Thank you for the wait and the encouraging reviews! Here's a longer chapter to tide you over till the next one~ Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail
vlog #4
Swirling on his chair, Romeo did a sweep of the room, mentally checking if everything was in order. Camera, check. Extra chair, check. Computer, check.
Nodding to himself in satisfaction, he took a glance at his reflection in the mirror, straightening the snapback he flipped backwards on his head, the deep blue reminiscent of the fellow YouTuber about to be featured in his video. He was wearing a black collared shirt with only the first button buttoned over a white t-shirt, and a pair of sweatpants, figuring that the camera would only capture the top half of his body anyway.
The bell rang, snapping him out of his thoughts. He ignored the smirk his father gave him from the couch as he bounded out of his room, and opened the door quickly.
"Hey," he said breathlessly.
Wendy seemed surprised at the speed at which he opened the door, but answered with a bright smile. "Hi, Romeo."
Macao's smirked only widened as the two youngsters continued smiling shyly at each other in the doorway. "Brat, you ain't inviting her in?"
"Oh!" He pulled the door open wider, the tips of his ears heating up in embarrassment. "Come in."
"Good afternoon, si- Uncle," Wendy greeted. Macao gave her a megawatt smile that spoke of teasing and mischievousness.
"Run along now, kids! Go hang out in the room. You can shut the door if you want, I'll be right here with the TV on max volume."
Romeo groaned and threw his hands up in exasperation as Wendy spluttered and blushed. He rolled his eyes at his father's guffaws, placing a palm between Wendy's shoulder blades to usher her down the hall. "Keep the TV down, pops, we're filming."
"Oh. Filming."
Rolling his eyes once more, he finally managed to escape to his room with Wendy. He ran a hand through his purple strands, shaking his head.
"I'm so sorry about my dad," he sighed.
"D-don't worry about it..."
He bit his lip and shrugged. "Well, welcome to my humble abode, goddess."
"Stop calling me that!" she blushed, eliciting a chuckle for him.
"Alright, alright. Now, what shall we do first?"
"The make-up video."
"Why? So you can clean it off immediately before we film the next one?" he joked.
"No... no! I didn't mean it like that..."
"Relax, Wendy. I'm just joking."
He led her over to where he'd set up their 'work station'. A DSLR camera was set up on a tripod on the desk, and the sunlight shining in from the window behind it providing the natural lighting she'd seen in his videos.
Wendy passed him a memory card which he popped into the camera, turning it on and making adjustments to the angle and focus. "You ready?"
Taking a deep breath, she nodded in determination. He shot her another grin, before hitting the record button.
"Hi guys! I'm Wendy Marvell, and today I have a special guest with me," she began, her confidence increasing as she spoke to the camera.
Wendy turned to him, sporting an enthusiastic expression he'd never seen before during their interactions. Romeo chuckled at her bright face, before giving a salute to the camera.
"Hey, I'm Romeo Conbolt."
"So... as you guys can see, I currently have no makeup on my face..."
"You hardly look any different!" Romeo exclaimed.
"What are you talking about? My eyebrows are gone and everything..." she brought her finger up to touch her thin eyebrows, as he shook his head.
"I'll never understand eyebrow make-up."
Wendy's eyes widened. "Now I'm not sure if I can trust you."
Laughing, Romeo winked at the camera.
"Romeo's going to do my make-up today," she smiled.
"I'm excited."
Hesitantly eyeing his overly wide grin, she removed a large pouch from her bag, showing it to the camera. "I've got some of my make-up products here, and you can choose from them."
"This is some?" he asked incredulously, picking out a handful of bottles and cases and brushes.
Wendy felt the heat blossom on her cheeks, as he continued to sift through the bag. "I've got as much make-up as you have games," she retorted.
He stopped in his actions, before nodding, impressed at her witty reply. "Well, goddess, let's get started."
"I told you to stop calling me that!"
Romeo only laughed. "Sure sure. I know the first step is foundation. Right?"
"I usually put concealer first."
"What? Which one is that?" she giggled at his shocked expression, digging through the bag to produce a stick concealer. Romeo grabbed it, pulling open the cap and rolling it up, amazed. "What do you use this for?"
"Covering my dark eye circles and blemishes."
He frowned as he scrutinised her face. "You don't have any though."
She bit her lip to hide the smile threatening to burst on her lips, gesturing for him to continue. He turned to her, taking a deep breath, before gently pressing it onto her skin.
"...Is it supposed to look that different from your skin colour?"
