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“Arty?” the blonde jumped in her seat and spun around to face her intruder. Damn his ninja skills , her mind screamed as her eyes fell on her young teammate leaning in the doorway. He looked perplexed as he stared at her, though how she could tell with the boy wearing sunglasses she wasn’t sure.
“What’re you doing?” he asked, eyes traveling up and down her seated form.
“What are you doing here ?” Artemis growled, trying desperately to convince herself that her blush was out of anger at him sneaking into her room, and not from embarrassment at him catching her in such a compromising moment.
“I was just coming to ask what you wanted on your pizza but…” Robin’s eyes were glued to her face and a slow smirk began on his lips. At the sight of it Artemis felt true anger enter her bloodstream. She did not like being laughed at.
“Peppers and onions. Now get out,” she grit out before turning back to her desk and pulling out a towel to wipe her face. Dammit I knew this was a stupid idea! Why had I even tried this? It’s not like I’m ever going to get the chance to use it! She thought angrily, the emotion leaking into her aggressive towel movements.
A sudden hand around her wrist made her freeze and glare up at the ebony haired intruder. Why is he still here? Her mind snarled, intensifying her glare.
“I told you to get out,” she said.
“Do you want help?” the young boy asked, his smirk gone and voice something gentle, seemingly completely unaffected by her glare. Living with the infamous Batglare could do that to a person she guessed.
Artemis scoffed. “What could you possibly know about applying makeup, Boy Blunder,” the archer sneered, ripping her wrist from his unresisting grip.
“You’d be surprised.” It wasn’t the words that got her to look back at him as much as his tone. It was somewhat sad and tinged with a dark humor that only ever meant honesty. A slight smile, not smirk, was on his face and even though she couldn’t see his eyes, she knew they would likely be showing some strange combination of understanding and sadness.
“Ok,” she said, tilting her head slightly as she continued to watch him. A slow smirk began on her face. “Prove it.”
Robin’s melancholy smile transformed into a smirk at her challenge. “Very well, let’s see what you have.” He looked over to her desk where she had laid out all of her makeup before a small desk mirror. “Jeez Arty and you call yourself a girl,” Robin said as he looked over her very small collection. One stick of generic red lipstick, an eye pencil, a small compact with four shades of shadow, one tube of mascara and a final compact of generic foundation powder.
“Shut up,” she said, turning her head away to hide her blush. She knew she was a pretty big failure as a girl, he didn’t have to rub it in. She had never been a girly-girl and given her upbringing, it was little surprise that no one ever cared to take the time to encourage her to be. Sure, in her previous line of work disguises played a major role but by the time she was old enough to care about how to use makeup her sister was gone and her mother was back from prison and highly overprotective. Not to mention her mother never seemed to wear makeup anyway. That had only left her father to teach her and that was never going to happen.
Robin heard the nearly concealed hurt in her voice and smiled a real smile. “Hey, it’s not like you need much anyway when you already start off beautiful.”
She looked back at him and the honest smile on his lips, and felt the hurt melt a little. Not that she’d ever admit to being hurt or comforted, ever. She snorted instead. “Corney much,” she said and his smile widened.
“Only the truth,” he replied and Artemis had to fight down the blush at his compliment.
“Thanks Wally ,” she said. Robin grabbed his heart and took a dramatic step back.
“Ouch that one hurt,” he said with a faked grimace that had the archer giving her first real smile since he had accidentally interrupted her.
“Sure. Are you going to show me your “skill” or continue to stall?” Artemis teased, honestly enjoying the easy atmosphere between them now. It had been a long time since she had felt this comfortable around one person.
The smirk was back. “Watch and be amazed,” the young, male teen said before stepping back up to her. Artemis had to suppress the full extent of her smirk.
Staring down at her face, Robin reached out his hand and lightly cupped her chin, turning her face slightly so he could assess what he was working with. Artemis was surprised at the sudden, almost professionalism that came over her teammate. She had honestly thought he was blowing smoke when he said he knew anything about makeup. This sudden change in demeanor was making her doubt how true that assumption was.
