small little tattoo!harry and bookstore y/n check in (Patreon)

did you miss them, because I sure did! if you want more check-ins from these two I'd be happy to do them! 

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i.

Harry felt like an idiot.

How could he not? It was his fault that the whole fight started and now it’d been a full eight hours since she’d last spoken to him. Which wouldn’t be odd if not for the fact that they were supposed to see one another after their shifts. When he finished up detailing the scales of the serpent he’d been inking on a man’s shoulder, and after Niall tidied up while she counted the money from the till they were meant to meet up as they usually do -- Harry was normally her ride home, if she wasn’t spending the night with him. 

But he’d gone and fucked it earlier today. Harry had been in a shit mood and Y/N had noticed almost immediately when she came in during her break, a baked good in hand and a smile on her face. She had walked in just moments after he’d found that the man he’d spent about two weeks designing a tattoo for flaked on him for a different artist without letting him know, there had been a miscommunication between one of his artist’s and the woman they were working on which lead to a teary-eyed threat of a lawsuit (the eyes were made blue instead of black, and while it was easily fixable, it would have to be a few weeks before they could go over it again and she was not a fan of that), and to top it all off, the signed copy of a book she loved that he spent a two hour drive and a three hour wait in line to get -- went missing. 

So he was in a shitty mood and she could sense it almost as soon as she stepped through the door. Her face drew into a pout, and where he would normally kiss it off her mouth, his whole day had been such shit he couldn’t find it in him to be cutesy, “Why so glum then, Pet?” 

“I’m fine,” he uttered as he washed his hands. He didn’t want to talk about it -- when he was with her, he wanted to be happy and forget about all the fucked things that had grated his nerves. Didn’t need to relive it and he sure as hell couldn’t tell her that a gift of hers was missing and the lengths he went to, to get it, because that would only make her feel bad. But Y/N was not one to let up when she thought he was upset. Where Harry was good at bottling things up and pressing them down to be unearthed in the shower as he mulled over them later, Y/N liked to take things apart slow, find the root of the problem and an answer to fix it in a ten-minute span and perhaps a good cry if necessary. 

“Sweetheart, c’mon, what happene--” 

“I said I was fucking fine!” He exploded and it tasted like acid on his tongue, spitting those words out at her. It was so unlike him but everything had just bubbled and boiled to a nasty, jagged point and it was misdirected at her -- he hated himself just as soon as she looked taken aback, but his mouth kept moving before his brain could catch up, “We don’t always have to  unpack things, sometimes people can just be pissy, and that’s alright.” 

Y/N’s face which had once been surprised, twisted up in a face that was never directed towards him, and it felt like a punch to the gut -- it hurt more than he thinks it would have if she’d just done that instead, “Okay, that was too much,” she dropped the bag containing the treat on the table beside him, “If you had a bad day, I’m sorry, but you won’t take it out on me and you will not speak to me like that. I’ll talk to you later.” 

With that she had pivoted on her heel and left the store, the only sound in her wake was the jingle of the bell strong to the door frame. Riktor eyed him from behind the desk (the other’s were out for a smoke around back, and he was endlessly grateful that hadn’t witnessed whatever that had been), but Harry only shakes his head and towels off his wet hands, “You don’t have to say it, I know I fucked up.” 

When the initial brunt of his anger had fully faded though, Harry felt terrible. They had never really gotten in an argument before, so Harry wasn’t really sure how to approach it. He knew that Y/N was a no-bullshit type of person and all that was necessary to do was to go and apologize. However, what if he had pissed her off beyond an apology? What if he went over and Niall sent him off because she didn’t even want to see him? 

Things were always easy with Y/N -- way easier than Harry had known any other relationship to be, which is what makes this so hard. He’s seen Y/N mad but that anger was not necessarily directed at him, so to be on the receiving end, and for it to be solely his fault? He wanted to crawl from his skin. 

By the time it hit nine, Harry was half expecting Niall to message him and tell him that he was taking Y/N home instead. Though he never received that message, he did get a wht did you do? two hours prior to close that makes him wonder how Y/N must be acting. Was she in a noticeably poor mood? Had he ruined her day? Hell, he’s so worried about it that he wouldn’t have realized she’d walked into the shop if not for Riktor greeting -- he never greeted, he mostly just grunted and gave a small nod, but with Y/N he verbalized it and told her a bit about a recipe he’d been trying. Y/N didn’t sound all too upset when she responded to him but Harry was still tense as he turned around to face her. When she looked towards him, her face was slightly reserved, like she was being cautious of him to some extent, and he felt his heart shatter in response to it. 

When she finishes speaking with Riktor, Harry notices that she has another white baggy in her hand with the bakery’s logo imprinted on the paper in pink. A tiny, awkward little smile pulls at her mouth as she looks at him, “Are you feeling less -- arrrgh?” 

He frowns deeply in an exaggerated way, nodding his head as he opens up his arms, “I’m so sorry, baby, I just -- it was such a shit day,” he curls around her when she steps closer, pressing her tight and swinging her back and forth, “But I should have never spoken to you like that, and if you wanna clobber me, you could! Anything, honestly, I felt like shite as soon as it happened and I’m just a -- I’m the worst.” 

She squeezes him back as she swats at his bum, before she tips her chin up and onto his chest, “You’re not the worst, Babe, just a grumpy lug, hm?” He smiles unsurely at her but she then pats a tune on his bum again, “What had you so pissy then?” 

Y/N reaches up, taking the top of his beanie and pulling it up and off of him before rustling her fingers through his hair, “I just. . .it was a fucked day, wasn’t it? Y’know the back mural client? They flaked on me out after all the work we’d done on it, and this woman was upset with her tattoo after Don finished it,” he sucks at his teeth and she’s nodding, playing with the fine hairs at the nape of his neck, “And I lost something, which is shit.” 

Her eyes lighten at that, “Oh! Would it happen to be a wrapped box kinda thing?” She asks sliding one arm from around him before dipping her hand into her bag, revealing the delicately wrapped pink package that Harry had given himself a paper cut wrapping it, “Cos I reckon, I can fix that one! You left this on the opposite side of the counter this morning. Ni found it earlier today and -- oh!” Harry couldn’t help but squeeze her even tighter before he moves his hands to her cheeks, tipping her up before he pecks sweet kisses all over her face, and she squints her eyes and tries to shrug away from him, “Jeez, I know m’the best, but lemme hand it to you! Was it someone’s  birthday today?” 

“God, you’re so wonderfully oblivious, Sweetheart it’s yours!” He presses a firm kiss to her forehead, “This is for you!” 

“Oh,” her brows raise, “For what? Did I do something?” 

“I just love you is all,” he murmurs, but then he thinks better than to have her open it now -- he wanted her to open it later when it was just the two of them, and as much as he loved Riktor, he really didn’t want to share the moment with him that much. So he plucks it from her hand and smacks a kiss to her mouth, “Will you still have me tonight? Even though I was the devil?” 

“Hmmmmmm, I guess,” she teases, “You’re lucky I like you so much.” 

Harry revels in the warmth of her -- he is lucky.