Work Text:
“Stop moving! You’re gonna make me mess up!”
A week ago, I invited Airi to come over for a sleepover for old time’s sake. Hmm… That’s my excuse at least, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell Airi but have never come around to doing it. Although, it had been a while since we properly spent time together, with her being in More More Jump! and me being in Nightcord at 25:00, with her going to Miyamasuzaka and me going to Kamiyama, with her having day classes and me having night classes… So my excuse is not false. Basically, we hadn’t really seen each other until I invited her. A week ago. And a week has passed.
This evening, Airi knocked at my door right after texting me to warn me I’d be there. When I opened the door, her hands were full of bags. She said they’re ‘to make sure tonight is perfect’. Since neither my dad nor Akito were home back then, we decided to go to a convenience store and get a few snacks for the night. I grabbed a cheesecake, and Airi got herself some dango, those cheap ones they sell, the ones that have just slightly too much rice flour on them. We also bought a few small bags of chips of varying flavours, both gummy and hard candies, and drinks.
Back at home, we decided to put on a movie. A cheesy romcom, not bad enough to turn off, but just enough to complain about this or that detail at every scene. And with reason! The acting was terrible, the scenario sucked, all in all, the movie was bad. I take back my previous statement: the movie was not somewhere between good and bad, it was so horrible it made it good. Airi and I had fun, so that's the most important part.
Akito came back right after the movie. Talk about perfect timing. Airi and I both left for my room, where we would start phase two of our sleepover.
And we’re back to the present. I’m sitting on the edge of my bed and Airi is on my rolling chair. She brought all the way to me and made it higher, since she’s on the shorter side. My face has been cleared of my hair with a hairband Airi brought. I tried to tell her that I already have one, that I didn’t have to use hers, but to no avail: I now have on my head one of those fluffy elastic hair bands, but of course it has cat ears on it. It’s Airi’s after all. She’s also wearing one, but hers is black and mine’s orange.
Airi’s slightly leaning over me. We agreed that we’d do each other’s makeup. I did Airi’s first, so naturally, it’s her turn, but she sure is taking her sweet time.
“Close your eyes!” she asks me, a smile on her face. No, she doesn’t ask me, she orders me, so close my eyes I do. Silence… Then, the tip of her flat brush comes in contact with my eyelid. She’s gently tapping the eyeshadow in place, making sure not to hurt me. That’s one thing that I like teasing Airi about. Despite her rough and sometimes aggressive exterior, she’s soft in her actions, especially when she’s focused. She paints my face the same I paint my canvas, except in this situation, I’m her muse.
The bristles leave my face and I hear the sound of tubes rattling around. Airi’s probably looking for a specific item in her makeup pouch, but I can only base my assumption on my hearing. Once she finds it, I hear the chair rolling back to where I’m sitting before stopping. Airi then puts her hand on my face and I can’t stifle a laugh. I open my eyes and see her brandishing her liquid eyeliner, her face just inches from mine to see the details of her work.
“What are you doing?” I inquire, smiling. I tilt my head a little to the side, force of habit.
Airi immediately grabs my face in her hand, maybe to shut me up, but mostly to put my head back up straight. “Stop moving! You’re gonna make me mess up!”
I laugh softly as I close my eyes again. The cold makeup-soaked tip of the eyeliner comes in contact with the inner corner of my eye. I can’t help but jump a little at the feeling, almost imperceptibly. Airi probably noticed though, because I hear a little ‘heh’ coming from her. She doesn’t comment on it. Good for me. The brush tip glides across my skin, from the inner to the outer corner of my eye in one swift movement. Airi goes back over it a few times in a few distinct spots to cover the imperfections, I assume. She does the same with the other eye, then asks me to open my eyes as she closes the product with a small pop.
I open my eyes, blinking a few times, my eyes set on Airi. She stands up before me, her hands on her hips. I can tell in her eyes that she’s admiring her work and that she’s extremely proud of it. She even hands me her small pocket mirror for me to see the results for myself. And she is rightfully proud.
“Woah… Airi, this is so nice! When did you learn to do makeup like this?”
“Oh, you know… Shizuku taught me a few tips and tricks, but I was always this good.”
We both laugh at her last statement. I’ve gotten my hands on Airi’s childhood pictures in the past and I keep bringing up the one where she’s messily applying her mom’s makeup all over her face, looking so proud of looking like a little clown. Airi knows it too, it’s a fond memory to look back on for her.
I put the mirror down and look at Airi, who’s stretching her back. “I’ve gotta do your lips now,” she says, turning back to face me, lipstick and gloss in her hand. They’re both a nice, warm pink, just like she usually wears. We both get into our assigned positions again and I close my eyes by myself this time, even if she’s done working on them. Airi places her curled index under my chin to make sure that I don’t move and I decide to not question her this time, she knows what she’s doing.
Airi starts by applying the lipstick to the middle of my lips. Once satisfied with the amount she put, she carefully blends it, helping the colour transition smoothly between my own lip colour and the slightly red colour of the makeup. I feel my lip being gently tugged side by side as she does so. I hear the lipstick tube click when she closes it, moving on to the gloss. She takes her time before applying it, probably to think of what she wants to do, or just examining her work. Her finger goes back under my chin, but this time, I decide to steal a small peek. This time, Airi doesn’t scold me for opening my eyes. Instead, she smiles a little, then presses a small peck to my lips. She pulls back and I can see that some of the lipstick she put on my lips has found its way to her lips.
“Oops, I smudged it a little,” she goes with a bit of a snarky tone, almost like she had planned this all alone. Including my reaction, since she adds, “Seems like you won’t be needing blush, huh?”
She’s right, my face is burning, I can only assume it’s taken on an embarrassingly red shade. I scoot back on the bed to grab a pillow and hold it close to my chest. Airi seems to almost regret what she did when she bites her cheek, then asks, “Was that too much?”
I quickly shake my head. “No! No, it’s fine!” I hear myself saying in a rush. She smiles and lets out a sigh of relief before getting on the bed and sitting next to me. She was also pressed against me when we were watching the movie, but it seems like this time, the contact is so much stronger, it occupies so much in my mind, it’s practically the only thing I can think about!
Airi slowly reaches her hand and carefully places it on my cheek. I turn my head to look at her and smile softly, trying to calm my beating heart down. She’s leaning towards me again when the door of my room bursts open. I jump and quickly whip my head around, while Airi only turns her eyes, her fingers still lingering on my cheek.
“Ena, have you seen my… Huh…” Akito says, his eyebrows furrowing slightly. “Mizuki owes me twenty bucks.” And with those words, he turns around and leaves my room, closing the door just in time to avoid getting hit by the pillow and the few obscenities I throw at him.