Stay Inside (by my Side) : Gream/DreamNotFound

6. A Pretty Girl

Clay wheezed at the photo, in which George stood facing the camera halfway, with a look on his face that screamed 'mid-life crisis'. It could have easily passed as a renaissance painting.

"Clayyy!" George groaned again, swatting at his friend, "you cannot keep that!"

"Don't worry, I won't show anyone!" Clay laughed, shrinking away from the angry clown, "but I will use it as blackmail."

George huffed and returned to his work, knowing better than trying to fight Clay. He shook his head and kept rustling through the stash as Clay grew more giggly with each second. Then, George pulled out a beauty blender, holding it up in horror. He made eye contact with Clay in the bathroom mirror and displayed the most pure face of concern, at which Clay wheezed yet again.

"Not gonna lie, this looks kind of fun," Clay said, cocking his head.

"You're more than welcome to help."

The American considered for a moment, glancing down at his sister's makeup. He sighed, then motioned for George to sit down on the edge of the tub.

-

The entire bag had been emptied onto the cold tile floor, with some of it laying in Clay's lap as he sat along the tub with George.

"Okay, I think this is blush," he turned a square palette in his hands.

"Make me look like an anime schoolgirl, Dream-san," George said as Clay brushed a circle of pink onto his cheeks.

Clay wheezed, cringing. "What the hell?" He laughed.

George leaned forward, turning his cheek into the soft bristles of the makeup brush Clay held. Specks of pink powder fluffed into the air as the brush rounded his skin.

"Aww, G," Clay said, admiring his work, "you look beautiful!"

George batted his eyelashes in mock fluster, striking some model poses.

"Aren't I the prettiest girl you've ever seen?" he joked.

Clay paused, looking down at the palette in his hands.

"Yep."

"Hope you know it's your turn now," George gathered the makeup, "as revenge for that photo."

Clay looked up, deadfaced.

"I am not wearing any makeup."

"Not yet!" George grinned, displaying a streak of burning red gloss on his front teeth.

-

George's ability to do someone else's makeup was somehow even worse than his attempts on his own face. Every phrase that came out of his mouth as he painted Clay was 'oh no', sometimes replaced by 'whoops, didn't mean to do that'. Clay was left wondering what he did to end up in this situation, where he was sitting on the edge of his tub, getting his sister's old makeup put on him by his best friend.

"Okay, eye shadow time!" George sang, reaching for a random palette and reading it.

"God, George, you're like, awfully into this."

"I'm an artist. You can't get rid of art," he nodded at Clay. "Shut your eyes."

"Well in that case, I'm happy to be your canvas." Clay joked and closed his eyes.

George peeked up from the palette he was stirring and smiled slightly.

After the shadow was blended to the best of George's ability, he moved onto the lipstick.

"Imagine we do our next facecam stream looking like this," he laughed.

"It wouldn't make a difference," Clay said, "I haven't even done a face reveal yet."

"This could be your face reveal!"

"Oh lord," Clay grinned, "how do you think people would react?"

"They'd all unsubscribe," George joked.

Clay wheezed, leaning away from George's arm.

"Like 'oh shit, abort abort abort-'" George continues.

Clay kept wheezing. "Yeah, maybe then you'd finally have more subs than me."

"Okay, shut up," George grunted, "I'm trying to do your lips."

"No, I can't-" Clay wheezed continuously, taking in his situation.

"Dream, sit still, you're ruining it!" George laughed.

Clay just laughed harder and leaned away, causing George to smear lipstick across his cheek.

"Clay!" George screeched as Clay practically stopped breathing.

-

The two stood side by side in front of the bathroom mirror, absolutely speechless. George had a blinding red lip, round blushed cheeks, and raccoon eyes that had somehow evolved from winged liner to a smokey eye. Clay was sporting a choppy green cut crease that matched his eye colour, mascara that he demanded he apply himself, and an overlined nude lip. The boys glanced at each other's reflections in the mirror, mortified but about to break into uncontrollable laugher.

George fished out his phone and took a mirror selfie, then zoomed in and snapped one of Clay by himself. Considering them even, he picked up a bottle of micellar water and turned on the tap.

"Now wasn't that fun?" George said from the sink.

"It actually was," Clay admitted, wiping his face.

Outside the bathroom, the house was shrouded in darkness as neither of them bothered to turn on any lights before settling down. By the time they finished, the sun had set and taken with it the last shreds of light.

Clay looked out into his apartment as George busied himself at the sink. It was strangely comforting to be standing in the brightly lit room beside his best friend.

"Oh God-" George mumbled behind Clay.

Clay turned around and saw George's reflection, completely mudded with streaks of makeup. He rubbed his face with his hands, pouring copious amounts of makeup remover onto his palm. Clay laughed hysterically until the implications of the scene dawned on him. Is old makeup harder to remove?

"Clay it's not-" George giggled nervously, "it's not coming off-"

Clay stopped laughing and tried to wash his own face. The surface products washed off and clouded his face with green and tan pigments, but the rest of them stained his skin.

"George," Clay wheezed, "I'm gonna kill you."

==========================

[a/n: I'm trying to start making these chapters stitch together more instead of just jumping through days haha
also: yes, old makeup is harder to remove, I learned that the hard way when I was trying on my long-forgotten green eyeliner and it wouldn't come off, so I was stuck looking like Shrek the whole day :))))))
anyway, I'm comparing chapter ideas to the fluff ideas in my notes and we are like 2/26 of the way through so uhhh *wink wink* there's good stuff coming!!! love u all]