Day 28: Pearl’s Beauty Salon Hair and Nails

[broken_exorcist]

[[From here]]

It'd been difficult for Allen to walk a straight line to the shop when there was so much to see in the town.  He held open the door for Rinali, then followed her inside.

It did ease his mind a little bit when he read the sign proclaiming "Haircuts-Men, Women, and Children!"  At least it wasn't a shop solely for women, as he'd been lead

Comments

[damned_town]

Pearl Langley's many necklaces clinked softly as she turned to face the boy, a broad smile on her equally broad face. Her first customer of the day! "Yes, hon?" Now, what was a teenage boy doing--oh. He was from the Landel's group, wasn't he? Poor thing.

Her earrings jingled as she shook her head. "Sorry sweetheart, they don't work like that."

[Fey]

[boot_i_licious]

Rinali smiled warmly to the lady who answer Allen. It was a good effort on Allen's part, but at the very least they could probably pawn these coupons off on some of the citizens of this town. They'd have a lot more luck, of course, if they knew what they were trying to sell. "Well, if you can't do that, could you at least tell us what a manicure is? I'm afraid we've never heard of one."

She wanted to ask the lady how she got away with charging her customers such amazing prices as well, but she decided against it. The lady wouldn't be in business if no one bought her services.

[broken_exorcist]

Allen's face fell a little when he heard the woman's reply. If nothing else, perhaps they could still get some money by selling them to people in town. Though it might be hard, if all the other patients had the same coupons. How did this woman stay in business? Now he was curious just to know what these manicure things were. Rinali would probably look pretty with one. But they were for boys too, weren't they? Ah, it was so confusing!

"Oh," he said finally, "I'm sorry to trouble you then ma'am. Though I should also like to know what, exactly, they are."

[damned_town]

Pearl beamed at the pair. They made such a cute couple! But how was it possible that they hadn't heard of manicures? They were more sheltered up at Landel's than she'd thought.

"Well, I take care of your nails, so they look like this. See?" She held out her own hand, proudly displaying her perfect nails. Even if they were a rather lurid shade of pink. "Well, not exactly like this. You can pick whatever color you like." Turning to the girl, she added, "And no offense, sweetie, but your cuticles need a bit of work."

[boot_i_licious]

Rinali glanced briefly behind her at the man who was looming behind them. She wondered if he was looking for a manicure, too.

The thought of having someone work on her nails sounded like fun. Maybe her cuticles did need work, although she wasn't exactly sure what that kind of 'work' was.

"We should get one, Allen!" she said with a smile.

[broken_exorcist]

Though two other boys had entered the beauty shop, he was still a little bit wary of getting some kind of treatment that sounded like it was usually reserved for girls. After seeing the nails of the woman behind the counter, he couldn't help but look down at his own. His right hand's nails were neatly trimmed, nearly to the quick, with only a bit of white showing on the ends. There was grit and a little dirt under them, but they looked alright to him. The left hand's nails were, and always had been dull and black as pitch and he took no special care of them. It was bad enough that the skin of his hand was red and looked like a terrible burn wound. It was wrapped now, though he had no injuries, the nurses were always hesitant to let him leave without something on it.

Allen wasn't quite sure what to think of it all, but Rinali was obviously quite excited about it. It seemed so extravagant, but... if Rinali wanted one, that was ok.

"Wait, w-we?" he squeaked.

[damned_town]

Pearl waved good-naturedly at her assistant before turning back to the kids in front of her. She couldn't help but stifle a laugh at the way the boy--"Allen?"--got all flustered when the girl suggested they get manicures together.

"Yeah, c'mon, Allen," she teased. "It'll be fun!"

[boot_i_licious]

Allen was so funny when he was in a panic over something new. It would be a lot of fun, and he was just afraid to try it out. She wasn't normally one for being pampered - years of working for the church tend to make aesthetics take a backseat - but sometimes you just needed to relax, and both after last night and after what they would likely encounter tonight, she imagined she'd need it. "Why not?" Rinali said enthusiastically. "I'm sure you'd enjoy it. You won't know until you try."

She turned back to the attendant, still feeling optimistic. "We'll both take a 'manicure,'" she said, holding out her coupon and gently nudging Allen to do the same. It wouldn't be nearly as much fun without him...and even still, she couldn't help but feel that this might be a little bit of revenge for his earlier secrecy.

