Long Live. // Luke Hemmings 5SOS (Vampire)

Chapter 10 - Her Skin

Photo above is an original design and drawing by me. Enjoy the chapter :)

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Luke's eyes hadn't left her yet - not even when the bartender came and took their drink orders. Looking away didn't feel like an option; he felt like he had to take note of every detail of her appearance and savour them. He didn't even notice the bartender leaving, but of course he noticed Rosemary's eyes turning back to look into his.

After receiving their drinks, Luke found himself admiring the tattoos adoring Rosemary's arms and chest. They'd been hidden from him on the night they met, covered by her oversized clothing - completely different to the revealing outfit she wore now...

"Can I get a closer look at your tattoos?" Luke impulsively asked as he lowered his drink onto the bar.

"Depends on which ones." Rosemary quipped, making Luke furrow his eyebrows for a moment. "I'd need a few more drinks before I showed you some of the tattoos I have." She pursed her lips, and Lukes eyebrows shot up in realisation.

"Oh-"

"This is one of my favourites, though." She intentionally interrupted whilst pointing to a tattoo on her upper arm, completely aware of the thought that she'd just planted in his head. Her smug smile told him that.
Biting the inside of his lip, he cocked his head at her slightly before reaching out and gently grasping her left forearm so he could get a better look at the tattoo in question.

Through the fishnet shirt he could see an illustration of two side by side cards with the image of a wine glass on each, one upside down and slightly lower than the other. Red wine filled the upright glass to the brim, and the lower glass had a visible crack.

"It's beautiful... Does it represent something?" Luke asked, glancing up into her eyes to see that she was also looking at her own tattoo.

"It's my interpretation of the ace of cups in tarot. There's plenty reasons that card resonates with me, and there's so many ways for other people to interpret it, like... having the card upright," she pointed to the upright depiction on her arm, "can symbolise things like love, creativity and birth. And that, to me, means starting all over again and finding new ways to love life."

Luke was mesmerised by her explanation. "And the upside down glass?" He asked.

"So that's kind of harder to explain for me." She cleared her throat and took a sip of her drink. "The reversed ace of cups is a bit more introspective. It's all about self-love, connection to the subconscious, intuition, stuff like that. All of that is important, or at least relevant, to me. There's more to it, some deeper stuff, but that'll be for another time." She chuckled dismissively, but Luke could see she meant it.

He glanced up at her sincerely - curiously, wanting to know more. Wanting to know her. The more she spoke, the more he was drawn in. She continued to speak, and he gladly listened.

"What I like about this one, too, is that I didn't put any writing in the design like you'd see on most tarot cards. So really, depending on what perspective you look at it from, either cup could be the reverse of the other. I just think that's cool." She shrugged with a smile, looking down at her angled arm and admiring the ink.

"...You designed this?" Luke came to ask, looking solemnly into her eyes.

"I did. I designed most of my tattoos, actually." She averted her eyes slightly, and for the first time Luke thought that Rosemary looked somewhat bashful... How unusual for her.

"That's incredible. They all look incredible." He breathed out, coming to realise that his hand had slid away from gently grasping her forearm to brushing over the top of her hand. Then, he noticed a rather small tattoo on the side of her wrist. "What's this one?" He asked, sliding his hand beneath hers and carefully holding it up.