Genesis's POV

Once school had finally finished for the day, I rush home so I could get changed and then go out and add to my tattoo.

My outfit consisted of a simple pair of wash out ripped jeans with a grey hoodie. I pulled on some cowboy boots and put some diamond earrings in and a ring on my finger. I tie my hair into a messy bun. I apply my signature red lip stick and a little eyeliner before grabbing my back from where I had thrown it in the bed.

Thinking I might be out for a while, I flick through a pile of comics I had in my bedside table. What? Technically they are a type of book. Since I had finished the final book in the throne of glass series which did have me sobbing in physics by the way, I needed something else to read and I wanted a change so I decided to read a comic for once.

I lept down the stairs two at a time. I snatched up my bike keys before walking out the house. I locked my front door and made my way to my garage. Shoving my bag in the compartment I have in my bike, I place my helmet on and set off to the nearest tattoo shop.

I arrived at the tattoo parlor 15 minutes later. I was moderately sized and had the name inkspiration printed on the door. I parked my bike in front of the shop and swung my leg over my bike. Grabbing my bag I stride into the tattoo place.

The building was brightly lit. The walls were painted a nice shade of blue ; the ceiling and the tile are black. There's a room set up with three little cubicles against the side walls, each one with a wall about four feet high. There are tattoo designs printed on posters that are stuck on the wall. Some look to have been ripped out of a sketch book and just pinned on the wall.

I walk over to the U-shaped display case set up in the middle of the room. The place looks empty as far as I could tell.
"Hello?" I yell, looking around. Thinking this place might be closed and they just forgot to lock the door, I turn to leave but I hear little running footsteps coming from behind a door in the back.

The door swings open and a small brown haired boy around the age of 6 comes to stand in front of me. He has a pair of headphones on his neck, a sketch book in his hands and a charcoal pencil behind his ear.

The boy is unbelievably cute, he looks up at me with big black eyes and I almost melt. I've always adored kids. Some people dislike them because they're messy and annoying but I just think they're adorable. Fortunately kids just seem to like me as well. Despite being a deadly assassin, I get all soft around kids.

"Hello there." I smile down at him. The boy gives me a little wave and a shy smile. He seems to be timid and maybe a little intimated by me. I crouch down so I'm kneeling making me more his height.

Because I don't know his name I decide to give him a nickname. Considering that he is holding a sketch book, has a pencil behind his ear and even a little dark smudge of charcoal on his forehead, I guess it's safe to assume he likes to draw. I decide to call him sketch.

"So sketch, are you the owner of this fine establishment?" He shakes his head and bows his head but I get the glimpse of a small smile. I'm taken aback by how much he looks like someone I know but I can put my finger on who.

"I don't but my brother does. He's on the phone though at the moment, he'll be out soon."

I nod in understanding but smile victoriously at the fact I managed to get him to smile. "That's fine."

Sketch shuffles on his feet nervously. His gaze drifts towards the window, in which you get the perfect view of my bike. Sketch's eyes widen and his mouth opens slightly. "Is that your bike?" He asks in awe.

I grin at him. "Sure is, you like?" He nods his head quickly.

"It's so cool my brother has a bike but not as nice as that one. Is it a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-12R?"

I kneel there in complete shock. I've never know a 6 year old to know their time tables correctly never mind the name and make of a bike. I feel like I should bow down to him or clap or something. I have utterly no words.

"Um it's a ZX-14R but...wow you got close. That was pretty impressive dude." I praise and he grins at me cockily. I roll my eyes but hold my fist out for him to bump which he does.

"I'm Genesis." I say holding out my hand. Sketch looks at it hesitantly, before he reaches out and grips it tightly, shaking it. "I'm Alex."

"I think we're going to be good friends Alex." I chirp earning another adorable smile from him.

I stand up and stretch my arms above my head. "So sketch does your brother usually take social calls during work or am I mistaken and it's actually a business call?" I coaxed.

"Ugh no its most likely a work call, my brother has a crap social life. He has all of two friends and I'm pretty sure they hate him because he's a pain in their butts." He laughs.

I laugh as well at his language and playful bullying of his brother.

