Avuri dashed around the bathroom, excited. She couldn’t decide what to do. Emery was waiting in the attached bedroom for her, sitting lazily on the bed looking cute.
Avuri’s hands sifted through all kinds of makeup, the vast majority of which was never used. Some of it was probably old and not even usable anymore, since neither of them really dressed up that often. And using makeup was even more rare.
But still, on occasion, a bit of lip color or blush would catch her eye when they were in the city shopping and she’d snap it up without thinking too hard about it. They were more than capable of a little vapid spending with how much money they had, so she’d never worried about it. Seeing how much of the old makeup sat in various drawers around the bathroom did make her a little remorseful though.
Mostly about not using it - not so much the buying it part.
But still, as she shuffled through the various cosmetics she was struggling to decide how she wanted to dress up Emery. By her own admission, Emery was allowing Avuri complete freedom to play dress up with her for the night. It wasn’t necessarily rare for Emery to dress up for Avuri - or vice-versa - but this sort of opportunity couldn’t be wasted.
And it left Avuri entirely torn. Did she opt to go silly, and put Emery in mis-matched clothing and bad makeup for a laugh? Or perhaps go all out on a night on the town look, complete with beauty-styled makeup and a gorgeous gown? Dress her up like a jester? Or maybe go for a raunchy, sexy look.
There were just too many options. And each one could also entirely alter their evening plans. Anything from a joke parade around the basin to a long night behind closed doors was possible, and her choice here could easily make or break some of those options.
As she perused the various cosmetics, she made her decision. “Alright, Merri. I’m going to go easy on you tonight. No silly costumes. Just full-on glamor.” Avuri called to the bedroom as she snatched up some of the simpler cosmetics and walked back toward her wife.
Emery sighed with relief and slumped forward on the edge of the bed. “I can live with that, I suppose.”
“Good. Alright then, go wash up. I’ll brush out your hair when you’re done.” Avuri said, as she arranged everything beside the bed. When she straightened up again and turned toward Emery, she still hadn’t moved. Avuri clapped at her. “Get a move on, woman! We don’t have all night!” She said in a silly voice.
Emery rolled her eyes but stood. “We do, in fact, have all night. But alright, alright, I’m moving.”
As Emery ambled off to the bathroom for a quick wash, Avuri went to go through her clothing options for the night. She didn’t want to pick something too revealing or too suggestive. She wanted something more beautiful, with just the right amount of allure.
It took a little doing, but she did find one. It was a black, silky Qipao. The fit would hug Emery’s curves nicely, and there was a long slit up one side of the dress. It was alluring, but also functional, given how tight the skirt would be without it. The black silk was embroidered with red trim, as well as red blooming flowers up one side. In addition, there was a lotus-shaped cutout in the chest that would show a little additional skin.
Emery had worn the dress one other time, just out to a nice dinner, and it was stunning on her then. Avuri was sure it would have the same effect tonight. Especially with some deftly applied makeup to accentuate the colors.
She waited patiently for Emery to return, which wasn’t long after she picked the dress. As Emery walked back into the room, she saw the dress laid out and smiled.
“Oh, if that’s what you’re putting me in tonight, I really did get off easy.” She said, as she retrieved the brush from her nightstand and walked over to hand it off to Avuri.
“Hush, you. Don’t make me regret being nice to you.” Avuri joked as she took the brush. She wiggled backward on the bed to create some space and patted the newly vacated spot between her legs.
Emery sat as instructed, turning her back toward her wife. “Never. I appreciate it all the same.” She said, then nearly purred as Avuri began brushing out her hair.
Emery’s hair was very well kept. She never let it get too long and made sure it was nicely shaped. Neither she nor Avuri were a fan of the very straight cut bob look, so she always made sure to vary the cut a little to make it feather a bit. In fact, they both liked when Emery’s hair was just a little bit messy. It was a great look on her.
That all being the case, it was rare that Emery had her hair brushed like this, despite brushing out Avuri’s practically daily. But she enjoyed it all the same. The pleasant scratching of the hair brush against her scalp and Avuri’s fingers gliding through her hair put her in such a pleasant lulled state that she could have fallen asleep.
And she was sad when it was over too quickly. Avuri had even taken a little extra time to brush it into a somewhat mussed state for extra volume, but it was still over too soon. When Emery felt Avuri begin to massage her scalp afterward, she blissfully leaned back into her wife’s care.
“I thought you looked sad it was over.” Avuri said happily, giving Emery a hug while continuing the light massage.
“I need to get you to do this more. It’s absolute bliss.” Emery said weakly, practically melting into Avuri’s lap.
“Whenever you want, love.” Avuri said, continuing to scratch and knead at Emery’s head.
Emery whined when Avuri did eventually stop, but she was pretty sure any time at all would be too soon. Avuri’s deft fingers quickly gathered up the front bits of Emery’s hair and clipped it away from her face so she could see her canvas.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
As Cultivators, both of their faces had clear, beautiful skin. Touch ups and spot work was entirely unnecessary, so Avuri moved straight to applying a foundation to lighten Emery’s skin tone a little. The woman was already pale, but a little bit paler would contrast the black of the dress more strongly.
