Xaviers!

Colette unlocked the door to her dorm room and stepped inside. Seeing that it was empty, she beckoned Basil to follow.

Of course Basil followed, that's kind of what he did.

He was carrying some kind of bag which he had borrowed from Haley.

"Do you really zink zat stuff will work? Do not women have different complexions and such?"

"That's only important for foundation. I'm hoping either Chisaki or Haley matches you, or that I can mix them together to make it match." He commented.

"Oh my, Chisaki AND Haley offered to help? My goodness, Ien zere is no way zat zis will not work." Colette had a lot of trust in Basil. Really, how hard could it be.

"Is on ze bed good enough?"

"We'll see..." He stated, pulling a second bag from his satchel and tossing it on the ground where he sat.

He made two different piles of make up from the bags and kept the bags with the piles to make sure he was giving back what belonged to the appropriate person.

"Do you have a dish or something solid I can clean easily later?"

Colette had already moved all of her non-essentials to their home off-campus, but her side of the room wasn't completely bare. But she did manage to find a clean container she'd previously used to bring some snacks from home.

"Will zis do?" She asked as she offered it to Basil, crouching down on her toes before him.

"Ah yes, that will do nicely." He said, taking the container from her. "Come sit closer love. I'll need to put some of this on your neck to see how close it matches."

Colette sat herself on the floor criss cross applesauce and scooted herself closer, resting her hands on her knees.

Colette would feel the cool, wet, paint like feel of foundation on her skin, one after another.

"Hmm... looks like I'll need to try to lighten Haley's with some of Chisaki's...

May I have your wrist?"

Colette watched in curious wonder. It was like watching an artist mix their paints. She held out her wrist as she was asked, curious about all of this.

"Where did you learn how to do zis?"

"Would you believe I was the Frank-N-Furter of my troupe until I went invisible? " He smirked,

"You learn all sorts of things that have no real life application outside of drama when you're a theater kid. Including basic make up techniques.I know how to put on false lashes as well. I bet Chisaki has some of those somewhere, knowing her penchant for being as artificial as possible." He offered. It took him a few tries to get the colour right, but he got it eventually, more or less.

"I could believe zat. You have a flair for ze dramatics, and you have ze physique for it. And ze confidence."

She fidgeted a bit. "I do not zink zat I want to look fake. Just... nice."

Basil stopped what he was doing and looked at Colette.

"You look lovely as you are Madame."

Colette's face flushed at the compliment, though there was a subtle sadness in her eyes.

"Zank you, matou."

"What's wrong?"

Colette cast her eyes down, having difficulty looking Basil in the face.

"I... am ashamed of myself. For being a hypocrite."

"How do you mean?"

"I have spent an entire school year trying to help you to accept your mutation, to embrace it, maybe even learning to love it. Yet now zat I have experienced for ze first time what you had, I find myself hoping zat neizer of us regain our abilities."

Basil's eyes fell as well, and after a moment's thought, he swallowed hard. Clearly choking back the inclination to cry by the wobbling sound in his voice when he finally spoke.

"Unfortunately, as I understand it the man made it clear this was temporary. And soon, no one in England will be without the X-gene." The nauseous look on his face made it clear he was not comfortable with that, but he again tried to wave away his own feelings.

"Come, let's not focus on that right now. You wanted to try this while you had the chance, so let's focus on this instead."

"I do not believe zat." Colette reached out to cup Basil's cheek. "I trust in ze students here. Zey will not let us down.

"But you are right. We have tonight, so let us make ze most of it." Seeing Basil so sad made her want to be that much more cheerful, so that they could prop each other up.

"Come then. Figure out which of these colours you want on your lips."

Chisaki's were of course almost entirely alien. Most of her cosmetic modus operandi seemed to be 'It's all fake anyways, gold eyelids and black lips for life.' There were pastels here, though there was nothing that would classify as passing as natural make ups other than the skin coloured things.

Haley's were a bit more neutral, though she did have some shades of red in her lot.

Colette looked them over thoroughly, before moving her hand over toward Haley's selection. "Perhaps one of zese? As lovely and fun as Chisaki's colours can be, zey are very... artificial. I would like to look natural and... nice."

Basil side-eyed Colette looking a bit amused, but said nothing, and picked out several things from both piles to get the job done. Foundational and basic things from Chisaki, colour palettes from Haley.

He said very little that wasn't instructional as he worked on her. He seemed to be taking this very serious indeed. It took a little while, but after roughly 45 minutes he announced himself done, and held up a hand mirror for Colette to assess his handiwork.

Whether or not it suited what she meant was all in her own expectation. Basil was, of course, not a person who used make up regularly, so the master crafted 'natural look' that beauty bloggers could achieve was outside his realm of capability.

Still, she didn't look bad by any stretch. He was careful not to apply anything too thick or unruly and risk delving into the heavily applied look she was clearly wanting to stay away from. He even used the more natural brown eyeliner and mascara out of Haley's bag, even though he desperately wanted to use the navy blue from Chisaki's.

The only thing that really stood out was his lip choice. He had indeed gone with one of Haley's, a seemingly barely touched shade of poppy red. Maybe it wasn't Haley's colour.

It was very much Colette's.

