Fuyuko had, for the first time in her life that she could recall, 'glossy locks of hair' that fell a little past the top of her shoulders. She stared into the mirror Shizoku was holding up, uncertain how she felt about that. They were even wavy and bouncy! "I still don't know how you did that without any direct magic," Fuyuko said. Shizoku had used magic to help detangle her hair and stuff, but no magic had been used to enchant her hair. Just the conditioner and oils, and a lot of brushing.

Which, well, Fuyuko sort of drifted off during. It had been rather nice. She was pretty sure she now understood why Mama K liked having her tails brushed so much.

Shizoku grinned at her and said, "I'd been preparing to do this for a while, I knew you would ask eventually. Having Gemeti here helped though; my hair is straight, your wavy hair is closer to her curly hair."

Gemeti looked over Fuyuko appraisingly and nodded. "That's perfect. Bringing the waves to life and untangling everything is most of what you needed, plus a little trimming to neaten up. As a princess, I'm surprised your parents allowed your hair to grow so unruly. Even if you are usually running around semi-incognito, you should be able to look the part when needed."

Fuyuko looked away from the mirror to look at Gemeti, then back over to Shizoku. "Huh. You have a point." After all, Orchid and Bridgette usually had their hair at least looking pretty, even if they had it all pinned away or such, and Carmilla was, well, Carmilla.

Thinking of her adoptive sister helped lead Fuyuko indirectly to what she thought the answer might be. Well, today was just full of embarrassments. "I think I know why," she said quietly. "Um, I know I'm kind of weird with not being interested in or even really getting the whole thing with romance and kissing and stuff. But I also want to be beautiful, I like that. I just am not interested in all the other stuff people seem to attach to it. So I think my parents just decided to not push me about anything I didn't ask about. I bet they were worried if they rushed me I wouldn't like it."

They'd taught her some basic braiding and stuff when she started letting her hair grow longer, but it had all just been practical and neat. Which fit with how she normally acted.

Shizoku tapped her chin with the mirror thoughtfully before saying, "Fuyuko, do you think dressing pretty and putting on makeup and stuff is about showing off for other people?" At Fuyuko's nod, Shizoku sighed. "Well, it's not. Or, I should say it's not just that. Sure, I like that Derek thinks I'm pretty, but even when I'm in the forest training with my patron, I try to wear something pretty when its reasonably practical. She certainly doesn't care, and there's no one else there. I do it because I care."

She made a face and said, "I'd ask what your mothers were thinking not teaching you that, but I don't think either of them has had to worry about it. As for Carmilla, well, I'm not sure she'd understand why you wouldn't want to be ready to be sexy at any moment."

The kitsune sighed. "Anyway, yes, looking pretty will affect others. But you should be doing it for yourself. Most of the time. Gran Gran made sure I could do my own makeup if I needed to get ready for anything political really fast, while also teaching me the other stuff."

"Fuyuko, I suspect you don't do your own makeup either?" Gemeti asked, staring intently at Fuyuko's face. "I have some ideas that will really enhance your coloring." This suggestion caused Shizo's head to pop up as she stared at Fuyuko's face as well.

Fuyuko shied at all the attention, but she was curious. They knew what they were doing for hair. And she had to admit, the designs the pixies sometimes painted on each other's faces, and sometimes arms and legs, was actually quite lovely, while the more complex makeup Carmilla and Orchid sometimes painted upon themselves did bring out their features and make them even more interesting to look at.

Besides, it was too late. Shizo was already digging more things out of her bag, half of which Fuyuko couldn't even begin to identify. Another half hour or so later, she found herself looking at her reflection again.

Her lashes were long, thick and full, backed with reddish wings to accentuate them. Were they always that thick? Her eyes looked huge, surrounded by a complex network of white and red scrollwork with matching scrollwork on the base of her horns; and they'd used the faint red stripes her oni heritage had given her skin as a background for flowering vines: some using stripes to color the vines and some vines to edge the stripes, placed to accentuate her bone structure, which looked amazingly fine.

Was she always this pretty? She was almost as interesting to look at as her sister. And they'd finished by painting a red blossom over her lips. "Don't worry, Fuyuko. You can eat and it won't come off. I used just a touch of magic to hold it in place," Shizo said, looking satisfied with her work.

Fuyuko smiled and said, "Thank you, it's beautiful." She kind of wanted to touch the design, but didn't dare lest she smear the make up. Which would certainly ruin the design.

Gemeti beamed. "I am glad you like it. Now, we should finish up here and let the bath house clean up. Tomorrow I can show you where to buy your own supplies." Fuyuko was certainly happy to do that, and she made sure that any food that had not gotten eaten ended up in the same bag as her meat pastries. Which, amazingly enough, she had not managed to finish off yet.

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When they were ready, Shizoku called over the divider, "Are you two ready?"

"Yes," Derek replied, "though Amry is asleep. Or was. We'll be right out."

Amrydor looked as though he were still half asleep to Fuyuko at first, given how blank his expression was when he looked at her. Then he said, "Um, I see you let them work on your hair and stuff." He smiled and added, "I like the face painting. It gives a slightly wild feel and I think that suits you."

Oh, he musta been surprised. Fuyuko smiled back and said, "Thank you." She was relying on some of the lessons Moriko had given her about how people react to sudden changes in appearance, which had been part of her lessons on reading certain things better. In general, assume that the surprise was positive, and that assumption matched what he'd said. Good. She was happy that Gemeti's and Shizoku's work was appreciated.

