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LaLa Port mall wasn't as crowded as it would surely be later this evening, and Yuzu had certainly chosen the perfect time to take Mei out for this, her first makeup shopping trip! She was aware that it was an experience that was far too public for her S.O.'s comfort zone, (it having over four hundred stores) and she was ready with plenty of warm support. The two had just entered the broad sweep of the wide doors leading in, and the bright lights and groups of people already caused Mei to look around with trepidation.
"Where to first?" she asked uncertainly.
Yuzu was definitely going to be in charge of this! The kind-hearted blonde was in full support mode for her lover, squeezing her hand reassuringly, then letting the clasp go casually so that Mei wouldn't feel so self conscious. "We're going to try makeup at my favorite place, before we grab some lunch later. It's going to be wonderful! You'll see, Bei!"
Mei made a wary little face. "Alright... But please, no hamburgers! Tacos, fish, curry, spaghetti - we can have anything but hamburgers or hottu-doggus, got it?"
Yuzu had to suppress a laugh, remembering cutting up Mei's first and only hamburger into chunks for her, and how cute she'd looked eating it. Since then, she'd been careful indeed to consult with her aspie princess on each subsequent adventure, realizing that there were many factors related to her choice of food, some purely physical. She slipped a pinky around the worried girl's own, and said, "Promise! Just relax - you're with me! What could possibly go wrong?"
That made a slightly worried look come to those pretty violet eyes for a moment.
"So many shops here! So many things going on at once! So much..."
"I love you." Yuzu said quietly.
Mei was stopped in mid complaint, dumbfounded. Her expression showed a need for explanation from her companion.
"I love you! And I'm going to watch out for you, and keep the ball rolling so this will be fun for us both. That's why I got an itinerary going, so you'd be more comfortable with the whole affair. Honey,' she paused her steps and took up Mei's pale fingers again, 'I'm going to make my strongest effort to really understand, to actually know you inside and out. And your job is to work with me on that, just like doctor Reiki told us in our last couple's session, love is a collaborative act! So while we're here, if there's anything you don't understand, if you need to just take time out, or whatever... Let me know, and we'll do that until you're comfortable again! We can never allow the sort of misunderstandings that plagued us when we were falling in love to ever happen again..."
Mei's face reddened; lowering her eyes she said, "Never! I promise! I'll ask you or a helpful floor walker if I need any assistance, which I know I will. Other people, Honey - they're a puzzle to me, as much as I am to them. Hell, you know I confuse myself, sometimes! But I... " She looked up. Her hands were clenching and releasing nervously.
Yuzu put a gentle hand on her shoulder. She would be out with it in a moment.
"I... l-l-love you, Yuzu. I want you to be proud of me... Like I am of you!" She flashed a brief smile, her eyes traveling in a slow arc around the giant mall. "And this place is still a bit scary! However... lead on. I'll follow you." Although a simple shopping trip for her beloved, it had been an effort for Mei just to get started, which embarrassed the sensitive girl no end. She'd always had trouble communicating anything but stilted commands or flat facts. Now, she was in the position where her heart was giving orders to her. It was exhilarating; it was the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to her; it was mysterious and sometimes terrifying. It was everything that both of them had suffered for, fought for, and lived for.
She looked at the friendly green eyes before her, and swore to unravel this puzzle, the jigsaw of the weight of otherness and the glory of her blonde lover's heart that had opened willingly to every investigation. Yuzu waited with a beckoning gesture that was an invitation to another facet of her special world. Mei swallowed what she intellectually realized was unreasonable fear, feeling the palpable emotional warmth that the blonde dynamo seemed to exude like honey. This was a small thing after all. The doctor had indeed encouraged her to step out of all the boundaries and the comfort zone she had used for so long as a buffer, as tolerated. It was just new, and novel situations had always been a problem for her, but Yuzu was making as much effort as she, perhaps even more. ... Shrugging off the confusing complex feelings, she relaxed a little and fell silently into step beside her.
"You're in love with the most amazing, beautiful girl on the planet - Whom you're going to marry! How's that for an earth shaker? This is chicken-feed! Settle down, fool!" Mei thought to herself. Yuzu made frequent exclamations of satisfaction along a seemingly endless series of dozens of shops, before finally walking into a store which held more types of makeup than she had ever thought existed. Not a person who ever used it really, and forever chiding her amour to use less of it, (As she found her gorgeous au naturelle!) now, here she was, in the thick of a place that Yuzu and Harumin had described as "Gyaru Heaven!" Looking around slowly and awkwardly, she eventually turned her gaze back to her guide.
"So much! So much to consider! I presume it's supposed to co-ordinate with one's natural color, eyes, wardrobe and so forth like you do. I'm hapless! I have no idea what would look good on me at all."
Yuzu shook her head; was this stunning girl so unaware of how she appeared to mere mortals? "You're so frigging gorgeous, do you know that? You're standing here getting red faced from all this distraction, and you still look like a goddess! If we weren't here, I'd be all over you like a nest of wasps on a candy counter! You could wear clown makeup and cause everyone around you to drool! Just leave it to me and one of the nice ladies who work here - I seem to remember this shop even has their own aesthetician..."
Mei smiled, though with difficulty - and blushing even more over what she knew was honest praise. She would not let her lover down.
" Yu-Yuzu! You're so - you're... Thank you. "
"Just relax! Here, let's look at the selection of nail color, to start with. You like the way I paint my nails, don't you?"
