A/N: This is my second He's All That story. I still think these two are cute and immediately came to mind when I thought of the prompt story idea.
Warnings: There is the occasional swear word. Also this story is unbeta'd so future apologies for any grammatical mistakes.
Disclaimer: I do not own He's All That and make no money from writing this.
Surprisingly it was actually Cameron's idea. He knew Padgett was struggling with a creative block and was looking for a new video idea to post. So while he was waiting for her to get ready one day, it hit him. Brin was so excited she couldn't wait for it to air, only slightly frustrated that she couldn't film or get to watch it take place in person, because she knew she'd find it hilarious.
"So I had an idea for your next vlog if you're interested." He knew he caught her attention, when she immediately put down the phone and stared at him. "I was thinking we could do the whole I try to do your makeup thing." He tried not to wince, as this could just be a colossally dumb idea or turn out really bad. Padgett however let out an incredulous sound.
"Seriously?" Giving him a look that read 'who are you and what have you done with Cameron' You'd be willing to try that?"
"Yeah I've seen a little and it could be something new and different to put out there."
Laughing incredulously and still looking entertained, Padgett replied. "Those are some words for it. But I love that you're willing to try that for me. Sure, let's do it."
"Great." Trying not to think too much about what the hell he had just got himself into.
Cameron listened to Padgett do her usual intro and then introduced him, while he studied the vast array of products she had laid out for him. She couldn't have kept it just the slightest bit simple? He quickly stared at her in alarm, as he nearly missed her telling him that she planned to wear this out tonight. What? Why?! Not for the first time he wondered if she was crazy.
"What do you think I start with?"
"Well," Grabbing a random foundation bottle titled NARS on it. "I'm pretty sure this stuff goes first." Hmm how to apply it. There were tons of different sized brushes along with foam squishy things he's pretty sure he's seen her use before, but instinct told him to do differently. And so squirted a generous portion in his hand before dipping two fingers in it carefully painting it on her face. She desperately tried not to giggle.
"Now you have to try to make me look pretty okay? No clown makeovers."
"I promise a clown is not what I'm going for." He murmured while continuing to try to rub it in. How did it get streaky so fast? He blended it with his fingers, until he felt like it at least looked much better then when he started.
"Oh yeah? What look are you going for? A natural everyday look or something a little bit more dramatic for going out at night?"
"What's somewhere in between those?" Trying to shelve his impending dread at the task ahead.
"Is there anything more you want to put on my face to start?" She prompted him.
Glancing at the different products he also saw there were a few powder foundations and some things called bronzers and concealers. Steering clear of the latter he decided to pick the closest powder foundation that matched the NARS bottle and grabbed the fluffiest brush and much like a painter lightly painted her face. This part was actually kind of fun.
"Do I go on your neck with this?"
"I can't tell you anything. This is all you babe."
"Nice well let's move onto eyes. Which I have to ask, ``Why do you have 50,000 eye box sets?"
Padgett rolled her eyes. "I have a lot of pallets for variety. So which color scheme are you going with? Are we doing a more warm look like golds, reds, or amber or something more cool toned like blue, green, or violet. You basically have every color and shade to choose from."
Grabbing the closest one with a mountain picture on front cover Cameron looked at the colors and thought about it. A dark color might be too much and easy to mess up. So something light seemed safe he picked an extremely light purple.
"Ooh I like that one good choice."
Now he just needed the best brush to apply it settling for a medium fluffy one but much smaller than the earlier face one. He tried to start off lightly, gaining more confidence, as he went along. Making sure it didn't go all the way to her eyebrow, because he didn't think that would look good.
"I think I'm going to add another color."
"Look at you getting all creative! Going for the blended dual chrome effect."
'No idea what she said there' but reaching now for a much darker color he tapped the brush on the side of the container just remembering her doing that sometimes before sweeping it back and forth in the middle of her eyelid. The result did not look very good, and it definitely looked much darker on the skin than what he thought.
"Oh God, that's not good."
Padgett laughed and in doing so her moving caused him to accidentally swipe her nose, getting a streak of dark purple on it.
"Don't move." He stressed with a laugh. "While I try to fix this." He grabbed another fluffy brush trying to blend it better before grabbing a damp washcloth and cleaning up. Cameron went back with a smaller brush with more of his first color to try to fix it. Studying it he felt it looked slightly better.
"Is there anything else you want to put on my eyes?" Trying not to subtly not stare at the mascaras and eyeliners. Yeah this was the part he was dreading.
"You literally put this on near your eyes?" Holding up a sharp eye liner pencil. "That seems like a hazard."
"If you think that part is intense just think about when I glue false eyelashes on."
He shuddered, unable to understand why one would do that to themselves. "Well we're not doing that today." Hesitating over the pencils and other eye liners Cameron offered. "Maybe we'll skip this too and just try the spider brush thing."
