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"All right, Miss Dusa. Close your eyes."
Dusa follows Zagreus' command, closes her eyes, and tries her best not to jump when a makeup brush suddenly sweeps across her eyelid. The bristles tickle, a sensation that isn't made much better by the way that Zagreus jabs at her skin like he's wielding Stygius.
"Uh, P-prince?" Dusa stutters, "I—I think you want to do more of a... swirling motion?"
The brush retracts, and Zagreus hums thoughtfully, as though he is an artist mulling over his parchment.
"You must be right," Zagreus says finally. "I knew I should have asked Meg for more advice, but I would have never thought of that."
"It's totally fine!" Dusa replies.
It's about as fine as letting Zagreus volunteer himself to do her makeup in the first place, which feels far from Zagreus' wheelhouse. He's supposed to be out hacking up skeletons or whatever else he does on his security patrols, and yet here he is, in his own room, with Meg's makeup splayed out haphazardly around his crossed legs, swirling a brush of bright blue eyeshadow onto Dusa's eyelids.
On the other hand, Dusa considers that she may have asked for it after complaining to him about not taking time for herself lately. She didn't mean much by it, but Zagreus is never one to let that kind of thing slide for too long. So, she wasn't too surprised when he suddenly offered to put on her makeup the second she went on break. It might have been an odd request coming from anyone else, but Zagreus knows that Dusa loves to do her makeup with Meg, and he is always staggeringly earnest in his intentions. He just wants to help her feel better, and she can hardly say no to that. Zagreus really seems to want the practice, besides. Meg has already banned him from doing her own makeup, for some reason.
Nonetheless, Dusa nestles deep into the plush pillows on Zagreus' bed, gossiping idly with him about the shades in the house, as he layers on powders and creams. Zagreus' intense gaze settles into a meditative concentration. His calloused hands are kind of clumsy, but the warm weight of his fingers when he holds her head still feels grounding. Even as he drags a tube of lipstick across her lips, she doesn't cower. Instead, she giggles at the sensation, and Zagreus laughs along with her, noting that Meg's bright pink color suits her well. That is part Zagreus' charm, making otherwise intimate gestures such as this seem simple and friendly.
Zagreus shuts the lipstick tube with a snap and taps it against the palette with fanfare. "I think I'm done, Miss Dusa," he says. "You want to see it?"
Dusa nods. "You bet I do, Prince!"
Zagreus hands one of her snakes a mirror, she opens her eyes—
—And immediately freezes. Don't react, Don't react, please don't react, she tells herself, but oh Gods, is it hard.
What stares back at her are two round, bright blue globes, with dusty, sparkly streaks of eyeshadow soaring up into her forehead. The black eyeliner that encircles her eyes manages to be both thick and thin in all the wrong spots, wobbly and smudged where Zagreus swiped a licked finger to try, in vain, to correct his errors. A striking, vibrant blush fills her cheeks with a color that she didn't even know Daedalus makes, probably for good reason. And while she does like Meg's lipstick color, she might like it a little more if it wasn't reaching all the way up the tips of her nostrils. In short, the makeup is exactly what you'd expect from the well-meaning, but primarily combat-trained, Prince of the Underworld.
"Wow!" Dusa blurts out, since she's been staring at herself for probably way longer than is polite, and she has to say something.
Dusa lowers the mirror and sees Zagreus, eagerly awaiting her review, with a smile that borderlines on smug satisfaction. Aphrodite bless him, he actually thinks he did a great job. One of Dusa's snakes pinches her in the back of the head discreetly, reminding her to hold back.
Then Zagreus drops his smile, upon seeing what Dusa can no longer hide in her expression.
"It's terrible, isn't it, " Zagreus states.
"I— n-no!" Dusa scrambles. "It's...!"
At the same time, the two burst into uncontrollable laughter.
"Oh Gods, Dusa! I'm so sorry, " Zagreus says on a half-breath, "Now that I'm looking at all of it—"
"You were looking at it the whole time!" Dusa says, before dissolving into another fit. She lifts the mirror again, only reaching her brows before she starts laughing again. Dusa's nerves unwind further with each spell, until she and Zagreus are spent and sighing red-faced into the bed.
As he calms, Zagreus' expression softens. Zagreus looks at her as though she isn't wearing a two-obol thick layer of powder on her face, but instead like she is as fine as any jewel in his father's coffers.
"Well, Dusa," he says, "I may not be the best makeup artist in the Underworld. But for the record, I think you look beautiful no matter what."
His unmistakable earnestness shines through once more, and Dusa feels warmed by it.
"Thank you, Prince, really," Dusa says, and means it.
"The pleasure is mine. If you'll allow me, I would love to practice with you again sometime. Maybe I'll get better, eventually."
"Yeah! Definitely when I'm on break again, for sure!"
"Then we shall. Do you want help fixing the makeup, or—?"
"No!" Dusa replies quickly. "I mean, no, I think you've done enough."
"Right. You're right. I think my work here is done." Zagreus declares. He slaps his knees excitedly and bolts up. "I should get back out there, then. Don't worry about all of Meg's stuff though, I'll get it back to Meg myself."
"Allow me!" Dusa interjects, her snakes quickly coiling around the makeup. "I better go see her anyway. Extoll your, uhm, skills in person, you know?" And beg to use her oil and cloth to make all of this disappear, Dusa thinks to herself.
"You might as well. Though, she might ban me a second time on your behalf. If this is the last of our efforts, it was nice to spend some time with you." Zagreus gives her a cheerful wave and dashes out to his balcony. "Take care, Miss Dusa!"
Dusa lingers a little longer in Zagreus' room, taking one last look, feeling what it's like to be there as Zagreus' friend instead of his housekeeper. To be seen and to be cherished for it, without any obligation or duty other than to enjoy herself. For a moment such as that, she'd be glad to sit in on a few more haphazard makeup sessions.
Dusa embraces the calm filling her figure, bringing an easy smile to her face. Then, she takes the shortest, least-traveled back hall to Megaera's room.