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The bottles of nail polish shone invitingly in the fluorescent light of the dorm room, varying shapes and colors piled on the center of the floor where the two roommates sat across from each other.
“‘Toshi, you’re a real friend for agreeing to do this with me,” Tendou said with a grin.
Wakatoshi smiled. “It seems like fun and you enjoy it, so I might as well try.”
“Excellent choice, Wakatoshi, you won’t regret it!”
Tendou tapped a finger on their chin. “Hmm, where do we even begin.” They glanced up at their friend. “Do you know what color you want? We have to do a few things first, but picking the color is the most important part.”
Wakatoshi hummed thoughtfully. “I was thinking about a pale pink or purple. I don’t own any clothes those colors, but I like to look at them, so I think it would be nice.”
“Wonderful,” Tendou agreed with a smile. “Do you want to pick the shades?”
Wakatoshi nodded and after several moments of deliberation, settled on two purple variations and one pink, dedicating that he would figure out how he wanted to arrange the colors later.
“Okay!” Tendou said, clasping their hands together. “First, you need to file your nails so they aren’t too long.”
Wakatoshi grabbed a nail file and Tendou did the same, humming to themself as they worked. There was something so relaxing about performing a task that they’d done so many times before and they were eager to share the experience with Wakatoshi. Maybe he would benefit from the activity too, as well as getting some nicely-painted nails out of it.
When Tendou looked up, Wakatoshi was just finishing up, so they patiently waited until he was done before explaining the next step.
“So,” Tendou began. “You can’t just go in and paint your nails with one layer of polish and be done. Before you even used the pigmented ones, you must go in with a base coat so that it sticks, then a couple different coats of the color, then a final clear one to seal it in and make it stay longer. Oh, and throughout it, you have to wait for each layer to dry.”
“It sounds like it will take a while,” Wakatoshi commented.
Tendou nodded. “Hmm, I’d say you’re right, but that’s why it’s so enjoyable, ‘Toshi! You just get to relax and enjoy the experience. No worrying about schoolwork or volleyball. Just be in the moment and have a good time.”
With that, Tendou grabbed the base coat and unscrewed the cap of the bottle, both wrinkling their noses at the harsh chemical smell.
“Oh yeah,” Tendou remarked as an afterthought. “It also smells pretty bad, maybe we should open a window.”
Wakatoshi snorted. “Maybe we should,” he agreed, going to do so.
Soon, a crisp breeze flowed in through the cracked open window, pleasantly cooling them and creating a further enjoyable atmosphere.
With the ventilation that that had provided, Tendou proceeded to apply the base coat, showing Wakatoshi how to do it so that it went outside the lines as minimally as possible and flapping their hands and blowing on them dramatically to dry them, much to Wakatoshi’s quiet amusement.
When it was his turn to put it on, ‘Toshi quickly discovered that it was harder than it looked not to get the substance all over his fingertips and ended up having to use the even-harsher-smelling nail polish remover to rid his fingers of the clear substance that stuck them together at the seams. Tendou smiled and laughed good-naturedly and assured him that with practice it would get easier.
Finally, when it was time to put on the actual color coat, Wakatoshi declared that he needed some time to think about what pattern to do before he began.
“You could try alternating colors,” Tendou suggested, “or do one hand one color and the other hand the other. Or since you have two shades of purple, the lighter one and the light pink on four fingers and the medium purple on your thumbs.”
“Satori,” Wakatoshi said in faux-seriousness. “There are too many options. I don’t know which one to pick. I thought you said this was supposed to be relaxing.”
Tendou snorted. “My apologies, Wakatoshi, next time I’ll just arrange all the bottles in a circle and have you spin around blindfolded and point at one and only use that color.”
“That might make it simpler,” Wakatoshi agreed with an amused smile.
Turning back to his task, he pondered for several minutes more, occasionally mumbling out loud, and eventually decided that he wanted to do pale purple on his pinkies and thumbs, pale pink on index and ring fingers, and the darker purple on his middle fingers.
“Excellent choice,” Tendou agreed with a smile, sweeping up a napkin to place below Wakatoshi’s hand. “This is just in case you accidentally go outside the lines. The clear wouldn’t stain the floor, but the colors definitely would.”
“I think I will certainly be needing it,” Wakatoshi agreed.
He was all too right.
After several disastrous attempts of getting the nail polish all over his hands, accidentally trying to put on too much at once, as well as lacking the precision to place it properly, the room reeked of polish and polish remover and Wakatoshi seemed quite put-out.
Just as Tendou was trying to coach him through one more time, he interrupted them.
“Satori,” Wakatoshi said suddenly. “I have an idea. How about you just paint my nails this time.”