Looking momentarily away the boy picked up the dark eye pencil from the desk before looking back at her.
“I need you to close your eyes and keep them closed,” he instructed, pulling the cap off the pencil. Artemis hesitated. She doubted the Boy Wonder would smear it across her face but…..well if he did she could always just hunt him down with her bow. Feeling calmer at that thought, the blonde sat up straighter and closed her eyes.
She jerked back when she felt something wet and rough glide across her entire eyelid, and opened her eyes.
“What the hell?” she asked, staring at the towel in his hand before looking up into dark sunglasses.
“Sorry I should have warned you,” Robin apologized. When Artemis’s confused eyes flinted back to the towel he elaborated. “You have some makeup left on your face that I need to get off before I begin.” He looked around her desk and then her room. “Don’t you have any face wipes?” he asked.
The archer leveled a look at him that clearly expressed, seriously?
“Right, right. Should have known,” he said, bending back down to continue his work. If the girl didn’t even know how to put makeup on it was very unlikely she’d have the proper implements for removing it.
Flipping the towel over, he dried off her face and then picked the pencil back up.
“Keep your eyes closed,” he reminded as he brought the pencil to her eye.
“I know,” she said with a frown.
“And no eye rolling,” Robin added, stopping her just before she did. She hated how he could do that.
Suddenly she felt something smooth and cool touch her eyelid and had to resist the instinct to twitch away. She could feel the object gliding just above her lashes, it felt odd. Not necessarily a bad sensation, but weird. She had no comparison for it.
She felt the pencil tip go from corner to corner above her lashes, before Robin switched and repeated the process on her other eyelid.
“Okay open ‘em,” he said and she did, looking right up at him. Liking what he saw Robin decided to move on. Kneeling before her, he raised the pencil up again and hesitated.
“This next part is gonna feel weird,” he warned and she lifted a brow. He waved the pencil around trying to find the right words to describe the sensation she’d feel before sighing and deciding to just explain what he was going to do and needed her to do. “I’m going to put some eyeliner on your lower lash line. To do that I have to get the pencil very close to your eye while it’s open.” She just stared at him, not quite understanding why he was hesitating over that. Robin sighed. “Just keep your eyes open, look up, and don’t blink. And try not to tear up,” he added as an afterthought before beginning.
If Artemis had thought his work on her eyelids had felt weird, it was nothing compared to this. Again, it didn’t hurt, but it was really weird and she was surprised at how hard she was having to fight against the urge to blink and tear up. Artemis Crock did not cry.
Finishing the first eye he moved to the second.
“Stop blinking.”
“I’m trying.”
After another moment Robin was done. Artemis looked down and tried to blink the instinctive tears away before the other noticed them.
After giving her what the boy claimed was called a “smokey eye” and plying her lashes with mascara, he moved to the last thing he’d use on her.
“Last but not least, foundation,” he said with a flourish as he scooped the compact off her desk and displayed it extravagantly before her eyes. She felt her lips lift in a suppressed smile as he opened the compact and applied some powder to the fluffy poof thing inside. Artemis had to admit that though she had yet to see the results of his work, she was impressed by how well Robin used the makeup. It had not escaped her notice how practiced his movements were, nor how familiar he seemed with the products. The evidence was bringing up some interesting scenarios in her mind to explain this knowledge that she was dying to ask him about.
“Wa-la!” he cried, declaring his work finished and beaming down at her in a cocky fashion. Suddenly Artemis felt very nervous and self-conscious. She knew the next step was to look in the mirror but she suddenly felt hesitant about doing so. What if I look horrible? Whispered a voice in the back of her mind.
