fic - good hair day [haven]
Title: Good Hair Day
Series: Moments of Haven
Summary: A weirdly big silly little thing in their funny little household.
Good Hair Day
A Moment of Haven
"So. How do you want to do this?" Choosing the kitchen as their battleground had been their first step. Now they had to resolve the rest of it.
Duo straightened the tools on the kitchen table. "You don't have a plan?"
"I have a plan. I just thought I'd give you the illusion of choice."
"Ha. Should I just save myself the trouble and ask you what the plan is?"
"No. I'd like your input on the matter."
"And then we'll do it your way."
"We don't have to do it my way. It's not a complex plan. I'm open to discussion."
"And then we'll do it your way."
"Well, if you're offering..."
"No, I am not offering." He smacked Heero's arm. "Bastard."
Heero smirked, but knew he'd do it any way Duo wanted. "Then how did you want to do this?"
Duo crossed his arms obstinately across his chest. "How about you tell me what your plan is first, and then I'll tell you what a terrible plan it is."
How did this get so complicated all of a sudden? Heero shrugged. "Just seemed like... yours will be a more straightforward cut... sorry, 'trim'. So we should probably just get it out of the way first."
"Ah. See, I was thinking we should just get my trim done first because that way, if I mess up on your hair, I don't have to worry about you taking revenge on me. Not that I'm going to mess up or anything."
"Of course."
"I'm good with blades, you know."
Heero eyed the do-it-yourself hair-cutting kit Duo had picked up at the drugstore, all spread out neatly on the table. "Have you read up on these implements of destruction?"
"Yeah, don't worry, I've read all the mags in the market checkout lane that had anything to do with hair care."
The way Duo picked up the thinning shears and twirled them around on his finger was probably supposed to inspire confidence, but it didn't really.
Duo rolled his eyes and handily brought the scissors to a halt with a flourish. "Idiot. I got it covered, man. Don't worry. It's just hair. What's the worst that--"
"Are you really going to finish that sentence?"
"Trust me, babe. You trust me, right?"
"Of course I trust you... to not ruin one of your favorite playthings."
"You know it's just one of my favorite playthings... attached to one of my favorite playthings, right?"
"You really do enjoy messing with my head, don't you?"
"As much as you enjoy messing with mine." He kissed Heero briefly before sighing. "I suppose we should get started, or we'll never get this done."
Heero gallantly pulled out the chair for him and gestured for him to be seated. He noted the way Duo sat down, gingerly on the edge at first, then after a fortifying breath backing up until he was fully seated. He kissed the side of Duo's head and whispered into his ear. "Don't worry. I'll be gentle."
Duo couldn't help the chuckle as he removed the tie from his hair. "This isn't my first time, you know."
He couldn't help the twitchy fingers that reached out to take over the task of unraveling the plaits and smoothing them down. "It's been a while."
"I just spent the last couple of hours preparing myself for this. I think I can take it."
"Spray bottle," he warned before using the spritzer he had prepared to start wetting down Duo's hair. Duo twitched at the first spray anyway, but acclimated quickly. "I wish I could make some sort of joke equating this to lubing you up, but I'm afraid nothing's coming to mind right now. Sorry."
"Heh, well, I appreciate the effort. All I've got left is talking about how much longer and thicker it is than yours. But then I start thinking about the whole cutting thing, and my balls just start asking me to please please stop."
"Ah. I think your balls have a point." He switched the spray bottle to the other hand and worked his way through the ends of Duo's hair with his other. "This is going to take forever."
"Would have taken forever if I'd just dunked my head in a bucket, too. Would have to spend time drying the whole mess out a bit. It shouldn't be all knotted up or anything though, right?"
"No, it's being well-behaved today."
"Hasn't realized it's on the chopping block, I guess."
"Maybe it's looking forward to it. It's just a trim. For its own good."
"Kind of weird, don't ya think... thinking about how old the ends must be. How long they've been around."
"Time for a retirement, maybe."
"...Kind of weird, don't ya think.... thinking about how old we are. How long we've been around. Well, guess we've got longer lifespans than silly ol' hair. We can take a bit more damage. Not our time to retire yet, eh, babe?"
"Can't retire yet. We're just getting started."
"Just... getting started," he echoed softly, listening to the spritzer go. Heero shifted hands again, and it amused Duo to think he was getting tired from all that spritzing.
Eventually, Heero pulled the comb through Duo's hair one last time and deemed the conditions ripe for proceeding. "How long?"
"How about... same as last time?"
"Okay." He separated the hair carefully into sections and clipped them back as well as he could.
"Heh, someone's been doing research."
"Since you didn't just ask 'what the hell are you doing, Yuy?', that means you've been doing research, too."
"Well, hell yeah. There's bragging rights on the line here. Not to mention playthings. Bet I did more research than you did."
"Are we competing about that, now?"
"Well, I guess there's really no comparison. My hair's probably less complicated to cut than yours."
"That doesn't mean I'd do a careless job of it."
"You better not, Yuy. Come to think of it, you better not be doing anything girly to it, either."
"Would I do that?"
"I dunno. Have I pissed you off lately?"
"Oh, come on," Heero joked lightly. "You've got plenty of hair here. That means I've got lots of chances to get it right, right?"
"Just remember, I still get to cut your--" He almost-flinched automatically as he heard the first cut of the scissors. "...your hair after this," he finished softly.
"I know," Heero answered placidly, running the comb through Duo's hair a couple of unnecessary times, letting him feel the new length and untense a bit before continuing.
"You know... the first time... it kind of occurred to me way after the fact that I probably should have donated it all or something. Seems like they could have done something useful with stuff that long. But... I dunno, it was a spur of the moment thing, so I didn't stop to think about it. Just as well, I guess. If I'd stopped, I probably wouldn't have carried through with it so easily. And I guess I... didn't really feel like it was mine to give away, anyway."
