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Aradia's enthusiasm is unbridled when she finds the make-up stash of a nameless so-and-so's old house. She fists tubes of lipstick and liquid eyeliner until they resemble a gaudy set of claws, or gleaming plastic knuckles in a bubblegum-pop fighting ring. It doesn't take long for Feferi to join her, unearthing crumbling plates of eyeshadow from the dusty depths of a polka-dot case in various hues. Nepeta crowds in with Sollux under her arm, tickling and teasing him with lush-bristled brushes while he scowls at the eyebrow pencils stuffed into his hands. Their rag-tag group has always needed war paint, and sugar skulls suit their purposes.
While Sollux toys with the dial on their electric lantern, Feferi jumps back onto the chipped teal porcelain of the toilet lid, knotting her fingers together in her lap and barely containing her vibrating body to fill only one space.
"Aradia, I want a big, curly mustache, okay? I have to have a mustache." Her dark face draws into a stern expression, pouting lips pulling straight while her brows weight down with severity.
"Shore, but you have to give me a goatee." Aradia's grin is a pale crescent, luminescent in the white lantern light. Sollux hands her a short bottle of foundation before pulling himself up to perch on the counter. Nepeta watches the timid flex in his twiggy arms from the motion as she takes a spot on the edge of the tub, her eyes following his to rest on two of their favorite women.
True to her word, Aradia adorns Feferi's face with the fattest mustache possible, curling it into a smile above the faux-stitching of her fuchsia mouth. The light brown of her eyes glows within the black pits of her painted sockets, wide and rimmed with red. By the time that Aradia completes the widow's peak of webbing across Feferi's forehead, her fingers are dingy and her eyes are bright. Feferi leaps up to capture each of them in an embrace, her voice high with excitement while she strains to see her reflection in the mirror.
The force that Feferi exercises in pushing Aradia onto the toilet seat is frivolous, but makes everyone smile at one another as if hearing the whispers of a joke. It quickly becomes clear that Feferi's technique requires clashing hues as she swathes Aradia's eyes in shadow, one red and one blue. Sollux has to stop Feferi to bump knuckles, the slight curve of his mouth appreciative and proud.
With renewed vigor, Feferi applies a sticky fushia rose to Aradia's chin with the same lipstick that lords over her grin, careful not to smudge Aradia's goatee. She uses dark green to create the hollows of Aradia's cheeks, stealing a glance at Nepeta, who's chin is nested so intimately into her hands that she looks no less than starstruck. Upon finishing, Feferi enlists Aradia to join her in pilfering any extra make-up in the house. Nepeta is on her feet before the other two are out of sight, screaming and laughing between making spooky sounds at each other. Sollux puckers his lips into a frown that doesn't look sincere, as it fades as soon as his butt touches the newly-dubbed make-up throne.
Aradia and Feferi return to find Nepeta in a giggling mess. Sollux's twisted mouth and arched brows suggest that he hasn't made up his mind about how he feels about the fluttering false eyelashes weighing his gaze down. With more blacks and browns on her refreshed palette, Nepeta sticks out her tongue and begins to make Sollux her canvas. Two sugar skull faces stare down at Sollux from each of Nepeta's shoulders, and the artistry becomes a battle of wills as Aradia and Feferi struggle to make him laugh. Sollux is frowning with the effort as he tries not to watch both women make goofier and goofier faces in his direction, but that still prods Nepeta into chiding him.
"Neutral face, silly!" She turns her head towards Feferi, then Aradia, who both school their expressions into sincere curiosity. "And I'm onto you. Both of you." While she narrows one eye at each of them, in turn, Sollux reaches up to stretch his mouth open and stick out his tongue, eyes bugged. He isn't fast enough for Nepeta, who baps his nose with powder when she sees the expression.
"Bluh!"
"Stop being cute, all of you! I can't concentrate." Nepeta laughs before leaning in to darken the sides of Sollux's nose, taking extra care to keep both sides symmetrical. She focuses on his eyes, trailing long black wisps of liquid liner out to his temples. The corners of his mouth are extended and lined with teeth, next, and she happily brandishes the black lipstick provided over Sollux's kissy lips. The pits around his eyes are smaller, and begin to resemble paws when she lines the top of his brow with pad prints, but the rest of the shadows on his face are split into either red or blue. His forehead is filled with a honeycomb of hearts before Nepeta takes a step back, picking up the lantern to look at her work in direct light.