Seeing the flash of doubt on her face Robin’s cocky grin turned to something more sincere. “You look beautiful,” he said, catching her wide eyes with his hidden ones. She felt his earnest gaze and saw the encouraging smile. She scoffed as she looked away, trying to hide her embarrassment and blush.
“We’ll see,” she said. Squashing her insecurities she picked up the mirror and looked into it. Her eyes widened at the girl staring back at her. She was gorgeous, her dark eyes popping and somehow seductive, adding a whole new level to her appearance. She couldn’t believe the difference it made, nor how different the look made her feel. She looked good and knew she did. The confidence that gave her was slightly, well, whelming.
“Wow,” was all she could manage as she continued to stare at her reflection. Robin gave a small cackle and tossed the compact back on the desk.
“Told you I was good,” he bragged.
“How on earth did you get this good with makeup?” she asked in astonishment as she moved her head side to side so she could see herself from different angles. “Don’t tell me you’re a closet Drag Queen,” she teased with a slight smirk as she looked over her shoulder at him.
“Ha no,” Robin said with a self-deprecating laugh and smile as he shoved his hands into his jacket pocket. Artemis lifted an eyebrow at the odd behavior as she turned all the way around to face him. He gave another laugh. “Come on you mean you haven’t guessed,” he said with a small smirk. “Disguise. Bats and me do a lot more than just running over rooftops to keep Gotham safe. Not to mention the two of us get into a lot of fist fights. We need to have some way of hiding the evidence.”
Artemis’s eyes widened in surprise. Disguises she had guessed, but she wasn’t particularly sure she liked the implications of the end of that answer. He and Batman had learned how to use makeup to hide their battle wounds? It made sense but at the same time was a stunning revelation, made even more so by the level of skill Robin had displayed just now. How long had it taken him to get that good? She hoped a while but knew as a fellow Gothemite that that was wishful thinking.
I wonder how often he’s come to the Mountain hiding wounds without any of us even realizing it? She wondered, the thought making her feel a terrible mixture of sadness, guilt and anger.
She had never really had to keep any of her visible injuries a secret. It hadn’t been much of a secret at her old school that she was a tomboy and most had just chalked up her bruises and scratches to that or, in her teachers' cases, to a rough home life they didn’t want to get involved with. At home, her family knew why she had them so there was never any need to hide it from them. It had never really occurred to her to need to hide her battle wounds (unless they were unique or distinct).
She wondered sadly if Robin had to hide his bruises from his family or if they knew of his alter ego. In the Team bet of ‘Is Batman Robin’s Father?’ she was for the nays. Batman didn’t seem the type to have a wife, let alone a kid.
“Aw don’t look so down Arty,” he joked and she looked back up at him. He had a soft little smile on his face again and she suddenly remembered his words from earlier.
You’d be surprised.
He hadn’t been lying.
Seeing the solemn change come over her was not why Dick had done this. Shifting his smile into a signature smirk Robin pretended to be ignorant of the true cause of her distress. “Cheer up Arty, with a little practice one day you too can be almost as good as me.”
She looked up at him, wide eyes displaying disbelief and shock in equal measure. Satisfied with that reaction he continued on, “But it’s going to take a lot of practice if what I saw earlier is any indication of your skill level. I mean, I’m pretty sure five year old girls have more skill then that,” he said and was happy at the blush that burst onto her face and the sudden defensive anger that filled her eyes. “Hmm maybe I’m being too optimistic by saying you could be that good. Maybe you’d be more-“
“If you don’t stop talking you’re going to find an arrow through your tongue,” the archer threatened, her eyes twitching when her words only widened the boy’s smirk.
“Is that a challenge?” he asked teasingly, glad his distraction had worked. She grabbed her bow and Robin dashed to the door with a cackle before leaving. She shook her head and placed her bow back down.
Movement caught her eye and she found herself looking back into the mirror again. She had to admit, he really had done a great job. She really liked this new look and was already thinking of places she could use it.
Like a lightning strike a horrible realization hit her.
How was she going to recreate this look?