Jily oneshots

The Beauty Department

Done by jamespotterthefirst on fanfiction.net

The blonde at the counter looked up at him for the second time during his visit. This time, the smile she struggled to suppress was unmistakable, even from where James stood in the distance. She turned to say something to her co-worker whom James could not see because of a large perfume display blocking his view. Both employees laughed quietly.

Ignoring the burning sense of shame in his stomach, James squinted his eyes in the vague hope that doing so would make sense of the words before him. What the hell is radiant foundation? And why the fuck are the colours named like that? Punjab? Barcelona? Siberia? He was certain those were places rather than skin colour.

He sighed in desperation, reconsidering his decision and reassessing his need. It was bad enough he was browsing through the small, over-perfumed makeup store by himself. It was even worse that he was wearing dark sunglasses indoors like some sort of conceited tosser. The fact that he was the only customer in there that morning did not help him in his effort to be inconspicuous.

His eyes fell on the price of the impossibly small bottles and he cursed under his breath. "Thirty one pounds?" he muttered incredulously.

"Worth it," said a voice behind him. "It honestly feels like buying a new face when you put it on."

It was a very attractive girl of about his own age, even with his blurry eyesight he could tell that much was true. She was a head shorter than he was, with a light dust of freckles on her nose and arms. Her long auburn hair fell past her shoulders and even with the slight distance that separated them, he could see the lovely shade of green in her eyes, made lovelier still by the amusement in her smile. He felt startled for a brief moment, and belatedly hoped his demeanor did not betray that.

Something quivered in her smile at the sight of his shades and suddenly, James felt even more like a prat than he did before.

"You don't need a new face, though, " she added, holding her gaze at his jaw for reasons unknown to him. "Are you buying a gift for someone?"

At his lack of response, she gestured towards the small bottles of flesh colored liquid he had been examining and prompted, "Do you need help finding a shade?"

"Er…," was all he said, appearing more idiotic by the second.

"It's all right," she assured him. "Loads of blokes come in here to find a gift for their girlfriends."

"Right," he said, nodding and deciding to use that pretense. "Yeah, I'd like to buy her one of these…" he trailed off, glancing at the small bottles. When he couldn't think of the proper term, she laughed again.

"Foundation?" she offered.

"Yeah, that," he said helplessly.

Traces of humor pulled at her lips as she nodded in acknowledgement. "Do you know her shade?"

His hand flew to his messy hair as he struggled with an answer. "Not really," he confessed. "Can't I just pick one and hope it works?"

She laughed again. "It doesn't work that way," she explained patiently. Nodding towards the display of the expensive bottles then at the exposed skin on her arm, she asked, "Is she like me?"

James grinned, convinced no imaginary girlfriend he could ever make up would even compare.

"Not possible," he replied at last, evoking her to tilt her head curiously. "More like me," he continued before they could dwell on that. As he said this, his hand absently moved to adjust his sunglasses.

The notion did not go unnoticed by the redhead, much to his embarrassment. She bit her lower lip briefly, doing her best to abate a smile. Just as quickly, she recollected herself and assumed a very business-like tone. "Right, so is she almost your shade or is she your shade exactly? Because it makes a difference, you know," she explained quite seriously. "If she's got cool undertones and you get her a foundation that's too warm, it's going to look disastrous. Plus, if you get her something too dark, it's never going to look natural. If you get her something too light, she might be able to warm it up with a bronzer but it's going to show a lot. Everyone will be able to tell she's got a large amount of makeup on." At this, she looked significantly at James's shades.