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Garak’s fingers trace over the path of stars on his chest, but he doesn’t ask anything about it, although Julian noticed that his curiosity was piqued when he first saw them. Humans always ask, unless it’s a one-night stand that they don’t particularly care about, usually with a comment that he doesn’t seem like the kind to have tattoos. It’s not forbidden by Starfleet, especially because they are covered, but even if they were somewhere obvious he would only need to get an exemption. With aliens, it’s a bit more of a hit and miss, it depends on whether they care, but also if they even know humans enough to notice any one thing.
“You can ask me about them if you want,” Julian asks, after a couple of months that they started this thing, just in case Garak thinks that he needs permission.
It’s obvious that he’s curious, but Cardassians, or maybe just Garak, are weird about personal information. They’ve known each other for years, they’ve been together, for whatever that might mean, for months, and Julian still doesn’t know Garak’s birthday. The best Julian got is an estimation of the decade he might have been born in, but that wasn’t even Garak sharing, just a result of being his doctor for years.
“Oh, that’s a dangerous thing, my dear doctor. If I start asking questions, you might do so as well, and then I won’t be a mystery to you anymore,” Garak says without looking at him.
He never knows if it’s serious, when Garak says this type of thing.
Still, Julian kisses him over the head and says, “Don’t worry, you’ll always be a mystery to me. And these aren’t even that mysterious, like most tattoos they are just a reminder.”
He didn’t want to get rid of the scars entirely, but he grew tired of looking at them, and stars, well, that was just where he wanted to be. It’s hardly a great mystery, even if most people he told might not understand him. Then again, he could never give them the full context, he could never say that he’s tired of having changes to his body hidden away as a secret that might end his life as he knows it. So maybe they are somewhat mysterious after all.
“Now that is an answer that’s just more intriguing, and doesn’t offer anything at all. You’re learning,” Garak says, and kisses him over one of the tattoos.