X-Files Fanfic Challenge 1: Hiding the Past

Based on A Subtle Affair by Mia Jones

“Can you cover scars?”

“Sure, we can cover scars. But the skin’s a lot more sensitive. It’s gonna hurt.”

“I’m prepared for that. How much will it cost?”

“I’ll have to see the scars before I can give you a quote.”

He turned his back to the artist and pulled off his shirt, “You come highly recommended.”

The artist didn’t respond for a long time. Finally, he spoke carefully, “About three thousand.”

“Do you take cash?” Alex pulled his wallet from his back pocket, and turned to face the burly artist.

The artist nodded, “$500 for the first session.” Money changed hands, Alex sat backwards on a chair facing the entrance to the small room, and the artist took his fine-tipped marker in his hand, “What do you want it to look like?”

He was surprised by the question. He’d seized on this idea as quickly as it had come to him, with no thought as to the what. He took a deep breath, made a quick decision, and told the artist what he wanted.

“That’s a lot of detail. Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“We’ll start with the outlines, and use those to cover the scars. Most of the scars. Once the outlines heal for a few days, we’ll come back through and do the shading.”

He felt the marker tip brush firmly against his sensitive skin, and took a deep breath before answering. “I’m getting married on the 20th of December.”

“Then we won’t want to do any work after the 10th, at the very latest. What made you decide to do this?”

“I don’t want my future wife to have to see these scars all the time.”

“She’s seen them before?” the artist asked.

Alex reminded himself that the man was making conversation, to put him at ease. He forced himself to answer, “She has. It seems to bother her. Not that I have them. It seems to bother her that I got them.”

“What’s she like?”

“She’s magnificent. Sharp as a tack, and more beautiful than any woman has a right to be.”

“She must be really something.”

“She is.”

The artist concentrated on the artwork, and showed Alex the reflection of the sketch in a mirror. The sight of the smooth burned skin turned his stomach as the memories of pain and the cold man who had dispensed it. He fought to look at the sketch that covered his back, rather than the skin beneath it, and he smiled a little, “It’s perfect.”

“Good. I’ll get my equipment ready, and we’ll start.”

Work had consumed them, and Marita had been out of the country most of the time before the wedding.

The morning after their marriage, she saw a hint of the brightly colored ink that peeked out from beneath the sheets. She peeled back the sheets gingerly, “Alex, what have you done to yourself? It’s so…distinctive.”

“Thinking it’s going to be hard for me to hide?” he mumbled, half asleep. “It makes me no more distinct than the scars beneath.”

She laughed, a sound that he longed to hear more often, “Only you, Alex, would get such a tattoo.”

He opened his eyes to see her smiling. Laughing, a little, even. She pulled the sheets back from his body so she could see the whole thing easily, and straddled his lower back. The feel of the warm moisture against him made him smile for an entirely different reason. “You like it?”

She traced the lines of the grey clouds in the sky on his back. Her fingertips gently outlined the UFO represented there. The green pine forest below received equal attention, “I don’t know what to tell you, Alex. I guess I do.”

He lay relaxed as he massaged his shoulders, rubbing her fingers down the length of his back. They both knew what the ink covered, but it made things a little less awkward.

Step 1. Serve
Step 2. Resist from Within