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“Should you really be doing that over the kitchen sink?”
Morro lazes one eye open. Lloyd stands opposite him, eyebrows pulled into a little frown and arms crossed over his chest. He’s looking at Morro but not exactly; his eyes focus on Morro’s ear and the scrap of gauze he holds over it.
“Where else would I be doing it?” Morro returns. The stove clock tells him it’s been long enough, so he removes the gauze. Lloyd crowds in his space.
“It looks red. Are you using a real cleaning solution? Because I think I read somewhere that saltwater can be bad for piercings.”
“It’s red because I just did it last night.” Morro tosses the gauze in the trash. He rolls his eyes at Lloyd’s huff behind him. “Relax, kid. I’ve done this hundreds of times before. You’re such a rule stickler, jeez.”
“I’m a year younger than you,” Lloyd retorts like he always does. “And I don’t think making sure you’re treating it the right way is me being a rule stickler.”
“Sorry, you’re right. Clearly, the stick’s somewhere else.”
With his back turned to him, Morro can’t see Lloyd’s face, but he can feel his baby cousin’s frustrated fuming. Morro smirks. He drops into one of the kitchen chairs and kicks his feet up onto the opposite one. “What’s with all the interrogation anyway? Usually it takes you until midmorning before you develop the holier-than-thou complex.”
Lloyd is silent behind him. It’s a weighty silence, much too weighty for a dumb jab. Morro frowns to himself. Then, a lightbulb goes off in his head. He swivels around quickly. “Wait a minute. It’s because you want one.”
Lloyd’s ears flush bright red. “No! No, I don’t. What are you talking about? Of course I don’t want one.”
Morro cackles. Lloyd’s neck and face heat too. “Stop laughing.”
Morro laughs a little bit more just to piss him off. “You know what? Sure. I’ll pierce you, kid. It’s about time you did something adventurous.”
"I do adventurous stuff!"
Morro levels a look at him. "Really. Name one rebellious thing you've done. In the past year."
Lloyd's mouth opens. A couple of seconds later, he closes it with an angry little click.
"That's what I thought," Morro says smugly. "Come on. Live a little."
Lloyd’s face wars with itself. “What if it gets infected?” he finally asks, but his half-hearted argument isn’t fooling anyone.
Morro rolls his eyes. “Your mom’s a nurse, dipshit. You’ll be fine.” He kicks back from the table and grabs his backpack, which he left by the door when he came in the previous night. Aunt Misako’s nice enough -or dumb enough- to let him crash at her home when he isn’t able to return to his own place. He’d ask her about why she did it if he wasn’t too afraid concerned about her stopping.
Lloyd peers over his shoulder as he sets out his supplies. “You just happened to have needles with you?”
Morro rolls his eyes again. “What part of “I did this last night” didn’t register with you? The party last night was a blow, but I got to pierce some people and make a quick buck, so at least it wasn’t a total waste of my time.” He takes two needles and hunts down some studs to go with them. “Speaking of which- normally I’d charge you for this. Blame it on my good samaritan heart though, because I’d rather just see you corrupted.”
“I think you’re literally the only person who’s ever thought that,” Lloyd mumbles.
“That’s because I’m the only one who knows the real you, cuz, in all your goody-two-shoes, loser glory.”
Lloyd mumbles something about “the real him” under his breath; Morro isn’t paying close attention anymore. He sterilizes the area and arranges his materials, wiping down Lloyd’s ear lobe too. Once he’s all ready, he poises the needle over his ear. “Want me to count down for you? Hold your hand too?”
“Just do it already, jerk.”
“Oh, is that how it is?” Without warning, Morro pops the needle through the skin. But Lloyd barely flinches. When Morro glances at his face, Lloyd’s staring straight ahead, the only indicator of his pain being the way he bites the corner of his lip.
He took that… actually well. Morro pauses, ignoring Lloyd’s whining about the needle dangling in his ear. It’s not like most people who get piercings break down into blubbering messes at the pain, but he was definitely expecting a bigger reaction. Lloyd, his wimpy, nervous wreck of a cousin, just took the needle like a vet.
Morro is a tiny bit impressed despite himself. He finishes the piercing and repeats the process on the other side. Swiping open the camera app, he holds up his phone. “Done. Wanna see?”
Lloyd stares at his face. He tilts his head this way and that. “It looks…”
“Good? Of course it does.”
But Lloyd doesn’t snap back. He just nods, eyes wide, and passes the phone back. “Yeah, it does. Thank you.”
His sincerity makes Morro’s skin crawl. Awkwardly, he slaps Lloyd’s shoulder. “Don’t mention it.”
“Okay.” Suddenly, Lloyd’s eyes light up. "Oh! Something rebellious! I remember! I told my mom I got organic fruit at the store, but it really wasn't!"
“Oh my god.”