Once that relatively simple layer was applied, Avuri went about everything else. She started with Emery’s eyes. She wanted to keep the makeup fairly simple, so she didn’t want to use too much eye shadow or anything along those lines. Just enough to outline her eyes to accentuate them a little, especially against the light foundation color. And Emery’s steel gray eyes already naturally popped.
The last thing that Avuri needed to do was Emery’s lips. Before she even got started, she brushed a thumb over them and gave Emery a kiss. Then they both retreated with goofy smiles and Avuri got to work. She picked a striking deep scarlet color to match the reds on the dress. She delicately brushed the color over Emery’s lips and fought the urge to stare, especially with the added gloss of the color.
Avuri took a deep breath when she was finished to try to keep herself from doing anything that would land them stuck in their room for the foreseeable future. When she stood, she pointed to the dress. “Go on and get dressed. Then we’re going for a little walk.”
Emery was in the middle of getting up when she froze. “A…walk?”
“Mhm.” Avuri confirmed with a happy little nod as she moved to get herself dressed in something a little nicer. “You didn’t think I would dress you up like that just to stay in our room all night?”
Emery deflated. “I had kinda hoped so, yeah.”
“Oh, Merri. Of course I want to show everyone how amazing my wife looks tonight, all dressed up like that.” Avuri shook her head in disappointment. “I’m gonna drag you all around and show you off.”
“Do we have to?” Emery asked, already sounding defeated. She knew she wasn’t going to win this.
“Of course. In fact, I think people are already waiting on us, so hurry up.” Avuri hurried her, as she replaced her simple nightwear with a nice dress.
“And how, exactly, did they know you’d be coming around with me?” Emery mumbled as she worked into the Qipao.
“You know, I wasn’t sure if you noticed or not when I let out a small burst of Qi while combing your hair.” Avuri giggled. “You were practically asleep at the time, so it’s no wonder you missed it.”
Emery only offered a flat stare in response. “I should’ve known.”
“You should’ve known.” Avuri confirmed.
A few minutes later, they walked down the stairs to the second floor of the house to the sound of applause and catcalls. Cierra, Stena, and Talya were standing by the doorway to the kitchen making a fuss, while Gray sat peacefully at the table with a cup of tea.
“Damn, Mom. You look good.” Stena said, dramatically looking Emery up and down. “I’ve seen you dressed up for a night out but this is something special.”
“Who knew I had such a beautiful sister?” Talya said appreciatively, then walked to sit down by her husband. “Well. Putting aside Rylie, anyway.”
“Ouch.” Emery said sarcastically. “That hurts, Sis.”
“You look lovely, dear.” Talya said, more earnestly this time.
“You really do look stunning, Mom.” Cierra agreed. “I know Momri said this wasn’t practice for the hero costume thing, but you could still use it. It’s so…good.”
Emery laughed. When Cierra ran out of words, she knew she was doing something right.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, ladies. And Gray. I’m going to go parade my wife around for a while and remind our children that we’re not old.”
“Go get ‘em.” Talya cheered.
But Stena and Cierra snickered in response when they saw Emery’s roll her eyes. Avuri glowered at them.
“You two.” She said, “If forty is old with a Cultivator lifespan, you two aren’t exactly spring chickens sitting over there in your twenties.” She followed that up with a dangerous looking smile. “Some women start getting gray hairs in their twenties.
“She’s right.” Talya chimed in. She reached just behind her ear and pulled a lock of her hair around and out to the side to separate it - it was gray. “I started going gray when I turned twenty-four.”
“Twenty-three.” Emery corrected.
Talya glared at her. “Really? You couldn’t even let me have one year?” She said venomously.
“Nope.” Emery said. “Besides, I think Cierra’s got you beat anyway. I think I saw some gray on the back of her head when we were in the bath a few days ago, and she’s only twenty-one.”
Cierra looked worried, and began to pull her hair around to look at it. Stena was fussing over it too, trying to see, and it only took them seconds to run out of the room.
“Thanks, Talya.”
“Anytime.” Talya said with a laugh. “I think your correction really sold it.”
“No doubt.” Emery agreed.
Avuri grabbed Emery by the arm and pulled her onward. “We’ve still got rounds to make, so we’re off!” She called as she pulled Emery away from the table.
“Good luck!” Talya called after them as they retreated down the stairs to the bottom floor.
When they finally made it outside, Emery was shocked to see a whole group of their older kids gathered outside waiting for them. Similarly to upstairs, they were greeted with catcalls and shouts about Emery being dressed up.
Arek walked up through the crowd and presented Avuri with a woven picnic basket.
“Thanks, hun. I appreciate you grabbing all this for me.” Avuri said, and bent down to give Arek a small hug and ruffled his hair.
“Now then! We’re off for a late night picnic date!” Avuri called, and held the picnic basket aloft.
Several of the kids jokingly cheered or clapped. They shouted messages of good luck and the like, as if they were off to war.
At this point, Emery was showing reddened cheeks, even through the makeup, and was looking down embarrassed by all the attention. Avuri grabbed her by the elbow again and tugged her through the crowd of older kids.
Once they broke out of the crowd, Avuri pulled Emery close and whispered in her ear.
“Let’s see how late we come back tonight, yeah? Or perhaps tomorrow morning?”
Emery looked at her and laughed. “You think you’re going to keep me out here overnight in this dress? You’re funny!”