A random chit-chat with ReadingChick brought up the idea of Rosso making up Argent. I just had to go with it, so this came up.
Disclaimer: I don't own Dirge of Cerberus.
Roommates
Argent's knee-jerk reaction to rooming with Rosso Masterton had been horror, followed swiftly by resignation. Rosso, after all, had been the one who pulled up on campus in a red convertible with her European accent ("Romanian," she had purred, with a casual hand-wave) a cheeky double-honk of the horn. Since then, she had developed a reputation for being very smart, but very arrogant and very, very vain. Nearly to the point of being conceited.
Since they were roommates, fairly compatible roommates at that, they did share a social circle: local high school computer genius, Shelke Rui; strong but silent linebacker, Azul Leavy; quiet snarky Nero Eldritch; and his confident, charismatic brother Weiss. They had both found companions within the circle, so neither was truly bothered by the other's presence. In fact, with the added buffers around them, Argent almost found herself enjoying Rosso's audacity.
… Until early April. Shelke was celebrating her college acceptance and Weiss had proposed that they, "make a date out of it." And it seemed that Rosso, who already had Shelke and Argent in her room and more-or-less sedentary, took Weiss' words to heart. At 6:50, Rosso's eyes drifted to the clock, and landed on her roommate, who was reading a book.
"Aren't you going to get ready for your date?"
Argent looked over to Rosso, who was filing her nails with her feet up. "Excuse me?"
"Your date? The one that Weiss has asked you out on?"
"Weiss never suggested something like that," Shelke droned from her usual corner of their room.
"It was in the subtext. You need to look at his eyes, not Nero's." Shelke's cheeks might have flared, as she drove her head a bit closer to the screen. "Anyway, you need to get ready for him."
She scoffed, returning to her book. "That's nonsense. Weiss was not asking me on a date."
"That is nonsense." Rosso took the book out of Argent's hand and threw it across the room where it narrowly missed Shelke. At that moment, Shelke's phone beeped a fast paced song.
"Hello? …Yes." Shelke got up, set her laptop on the ground and padded out of the room.
Following Shelke's exit, Rosso turned back to her roommate with a devious gleam in her eyes. "We need to get you made up."
"Made up?"
Understandably, Argent's tone was tinged with horror. She had seen Rosso's makeup ritual. Flesh-colored powders and liquids, followed swiftly by bright colored eye-shadows in any shade she seemed to want that day. Along with that, she would add a lipstick and some glitter to highlight bits of her face. Then she would be off to class or wherever she was headed.
"Yes, made up. With makeup. I know you have some." Rosso was digging through their shared space under the sink. She made away with a tiny makeup bag, containing only a foundation, neutral eye-shadows and a stick of lip balm. With a disgusted roll of her eyes, Rosso tossed the tiny satchel aside and retrieved her own makeup, a clear cosmetics bag about the size of a purse, from the same location.
"I'm not doing anything with my skin, Rosso. It's fine."
"Oh, I know that. You don't have a blemish on it," she cooed, lightly drawing a sharp nail up the side of Argent's cheek. "I'm quite envious." Argent tried to stand up, only to be pushed downwards quite forcefully. An argument wasn't necessary here. "Your eyes could use some emphasis, though." Argent bit her lower lip. "Don't worry, darling, it will look… Memorable."
The word "memorable" made her cringe internally. "Memorable" was the same word Rosso had used to describe her prank on the incoming freshman of her high school the year that Rosso had graduated. Apparently, she nearly got sued.
Argent decided that this was not the place for an argument. After all, makeup was easily taken off with makeup remover on a cotton ball and Argent luckily had such a combination close at hand. All she needed to do was wait until Rosso was paying attention to her nails again, surreptitiously take the bottle from its hiding place, sneak off to the bathroom, wash the stuff off, and go to meet with the others before Rosso had a chance to notice she was missing.
"Very well. Go ahead."
Rosso's first move was to assemble the things she would need on the counter. A pale pink blush, an eyelash curler and an eyebrow brush were very normal. Things that Argent might have used herself, if she used makeup every day. Even the black mascara, though glittering, and black liquid eyeliner weren't out of the realm of possibility. Then Rosso peered at Argent's face, going so far as stooping down to eye level and getting rather close.
"… Blue, then."
"I'm sorry?"
Rosso stood back up and began rummaging through her bag. "I had initially thought of using green, but a blue would look much better." She placed a light blue tube next to the rest of the items.
"Please tell me that isn't going on my mouth." Argent had never seen Rosso leave the room with any color other than red, pink or coral, but it wouldn't surprise her if Rosso tried to make her do so.
"Of course not," Rosso said, almost laughing. Almost. "It's for your eyes." She set a small compact with two more shades of blue next to it. With another glance at her face (this one much more cursory than the one before it), Rosso set out a tube of lipgloss, in a very normal shade of pink.
All in all, the assembly of products took Rosso about two minutes. She looked at the clock- 6:53- and said, "This needs to be fast."
Almost eight minutes later, there was a knock at the door that startled both women. Rosso's jolt hadn't smeared anything as far as she could tell (Argent wasn't allowed to see her reflection until Rosso had finished) but that was of no concern to Argent, who still had full plans of washing the entire thing off. The voice that came through the door stopped Argent cold though.
"Argent? Open the door! It's Weiss!"
Rosso's face, initially scrunched up in concentration of applying the final coat of lipgloss, smoothed out into a manic grin. "Go on, then. He's waiting."
Argent was torn between running to get the door and speeding to the sink to take it all off. Rosso pulled Argent up by the shoulders and steered her towards the door. She caught a fleeting look at herself in the mirror: An icy blue on her eyelids, glossy pink mouth agape. As Rosso threw open the door, Weiss looked momentarily startled and then looked down at the two in front of him.
"Wow…" He blinked once, slowly. Twice. "Uhm… Wow."
"Doesn't she look good?"
Argent could feel her cheeks getting warmer as Weiss inspected her carefully. Eventually, he said. "Almost perfect." With that, he reached forward and undid the top two buttons of her collared shirt, revealing the faintest hint of her cleavage. "Now she looks perfect."
She could almost hear Rosso's smug grin as the words, "Rosso did it," popped out of her mouth.
"I'll be sure to thank her later."
"Happy very early birthday," she crooned as she gave Argent a little push (conveniently into Weiss' chest) and closed the door behind her.
Note: All the cosmetics Rosso used are real and I actually own some of them. My Livejournal has the details of what products and colors they are.
