Work Text:
Riiiiiiiiing!
“And that's a wrap! Everybody, hurry up and make sure to get this place cleaned up and ready for the next commercial in 15 minutes! Chop chop!” Dareth called, clapping his hands together twice as he hopped out of his director's chair, carelessly throwing his megaphone behind him for one of his poor assistants to catch. He made his way to his office, pushing aside one of the cameramen carelessly amidst his excitement. Dareth shut the door by bumping it with his hip before he reached into his pocket and took out his phone, quickly pulling up his contacts list.
“And I am going to enjoy my break.” He said to himself cheerily and leaped onto his plush fake leather chair. It squeaked as he adjusted himself on it, he let his body slouch on it and let his legs dangle off the arm rests. Dareth pressed the first contact on his list, the only contact prioritised with a little star next to it. After all, this was arguably his most important and special contact.
Mr Chen’s Noodle House.
He pressed the cell phone icon on the contact and pulled the phone to his ear, it buzzed and vibrated in his hand for a few moments before a familiar voice picked up.
“Mr Chen’s Noodle House, how may I serve you?”
“Skylor!”
“Oh, well if it isn’t my most loyal customer!” Skylor’s voice beamed over the phone, making Dareth smile. “What can I get for you, ‘Grandmaster’ Dareth?”
“Hah, is that even a question? Naturally I am in dire need of my puffy potstickers! I am absolutely drained Skylor, you wouldn’t know the half of it!”
“Ah but of course, the heavy burden you hold as the Brown Ninja does sound exhausting.” Skylor laughed.
“Undoubtedly, and to think I became a director on top of it!”
Skylor chuckled over the phone.
“Yes, it’s quite a lot of work. Unfortunately though, we just ran out of puffy potstickers. We sold our last ones 10 minutes ago.”
“WAIT, WHAT?!” Dareth yelped, shooting straight up and accidentally dropping his phone onto the floor. Hastily, he grabbed it from the wooden floor, not caring to check for any cracks on his screen, and returned it to his ear.
“Dareth? Is everything okay–” Skylor asked with a puzzled tone.
“Nooooo! You can’t be out of puffy potstickers! Oh- the Brown Ninja’s break is ruined! ”
“I’m really sorry Dareth, I know how much you like your puffy potstickers, but we are completely out of stock. They have been really popular since we've brought them back.”
Before Dareth could whine once more and begrudgingly order something else, the door to his office swung open and a man with long black hair wearing a dull sea foam coloured gi entered the room.
“Maybe I can help out with that.” Morro smirked, holding out a plastic bag with the logo of Skylor’s noodle house.
“OH!” Dareth gasped, immediately hanging up on Skylor and ran towards Morro. He got down on his knees and held his hands up, clasped together pleadingly. “WHAT IS YOUR DEMAND? I WILL DO ANYTHING FOR MY PUFFY POTSTICKERS!”
Morro perked his brows up in amusement, holding back his laughter with difficulty.
“I have a favour to ask of you, it’ll only take a little bit of your time.” Morro said cooly and handed Dareth the bag, who eagerly snatched it off him.
“Remember when the other ninja and I were doing that commercial for you?”
“Oh!” Dareth exclaimed as he rummaged through the plastic bag and took out the container inside. “The one promoting reading for children?”
Morro nodded in confirmation. “One of the makeup artists applied eyeliner on me for that commercial and I really liked how I looked with it… I was hoping that you could… maybe, teach me how to use it or whatever.” Morro murmured, darting his eyes across the room. Dareth, who did not notice Morro’s sudden shyness, was still busy shoving puffy potstickers into his mouth.
“Uh Dareth..? Are you even listening-”
The Brown Ninja momentarily raised one greasy hand in front of Morro, effectively cutting him off as he continued to eat. Dareth devoured the container of hot puffy potstickers, indecently munching away with his mouth open.