"Well then maybe you should start buying him cats because from what you've told me I believe he's going to be a very lonely man." Unexpectedly Alex releases a thundering laugh that sounds so cute. He clutches his stomach and the smile on his face is priceless and makes my day.

"Alex?" A deep familiar voice sounds from behind us. Still laughing we both turn around and look at the owner. When I see his face my laugh dies down instantly.

"Thorn?" I blurt. Everything clicks into place and the realization hits me. I look down at Alex and get a better look at his features which made him look so much like Thorn. For the way they both grinned, to their soft smiles that were shown rarely, to the way they both run their finger through their hair. No wonder Alex looked familiar.

"Genesis what are you doing here?" He inquires raising an eyebrow. Alex gives me a warm smile before walking to his brothers side clutching his sketch book.

Shaking off my surprise, I place my emotionless mask on and give him a look as if to say 'isn't it obvious?'

"Well I came to this fine tattoo shop to ride an elephant." I say in a 'duh' tone rolling my eyes. Alex muffles a laugh and I wink at him and pull a funny face making him laugh harder.

Thorn glances down at his brother. A small warm smile sits on his lips and from the admiration and pride on his face I can tell Thorn loves his little brother more than anything. I'm guessing it's not common for Alex to laugh so much from the little amount of surprise in his face.

The bond between family I see in between Thorn and Alex makes my chest hurt a little. I was 5 when my little sister died with my parents, she was only three but I loved her like nothing else. We were close before everything happened and she was killed.

I shake the thoughts from my head and play with my hands in front of me. Thorn then looks at me and a he nods in appreciation. The look is soon gone and a smirk replaces it. "No elephants sorry but I can give you a tattoo?"

Sighing dramatically I breath, "I guess that'll have to do then."

Thorns eyes widen slightly obviously not believing I would take him up on his offer. "Seriously?" He questions.

"Ugh yeah that is why I came." I dump my bag on a chair and brush a few strands of hair away from my face. Thorn stares at me. His grey eyes shine in the brightly lit building.

I couldn't tell what he was thinking about I'm usually really good at reading people, you kind of have to be in my job but Thorn, I just couldn't read him.
He smiles at me and I find myself slowly letting my guard fall.

I mentally slap myself and place my mask back into its stone hold position. "So where are we doing this?" I ask looking away from his gaze.

"Over there." He pints to the middle of the room. Well that's specific. He wonders if before I can ask him to be more specific.

I sigh and flip him off when his back is turned. A small chuckle comes from next to me and I look down at Alex who's grinning at me. "I um that..." I trail off trying to justify my actions.

"Don't worry Genesis I know he's can be an ass." Alex hold out his hand and I take it laughing.

He leads me over to what I can only describe as the chair that you'd see at a dentist.  "You have a very...umm... explicit vocabulary for a six year old, you know?"

Alex looks up at me and gives me a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I...um have a habit of saying words I shouldn't. Don't tell Thorn or he'll take my sketch book."

He looks at me pleadingly. I rub the top of his head, making his hair covering his eyes. "Don't worry Sketch. I know how to keep a secret." Alex glares at me from under his now messy hair before giving me a thankful smile.

Thorn busys himself grabbing the tattoo gun and paper and other equipment. He tells Alex to grab the ink which he does happily.

I sit backwards on the chair with my stomach pressed against the back of the chair. A couple minutes later Thorn is all set up and wheels over a stool and places it behind me. Alex settles in a chair next to my bag across from me. He opens up his sketch book places it in his lap.

"So where am I doing this, and what do you want?" He asks.

"On my back and I'll show you." I pull my jumper over my head but don't take it off fully I keep it on my arms and just leave it so it's all bunched up around my chest . I would take it off but then Thorn would be able to see the scars on my arms and then he would definitely connect the dots to me being the Scarlett assassin he met on Friday.

The wound on my stomach is just covered by the chair back but there are a couple scars in my back that I can tell Thorn is staring at. "I just need you to add four more lines to my tally please. That shouldn't be two difficult for your small mind." I smirk.

He stays silent until I feel a small stinging pain in my back. The bastard flicked my bra strap. "Ow!" I yelped and he laughed happily. I slammed my foot down in his toes and he jumped back. "Fudge!"

