Atelophobia (Love is Misery)

then

"I'm actually not scared," he said.

"You're so cute" I replied, taking his hand.

"Stop it."

We were just about to get tattooed together. We thought about it for a while and finally decided to do it. I was scared Ethen would find it extreme. I know I would have had I been in his position. But he didn't, and we were on our way to the tattoo shop.

And he was scared. I wasn't sure what scared him at first, but since it wasn't the commitment of getting the tattoo, then I guessed it could only be one thing.

The needle.

"It's alright to be scared" I laughed, "it's just unexpected."

"Unexpected?"

I stopped and stood in front of him, "you're very surprising, in a can't anticipate the things about you kinda way. You seem very masculine at first but you're also feminine and I love that, and you seem fearless and insensitive, but you're really not and it's adorable."

"Because being scared of getting a tattoo is feminine?"

"Weakness and fear are associated with femininity more times than not, so no, but yes. It doesn't make you feminine, it makes you careless of stereotypes and other people's opinions about you, if you're too girly or not manly enough. And that's even better."

"Well..." I smiled and hugged him. He was so focused on proving me wrong just a few seconds ago. "Alright, I'm scared. Happy now?"

I broke the hug and looked at him. "I'm kinda scared, too." He frowned and I explained myself, "not the needle. The pain."

"That's unexpected, too," he whispered.

"I can't handle physical pain." He raised an eyebrow and told me I was wrong, which I probably was. I had been through worse than getting a tiny little tattoo.

I took his hand again and we walked to our appointment. The guy was sweet, Ethen got a bit jealous but he didn't show it, scared the guy would hurt him with the needle if he said anything. And it was funny, I won't lie.

When he asked who wanted to get tattooed first, we looked at each other for a long time, having a wordless conversation. And it must have looked scary from the tattoo artist's point of view because he cleared his throat and started using his phone.

"I can do it first, I'll tell you if you should still get it or not" I whisper.

"No. I'll go first. I'll tell you if the pain is easy to handle or not."

I rolled my eyes, "don't make this hard for me. I said it first."

"So?"

"It was my idea."

"So?" he repeated.

I squinted, "you copycat!"

"Move your feet, lose your seat."

I laughed for ten seconds straight before turning to the man, "I'll go first."

"No!"

I smiled big and said "sore loser."

He mocked me and bent over to whisper in my ear, "you're lucky we're in public."

"You wouldn't do shit though, would you?" I smirked and then stuck my tongue out to make fun of him.

The guy turned around and he took my face to kiss me. Hard. And fast. And it left me speechless when he murmured, "just you wait for my revenge."

"The crescent moon it is," the guy said turning around, "it's a small tattoo so you can wait for me over there, just sit in the chair."