Facepaint.

That's what Joost wanted for his next round of performances.

It started out as KISS style make-up, which Fenne liked. Against Joost's blonde hair, the pasty face with black flares around his blue eyes was artistic. She especially enjoyed when she could swipe his fringe to the side and see his unobscured face. It wasn't often where Joost's forehead was bare and his cheekbones were able to be fully appreciated.

He would sit still as Fenne dabbed a sponge across his face. While she concentrated on her work, Joost followed her as she manoeuvred around his face. Her closeness was intoxicating and he snuck glances down her top when he thought she wouldn't notice.

'I can see you, Joost-'

'No you can't.'

He hated the part when she would grab the fine brush to draw the flares' black outline. It meant that he would have to close his eyes and the omnious strokes would make his face itch. Fenne knew when a break was needed because she would see his eyeballs move underneath his lids. She would take her time with mixing some more water into the pot before she would continue, making sure to keep conversation to distract him.

The paint was thick and stunk of something toxic. She wrinkled her nose as she leaned over Joost's chair and tried to ignore his following stare. She felt like she was walking around the Mona Lisa with how his eyes seemed glued to her.

Mixed with the stench of solvent, the experience was bittersweet, but her new found skill of KISS facepaint was another thing to add to her resume.

Fenne thought it was just for the first few shows, but when Hanna started doing Apson's makeup, and Nathan helped with Stuntje's, she realised that it was here to stay.

'Can you do, like, you know mimes? Can you do the mime look?' Joost asked before a show. Fenne brushed his trimmed fringe to the side while he sat in a denim skirt, striped t-shirt and white gloves.

'A mime? With the sad eyebrows and lips?'

'Yeah! But maybe not sad. Just black lips and thin eyebrows.'

Fenne shrugged.

'Whatever you want.'

Her camera was prepped on the table behind her and Joost sat fiddling with the hem of his gloves. Hanna was doing the same look on Apson, who was going on stage with Stuntje. The man who insisted he wanted to be single was impatiently bouncing his knee, waiting for Nathan to come in and start his makeup.

But as time went on, Fenne was nearly done with Joost and Stuntje didn't have even a lick of paint of his face.

'Yo, Teun's playlist fucked up! I've got to go help him!' Nathan appeared in the doorway, his thumb over his shoulder. 'You've got ten minutes! Fenne, you're going to have to do Stuntje's, too.'

'It's going to be a shit job!' Fenne exasperated, painting on Joost's second black eyebrow.

'Doesn't matter! You've got a shit canvas to work with, anyway!'

Stuntje called Nathan a grotesque name before he ran off to help Teun. Fenne could feel the rush for time kick in as she finished Joost's face and stepped back to let him get out of the chair. She didn't take notice of his slow rise or quick glance towards her thin-strapped top. All Fenne could focus on was grabbing the white pot and starting from scratch as Stuntje took Joost's place.

Joost wasn't happy. When he suggested having everyone in face paint for the performance, he was under the impression that Fenne would exclusively be doing his face and his alone. Apson was on the same page, meaning Hanna did his, leaving Nathan to do Stuntje's. But the consequences of Joost's decision was staring him in the face, just like Fenne's chest stared direcly into Stuntje's eyeline.

Fenne jumped around the chair obliviously. Every time she leaned down to dab at Stuntje's nose, his eyes would look elsewhere. The burn of his friend's stare on his side made him sweat and use every bit of his strength to dodge Fenne's cleavage. He hated that it had come to this and would be hunting Nathan down once he was free from the torture.

In a frazzled state, Fenne went to step to the left, directing Stuntje to look where she had been. But like a professional footballer, Fenne tricked him and stepped back in front, giving him a direct view of her chest.

'Close your fucking eyes, Stuntje,' Joost's English came as a surprise and Fenne looked to him while filling in a black flare. In her distraction, Stuntje did as he was told and replied in the same language,

'I am, I am. I'm sorry.'

'Why are you speaking in English?' Fenne asked, confused. She glanced back at the frowning mime in the corner who hadn't left to set up for his set. 

With his arms crossed, Joost was stoic in his facepaint and white gloves. His stare was unmoving from the scene in front of him. He knew that Fenne's English was below average, so he took advantage of her ignorance. He knew it was wrong, but he couldn't stand to see his best friend's eyes even sweep across his girlfriend's chest.

Fenne finished Stuntje's makeup none the wiser. She barely announced it's completion before Stuntje leapt out of the chair and headed for the stage without a word. She got to cleaning her hands while watching Joost dare his friend to look his way.

Nathan's warning for two minutes sounded and did a doubletake at the muderous glare he received from Stuntje. Teamed with a tight-lipped Joost, the Belgian man headed back towards the stage while fearing the unknown.

'What did Joost say?' Fenne tried to ask while jogging with Hanna. With her camera in hand, Fenne and her friend tried to keep up with the team of mimes.

'I don't know. My English is subpar. I know he swore, though.'

Abandoning the thought, Fenne stopped at the edge of the stage. Teun was already behind the booth with his ammended playlist and hyped the crowd up with Herman van Veen's beat. Joost turned on his microphone and with a quick glance over his shoulder, he ran out to scream the adlibs.

---

After the set, Fenne was ecstatic at the quality of footage she got. Having a stage full of mimes while Joost screamed his songs made for a brilliant show. The crowd loved it and Fenne couldn't wait to edit everything for the next marketing post.

The ceremonial cigarette break was held outside the festival's main area. Joost's team leaned against the wall with their facepaint streaked from sweat. The show's energy made the trio perspire and their masks drip down their necks. The once opaque black had faded around their eyes and the white base was patchy. But they didn't care, making the group of smoking mimes a sight to see.

