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Something, something… curiosity killed the cat and all that shit. Why care about such sayings when he could learn instead? Ajax always was the hands on type of learner, after all, so much so that his curiosity was called childlike both as a compliment and an insult. He did hear it more often as an insult though, but maybe that’s just because of who his boyfriend was as a person.
Cute, little, Kunikuzushi, or Kuni-chuu, Ajax liked to call him much to his dismay. If Kuni hated the nickname so much, maybe he shouldn’t have agreed to date him; especially since he knew that Ajax went out of his way to say it just to make him more mad. He was cuter when he was angry, but Ajax finding out what buttons he could push and boundaries he could toe was not the lesson for the day.
Today… Ajax was spending the night at Kuni’s place for the first time. Nothing sexual—they weren’t at that point yet—but just… being with each other. For a full night and day. Potentially sleeping next to each other in the same bed if Ajax didn’t do something that kicked him to the couch. Awesome. Ajax almost felt like a kid when he was packing himself a bag of clothes and necessities to bring with him. He thought after he was done, he would say his goodbyes to all his siblings and tell his mom when he would be back home tomorrow, but he was a grown man who hadn’t lived at home for a few years now.
His excitement sure didn’t help that feeling, but Ajax was able to keep that to himself. Small bag over his shoulder and keys in hand, Ajax left his condo to head to his car. His only regret was that it was late at night so the most they could do was maybe watch some television and go to sleep. The real fun date stuff was tomorrow and maybe… if things went really well … he could spend a second night over. Maybe he should go pack another set of clothes…
Ajax tossed that thought aside as he drove out of the parking lot. There was no need to get ahead of himself like that. This was just a sleepover more than anything. With that thought in mind, it wasn’t all that surprising when Kuni welcomed him into his apartment in loungewear. It was weird seeing him look so… toned down.
“Stop gawking at me,” Kuni finally snapped at him when the chill, late night dinner and movie fun was done with and it was time to sleep.
“I can’t help it,” Ajax whined, a little more dramatic than natural for extra fun, “you look cute.” All the black, shredded clothes and silver chains and spikes were replaced with a faded college t-shirt and sweatpants. Ajax didn’t know what he expected Kuni to sleep in, but it sure wasn’t something so domestic looking.
Kuni groaned at him like he ate something disgusting, but at least he didn’t tell him off. They climbed into bed together, and after a lot of maneuvering and convincing on Ajax’s end, they settled into the basic idea of a cuddle. It sounded nice, but it was really just them laying really close to each other because Kuni did not want his arms around him. Ajax accepted that and happily fell asleep some time later.
Only for him to wake up the next morning holding onto Kuni with his arms and legs around him like a human body pillow. Oops. It was an accident, but staying that way until Kuni started to wake up himself was intentional.
There was no time for yelling at him for clinging like a parasite as it was time to get ready for the day, date included. It didn’t take long for Ajax to get ready, but then again he didn’t have an extensive skincare and makeup routine like Kuni did. It was an exciting day, so of course Ajax couldn’t keep to himself and he had to sit in the bathroom watching Kuni’s extensive process.
And of course, he couldn’t stay silent for long either and had to talk about something.
“Tonia used to want to be a makeup artist.” Ajax remembered how she would tell him about all these new brands and palettes she was totally saving up for and not-so-subtly hinting at Ajax to buy for her. His job did pay very well, and he didn’t know what to do with the money half the time after his own needs were filled, so he didn’t really mind at all. He chuckled at the memory. “She used to practice on me a lot.” And he sure… looked a way most of the time.
Kuni didn’t look at him even in the mirror’s reflection, too busy making sure the red eyeshadow was vibrant and sharp. “Why you?” He even sounded uninterested.
“Big brother privilege.” Ajax said with pride. He did go out of his way to make sure he was readily available to help his siblings all the time, all the way from tough school work to letting them use him as a canvas.
Kuni only hummed, leaning towards the mirror to fix something Ajax couldn’t really see. Ajax wasn’t looking at his eyes anymore, not when he found it fascinating that he somehow didn’t have his mouth open while doing whatever it was he needed to touch up. Tonia told him that everyone unintentionally left their mouth open as they did eye makeup.