"I didn't use to, but now - it fascinates me! I love watching you do it, all the colors..."
"Exactly! Spoken like a budding gyaru! I use an easy on, easy off formula, and it won't damage those knockout nails of yours, either! Let's use this cool app they have on this, isn't so cool?" Yuzu directed her to a touchscreen with a camera attached to it. Taking the other's lovely hand, she scanned it and touched a few squares on the screen, and soon, an image of Mei's hand appeared before them. She was suitably impressed. Looking to the gyaru queen for further instruction, she unconsciously ever-so-slightly bounced in place on her toes, something Yuzu had noticed before, and found endearing. " You see this? I touch the screen, and rows of colors can be scrolled over to the side. And it will superimpose that shade on your fingernails in the image on the screen. We can do the same thing with our faces and the other makeup, see? And when you get home, I'll show you how to put it on!" She nudged Mei gently, giving a nod toward three girls about their age who were excitedly coaxing a fourth into trying lipstick colors. "See, Bei? Everyone's doing it! Chose your match! Maybe one of these lovely purples to match your eyes?..." she gestured to the screen.
Mei thought a moment. There were indeed tints that matched her breath-taking eyes. But looking back and forth at Yuzu's expectant face, among the cacophony surrounding her which probably seemed normal to everyone else, a completely different plan presented itself. A thousand scenes of the young couple the two were and their dramatic up and down, ultimately triumphant journey swelled in her heart. "How odd' she thought, ' that I should recount such dramatic scenes... in such a place! And to conceive of such an idea! But... Where else would it have happened?" Knowing exactly what was needed now, she surreptitiously scrolled until she found what she wanted. Selecting it, it appeared on her fingernails in the computer image, looking devastating against her snowy white skin. She turned and smiled meaningfully. "Yes! Let's get that emerald green that matches your eyes, okay? And the violet that matches mine!" she stated with surity.
Yuzu was delighted! "Yesssssss! That's the spirit - Now you're helping me! Shall we move on to lipstick?..." So the day continued, a smashing success! Mei even helped Yuzu choose a citrus-flavored lip gloss, pointing it out with an off-hand gesture but a meaningfully raised eyebrow. They had a splendid lunch at We Are The Farm, Yuzu having been on a recent vegan kick, before heading back with their well-chosen purchases. On the way home, as so often she was after a visit to the outside world, Mei became quiet and thoughtful, but this time, also uncharacteristically approachable to physical expression, and her blonde souromeito took full advantage of it, cuddling close and stealing a kiss every chance she could be inconspicuous doing it!
Later that evening, as they reminisced about their milestone day together, Yuzu set up the long promised and eagerly awaited nail painting demonstration. About to place Mei's fingers in a sponge separator, she reached for the bottle of violet polish. "No, the emerald one please!" Mei requested, sounding puzzlingly solemn.
Yuzu was puzzled. "That is beautiful, Honey, but it doesn't match your eyes, and..."
Mei held one lovely finger against Yuzu's lips for silence, smiling as her beloved saucily kissed it.
"I'm probably going to leave you wondering about me again, with what I'm going to tell you now. But, at least when I've finished I'll have offered you another look into how my mind works, my otherness, that shall be with me, and thus with you, for always."
Mei smiled as Yuzu nodded her head, "yes".
"This day probably seems to you a small thing, barring it was a first for me. And how strange such serious thoughts as now fill my mind have found their way into this light-hearted occasion. But that's simply how it is; we're seldom allowed to set a perfect stage for our confessions. So - although I'm clumsy in my efforts to reveal my feelings, so often falling woefully far from revealing the meaningful things I ache to tell you, today, I'm going to attempt just that, with a small maiden voyage. I'm not afraid of seeming different; you're as painfully aware of my otherness as I am."
Mei shrugged an invisible burden off her shoulders.
"So often, I have presented the world with a fictional persona of my own creation; a mask born out of fear. I created these colors of me to obscure the real picture. Tonight, it's time to peek out of my facade a little. I'm pushing that wall of sarcasm and all the smirking little remarks I so often hide behind away, and I hope to continue along this path in the future! Because you deserve the truth, the real me. We both do!"
Mei took a deep breath, pausing to focus her well-considered thoughts before continuing in a softer voice, as she gracefully took up Yuzu's hand.
"Although this will seem ridiculous - How did we go from fashion to philosophy? - Bare with me, it's so much more than the simple thing it seems! Love is a language, partly emotional, partly symbolic. Many things can stand in to personify a lover and their feelings, as well as their own unique manner of expressing that love. You, who gave me your precious heart, and who hold my soul, that I willingly placed in these pretty fingers, please wear the violet, and I will wear the green! Perhaps just for now, perhaps always, we won't know yet. But today, that has become a color of me; a symbol of togetherness, do you not feel it, too?"
Yuzu nodded. She was too immersed in understanding the careful words to speak yet; but she was with her all the way. "If I dwell wrapped in Mei's love for a thousand years,' she thought, 'I'll still be amazed by her, and be surprised every single day!"
Mei bent down, placing her lips to Yuzu's. It was a still moment before their lips parted. Their pounding hearts were almost audible in the still room. After a moment, she continued.
"When we should happen to glance down at our hands, we'll both smile! Because even if we're alone, we can't help but know this... We'll always be a part of each other."