Work Text:
“Wait, so how does this work?” Percy asks, sitting on the floor with you, at the corner of the coffee table. You’re in the middle of sizing and lining up full coverage nail tips that will actually fit his fingertips. You’d asked him if you could practice doing his nails, ensuring him it’s easy to take off if he wants to, and he agreed. He was surprised at all the equipment and supplies you pulled out; a myriad of tubes, bottles, glitters, and some other stuff he didn’t recognize.
“Normally,” you start, “I’d start by prepping your nails, then apply the polygel to form a nail, then cure it under the light to harden it and make it stick to your natural nail. Instead, I’m using these very easily removable adhesive pads and plastic nail tips, so we can soak them right off when you’re done.” You smile. He knows how excited you are about this, you’ve been waiting for this nail kit for weeks. They’ve been sold out since the start of quarantine, right before you found out about them, and now you finally managed to get one. You did your nails right away, and after some trial and error, were ecstatic with how they turned out. You want to practice more, but don’t want to go through the hassle of taking off your current set. Hence, Percy the hand model.
“So, what design are you going to do?” You smile up at him.
“That depends on what the client wants.”
“Well, as the client,” he says, playing along, “I trust my - nail polish… person…” he trails off hesitantly.
“Nail tech,” you supply, and he nods.
“My nail tech, to choose the coolest design possible.”
A deep, excited smile crosses your face, and you know exactly what you’re going to do.
Two hours later, you sit back, hands sticky and tired, and admire your work. You rub some jojoba oil into his cuticles, and take a deep breath.
“Okay,” you breath, “you can look now. Ta da!”
He looks down at his hands astonished. His nails are now long and squared off, fading from a cream toned glitter to a lollipop blue, with little gold sea creatures and aquatic sequins embedded and attached on top. He looks at you, amazed.
“Do you like them?” You ask hopefully, already knowing the answer.
“Yes!” He breathes, “I’m gonna take a picture…” he tries to pick up his phone to no avail. You hold back a laugh.
“You have to open the pop socket first,” you prompt. He looks up at you with a worried expression, laughing.
“Use the side of your finger,” you say. You demonstrate, which leads to you showing him how to do various things with long nails.
After much trial and error, he comes to the conclusion that locking the door is the easiest, and typing is the hardest. You sit snuggled next to him on the couch as he tries to work the buttons on the remote.
“I can take those off now,” you say, watching him struggle to change the volume. He looks at you shocked, and holds his hands far away.
“No way! I want to keep them on for a while longer…” he looks at his nails again, amazed at how fast you taught yourself to make such pretty things.