Chapter Text
Beatrice frowned and looked up at the clock nervously, tapping her foot, her fingers against her leg, tapping, tapping, tapping.
Her mom looked up and smiled sympathetically. “You okay?” She finally asked.
“Mum,” Beatrice said slowly, “what do I do if I get a tattoo and…”
“And you don’t… want the person to see?” her mom tried to answer.
“No!” Beatrice sighed. “I guess health class just… It was really confusing. I don’t really understand why you have to get other people’s tattoos on your bodies when you fall in love or whatever. It doesn’t make sense.”
“A lot of things in this world don’t make sense, Beatrice.” Hermione smiled. “A lot of things.”
Beatrice sighed. “Can you tell me about them?”
“Again?”
Beatrice nodded.
Hermione pulled her shirt sleeve down and began weaving words together to tell her story again. “This tattoo belonged to a boy named Erik. He was an asshole.”
Beatrice giggled and leaned back, determined to enjoy the story, fighting to keep her mind from wandering, from wanting to know who would bear the mark of Beatrice Duke, whose marks she would wear on her body proudly, whose she would ignore forever…
---
“Did you get a tattoo yet?” Hero asked dreamily, lying on the grass, staring up at the clouds.
Beatrice nodded slowly. “Yeah…”
“Who? What’s it like? I heard it sometimes hurts.” Hero glanced at her cousin curiously.
“A girl named Ali,” Bea said, hoping she sounded flippant. “It was just a crush. And it didn’t hurt, not for me.”
Hero was quiet for a few minutes.
“Can I see it?”
Beatrice pulled her shirt up slightly to expose the top of her hip.
Hero’s eyes went wide as she stared at the tattoo of a fairy inside a rose. “That’s beautiful,” she whispered. “I can see why you fell in love.”
“It wasn’t love,” Beatrice emphatically denied. “I think these work for crushes as well.”
“They can’t,” Hero said before falling silent.
“Hero? Hero,” Beatrice said, smiling wickedly, “tell me about him.”
Hero shook her head. “Can we not?”
---
Pedro Donaldson had her tattoo.
Beatrice knew that she wasn’t supposed to think those words, those were bad words, but Pedro Donaldson had her tattoo.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
She sighed and avoided Pedro whenever she had the chance. Now, he would bear the mark of Beatrice Duke for the rest of his life, and she would never be able to forget, because it was on the underside of his arm, for all the world to see.
Pedro called her name and she froze before turning around. “Pedro!” she exclaimed, smiling brightly. “Who’s this?”
“Ben,” Pedro said by way of explanation. “He just moved here from England, but he’s pretty cool. You’re pretty cool.”
Ben grinned. “Beatrice. I’ve heard much about you. Your tattoo is pretty rockin’, as well.”
Pedro rolled his eyes and Beatrice caught a slight blush. “Shut up, Ben.”
Ben just waggled his eyebrows. “Really, though. I like your tattoo. Says a lot about you.”
Beatrice’s eyes flew to where the corner of her tattoo was peeking out from under Pedro’s arm, a heart surrounded by a chain. “Thanks,” she said dryly.
“Do you want to come to the game later?” Pedro asked. “I just got voted into leadership, so…”
Beatrice tried not to sigh. “Sure, Pedro, I’d like that.” She smiled. “Maybe I’ll bring Hero.”
“Maybe you will.” Pedro smiled before dragging Ben away.
---
Beatrice’s heart sank as she saw her cousin’s shatter into a million pieces. She wanted to shake Claudio herself, scream at him, tell him just what kind of a person he was. But she couldn’t. She was here, for Hero.
Hero was crying, staring at the tattoo on the top of her wrist, a symbol of Claudio that was visible forever, stuck to her body. She rubbed it, once, twice, still crying, desperately trying to get rid of the example of her first love.
Ursula came up behind Beatrice. “Can I do anything?” she asked quietly.