"Seemed a pity not to apply at least one fun colour... But we can remove it for Haley's clear lip gloss if you would prefer."

Colette let out an audible gasp when she saw herself, and had to try hard to keep herself from crying. She felt every bit like the fairy tale princesses she'd read about as a little girl. Something so very mundane to other women was utterly amazing to her.

"No, no I zink zat zis is... perfect." What a strange sensation, things like her pulse quickening or skin getting goosebumps. How strange. How wonderful. She looked from the mirror to Basil and smiled, those red lips accenting a flawless white smile. They were new teeth after all.

"Now, I zink zat we are ready for ze photo shoot, no?"

"If that's what you want, of course." Basil was still a bit confused about Colette's motive, but her confession had him thinking it had something to do with her wanting to be able to experience 'normal', if just for a little while.

"Set me up where ever you like."

Colette did just that, insisting on taking some pictures of just Basil by himself, before she handed her phone to him for some of herself. It wasn't long before her interest in posing waned and she instead wanted pictures of the two of them together - from formal to casual, embraces and... deeper embraces. Eventually she had her fill, as did her camera's memory card.

"Zere, zat is done." She sat on the bed and scrolled through the pictures, looking rather content. "You know, matou, zere are still a few more hours before we should go and check on ze ozers...."

For his part, Basil more or less let Colette do whatever she wanted photographs wise, a very willing and poseable mannequin. Once she'd had spent all of her phone memory, he'd laid quietly behind her stretched out on her bed.

He opened an eye to peer at her from his relaxed spot on the bed. Normally, he'd take the invitation without question, playing the little game of flirtation she enjoyed until she was ready.

But this time....

"Are you sure you want to do that? It won't be like the other times.

It might even hurt." He clarified.

"It is not every day zat a girl gets a second chance at a first time." Colette reached over to gently stroke Basil on his cheek.

"If we take zings slow, it will not. And if it does, zat is an experience I will cherish. A life lived well is not wizout risks."

Basil shuffled around into a upright position, not that unlike the one he took the first time she kissed him... in this same bed.

They were going to need to burn this bed when Colette moved out.

"Come sit in my lap."

Colette scooted over and sat herself in Basil's lap. Sadly, she wasn't as plush or as generous as in her previous form, but it was a lot warmer at least. She gently draped her arms around Basil's neck and shoulders, pressing her forehead to his.

"Like zis?"

After nearly six months of being with Colette, Basil had more or less figured out body warmth wasn't as important to him as he previously thought it was. Most definitely, the problems between him and the last one didn't have anything to do with aligning physical temperatures.

"YYYeeeessss..." Basil replied as he leant in and kissed her. After several moments of doing so, he pulled away again with traces of red on his lips, transferred product.It didn't seem to bother him any.

Basil's right hand slid up her spine, cradling the back of her head. Colette could feel his fingers comb themselves gently into her hair, as he focused on the buttons of her Peter Pan collared blouse with his free left hand.

------------------

The whole experience had felt both incredibly alien and strangely familiar to Basil. He hadn't been with a flesh and bone participant in some time. It almost felt like cheating, and if it weren't for Colette's subtle, unintended reminders of who his partner actually was he may have been thrown off his game entirely. And although he had remained the more submissive of the partnership as he generally had, he found himself being slightly more pro-active than usual, mostly to make sure Colette remained as comfortable as possible.

Despite the bizarre nature to the encounter, his enthusiasm neither waxed nor waned, a fact which hopefully put Colette's mind at ease about Basil's need for a 'normal girl'.

As he rested with her atop him, he mocked her playfully.

"Bazeel... pourquoi as-tu des préservatifs?" He asked in a falsetto tone,mimicking a question she once asked of him.

The trace remnants of red were now in all sorts of places. He still didn't seem to care.

Colette was a mess. But the good kind of mess. Messy hair, running makeup, utterly satisfied, and resting heavily atop Basil's form. So many strange sensations, being so tired, muscles aching... but a good ache? It was all so very unusual to her.

"Mmmm, you are a good boy scout, matou. Always be prepared."

"They ingrained that into me right before they kicked me out for being too preoccupied with what the girls were doing." He chuckled.

"Funny, ze stereotype is zat ze counsellors are too preoccupied wiz what ze boys are doing. I suppose you showing zat you were "prepared" did not strengzen your case?"

Basil laughed.

"It was more about the fact that another little boy started a fight over it and I defended myself... perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. "

"Oooh, and here I zought zat you were my knight in shining armour, but instead you are ze black knight. What a ruffian."

"A knight has to fight a dragon eventually, or he's not much of a knight .

Besides, if you were a boy, wouldn't be jealous of me too?" He joked, getting dangerously close to self confidence.

It was probably the lack of powers.

"Jealous, or questioning myself during my very formative years."

"Hmmmm... Maybe. I don't think so though. He didn't seem to care until the girls kept asking me to help in their projects and the like... And you know I can't say no to ladies.

Anyways we got in a fight and we both got reprimanded and then I started being told I should stay away from the girls and then Bubbe got involved and things got heated and you know how that goes.

So I guess I technically didn't get kicked out. Bubbe just didn't like what was being implied about me. "

Was Basil's grandmother's middle name Karen? The world may never know.