Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Are you sure you are qualified to do this?”, Gladion asked, eyeing the needle between Plums fingers nervously. His hands twitched against his thighs. The older woman scoffed, grabbing some antiseptic wipes and cleaning the needles and piercings. Gladions eyes followed the movement.

“Of course, I’ve done it a million times”, Plumeria answered, setting the stuff down and turning towards him. Shattered glass crunched as someone stepped on it and the sound of a chair being pulled across the room followed. The two turned to see Guzma, followed by a Grunt. The Team Skull leader placed the chair next to Gladion and the grunt sat on the floor a bit away, careful to stay away from the glass shards. The helix and conch piercing in their ear twinkled. Gladion stared at it, eyes widening a little in fascination.

The chair made a creaking noise as Guzma sat down on it and the teenagers attention was called back to him. “You did it maybe ten times before”, the older man grunted, comment directed at Plum. She placed her hands on her hips and frowned. “None of them got infected though and healed properly”, the Team Skull Admin turned her head to look at the Grunt, “right?” They nodded and fiddled with the long since healed helix piercing.

“Yeah, yeah, okay, just get to it”, Gladion grumbled, gripping onto the fabric of his pants and taking a short breath. Plum looked at him for a second before opening the sharpie she had laid out and bringing it to the blonds ear. “Left one, right? Double Helix?”, she checked and waited for Gladions nod, before painting two black dots on the outer shell of his ear. A mirror was handed to Gladion from the Grunt sitting on the floor. He turned his head this way and that and gave another approving nod. Plumeria took the mirror and put it with the needles and piercings.

Gladion swallowed heavily this time as the woman picked up the first, thicker needle. The metal glinted under the dim lighting of the Team Skull mansion. Guzma nudged his arm and when Gladion looked over the white haired man held out his hand. The blond frowned, but still reluctantly took the silent offer and gripped the others hand. The Grunt snickered, but Plumeria and Guzma silenced them with a look. “I’m sure it won’t hurt too much”, the Leader tried to soothe him and patted the back of Gladions hand. The blond turned his head to glare at him.

“It actually hurts like shit”, the Grunt threw in, inspecting their fingernails. Guzma glared at them and they averted their gaze, inspecting the glass shards across the room. Gladion side glanced the needle in Plumerias hand, before steeling his gaze. “Just do it already”, the teen grumbled nervously, closing his eyes and tightening his grip on Guzmas hand and his own left thigh. “You sure about this?”, Plum inquired. Gladion nodded, chewing on his lip. “Yes”, he grumbled, trying to cover his nervousness with impatience. Plumeria shrugged and brought the needle to the first, higher black dot on Gladions ear.

When the metal pierced the skin and cartilage, Gladion felt like screaming and his eyes felt wet. Instead, he bit down hard on his lower lip, squeezing his eyes shut and gripping Guzmas large hand tightly. The latter squeezed back. He felt a hand tentatively place itself on his knee, presumably belonging to the Grunt. Plumeria whispered soothing words and her hands left him for a second, probably getting the second thinner needle.

Gladion opened his eyes slowly again, after the pain subsided from a sharp piercing to a dull throbbing. He made a point to not look at Plumeria still working on his ear and watched the light reflect of the glass shards scattered around the room. The blond faintly registered how Guzma squeezed his hand again, but chose to concentrate on a loose thread on his ripped hoodie. He’d have to fix it again. Guzma and some grunts had tried to teach him some sewing skills, so he wouldn’t have to redo it all the time, but he could never quite get the hang of it.

“There”, Plum proclaimed, patting his shoulder once. Gladion startled out of his slight trance, he hadn’t noticed how she finished the first piercing. The blond eagerly reached for the mirror himself, before the woman could grab it. Plum and the Grunt scoffed, clearly amused with the boy. Guzma hid his smile behind his free hand as Gladion inspected the first piercing. He couldn’t keep the pure glee off his face as he inspected it from every possible angle.

“You sure you want the other one done right now? We could wait until this ones healed or only a few weeks, until it stops hurting”, Plumeria suggested, watching the boy. Gladion stopped, lowering the mirror into his lap. “Yeah, lets do it now”, he breathed out deeply and braced himself. Plum nodded, cleaning the needles to reuse. Gladion hoped the adrenaline rushing through him would lessen the pain of a needle pushing a hole into his ear.

Gladion readied himself, when Plum held the needle to his ear again. The Grunt squeezed his knee and Guzma held onto his hand. Gladion took a deep breath in and out, closing his still glazed over eyes.

When the needle pierced through this time, the blond actually let out a short scream. Plumeria shushed him immediately, trying to soothe him with soft whispers of “it’s okay”, “you’re doing good” and “we’re almost done”. Guzmas free hand gripped his shoulder and the Grunts hand squeezed his knee again. A tear slipped down his cheek and Gladions grip on his thigh and Guzmas hand tightened to almost bruising.

This time, there was no distracting himself from the pain until Plum finished. His eyes stayed tightly shut, even when the woman finished. She put the needles away quickly and hugged the young boy close. Gladion was embarrassed, but still took his hand away from Guzma and hugged her back, burying his face in her shoulder, both careful to not touch his ear.

“Want a soda or something? Sugar helps with the shock”, the Grunt offered, trying to come off as nonchalant, but their concern shone through. Gladion nodded, the action mainly covered by Plumerias shoulder. He felt the Grunts hand remove itself from his knee and heard them stand up and go out of the room. While they waited for the Grunt to come back, Gladion eventually calmed down and Guzma removed his hand from the blonds shoulder.

When the Grunt came back, Gladion pushed himself away from Plumeria and took the soda can from them with a whispered “thanks”. He wiped away the stray tears and willed away the urge to grab his ear in pain. Instead he opened the can and took a huge sip from it.

“Want to see it?”, Plum asked, holding the mirror out. Gladion gave a small nod and took it from her, holding it up to look at his ear. It looked good. His ear and face was red from the pain and embarrassment, but the double helix looked even better than he imagined.

“Ah, thanks”, Gladion looked up at the older woman, voice a little weak. Plum shrugged. “No problem, are you okay? You could take a pain killer if it hurts too much”, she suggested, one hand placed on her hip lazily. Gladion gave a small nod of acknowledgement, but didn’t say anything more as he gave back the hand mirror and drank another sip of the soda.

They all eventually left the room when the atmosphere calmed down again and Gladion went back to the motel, ready to just snuggle up with Typ:Null for the rest of the day and try to forget the pain in his ear. Maybe the lady at the counter had some pain killers for him if he needed them. With a yawn, Gladion squeezed himself and Typ:Null into the bed and buried his face into its back, closing his eyes for a nap.