Heero paused momentarily, looking almost guiltily at the puddle of hair he'd already dropped into the trash can. "Did you want me to save it?"
"Nah... Don't think it's really long enough to be super useful, and... it's kinda funny. I mean, I'm pretty morbid at the best of times, but I dunno, seems kinda creepy to think about someone else running around with my hair on. I know it's for the sick kids and all, which would usually be my soft spot, but... Maybe I just don't think kids should be lugging around hair with this much history."
"There's always next time."
"Next time...." He felt the light tugs as Heero measured his work against itself and found the lengths to be even. "Heh, next time, we'll be old pros at this, eh?"
"To be fair, I was cutting my own hair for a few years, so I've got a head start on the experience."
He sat quietly as Heero proceeded in his own orderly fashion, taking down each section of hair to be trimmed and cutting to length with little hesitation. Duo mulled over his own plans for a few minutes to make sure he would be able to at least match Heero's performance. Hair cutting was such a silly little thing, but it was a weirdly big silly little thing in their funny little household. "Hey, Heero..."
"Hm?" He felt Heero checking the lengths again, reassured himself by the amount of time it took Heero's fingers to slide from base to tip of the hairs.
"I know you said you weren't going to be careless and all... but you seem to be putting in an awful lot of work for a simple straight trim. You're not..." He thought over what he felt Heero doing behind him, and cross-referenced that with his own research. "Oh my god, you're not putting layers in there, are you?"
"Of course not. That wouldn't play nicely with your braid." Snip. "I'm just... feathering the edges a little."
If he could have turned to glare without causing an accident, he would have. "What the hell, Yuy? You trying to make me look girly or something?"
"It's just a subtle effect."
"Heero..." His voice was approaching a growl.
"I refuse to give you a plain straight cut."
He took a deep breath, let it out carefully, and evened his tone. "And why, pray tell, is that?"
Heero's hands paused for a moment. "It... reminds me of Dorothy."
That pause probably saved some of his locks as Duo accidentally moved his head in his laughter. He slapped his hand up to his mouth to try to suppress some of it, which just meant his shoulders took on the burden of shaking. "Oh god," he whimpered at length. "Okay. Alright. I give. You win. Carry on."
"Are you done?" Heero asked somewhat petulantly. His scissors weren't moving anywhere until he was sure Duo could sit still again.
Duo released another snigger before composing himself. He crooked one finger over his shoulder and summoned Heero to stand in front of him. Once he had achieved compliance, he pulled Heero down for a kiss. "Thank you for thinking of everything, babe," he said, employing a tone that stopped just short of patronizing. Then he winced as his hair complained about the angle his head was at. "Now hurry the hell up so I can get these clips out of my hair."
Heero resumed his duties without further comment.
Duo chuckled again, but was careful not to move too much this time. "So... I guess this means you don't have a thing for Dorothy?"
Heero made a mildly horrified sound. "I absolutely do not have a thing for Dorothy. I can't imagine her not eating any man she dated alive."
"What, don't think you can stand up to her?"
There were several responses that came to mind, but none he could see that didn't leave an opening for Duo to prod some more, and this really wasn't something he wanted prodded some more. "It's a moot point anyway, Duo. If I were crazy enough to have a thing for her, then my mental status would obviously be compromised enough that whatever I assert now, in my present state of mind, would be irrelevant."
"Heh, okay, fair enough. Good to know you don't just have some sort of indiscriminate thing for hair."
"As if you don't have a thing about hair."
"Ick, I don't like Dorothy either, man, you don't gotta worry about that. I wouldn't even want to share hair-care tips with her. Or, ugh, Zechs. Aw man, now their hair is longer than mine."
Heero brushed his knuckle along the shell of Duo's ear. "Don't worry, dear, I'm sure yours is still thicker."
"Heh. Longer *and* thicker than Wufei's, definitely. And now thanks to you, more style than Dorothy." He mimed tossing his hair saucily over his shoulder. "Ha. Hm, I think I've still got the edge on Sally, too."
"I wonder..."
"What? Oh, come on. Unless you've been going to town back there, I should still have her beat out."
"Well, I was just wondering... " Heero trailed off tentatively, but figured he might as well bull on forward since he'd gotten that far. Duo wouldn't let him off the hook, anyway. "That is... I wonder how much length gets tied up in that hairstyle of hers. I... have no idea how she gets those twists to stay."
Duo was silent for a few breath-holding seconds before he chuckled. "Ha, you too? Yeah, I haven't the foggiest. Always kind of wondered, but not hard enough to actually ask."
"I... just figured it was some sort of feminine magic."
"Sounds good to me. Think I'll just stick with my trusty ol' braid. Was that the last clip?" As if he couldn't tell by feel. His scalp breathed a sigh of relief now that all of his hair could fall in the direction it was meant to.
"Yeah, I'll be done in a minute."
"That... wasn't so bad, right?"
"Wasn't so bad."
"You know, Heero, I like your regular stylist and all, but I bet you've never a conversation half as interesting as this with him."
"And I hope never to have to." He stepped back and studied the ends of it all critically, found one hair out of place and carefully snipped it back into line with the others. "There. All done."
"Yeah?" Duo self-consciously ran a hand through his bangs and then on through the rest of it.
"Hang on." Heero shooed Duo's hand away and shook out all the loose bits. "There."
Duo pulled a chunk in front of him and scrutinized it before tossing it back and getting a feel for the new length. "Yeah. Yeah, that'll do." He bounced out of his chair and headed for the bathroom under the stairs to examine himself in the mirror.