Continuing the conversation, Ajax looked away and smiled down at his lap. “I don’t know why she kept asking me to do it though. I couldn’t sit still for the life of me.” Lipstick was fine, foundation felt a little weird—it sure didn’t help she caked on more than was probably needed. Blush, contour and highlighter was a bit ticklish, but nothing made him flinch more than the products that would come close to his eyes.
Ajax expected another uninterested hum, but it didn’t come. Kuni took the short step from the bathroom counter to the toilet, standing right between Ajax’s legs. He wasn’t given the chance to look up on his own as Kuni took his chin between his thumb and index finger, tilting his head upwards. Ajax would’ve thought it was sweet like he suddenly wanted a kiss, but he was smitten for only a second when he saw Kuni come at his face with black pencil and a sinister look.
Just as he said he used to, Ajax squirmed away from his hold and the eyeliner. Kuni’s laugh drowned out the clink of him accidentally moving the toilet tank lid a bit in his attempt to get away.
“Aw, scared of a little eyeliner? How pathetic,” Kuni teased him, pointing at him with the makeup.
“I wasn’t expecting you to do that,” Ajax sputtered out a weak defense, using all his will power to stop his embarrassed blush from staining his cheeks.
“Well, start expecting it, then.” The smug look on Kuni’s only grew as he placed the eyeliner down and grabbed something else.
“Uh… what do you mean by that?”
“We’re doing your makeup, too.”
That sure didn’t help his blush from disappearing, but it did bring forth a lot of questions. “Wait, but we’re going on a date soon?” He was really looking forward to it, actually.
Kuni scoffed at him. “I’m not going to waste my expensive shit on you to make you look bad.” Using one hand to get what he needed wasn’t enough as he reached out to grab a palette to go with his brush. Ajax spared a brief look over to see what he was doing. It was a smaller brush, but he couldn’t remember if that closed palette in his hand was eyeshadow, contour, or blush. Whatever it was, Kuni adjusted it to stay in his hand more comfortably as he adjusted his footing for Ajax’s knees to be between his thighs. Ignoring his fidgeting, Kuni sat on his lap. “Don’t you trust me?”
A one-two punch knockout. Kuni knew it with the way he looked at him with attempted puppy-eyes to get what he wanted as if Ajax needed more convincing. He didn’t have to do all that, stating it like he did before was enough for Ajax to accept it as is. This was a nice bonus though, even if it did leave him flustered. “Y-Yeah, I do.”
With a triumphant hum, Kuni popped open the palette to show off the shades of blacks, grays, and silvers. “Good, now shut up and close your eyes.”
Ajax closed his eyes so tight his face scrunched up as well. He could hear Kuni sigh at him, but the first touch of product he felt on his face was actually the other end of the brush poking his cheek. “Relax,” Kuni instructed, sounding more like a demand than a word of advice. Ajax still felt a little tense, but he did do as asked and relaxed his face with his eyes still closed.
Kuni didn’t do anything for a moment, maybe to make sure Ajax had relaxed enough for his liking, but all it did was make him feel all the more tense. Finally, with a sigh from Kuni, Ajax could hear the soft sweep of the brush picking up product in the pan. The first touch of product against his eyelids felt… weird again. Was it cold? Wet? It was a feeling he couldn’t really describe and he wanted to open his eyes and look, but he knew better not to do that.
What surprised Ajax the most was that it was applied a lot gentler than he anticipated. Tonia was heavy handed when he was her model and her constantly trying yet not really knowing how to blend eyeshadow would often leave his eyelids feeling sore, but this felt like an almost tickle without leaving him squirming anymore. Actually, he was quite proud of himself for how still he was.
More makeup was placed on his eyelids and it took a lot for Ajax to not get too impatient to see what was happening. From what he could tell from touch alone, Kuni was true to his word making him actually look good with how thorough he was being. Finally, he heard the eyeshadow palette click shut and found it safe to open his eyes. With no scolding coming, Ajax watched him put the palette to the side and look for something else.
