Chapter 4 – Closer You and I
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The day when Vivien and I would cosplay together finally arrived. The convention was a two-day event and we decided to do our cosplay only on Sunday. Because of that, I had already taken my time to enjoy the convention as a con-goer on the first day.

I began the day by going to the condominium unit of Greg, another officemate of ours. Vivien was good friends with Greg, and since he lived about five minutes away from the venue of the convention, Vivien had asked if we could use his place to meet up and prepare our cosplays. He graciously agreed, even going as far as offering to help drive us to the venue and accompany us at the event.

I wasn’t the first to arrive. When I got to Greg’s place, Shirley was already there. After saying our greetings and putting down my bag, I sat down with Shirley and Greg in the living.

“You excited?” Shirley asked.

“More like nervous,” I confessed. “It’s kind nerve-wracking when I try to imagine what’s gonna happen and how I’m gonna pose.”

“So you’ve already thought of how to pose with V?” Shirley followed up. It was clear to everyone in the room that Shirley was having fun at my expense.

“I have some ideas… sort of…” I answered with my voice trailing off towards the end.

“Oh! You should try carrying her. Use a princess carry!”

“With these feeble arms of mine?” I retorted. It was true. I really did have very lean arms.

“Use the power of love!” Shirley exclaimed.

“You’re drunk, Shirley.” That was all the comeback I could come up then.

After a while, the other people started arriving. The next to arrive was Nick, another colleague of ours. He was one of Shirley and Vivien’s lunchmates, and upon hearing about our plan to cosplay, he decided to tag along with us because he wanted to take pictures of the event.

A couple of minutes after Nick was Vivien. She had a large gym bag with her, presumably holding her costumes and props. Aside from that, she also had a makeup box with her.

When we were discussing our plans to cosplay weeks prior, we had arrived at the issue of hair and makeup. As far as hair is concerned, Vivien was to buy herself a wig while I was to grow my hair out to better match Lelouch’s hair length. However, the problem lied in makeup. Vivien already had prior experience doing her own makeup so that was quickly settled. On the other hand, I was a total blank in that field as expected.

At first I was hesitant to have any makeup on. It just didn’t seem natural for me. After further discussion, though, we decided that for the purpose of having better pictures, it would be best if even I had makeup on. Hence Vivien volunteered that she would do my makeup as well. That was the reason for the bigger-than-expected makeup box.

The last to arrive among the group was Chris. With everyone finally accounted for, we began with our preparations.

* * * * *

That day, I learned of the intricacies of applying makeup. Apparently, it’s not as simple as just changing clothes and then applying makeup, or applying makeup first then changing clothes. Some thought has to go to how to best order the sequence of things, considering how some article of clothing might mess with already applied makeup and how application of makeup, especially powder, might dirty already worn clothes.

And so given my set of costume, it was decided that I should first put whatever article of clothing that my head needs to pass through, then have my makeup applied before I proceed to wear the rest of my ensemble. It was also agreed upon that as Vivien will be the one to put on my makeup, I will naturally have to go first.

And thus I took a trip to one of the vacant bedrooms to change my undershirt and put on my face mask, which was largely a stretchable piece of fabric that was to cover from my nose down to my neck. The intent was for me to pull it up to cover the lower part of my face or pull it down to allow for better ventilation as necessary.  I had to wear it like a shirt’s collar and so it had to go first.

On first thought, it might appear odd that I would even need makeup given the use of a face mask. This was indeed one of my first apprehensions. But it is precisely because much of my face was covered that it was very vital to have eyes that gave off impact. They say the eyes are the window to the soul, and true enough, for this particular cosplay it was important to have properly made up eyes.

And thus after getting partially changed and washing my face, I was all ready for my makeup session, which should cover some magic for my eyes and some basic powder and foundation stuff.

Or at least, I thought I was ready for it. It seems so dense of me right now to not have thought about that particular problem. But back then it never occurred to me until the problem came right in front of me: The problem of coming closely face to face with her.

* * * * *

As I sat there on that elevated chair waiting for the makeup to be applied, my mind was already jumping forward, imagining the various things that might happen later on in the convention. The crowds, the poses, the strangers that might talk to us, all these things were running through my mind. You could say that even if physically I was present there, my mind had wandered of.

But I was ever so suddenly brought back to reality when Vivien’s face popped right in front of me. I was startled. The distance between our faces was about half a foot. It was close, far too close than what I was comfortable with, especially considering that we were looking straight at each other.  

By instinct, I naturally pulled back a bit. But by then both her hands had already reached the side of my face, touching it ever so gently and locking it in position as she slowly angled my face to match her line of vision better.

“Stay still,” she said softly.

I obliged.

And so I sat there with Vivien in front of me, holding my face in place with both hands. She looked at me intently, presumably forming in her head a plan of how to draw my eyebrows, which was quite lacking, or something similar. But I had no way to know of that at that moment. All I could do then was stare back at her, wondering if that was what a lead up to a kiss felt like.

“Okay. Close your eyes,” she said, letting go of my face which was now locked in place, seemingly entranced by her.