Heero glanced at the hair on the floor that he could be sweeping up, and chose to follow Duo instead. Almost as soon as he was within reach, Duo snagged him for a kiss. "I did okay?"
The reward for the question was another kiss. "Yeah. You did okay."
"Not too girly?"
"Not too girly. Let's go see if I do okay, too. Or, uh, let's go watch me do okay. Okay?"
Another smaller kiss. "Okay."
When they got back to the kitchen, Heero fetched the broom and started sweeping up what he'd missed dropping in the trash can while Duo retrieved his hair tie and pulled his hair back and out of the way. "Whoa... that's a lot of hair."
"You have a lot of hair," Heero responded dryly.
"Well, yeah... but now I have a lot less a-lot-of-hair. Hey, let's cut your hair outside. It's not so bad sweeping up all my long bits, but it's probably going to be more annoying trying to get all of your short bits."
Heero gave him a skeptical look. "Outside?"
"Yeah. Back porch ought to work just fine. It's a great day outside."
"I... guess it is."
Sensing Heero's reluctant agreement, Duo kept his smirk to a polite minimum and quickly shifted the topic to assure compliance. "You've got a lot less a-lot-of-hair than I do. We should be fine just sticking your head in a bucket instead of spritzing."
"Bucket...?" Heero blinked at him. "You know, I think I see some hair I missed... want to let me get that?" His hand strayed menacingly toward the scissors.
Duo held his hands up in surrender. "Okay, fine. We'd probably be okay just spraying it down with the kitchen faucet." Heero's hand closed around the scissors. "Unless you really wanted to go take a shower. We have a spray attachment here and everything. It'd be simple and easy, right? Then a little rough toweling and we're good to go."
Heero eyed him, then eyed the kitchen sink, and set the scissors down with a sigh. "Fine." He moved to the sink and let Duo maneuver his head into position over the basin. "You're just too lazy to use that damn mister."
"Hey, how was I supposed to know it would take that long?" Duo gave the water heater a few seconds to kick in before turning the spray on the top of Heero's head. "Or that your hand could get so tired pumping the thing?"
"I can barely understand you in here, Duo."
"Ah. Don't worry, this'll just be a sec... Ooops."
"I understood that just fine," Heero said wryly, rolling his shoulders uncomfortably as water trickled under his shirt's neckline and down his back.
"Sorry 'bout that, just... shiii-- oops." Only Duo's hand on the back of his head stopped Heero from jerking up and hitting the faucet when a moment of carelessness sprayed water over his back while Duo had been trying to shut off the water. "Uh, all done now!"
Heero wasted little time in straightening and shooting a pointed look at Duo. It ended with a snort. "Not the best idea you've had, perhaps."
"Um. No, it was a good idea... just flawed in execution." He smiled nervously, watching the drops from Heero's hair further wetting the t-shirt. The smile became markedly less nervous when his mind supplied him with a handy resolution to the situation. "Gee, look at that shirt getting all wet. We didn't pick up one of those nifty little capes to keep it from getting any messier, what with all your short little hairs and all, so I guess you should probably just take your shirt off."
Heero graced him with another steady look. "You just want me to take off my shirt." Didn't need to be a genius to figure that one out.
"Well, yeah." Duo grinned unrepentantly before closing in for the kill. "Come on, teanut... indulge me?"
Hm, well, it really was a nice day outside, and Duo's fingers were already untucking his shirt, so there didn't seem to be any point in resisting much. He let Duo do as he pleased. His shirt had barely cleared his head before Duo completely invaded his personal space and began nuzzling his neck, nipping at his collarbone. He allowed one hand to sneak around Duo's waist. "Mmm, maybe this isn't a good idea if you're just going to be distracted. Wouldn't want any accidents."
Duo tossed the shirt to the nearby table and let his hands enjoy the feel of Heero's bare skin. "Just... lemme get this out of my system... then we'll be good to go." It took a drop of water to fall on his hand for him to finally put his mind back to task. He stole one more kiss before stepping back with a smirk. "Okay, there's your towel. Dry it up a bit, and I'll grab the stuff. Meet you outside?"
They set up camp on the back porch, the afternoon being just late enough that Heero could sit comfortably without the sun shining in his eyes.
Duo tsked. "What's with the towel?"
Heero adjusted it over his shoulders so it lay flat and out of the way. "Improvising one of those 'nifty little capes' is all."
"Those aren't made of... uh, what's this towel stuff called again? Terry cloth?"
"It'll still keep me clean."
"But the towel, Heero! Think of the towel!"
"I'm sure we can shake it off just fine."
Duo made a dissatisfied sound, but ran his fingers through Heero's hair as if to proceed. As soon as Heero let go of his corner of the towel, Duo whisked it off. "It's a great day to work on your tan, babe."
Heero turned in his seat to give him another of his pointed looks. "I don't see you working on *your* tan."
"You're in my sun. What would be the point?" He turned Heero forward again and ran a comb through the nicely damp locks.
"Are you sure you won't be distracted?"
"Nah, not a problem. Every time I'm about to be distracted, all I gotta do is take whatever delightfully distracting thing I was thinking and queue it up for later. I'm a patient man." He ignored Heero's snort. "I can wait. So. How long?"
The pause may have been a thoughtful silence, but it was more probably just a silent pout. "About the same as last time?"
"Works for me." He went about the business of reconfiguring Heero's hair according to his mental blueprints. Once he had gained clear access to the first section of hair to fall, he took up the scissors, positioned them precisely, double and triple-checked his accuracy, and closed the blades. They sliced through the strands of hair with almost alarming ease, producing that oddly distinctive sound as they did. He looked to his feet, saw what he'd just trimmed on the floor, and chuckled.
"What? Make a mistake already?"