The need to squirm came back as soon as he saw him pick up eyeliner. He needed a distraction.
“Are you going to do other things? Like lipstick and blush?” He knew those things, and knew that Kuni at least had a tube or two of lipstick in his stash.
He was met with an incredulous look. “Do you want lipstick and blush?”
It worked, and it almost all went according to plan if Ajax knew when to stop talking. “Yeah, we’re going all out, aren’t we? Might as well tie the look all together! Besides, we can match as you put it on and give me a big ol’ kiss.”
He was rewarded with the rounded end of the eyeliner shoved up his nose. “How fucking cringy can you be?”
After he was done assaulting his right nostril, Kuni didn’t look for any lipstick to fulfill his request and kept the eyeliner in hand. Ajax felt like a prisoner that was about to be tortured for information. Here he was, stuck and mentally tied to the toilet with his cute boyfriend, a solid weight on his lap. Kuni was pointedly ignoring his growing discomfort and made sure he was securely in place with a hand grabbing his chin.
“Don’t you dare move,” Kuni instructed again and Ajax flinched his eyes closed. He could hear Kuni's eyes rolling to accommodate his scoff, but he didn’t have any retort to that. If anything, he would just get the pencil shoved up his other nostril.
At the first touch of eyeliner against his top lid, he was already wiggling around. He couldn’t help it, it was weird and even colder and he could feel it too close to the seam between his eyelids. Once again it felt like Kuni had a lighter hand than Tonia did, but that didn’t mean much to him when there was a “sharp” liquid pencil right on top of his eyeball. Kuni didn’t outright scold him from moving around, but that didn’t stop him from occasionally grunting his annoyance that he couldn’t get the line as straight as he wanted.
The tip wasn’t flexible at all as it was dragged from the inner corner of his eye outwards over his orbital bone. Kuni went over the line again, maybe trying to fill it in or make it straighter, this finesse Ajax didn’t really know the name of. It all just sucked ass.
Unfortunately, Ajax did have two eyes, so the torture was only halfway done. With a hand still under Ajax’s chin, Kuni tilted his head to give himself better access to his other eye. Ajax still flinched at the touch, and Kuni only grunted at him again. At least that was better than nose assault.
The second eye took too long, but of course to Ajax, too long was more than a second. The same attempt at touch ups were applied to that eye too, but he was reaching his limit of how much of it he could handle.
Either Kuni realized this or he had impeccable timing as he finally stopped touching his eyelids. He tilted Ajax’s head about, looking over his work. “It’s not a bad look,” he said to himself.
Ajax saw it as permission to open his eyes. It felt weird in a general not used to makeup way, but still better than what Tonia used to do to him. “What?”
He didn’t realize how close Kuni had leaned in to work on his makeup until he moved back with a scowl ruined by a growing blush. “I don’t use metallics,” he muttered, almost struggling to maintain eye contact, “so I never touched them if my palettes have them.”
“Oh,” that made sense, he never saw him wear any shiny eyeshadow, “does it look good?”
“See for yourself.” Kuni had started to get out of his lap, but Ajax was quicker. He wrapped his arms around Kuni’s waist and stood up with him, only barely struggling to do as it took him shifting his weight to gain traction on the tiled floor in socks. Kuni struggling in his hold didn’t help anything, “The hell are you doing!?”
Ajax ignored him to walk the short step over to the mirror. It was hard to visualize what Kuni was doing, but what he had in mind was nothing in comparison to what he was actually looking at. He was given a smokey eye look with a light, glitter shadow starting in his inner corner to fade out into a darker shade. His eyeliner was rich and sharp, but unfortunately Ajax’s wiggling had an effect on the look since the right side looked slightly thicker than the left, but he didn’t care. He loved it.
“Damn, I look really hot.” Ajax admired himself, tilting his head around with bedroom eyes to check his best angle and pursing his unpainted lips. “You did amazing!”
“Okay, great, now put me down.” Kuni waved off his compliments while still pushing at his shoulders.
Ajax just held onto him tighter. “Let’s take a picture!” And with Kuni still in his arms, Ajax left the bathroom to find his phone and do just that.