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Kevin always spent a while getting dressed.
His shirt was ironed and starched perfectly, the collar and cuffs dotted with bloodstains. His vest was carefully buttoned, the fabric just dark enough you had to look close to see the blood. His tie was expertly tied and dripping with blood. His hair was slicked back, not really intentionally but because the blood caked in it kept it like that. He tried not to look at his face in the mirror as he adjusted his tie. As long as he didn’t look himself in the eyes, he looked perfect.
“Kevin?”
Kevin jumped. He’d been so absorbed in himself, he’d forgotten about Charles.
“Kevin, you’ve been in the bathroom for thirty minutes, is everything okay?”
“Sorry, darling!” Kevin exclaimed. He ran a clawed hand through his hair, trying desperately to get it just right.
“You need me to help you out in there?” Charles asked slyly.
“Oh. Um… okay.” Kevin slowly opened the door. Charles stood there, looking him over.
“You look nice,” he said.
“Thank you.” Kevin muttered, tugging at his shirt cuffs awkwardly.
“What’s the problem, dearest?” Charles asked, placing his hand on Kevin’s shoulder.
“Oh, nothing,” Kevin replied. “Just having a little trouble getting my face right.”
“I mean, I don’t actually know much about make-up,” Charles said. “I can try and help though.”
“No, no, not make-up.” Kevin turned to look at himself in the mirror again. He pushed a lock of hair behind his ear, tracing his finger down his cheek and over the twisted corner of his mouth. “I just don’t think my hair is framing my face right, you know? I’ve tried to fix it up and I just can’t get it to look right.”
“Hm. Let me see.” Kevin turned towards him. Charles caressed his cheek, just above his mangled lips. He ran his fingers through Kevin’s blood-caked hair, bringing a few strands of it out from behind his ears.
“Do you mind if I wash your hair a little?” Charles asked. “I can’t really do much with it as is, it’s very… bloody.”
“You can try,” Kevin replied. “I will warn you, it doesn’t really wash out.”
“Oh. Alright.”
Charles turned on the sink and ran his hand under the water. He ran his hand over Kevin’s hair, getting it just damp enough that the blood no longer stuck it to his head. He combed through Kevin’s hair with his fingers, and Kevin closed his eyes. It felt good. Charles played with his hair until it flowed down the sides of his head, down almost to his chin. It hung in front of his ears, just next to the corners of his mouth.
Kevin turned to look in the mirror. His hair looked softer, less serious. It made him seem more approachable, and he liked that. But it hadn’t really helped. His mouth still looked far too wide, stretched to the edges of his cheeks. He ran his thumb over his bloodstained lips, leaning into the mirror and looking closely at his jagged teeth. He tried to close his mouth, to make a face that wasn’t a smile just to see how it looked, but he couldn’t. His mouth hung open in a horrible, mocking grin. He hated it.
“How’s it look?” Charles asked.
“Oh, Charles, it’s lovely,” Kevin said. He ran a hand through his hair. Blood was already beginning to soak into it, sticking it into position. “You did a nice job, you really did.”
“It still sounds like something’s bothering you, darling,” Charles said, moving behind Kevin and looking at his reflection in the mirror. “Are you sure you like it?”
“Of course I like it!” Kevin exclaimed. “It’s just that… well, how do you think I look?”
Charles brushed Kevin’s hair to the side, away from his obsidian-black eyes.
“I think you look beautiful, sweetheart,” Charles said.
“No, not my hair,” Kevin muttered. “I mean, you really did do a good job, but I just don’t think it really does anything for my face, you know?”
“What do you need it to do for your face?”
Kevin looked down, covering his face with his hands.
“I don’t know, honestly. I don’t know if anything would have helped. I just don’t like it.”
“Kevin, darling, can you look at me?” Charles patted him softly on the back. Kevin looked up, staring at Charles in the mirror. He tried to avoid his own gaze.
Charles shook his head. He grabbed Kevin’s shoulder, gently pulling him around.
“Sweetie, look at me,” he said softly. Kevin turned to look him in the eyes. He had such lovely eyes. Such normal eyes. Kevin’s eyes widened, making them feel far too big for his own face. Charles placed a hand on his cheek, over his twisted mouth, gently caressing his face.