"You're supposed to blend it!"
"Oh..." he reached his fingers towards her face, and she leant away in surprise.
"With a brush!"
"Ah!" he picked a brush from the many in the pouch, experimentally dabbing it. "It blends! That's so cool."
He breezed through the rest of the concealing, picking up the foundation and staring at it blankly.
Wendy giggled at his confusion. "Pour a bit of it on the back of your hand and use that big brush to brush it on my face."
"How much should I... Oh sh-"
She could only laugh as he panicked over spilling the liquid, spinning round blindly to look for a tissue.
"This isn't funny, Wendy! Now I've got beige stains on my sweatpants!"
Wendy turned to the camera as Romeo stood up, gesturing at his sweatpants. "This is evidence of a YouTuber's laziness... Only dressing the top half of their bodies..."
"Maybe you should dress me up next time," he smirked, settling back down into the chair. "Alright, Ms Marvell, it's time for some foundation."
She folded her lips inwards as he dabbed at her skin randomly, swiping the brush around and causing her to squeeze her eyes shut.
"You know how you do the voice overs when you're filming make-up tutorials?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm now putting some foundation on my face," he began, opting for a pretentiously high-pitched tone.
"I don't sound like that!"
Ignoring her, "you have to blend all the way down to your neck! I'm just using soft, measured strokes to create the perfect look."
The bluenette couldn't hold back her urge to laugh, and soon Romeo was joining in with his lower-pitched chuckles.
"Oh. Oops..." Wendy's eyes flew open at the hesitance in his voice, taking in the expression of someone who'd just committed a crime. "Look, I honestly didn't mean to... but... you kinda look like a geisha now..."
Her eyes widened, reaching for a mirror, but he swatted her hands away.
"Sorry goddess, you only get to see the final product. Now, since your skin tone is... bright enough, let's skip the powder and other stuff and go straight to the eye makeup."
"Curl my eyelashes first!" She picked out the funny looking tool for him, and he eyed it suspiciously before slipping his fingers through the holes. "...You know how to use this... right...?"
"I've seen enough of your videos to know," he shrugged. "Come closer."
She fought the natural pink seeping into her cheeks as he pulled her chair to his, a hand coming up to brush against her face as he reached for her eyes with the other. "D...don't press it down too quickly or you might catch my eyelids too."
He hummed in acknowledgement, carefully closing the curler around her eyelashes. "Do I just hold it?"
"Um... you can sort of pull it- Ow! Pull it gently!"
"I'm sorry!" he panicked, earning a chortle from the bluenette. He quickly finished the other eye, and reached for eyeshadow. "Let's go with a nice ocean blue to complement your hair."
"I don't think-"
"Shh, valued customer, let your make-up artist do the work. Now close your eyes," he sang.
"R...Romeo..."
"I'm actually pretty good at this!" He whirled the brush around, a mock display of expertise in the way he extravagantly painted on her eyelids. "Perfect! What's next? Oh, eyeliner!"
"That's dangerous, Romeo!"
"Have faith, I won't stab your eyes, now come closer."
"You keep asking me to move closer..."
"That's because I want you to be closer to me."
She bit her lip. "Less flirting, more working, Romeo-san."
Bursting into laughter, he halted his digging through the pouch. "I was wondering when you'd catch on."
She blushed and snatched the pouch away in an effort to distract herself, only causing Romeo to laugh harder. Picking out a pencil liner, she handed it to her 'make-up artist'.
"I didn't know eyeliners looked like this. I thought they were thinner, like brushes!"
"Those are liquid liners! They're harder to control so I thought I'd bring a pencil one."
"Underestimating me, are we?" he huffed, but reached to cup her face in his hands. "Close your eyes, goddess."
"Try to draw as close to my lash line as possible!"
"Do you want a cat eye?"
"...Are you sure you know how to do that."
"Of course!" He carefully traced a line along her lash line, finding it difficult to keep his hand steady as he went along.
Feeling his confident strokes on her skin, she thought that maybe I can begin to trust him with this whole make-up thing-
"If the line looks kinda squiggly can I go over it again?"
"...Yes..."
"Huh. I guess that will do it." With a flick of his wrist, he drew an end at the corner of her eye that was just a tad too long - and very strangely angled. He'd tried his best, he reasoned, as he moved on to repeat the process on the other eye. "Ugh, I hate when I draw one side perfect and I can't recreate it!"
"You have to start on the other side like its the first side you're doing... That way it'll be perfect on both sides..."
"Make-up is way too hard."