“Could you please eat with your mouth-” Morro began, but Dareth interrupted him with a loud burp. Morro grimaced. “-closed…”
“Ahhhhh!” Dareth sighed contently, patting his stomach. “Those were some good puffy potstickers! Now, follow me!”
Morro didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but he rolled his eyes playfully nonetheless.
This guy- Morro thought incredulously as Dareth cleaned his hands.
Dareth guided Morro to an empty dressing room, pressing down on Morro's shoulders to guide him down to sit on one of the foldable seats in front of a mirror. There were bright light bulbs around the edges of the mirror, and on the table in front of him, Dareth reached out to grab an eyeliner pen from the mess of other makeup items before plopping himself on the wooden stool in front of Morro.
“Now, let the Master of Makeup blow you away with his prowess!”
“Master of many elements huh?” Morro humoured. “Master of Brown, Master of Makeup, anything else I should know, your eminency?”
“Oooo!” Dareth exclaimed excitedly. “‘Your eminency’ is a nice addition to my collection of titles! Makes me sound powerful and important!” Dareth grinned and assumed a horsing stance with one arm over his head resting in an upper block, the other holding the eyeliner pen out like a sword.
“It is only appropriate that a man of as many talents such as myself has equally as many titles! I’m the Brown Ninja, Master of Makeup, Grandmaster Dareth, Laughy’s Ba-” Dareth listed as he began to draw out a wing on Morro’s left eye. Morro tried to pay close attention to each stroke Dareth confidently put on him, but the speed at which he applied them was all too fast and before he knew it, Dareth was done one side already.
“And voila!” Dareth announced proudly, standing up with his hands on his hips with a smug and satisfied expression.
Morro reeled forward towards the mirror to analyse the work, then chuckled softly in disbelief. “That was so fast.”
“Like I said, I’m the Master of Makeup! I'm an expert in my craft!”
“I couldn’t even note what you were even doing.”
“Oh, it’s simple, really! Here, you give it a go! You should be good at it, ninja have steady hands, don’t they?” Dareth encouraged as he handed Morro the eyeliner.
Morro hummed non-committedly, but took the eyeliner off Dareth. He moved to be closer to the mirror, the bulbs of light surrounding it were uncomfortably bright but at the very least it illuminated his face well. The eyeliner pen was held steady in Morro’s gloved hand and the tip gently met his skin in short and experimental flicks. When Morro had stopped to analyse his work though, he stared at himself unimpressed. The wing was far too thick and arched far too suddenly.
When Dareth noticed, he laughed.
“I look stupid.”
“Very.” Dareth replied with a grin and took a photo. “Most first attempts usually do make you look that way.”
Morro’s face flushed with embarrassment at the sound of the camera shutter.
“Hey!” Morro exclaimed and quickly took Dareth’s phone off of him to delete the picture.
Dareth gasped dramatically when Morro handed him his phone back. “Morro! The memories, I say! The memories!”
“I don’t want to remember the day I looked like an edgy panda. How do you get this off?”
Dareth, much to Morro’s surprise, helpfully takes out some make up wipes and hands it to him. “Practice makes perfect.”
“How much practice?”
Unhelpfully, he shrugged. “Different for everybody.”
Morro paused as he removed his eyeliner attempt with a makeup wipe. “Teach me for the next month, and I’ll bring you puffy potstickers each time.”
Most people as wealthy as Dareth would not see the value of such an offer, but if Morro knew one thing about Dareth, it was that he was a total cheapskate.
Morro had seen that aspect of Dareth with the way he had painted old copper cups and pots with gold paint and proudly displayed them, proclaiming that they were ‘trophies’ from the competitions he had won. The chain necklace around his neck was made of the same kind of plastic cheap toys at dollar stores were made out of, and given Dareth’s strength level and tendency to speak whatever is on his mind, Morro was sure he would have heard some complaints about neck pain by now if the necklace was really made out of gold like he claimed.
