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Kaylee had received her first lipstick as a birthday gift when she was fourteen years old. It had been a shimmery pearly pink, nestled in a reused toffee gift box alongside a tin of cinnamon mints as a cheeky kissing kit. Her aunt had put it together and tied the box up with an extra long bit of real silk ribbon. She always wanted Kaylee to have something a little extra girly when she could manage it, giving her little bits of costume jewelry or frilled scrunchies for birthdays and Christmases, and she also seemed to be nervous that her brother wouldn't like the idea of his daughter getting to kissing age.
"Maybe you ought to keep it in your dresser drawer, sweetheart," Kaylee's aunt had said seriously as she slipped Kaylee the giftbox in the midst of the chaos of Kaylee's father plating slices of cake. "As a girl thing. Maybe don't talk to your father about it all that much."
Kaylee agreed easily, but considering the swift agreement and lack of so much as a raised eyebrow when she asked her father to take her to the doctor for a birth control prescription two years later, it probably wouldn't have bothered him much.
She didn't wear the lipstick that often. It felt too precious for everyday wear, so she kept it tucked in her drawer, brought out for school dances or church socials or maybe going out on a Saturday afternoon, whether that was on a date or with friends. She tried not to wear it if she was going out to eat. She knew there were lipstick brands out there that stayed on through meals and kissing, but hers was a sticky, melty cheap one that would smear if it was too warm outside.
By the time she was packing her things in a frenzy in order to take a surprise job on a cargo ship, the lipstick was worn down to nearly a third of its size despite her careful rationing, a smooth and rounded nub of wax and pigment. She tossed it into her duffle despite the realities of a job as a travel mechanic on a vintage ship and mostly forgot about it in the flurry of emergency repairs and dangerous jobs. Sometimes she put it on during slow days in the black, and she always remembered it when she went out to a pub with the rest of the crew, but she really only started thinking about it regularly once Inara started renting the shuttle.
Inara wore lipstick every day. She coordinated it to her eye makeup and her outfits and sometimes it changed the entire way she moved through the world.
"I pick this one when the client wants a sweet ingenue," Inara told Kaylee one afternoon when they were in the black and the engine was running smoothly for once. It was a sheer pink, very nearly the same shade as Kaylee's treasured gift, but Kaylee only had a moment to think about it before Inara pointed out all the other shades, meant for clients who were interested in savvy businesswomen or domineering women or the Girlfriend Experience. She showed off her whole collection of pristine lipsticks, all still bearing more or less the shape they'd had coming out of the factory and all arranged in order from most to least intense, separated into drawers for cream versus matte formulas. Inara had a whole system that Kaylee understood implicitly on energy alone but could not parse when it came down to the individual lipstick. She put on a few to show the different ways she could change the shape of her mouth with different shades and Kaylee sat mesmerized, fixated on Inara's lips.
The moment hadn't lasted. Kaylee had needed to do some routine maintenance and left Inara to re-organize her makeup collection. She sometimes got to experience a bit of glamor in the shuttle after that, a dab of liquid highlighter on her cheekbones or an expertly blended blush or a spritz of floral perfume or a peachy lipstick for days planetside. Inara could apparently tell that Kaylee liked a lighter look, and Kaylee looked forward to every moment she spent in the other woman's company.
"Would you like to accompany me to an event planetside?" Inara wondered one afternoon during a weeklong stay on Beaumonde while they were indulging in a cup of tea and some quiet time in the low, warm lighting of the shuttle.
"An event?" Kaylee wondered.
"It's a gallery opening," Inara explained. "I have no client, but I know the gallery owner and I've been invited as a casual guest. It won't be as formal as say…the party on Persephone, but if you want to come along, I could lend you an outfit."
"Could I…could I wear one of your lipsticks, too?"
"Of course!" And Inara immediately set to rummaging through her neat little drawers. "What about red?" She asked, brandishing one of her rich crimson lipsticks. "I think you could pull it off, no problem."
"Really?"
"Sure! We just have to find one that works well with your undertones."
Inara picked the most luxe cream lipstick range for the evening, which glided onto the back of Kaylee's hand like a dream as they were trying to pick which shades were best, orangey or blue-toned, thick matte or practically sheer. Finally they picked one, a deep cool wine that was practically purple in Kaylee's eyes.
