Discovering Dalton(40)

Troy wheeled himself to the PC on the other side of the room, printing off a similar Koi onto tracing paper and bringing it over to Dalton. “Let’s see how it fits. I can make changes to it so it flows like mine down your arm.” He held the paper over his arm and smiled when Dalton made some pleasant sounding moans. “You like?”

“Yeah.”

The Koi fit almost perfectly from his shoulder to just above his elbow. Troy tried a few different positions, finding one which suited the design and Dalton's body, then held it over his skin a little tighter. “Okay, I would change how this one is slightly by bending him a little higher and tilting his head over to the left a bit. You okay with that?”

“I love it. My dad used to have this big pond full of Koi Carp. He would spend hours looking after them. He got too old a few years ago and gave them to the local park. They’re in the pond there now.”

“Nice. I like it means something to you. It suits you.” Troy looked up and stared right into those stunning blue eyes. They were so bright, cerulean blue with a darker rim round the edges. He realised he’d been looking too intensely at them and smiled. “Great colour eyes.”

Dalton laughed. “Thanks.”

Troy spun back to his PC and flicked through a few designs of orchids before he found something similar to the one Dalton chose earlier and printed it off. “Okay, this will need adjusting to make it work with the Koi, but what I’ll do is just size it up and then I can draw a template for you to look at. I can have it ready in a couple of days and then we can make the final design.”

When he met Dalton’s eyes, he saw the smile from before had gone and his eyes were downcast. “I can't make it Friday. That’s when the funeral is. I can make it Monday.”

“Monday works for me.” Troy sighed as he lowered the paper to his knee, holding Dalton’s thigh gently. “I lost my mum when I was eighteen.” Troy looked over Dalton’s shoulder, not really wanting to talk about this, but needing to make sure Dalton knew things got better. “I'm not saying it’s easy. I'm not saying there aren’t days when I wake up and just lay in bed wondering about all the things I would love to share with her, but I promise it gets easier with time.” Troy wasn’t over his mum’s death, but that was more to do with his dad and the continuing pain of thinking about what he did to his mum. “Everyone says that.” Troy huffed out. “I fucking hated hearing it. I fucking hate saying it more.”

Dalton chuckled.

Troy gave Dalton’s thigh a little squeeze, then removed his hand. “You know, I promised myself to never say those words to anyone and here I am, shovelling out shit which you don’t want to hear. I'm sorry, mate. You know what, it’s shit losing someone, and no matter what anyone says or does, it doesn’t make it any better. I lost my mum ten years ago and I still…” Troy paused. The thought of his dad killing her hurt more recently because the fucker was getting out and Troy was still paying the price. “You're never ready to let go. Death doesn’t change that.”

“You're right.” Dalton covered his hand with his, showing concern for Troy as he sat up straighter.

“I didn’t mean to offload on you there, I just… I got sick of well-meaning people poking their nose in like they knew what was going on and had gone through it, but none of it matters. It’s like this bubble of pain and you're all alone. You don’t want to let anyone in and burst it because you're happy there. I wanted the world to stop spinning and the sky to turn black, but none of it happened. Life went on and that was the hardest part. Walking around, seeing people laughing and joking. I felt they had no right to be happy when I’d lost something so precious to me. I wanted the whole world to feel like I did. You know, like when Princess Diana died…. I wanted that for my mum.” Troy laughed harshly as he swept a strand of hair from his face. “Anyway, I get what you're feeling.”

Dalton sat back and held his gaze for a long moment, almost studying him and sussing him out in a way which made Troy even more nervous. “It was sudden, your mum passing. You're angry, even now.”

“Yeah, I'm fucking angry, and yeah, it was sudden.” Troy spun away and grabbed a few bottles of ink, placing them on the table for Dalton to look at the colours.

“My dad was old, it’s sad, and I'm going to miss him like crazy, and knowing it was going to happen doesn’t dull the pain, but it makes it easier to accept. I'm not angry, I'm sad, and yes, I want the whole world to stop and share that because it makes me feel better, but your mum wasn’t old. And it wasn’t her time. Right?”