"It'll be my turn to do your make-up next time!"
"Making me look like a drag queen?"
"No! I'll make you look good."
"I think you look good," he winked.
Wendy's eyes flew open, her heart jumping in surprise. We're in the middle of filming, he's only doing this to make it less boring. "But yet you're making me uglier."
"...Yeah... I've made a great mistake..." Romeo hung his head forlornly.
Giggling, she blinked at him as he saw her face. And promptly choked.
"I... I promise I can fix this! Where's your mascara?"
"I hardly think mascara will fix anything..." she gave the camera pleading glance, mouthing 'help' as he finally found the product.
Wendy could only feel her dread increasing as he closed in with the brush, succumbing to her fate and letting him brush it against her right eyelashes.
"Ah! Why does it clump together!"
"Stop panicking!" she guffawed. "You have to do it in a zig-zag motion," she explained, motioning with her hands.
He gripped the end of the mascara with both hands, biting his lip in concentration as he repeated the motion.
"You look like you're trying to saw my eyelashes off."
"Shh," he shushed her again. Brushing some mascara on her bottom lashes, he moved to attend to her left eye, when-
"You got it on my nose!"
"Why is there stuff on the stick?! It's supposed to be on the brush only!" She couldn't help but guffaw at his dumbfounded expression, as he groaned and flipped the tool so that the stick would not touch her nose. "Now I have to twist my arm awkwardly!"
"...My mascara isn't a lightsaber..."
Romeo only grinned in reply. "Okay, that struggle is over. What am I missing?"
"Lipstick."
"Ah, of course, how could I forget." He picked out all the lipsticks he could find, laying them out on the table and popping the cap open one by one. "Hmm..."
He put each shade against her the corner of her lips, trying to see which one looked the best. Wendy shifted under his burning gaze on her lips.
He noticed her discomfort, flitting his blue irises up to meet her chestnut hue, before looking back down at her parted lips.
A tongue darted out to wet them out of nervousness. He blinked.
"Romeo...?"
Clearing his throat, he picked a soft pink colour, shooting a grin to the camera. "Pink happens to be my favourite colour."
"Is it because Natsu-san's hair is pink?" she giggled, causing him to blanch in shock. The bluenette turned to the camera. "Natsu-san is my cousin and I've heard that Romeo's in love with him."
"It was just that one time I said I wanted to be like him," he complained, pressing the lipstick onto Wendy's lips. "They never let me live it down."
He concentrated on making sure he stayed within the lines of her lips, lightly brushing the stick across her lips.
"You'll have to press harder, Romeo... I don't think anything is going on my lips at all."
"Alright, alright- argh!"
Wendy stared at him, wide eyed. "What?"
"It's out of line, what do I do?!"
"Wipe it off!" Wendy shook her head at the fumbling Romeo, who gave up on looking for a tissue and instead reached his hand towards her face. He cupped her cheek and rubbed his thumb across the stain, feeling the tips of his ears burn as he realised the intimacy of the action.
Clearing his throat, he tried again. Is it just me or are her cheeks awfully red... I don't remember blush on...
Successfully finishing the lipstick without any glitches, he leaned back to look at his masterpiece…
"Pfft,"
…only to be unable to control the laughter that immediately burst from his lips.
Wendy narrowed her eyes at him, throwing a suspicious glare at the camera before reaching for the mirror Romeo held out in his shaking hands.
She glanced at her reflection in the mirror.
"Oh my gosh!" she squealed, throwing the mirror away in reflex. Romeo caught it while still laughing, generously holding it in place. "Romeo, what did you do?" she whined. "I look like a monster!"
Shaking from his mirth, he ran a hand through his purple hair and took a shuddering breath to calm himself. "I'm sorry, I swear! I tried my best! At least the eyeshadow complements your hair."
Wendy placed her heavily caked face in the palm of a hand, a smile playing on her lips. "I guess it does..."
Finally calming himself, he patted her on the back. "I'll help you wash it off," he offered.
The bluenette's head shot up faster than he could blink, and she shook her hands heavily with a glare that held no malice. "No thanks, I think I need a break from you."
"Don't lie, Wen, I know you love having me around," he smirked, and Wendy tried to ignore the jolt of her heart at his nickname.
"As long as I get to do your make up next time!"
Romeo snorted but nodded in agreement. "I got to say, I'm glad I suggested this."
Wendy rolled her eyes in mock annoyance, turning to the camera.
"Life lesson, when Romeo says 'I have a good idea', run."
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