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“You can put on eyeliner, right?”
The words seem to come out of nowhere.
Punz is laying with his head on Karl’s shoulder, watching his boyfriend move his Animal Crossing character around in search of other species he needs to catch for the museum. Punz’s hand is on Karl’s stomach and he’s rubbing circles into it mindlessly, calming them both into a sleepy haze.
When Karl’s words ring through the quiet room, Punz startles slightly, waking up from his half slumber. He stops his hand and focuses on the blooming conversation.
Karl isn’t moving in the game, so Punz brings up his head to look at him. Karl is looking back, eyes half-closed, face relaxed and open, nothing but genuine curiosity in his eyes. Punz nods.
“Yeah, my mom used to do it in the mornings, and I liked watching her. She let me practice it on her. It always looked horrible, but she just smiled and told me it’s perfect.” A small smile graces Punz’s face and they lay their head on the pillow, so they don’t have to keep leaning back. “In time, I got better. She taught me how to do her eyeshadow too, mostly because she wanted me to do it for her so she can relax but also because I started liking it. Make-up offered me something new, something more creative to do than just run around. I don’t know, it was- it was kinda like a bonding ritual for us. In the same way my dad and I had basketball, her and I had make-up. So uhm, yeah. Yeah, I can put on eyeliner.” Punz stops their rambling and watches Karl blink at them slowly. They thinks he hasn’t listened to half of it, still in the tired haze, but that’s okay.
Then Karl leans in and kisses their forehead.
They start blushing, somehow still unused to these casual affectionate gestures and they try to stutter out a question.
“I- what- what was- that- uhm, what was that for.” They finally get out and will the blush to disappear, noting how hot their face feels.
Karl just smiles.
“You’re adorable. I love you.”
He says it so confidently, so surely. Punz knows his own confessions are sometimes stuttered, no matter how many times he says them, the way he chokes on the words always returns. The problem is that he loves Karl and Sapnap so much he sometimes can’t breathe and when he tries the force the words out, he’s worried he’ll never stop confessing if he doesn’t reign himself in. It’s a very precarious balance, one Punz hasn’t learned how to control properly yet, but he’s working on it. He doesn’t want to overwhelm them.
Even though they said it’s okay and that they’re not overwhelming and that their emotions are valid and that they love them too and. It’s all just a lot. (Punz is so, so in love with them it’s sometimes overwhelming for themselves. They wouldn’t trade it for the world.)
Punz clears his throat.
“Why were you asking?”
“Oh.” Karl shakes out of his stupor and Punz is secretly a bit happy about not being in the single focus of his love-filled gaze, “I was just wondering. I tried it but it looked weird when I did it on myself. And I didn’t have the motivation to try again. Anxiety and shit.”
Punz nods along, even though they don’t fully know what he means. Karl’s anxiety is a personal matter to him, one that he doesn’t like talking about and Punz respects that.
“I wanted to ask if you’d be down to do it for me.”
Punz’s mind stops.
“Wait like- wait so you want me to try to. Aren’t you like- I’m not that good at it.” Punz rambles out, sitting up to look at their boyfriend properly.
Karl shrugs before answering.
“I trust you. And if it looks bad, we’ll just take it off. It’s not that big of a deal.” His confidence falters for a second and Punz notices him fidgeting with his hoodie sleeves. “I think it’d be easier for me if you were there. You’re… I dunno, you just have a really calming presence. ‘sall.”
Punz’s heart feels full to bursting and he has to hold back a stupid squeal at Karl’s admission. He knows he’s embarrassingly whipped but it’s so hard to not be, he thinks as he looks at Karl.
The smile he answers with is easygoing and adoring.
“Okay baby, we can do it if you’re sure.”
Right after his answer Karl’s eyes light up and his hand drop to his lap, relaxed. He looks at Punz, nodding earnestly, and all Punz thinks about is he literally has the definition of puppy eyes.
“Can we do it now?” Karl rushes out, looking straight into Punz’s eyes, eyes shining.
“Uh I mean. Yeah? I just. Do you have any eyeliner?” Punz asks. Karl’s face falls.
“Oh yeah. Oh honk. I don’t.” Karl’s smile is slowly overtaken by a frown, and he slumps back into the sheets, seemingly giving up. “You’re right. We can do it another time. I guess.”
He absentmindedly picks up his Switch again and start fiddling with the buttons, not really paying attention to the game anymore. He’s distracted, probably settling his feelings about the situation suddenly changing in a way he didn’t want or anticipate. Punz can’t watch him like that, all… moping. Call him a simp but Karl should never mope. The world can’t be that cruel and heartless.
Punz gets out of the bed, walking to their bathroom and starts rummaging through a drawer full of random things. He comes across two band aids, a bandage, a half-eaten pack of chewing gums, spare toothbrushes, an among us figurine that is probably Karl’s and then finally-
“A-ha!” they exclaim and jog back to the bedroom, holding their hand up victoriously.
Karl is looking at them like at a lunatic, but they don’t care, a grin on their face as they walk closer to their boyfriend and present him their open palm. Inside sits a small black stick, the word eyeliner displayed somewhere on the product tag.
