Niel was sulking. Chunji could tell by the shape of his perfect lips. They were side by side in the van despite Niel’s childish cries of “Not wanting to sit with anyone!” when they had finished at the radio station. But Cap had overruled him and kicked him out of the front seat easily. Chunji sat by the window, watching Niel instead of the scenery.

When they made it back to the dorm they piled out, Niel striding off without acknowledging anyone. Chunji and Cap shared a smile and trailed along behind him. The other three still on their way in the other van.

Niel had already shut himself in his room when Chunji and Cap made it to the dorm, with a quiet laugh and a pat to his back Cap wished Chunji luck and wandered off to nap in his own room. Chunji shifted from foot to foot, weighing his options before knocking on Niel’s door and stepping inside.

“What?” Niel asked, voice flat and unfriendly.

“I came to see if you were ok.” Chunji tried to keep his smile hidden as he caught sight of Niel’s pink stained lips again.

“I’m fine.”

“OK,” Chunji moved to sit next to him. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really,” Niel shook his head, all anger falling out of him and his shoulders slumping.

“You sure?”

“Yeah. I think I’m just going to shower and get the rest of this makeup off as best I can.”

“OK,” Chunji nodded and watched him stand. “I am sorry.”

Niel shrugged dejectedly.

“It’s not like you didn’t have to do it too.”

“Mm,” Chunji nodded thoughtfully. His eyes followed Niel to the door, staying on the plain wood for a long time after he had gone.

Niel was still sprawled on his bed, music piping into his ears as he tried to bleach his memory clean. He hated the stupid they made them do for variety. He was so tired of being asked to do aegyo, of being forced into embarrassing positions and especially the damn peppero game (most of the time). That day had been a new low point. Yes, they wore make up all the time but that was when they were performing or shooting. It was not for the embarrassment factor, it was not applied so terribly and such a disgusting colour.

He pressed his eyes into his pillow and gave a small noise of pain. There was more than one reason he was trying to bleach the memory from his brain.

The bedroom door clicked open and a weight settled on the bed by his legs. A hand ghosted over his back lightly and squeezed his shoulder. He already knew who it would be and didn’t roll over. He did remove an earbud though.

“You’ve been sulking for three days now,” Chunji commented, his voice even.

Niel grunted in reply and pushed his face further into the pillow.

“You want to talk about it yet?”

“No,” Niel moaned. He wished he could tell Chunji to go away, but the hand had begun to soothing patterns along his back and it was too calming to stop.

“Can you sit up and talk to me?”

There was a long moment of nothing. Chunji’s hand still moving over Niel’s back slowly.

“Niel?”

Slowly, with the movements of an old man, Niel rolled over and sat up to face Chunji. The other man’s eyes were soft with concern and his hand moved to rest on Niel’s knee.

“What’s wrong?” Chunji asked.

“I’m tired of doing all that stupid stuff.” Niel mumbled, eyes flicking away from Chunji’s.

“What stupid stuff?”

“You know, the stupid embarrassing stuff they make us do. ‘For the fans’” His air quotes were so sarcastic Chunji thought his face might melt off. “The aegyo and all that crap.”

Chunji nodded slowly. It was true, he hated that stuff too but it was part and parcel of their jobs. They were expected to sing, dance and entertain. Niel hadn’t ever shown a reaction like this before though.

“OK,” Chunji nodded again. “So what set you off? Was it the makeup?”

Niel let out a pained groan and flung himself backwards onto the mattress. Chunji waited for an answer.

“Yes,” The word was mumbled out between Niel’s pouted lips.

“But we wear makeup all the time.”

“I know that!” Niel burst, making Chunji jump slightly and raise his eyebrows. “But you made me look so cheap.” The words were uttered in such a small voice that Chunji couldn’t suppress the giggle from escaping his mouth. Niel glared at him from where he lay.

“I’m sorry.” Chunji smiled widely, rubbing Niel’s thigh as he spoke. “I’m sorry I made you look so cheap. It was the stuff they had me use, I promise.”

“Ah, shut up.” Niel tried to roll away but with no real conviction to make Chunji stop touching him. Instead he just wriggled from side to side comically.

“I have an idea. Wait here,” Chunji squeezed his leg and was gone, dashing out of the bedroom door and leaving Niel lying in his confused emotions.

Emotions he knew had been there a long time. Emotions that he had been ignoring very well until three days ago at a radio station. Dammit. Emotions he might have to face up to now. Literally.

Chunji stepped back into the room, a black square case in his hand and what looked like a glittery black pencil case in the other. He beamed at Niel and came to sit across from him one the bed once more, setting the black case on the floor beside him.

“What’s that?” Niel asked, already knowing the answer but not quite believing it.

“My makeup case.” Chunji shrugged, already ping the pouch of brushes and spreading them on the bed beside his knees.

“You own a makeup case?” Niel’s eyebrows were hidden in his hair but a strange sensation fluttered through his chest.

“Mm-hmm,” Chunji nodded, bending down to open the case.

“How? Why? Where?” Niel spluttered one after another, each answer popping into his head as he asked them.

“How… I’ve been watching the makeup-noonas for a few years, and I watch tutorials online.” Chunji began leaning towards Niel with a brush of primer. Niel leant back a little. “Why… It’s fun.” He shrugged and gripped Niel’s shoulder to hold him in place. The cool liquid brushed over Niel’s face and he automatically closed his eyes. “Where… under my bed among all the other crap.”