Troy blew out a controlled breath and looked up into those blue eyes. “No, it wasn’t her time. That was decided by someone else.” Troy tapped his fingernails on the table and Dalton nodded before looking down at the ink bottles. “These colours were on the picture you liked, these ones—” Troy passed him a small bottle of containing an Oxford blue and cerulean blue, the same colour as Dalton’s eyes. “These are your colours.” He motioned to Dalton’s eyes and he smiled in return. “I think they’ll work well with the petals on the Orchid.”

“I like them.”

“Yeah, blue’s my favourite colour.” Troy winked at him as he pushed off and stood up. “So, you good with all this?”

“Yeah, I'm good with it all. I can't wait to see the design you come up with.”

“Okay, let me just take some measurements from you and mark up these drawings and then I can let you go.”

Dalton watched him as he pressed the two thin tracing paper drawings back to his arms and made a few scratches and notes, being careful to note where the folds of his skin were and how his muscles curved. “You're very good.”

“Seen many tattooists, have you?” Troy smirked

“No.” Dalton chuckled. “But it’s how seriously you take your work which I like.”

“I take pride in every design I do. This is a permanent piece of art which you’ll carry forever. It’s just for you, and I work hard to make sure it fits you like your skin does now. It’s like me and you have something special together. We make beautiful ink together sort of thing.” Troy laughed as he shook his head. “I'm tired. That sounded better in my head.”

“It sounded good out of it too. I get what you mean.” Dalton sat still while Troy finished off his notes, then Troy pulled the paper from his skin and looked up. “Thanks.”

“I’m here Saturday and it will be ready for you. Might make you feel better after the shitty Friday you have to go through with. Is it a burial or cremation?”

“Burial. He’s sharing a plot with my mum.”

“Shit.” Troy swung his arm around the back of his chair and sighed. “You need to get drunk afterwards. I'm open till six and I have a bottle of the strongest, crappiest tasting booze which I brought home from Turkey last year called Raki. It will seriously make you forget the last week if you drink enough.”

Dalton grinned as he stood up. “I've had it before. I swore I'd never touch the stuff again, but… I’ll bear the offer in mind.”

“Yup, booze and lots of it, sweets. Do you the world of good.”

“Sweets,” Dalton chuckled out.

Troy stood beside him, grin on his face. “Come on. I'm starving. I have dinner alone and bed planned.”

“More than I have planned.” Dalton tried the door, finding it locked.

“Oh, sorry. Forgot.” Troy leaned past him and opened it up. “You planning on getting drunk all by yourself?”

“Maybe.” Dalton looked up to the sky and smiled. “Why, you offering me some company?”

Troy leaned against the wall and looked up at him. “Now, by company…”

Dalton ran his fingers over his shortly cropped hair and shrugged. “I mean company. I don’t know… just… I have no idea.”

“Been a while since you asked someone out on a date, huh?”

“Erm…” Dalton chewed his top lip and then nodded. “Is that what this is?” Dalton smiled wider. “I guess I didn’t even know I was doing that.”

“Well, it doesn’t have to be a date. I'm kinda not dating right now. Bad relationship after tragic relationship does that to you.”

“Yeah, I know how you feel. I'm just coming out of one too. How about we call it an evening out between new friends and leave it at that for now.”

“For now, huh?”

Dalton laughed loudly. “Yeah, for now.”

“Meaning what, Dalton? That you'd want more later?”

Dalton gave him a very deliberate look up and down, checking him out and making Troy laugh loudly. “So, you ready to go now?”

“Let me grab a new t-shirt from the back room and I'm all yours.” Troy batted his eyelashes dramatically before he jogged off and grabbed his t-shirt, pulling off the old one and spraying himself with deodorant and aftershave before he put on the new one. Blue, he noticed, just like Dalton’s eyes.

Dalton smiled when he saw him emerge from the back room. “Nice colour. Suits you.”

“Thanks.” Troy held an intense look with him and stepped back, a little breathless, so he could lock up and set the alarm. “So, where we going?”