She looked very unimpressed with him. "You know very well what mascara is called."
"Spider brush makes more sense. Now what way do I put this on? Do you keep your eyes open or closed?"
"Which would help you apply it better."
"Umm..."
He had her open her eyes at first and then close them upon finding that easier, after she blinked too much. "How do you do this with a steady hand?" His hand was shaking the slightest bit and managed to get a small smear under one eye and above the other. "Fuck and mean frick. We'll edit that part out later." Grabbing the washcloth before abandoning it in favor of the makeup remover wipes when the washcloth did absolutely nothing. "Oh wow this stuff does not want to come off..."
"Use your tools Cam you got this."
I absolutely do not have this." He answered back honestly with a sardonic laugh shaking his head lightly, swiping it away. "Right now we're shooting for above clown level. That's going to be our bar."
Padgett let out a mock sad sigh. "What a sad bar to shoot for. At least bring me near an alien princess."
"That would take a miracle." He mumbled distractedly putting the spider brush back in its container before feeling a slap. "Ow!" Realizing suddenly what he said. "Not because of you! But because of my skills. I honestly don't even know what you do with this." Picking up a metal crimp that looked like it belonged in a surgical operating theater.
"What do you think it does? Like where on my face specifically would that be the most effective to use?"
"...your lips? To keep the lipstick from going outside of them."
"No...but points for creative thinking! Actually that's a good segue. Are you done with my eyes?" Casting one last look to her thousand eye makeup items.
"Definitely."
"Alright well now that leaves us with cheeks, lips and brows. Where would you like to start first?"
Cameron felt both of his eyebrows raise up. "Wait wait wait hold on. What do you mean brows? What do you do to your eyebrows?"
"Define them of course or fill them in if I need to. Honestly it comes in handy in the summer when my hair lightens."
His eyes drifted to the portion of the table that contained several brown marker-like sticks. "Alright let's add this too. So many browns...why?" Picking up a few to hold up to her eyebrow before settling on the closest match. This definitely seemed the most unnecessary so far. Cameron made sketch strokes along her brow arch before squinting, as he studied it. Did that honestly make any difference? He would swear he couldn't tell, deciding then to move to cheeks before ending with lips.
"Now this," picking up a random pink one. "I at least know it is called blush." He watched Padgett break into a smile.
"Good job babe. Tell our viewers which one you're going to use."
"Oh right. I probably should have been doing this all along, but this is Wild Cherry Glow by MAC. It's very pink is all I can tell you." Picking up a different sized fluffy brush from her near 2 dozen container jars of them. He put a bit on, tapped it on the side like the eyeshadow to make sure he didn't get too much and gently swept it back and forth on her cheeks.
"Alright now that your cheeks are very pink. It's time for the closer a.k.a. the lipstick."
"And what color are you thinking of choosing this time?" Sounding both curious and amused.
"Well I figured we did purple for the eyes and pink for the cheeks. Let's keep the variety going with red for the lips." Padgett betrayed a few brief seconds of geniene dismay before schooling her face. Apparently in her mind that color combo didn't work. Oh well too late to course correct now he'd already decided snatching a deep wine colored red which apparently soothed Padgett a bit who let out a relieved sigh.
"Now you already know what I'm going to say right?" He asked with a smile.
She smiled back. "My best duck-face coming right up." Puckering her lips just slightly to allow him to put the color on her.
"Now you can't laugh or we're going to get the joker like effect." She broke for a split second with a small giggle but quickly schooled her face back into position. He had her smile just to get the parts he couldn't get to when making her favorite selfie pose.
"And Voila! I think I'm done and not clown like in the least." He announced proudly recapping the tube. He watched Padgett pick up the hand-held mirror and break out in a grin.
"Cameron! It looks so good! You did a really good job. Very classy." She complimented setting the mirror back down. He inwardly preened a little.
Turning back to the camera she thanked her viewers for watching and did the rest of her outro telling them to tune in next week for a target haul video. Once the camera was off she kissed his nose.
He rolled his eyes staring ironically at his new clown nose. "Thanks Padgett you're going to ruin my hard work."
"I thought you needed my creative implant on you." She replied with a slight smirk starting to clean up the vanity. He moved to help her, not that he really knew where anything went. "Want to catch the latest Sharknado movie later tonight?"
"God no that looks terrible you-...you aren't thinking of actually watching the movie are you?"
That earned him a megawatt smile. "I think...you'd look even better in this lipstick than me."
He raised an eyebrow but gently pulled her closer whispering. "Is that so?"
"Why don't we find out?" Wrapping her slim arms around his neck and staring up into his eyes. "Kiss me."
Cameron didn't need any further prompting after that.
