All The Small Things

139

[Jacob POV]

We had a while to busy ourselves while my tattoo artist, Vic, sketched my design. I seriously couldn't think of anything to do that was both indoors and was something we could leave pretty quickly whenever Vic sent the message that he was done. So we just went to a store to look around to look around. I knew I needed to buy ear plugs for when Luca got overwhelmed, but that was the only thing I had in mind. I pulled into the parking lot and let him out, only telling him what I was looking for after he asked.
"For when it loud?" He asked, only further convincing me he was little.
"Mhm," I agreed, guiding him through the store next to me. At some point, we passed kid's things. Not just baby, but also just young kids. There was a glow in the dark blanket that was dark blue and had stars on it, almost like the sticky ones you could put on your walls and ceiling. The stars were what glowed. He stopped in his tracks and looked at it, in turn making me stop walking too.

I asked if he liked it before deciding to just buy it for him. It was like $12 or something, and I could tell he loved it. The only condition was that he had to carry it the entire time we were in the store, though. I paid, watched Luca stim to himself as I handed him his blanket, and waited in the truck for a few minutes until Vic texted me. He said he'd still be totally fine editing the sketch, but that he had the sketch done and we could come back in.
"While we're there, you can take a nap in the truck?" I offered Luca as I stopped in front of the tattoo parlor. I saw his hesitancy after I asked, but I figured he wouldn't wanna sit next to me doing nothing for a few hours.
"What are you iffy about, baby?" I asked, taking a hold of his hand.
"Want you," He pouted, lowering his voice.
"If you're in there with me, I can't hold you. It's probably gonna bore you," I said, trying to be honest and not sound like an asshole.

He agreed to just stay in the car and asked me to help open his blanket.
"Dady open? Help open?" Is how he asked. I took his card in with me since the other day during the car ride to my mom's, he insisted he pay for it since it was a present. I went in, met Vic again, went back to where he actually tattoed, and saw the design.
"Oh shit, that looks really good," I commented, making him proudly smile.
"You wanna change anything?" He asked.
"Nah, it's great," I decided, shaking my head.
"Alright. Sit up here, and I can start working on ya," He said, gesturing to a chair sorta like one at a dentist's office and started getting everything set up. The ink, the machine, the needles, the sketch, etc. All that stuff. He printed out and transferred the design onto my right arm, where we had agreed on, before letting me see it in the mirror. I confirmed it was in the right spot and let him get to it. There wasn't much conversation, but when there was, it was when he had to change needles or something. Never when he was actively putting ink to skin. I assumed it was so he could concentrate better.

I just powered through it. Obviously, it hurt, but I could sit still through it. And sometimes, after you take a break halfway through, it hurts worse when you start again. It didn't take too long. Just a couple of hours. When we finally finished, he put it in Saniderm and everything and gave me brief instructions on how to care for it. Leave the Saniderm on for a while, wash with warm water, and soap after, put Vaseline or something similar on it when it dies out too much, and chose t-shirts over long sleeves as much as I could until it was done. The usual stuff. I paid with Luca's card, got a receit, thanked them, and went out to my truck. I opened the driver side door and noticed my fiance was still up.
"Did you sleep at all, baby?" I asked, getting in and shutting the door. He sort of shrugged as I dug for the keys.
"I mean, that's a yes or no question," I pointed out.

"Just a little..." He mumbled, trying to warm up.
"You could've turned the heat on, Bubba," I sighed, turning both the car and the heat on. I saw his lip quiver and tears form in his eyes, but he tried to rub them away.
"Aw, baby," I whispered. I wasn't upset at him over it, I meant what I said as more of a 'you could've if you wanted to'. I couldn't really do anything to comfort him in the truck cause my right arm hurt and I needed my left one to do the majority of operating my vehicle.

I pulled up to the apartments and let him out of the truck, helping him carry his blanket inside. After I got unsude the apartment, but before I sat down, I grabbed his sippy cup and filled it with half water and half juice for him. I'm sure he's thirsty, and he whines at me over just water.
"Come here, baby. My little baby," I cooed at him after sitting down on the couch. He sniffled and climbed into my lap, putting himself as close to me as possible.
"Juice?!" He excitedly asked after seeing his sippy cup.
"Mhm," I agreed, handing him the cup. He chewed on the straw part whenever he got distracted by something else. He continued to cling onto me until he started getting drowsy. When he was getting sleepy, right before he fell asleep, he started biting on my shoulder and up close to my neck. I didn't mind until hours later when I realized it bruised me.