[broken_exorcist]

If there was one thing Allen had difficulty with, it was telling people no. Between Rinali and the woman at the counter, he could put up little resistance. A bit hesitantly, he placed his coupon back on the counter.

"Well, um... if you're sure..."

[damned_town]

Pearl took the coupons with a smile. They were such an adorable little couple! Aaah, puppy love.

Maneuvering her way out to the front of the counter, she placed a large, beefy hand on each of their shoulders and led them towards her little shop's lone manicure table. "Now it's just me and Janie, today, so you're going to have to take turns." She looked kindly at Allen. "Would you like me to do your girlfriend first, so you can see how it's done? Oh, and pick your color, hon," she added with a wave over to the neat racks of nail polish bottles in the corner.

[boot_i_licious]

Rinali blinked a few times as Pearl referred to her as Allen's boyfriend. "Oh," she said, a little taken aback. "Allen's..umm...he's not my boyfriend. But thank you." Wow, that came across as very awkward. Time to change the subject.

She smiled brightly, looking at all of the choices of nail color. One in particular stood out. "How about this one?" she said, pointing to a dark blue polish. She wasn't sure how it would look on her, but it didn't hurt to try it out!

[broken_exorcist]

Allen nodded automatically as the woman spoke, right up until the word "girlfriend" passed her lips. Rinali? His girlfriend?! He could feel his cheeks growing pink just at the thought.

"Oh- w-we're not... ah-" But Rinali had already answered for him. Of course, Rinali was right. They were co-workers, friends certainly, though, in the back of his mind he was wondering just why it stung a little to hear her say it.

"R-right," Allen agreed a moment later. "We're... we're friends, we work together..." he trailed off. That's all. He didn't add the last thought aloud and instead decided to focus, probably a bit too intently upon all the colors of paint in the corner. Besides, just the thought of Komui hearing someone say that anyone was dating his little sister was enough to give him chills.

[damned_town]

Just friends, huh? Pearl smiled. From the way they were blushing, maybe that wasn't entirely out of the picture yet. For now, though, she just raised her hands in a disarming sort of way.

"Sorry, my mistake. That's a gorgeous shade on you, sweetie. It'll look pretty with that dark hair of yours. Now, take a seat and let's get started!"

She took one of Rinali's hands and placed the tips of her fingers in a bath of warm water. While she was waiting for it to soak, she began to massage the other with warm oil.

[boot_i_licious]

Rinali positively glowed as she sat down in front of Pearl. She didn't quite understand why the woman placed her hand in the warm water, but the massage was extremely nice. She wasn't used to this kind of treatment at all. "What is this?" she asked, motioning to the oil the woman was using.

She glanced back over at Allen, noting the slight blush still fading from his cheeks. He was adorable when he was embarrassed, although she couldn't for the life of her figure out why.

[broken_exorcist]

The lady who ran the shop seemed like a fairly nice woman, even if she did say some strange things. After he looked over the bottles for a moment, one color of paint seemed just like the others. How had Rinali picked one so easily? He'd never seen boys with paint on the fingernails before, just some of the women that his Master met up with in the seedier parts of town.

He finally picked up a dull black, that wasn't girly, right? At least it would match his left hand, he thought, without much feeling in it. He came back to watch the woman work though, it was interesting to see how skillfully her hands moved. Maybe it was those oils or the paints that made the service so expensive? Did the woman import them perhaps? He fidgeted slightly where he stood, not sure what to do with himself while the woman worked on Rinali, but wishing to stay and watch the process himself as well.

[damned_town]

Pearl beamed. "Smells good, doesn't it? It's just a little lavender oil. Makes your skin soft, too. Iris over at the spa mixes it up for me in exchange for pedicures. Goodness, that girl has grown. I remember when she was still in pigtails." The right hand was done, so now it was time for the left. The large woman dried Rinali's hand with a fluffy towel before massaging oil into it, adding a little cuticle lotion to smooth the nails. Once the hand had been properly moisturized, she wiped it again and began to go after it with cuticle trimmers and nail files and a buffer before applying the first coat of nail polish. Then she did the same to the other hand.

The entire process took less than twenty minutes. Soon Pearl was washing her hands and admonishing Rinali not touch anything for at least another half hour, because even though she'd put a RapidDri topcoat on, the polish wouldn't be completely hard for a while.

She turned to Allen. "Now, let's see what you've got."