Duo moved quickly to continue the job. "No. Heh, I was just thinking... We'll sweep up the porch, no problem, but we're gonna miss some, guaranteed. I was just sort of wondering what would happen to it. Pictured some birds picking up stray hairs they find and building nests out of it. Pictured some birds managing to make some damn indestructible nests out of your hair."
"...I don't think I find that as amusing as you do."
"Probably not," he agreed amiably, snipping away. That first cut had been the hardest. Cutting just to make everything match up was easy. "Did you always cut your own hair? Or was that just a recent development?"
"As much as I would like to claim that I've always been as crazy as you called me when you first saw me at it... no, it was a relatively recent development. The project became more and more... isolated? Self-contained? As the start date approached. It was just simpler to take care of it myself."
"Heh, I suppose if I were so inclined, I could probably take care of my hair a lot easier than you could yours. At least I can see the ends of my hair."
"It's nothing a good mirror setup can't solve."
Duo leaned forward quickly to land a peck on his cheek. "Or a good boyfriend." He combed down a new section of hair for the trimming. "You know... I'm not even sure why I flipped out when... when Sister Helen tried to cut my hair. I think I was just being stubborn. Just... didn't want to be like all the other kids, I guess."
"You always told me it was safer to blend in with the crowd."
"Yeah... think I learned that lesson a little later on. Sometimes all I wanted was to be like the other kids. Wanted what they had, I guess, just... didn't want their stupid, stuck-up, rich kid attitudes. Pretty ridiculous, if you think about it. I mean, not wanting to get assimilated. Not like the hand-me-down priest's clothes weren't enough to make me stick out. Didn't really need the hair on top of that."
"But the hair was a part of you."
"Yeah... later on... after I hooked up with G and learned some more stuff. I took to thinking, yeah, maybe it was a smart thing to get so attached to something so stupid... 'cuz it was dead already, yanno? Dead cells and all that. Didn't have to worry about it that way."
Heero exhaled audibly. "You're right, Duo. You really are morbid, even at the best of times."
Duo smirked with a rueful, if bitter, edge. "Yup, that'd be me. Friendly neighborhood Shinigami at your service."
Heero felt it was better to simply let the topic of conversation die out rather than try to redirect it toward brighter skies, and luckily, Duo seemed willing to go along with it. The lapse in conversation stretched out longer than he had expected it would, but it was a comfortable lapse. It'd been a while since they'd last taken the time to just sit outside for a bit. He looked out over their backyard and studied the view. The rear of their backyard sloped down into a small valley between hills, and he realized that he hadn't taken a look down there for a while to see what was there. The hillside was solid enough to be unaffected by the seasonal rains, and that was about as far as he'd ever really thought about it. Looking across the distance into the backyards of the houses across the way, he saw a couple that probably resembled theirs... and a few that quite markedly did not.
Duo pulled bangs from both sides of Heero's head forward to do the relative length check, making some sort of humming sound as he did, and Heero laughed. Duo gave him a playful little shove on the back of the head. "What's so funny?"
"Sorry... just... um. Got a funny image in my head."
"Do tell."
"Just... pictured my friendly neighborhood Shinigami... cutting hair for a living. With a little scythe."
Duo blinked, then slowly leaned around Heero to look him carefully in the eyes. "Hmm. You don't look like you're smoking something..."
"Must be all this terrible fresh air," Heero responded blandly, a smile lurking around his eyes.
"Hmpf." Duo ruffled his bangs fondly before smoothing them down for further length analysis and adjustment. "Next time we do this, we should get you some phone books to sit on or something. My back's killing me."
"Or you could sit in a chair with some phone books."
"Well, that, too. But maneuverability is more important for me." He stepped off for a second to switch to his other pair of scissors. "Would you believe... I'm almost done?"
Heero gave him a measuring look. "Hmm, well, you must not have made any major mistakes then, otherwise you'd be stalling."
"Well, I'm rather proud of it, which means you'd better be proud of it, too, if you know what's good for you." He circled around to the front again to clean up his lines a little. After a few seconds, he chuckled, but waited until his scissors were more than just a couple of centimeters away from Heero's eyes before explaining himself. "We should do something with the backyard. Grow some stuff. Yanno?"
"Oh?"
"Yeah. 'Cuz I was just thinking one of those distracting things? Something about sitting down in your lap right now and all that. And I think I might actually do it since I'm pretty much done here, except you can see all the way off to the other side from here."
Heero took advantage of their proximity to brush his lips lightly against Duo's cheek before leaning around him to study the yard again. "You think they can see us?"
Duo stepped out of the way and took a place beside him instead, one hand casually on the back of Heero's seat where he could stroke his thumb across Heero's skin. "Well, not the details, I guess, and it's not like I think they've got nothing better to do than mount surveillance in our direction, but... why am I even explaining this to you? You're more paranoid than I am."
"I wouldn't exactly encourage you to do more than you are right now, either," he admitted, running a hand through his hair to get a feel for it. Everything seemed to be in order. "But I think it would be a little bit odd for us to build a wall back here."
"Well, I wasn't thinking a wall..." He chased Heero's hand off and combed out all the loose hairs, and then took advantage of the opportunity to sweep all the hair off Heero's bare neck and shoulders with a lot of unnecessary caressing. "We could... I dunno, like a screen, maybe? Plant some tall upright... things? I think we're pretty okay, left-right... it's just the back we need to take care of. Wouldn't have to be a solid line all the way across, too. Just... a little cover somewhere. For special occasions."
Heero considered the possibilities. "A trellis, perhaps? We could grow some vines on it. It would be... decorative."
"Yeah. That could work... Huh. You know, spring's coming up. We talked about sprucing the yard up a bit, way back in the day. Maybe we should start thinking about it? We don't know the first thing about gardening, but..."
"...that's never stopped us before," Heero finished.