After Fuyuko had settled their account with the bath house and left a tip of a platinum coin, Gemeti said, "I don't know what everyone's plans are, but if you want, I can probably talk my parents into letting you stay over. We only have one spare room, but I can share and there's enough space in the main room."

Shizoku shook her head and said, "Thank you, but I think the two of us will just head back for now, there's lots of room in our transport." She grinned wickedly and added, "Besides, it's a beautiful night, perfect for a romantic walk across the city, with Derek close by my side to keep me safe from anything too scary."

Derek gave a soft laugh and replied, "Yeah, I can do that. Though I think you are the scariest of the two of us."

Fuyuko and Amrydor both decided to take Gemeti up on her offer and boarded her carpet once they had said goodnight to Shizoku and Derek.

Gemeti's home turned out to be a two-story apartment on the upper floors of the building behind where her family's stall was located. Gemeti decided to 'cheat' and also surprise her parents by guiding the carpet to the large balcony off of the main room.

There was an initial flurry of fuss and concern from the twin worries that it had been starting to get late with no word from Gemeti and a flying carpet showing up unexpectedly, but everything settled down pretty quickly and a late dinner was offered as they had been keeping some food warm for Gemeti.

Gemeti declined and said, "I've already had a huge dinner thanks to them, but these two are bottomless pits, so they can have my portion if they want." This promptly led to Gemeti's mother deciding that was a challenge and she somehow started producing more food in stages. Fuyuko was pretty certain that it wasn't actually magic, yet more food just kept arriving.

Which presented a problem of sorts. Fuyuko and Amrydor couldn't claim they were full, because that would be a lie, and Fuyuko was quickly beginning to feel guilty. A quick glance at Amrydor showed that he was looking uncomfortable as well.

She considered breaking protocol and, very carefully and politely, offering repayment, but then a better idea occurred to her. "I love your food and cooking," Fuyuko said, "and I am honored that you would be so generous with us. I also happen to have food with me that I would love to share, and it has been kept safe in storage. All the available food I have purchased today is now also yours." That was one of the features Fuyuko loved about having a backpack like this; they tended to keep things in a preserved stasis.

Fuyuko started taking out all of her remaining meat pastries and food from their mini feast at the bath house. She would have liked to use her shadow tricks to do it faster, but she was tired enough that she wasn't sure it was a good idea to do any more of that right now.

Gemeti's parents tried to protest, but Fuyuko grinned at them and said, "I'm sorry, but I just said these are also yours; if I take them back, that would make my statement a lie, and I can't do that."

In response to her parents' confusion, Gemeti smiled and challenged them, "Try telling a lie in front of her, even a small one." They quickly caught on to the implication and after testing their ability to lie, looked a bit nervous. Gemeti laughed and reassured them, "Don't worry, she got stuck with the title of faerie princess less than a year ago. So she has to deal with some faerie stuff like that. She and her friend Shizoku had a lot to tell me, but I'll tell a shorter version."

Fuyuko was happy to let Gemeti tell the tale from here while she and Amrydor ate. At the end of her story, Gemeti added, "I also have an idea. I don't know everything her parents want here, but they have a connection with one of the clans, and now so do I." She held up the token that Seshadri had given her. "Seshadri has probably already taken care of things for them, but I thought it might be fun to see if I can work out a deal between our shop and Azeria, through Fuyuko. All bargains to be approved by parents of course. Be a nice way to make some more connections, maybe join his clan if you want."

That caused Fuyuko to stare at her new friend in surprise. But it was a sort of interesting thought. She just had no idea what they'd be bargaining for. Still, if Gemeti was interested in doing that, maybe Fuyuko could find something amongst their goods, and if nothing else, it would be fun to try. So she silently contacted her parents through her gold and purple earring, and after a little while, she had their contingent approval.

Gemeti had to work on her parents a little more, but she also got approval to at least try. "Thank you! But we should wait until tomorrow; despite his nap, Amry looks about ready to pass out." She grinned at him and said, "I'll admit, you looked impressive when you sprinted off like that, but I don't think you'd have done much good if she'd been in actual trouble."

"Maybe," Amrydor admitted reluctantly. Fuyuko was amused when she noticed that he sounded the same way she had when she'd said 'Maybe' to Shizoku about the shadow jump being the stupider stunt.

"Well, let me show you where the guest bedroom is, and Fuyuko can stay in my room with me," Gemeti said. "Then tomorrow I can show you both around town."

Eh? Oh, yeah, all the girls in one room. That made sense. Fuyuko didn't know Gemeti very well yet, but she seemed pretty nice, so Fuyuko didn't mind really, it had just caught her off guard. She did have a question though. "Um, how do we make sure I don't smear the make up? I really like it."

Gemeti frowned and said, "Shoot, I didn't think of that. I think Shizoku's spell was only for the lip makeup."

"Oh, I have something that might help," her mother said. "I have some charms for protecting makeup for a day. They don't always sell quickly, but sometimes they get bought up in batches. You never know when something like this will crop up."

Well, that was useful, though Fuyuko suspected she was missing something about the possible reasons someone might want to quickly make their makeup unsmudgeable for a day. She was glad to be headed to bed soon, it had been a long day.

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