I couldn't hold back a laugh. "Fudge seriously?" I giggled.

"What? There are little ears." He argued pointing to his zoned out brother. I shook my head and put it on the head rest of the seat.

"Okay let's get started." Thorn places his hand on my waist and a shot of electricity rushed through me. I shivered under his touch and from his sudden heavy breathing I could tell he had felt it too.

I felt the marker press into my back and relaxed. "So Sketch since you have a sketch book I'm assuming you designed most of these tattoos." Alex looks up from his drawing and nods mindlessly. "You're pretty talented for a six year old."

"Thanks." He smiles.

Once Thorn has finished marking the lines he tells me he's about to start to tattoo me. "Okay."

"So Sketch other than drawing what else do you like to do?" I ask trying to distract myself from the small amount of pain on back. "He likes comics, don't you Al?" Thorn sounds from behind me.

"You do, do you?" I grin knowing that there's a really good comic in my bag.

"Yeah I like the Action comic comics." He says looking up at me.

"Hey sketch," he continues to stare at me and raises an eyebrow. "Go in my bag and on the top I think there'll be something you might like."

Slowly he nods and shyly opens my bag. He stops and stares at my open bag and for a moment I panicked thinking he sees the gun I constantly keep in there but suddenly he smiles. "No fudging way." He says in astonishment. I laugh at his language and Thorns chastised me for moving.

"This is a 1st edition Super Man action comic. How do you have this there's only like 100 in the world." He yells carefully handling it as if it's a newborn baby.

"It was a gift from a friend he loves comic books and spent his whole life collecting them, he gave me some when I got into the them and then he got me that one for my birthday a couple years ago." I chatted.

Alex turned each page delicately, reading each page with such concentration I don't know how he still knows what I'm saying. "Well your friend must really love you to give you a comic like this." Thorn freezes at his brothers words and his grip on my waist tightens almost protectively.

"I guess he must of." I mutter. Hunter collected millions of comics ever since he was a kid. When he found out I loved to read he suggested I try them and I ended up really liking them. Shaking all the thoughts from my head I smile at Alex. "You can keep it if you want it."

He looks up at me with wide eyes, frozen as if he doesn't believe I just said it. "Really?" He asks so much hope in his voice.

"Sure." He grins and jumps up and gives me a side hug. Despite my tangled state I mange to hug him back. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. You're the best Genesis!"

"Anytime Sketch." I smile ruffling his hair. He happily goes to sit back where he was reading his new comic.

Thorn leans in and in my ear whispers, "Thank you." My breathe catches in my throat when I feel his warm breathe on my neck.

Suppressing the bubbly feeling in my stomach, I shrug. "He's a good kid. He deserves to be spoilt."

"Yeah, yeah he does." I look over my shoulder and find Thorns waiting eyes. His hand slowly moves up and down my bare waist in a soothing motion but his eyes never leave mine.

He pulls away and stands awkwardly. "Okay all done. Considering you have several tattoos I'm guessing I don't need to give you the speech about keeping it clean and adding cream for a couple days."

I pull my jumper back over my head and straighten my clothes. "Thanks." I move to grab my bag and ruffle Alex's hair and say bye. He smiles at me and waves before engrossing himself in his comic.

"What do I owe you?" I ask Thorn rooting in my bag for my purse.

"Nothing." He says ushering me out the door. Once we're outside near my bike he stares at it as if he's remembering something before discarding the idea and focusing back in me.

"Come on Thorn I have to give you something."

I hand him a fifty but he pushes it away. "No you made Alex smile and laugh, that's enough to pay your tattoo off." He sighs looking back at the store where Alex is sitting.

"You're a good brother Thorn." I stare smiling at him.

"Thank you. Sometimes I wish I could do more."

"You do enough and I can tell Alex appreciates it. Just don't don't let him fall for your bad boy ways." Thorn laughs.

"Don't worry I won't." I sit in my bike and Thorn hands me my helmet.

"I'll see you around Thorn." I smile before pulling my helmet on.

"You sure will Genesis." He declares before watching me drive away.

//
Aww Alex is literally adorable. What do you think about him?

Don't forget to comment and vote.
Until next time 😘
-Em xoxo

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