"Sure hasn't."
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Series: Moments of Haven
Summary: A weirdly big silly little thing in their funny little household.
Good Hair Day
A Moment of Haven
"So. How do you want to do this?" Choosing the kitchen as their battleground had been their first step. Now they had to resolve the rest of it.
Duo straightened the tools on the kitchen table. "You don't have a plan?"
"I have a plan. I just thought I'd give you the illusion of choice."
"Ha. Should I just save myself the trouble and ask you what the plan is?"
"No. I'd like your input on the matter."
"And then we'll do it your way."
"We don't have to do it my way. It's not a complex plan. I'm open to discussion."
"And then we'll do it your way."
"Well, if you're offering..."
"No, I am not offering." He smacked Heero's arm. "Bastard."
Heero smirked, but knew he'd do it any way Duo wanted. "Then how did you want to do this?"
Duo crossed his arms obstinately across his chest. "How about you tell me what your plan is first, and then I'll tell you what a terrible plan it is."
How did this get so complicated all of a sudden? Heero shrugged. "Just seemed like... yours will be a more straightforward cut... sorry, 'trim'. So we should probably just get it out of the way first."
"Ah. See, I was thinking we should just get my trim done first because that way, if I mess up on your hair, I don't have to worry about you taking revenge on me. Not that I'm going to mess up or anything."
"Of course."
"I'm good with blades, you know."
Heero eyed the do-it-yourself hair-cutting kit Duo had picked up at the drugstore, all spread out neatly on the table. "Have you read up on these implements of destruction?"
"Yeah, don't worry, I've read all the mags in the market checkout lane that had anything to do with hair care."
The way Duo picked up the thinning shears and twirled them around on his finger was probably supposed to inspire confidence, but it didn't really.
Duo rolled his eyes and handily brought the scissors to a halt with a flourish. "Idiot. I got it covered, man. Don't worry. It's just hair. What's the worst that--"
"Are you really going to finish that sentence?"
"Trust me, babe. You trust me, right?"
"Of course I trust you... to not ruin one of your favorite playthings."
"You know it's just one of my favorite playthings... attached to one of my favorite playthings, right?"
"You really do enjoy messing with my head, don't you?"
"As much as you enjoy messing with mine." He kissed Heero briefly before sighing. "I suppose we should get started, or we'll never get this done."
Heero gallantly pulled out the chair for him and gestured for him to be seated. He noted the way Duo sat down, gingerly on the edge at first, then after a fortifying breath backing up until he was fully seated. He kissed the side of Duo's head and whispered into his ear. "Don't worry. I'll be gentle."
Duo couldn't help the chuckle as he removed the tie from his hair. "This isn't my first time, you know."
He couldn't help the twitchy fingers that reached out to take over the task of unraveling the plaits and smoothing them down. "It's been a while."
"I just spent the last couple of hours preparing myself for this. I think I can take it."
"Spray bottle," he warned before using the spritzer he had prepared to start wetting down Duo's hair. Duo twitched at the first spray anyway, but acclimated quickly. "I wish I could make some sort of joke equating this to lubing you up, but I'm afraid nothing's coming to mind right now. Sorry."
"Heh, well, I appreciate the effort. All I've got left is talking about how much longer and thicker it is than yours. But then I start thinking about the whole cutting thing, and my balls just start asking me to please please stop."
"Ah. I think your balls have a point." He switched the spray bottle to the other hand and worked his way through the ends of Duo's hair with his other. "This is going to take forever."
"Would have taken forever if I'd just dunked my head in a bucket, too. Would have to spend time drying the whole mess out a bit. It shouldn't be all knotted up or anything though, right?"
"No, it's being well-behaved today."
"Hasn't realized it's on the chopping block, I guess."
"Maybe it's looking forward to it. It's just a trim. For its own good."
"Kind of weird, don't ya think... thinking about how old the ends must be. How long they've been around."
"Time for a retirement, maybe."
"...Kind of weird, don't ya think.... thinking about how old we are. How long we've been around. Well, guess we've got longer lifespans than silly ol' hair. We can take a bit more damage. Not our time to retire yet, eh, babe?"
"Can't retire yet. We're just getting started."
"Just... getting started," he echoed softly, listening to the spritzer go. Heero shifted hands again, and it amused Duo to think he was getting tired from all that spritzing.
Eventually, Heero pulled the comb through Duo's hair one last time and deemed the conditions ripe for proceeding. "How long?"
"How about... same as last time?"
"Okay." He separated the hair carefully into sections and clipped them back as well as he could.
"Heh, someone's been doing research."
"Since you didn't just ask 'what the hell are you doing, Yuy?', that means you've been doing research, too."
"Well, hell yeah. There's bragging rights on the line here. Not to mention playthings. Bet I did more research than you did."
"Are we competing about that, now?"
"Well, I guess there's really no comparison. My hair's probably less complicated to cut than yours."
"That doesn't mean I'd do a careless job of it."
"You better not, Yuy. Come to think of it, you better not be doing anything girly to it, either."
"Would I do that?"
"I dunno. Have I pissed you off lately?"
"Oh, come on," Heero joked lightly. "You've got plenty of hair here. That means I've got lots of chances to get it right, right?"
"Just remember, I still get to cut your--" He almost-flinched automatically as he heard the first cut of the scissors. "...your hair after this," he finished softly.
"I know," Heero answered placidly, running the comb through Duo's hair a couple of unnecessary times, letting him feel the new length and untense a bit before continuing.
"You know... the first time... it kind of occurred to me way after the fact that I probably should have donated it all or something. Seems like they could have done something useful with stuff that long. But... I dunno, it was a spur of the moment thing, so I didn't stop to think about it. Just as well, I guess. If I'd stopped, I probably wouldn't have carried through with it so easily. And I guess I... didn't really feel like it was mine to give away, anyway."
