping with sarcasm, " I like to remember my friends by immortalizing them into tattoos."

Aosh looks down at his arms and trails his vision from where the ink starts at his wrists and where they climb up his forearms to the crook of his elbow and end on the round of his shoulder. This leads Tiza to do the same. Several koi swim amongst pitch-black waves and swirls of different flora etched beside each one.

"As embarrassing as it is, my Pops was right about how I spent a long time with our koi out back. I was a lonely kid when I was little, didn't have many people to talk to besides my parents. But, uh, even at some point you don't want to talk to your parents about everything… so I went out back, to the garden, to the pond where our koi swam carefree. They were so carefree maybe that's why I was so drawn to them in the first place. They didn't worry about what other people thought about them and they never had any complaints about life like I did. So they became my best friends and I talked to them about everything...even though I would never get any answers back."

Darcy was about two-thirds of the way done with the tattoo, and Violet was coming into her second life, in ink on his bicep.

"Violet was one of my favorites. I named her that because the blue that decorated her back reminded me of the violets we had in our front yard at the time. It always seemed like she liked me, I would come out and she would swim right up and blow bubbles at me. I'm sure it was just because I had fish food, but as a kid, you don't think about that kind of stuff. You latch onto the idea of being someone's favorite."

A forlorn sigh escaped him and he looked at the Omega again.

"It's kind of silly but this way I still have a small part of them with me whenever they leave."

A sniffle sounded beside him and the woman leaned back from her work and set her tattoo gun down.

"Goddammit, Aosh!" She said through sniffles and tears.

She dabbed under her eyes lightly to try and save her smudging mascara.

"Warn someone next time you're gonna tell it so sadly! A simple 'I love my pet fish' would have sufficed! You see what I'm talking about now! Soft!! Softest Alpha I've ever known!!" She gestures to said Alpha and then got up to wash her hands.

While Aosh apologized Tiza took in Aosh's long gone friends that the man had held close to his heart. The Alpha held anything that gave him a modicum of friendliness close and he wonders how close he was to Aosh's heart.

In the next moment, he's tracing his own name scared into tanned skin bordered by delicate drawings of lotus flowers. Probably closer than he thought he was. Maybe...he was the closest person to Aosh's heart. Tiza didn't know that at this point he basically held the deed to it.

Tiza couldn't find the words to comment on Aosh's story. He found that recently he didn't have the words to comment on a lot of things Aosh said. The Alpha had a bad habit of leaving him speechless. When Darcy returned to finish her job he resigned himself to occupy his attention somewhere else while she finished. On a low table next to him sat one of many portfolios which the Omega sifted through while he waited. Maybe sometime before, he would have cared about being made to wait while Aosh was getting a tattoo, but he found that he didn't mind. If Tiza was honest with himself he was enjoying just being here, and still being out with Aosh.

Most pages were of artworks Tiza assumed clients had brought to her, with the occasional script and portrait of a loved one thrown in there. Towards the end, there was more of her own art done on her clients, and one, in particular, caught his eye.