Karl gasps out and a smile returns to his face.
“You have eyeliner?” he asks, disbelievingly, confusion and excitement filling his voice.
“Yeah, from the- Remember when I did the Halloween look? I bought a lot because I wasn’t sure how much I’m gonna have to redo. So… Yeah.” Punz scratches their nape with one hand and nervously looks at the pencil, not sure how to approach the situation at hand.
“Well? C’mon.” Karl urges them closer with a smile, the playing console still in his other hand, as if he forgot it’s there.
“Uhm.” Punz hesitates and answers in a not sure voice, one knee resting on the bed, his second leg still on the ground as he shifts weight from one leg to the other. “You want me to- I, uhm.”
Karl grabs his right arm and tugs hard, causing Punz to fall forward, bracing himself as to not crush Karl but not well enough to hold all his weight away from his boyfriend. The whole fiasco somehow leads to Punz half-sitting on Karl’s stomach, his boyfriend’s sunshine-y face smiling up at him.
“Woah, what’s this?” Karl gasps with a grin, finally dropping his Switch aside and looking up at his boyfriend. Punz freezes, mind flooding with worries and before he realizes it, he’s freaking out.
“I’m sorry, I- Am I too- Am I too heavy? I mean I don’t- God, I’m sorry I didn’t mean- It was a stupid accident, I’m sorry, it was stupid, I’m just gonna- Let me just- I’m so sorry, I was just trying to figure out- And then you- Nevermind, let me-“ they start apologizing and scramble to get off when Karl shoots up, the actual alarm in Punz’s voice making him worried too. Karl grabs their hand and tugs them back down, making them put all their weight on him.
“No, stay.” He rushes out and gentles his hold on Punz as to not hurt him. “No, you’re not heavy or anything, I just didn’t expect it.” He answers, giggles filling his speech and making it sound breathier than normally.
“No Karl that’s, I mean, it’s fine, I can move, just let me- I don’t want to squish you or anything, I’m just gonna-“ he nervously tries to move off but Karl won’t let him.
„You’re so silly.“ Karl breathes out finally, palms moving from holding Punz’s hands to grasping his waist, carefully slipping under their hoodie. With one look he checks if Punz is okay with it and when they nod, he gives them a grin. His thumbs start gently rubbing circles there and Punz suppresses a shiver, willing themselves to stay serious, stay cool, calm and collected. Based on Karl’s grin they don’t do a perfect job but who can honestly blame them.
“Cute.” Karl muses and his grin widens when Punz feels carmine rushing into his face.
“Why do you have to- Why can’t I just- Can we just do this.” Punz answers, pouting slightly as he averts his eyes to the nightstand where his phone sits. It’s turned off as it always is before they lay down. Whenever he’s able to spend time with his boyfriends, he makes sure to turn off all devices, asking them same of them, because he doesn’t want to have to think about streams and merch and sells and collabs when he’s finally allowed to breathe in his lovers.
Karl’s smile doesn’t falter.
“I’m sorry,” he says, and he doesn’t sound sorry at all, “you’re just so easy to tease baby.”
“Yeah, and you’re an idiot.” Punz mumbles and uncaps the eyeliner in his hands.
Karl’s giggles fill the air, and he closes his eyes, not stopping his gentle touches on Punz’s warm skin.
“Ratio plus you’re an idiot plus you love it.” He says confidently, relaxing into the sheets under his boyfriend.
“Maybe.” Punz says with a small smirk, tone teasing and fond. He leans down, one hand sliding up to hold Karl’s face as the other holds the eyeliner pencil. He allows himself a second to take his lover in. Karl with his eyes closed, a gentle smile fixed on his face, lips a peachy pink colour. The barely there stubble from not shaving that morning because they were both too lazy to take proper care of themselves, eating breakfast and getting dressed just to move back to bed together. The stubble prickles Punz’s hand pleasantly and he finds himself caressing Karl’s jaw, running his thumb over it in a repetitive motion. He watches as Karl relaxes even more, the hands holding Punz slowing down, movements becoming smaller. Punz can’t help himself as he leans down, pressing a loving kiss into Karl’s lips, holding him softly as their hearts beat in tandem. When he pulls back, he licks his lips, the aftertaste of the waffles they had for breakfast and something undeniably Karl lingering on them.
“I’m definitely not complaining babe,” Karl starts in a whisper, “But I’m not sure putting on eyeliner entails all his wooing that is going on.”
“You’re such an idiot.” Punz chuckles and leaves another longer-lasting kiss on the corner of Karl’s lips. He smiles into the kiss at the feeling of his boyfriend pushing into it, raising his hands to grab Punz’s face and hold him. They don’t let the pecks grow heated, they don’t try to move further, they just kiss for the sake of being close and finally able to kiss whenever they want.
Even when they stop kissing, they stay close. Karl nudges his nose into Punz’s playfully, hands resting on Punz’s cheeks, Punz running his thumb along Karl’s jaw, breathing each other in. They don’t move away for what feels like a small eternity.