Beatrice shook her head. “No. Thanks, Ursula.” She spontaneously hugged the girl. “You’re such a good friend to Hero. I wish I had noticed earlier, you know?”
Ursula shrugged modestly. “I guess I have ulterior motives,” she whispered.
“What… what do you mean?” Beatrice asked cautiously.
Ursula sighed. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No, go on, tell me,” Beatrice prompted her.
Ursula stared at Beatrice before bending over and taking off her shoe. There, on the top of her foot, was the unmistakable mark of Hero: a superhero mask over the sun. “I wish it had never appeared,” Ursula admitted. “First one.”
Beatrice hugged her again.
“Please don’t tell,” Ursula whispered.
Bea wasn’t sure if she was crying or not. “Of course not,” she whispered back.
Ursula nodded and stepped back. “Well, if you don’t need me, I guess I’ll get going.”
Beatrice nodded back and watched Ursula leave.
Ben came upstairs and put his hand on her shoulder. “Do you need me for anything?” he asked softly.
Beatrice turned and glanced at him. He looked worried sick. She shook her head. “I think I’m just going to spend the next few days with Hero. Thanks for all your help, Ben.” She hesitated before plunging on. “I honestly thought you were a dick, but recently, it’s been fun to spend time with you, and tonight, you were a godsend. I don’t know what I would do without your friendship.”
Ben’s hand instinctively went to his shoulder and he swallowed. “Yeah. I… I don’t know what I would do, either.”
Beatrice decided to hug him, too. What the hell. It was that sort of night.
Ben sort of trembled in her arms, and he ended up placing his chin down on her shoulder while she comforted him. For what, she didn’t know.
Funny how that didn’t matter anymore.
---
Beatrice woke up a few days later with nine tattoos.
She was getting dressed when she glanced in the mirror and saw something that scared the hell out of her: A new tattoo. One she vowed she would never have, never, ever, ever.
It was that crappy, child-like image of the dinosaur bird thing. The one Ben loved so much.
Shit.
Beatrice sighed and pulled on a long-sleeved shirt. No one would ever see this, not on her shoulder blade.
She would just wear full backed shirts from now on.
---
Ben was rambling. He did that a lot.
Beatrice couldn’t help but smile. She had the awful feeling that she looked rather lovesick, but it wasn’t voluntary. She couldn’t turn it off. Benedick was just so… endearing. And she loved it.
Ben stopped talking suddenly, interrupting her in the middle of a thought. “Beatrice,” he said.
Bea nodded. “Yeah?”
“I have your tattoo,” he blurted out.
“I know, Ben.” Beatrice’s smile grew. “I know.”
“Do you?” he asked quietly.
“Where is it?”
“How do you know I have it when you don’t know where it is?” Ben asked.
“I had a feeling.” Beatrice laughed at the look on his face. “Mine is on my shoulder blade.”
Ben’s mouth dropped open slightly before he recovered himself. “Same. Do you know what that means?”
“No…” Beatrice said slowly. “What does that mean?”
“You’ve heard the stories, yeah? When two people have each other’s tattoos in the same place, it’s significant.” Ben waited a moment. “It’s indicative of soulmates.”
Beatrice laughed suddenly. “No, no. We’re not soulmates. We hate each other.”
“I love you.”
He said it so simply, like it was a matter-of-fact statement, like it changed nothing. Like the tattoos said it for him already. Like Beatrice’s heart wasn’t about to burst.
“Isn’t it funny,” Beatrice said, trying to calm her racing heart, “how I love nobody as much as I love you.”
Ben’s face broke open into radiance, a smile that looked both parts ridiculous and wonderful, as he simply smiled at her.
“Besides Hero, of course,” Beatrice added when he didn’t say anything.
“Hero comes first.” Ben nodded. “She’s lovely.”
“She is.” Beatrice kept looking at his face, looking, looking…
Ben’s smile softened into something gentler. “I love you,” he said again.
“I love you.”