Your Own Skin (Black Butler)

Beauty Woes

“What do you mean, these are glued on?”Will sat on the edge of the tub, pointing to the falsies on his eyes. It would have been adorable if he wasn’t in Grell’s body.

“Oh, calm down! They’re really quite easy to take off if you’ll just be patient a moment.” She sat down beside him and leaned in close. “Now hold still.”

He blinked at her with concern, his partially removed left false eyelashes fluttering helplessly like a bird with a broken wing. He had already tried to yank them off on his own, but Will wasn’t exactly skilled in the art of beauty products. “It’s not going to hurt, is it? Because I tried pulling them off already, and that was not pleasant.”

She sighed, resisting the urge to smack him. “You know I’ve been wearing these almost since Academy, you big baby.” She tried to grab hold of the lashes, but Will kept blinking. She sat back and growled, “Would you stop that?”

“I can barely see you!” He said, “How in the world do you do this every single day?”

“It’s practice honey. Look, once we take these off, you can put your glasses back on, alright? But you’ve got to trust me.”

“I do,” he stammered. “I just…”

“I know, it’s difficult. Just take a deep breath or something, and look up. You’ll be less likely to freak out if you’re not waiting for it to happen.”

His whole body tensed up as though she was going to electrocute him or something, but he did as he was told. She couldn’t help but smile. Her sweet William. Yes, he might be in her body, but it was still him in there. He was unmistakable. In a strange way, it made her love him even more.

He sighed, “You’re mocking me, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m taking them off like you asked.” She leaned in quick, took hold of the corner of the lashes, and pulled them along the lid instead of straight off. “Hang on, one more. There. See how painless that was?”

He felt around and pulled his glasses on, feeling on his eyelids where the lashes had been. “It’s still sticky…”

“That’s what the makeup remover is for, love.”

He nodded as though he had assumed as much. She gave him a warm smirk.

“It’s odd to see you smile so much. It doesn’t look right on me.”

“Oh? Are you allergic to them?”

He sighed and went to the sink to pull out his comb. “No, I just think it’s odd. It makes me realize how little I do smile. It’s… unsettling.”

She came behind him and put her hands around his waist. “Just because you don’t smile doesn’t mean you’re unhappy.”

“I know,” he clasped his hands around hers. Grell’s hands were always smaller and colder than Will’s. He was always so warm-blooded compared to her. It was strange to feel the chill of his fingertips against her skin. Hell, it was strange to to actually be tall for once too. She leaned forward and put her head on Will’s shoulder.

“You know,” he said. “If you want to try it, we could, but I’m not sure I’ll enjoy it much.”

“Try what, sex?” She giggled in a way very unbecoming of William and hugged him tighter. “Is that what you’re thinking about?”

William sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. “I just don’t know if I could do it. Not in the fashion that your body is used to.”

Grell’s smile faded. He was talking about positions. She hadn’t even considered that. It was in that moment that Grell realized the extent of this curse, the true danger of it. She wasn’t exactly a sex addict (at least she didn’t think she was), but knowing that sex might not be an option suddenly made the entertaining situation quite dire. Unless they decided to switch positions, which if Grell was honest with herself, she wouldn’t entirely enjoy either.

She hugged him tighter then let go and went to wash her face for bed at the sink. “Will, we need to break this curse.”

“Tell me about it. Any thoughts on where to start?”

“Sebastian Darling might help, though he’ll be difficult to convince, and his young master even more so.” She dried her face on the towel, feeling like she must be forgetting something. Surely Will had to do more than wash his face and brush his teeth before bed. So little prep work seemed almost blasphemous!

William gave a heavy sigh and when Grell put her glasses on again to look at him, she had to bite back laughter. William had tried to brush his hair with a comb, but of course the comb didn’t go farther than a few inches from his scalp. Grell’s hair was of a very different texture than William was accustomed to. He was staring at the mirror with the look of a kicked puppy.

“Grell, I don’t know how long I can deal with this.”

She swept forward, untangled the comb, then pulled out her own brush and started going through the long locks. “It’s okay. It’s just hair.”

“No, it isn’t okay. It’s more than the hair, Grell, it’s the eyelashes, it’s the makeup, it’s the undergarments - I can’t do this. I can’t be you.”

“Well I don’t know what to tell you, honey. Next time don’t talk to demons?”

Will gave a bitter laugh, “Yes, that’s great advice. And who are we going to ask for help again?”

Grell frowned and finished up the brushing. He had a good point there, though she liked to think Sebastian was in a completely different league than the beast that had switched their bodies. He was handsome and polite and quite the gentleman. Sure he was a demon, but he was certainly the most likable demon she had ever met, at least the best eye candy.

“Then there’s my evaluation tomorrow,” Will groaned as they headed into the bedroom. “I hope you’ll be on good behavior with him. Red could have any of us fired in an instant, or at least reassigned.”

“You call him by his first name? I’ve only ever called him Mr. Dodgson.” She climbed in bed and frowned as she watched Will struggle with her neck chain. He was having far worse of a time with this than she was; but there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. Really he was responsible for getting them into this mess, though perhaps that was most of the reason he was so frustrated. He was angry with himself. Will always was his own worst critic.

Muttering a curse he climbed in bed beside her, turned out the light, and pulled her close to his chest. There in the dark, she could at least pretend that she was herself again, at least, a version of herself that she was accustomed to.