"I like the eyelashes with it." Aradia takes one of his hands while Feferi takes the other, helping him to his feet. Nepeta gives a nod of agreement as she steps back, curled hands cocked on her hips and legs planted wide. Her smile is full of affection and pride as she watches the three clamber over one another in front of the mirror, but it vanishes with her squeal as they turn around to gang up on her. Sollux cocks a grin at her that resembles a toy gun, childish and full of playful menace, and enlists his fellow skull warriors in applying her foundation. It feels like cake when it dries, but her skin is the darkest and the hardest to coat.
Aradia and Feferi hold her down as Sollux straddles her lap, making her wiggle and giggle. Everyone is looking at one anothers' mouths, but the scene doesn't devolve into sloppy four-way kissing until Nepeta discovers that Sollux has given her a cat nose. They paint Nepeta's face with lipstick prints and smears of color between redecorating one another until they have all slid bonelessly to the cracked tiles of the floor. For awhile they simply sit, shoulder to shoulder to small breast to wide hips and sharp chin to cheek to ribs that quake with mirth. They are a tangle of limbs and skin and sweat, and this is what feels right.
Feferi is the first to break the silence, rummaging in the deep pockets of Nepeta's old coat until the crackling of a wrapper catches everyone's attention. She hikes the green sleeves up to her elbows after fishing out a chocolate bar and tearing the wrapper with her teeth.
"Do we have enough gas for tonight, Nepeta?" Feferi's long fingers broke the bar into squares to be passed around, watching Nepeta's eyes flick upward in thought.
"I think I siphoned enough. If it doesn't work, we still have the .22." Nepeta opened her mouth when Aradia offered her a chocolate square, taking a moment to coyly kiss the other woman's fingers once the sweet treat had found its way on her tongue. Aradia gave her a roguish smile in return.
"If we need to use the rifle, I can shoot everyone!"
"AA, you're being creepy again." Sollux reached across her lap to take a piece of chocolate from Feferi, the back of his hand skimming her cheek and receiving a short, appreciative peck.
"She just wants to bury us in paper party hats, Sollux."
"It's true." Another silence drifted between them after Aradia's amused affirmation. The light from their lantern stood in stark contrast to the view from the next room, which grew darker as the sun began to sink. Scavenging their ghost neighborhood and dicking around the house had taken time.
"We should head back to the garage." Sollux disentangled himself from the impromptu cuddle puddle to pick the lantern from the counter, casting the light over his stirring companions. Aradia clambered up after him, reaching towards the ceiling in a languid stretch while Nepeta and Feferi sprawled further across the floor. They helped one another up with quiet giggles before the four clustered together into one mass that just barely managed to shuffle out of the bathroom.
The dry heat of the outdoors greeted them once they emptied out into the street, their painted faces all the more stark with the light of the lantern illuminating them from the bottom-up. Arms linked, they trudged through the dusk and several abandoned yards on their way back to their base.
"What do you want to do most, before you die?" Pulling ahead, twisted around to walk backwards as she addressed the others. They were walking along the main artery of the neighborhood, now, a street with cracked pavement that had beckoned them to their plans, today. They hadn't seen a soul since they'd arrived.
"Have a foursome?" Feferi's eyebrows lifted hopefully as she looked from one painted face to another. Sollux chuckled.
"The one last night wasn't enough for you, FF?"
"Was it enough for you?" Her retort was pointed, inviting Sollux into banter. This time, everyone laughed.
"Point taken." Another lull, this time thoughtful. Sollux shrugged. "I guess I just want to be happy, AA." A hum of agreement rippled between them, leading to no more answers. Aradia stayed ahead, turning back around with her arms swinging. Nepeta and Feferi held hands, their arms linked across Sollux's lower back as their eyes rested on Aradia. Their base, a small brick house with a separate garage, appeared around the corner of a sunflower mailbox and down the long length of a gravel drive.
Nepeta released Feferi to match pace with Aradia, stopping in front of the garage to press her fingers beneath the door and lift with her legs. A beat-up blue pickup waited for them on the other side with a nest of blankets and pillows in its bed. Sollux fished its keys from the pocket of his jeans as he and Feferi followed Aradia and Nepeta into the garage. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed them to Nepeta's awaiting palm.