There were a few hours for Kaylee to finish up a few chores and take a shower. She tried not to overthink what it would be like to attend a gallery opening on Beaumonde, and managed to not succumb to the urge to look up the gallery name on the Cortex. Eventually, she returned to the shuttle, where Inara had laid out a few outfit options for her. Kaylee picked her favorite easily and then sat on the bed while Inara tried to decide between her black floral dress and a flowing turquoise kaftan with a wide gold belt. Eventually, she settled on the turquoise and then settled herself onto the bed next to Kaylee, armed with the lipstick.
"Would you like me to put it on you?" Inara offered.
"Sure. You know the right way to put on a lipstick, after all."
"I can teach you the tricks!" Inara promised. "Come here." Kaylee shuffled towards her on her knees and Inara curled one hand to cradle Kaylee's chin. "You can do this with lipliner," Inara said. "But you also don't have to. You can be very, very…careful with the thin edge of a lipstick." She swiped the sharp edge in a little x shape over the cupid's bow of Kaylee's lips. "But you just trace…the cupid's bow…" Kaylee felt the slick glide of the lipstick over her mouth. "Just hit those little points, and make sure everything is even, and then if you like, you can make a few more lines on the lower lip as a guide. Do you want to see?"
"I could feel them," Kaylee said. If she wanted to see, Inara would have to let go of her chin to go find the mirror, and she didn't want Inara to let go of her.
"Alright. Then, we just fill in the lines and make sure there's a nice even coat." Inara's lips were slightly parted in concentration and Kaylee had a hard time looking anywhere else. Soon enough, Inara noticed her distraction.
"Are you listening, mei mei?" Inara asked, mirth clear in her voice. Kaylee dragged her eyes back to Inara's.
"A little?"
Inara gave her a sunny smile, twisted the lipstick case's base and snapped the cap back on, and then took Kaylee's face between both hands.
"Can I show you what I do with the women clients I take if I ever do their makeup?"
"Sure?"
Inara leaned forwards and pressed her mouth to Kaylee's with perfect, still precision. When she pulled back, she had the barest hint of a red stain on her own lips.
"Sometimes it gets smudged," she said with a bit of a giggle. "But it's easy enough to clean up and I like to think it’s a fun way to share the color, to coordinate at the event, and have a bit of an intimate secret while we're smiling and schmoozing."
"The color isn't very even," Kaylee said, momentarily horrifying herself that she'd let the words out of her mouth. Inara's eyes darkened and took on a thrilling glint.
"Should I get a more even coat?" She asked. Kaylee gulped.
"Uh huh."
Inara leaned back in and so did Kaylee, and while Inara had the same clinical angle for optimal color distribution for a split second, soon enough Kaylee pressed in closer and tilted her head, and then Inara settled her hands on Kaylee's waist and sighed in a delicious way that said she meant to be there for a while. Kaylee let her lips part and Inara's tongue slid against hers. She still had enough of her wits about her to know that Inara probably wouldn't want her hair messed up before they had to go out, so she slipped one hand around the back of Inara's neck and tangled the other in the front of Inara's dress and pulled her close, dragging her mouth across Inara's jaw and the bridge of her nose and settling on her neck for a few luxurious moments before she returned to the plush wet warmth of Inara's mouth.
Eventually, once they separated and caught their breath, Inara had to bring out her micellar water and little cotton rounds, because they'd ended up smearing the lipstick absolutely everywhere, from eyelids to collarbones to the rolled collar of Kaylee's blouse; deep berry stains that were advertised as long lasting once dry, smeared across expanses of creamy skin. Kaylee had never once thought of herself as a territorial woman, but knowing that the juicy berry stains on Inara's decolletage were her handiwork was definitely doing something for her.
They ended up being almost an hour late to the gallery opening, slipping through the doors long after the artist statements and sponsor speeches had been made. Their lipstick was perfectly matched and exceptionally precise on the cupid's bow but Kaylee was only thinking about how the advertisements bragged about being smudge proof and long lasting and wondering if she could stress test that later.