Helping Hand

Eska entered her chambers with Desna in tow a few feet behind her. The would be bride was immediately greeted with a bow of heads by her ladies in waiting, none of them seemed to pay any regard to her current state of desolation. Each of the three women carried an individual piece of Eska's usual robes in their arms and, with their heads still lowered, followed her behind the dressing screen. Desna went no further and opted to stand by the wood and ivory vanity knowing that would be where his sister would be next.

Within less than a minute Eska emerged from behind the screen, two of the ladies bowed as they backed out of the room, the last one hurriedly brushing the remaining strands of the princesses hair back into place before Eska waved her off and she too bowed and left the room.

As Desna suspected his sister stiffly moved to the vanity and roughly sat in the stool. He looked down at her as she wasted no time grabbing a previously prepared damp cloth and began roughly cleaning the mixture of smeared makeup and dried tears from her face.

Desna could feel his sister's anger raising as well as see it as he observed her movements grow quicker and harsher. She slammed the cloth on the vanity surface sending a resounding bang throughout her large room, the powder container, scented oil jars, and lotion tins rattled and clacked. Desna didn't even flinch.

Rigid delicate fingers grabbed the slim brush from it's stand, the other hand snatched the small wooden cylinder that contained Eska's preferred shade of eye shadow.

Desna watch idly as his sister forcibly pulled off the cap, tossing it aside and practically smashed the brush into the powder. The contain clattered onto the vanity surface as Eska began briskly applying the makeup to her eyes. He watched as she failed, smearing the powder too thin in one area, or too thick in another. His sister put the brush down and used to damp cloth to wipe it off and start over. The prince looked on as his sister's frustration rose higher each time she failed to apply her makeup correctly. He knew with his twin being like this she would never get the desired effect. That would only cause more unnecessary issues.

"Let me."

Although his voice was soft and seemingly devoid of emotion, the subtle command effectively froze Eska's movements as Desna moved to stand right over her. Eska continued to stare in the vanity mirror as she let the brush be taken from her clinched hand. Instead of picking up where she left off, Desna gently placed the abused brush back on the desk, grabbing the damp cloth and wiped the disaster away. Eska's eyes followed her brother's hand as he reached for another instrument and she felt stupid realizing she was forgetting something so important in the first place.

With the khol pencil now in hand, Prince Desna softly cupped his sister's chin, turning her head and angling it up toward himself. He lifted the pencil but stopped, giving his sister a look that she instantly registered. His hand felt the muscles in her face relax as the scowl she unknowingly held disappeared, then he lifted the pencil toward her eyes as she closed them.

Desna started with her right eye, carefully dragging a thin dark line close to the edge of her eyelid, mindful of the twitches that indicated when he applied too much pressure. He leaned in closer as he worked the pencil in a way that gave a slight extra thickness to the outward corner of her eye, then shifted in front of her as he repeated the same treatment with the left. Eska knowingly opened her eyes and looked up to expose her lower lids as he drew thinner, finer lines there.

He put the pencil back in it's proper place and picked up the brush which still held the purple powder. When Eska closed her eyes again he began again with her right eye, sweeping the brush in slow steady movements, covering the lower half of her top eye lid thoroughly making sure to give her that cat eye curve at the corner and did the same to the left.

He let go of her chin, and Eksa swiftly turned her head to the mirror looking at her brother's handy work. She bristled at the heavy strokes and odd sharp contrast between makeup and skin. Desna felt his sister's alarm but paid her no attention.

"I'm not finished"

He sternly spoke as he had the wooden container in one hand and with the other he tapped the brush on the side of it, getting ride of the access powder. He then quickly put it back down and reached for his sister's face again.

She stared up at him, her brow creased slightly. Desna simply waited for his sister to comply to his quite demands completely unfazed by her distrust. When she finally closed her eyes again he continued making quick, softer strokes to what he had previously done, spreading it out more, giving it a subtle faded affect. He could tell his twin was becoming restless as he kept meticulously going over his work. Once he was satisfied enough he stopped letting her face go straightening his posture.

He paid little mind to his sister closely inspecting the job he'd done as he moved to the other side of the vanity to put away to brush and makeup. He then walked toward the chamber doors expecting his sister to follow suit. When he didn't hear her get up he turned to face her.

"What?", his question was quick and dry.

Eska sat there looking at herself. She leaned in toward the mirror then back, squinting, then widening her eyes as if testing them out.

"When did you learn this?", her tone was quizzical and demanding but not angry.

Desna blinked before answering, "I've observed you do this numerous times. It didn't seem too complicated."

And with that he turned, opened her door and walked out. As he listening to her quickly gather herself to follow him a nearly invisible smile tugged at his lips. A small so subtle he wasn't sure if his lips actually moved.

*looks at computer screen sideways*

the frist fanfic I post in years and it's about two character I don't even like that much (nah Desna's kinda cool)