'This shit stings,' Apson groaned while rubbing his eye with his thumb. The paint dripped through his eyelashes and Hanna tried to pry his eye open to wipe it out.

'You all looked great, though,' Fenne cheered with a glance up from her camera screen. 'This'll be great promo.'

Joost pushed off of the wall and took a long drag from his cigarette. He made his way past Nathan and stopped in front of the woman who was yet to look up. The smell of smoke struck her nose and it made her peer up with a lingering smile. Met with a sweaty mime, Fenne went to ask Joost what the matter was, when his gloved hands cupped her face and crashed his lips against hers.

The dry paint mixed with the taste of tobacco made for a unique experience. Fenne's eyes widened in surprise and by the time she went to kiss back, Joost pulled away and licked at his bottom lip. He took the hand that held his cigarette off of Fenne's cheek and turned to the right, where Hanna stood with her phone camera waiting.

In a series of baffled blinks, Fenne turned as Joost gave the lense the middle finger. The moment was captured and Hanna giggled with the picture on her screen.

'W-What... why did you do that?' Fenne stammered, unaware of the black and white paint across her chin and lips.

'Felt like it,' Joost shrugged and took Hanna's phone to see the picture. 'That's sick. You can post that one. More great promo.'

She looked at the photo and immediately went to wipe at her lips. Joost's middle finger took up most of the frame. Behind it, was his stark white face and brooding expression. Fenne was pictured staring distantly with the paint that was on Joost's lips smeered across hers. The photo held the aftermath of the spontaneous kiss and despite her bewilderment, Fenne asked Hanna to send it to her for her next Instagram post.

'No, really, what's going on?' she let her camera fall by her side to address her boyfriend directly. 'What did you say to Stuntje earlier?'

'Nothing you need to worry about,' Joost said and used his thumb to wipe some of the paint off Fenne's chin. He adored how pretty she looked staring up at him with wide eyes and remanents of his lips on hers. His adrenaline usually ran high after his shows and he couldn't help himself after the moment backstage.

'Just so we're clear, you're only ever to do my makeup from now on.'

Fenne watched Joost exhale while slowly nodding. The man was content with her gesture and asked for her camera to watch the footage back. She took the time to pull out her phone to see that Hanna had sent her the photo. Despite her confusion, Fenne had to admit that Joost's pose was cool and seeing his facepaint on her lips made her smile.

Tagging Hanna and Joost, Fenne posted the photo with the caption,

fenney_meer Renaissance painting.

Almost immediately, likes flooded her notifications. Festival goers anticipated some social media activity after the set and flocked to Joost's associate accounts for behind-the-scenes photos.

Ever since dating Joost, Fenne's Instagram had barely featured pictures of herself. The only time her face was shown was in photos that someone had taken of her and Joost together. Her favourite had been taken at one of the team's house parties. She remembered Teun taking the picture of the two in the back garden.

It was during the winter, so Joost wore his Ushanka and a pair of clear-lensed glasses. He pursed his lips at the camera's flash and Fenne was stood next to him, smiling with her eyes closed. People stood in the dark background but were blurred from the photo's focus on the couple in the foreground.

But the latest photo on her account was her new favourite.

---

As expected, further recognition came from Fenne's footage.

Posted on Joost's verified account, the Pinkpop video resulted in emails for meetings and contract proposals. Festivals all around Europe were asking the eccentric and unique Joost Klein to perform for hefty pay. If this wasn't exciting enough, Joost started seeing familiar names in his comments section.

'You would not fucking believe what's just happened!' he cried one afternoon.

Fenne and Teun occupied the living space but were working independently. Teun's laptop showed an editing software with clips for a music video they had recently filmed. Fenne was opening some camera supplies on the kitchen counter. The two looked to the man who stood with his phone in hand and a wide smile on his face.

'CMH and Ski Aggu commented on the Pinkpop post.'

'Holy shit, dude. That's awesome!'

'Who are they?'

Teun was in the process of dapping his friend up but stopped after the intial clap sounded. Joost and Teun turned to Fenne with eyebrows drawn together in disbelief and a deep concern. Like she had grown two heads, the men stared at Fenne while frozen in their celebration.

'You really need to listen to that playlist, Fenne. It would make these conversations less painful,' Teun said. The playlist in question was made by the team but it was obvious that Fenne was yet to educate herself with it.

'Aggu is the biggest rapper in Germany right now. He makes these awesome beats and he asked if I was ever going to be in Berlin,' Joost explained. 'And CMH's Russian and makes dubstep tracks. He said he saw me at Pinkpop.'

'Can you get some official emails from them?'

'Yeah, I'll ask right now.'

While throwing away the box and rubbish, Fenne waited for Teun to pick up his laptop from the counter. He started crafting emails to send to CMH and Ski Aggu's production team. While Joost showed him the contacts, the man looked to where Fenne waited and took note of her black t-shirt and jeans.

'Are you going to work?'

'Yeah. I'll be back late. We're doing stocktake after close.'

Teun thanked Joost for the emails. He disappeared up the staircase to head to his room, leaving the two in the kitchen. Fenne put her bag on her shoulder and went to give Joost a kiss goodbye. He took it gratefully, but stopped her from heading down the hall by stepping in her way.

'You know you don't have to work there anymore, schatje. If I can work with these guys, you won't have to worry about money.'

'I know, but I still want to keep it going until we're fully settled,' she said truthfully. 'I'm not worried about money. I just...'

'Want to be independent?'

'Something like that.'

Joost didn't want to let Fenne step around him but did so, anyway. She gave her farewell with a smile and Joost remained in the kitchen with his phone in hand. She left a presence that he longed to keep, but after the front door closed, Joost felt the house dampen in her absence.

With a sigh, he pulled up the direct messages from his favourite artists and suggested some dates to discuss plans further.