It was the morning of the day before the apocalypse began. The stark white light created stripes along the wall through the blinds. Tanya fanned herself with a poorly designed takeaway menu. Her windows were all covered in a sheen of condensation. The heating unit had broken and was stuck on full power, making it feel tropical despite the December chill. She dreaded to think of the astronomical bill that would create.

She glanced at the phone, wondering when Lucy would call. They'd met through a friend of a friend at a party a few weeks back, and Tanya had remembered she was an electrician and awkwardly messaged when she'd run out of people to ask. Most of her friends were artsy types, so this girl she'd met exactly once was her best bet at not running her shop out of business from this damn heater.

"Bleedin' heater. Cost a fortune an' I don't even get to enjoy it," she muttered to herself.

The familiar stack of bills caught her eye from the edge of her table. She sighed and reached over to open them, then decided it could wait til later. They were almost certainly water, electricity, rent, and a bill from her brother's school, so why check?

Flicking through her flash designs, she considered how to scrape enough for it. Her current offer was on Pokémon characters. She had a vending machine with those little plastic bubbles in it with different Pokémon that her followers had helped her pick.

The bell rang. She looked up with a smile. A customer already? It would be a good day today. She just had to drum up some business.

He was stunning in that high-fashion celebrity kind of way; tall and slender with blonde spikes and flame sunglasses. He popped bubblegum between his lips. Long, coffin-shaped pink nails pulled down his glasses. They went perfectly with his hot pants and little, cropped pink fluffy jacket. It looked like someone had skinned a muppet. Their eyes met, his a striking light blue.

"Hey, queen, how's it going in here today?" He looked around. "Hoo gir,l this place is so twee."

"Thank you?"

He leant over the desk, slapping her shoulder. "It's gorge, girl, don't worry. It's giving…" he rubbed his fingers together in thought, and the acrylic nails clicked together. "Whimsigoth—and not the fake Insta trend kind—I'm talking Stevie Nicks and Buffy for real, for real."

Tanya snorted. His energy was catching. "Been a while since I've had someone so cool in me shop. I'd love to do ya a custom. Those glasses give me major flames across collarbone vibes. I have a bunch of flashes too if you want somethin' cheaper. No bookings today, so you've got me full attention."

He fluttered his eyelashes. "Ugh, you're perfection. If I liked women, I swear I'd eat you all up." He clicked his nails together again and scrunched his face. Then he sighed, leaning back against the counter and turning like he was telling her a secret. "Unfortunately, I'm not here for me. Be nice to him. He may be boring, but I love him anyway."

He called with a sing-song voice. "Sebby, come on in."

Sebastian Salvatore poked his head around the door. "Richie, I'm not sure about leaving my car on the street." He turned to Tanya. "Do you have anywhere around the back that's safer?"

Tanya was deep in trying to work out if they were brothers, partners, or if this Sebby fellow was Richie's token straight friend. "I'm afraid not," Tanya stammered.

Sebastian sighed, taking one last look at his car and then coming inside. "If my car is scratched, it's on you," he said to Richie.

"Darling, that is the least of our upcoming problems."

There was something about the way he said that that sent a chill down Tanya's spine.

"I, uh, don't want no trouble, guys. I just do tattoos."

Richie walked over to Tanya, leaning over the counter fully this time. If he were any closer, there would be a lipstick mark pressed onto her cheek. "Can I tell you a secret?" he asked. His voice was lower than before, somewhere between mischievous and earnest.

"Richie," Sebastian warned.

Tanya blinked. "Uh, yeah?"

"You should cancel any plans you have for tomorrow, big things are on their way."

"Richie, stop it." He gripped Richie by the collar, pulling him off the counter. Richie shoved him.

Partners was definitely off the table. Stood side by side, she suspected brothers. They had the same Roman noses beneath Richie's contour.

Tanya studied their faces for drugs. No big pupils. If Richie had any smell of alcohol on him, it was masked by something cheap, pungent, and fruity that hung in the air behind him.

Richie giggled at Sebastian's stern face.

Tanya relaxed slightly. She got what was going on now. They were trying to sell her something, probably a show or Richie's or some hairbrained new business.

"What kind of big things?" Tanya asked.

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Richie just laughed.

Normally, she'd just tell folks like this to pay or get out, but Sebastian was wearing the kind of watch that Tanya guessed cost more than she would make this month. If she could get even one tattoo out of these two, it would make a big difference.

"Let me handle this," Sebastian said, pushing Richie aside, stepping forward and holding out a hand. "Sebastian Salvatore."

His smile would have dazzled most of Tanya's female friends-and some of her male ones too—but it was so fake she was just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Full name, eh?" Tanya said, but she shook it.

What's he gunna try sell me?

"How about we play through a thought experiment?" Sebastian said.

Tanya returned the sweetest smile she could muster. "I only do thought experiments with payin' customers."

Sebastian pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket, placing it on the corner of the table.

Tanya's mouth dropped open. "What the—"

"Now who's playing with her, Sebby?" Richie chimed.

Tanya reached for the money, flicking through it. She wasn't an expert in counterfeit money by any means, but it looked real to her.

"Okay, what's the deal with… all of this?" Tanya said, losing her work mask.

"Sebby, it's easier to just tell her what's going on," Richie said.

Sebastian glared at him. "No. We do this my way this time." He turned back to Tanya with the same dazzling smile and opened his mouth to talk.