"Thanks!" As she climbed into the driver's seat, Feferi pulled the garage door back down. Sollux and Aradia had already clambered into the truck bed before it rumbled to life, Aradia's shirt flying into Feferi's face when she turned to join them.
"Are we having a foursome?" The sound of the truck door slamming and another shirt to the face was Feferi's answer. When she dropped them to the floor, Aradia was skimming Sollux's pants from his legs and Nepeta was crawling in to join them, her pants shucked on the garage floor.
"We're just waiting on you, Fefurry!" Two pairs of underwear flew onto the garage floor before Feferi hurriedly peeled off her clothing. The make-up was going to end up everywhere. A sprawling set of outstretched hands welcomed her into the truck bed. Aradia's breasts were hot against her bare shoulders, but Feferi appreciated the kisses pressed to her crown even more. Sollux tasted like old lipstick and iron when he kissed her, and Nepeta's strong, callused hands gave her little warning before pulling her hips forward against a curious mouth.
This was what Feferi liked: being completely swallowed by the others. She liked the way that Aradia laid her under six feet of sincere affection, and the way that Sollux's pointy joints jabbed the soft pudge of her stomach as he clambered over her with a coyness that he had never shed. Nepeta knew Feferi's body like she knew her own, a fact which Feferi still marvelled over in the midst of their shared lovemaking. A little make-up in her conch didn't matter, tonight.
With three pairs of hands fighting to sate her, Feferi didn't last long. She rose up from the blank pleasure of the moment with renewed vigor, helping Sollux lie against Nepeta before dropping to swallow him whole. Aradia leaned over her, hands raking through his hair and kissing along his jaw while Nepeta kneaded his ass, reaching ahead to tease his perineum in a way that Sollux appreciated enough to get loud for. They laughed at the lipstick marks on his dick, once he finished. He didn't mind when Aradia rolled away from him, spreading her legs and giggling behind her hands giddily.
Aradia liked to be kissed, so it was with no hesitation that she found mouths fluttering all across her body. She took turns kissing the others, starting with Feferi, then Sollux, then Nepeta and back again. Only when her lips were full and puffy did hands begin to spread over her skin, caressing every part of her body that curved. Someone tickled the underside of her ass when she came, making her body arch and her ribs ache with raucous laughter. Nepeta's impish smile pegged her as the culprit.
"After her, minions!" Aradia ignored the way the air felt thick as she pointed towards Nepeta, and Nepeta ignored the headache making her temples throb as she pressed Sollux's back into the truck bed to climb over his face. Soon, she was paying more attention to Feferi's hand in her hair, pulling her head back. She paid more attention to Aradia's nails raking down her sides and belly, Sollux's hand slapping her ass one moment and pinching his nails into it, the next. It was easy to ignore while she climaxed with teeth on her throat and breast, body shaking against an eager tongue.
No one mentioned the nausea that followed euphoria's climb down, which they followed into the soft nest of pillows. Sollux didn't have to move as Aradia and Feferi pressed into his sides, his arms snaking out behind them. He didn't mind Nepeta's weight on his torso as she stretched up along it, laying her ear against his sternum and draping her arms across the others.
"I love you." Speaking it like a sigh, Sollux didn't hide the lax peace that belied his churning stomach, his dizziness. He pulled Aradia and Feferi closer, smiled at Nepeta when she crawled closer. Everyone's make-up looked terrible, so he couldn't help but laugh.
"I love you," Aradia echoed, with
"I love you," and
"I love you," again. Feferi's chest ached, but she couldn't tell if it was a dying sort of ache or a happy sort of ache. Maybe it was both. When Aradia reached over to cup her cheek, Feferi decided that both were good options.
"Purromise that we'll still be together, after this." With her eyes shut, Nepeta almost couldn't tell who whispered in response. It was hard to concentrate on much. Sollux's heartbeat still fluttered beneath her ear.
"We wouldn't want to be anywhere else." Hands sought out hands, ignoring the discomfort from misplaced elbows or knees that were pressing in just the wrong spot. Breathing slowed. Were they sleeping, or was this death? Who would find their bodies? Anyone?
Sollux sighed, clasping Nepeta's hand over Feferi's side and Aradia's on her own. Aradia kept her eyes open, the smile on her face unwavering despite her desire to vomit. Everyone was beautiful, like this. She didn't want to miss a moment of it.
When they passed into death, it felt just like sleeping.