Niel stayed quiet for a long time, letting Chunji spread more product over his face gently. It was relaxing. After a long silence Niel sighed happily. 

“Where are the others?” Niel asked after a while, realising this was kind of weird.

“They went out.” Chunji shrugged, rummaging through his box once more.

“Why are you doing my makeup?” Niel whispered, as Chunji began spreading contour across his cheeks.

“Because you’re pretty,” Chunji mumbled, concentration colouring his voice. “Or you will be when I’m finished.”

Niel smacked his arm with a laugh.

“You’re always pretty.” Chunji smiled softly, pausing for a moment. “I’m making up for the horrible job I did the other day.”

They fell back into peaceful silence, Chunji slowly working at Niel’s face with brushes and sponges. Occasionally giving small tut’s of irritation and back tracking to start again.

It was different to when the noona’s did his makeup. For one, he wasn’t falling asleep in a makeup chair, they weren’t about to shoot a video or livestream and feeling Chunji’s opposite hand move here and there over his legs or shoulders was strangely intimate. Niel felt the urge to lean into the hands and sigh.

It took some time for him to notice that Chunji wasn’t touching him anymore, the sweep of brushes and sponges hadn’t been present for quite some time. Niel opened his eyes slowly. Chunji was staring at him intensely, eyes fixed to Niel’s lips as his own were pressed into a line.

“What?” Niel asked, fluttering his eyes a little and enjoying the feeling of mascara on his lashes.

“I’m…” Chunji’s voice was strange, he cleared it and tried again. “Trying to decide what to do on your lips.”

Niel let his fingers touch the lips lightly before falling back to Chunji’s knee.

“What are you going to do?” Niel asked, dipping his head a little and looking up at the other man from beneath his lashes.

Chunji gave a stuttering laugh and batted Niel’s shoulder a little.

“Stop that,” He protested as Niel dropped the coy act.

Niel’s heart fluttered a little and he grabbed Chunji’s hand in his.

“What are you going to do?” Niel asked again, lacing their fingers together.

Chunji’s teeth appeared on his bottom lip, gripping it a little.

“You look pretty now,” Chunji mumbled, leaning in a little as though examining his handiwork closer.

“So do you.” The words slipped out before he could stop them, but Niel didn’t want to anymore. He leant to Chunji a little more.

Chunji closed the last of the gap, pressing his lips to Niel’s firmly. Their entangled fingers squeezed and Chunji raised his other hand to cup Niel’s head. Niel leant into the kiss happily, feeling the knot of irritation and frustration finish melting away from beneath his bone. He sighed a little and tried to lean his head against Chunji’s.

“Hey,” Chunji leant away quickly. “You’ll smudge it.”

Niel let the peals of laughter escape as Chunji’s face turned serious again. He kept giggling as Chunji fished through the case and produced a demure brown maroon for Niel’s lips.

“I’m almost finished,” Chunji told him, pinning his head in place with one hand. “Then you can see.”

“Are we not going to t-“ Niel tried but Chunji shushed him with the lipstick. He rolled his eyes but sat still and patient as Chunji put the final touches on him. When he was released he smiled.

“Are we going to talk about what happened?” Niel asked again. Chunji instead lifted his mirror to show Niel the results.

He had to hand it to Chunji, he was pretty damn good. Niel had ended up undeniably beautiful. He pursed his maroon lips and took the mirror to lay it on the bed. Chunji was staring at his knees, fiddling with a makeup brush.

“Am I pretty?” Niel asked, fluttering his eyes again and smiling sweetly.

Chunji blushed in reply and nodded.

“You know,” Niel let his fingers rest beneath Chunji’s chin, “I do wonder what you look like with makeup on.” He leant forward with a devious smile.

“You’ve seen me a million times,” Chunji replied, eyes falling onto Niel’s lips automatically.

“Not red lipstick,” Niel argued and pressed his coloured mouth to Chunji’s again.

Their mouths moved together naturally, hands linking and falling into one another’s hair again. When Niel leant back for air Chunji’s mouth was smeared with the lipstick.

“Ah, so pretty,” Niel teased coming back for more kisses.

This time Chunji broke them apart, his hands pushing Niel’s shoulders away firmly.

“You’re ruining all of my hard work,” Chunji scolded him lightly. It was true, Niel’s lipstick had spread all over his mouth and a little to his chin and cheeks.

“You can just do it again,” Niel shrugged, trying for more kisses.

“Can I?” Chunji’s eyes lit up with joy.

“Of course,” Niel smiled and ceased his movements. “Of course. And I want to see you like this too.”

“You don’t… Think I’m a total weirdo?”

“Of course I do,” Niel grinned widely as Chunji’s face fell. “But so am I.”

He gave him another lingering, maroon kiss and smiled sweetly.

“Help me get this stuff off,” Niel mumbled, rubbing at his chin and looking at the stain on his hand.

“Stop. You need a wipe.” Chunji shook his head and bent down to his case a last time. He made to start wiping away at Niel’s eyes but his hand was caught and lowered.

“Just the lips,” Niel corrected, “We have to do them again because I messed them up.”

Chunji laughed and nodded. He gave Niel one last kiss before beginning to fix the spread of lipstick.

--------------------------------------------

A/N: Uh, so I saw this gif on tumblr of Chunji doing Niel's makeup for some punishment and the link to the video was broken so I couldn't watch it. Instead my brain just decided to write me this when I was at work last night. So! Here! A strange ChuNiel drabble feat. makeup and kissing!