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"That spray’s for little kids." Chuck sat on the couch, flipping through a copy of the latest Jaeger gossip rag, and Herc could feel the eye roll from across the room. He gritted his teeth, wisely refrained from pointing out that’s exactly what she was, and just continued silently unpacking the bag of supplies he’d spent the better part of his day off collecting.
She wasn’t frilly, his daughter, preferring to run around in joggers and cutoffs instead of dresses, but she was terribly proud of her hair. He was rather fond of it too, long and wavy just like her mum’s, but God, was it a right bitch to keep in order. It fell in her eyes, hiding the permanent scowl she seemed to have etched on her face since Angela died, and Herc was afraid Chuck was going to get it caught in some spinning piece of the machinery she was forever tinkering with.
Before today, Herc had put her hair in messy ponytails as a toddler, had brushed it out after her baths when she was a baby, but he hadn’t known combs came with different size teeth, that he should avoid buying the elastics with metal strips, and that despite her advanced age, she definitely needed the detangling spray.
One more thing Herc was woefully unprepared for as a single father, especially to a teenaged girl.
“Could you come over here, Chuck?”
"Why? You gonna braid my hair for me, Dad?" He remembered Angela sitting with Chuck at the table, plaiting her hair for her in the morning before school.
"You want me to give it a go?"
"Like to see you try, more like it." But despite her grumbles, Chuck laid down the magazine and pushed herself off the sofa, moved to the kitchen doorway. He could feel the prod of her frown between his shoulderblades as he stowed the bags away and turned, bottle in hand.
"Don’t think your old man can hack it?" Chuck scoffed and plopped into the chair nearest him. With a sigh, she tilted her head back and looked up at her father.
"It hurts when you tug, Mum always - you need to comb it from the bottom."
Herc pretended to ignore the little hitch in Chuck’s voice, swallowed the lump in his own throat, and sprayed her hair before taking the comb and carefully working the knots out. When it laid flat over her shoulders, he split it into sections. Working quickly, he pulled and wove the pieces until he reached the bottom and a thick braid hung down her back.
"Give me one of the elastic things."
"Hair ties, Dad." Chuck’s narrow shoulders shook a little, and he knew she was laughing at him as he wrapped the end of her hair and flipped the rope of it over her arm.
"Whatever you call it, you’re done." From where he was sitting, Herc could see the way her fingers played with the loose tail for a moment or two. She turned, freckles sprinkled across her nose and a shy smile lurking at the very edges of her mouth. Her hand ran down the back of her head and she nodded.
"Basic, but not bad for a rookie."
"Pack chutes and untangle rope all day, kiddo, it’s not that different." Herc patted her on the shoulder before pushing her off the chair. "Now, all this stuff goes in your room."
"Typical." With a huff, Chuck gathered everything in her arms. In the doorway she looked back at Herc. "Dad?"
"Yeah?"
"Learn how to french braid, there are tutorials on youtube." She stalked down the hall and kicked her bedroom door open. Herc hollered after her to be careful and pulled out his phone, thumbed in hair braiding.
His jaw dropped a little when 64,400 results popped up.
It was going to be a long night.