By: Xx The Grey Lady xX
Rated: T

~*~*~

"M-Masaomi… I don't think this is what guys do at sleepovers…"

"Obviously, Mikado." Kida sighs, dumping the bag of nail polish onto Mikado's futon. "You don't understand, do you? In order to successfully get inside the minds of women and therefore get lots of action, we have to learn their ways. I read in a magazine that this is what all girls do at sleepovers."

Mikado frowns, brushing his fingers over the many bottles of polish. "Why do আপনি have so many of these?"

"That is for me to know and for আপনি to never find out." Kida grins. "Go on, pick a color~"

"I don't know about any of this, Masaomi. আপনি pick for me."

"Gladly! Hm, let's see… well, আপনি wear that green জ্যাকেট all the time, so green might be good, but you're pretty pale so it might make your skin look washed-out—or blue, it would bring out your eyes, or—"

"Masaomi, just how often do আপনি read these magazines?"

"I have a subscription to Cosmo, I get it every month," Kida explains, sorting through the mess of bottles. "Blue, blue, that's too light, dark blue, dark blue—"

"I didn't know আপনি could read English that well," Mikado says suspiciously.

"…I can read it well enough." Kida plucks a bottle from the mess and holds it above his head victoriously. "Aha! See, it's the exact same color as your eyes."

Mikado looks, and it is the same color as his eyes, অথবা pretty close. "What color will Masaomi use?"

"Eh… hm. I didn't think about it, actually." He looks down at the pile. "Ne, help me look, Mikado. Any color আপনি think would contribute to my dashing good looks."

Mikado rolls his eyes but goes to work, attempting to put this aesthetic science Masaomi used aside and just go with what he thinks would look nice. After all, it isn't like he can use the eye-matching technique since Masaomi's eyes are brown, and even though his eyes are really pretty that doesn't mean it would look nice on his fingernails.

Mikado pauses his hand over the pile, runs through that thought again, and flushes. It's okay to think your male friend has pretty eyes, isn't it? Eyes are eyes, they look mostly the same except that girls usually have longer lashes, and it isn't like that really sparkly shade of brown could only look nice on a girl, that's just illogical.

I am thinking about this too much, Mikado decides and goes back to scanning the bottles, but he stops again at a square bottle of yellow.

Mikado glares at it for a full ten সেকেন্ড before placing it calmly back in the bag, earning a bemused look from Kida.

"What was that about?" he asks, glancing into the bag.

"I don't like yellow," Mikado says pointedly. "…And it doesn't look good on আপনি anyway."

Kida blinks, then shakes his head, chuckling. "Well, I wish someone had told me that before I made a bad fashion statement for three years. Ne, Mikado, if we're putting yellow back in the bag…" He looks around quickly, then grabs a bottle and shakes it in front of Mikado's face. "Then no clear for you, right?"

"…I probably shouldn't wear blue then, either," Mikado says, looking away.

"Cheer up, buttercup," Kida says brightly, tapping his nose. "Well, if not blue, then… eh… how do আপনি feel about purple?"

"Indifferent?"

"Purple it is! And for me… what do আপনি think, Mikado? Green? I'm thinking green."

"Sure." Mikado doesn't bother to point out that they will effectively be wearing the রঙ of a certain famous dinosaur, as he's pretty sure the polish will come off before the পরবর্তি time they leave the apartment. He hopes.

"I'll do yours first as an example of proper technique," Kida informs him, unscrewing the lid on the bottle of purple polish and taking Mikado's right hand in his left. Inexplicably, Mikado feels himself shiver.

"Pay attention," Kida says. "This is a very difficult process to master, requiring lots of hand-eye coordination and precision."

Mikado cannot see this turning out well, but he watches carefully anyway as Kida drags the brush down the middle of his thumbnail, leaving a glistening trail of deep purple. Kida dips the brush again, covers one side of his nail and then the other. A bit of the polish has found its way onto Mikado's skin, so Kida scrapes it off carefully with his nail and brings Mikado's hand close to his face to observe his handiwork.

"Tada!" Kida blows lightly, and something coils tight and hot in the pit of his stomach.

For the পরবর্তি twenty minutes, Mikado squirms uncomfortably and tries very, very hard to ignore the gradually worsening problem between his legs as Kida painstakingly paints each of his nails, stopping every time to blow gently. When he finishes, finally, Mikado's breath is a little ragged and his hands are shaking as Kida gives them a final inspection.

"…Mikado, are আপনি okay? আপনি look kinda… feverish."

Mikado turns his eyes to Kida's, bright and deep brown, and suddenly he is overwhelmed দ্বারা the urge that twitches through his newly-varnished fingers to cup his best friend's face, so he does, and he leans অগ্রবর্তী quickly, pressing their lips together before Kida has time to pull away.

Rather than stop it, though, Kida kisses back, threading his fingers through Mikado's hair and pulling him closer দ্বারা the back of the neck. Mikado's হৃদয় thuds in his chest.

Kida breaks the kiss, grinning easily at Mikado. "As much as I'd like to continue this, you're going to mess up your nails, and আপনি wouldn't want me to have to do it all over again, would you?"

"Actually," Mikado says, thinking fondly of the heat that pooled in his groin as Kida's hands held his own, "I don't think I'd mind that much."