Tendou paused, then smiled. “Okay, ‘Toshi, fine by me! I appreciate you making an effort.”
Wakatoshi snorted. “Though I may not have been very successful, I did give it my best attempt. I think that I may try and improve over time and maybe I will get better. But for today, I do think it is best if you just do it for me.”
Tendou nodded. “Pass me the bottles and I’ll get started.”
Soon enough Tendou had applied the first layer on Wakatoshi’s nails, careful to keep it away from their own hands and to stay just on the nail and stray onto the skin of Wakatoshi’s fingers.
Instructing him to wave his hands in front of the open window and to blow on them to get them to dry faster, Tendou started on their own nails, deciding to go with a sky blue color for all of the nails except for the ring fingers, which they accented with a pale yellow.
Finishing up the first layer of their own nails, they looked up to find Wakatoshi still determinedly flapping his hands in front of the window, a concentrated look on his face.
“‘Toshi,” Tendou called out. “You can stop now, they’re probably dry.”
He turned back to look at Tendou and nodded. “I was wondering for how long you were going to ask me to keep doing this. My hands were starting to get tired.”
Tendou laughed. “Well, luckily for you, it seems the colors you picked are fairly opaque, so we’re only going to have to do two layers and it looks like mine should only need two as well since I want them to look pretty light.”
Wakatoshi looked relieved. “That is very good news, Satori, I’m not sure I would be able to stand waving my hands like that two or three more times.”
Tendou snorted. “Alright, alright,” they said. “Sit down and I’ll do the next layer and then all that’ll be left after that is the top coat.“
Wakatoshi sat down and did as they had told him to, patiently watching as Tendou added another layer, carefully turning his hands this way and that to make sure they had covered all of the edges. Finally satisfied, they ordered Wakatoshi to go stand by the window again, but informed him with a smile that he really didn’t need to wave his hands so aggressively and that they’d dry fine if he just let the breeze do most of the work. Wakatoshi snorted and thanked them for the advice, now just looking out the window and admiring the trees and the faint dusting of frost that kissed the ground. For several moments, Tendou watched him gaze out the window, before he caught their eye and commented that they’d better get started on their next layer if they wanted them to dry in time. Tendou snorted and resumed painting their nails, finishing up soon enough.
Wakatoshi came to sit beside them and showed off his now-dry masterpieces, gently brushing the surface and confirming that they were dry.
“Wakatoshi!” Tendou scolded. “You’re not supposed to touch them!”
“Why not?”
“Because you don’t know for sure that you won’t mess them up!” They cried dramatically. “I don’t want to have to redo them and sometimes even if they are dry, they still smudge if they haven’t had a couple hours to harden.”
Wakatoshi nodded. “Okay, I’ll remember that for next time.” He said solemnly. His eyes flicked to Tendou’s hands. Can I see yours?”
Tendou agreed, but warned him that theirs were certainly still wet.
Wakatoshi promised to be careful and gently rested Tendou’s fingertips on the flat surface of his palms, admiring them.
“I like the colors you chose,” Wakatoshi commented. “They’re very nice together, I wouldn’t have expected two so different to match so well.
Tendou grinned. “Sometimes things are just unexpected like that. They’re also near opposites if you look at a rainbow color wheel, but they’re still beautiful when you put them next to each other.”
Wakatoshi nodded.
“Also,” Tendou started, “I was thinking of adding a little design, just to make them more fun. A blue heart on the yellow accent nails, I think it would look nice.”
“I agree,” Wakatoshi said. “Would you do the same for me? Two hearts, on the middle nails, since they are most different from the others?”
Tendou nodded. “Of course! I think that would complete the look wonderfully.”
“Thank you, Satori.”
Four painted hearts, some frantic nail flapping and a clear topcoat later and they were done.
Admiring the designs on their own nails, Tendou looked up to find Wakatoshi doing the same for his.
“So did you have fun?” They asked earnestly. “I told you it would be relaxing, didn’t I?”
Wakatoshi snorted. “The part where I was trying to do it myself was anything but relaxing. But, I did enjoy when you did it for me. It was… quite calming. I would do it again, and maybe try once more myself if I am feeling particularly ambitious that day.”
“That sounds wonderful, ‘Toshi,” Tendou agreed with a grin. “And you now, you can show off your fabulous nails.”
“Yes,” Wakatoshi agreed, without a trace of sarcasm. “I think I will.”
Tendou grinned. How lucky they were to have Wakatoshi as their friend.
When Wakatoshi smiled too, Tendou took a mental Polaroid, scooping up the moment to recall later.
For a long while after, it remained one of their favorite memories.