“You have beautiful eyes, darling,” Charles whispered, pressing his forehead to Kevin’s, looking deep into his inky black eyes. Kevin’s eyelashes fluttered.
“Oh,” he muttered, blushing. No one had ever called his eyes beautiful before.
“I’m serious,” Charles said. “Your eyes… they’re amazing. I mean, I’ve never seen anything like them before. So big and dark and shiny, I could just get lost in them. I’d love to get lost in your eyes.”
Kevin hummed softly. He was oddly flattered. If Charles was serious, it might have been the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to him. He found it hard to believe, of course. Almost no one had been able to look into his eyes without screaming after what Strex did to him. To think someone could find him beautiful… it was overwhelming.
“Look at that,” Charles said sweetly. “I made you smile.”
“I’m always smiling,” Kevin replied.
“No, no, that’s not a smile,” Charles argued. “This, this is a smile. It’s in your eyes, you know? They’re sparkling.”
Kevin turned to look at himself in the mirror. He couldn’t really tell the difference, but maybe that was just because he didn’t want to look at himself closely enough to see it.
“Has it really been so long since you’ve actually smiled that you don’t even know what it feels like?” Charles asked.
“I… I don’t know. I guess it has.” Kevin was surprised he could actually smile at all. He figured it would be impossible since Strex had twisted his face into that awful grin, that horrible toothy not-smile that had split his face for so many years.
“Poor thing,” Charles whispered, pulling Kevin into a tight hug. Kevin rested his head on his boyfriend’s shoulder. He knew he was dripping blood onto his shirt, but Charles didn’t seem to mind.
“Babe, it’s okay,” Kevin said, clearly holding back tears. “I mean, it doesn’t even hurt that much anymore.”
Charles sighed, looking at Kevin’s face again. Kevin didn’t know how he could stand to look at him.
“I can’t believe someone would do this to you,” Charles muttered, caressing Kevin’s cheek. “My perfect, sweet, darling boy, I’m so sorry.” He leaned in to kiss Kevin. His lips brushed over Kevin’s lips, over his teeth. Kevin couldn’t kiss him back.
“I’m sorry,” Kevin whined. “That doesn’t feel very good, does it.”
“I don’t mind,” Charles said. “Unless you don’t like it, of course.”
“No, I… I just wish I could kiss you back.”
“It’s okay.” Charles kissed him again, his soft lips caressing the tender flesh of Kevin’s mouth. It felt right, somehow. Kevin pulled Charles closer to him, being especially careful not to dig his claws in.
“You’re so pretty, sweetheart,” Charles said, pulling away from Kevin’s mouth. There was blood on his lips. He didn’t seem to mind.
Kevin nodded, avoiding his eyes.
“You don’t believe me, do you?” Charles sighed.
“I…” Kevin felt bad. He knew Charles wouldn’t lie to him, or at least he wanted to believe that. But it was hard to believe what he was saying after years of looking in the mirror at his ruined face, trying as hard as he could to accept that he’d been doomed to ugliness forever. After years of people, dogs, and trees screaming in fear at the sight of him. After having spent so long with a face so horrifically maimed that the only people who could stand to look at him were people brainwashed by the very beings who’d done this to him.
But Charles wasn’t brainwashed. He wasn’t heaping hollow praise onto Kevin because some false god told him to do so, he knew the thing Strex had made out of his mouth wasn’t a smile. He just loved Kevin so much.
“I want to believe you,” Kevin muttered. “I want to believe you think I’m pretty, that you’re not just saying that to make me feel better.”
“Darling, you know I’d never lie to you.”
“I know.”
Charles ran his fingers through Kevin’s hair. It was completely caked with blood again, stuck in the position Charles had fixed it in. Kevin was alright with that.
“You’ve got some blood on you,” Kevin said.
“I know,” Charles laughed. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “Just another one of your charms, I guess.”
“I love you,” Kevin said, staring into Charles’s eyes. Charles stared back at him, glowing with affection as he looked into the deep black abyss of Kevin’s eyes.
“I love you too, darling,” Charles replied. “I love you so much, my perfect, beautiful boy.”