Chapter Thirty-Two • Ouch • Damien
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Is it weird to find your girlfriend adorable while she’s panicking about getting two hollow needles shoved through her tongue?
Rhetorical question. Of course it’s not normal.
No, I am not the kind of sadist that actually enjoys watching people they love experience pain.
But, fuck. Her “fuck-me” shoes (as Wren called them) are hanging off the end of the piercing chair, swinging nervously while she crushes my hand in hers with the strength of a professional arm wrestler, and Kim marks up her tongue for placement. It’s fucking cute. I don’t know.
“You can still change your mind, baby,” I tell her through a warm chuckle.
“Nn-nn,” she protests while her tongue is still out.
Kim chuckles under her breath. She’s a pretty normal looking gal if not for the huge swathes of koi tattoos all over her arms and legs that disappear beneath her tank top and denim shorts. “You guys are cute,” she says.
“Hank hoo,” Lillith says, having to shave some sounds off her gratitude thanks to her tongue being pinched between Kim’s fingers.
I already got my piercing. I let Lillith pick it, and she went for snake bites to go with my labret, which led to a hilarious discussion about her longstanding desire to kiss, according to her, “literally any emo boy” who had them, and her never actually getting to do it.
I went first, and she held my hand—though I think she needed the contact more than I did.
Kim, frankly, is a pro. She’s fast and experienced; I barely felt it. I’m sure she’ll do a quick job of Lillith’s piercings too.
Kim finishes marking Lillith’s tongue and hands her a mirror. “Check that you like that placement?”
Lillith nods and looks at the mirror, turning her head this way and that. She wanted them placed relatively close together and picked out some cute bars with smaller balls on the ends of them. She takes in a deep breath and nods, handing the mirror back to Kim.
“Great, I’ll get everything set up,” she says as she sets the hand mirror down.
Lillith meets my eyes, and hers are wide as saucers as she exhales a tight breath. “Okay,” she warbles as she somehow squeezes my hand even harder.
“Alright. How can I help, baby?” I ask.
“Uhm... I don’t know. I’m really kind of freaking out.”
“Want me to tell you what to expect?” I ask.
“S-sure,” she says.
“Alright, so. She’s going to use a clamp—basically some fancy surgical forceps with a hole in the middle. That part is gonna suck a little, ‘cause it keeps your tongue flat and prevents you from retracting it when it hurts. Makes sure the needle goes in nice and straight, right where she wants it.”
I see Lillith’s eyes go to the tray as Kim sets two hollow needles down on a sanitary maintenance area. I cup my hand on that side of her face. “Look at me, baby. You’re all good. I’m here to take care of you. You know you can still back out, right?”
“I want the piercing,” she says.
“Yeah, so we’re gonna do this together, alright?” I promise her, my lower lip aching a bit when I grin. “Kim’s quick. Remember how fast she did the snake bites? I barely even felt it.”
She nods. “What happens if I can’t do both? What if I faint, or seize?”
“Then I’ll make sure you’re safe and if you have to take the piercing out, that’s fine,” I reassure her.
“You’ll do uhhh—you’ll heal nice and easy.
The mouth is one of the fastest healing places in the body.
” That was close. I almost blurted out that she’d heal herself after she woke up.
“How are you feeling right now? Any auras?”
“No, I don’t think so,” she says. “My heart is pounding, though.”
I use my thumb to draw a soothing path between the edge of her cheekbone and her ear. “Deep breath with me, alright?”
I coach her through some deep breathing, and by the time Kim is done setting up, the pulse that was pounding against my pinky finger has slowed just a bit.
“Alright kids, ready?” Kim asks, despite being younger than both of us, I’m pretty sure.
Lillith nods and gets the most adorable look of determination on her face. I drop my hand from her cheek and her determination immediately vanishes.
“Wait, where are you going?” she asks.
“I’m still right here. I can’t hold your face while you’re getting pierced, baby,” I say through a laugh. “You’ve got my hand.”
She reaches for my free one, too. I laugh as I kneel beside the chair, holding both her hands as effectively as I can without changing her position. Kim approaches, her clamp in one hand and the needle in the other.
Lillith sticks her tongue out again, taking a deep breath in through her nose as Kim lines up the clamp with the first marking. “Alright, do you want a count down?” Kim asks.
Lillith shakes her head, and then immediately gasps, realizing she’s not supposed to move. Kim laughs. “You’re good, I’ve got a good grip on you.”
