Work Text:
"you wish for me to do your makeup, xie bi'an?"
aesop was used to this question in the recent span of time he's been at the manor. living people were harder to work on. they moved and laughed and flinched at brush-to-skin contact. the gravekeeper had come to ask for color, for his scars to be covered, and the embalmer obliged, for the gravekeeper already moved and looked like a corpse. but more and more people knocked carefully on his door and asked for 30 minutes alone with him. he found his laughter in conversations with the perfumer and his smile as the mind's eye babbled about topics he had only wished to study. the gardener spends the most time in his facility, dressing his windowsill with the yellow roses he was so attached to. at this point, every survivor had come to his door and became acquainted with his mirror, some much more than others.
this is the first time a hunter had come, especially one as timid and graceful as the white guard.
"yes," bi'an answered, pushing hair to tuck it behind his right ear, eyes darting away from the embalmer.
"i will not turn you away, but...you do not need it. come in."
the guard followed the embalmer into his room and found perhaps the neatest space he had ever seen in the manor. aesop owned little of his own possessions, most of which were gifts or for work. books sat on his desk next to his chemicals, and flowers, yellow roses and others sprinkled in by the gardener, lined the window. he went digging in his makeup box, humming to himself.
"what do you want?" aesop asked, not looking up to meet xie bian's eyes as the hunter stood awkwardly in the middle of the room. "a certain style? a certain color range? there are so many ways to paint a face..."
"alive."
aesop made a muffled noise into his mask before slowly turning his head to the guard.
"...are you sure about that?"
"i want to...for wujiu," bi'an explained, locking his own fingers together, trying to make eye contact but instead closing his eyes with a smile, "it's a secret gift...and i'll get a photograph from mister desaulniers that he can wake up to...i want him to remember what we were like before the incident."
aesop's eyes found the window before they found whatever was behind bi'an.
"that's...noble, perhaps. i'll do it. but since you're...." he gestured to the guard's form, "since I do not know what you looked like."
"i'll guide you along."
aesop's hands glided over bottles of foundation that he kept lined up on his dresser, ranging from the whitest of stars to the darkest of night. "which colored matched your skin tone the most?"
xie bi'an grabbed a pretty shade somewhere in the middle, and aesop gently swatted his hand away. the guard pulled it back and murmured an apology, to which the embalmer shook his head.
"do not worry, i just don't like others touching my things. messes them up even if you don't physically move them. take a seat."
the ethereal guard was sat in a chair that could be moved up and down, subsequently moved down because of how much taller he was than aesop. his hands folded into his lap as he crossed his legs. xie bi'an looked at three versions of himself in three different mirrors, much like a soul siphon he has never experienced yet aesop has witnessed many a times. aesop poured some of the liquid makeup onto the back of his hand and swirled his cleaned brush into it.
"have you ever fallen in love, mister carl?"
the question made the embalmer pause as he dotted and brushed the foundation over the smoothness of the hunter's face, covering the black and white parts alike.
"my work comes before myself, bi'an. what does it mean to you?"
"so you definitely have." the white guard laughed, covering a bit of his mouth in the process, as the embalmer's eyes narrowed and he stopped brushing his face. "i only tease, but i have a feeling i know who it is."
"i will kick you out of my room."
"we need not talk about it, then."
aesop continued with his makeup, painting the man's entire face until he had color. bi'an had been beautiful in broken blossoms with skin like fresh satin, and yet he still had a deadness to him found in porcelain dolls left to rot in attic corners. but with just the foundation, he looked young and alive. the two continued in silence as aesop dressed his face in contour, bringing darkness to his cheekbones and light to his eyes.
"what color do you want for your eyes? i can show you my options. i'll fade it out into a black...."
"a honey gold," bi'an replied, a closed smile on his lips as they sat half-lidded on aesop's hands. "like a sunset under cherry blossoms."
"hm...may look nice against your skin..." aesop nodded, tapping the brush frantically to the air, tilting his head to get a better look at the shape of his eyes. "would contrast against the lavender of your eyes. why that color?"
"...it reminds me of wujiu."
"his eyes sparkle a golden, i see that."
"not just that," the guard shook his head, eyes fluttering shut as he hummed, aesop watching as he relaxed just at the thought of his lover in the umbrella. aesop had noticed he hadn't brought it with him, normally keeping it to his side at all times. "but...his hair and skin held a honey-coated color to him in the golden hour...before the water, still or raining, scared him. we'd sit under a tree before twilights, staring at a pond covered in lotus flowers and full of fish, and he would sit in silence to watch it."
aesop had picked out a gold, deep as the ocean, beautiful as the sun, while bi'an was talking. powder flicked across his eyelids as he spoke.
"he was always more reckless, more talkative, more likely to bark than bite...and yet, he was so beautiful in the quiet of the water. he wouldn't smile, no, but there was a halo of light in his eyes."
a switch from gold to black to pronounce his eyes.
"he would tell me things he learned about the fish. wujiu says it was from passerbys, but i think he's embarrassed to have interests."
bi'an sighed, and aesop simply sighed.
"a blush or a gloss first?" the embalmer asked, eyelashes fluttering as he decided mentally between a rose pink or something more orange.
"blush, please."
aesop dusted at his cheekbones and his nose with the pink, face crinkling at the feeling, smiling with his teeth. "it tickles some, aesop."
"i can tell. you're quite sensitive."
"when i want to be, perhaps, even if i am the more gentle of the guards."
"does that ever bother you?"
"i try to find beauty in the match," bi'an's voice was quieter now, more articulate and patient in his wording, "it's now my everyday life. i go slow with my vaults and my walk. sometimes i watch the birds."
"is that why i catch you standing still sometimes?"
"perhaps."
something about that made the embalmer smile.
he put a finger on his lips through the mask and held up a small tube of gloss with flowers embedded in it like preserved amber. with that, the guard puckered his lips and let the embalmer roll it. the liquid even tasted like honey, but bi'an wasn't sure if that was intentional or if his mind, full of daydreams of days gone by, was playing cruel tricks on him.
"i notice you haven't looked at yourself," aesop whispered, nodding to the mirrors behind him, "how come?"
"...anticipation," he replied, slowly undoing the braid in his hair so it fell over his shoulders. "the rush like waves when i see it."
"well, you can look in the mirrors. perhaps siphon your own soul."
aesop stepped away from the chair and let the guard bask in former, temporary beauty.
eyes purple like fresh flowers illuminated by prismed light and ravine depths. cheeks flushed with an innocence, a reddening of the face after a long song of a laugh. lips fresh from a first kiss, plump, longing for another, glossed over from being lost in connection. and skin that looked alive.
xie bi'an touched his face and smiled like he never had before.
"...thank you, aesop."
"it's only my pleasure. shouldn't you be running along to the photographer now?"
aesop turned to find the guard staring at himself in disbelief, in color, in adoration at the man's handiwork. it softened his eyes and made him smile through the mask, but he would never reveal it.
"oh.....yes, i should," bi'an nodded, bowing to the embalmer and allowing hair to collect over his face. "how can i repay you?"
"don't."
"...i'll think of something."
"i'm sure you will."
he pulled down his mask to smile, but the guard was gone.