I obliged again, relieved that I could get some respite from my predicament.

But as I cut off my vision of the surrounding place, my other senses naturally perked up. I felt stronger the wild beatings of my heart. I heard far clearer the uncomfortable silence of my friends as they watched what was going on. I sensed more vividly the dryness of my throat.

All my senses soon converged when I felt a soft poke on my forehead. It felt like something cold was left behind even after what felt like a finger was withdrawn from my forehead. Soon enough, the same sensation was felt on my right cheek, then on my left cheek, and finally on my chin.

It was, I suppose, some kind of makeup cream. Shortly after that, I felt something like a small cushion spreading the cold substance all over my face. There was not much for me to do at that point, but simply to sit still and accept the sensation of having my face touched all over. It was a weird feeling, a feeling of seemingly being caressed without really being caressed.

The rest of the makeup soon followed one by one, from balancing the foundation on my face to drawing out a proper pair of eyebrows on me, all while Vivien gave a few commentaries here and there on what she was doing from time to time. All these happened, though, with my eyes closed shut.

“Okay, time to put some eyeliner,” Vivien told me. “Open your eyes.”

“Uhm… Do I have to open my eyes?” I asked.

“Yup. I can’t draw them properly if your eyes are closed.”

I was reluctant to open my eyes. Not only was I overly conscious of the how close we were to each other’s faces, my main concern was the fact that I happen to blink a lot. That would prove to be a major nuisance if someone were to attempt to draw something on my eyelids. I knew that there was no way that my eyelids would remain still.

Yet I had no choice in the matter. I begrudgingly opened my eyes. And as soon as my field of vision became clear, the calmness I strove hard to achieve while my eyes were closed gradually disintegrated at the sight of Vivien looking intently at me. My heart, once again, drove up to an allegro.

Seemingly clueless of my internal turmoil, Vivien proceeded to attempt to put eyeliner on me. But as I expected, my incessant blinking made things difficult.

“Stop blinking!” Vivien quipped with an almost inaudible giggle.

“I can’t! I just happen to really blink a lot!” I retorted.

After struggling with my incessant blinking a few minutes, Vivien managed to finish up putting eyeliner on me. I relaxed a bit, believing that this ordeal was finally over.

“Okay, finally, let’s put something on your lips,” she said.

“Huh?”

“Your lips are too dry.”

“But my lips are covered by my mask anyway. It should be fine, right?” I tried to reason out with her. I wasn’t a big fan of having something on my lips. It felt weird.

“It’s insurance, in case you need to pull down your mask,” she replied.

“But-”

“Just do it. Trust me,” she cut off what I was about to say with this knowing, smiling look.

I could no longer raise any objection. I just smiled and shook my head in resignation.

Vivien proceeded to take out a small container of petroleum jelly. Before I could even make sense of what was happening, she quickly but ever so naturally took a bit of the petroleum jelly on her finger and applied it on my lower lip.

I was shocked. She effectively ran her finger on my lips.

“Just press your lips and you’re all good,” she commented as she turned around and started fixing her stuff.

I sat there dumbfounded for a few seconds, pressing my lips together, wondering if that sensation was similar to what being kissed felt like.

* * * * *

After gathering my composure, I quickly went to one of the vacant rooms to change into my costume. I probably took longer that I should have, as I spent some time just standing still for a bit, clearing away the cobwebs in my head. But soon enough, I was already back in the living room with Greg, Chris and Nick. Shirley went off to help Vivien with her costume. Naturally, they were taking their time, as Vivien was also applying her own makeup. In the meantime, I was just trying to fix my hair while waiting, with backseat coaching from the other three guys. Thankfully, no seemed to make any comment about what transpired earlier; The most I got was a knowing sneer from Chris.

After almost 30 minutes, Shirley and Vivien finally came out from the bedroom. It was actually the first time for all of us to see Vivien in her C.C. costume. Vivien wore white high heels along with white thigh-high socks. The socks had single yellow stripes at the front on each of them that becomes diamond shaped at the knees, similar to the yellow striped I had on Zero’s pants. Vivien also wore white short shorts that when coupled with her thigh-high socks, exposed just a portion of her thighs. Her top was a black sleeveless turtle-neck shirt adorned with yellow pipings as well as a silver insignia in front. Her shirt also extended down into four tails that reached her ankles, two at the front and two at the back. Vivien also had three thin belts loosely fastened on her waist. Aside from that, she also wore two detached black sleeves, one on each arm, that were fastened by small belts on the upper arm. To top things off, Vivien also wore the matching green wig. This particular look was the one that matched with the Order of the Black Knights.

To be honest, I didn’t really think that Vivien suited C.C. very much. Vivien’s look and demeanor were far too bright and lively for C.C. But oddly enough, seeing her cosplaying C.C. was quite alluring.

“So, how do I look?” Vivien asked as she twirled around in front of us.

The other guys offered their praises, as Nick and Chris started shooting away with their cameras. I simply smiled and nodded, already at a loss for words.

With that, we were finally all set to go to the convention.

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