Heero paused momentarily, looking almost guiltily at the puddle of hair he'd already dropped into the trash can. "Did you want me to save it?"
"Nah... Don't think it's really long enough to be super useful, and... it's kinda funny. I mean, I'm pretty morbid at the best of times, but I dunno, seems kinda creepy to think about someone else running around with my hair on. I know it's for the sick kids and all, which would usually be my soft spot, but... Maybe I just don't think kids should be lugging around hair with this much history."
"There's always next time."
"Next time...." He felt the light tugs as Heero measured his work against itself and found the lengths to be even. "Heh, next time, we'll be old pros at this, eh?"
"To be fair, I was cutting my own hair for a few years, so I've got a head start on the experience."
He sat quietly as Heero proceeded in his own orderly fashion, taking down each section of hair to be trimmed and cutting to length with little hesitation. Duo mulled over his own plans for a few minutes to make sure he would be able to at least match Heero's performance. Hair cutting was such a silly little thing, but it was a weirdly big silly little thing in their funny little household. "Hey, Heero..."
"Hm?" He felt Heero checking the lengths again, reassured himself by the amount of time it took Heero's fingers to slide from base to tip of the hairs.
"I know you said you weren't going to be careless and all... but you seem to be putting in an awful lot of work for a simple straight trim. You're not..." He thought over what he felt Heero doing behind him, and cross-referenced that with his own research. "Oh my god, you're not putting layers in there, are you?"
"Of course not. That wouldn't play nicely with your braid." Snip. "I'm just... feathering the edges a little."
If he could have turned to glare without causing an accident, he would have. "What the hell, Yuy? You trying to make me look girly or something?"
"It's just a subtle effect."
"Heero..." His voice was approaching a growl.
"I refuse to give you a plain straight cut."
He took a deep breath, let it out carefully, and evened his tone. "And why, pray tell, is that?"
Heero's hands paused for a moment. "It... reminds me of Dorothy."
That pause probably saved some of his locks as Duo accidentally moved his head in his laughter. He slapped his hand up to his mouth to try to suppress some of it, which just meant his shoulders took on the burden of shaking. "Oh god," he whimpered at length. "Okay. Alright. I give. You win. Carry on."
"Are you done?" Heero asked somewhat petulantly. His scissors weren't moving anywhere until he was sure Duo could sit still again.
Duo released another snigger before composing himself. He crooked one finger over his shoulder and summoned Heero to stand in front of him. Once he had achieved compliance, he pulled Heero down for a kiss. "Thank you for thinking of everything, babe," he said, employing a tone that stopped just short of patronizing. Then he winced as his hair complained about the angle his head was at. "Now hurry the hell up so I can get these clips out of my hair."
Heero resumed his duties without further comment.
Duo chuckled again, but was careful not to move too much this time. "So... I guess this means you don't have a thing for Dorothy?"
Heero made a mildly horrified sound. "I absolutely do not have a thing for Dorothy. I can't imagine her not eating any man she dated alive."
"What, don't think you can stand up to her?"
There were several responses that came to mind, but none he could see that didn't leave an opening for Duo to prod some more, and this really wasn't something he wanted prodded some more. "It's a moot point anyway, Duo. If I were crazy enough to have a thing for her, then my mental status would obviously be compromised enough that whatever I assert now, in my present state of mind, would be irrelevant."
"Heh, okay, fair enough. Good to know you don't just have some sort of indiscriminate thing for hair."
"As if you don't have a thing about hair."
"Ick, I don't like Dorothy either, man, you don't gotta worry about that. I wouldn't even want to share hair-care tips with her. Or, ugh, Zechs. Aw man, now their hair is longer than mine."
Heero brushed his knuckle along the shell of Duo's ear. "Don't worry, dear, I'm sure yours is still thicker."
"Heh. Longer *and* thicker than Wufei's, definitely. And now thanks to you, more style than Dorothy." He mimed tossing his hair saucily over his shoulder. "Ha. Hm, I think I've still got the edge on Sally, too."
"I wonder..."
"What? Oh, come on. Unless you've been going to town back there, I should still have her beat out."
"Well, I was just wondering... " Heero trailed off tentatively, but figured he might as well bull on forward since he'd gotten that far. Duo wouldn't let him off the hook, anyway. "That is... I wonder how much length gets tied up in that hairstyle of hers. I... have no idea how she gets those twists to stay."
Duo was silent for a few breath-holding seconds before he chuckled. "Ha, you too? Yeah, I haven't the foggiest. Always kind of wondered, but not hard enough to actually ask."
"I... just figured it was some sort of feminine magic."
"Sounds good to me. Think I'll just stick with my trusty ol' braid. Was that the last clip?" As if he couldn't tell by feel. His scalp breathed a sigh of relief now that all of his hair could fall in the direction it was meant to.
"Yeah, I'll be done in a minute."
"That... wasn't so bad, right?"
"Wasn't so bad."
"You know, Heero, I like your regular stylist and all, but I bet you've never a conversation half as interesting as this with him."
"And I hope never to have to." He stepped back and studied the ends of it all critically, found one hair out of place and carefully snipped it back into line with the others. "There. All done."
"Yeah?" Duo self-consciously ran a hand through his bangs and then on through the rest of it.
"Hang on." Heero shooed Duo's hand away and shook out all the loose bits. "There."
Duo pulled a chunk in front of him and scrutinized it before tossing it back and getting a feel for the new length. "Yeah. Yeah, that'll do." He bounced out of his chair and headed for the bathroom under the stairs to examine himself in the mirror.
Heero glanced at the hair on the floor that he could be sweeping up, and chose to follow Duo instead. Almost as soon as he was within reach, Duo snagged him for a kiss. "I did okay?"