Though the one exception appeared to be cosmetics. Few prices deterred Dareth from purchasing them if he knew they were good.
Dareth’s eyes visibly shimmered and widened with excitement at Morro’s offer.
“Ohoho!” He laughed with exhilaration. “Buddy, we have ourselves a deal!”
Morro shook the hand Dareth had presented him with and nodded with a satisfied smile. “No photos though.”
“All good by me. I want my free puffy potstickers for a month.”
“How much time do you have left free today?”
“Mh, ten minutes at least. You picked a bad time, I usually have a few hours free earlier in the day. Come by midday tomorrow and I can teach you.”
Dareth then squished both of Morro’s cheeks and spoke in a serious tone. “But no puffy potstickers, no service.”
“Got it.” Morro replied gingerly and escaped Dareth’s hold.
For the next month, Morro religiously came by Dareth’s filming studio with a bag of puffy potstickers at noon, endured his animalistic eating habits, and learnt how to use eyeliner. To Morro’s surprise, Dareth proved to be quite a talented teacher. Not only was he good at what he did, but Dareth knew how to explain it clearly.
Though, perhaps Morro had underestimated how set Dareth was on teaching him (or moreso, receiving his puffy potstickers), because Dareth had started giving him homework beyond the usual of practising in the privacy of the Monastery. He had sent sheets of his compiled advice and various links to different videos, alongside giving Morro one of the silicone mannequin faces used by the makeup artists at the studio to practise and draft makeup looks.
Without being given a box to take it home in, Morro had received quite a few questions from the other ninja.
After the month-long arrangement had come to an end and Morro had perfected his eyeliner in private, he began to wear it in front of others.
Nya had been the first to see him with it on.
“Are you wearing eyeliner?” Nya asked suddenly after they had sparred, both moving to the weapon racks to return their weapons.
“Ah–” Morro said quietly and looked down at his sword. “Well, um… yes?”
Nya smiled and nudged him. “It suits you really well. I like it a lot.”
Morro was stunned and didn’t reply at first, but then said, “...thank you. Dareth taught me.”
“Ah, that makes sense. You found yourself a good teacher, and he must have recommended a pretty good eyeliner too if it didn't smudge after that sparring session.” Nya giggled. “He’s something else with makeup. Once turned me into a kabuki with three swipes of a brush. That included changing clothes, by the way.”
Morro’s mouth was slightly agape in shock and his body froze midway through putting his sword away.
“Don’t question it. It isn’t wise.” Nya replied casually.
Morro scoffed with a small smile. “No need. Did you know that Dareth is the Master of Makeup?
* * *
A white plastic bag with puffy potstickers inside had appeared on Dareth’s desk later that afternoon with a small piece of paper that Dareth found after eating, bearing the simple message: ‘thank you for the eyeliner classes :)’.
Dareth chuckled fondly and took a picture of the message in his hand, some of which was stained by the oil on his fingers from the puffy potstickers, and sent it to Morro.
Dareth: And thank you for the puffy potstickers!
Come with some the next time you see me? 🥺
Morro liked a message you sent ‘And thank you for the puffy potstickers!’
Morro liked a message you sent ‘Come with some the next time you see me? 🥺’
Morro: Teach me how you turned Nya into a full on kabuki when you were on Master Chen's Island and you have yourself a deal
Btw
How do you like your contact name?
Attached was a screenshot of their conversation, and at the top was a profile picture of Dareth obnoxiously scarfing down his puffy potstickers at his desk, accompanied by ‘Master of Makeup’ underneath.
Dareth: OH MY
THE NAME
IT’S PERFECT!!!
Where did you get the photo though??
I can’t remember when you took it 😭
Morro liked a message you sent ‘IT’S PERFECT!!!’
Morro liked a message you sent ‘Where did you get the photo though??’
Morro: You're the Master of Makeup
And I’m a ninja
:)
Dareth: >:0