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Chip groaned into his hands as he half haphazardly stomped his foot in desperation. Urgh, he was getting nowhere, and the concert was in half an hour!
“Ok,ok,ok,” Chip took a deep breath as he ran his hands through his hair, taking a second to just pace the Greens’ tiny bathroom. “Calm down, there’s still time.”
Course time wasn’t really the issue, the issue was his complete lack of supplies. Turns out 2 dollar drug store foundation wasn’t exactly great for covering up scars.
Chip groaned again, feeling more than a little pathetic as he folded his arms. He should’ve known this wasn’t going to work, now he was totally gonna embarrass Gloria in front of her friends. What the blort was he thinking, volunteering to go to this concert.
In Chip’s opinion inventory got a bad rap, it really wasn’t the worst job to have in a cafe, not by a long shot, plus it was actually kinda nice, everything quiet in the back, just him and the coffee beans.
“270, 271,annnnd 272.Kay, we’ll probably need to place another order soon.” Chip quickly scribbled down a reminder on his clipboard. “Alright, onto the freez-” Chip jumped as he heard Gloria loudly sigh on the other side of the closet door-must’ve walked into the kitchen when he wasn’t paying attention. He frowned as he straightened up. “-er.”
“Yeah Kaitlyn of course I’ll be there,” Gloria laughed. “Hm? Oh uh him, I um, don’t-”
Chip hadn’t realized it ,but he’d been leaning too heavily against the door and, as a result accidentally swung it open and came tumbling out.
Gloria raised her brow, leaning away from her phone with a slight chuckle. “You good bro?”
Chip rolled his eyes as he straightened up and dusted the imaginary dirt particles from his apron. Gloria coughed as she realized she was still on the phone. “Oh whoops sorry, but um yeah I don’t think he can make it tonight he’s uh….got to take Patrick to the vet for a checkup.”
Weird. Chip could’ve sworn they took him to the vet last week.
“But yeah it’ll be fun, just us, and Katielyn’s boyfriend, and Caitlyn’s boyfriend. I love small crowds heh-hm oh you’re bringing your new girlfriend Hannah, that’s, so awesome, can’t wait.”
Chip frowned as Gloria hung up with a sigh. “Just hope everyone remembers to bring their own blanket stead of leeching off mine like usual.”
Chip stifled a snort. “So who’s this ‘him’ you can’t bring?”
Gloria quirked her brows. “Uh, you obviously.”
Chip’s eyes widened. “What? Are you serious? I thought you were talking about a brother or something.”
“Chip I don’t have a brother…or siblings-”
“Why wouldn’t you want to bring me, I’m your boyfriend!? What, do you think I can’t appreciate your ‘deep’ artsy music?”
“Okay first off, The Questioners of Questionville are actually very deep, and second, I uh,” Gloria shrugged as she awkwardly looked down at her own feet. “I just thought you wouldn’t want to come out to something sooo, public.”
Chip froze at that, and his face slowly fell into another frown.
“I just don’t want to push you into something you’re not ready for.”
She wasn’t exactly wrong. Chip hadn’t taken the time to really realize it ,but yeah he’d become a complete shut in, ever since…yeah.
The most he did was go and to and from the cafe for work.
Chip sighed, hugging his arms as he thought of their very first outing since she’d let him move in and crash on the Greens’ couch(what they were gonna do when Alice got back from the country they had no idea). Been the grocery store of all things. He’d been more than a little nervous, he couldn’t risk law enforcement recognizing him and booting him out of Big City, even more than that though…he couldn’t stand everyone seeing his face. He could hardly stand Gloria looking at him.
Chip tightened the grip on his arms as he remembered, remembered shaking like a leaf in the parking lot , his hoodie stretched as far as it could go over his head, he refused to loosen his death grip on the car door handle.
But then…Gloria came to his side of the car. She took one look at him, sighed, and gently slid her hand into his, even with his eyes closed he could tell they were hers, could feel the little splotches of paint still on her palms.
Chip was so surprised by the action he almost jumped, dropping his grip on the car handle and allowing Gloria to lead him into the store.
She held his hand the entire time they were in there.
Urgh and of course here he was again, about to embarrass her a second time.
Chip groaned again. Maybe he could just, fake a cold? They had plenty of Paprika in the kitchen he could totally put some on his nose and-
Chip jumped Gloria suddenly appeared in the bathroom doorway. “Babe I get your hair routine takes a while ,but the concert’s a fifteen minute drive and I really wanna grab a good spot before it gets too crow-uhhh, what’s all this?” Gloria raised her brow as she looked around at the, admittedly very, very messy bathroom, scattered to hell and back with cheap makeup.
“I-”
“And why is there a big blotch on your-” Gloria trailed off as she realized, what exactly that big blotch was covering.
“Oh, Chip .” Chip rolled his eyes. “Kay don’t ‘Oh Chip ’ me. I just gotta blend it out a little more and-”
“Chip that foundation doesn’t really match your skin tone it’s not gonna blend-”
“Well then what am I supposed to do?” Chip let his hands fall in frustration. “I wanna go with you, I really do, I just-” Chip took a deep breath to stop himself from getting worked up. “I just don’t want to embarrass you…you shouldn’t have to deal with,” Chip loosely gestured up and down to the absolute, mess that was himself. “This.”
Gloria’s gaze softened. Chip sighed, reaching his hands out to grip hers, though he still averted his gaze. “I’m sorry, I'm not trying to be this perfect dream guy ,but...it'd be nice if I could at least be a normal boyfriend to you.”
He felt Gloria tighten her grip on his hands. "Chip..." She frowned out the side of her mouth for a good few seconds. Her gaze flitted back to the sink and the abundant makeup still resting on it.
Out of all her possible responses, the last one Chip expected was for her to go drag the bathroom stool in front of the sink and pat the seat, telling him to sit down.
“C’mon, let’s get this sorted out.” Chip’s eyes widened as he watched her reach for a makeup wipe, presumably to wash off his poor blending attempt. Oh she was gonna fix it for him?
Chip was only further confused when she pulled out, wait was that Halloween paint? Gloria shrugged as he stared at her in befuddlement. “Just trust me.” She nabbed a random dollar store makeup brush and dipped it in the paint. “And tilt your head back for me.”
“Alright looks good.” Gloria nodded to herself as she quickly tried to rub off any left over paint onto a nearby wash rag.
“Okay? I don’t know how you’d be able to cover them up with those paints but if the master says so-...”
Gloria sucked in a breath as Chip looked at himself in the mirror. “You…..like it?”
Chip was, awestruck.
Gloria....flipping Sato she was, had traced the boarders of each and every one of his scars -even the ones on his neck and chest- with the different paint colors, she even added glitter, making him just..shine.
She didn’t cover them up, she made them look like stars.
“Well?-Oomph!” Gloria jumped in surprise as Chip turned around in his seat and hugged her. “You are the best artist in existence!”
Gloria’s mouth quirked as she raised a hand to ruffle his hair. “Better than Picasso?”
“Please, that hack wishes. ” Gloria full on laughed at that. “Okay…by the way that was ten minutes we lost, we gotta hurry up and get moving.”
“Eek!” Chip jumped out of the stool and ran to fetch his satchel bag( that was absolutely not a purse!)
“First though,” Chip stopped at the front doorway, watching Gloria quickly follow as she half haphazardly applied some of her own face glitter. “There, now we match.”
Chip loved his girlfriend.