The reward for the question was another kiss. "Yeah. You did okay."
"Not too girly?"
"Not too girly. Let's go see if I do okay, too. Or, uh, let's go watch me do okay. Okay?"
Another smaller kiss. "Okay."
When they got back to the kitchen, Heero fetched the broom and started sweeping up what he'd missed dropping in the trash can while Duo retrieved his hair tie and pulled his hair back and out of the way. "Whoa... that's a lot of hair."
"You have a lot of hair," Heero responded dryly.
"Well, yeah... but now I have a lot less a-lot-of-hair. Hey, let's cut your hair outside. It's not so bad sweeping up all my long bits, but it's probably going to be more annoying trying to get all of your short bits."
Heero gave him a skeptical look. "Outside?"
"Yeah. Back porch ought to work just fine. It's a great day outside."
"I... guess it is."
Sensing Heero's reluctant agreement, Duo kept his smirk to a polite minimum and quickly shifted the topic to assure compliance. "You've got a lot less a-lot-of-hair than I do. We should be fine just sticking your head in a bucket instead of spritzing."
"Bucket...?" Heero blinked at him. "You know, I think I see some hair I missed... want to let me get that?" His hand strayed menacingly toward the scissors.
Duo held his hands up in surrender. "Okay, fine. We'd probably be okay just spraying it down with the kitchen faucet." Heero's hand closed around the scissors. "Unless you really wanted to go take a shower. We have a spray attachment here and everything. It'd be simple and easy, right? Then a little rough toweling and we're good to go."
Heero eyed him, then eyed the kitchen sink, and set the scissors down with a sigh. "Fine." He moved to the sink and let Duo maneuver his head into position over the basin. "You're just too lazy to use that damn mister."
"Hey, how was I supposed to know it would take that long?" Duo gave the water heater a few seconds to kick in before turning the spray on the top of Heero's head. "Or that your hand could get so tired pumping the thing?"
"I can barely understand you in here, Duo."
"Ah. Don't worry, this'll just be a sec... Ooops."
"I understood that just fine," Heero said wryly, rolling his shoulders uncomfortably as water trickled under his shirt's neckline and down his back.
"Sorry 'bout that, just... shiii-- oops." Only Duo's hand on the back of his head stopped Heero from jerking up and hitting the faucet when a moment of carelessness sprayed water over his back while Duo had been trying to shut off the water. "Uh, all done now!"
Heero wasted little time in straightening and shooting a pointed look at Duo. It ended with a snort. "Not the best idea you've had, perhaps."
"Um. No, it was a good idea... just flawed in execution." He smiled nervously, watching the drops from Heero's hair further wetting the t-shirt. The smile became markedly less nervous when his mind supplied him with a handy resolution to the situation. "Gee, look at that shirt getting all wet. We didn't pick up one of those nifty little capes to keep it from getting any messier, what with all your short little hairs and all, so I guess you should probably just take your shirt off."
Heero graced him with another steady look. "You just want me to take off my shirt." Didn't need to be a genius to figure that one out.
"Well, yeah." Duo grinned unrepentantly before closing in for the kill. "Come on, teanut... indulge me?"
Hm, well, it really was a nice day outside, and Duo's fingers were already untucking his shirt, so there didn't seem to be any point in resisting much. He let Duo do as he pleased. His shirt had barely cleared his head before Duo completely invaded his personal space and began nuzzling his neck, nipping at his collarbone. He allowed one hand to sneak around Duo's waist. "Mmm, maybe this isn't a good idea if you're just going to be distracted. Wouldn't want any accidents."
Duo tossed the shirt to the nearby table and let his hands enjoy the feel of Heero's bare skin. "Just... lemme get this out of my system... then we'll be good to go." It took a drop of water to fall on his hand for him to finally put his mind back to task. He stole one more kiss before stepping back with a smirk. "Okay, there's your towel. Dry it up a bit, and I'll grab the stuff. Meet you outside?"
They set up camp on the back porch, the afternoon being just late enough that Heero could sit comfortably without the sun shining in his eyes.
Duo tsked. "What's with the towel?"
Heero adjusted it over his shoulders so it lay flat and out of the way. "Improvising one of those 'nifty little capes' is all."
"Those aren't made of... uh, what's this towel stuff called again? Terry cloth?"
"It'll still keep me clean."
"But the towel, Heero! Think of the towel!"
"I'm sure we can shake it off just fine."
Duo made a dissatisfied sound, but ran his fingers through Heero's hair as if to proceed. As soon as Heero let go of his corner of the towel, Duo whisked it off. "It's a great day to work on your tan, babe."
Heero turned in his seat to give him another of his pointed looks. "I don't see you working on *your* tan."
"You're in my sun. What would be the point?" He turned Heero forward again and ran a comb through the nicely damp locks.
"Are you sure you won't be distracted?"
"Nah, not a problem. Every time I'm about to be distracted, all I gotta do is take whatever delightfully distracting thing I was thinking and queue it up for later. I'm a patient man." He ignored Heero's snort. "I can wait. So. How long?"
The pause may have been a thoughtful silence, but it was more probably just a silent pout. "About the same as last time?"
"Works for me." He went about the business of reconfiguring Heero's hair according to his mental blueprints. Once he had gained clear access to the first section of hair to fall, he took up the scissors, positioned them precisely, double and triple-checked his accuracy, and closed the blades. They sliced through the strands of hair with almost alarming ease, producing that oddly distinctive sound as they did. He looked to his feet, saw what he'd just trimmed on the floor, and chuckled.
"What? Make a mistake already?"
