Title: Black and Silver Bullets
Author: rot_chan
Pairing: Pein/Konan (PeiKo)
Rating: K/T
Setting: basic AU
Summary: Konan wants to have it - labret, the piercing. Because she saw the piercing on the model in an indie zine in the drugstore, and was mesmerized by the silver ball. And Pein is her piercer. Notorious for his celtic-dragon tattoos.

Notes: It's not a romantic fic, really...but I was curious as to when and how Konan got her labret ring, so I decided to write an AU-fic about it. And of course Pein is her piercer. ;) Comments =

Black and Silver Bullets

They meet at the tattoo parlor, in December, when she cuts class.

He's working as one of the extras that day - the Backup Artist, whose notorious for his celtic knots and dragons. Though there has been a few names Pein has done, in calligraphic script, all circled in swirls and hearts, but this was rare.

She wants to have it - labret, the piercing that tempts her, rolls on her tongue, that makes Konan skip. Because she saw the piercing on the girl in the ad in an indie zine standing in the drugstore, and got mesmerized by the silver ball peeking out beneath a coy smile. Because she wanted that coy (beautiful) smile.

When Konan sees the piercings on his face, she's drawn in - the industrial bar, the studs in his ears, the bullets on his noise, the snake bites - a tantalizing allure.

"What would you like to do today?" 'Pein', as the name tag reads, asks her.

Konan swallows hard. But she's certain that if he has so many in so many places she can surely get one. "A...labret. Piercing."

"Right," he nods, and she smiles - but her head is almost dizzy, and her arms feel impossibly light.

But she's eighteen now; and no, she doesn't need a parent/guardian signature, and yes, she understands how the process works (because Konan has tortured herself by watching videos on line of how the piercing process is done) and...maybe, she is ready.

At this, Pein sort of laughs - a deep throaty noise that chills her. Or maybe it's going into the sterile room with the harsh flourescent lights, the clean instruments and table lined with white, that does it.

"Yeah, you'll be all right." Pein leads her to the chair to sit, to lay back - it reclines - and Konan is somehow convinced that if Pein has said this so casually - you'll be all right - she can be. (Can't she?)

Yet her heart skips despite her resolve. Konan's hands are unsteady; so Konan sits on them. Her school uniform is painfully out of place here. Outside the door she hears the discomforting buzz of the tattoo needle slowly dancing across skin.

"Make sure to breathe," Pein tells her. "I don't want you fainting on me." This is a good point. A good point. A logical point, Konan turns this over in her mind, so she does breathe, forces herself to breathe despite how awkward it feels; tries to clear the tangle of thoughts, to extinguish the ball of nerves settling in her stomach like lead.

She's a schoolgirl/Senior girl, just turned eighteen, wants to be someone else, not that girl who could be Salutatorian; no, Konan is certain, she doesn't care if her father murders her for this, if that girl disappears, because this is what she wants (needs) to do.

So Konan settles on Pein's piercings, the many rings and studs, as he explains the process to her, as if she already does not know every single agonizing step, and sterilzes everything, puts on the latex-free gloves. He smiles at her, sort of; this almost-grin thrown her way. So she focuses on the bar in his ear, onyx, that gleams.

And then, a few moments later, as she lies back, the needle comes - and Pein counts down for her, because he says this is standard, what he has to do - "...4, 3, 2 -"

And suddenly it's there: the unrecognizable (exhilarating), torturous pain, this awful (amazing) feeling settling first in Konan's lip, then in her face - then exploding throughout her entire body, electrifying her nerves, singing her veins.

The world tilts - but Pein's voice is there, and Konan's eyes search in an almost-haze for him, those studs and rings, pitch black, in his ears/nose/lip/face, to know this is all real - he's slipped the needle through, it really happened, thather mind hasn't tricked itself -

"I'm putting in the ring now," Pein says quietly, almost softly, and she does not cringe when the intrusive instrument, the object in her face shifts, then is gone, the silver bullet in its place.

Konan breathes - but then she's breathless and smiling and it hurts like hell. And Pein has something in his voice that expression can't convey - "congratulations," he murmurs, and lifts her up from the table - it's something she somehow loves.

And Konan's head spins again when she's led to look in the mirror - and she sees herself, and thinks, Is it truly me standing here? Beside him, matching, all swollen skin and hazy (beautiful) eyes and slightly smudged make-up. A match. He grins.

She's hooked.