Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 7

what that marker was doing on his back, and Ty felt himself getting sucked into familiar sensations. He always felt like he was looking at himself from outside his own body when he stood here, always with this man, always doing what he was doing now. It had been like that since day one and it had never changed. Not even when more and more of his pecs and abs and sides had been tattooed. All along it had felt just like it felt now, and this was close to as intoxicating as the feel of the multiple needles diving inside his skin over and over and over again.
    "Take a look." Ty opened his eyes, without even realizing he'd shut them in the first place. His head hung loose, almost bowing and the muscles on his neck felt too weak when he picked up his head and turned to look over his shoulder. He was met with a pair of midnight blue eyes, ones looking at him as if the man knew exactly what was going on inside his head.
    Ty turned towards the mirror that was placed on the wall to his left, getting caught in the reflection looking back at him; his body facing the mirror while Chase stood facing him, eyes on Ty instead of on the reflection. Two men, not that much difference in their sizes. Chase was a little taller and perhaps a little bulgier. Chase was dark, his skin a few shades darker than Ty's, and Ty's hair was a lot lighter with its color but still pretty dark. His eyes though…his were the lightest shade of blue while Chase's were probably as close to black as they could get. Midnight blue. Ty had seen that shade on fabric samples and on rags of clothing, but those shades were off. The one he felt looking at him now was the exact color of the darkest hours of the darkest night.
    Even when Ty turned and looked over his shoulder to see the drawings on his shoulders, he could feel those eyes looking at him , not at the picture. And what he was seeing was just as perfect as everything else the man had done to his body. On his body.
    "Wow…how the hell do you make them so symmetrical?" Ty muttered and grabbed his shoulder as if he could pull it out of the way. The lines covering space on his skin were a perfect match to the ones Chase had done before, continuing from the previous ones as if they'd been done at the same session. Four marker-made lines swirled over both of his shoulders, stretching towards shoulder blades and barely reaching the ultimate goal.
    Chase ignored the question and turned towards the mirror. "I can make them longer if you want. But it works better this way if you want something done to your whole back. Easier to create the whole picture if your spine is left undone and so on."
    Ty was pretty sure his spine was getting undone that very second because it sure as hell felt a little wobbly when he listened to Chase. No doubt the guy liked to have things his way, and so far Ty hadn't had a problem with that. After all, Chase was the artist, not Ty, and he trusted whatever whim Chase might have because so far the work had been topnotch.
    "No…this is good." Chase gestured towards the chair in which Ty had sat many, many times before, and Ty listened to sounds coming from behind him while he positioned himself astride the chair.
    "You can lean against the backrest but try and keep your shoulders relaxed. I'd hate to completely fuck up the picture just 'cos you're too tense."
    Right…no being too tense. Gotcha.
    Ty rested his hands against his denim covered thighs, leaning his chest against the chair and every second he spent waiting was like an interlude to what was going to happen. Because he knew what was going to happen. While Chase washed his hands, cleaned his skin and took out the machine, the one-use needles, the ink and gauzes and antiseptic liquid, Ty's skin became more and more sensitive. His whole body became overly responsive to the slightest whiff of air against his naked back. The anticipating was like foreplay, getting his system ready and warmed before the actual race. And the race always finished with a big bang, because nothing was better than going through the accelerating burn and seeing the end result on his skin.
    Hands covered with sterile gloves stroked the skin on Ty's upper back with wetted gauze before he heard the machine go off. And his eyes were closed already when the man now sitting on a stool behind him moved a little closer and placed his hand against Ty's shoulder. "Ready for some pain?"
    Ty leaned against the touch, something he did every time without being able to