Duo moved quickly to continue the job. "No. Heh, I was just thinking... We'll sweep up the porch, no problem, but we're gonna miss some, guaranteed. I was just sort of wondering what would happen to it. Pictured some birds picking up stray hairs they find and building nests out of it. Pictured some birds managing to make some damn indestructible nests out of your hair."
"...I don't think I find that as amusing as you do."
"Probably not," he agreed amiably, snipping away. That first cut had been the hardest. Cutting just to make everything match up was easy. "Did you always cut your own hair? Or was that just a recent development?"
"As much as I would like to claim that I've always been as crazy as you called me when you first saw me at it... no, it was a relatively recent development. The project became more and more... isolated? Self-contained? As the start date approached. It was just simpler to take care of it myself."
"Heh, I suppose if I were so inclined, I could probably take care of my hair a lot easier than you could yours. At least I can see the ends of my hair."
"It's nothing a good mirror setup can't solve."
Duo leaned forward quickly to land a peck on his cheek. "Or a good boyfriend." He combed down a new section of hair for the trimming. "You know... I'm not even sure why I flipped out when... when Sister Helen tried to cut my hair. I think I was just being stubborn. Just... didn't want to be like all the other kids, I guess."
"You always told me it was safer to blend in with the crowd."
"Yeah... think I learned that lesson a little later on. Sometimes all I wanted was to be like the other kids. Wanted what they had, I guess, just... didn't want their stupid, stuck-up, rich kid attitudes. Pretty ridiculous, if you think about it. I mean, not wanting to get assimilated. Not like the hand-me-down priest's clothes weren't enough to make me stick out. Didn't really need the hair on top of that."
"But the hair was a part of you."
"Yeah... later on... after I hooked up with G and learned some more stuff. I took to thinking, yeah, maybe it was a smart thing to get so attached to something so stupid... 'cuz it was dead already, yanno? Dead cells and all that. Didn't have to worry about it that way."
Heero exhaled audibly. "You're right, Duo. You really are morbid, even at the best of times."
Duo smirked with a rueful, if bitter, edge. "Yup, that'd be me. Friendly neighborhood Shinigami at your service."
Heero felt it was better to simply let the topic of conversation die out rather than try to redirect it toward brighter skies, and luckily, Duo seemed willing to go along with it. The lapse in conversation stretched out longer than he had expected it would, but it was a comfortable lapse. It'd been a while since they'd last taken the time to just sit outside for a bit. He looked out over their backyard and studied the view. The rear of their backyard sloped down into a small valley between hills, and he realized that he hadn't taken a look down there for a while to see what was there. The hillside was solid enough to be unaffected by the seasonal rains, and that was about as far as he'd ever really thought about it. Looking across the distance into the backyards of the houses across the way, he saw a couple that probably resembled theirs... and a few that quite markedly did not.
Duo pulled bangs from both sides of Heero's head forward to do the relative length check, making some sort of humming sound as he did, and Heero laughed. Duo gave him a playful little shove on the back of the head. "What's so funny?"
"Sorry... just... um. Got a funny image in my head."
"Do tell."
"Just... pictured my friendly neighborhood Shinigami... cutting hair for a living. With a little scythe."
Duo blinked, then slowly leaned around Heero to look him carefully in the eyes. "Hmm. You don't look like you're smoking something..."
"Must be all this terrible fresh air," Heero responded blandly, a smile lurking around his eyes.
"Hmpf." Duo ruffled his bangs fondly before smoothing them down for further length analysis and adjustment. "Next time we do this, we should get you some phone books to sit on or something. My back's killing me."
"Or you could sit in a chair with some phone books."
"Well, that, too. But maneuverability is more important for me." He stepped off for a second to switch to his other pair of scissors. "Would you believe... I'm almost done?"
Heero gave him a measuring look. "Hmm, well, you must not have made any major mistakes then, otherwise you'd be stalling."
"Well, I'm rather proud of it, which means you'd better be proud of it, too, if you know what's good for you." He circled around to the front again to clean up his lines a little. After a few seconds, he chuckled, but waited until his scissors were more than just a couple of centimeters away from Heero's eyes before explaining himself. "We should do something with the backyard. Grow some stuff. Yanno?"
"Oh?"
"Yeah. 'Cuz I was just thinking one of those distracting things? Something about sitting down in your lap right now and all that. And I think I might actually do it since I'm pretty much done here, except you can see all the way off to the other side from here."
Heero took advantage of their proximity to brush his lips lightly against Duo's cheek before leaning around him to study the yard again. "You think they can see us?"
Duo stepped out of the way and took a place beside him instead, one hand casually on the back of Heero's seat where he could stroke his thumb across Heero's skin. "Well, not the details, I guess, and it's not like I think they've got nothing better to do than mount surveillance in our direction, but... why am I even explaining this to you? You're more paranoid than I am."
"I wouldn't exactly encourage you to do more than you are right now, either," he admitted, running a hand through his hair to get a feel for it. Everything seemed to be in order. "But I think it would be a little bit odd for us to build a wall back here."
"Well, I wasn't thinking a wall..." He chased Heero's hand off and combed out all the loose hairs, and then took advantage of the opportunity to sweep all the hair off Heero's bare neck and shoulders with a lot of unnecessary caressing. "We could... I dunno, like a screen, maybe? Plant some tall upright... things? I think we're pretty okay, left-right... it's just the back we need to take care of. Wouldn't have to be a solid line all the way across, too. Just... a little cover somewhere. For special occasions."
Heero considered the possibilities. "A trellis, perhaps? We could grow some vines on it. It would be... decorative."
"Yeah. That could work... Huh. You know, spring's coming up. We talked about sprucing the yard up a bit, way back in the day. Maybe we should start thinking about it? We don't know the first thing about gardening, but..."
"...that's never stopped us before," Heero finished.
"Sure hasn't."
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