"Okay, cut the shit," Tanya said. "Is this conversation gunna end with me keeping this cash and one or both of you two leaving with a tattoo—" she looked down at the money. That was more than they'd both need for full back pieces.

Sebastian nodded. "I have a thought experiment, then I get a custom, and you keep the money."

"And this isn't fake or some kinda Ponzi scheme or anything?" she asked.

"No," Sebastian said.

She didn't expect a yes, but hoped she'd at least catch some sign of whether they were lying. Neither of their faces gave away a thing.

Fuck it.

Tanya swept the wad of cash into the top drawer of her counter.

Putting on her working smile again, she walked over to the sofa in the window. "Okay then. Count me intrigued. What's this thought experiment?"

Sebastian sat down beside her. Richie perched on the coffee table.

"If you gained the power to bring your tattoos to life, what would you make?" Sebastian asked.

Sebastian and Richie shared a glance that Tanya couldn't read.

"You're serious?" she asked.

"Absolutely," Sebastian said.

Tanya shrugged. "Your money." She thought about it. "Havin' some kind of summomable mascot for The Wyrm and Needle would be cool—little dragon to fly around and do tricks."

"He means more for him," Richie said.

"Oh." Tanya furrowed her brow, looking him up and down. "What do you do? Some kind of tech startup?"

Richie snorted. "Told you that you're easy to read," he said to Sebastian smugly.

Sebastian's nostrils flared, but he otherwise ignored it. "Law. I own my own firm."

Richie pulled a face behind him. "Corporate law."

Tanya hid her laugh. "Uh, lie detector maybe?"

Sebastian scratched his chin. "That isn't a bad idea."

"I dunno, maybe somethin' that, like, binds someone to their word?" Tanya added.

Sebastian and Richie made eye contact.

"What? Too magical for ya?" Tanya said, starting to get into it.

"No, no, that's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for," Sebastian said, quickly. "But say that power already existed—"

Tanya raised an eyebrow. "Uh huh?"

"What would you do then?"

Tanya crossed her arms. "So people are making these binds. How do people access them? Some way of you being able to see them, maybe?"

Sebastian's eyes lit up. "Yes, I want a tattoo that can do that."

Tanya's enjoyment made way to confusion again. 'Well, I can't help ya there. This is all a hypothetical, yeah?"

"Yes," Sebastian said, a little too quickly.

Tanya looked over to Richie. "He's not off his head on anythin', yeah? I don't do tattoos when someone's not with it."

"No ma'am," Richie said, with a little salute.

Tanya sighed. "So you want a tattoo that represents the idea of seeing magically binding agreements between people?"

How am I gunna get all that across in a tattoo?

Sebastian nodded.

Tanya gave up on the weird thought game. Whatever inspired this tattoo, she just had to make a design he liked. That's all there was to it.

"So whatcha thinkin'? Magnifying glass? Glasses? Monocle? Handheld mirror?"

Richie adjusted his flame glasses intentionally at Sebastian.

"Yes, alright then. I'll go for glasses—but nothing like those ones."

Tanya was already drawing thick hipster-style frames. She wanted to get across that they could see something, so she added words into the frames. First, she tried making up some jargon—but she was with a lawyer, so that wouldn't land. She quizzed him about law for a few minutes before giving up on that too. A few thumbnail iterations later, she realised the exact words didn't matter, and a couple after that she tried making the letters more smudged. The illegibility gave it a more runic feel, which she enjoyed.

The end result was pretty cool, if Tanya said so herself. She'd contrasted the frames with swirls of sparkles; it was an easy go-to, making something feel more magical, and she might as well throw every trick at this weird design.

Once the stencil was on, everything slipped into that familiar tunnel of focus. She shaved the hair on Sebastian's forearm and cleaned it, applying the stencil and pulling back to consider the placement. With a glance and a nod, they were off.

The hum of the machine filled the room, each line bringing the design into focus. Richie explored the room like a museum exhibit before settling down on the sofa and going on his phone. A little bird charm swung from his phone case while he typed.

It wasn't a long one, all over in a couple of hours.

"Want me to leave it as lineart or add some colour to it?" Tanya said, wiping away the smudged ink.

"Whatever you think works best," came Sebastian's cryptic reply.

Tanya studied the final tattoo. There was something crisp about the lineart beside his perfectly pressed, rolled-up shirt sleeve.

"I think it suits you; simple like."

Sebastian nodded and stood.

"Let me just add some cream and Saran Wrap on that sucker," Tanya said.

Sebastian obliged, holding still until she was done.

"Anythin' else I can do for either of ya? You've more than paid for another tattoo or even more to be honest."

"Pretty please?" Richie asked, batting his eyelashes.

"We have a lot more calls to make today," Sebastian replied.

Richie pouted, leaning against the arm of the sofa.

Sebastian walked to the door. "Do what you've got to do," he said. "I'll see you outside."

These were increasingly becoming two of her weirdest customers. "So you do want a tattoo then?"

Richie walked towards her. "Sorry, hun, this shouldn't hurt too much."

Tanya backed towards the wall, heart rate rising.

"The apocalypse is coming," Richie said in a cheerful voice. "Oh man, it feels good to get that off my chest."

Tanya gripped the door into the kitchen, thudding it open and starting to run.

Richie darted forward and pressed a perfectly painted nail to the side of her head. As it stayed there, Richie guided her back to the chair behind her counter.

He pulled away, grabbing the money from the top drawer. Then with the last few clacks of high-heeled boots, he was gone.

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