Inked [1x1]

Otto decided not to call at his break. It would probably look bad, if he called at the same time twice in a row. So, he waited until his lunch break, and somehow, he managed to forget about it when his lunch break actually came. Unfortunately, by the time his lunch hour actually came, he'd forgotten about it.

There was only five minutes left when he realised. There was a dramatic gasp and he very quickly jumped out of the game of Snake he was playing. He called as quickly as he could, wanting to use the five minutes as best as they could for the conversation.
 
She called her dad as soon as she got home; her father had been pleased and had offered to go out to dinner that night to celebrate. Laila had politely declined as nothing was a guarantee, yet, and perhaps when she had a solid offer she would take him up on the offer.

She hung up and prepared to begin writing when the phone rang again. "Hello," she answered, pleasantly. Perhaps there was a part of that hoped that Otto would call again today but she knew he was busy and she'd monopolized much of his time last night so didn't hold her breath.
 
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Otto smiled, thankful that she'd answered on pretty much the first ring. "Hey! It's Otto again," he said, then realising how weird it sounded to talk about himself in the third person. He decided not to acknowledge it. "I hope I'm not bugging you, or anything," he said.
 
Her voice was shy when she realized it was him calling again. Two days in a row. She was beaming. "Hey, Otto." She considered telling him the news and then opted not. What if nothing came of it? "No, you're fine. I've just been home a few minutes." Laila cleared her throat, "How's work?"
 
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Otto groaned a little. "Honestly, it's really, really boring. Like...'I wish I could just leave' kind of boring." He sighed and shook his head, even though he knew Laila couldn't see it. "Nobody's coming in for any inkings today, and not many people are coming in for consultations, either."
 
"Slow day," She sympathized. "What do you do at the shop when there aren't any customers?"
 
Otto huffed. "We sit around and wait for more customers," he mumbled. "I mean, we're meant to practice inking, or practice designing, but you can only really do that for so long, and I've gotten my limit today."
 
She grinned, finding his mild irritation amusing. "You can't... read a book or something, you just have to sit and twiddle your thumbs until someone enters?" A thought was forming in her mind, then. "How much longer do you have at work?"
 
Otto sighed. "Not really. If the boss sees us slacking off he's allowed to tell us off pretty badly. We can only really use any sort of stuff like that on our breaks," he said. He looked at his watch and counted up in his head. "Five hours, I think?"
 
She let out a low whistle, "You've got a long day ahead of you, Otto." Her tone was teasing as her plan continued to formulate. "Should I be letting you get back to work?"
 
Otto laughed and rolled his eyes. "Just because you get to decide when you work," he said with a sigh. He glanced at his watch again. "There's not much work to it, but I'll let you get back to your stuff," he said.
 
She huffed, though not really taking offense. "I have deadlines to meet, yanno." She teased. "I will talk to you later." She smiled as she hung up the phone and then, got to work.

It did not take much to figure out where Otto worked; she had caller ID and simply had to look up the different ink shops and find the one that matched the number he'd called from. She had to hurry and get changed and touch up the ink on her wrists if she wanted to make the next bus in time. Would it be too much if she showed up at his work or would that be too much? Keys clutched in hand, Laila stood staring at her front door.

For whatever reason she did not want to do anything that would jeopardize the blooming friendship and potential relationship that she felt with Otto. She had just seen him yesterday, after all.

The blonde moved forward deciding that if they had customers she would leave, but if it was still empty when she arrived at the shop, then she would go in.

The bus ride was not nearly as long as the one this morning and too soon Laila stood outside the ink shop that Otto worked at. There were only a few cars in the parking lot and she recognized his, parked near the front. Letting out a nervous sigh, Laila walked in.

She didn't see Otto right away, and instead, a very eager inker approached her, "Good afternoon!" It must have been a slow day, after all.

Laila smiled, "Afternoon,"

"Are you here for a consult?"

Shifting nervously, Laila nodded. "Um, yes, but I don't have an appointment,"

"That's alright, sugar, let's get you set up."

"Uh, actually," Again, she hesitated, "I have a friend who got her ink done from Otto and I was hoping I could do my consultation with him?" The light dimmed in the inker a little but she nodded and disappeared to go get her coworker.
 
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Otto laughed, and listened as the phone on the other line hung up. He sighed and shoved the phone into the pocket of his tunic. Normally he would have gone back out to the front, but he knew that nobody was there. So, he stayed in the staff room and spent the next while in a trance, practicing designing like he should have been ages ago.

His colleague had to literally pull one of the earplugs out of his ear. "There's a girl looking for a consultation, Ott'," she said, placing the earplug back on the table.
Otto raised an eyebrow, taking the other earplug out of his ear as he stood up. "Aren't you wanting to take it?" He offered.
The girl shook her head. "She asked for you, specifically," she said, taking his seat, "said a friend recommended her, or something like that."
"Oh?" Both of his eyebrows raised now. "Okay then." He dusted off his tunic, picked up his work notebook and walked into the front, his customer-service smile on.

He paused when he saw Laila, and a real smile quickly replaced his fake one. He chuckled as he walked over. "Am I just so irresistible?" He teased.
 
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes because she had been the one to seek him out. "Maybe I'm just here for some ink?" She grinned at him, "Or maybe I thought you could use some entertainment."

She would not give him the satisfaction of admitting that she also just wanted to see him again.
 
Otto smirked, one eyebrow raised. He glanced over his shoulder, towards where most of the staff were sitting. "If you are here for a consultation, then we should get you through to the room, at least," he said, pointing towards a door with a sign reading 'Consultation Room' on it. He walked over and opened it, gesturing for Laila to go through. "After you?"
 
God she hoped he knew that she wasn't serious about actually getting inked. She'd told him she was waiting for something important, after all, but maybe he thought something Big had happened. Swallowing nervously Laila followed him into the consultation room, eyeing the area for a second before entering. "So this is where the magic happens?" She laughed at herself.
 
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Otto closed the door behind him. He looked around the mostly empty room - the only thing that was really in it was a table and two chairs, along with a skylight and some plants on some shelves. He snorted. "I guess," he said with a laugh. He pulled out one of the chairs and sat himself down, opening up the notebook to an empty page. "Now, I'm guess you don't actually want some ink," he said, leaning back. "You said before that you were waiting for something big, and you would have told me if something big happened."
 
She took the proffered seat and chuckled, "No. I just took pity on you. You sounded absolutely miserable on the phone and I had some free time. I thought I'd come bother you, see where you work. You've seen my office after all," She laughed at the idea that her modest living room could be considered an office but it's where she did all of her writing.

She grew shy, then, "I hope you don't mind."
 
Otto laughed. "You don't need to pity me," he said, hands on the table. He glanced around the room. "Yours is better, I think. That's the only thing about inking. Things need to be kept pretty bland so that we don't have any sort of outside stimulation." He put air quotes around 'outside stimulation' and rolled his eyes.
 
She bit her lip. She had plenty of opinions on the matter of inking and she wanted to express them, she always wanted to express them, but it would never bring her any good if she opened her mouth. She made a noncommittal sound as she looked at the sparsely decorated room, "Wouldn't want something else influencing the ink." She grinned at him, lightly.

"Anyway, I just thought I could give you an excuse to have some company for," she glanced at her wrist which did not actually have a watch, "however long a consultation generally takes." If Otto has been paying any close attention to the ink on her wrists, he might notice that it's not as centered as it normally is... or perhaps that's just a trick of the light.
 
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