Kal showed me around the extensive gardens he had outside: there was a total of a full thousand of square footage of outdoor space, but 800+ of it was considered terrace rather than anything else. The grounds were occupied by extensive gardens, pathed in pale gray flagstone paths, a huge pool at the edge as an infinity pool with an infinity hot tub off to the side of it a step or two raised up, right outside the dining hall was an extensive outdoor kitchen, even a fucking pizza oven and an outdoor dining room under an ornate awning of wavy frosted glass panels on brushed white pillars sweeping into the wall seamlessly. The entire penthouse was nearly all glass and white walls, rather V shaped with a dipped inwards V shaped roof of sleek black metal. Ivy and roses grew up iron trellis up the side walls, he had sections of vertical planters on the east and west walls where all sorts of herbs, spices and fruit/veggie plants were, there were well kept and manicured flowers ranging from daisies and tulips to orchids and hibiscus, there was also at least a dozen or so trees about the grounds, mainly in the corners in little groups, but they were huge yew and mangrove like trees with wide thick canopies with little seating area under them. Out the door was the outdoor kitchen and dining room, then was a very large firepit surrounded by some outdoor couches and chairs in black wicker with white cushions with a few huge parasols between the chairs and beside the end tables then just past that was the pool looking out towards the Hudson River.

As Kal and I walked back into the house, Gellert prancing beside him as he kept his eyes locked on Kal. His hair being loose, the eyeliner being gone and dressed so casually was…so different than normal: he’s always so…put together and formal looking: in those lavish suits, expensive shoes and jewelry paired with smudged out softly winged black liner making those liquid gold eyes of his look like mini-suns. As he walked ahead, I softly gripped the back of the couch as I felt my heart thundering in my chest threatening to shatter my ribs, my stomach was filled with butterflies on cocaine they were so wild.

I’ve only ever had any kind of relationships and one-night stands with women. I’ve only ever seen women in any possible way. Even celebrities and like the most attractively talked about men in the world…nothing, I could say a guy was handsome, but it usually wasn’t genuine to make people stop badgering me about not finding them attractive, but…Kal…Kal’s different. I had never thought of a guy as sexy or attractive…but Kal: the way he talked, the way he looks, the way he treats me, the way he does…anything…made my legs feel weak, made my stomach do flip flops and made my heart feel like it was being ripped out of my chest through my sternum. It was like the world became covered in a rose colored haze when I looked at him. It felt…weird. I don’t know why I felt like this around him or how I felt like that or what those feelings really were.

“What…what are all of your tattoos?” I asked.

“You know there are…far more subtle ways you could tell me you wanted me to take my shirt off.” he said laughing a little at my reaction, “Don’t worry, it was a joke. I am…fully covered in tattoos, Anthony…it would take quite some time and a lack of clothing to show you everything.”

“What…what about the cobra?” I asked motioning to my own hand.

He walked back over as he pushed his sleeve back a bit more: an evergreen, just outline and linework cobra wrapped around his forearm from inner elbow all the way down to its head being on the back of his hand, the tongue at the base of his index finger and the ouroboros on his left palm. The black linework eye at the base of his left thumb and the crown around the base of his left middle finger. However, his sleeve being nearly at his shoulder showed a black-gray chrysanthemum on the outside of left elbow with a moth in the inner elbow, a demon mask right above the inner elbow, a skull on the left shoulder cap and a crow on the back of his left upper arm.

“Wow” I said quietly as I reached up as he held his arm up, his entire body…was hairless, obviously people with tattoos want them to be seen, all of his skin so icy pale, but so deeply olive toned, the guy could probably tan extremely easily. All of the tattoos were immaculately done. I rested my hand on his forearm and it was like electricity rocketed through my hand, like I grabbed a live wire. He laughed softly.

“I have spent quite some time getting these.” He added before lowering that arm and brushed all of his hair back before moving his left ear showing the intricate feather tattooed behind it. He turned so his back was facing me as he pulled all of his hair up showing an all-seeing eye pyramid was on the back of his neck, the motion also made his shirt wise a bit showing the end of a tattoo on his spine and made his jeans fall a little showing the top of the elastic to his underwear. He dropped his hair before turning back and moved the left sleeve off his shoulder and moved the V-neckline over showing a sparrow covered his left collar bone. The right collar was occupied with an ornate dragon coiling over to mid-way down the upper arm where a griffon wrapped around the upper arm, an hourglass and leaves above the inner right elbow and an octopus wrapped around the right forearm, all in black/gray, the only color tattoo he had was the snake around his forearm. An ornately done dragonfly was on the back of his right hand, a ram’s profile was right below his inner right elbow, a diamond in the right inner wrist and a runic thing at the base of his right palm with a diamond shape with strange geometric patterns within it. He leaned his head back motioning to the dagger down his throat. “I have more, but you probably don’t want me to just throw my clothing off.”

“Please don’t”

“I wouldn’t even if you wanted me to, I’m a classy bitch.” He said laughing before sighing. “I’ve got a koi fish over the back of my right shoulder and a reindeer skull over my left shoulder, a goth unicorn bust on the outside of my right thigh and a medusa bust on my left thigh, a potion bottle on my right calf, a mandala on my left knee, you can see the moon phases on the top of my right foot and the runic ring around my right ankle, I’ve also got the sacred geometry along my spine and the biggest one is a peacock that goes from the back of my left knee up my thigh and ass around my hip and ribs and ends under my left pec.” He said

“Ow”

“Yeah, that one was a bitch to get.” He said, “But there’s also a goth castle on my right ribs from hip to armpit. A sea serpent around my left shin and calf and a jewelry piece under my right pec onto my waist that merges into this line here.” He said the last part running his finger along the ornate line that rose from his sternum across his left collarbone, “It curls around to the back too.”

“You…weren’t kidding when you said you were covered.”

“I don’t lie.”

“But those are all…fairly modern styles of tattooing.”

“This is the oldest” he said softly clapping his left forearm where the green cobra was, “This is well over a hundred years old.”

“A…a hundred years old?”

“I was a pirate, Anthony…what pirate doesn’t have tattoos…Took forever for that brand to heal.”

“Brand?”

“East India Trading hates pirates, so when they found one…my mom, myself and the crew…they branded us as pirates. A P shaped brand was in my inner right wrist, time healed the scar tissue up a bit, but the diamond also covers it very, very well.”