All the same, she checks the line up again, holds down hard on the forceps and then just like that, slips the hollow needle through her tongue. It’s another smooth movement to drop the forceps on the tray and twist the ball onto the first piercing.
“Alright, there’s one done,” Kim says.
“WhaH?” Lillith says around her tongue.
“See? I told you. She’s really good,” I say.
Kim makes a little self-congratulatory face as she slips out the piercing needle and goes to set up the next piercing. Then it’s just rinse, repeat. Though the second piercing must hurt more than the first, because Lillith does make a little whimper when it goes through.
“Sorry, honey, second one usually sucks a little more because the swelling is already starting,” Kim says apologetically as she twists on the second bar’s ball. “But the good news is you’re already done!”
Kim hands Lillith the mirror again and I watch as my girlfriend gives them a look, her cute li’l tongue seated behind her perfect teeth.
Her eyes are almost glittering when she beams down at me.
“Oh my god, they’re so cute,” she says with an adorable lisp that makes me wish she couldn’t heal herself in the blink of an eye, because I think I dig the lisp.
“They’re very cute,” I say, standing up to my full height and kissing her on her temple. “How do you feel?”
“Fine! Kim, you’re insanely good at what you do,” Lillith says. “Thank you so much.”
I wonder if I can get her to say “she sells sea shells by the sea shore,” before she heals herself. Kim smiles with quiet pride and thanks her.
I pay Kim for our piercings and give her a generous tip, promising to be back for some work with her again before I leave town.
Kim gives us both some aftercare instructions, and it feels weird to know I can disregard them.
Lillith is buzzing with joy as we walk out of the parlor, holding my hand and practically skipping the short walk back to the car.
A little bit of adrenaline from the piercing, I’m sure.
When we’re back inside the car, Lillith waits until I pull away from the curb to pull down the visor mirror and peer at her piercing.
“Can I borrow you at the next red light?” she asks.
“Borrow? For what?”
“A really good kiss?” she asks. “Going to use the energy from it for the healing process.”
“Safe to say you never have to ask me if I’ll kiss you. For any reason. Including ritual purposes.”
She scoffs softly. “It’s not a ritual,” she teases. “Just a little bit of small magic, that’s all.”
“I’m just saying. If you need someone to lie down in the middle of a summoning circle while you do spooky shit to them, I’m one hundred percent game for that.”
“Duly noted,” she says with another laugh. “That’s the second time you’ve offered. I’m starting to think you want it more than I do.”
As I drive, I swear I hit every green light in Del Lune. It’s never red when you want it to be, damn it. Finally, when we’re almost at our next destination, I get one. Well—almost. I stop suspiciously hard at a yellow light.
I lean over toward her and she smiles with just the slightest bit of mischief.
She kisses my piercings first. A soft press of her lips over each aching wound that makes my neck break out in goosebumps.
There’s the faintest little tingle, and then the ache is gone, along with the redness that had started blooming around the new lip rings.
“Shit, I don’t think that will ever get old,” I say checking the mirror to see the piercings fully healed and calm.
“Healing magic?” she asks.
“All of it,” I say. “I wish I knew how to do some.”
“Do you really want to learn?” she asks as I continue driving. “You do have some of my power now, remember? I can teach you some smaller workings.”
“Really?” I ask. “Like what?”
“Want to learn some love magic?” she asks. “It can be helpful for shows—maybe make audience members more likely to post about seeing you guys play? Sort of like a glamour, but not?”
“Sure,” I say. “Sounds sick.”
“Cool,” she says. “When we have some downtime later, we’ll have a lesson.”
I stop myself from asking if we can have downtime now as I pull into the parking lot for our next destination.
It’s a restaurant—specifically, a tofu house Lillith has been missing.
I can tell by the surprise in her expression that she doesn’t remember mentioning it to me, because she looks at me with shock.
“Oh my gods, I LOVE this place,” she says.
It’s not very fancy. Honestly, it sits sandwiched between a dry cleaner and a dental office. We’re wildly overdressed for this place, but that’s okay, because the surprise I have for her inside will be more than worth it.
“I know,” I say, parking the car and sliding out of the seat. She stays put in the passenger seat, just like I trained her, and I smile as I open the car door and offer her my hand. “I know we’re kind of overdressed for this place. But I wanted to get you something you were craving.”
“I’m going to give you amazing head later,” she says.
I inhale tightly as I close the passenger door and draw her against my side. “You’re making it very hard for me to keep you out of the house,” I say.