Finally, Punz relents and leans back, ignoring the tug of Karl trying to bring his face back in and the whine Karl lets out, even though it definitely makes his thoughts stray away from what he leant away to do.
“You wanted me to do your eyeliner love. We won’t ever get to it if we keep doing this.” He explains, tightening his hold on Karl’s face and the eyeliner. The only answer he gets is Karl sighing out, palms falling to rest on Punz’s thighs around his own waist. In a small murmur he admits Punz is right.
“Okay.” Punz breathes out and raises the pencil, moving it close to Karl’s eyelashes. Very gently and carefully they run it along Karl’s upper lash line, hand steady even when Karl moves a bit and whispers It tickles a bit. They move along to create a small wing, making sure to keep it sharp and precise. The best for their boy. Once they find the shape appealing enough, they move back.
“Okay, one eye done. Don’t open your eyes.” They warn as they see Karl’s eyelids twitch.” It needs to dry a bit. I’ll start doing the other eye angel.”
They move the pencil and repeat the same motions, checking the other eye to try and get a similar shape. When they mess up, they mumble out an apology and clear the eyeliner off with their fingernail, paying close attention as to not scratch Karl. When the shapes seem similar enough, they feel a small sparkle of pride in their chest. Of course, it’s not perfect, but they did their best and didn’t mess up completely, even though the lines are a bit wobbly and maybe a bit too crooked. The longer they flit their eyes between the two wings, the more worried they become, starting to notice the differences and mistakes and they’re about to suggest they just take it off before Karl can see what a disappointment they are when Karl speaks up.
“Y’know I can literally feel you worrying, right? It’s all good babe, I’m sure you did amazing.”
His words dissipate a bit of the worries in Punz’s chest but not all of it.
“I haven’t done it in a while and my hands are not as steady as they used to be and I probably overdid the size and I’m not sure if it’ll look good with your eye shape and actually-“ he’s about to add more when Karl opens his eyes and promptly steals all air from Punz’s lungs.
Karl looks stunning. The black eyeliner makes his grey eyes more prominent, more striking than before. It accentuates the blue undertones and gives his eyes a certain dramatic flair. The wings add a little bit of a sharp twist, his gaze seeming more focused and alluring. Where his eyelashes got painted on a bit, they look longer, more prominent, giving him a hypnotizing gaze. Punz is about to collapse on spot.
“Well?” Karl asks anxiously when Punz hasn’t said anything, just staring, mouth slightly open, hands frozen in the middle of closing the pencil. “What do you think? Is it dumb? Do I- Do I look weird? Does it make me look like a poser? Should I just go take it off right now, you know what, I might just-“
Karl seems embarrassed, about to shove Punz off and stalk away to hide in their bathroom when Punz finally speaks up.
“I really want to kiss you senseless right know.” Punz blurts out before they’re able to stop themselves. They start blushing immediately, but their brain is still too fried to try and hide away. Karl quirks his eyebrows, movement faltering as he lets himself relax again.
“Oh?” he says, a smirk finding his place on his face instead of the half-panicked expression he was sporting a second ago.
Punz already felt unwell, but the smirk paired with the eyeliner paired with just Karl really is something else, making his heart beat twice as fast, twice as hard.
“Yeah, I mean you look. I mean, uhm. You look really. You look. Yeah.” Punz stutters, his brain not quite catching up in time.
“You do know how to raise a man’s ego.” Karl says, a giggle following his sentence as he watches Punz struggle. “Close your mouth love, you’re drooling.”
Punz wants to compliment him, wants to write poems and sonnets and novels about the ways Karl makes him feel all the time, makes him feel right now, but he already feels too exposed, so he moves the attention away from him.
“Sapnap is going to like.” Punz gestures with their hand towards Karl, “Pass out when he sees you.”
Karl grins as he answers.
“Good.”
Punz thinks he’s having a heart attack. Instead of trying to actually find out if he’s okay, he leans down and presses a more urgent kiss into Karl’s lips, putting his whole weight on Karl and pushing him into the mattress. Karl smirks into the kiss, hiking one of his legs around Punz’s waist and tugging Punz closer to him. Punz suddenly feels very dizzy.
He’s going to be the death of me. he thinks and willingly submits to the thought. Good for me honestly.
When Sapnap finds them later, they’re sitting in the bed, both slightly breathless and sharing loving touches as they talk about anything that comes to mind. He immediately comments on Karl’s eyeliner, spewing words about how he’s the prettiest person in the entire world until Punz clears his throat and gets his own share of affectionate words pressed into his mouth and cheeks. If Sapnap spots fresh matching plum-coloured bruises on their necks and chests, he just smirks and asks what they were up to when he wasn’t home. If Punz’s face colour goes straight to cherry red and Karl smirks when Punz hides their face in his neck, then that’s their thing. If Sapnap pretends to be upset about them not including him and gets smothered with loving touches and kisses that make him breathless, that’s no one’s business but theirs. If they all fall asleep together, pressed close, hands grasping hands and skin and clothes just to make sure they’re close, they’re together, that’s no one’s thing but theirs.
If they’re all madly in love, well, that’s no one’s business but theirs.