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Why you were currently sat on your bed in front of Ryuji, who has his hands in your hair, and his tongue poking out his mouth in concentration, you honestly didn’t know. He’s attempting something he will absolutely not give you any information on other than “You need to sit still.” and “You’ll see”.
He has his phone on the bed next to him, and it’s playing a video that he's intently watching but that you tune out and don’t pay attention to. Having nothing else to do, you entertain yourself with a game on your phone while he seems to be making a scrambled egg with your locks.
After a while of audible struggling, he releases your hair, huffs in frustration, and starts brushing again, harder this time. You place your hand on his wrist to stop him.
“Ryuji… Ow, ow! You need to be careful, that hurts!”
He doesn’t answer. You don’t think he heard you at all. This isn't new; Once Ryuji gets into something, he can't stop. You've always found that endearing about him.
You do hear him murmur something along the lines of – “Difficult… how do you do this every day?”
You ignore his instructions to stay still and lean back to look at him. He has a hairband in his mouth now, and it's a pretty cute sight. “Ryu, what are you even doing? You’ve been at this for half an hour.”
You notice now what has been playing on his phone; It's a YouTube tutorial on how to braid hair (for beginners). He's trying to… braid your hair? Even though you aren't looking at what he's doing, you know what he's trying isn't even nearly the right thing at all.
Throwing your head back as you break out in laughter, you see his face turn bright red.
“Shhh… stop, don’t make fun of me, alright! Yes, I am trying to braid your hair. Remember when you were doing it in front of the mirror and I said it looked super easy? Yeah. I wanted to prove myself right. But I guess I’m not doing too great…” His bashful statement only makes you laugh louder, and you lean back against his chest. Even though he's blushing and closely resembles a blond tomato - he wraps his arms around you, like he always does. This feels so good, so natural for you. He drops the brush and rests his chin on your head. He sighs again, but it's a calm and happy one this time.
“Well, of course it’s not going to work if you only try it once. And if I’m being honest, it didn’t feel too bad until you started yanking that brush through my hair. I’m always here if you want to practice, you know.” He smiles at that, and places a kiss on your forehead. You stay cuddled up to him like that for a while until he says -
"And by the way, is that Among Us you're playing? Brown has been acting sus the entire time, I'd vote them off." (He was wrong. White was the impostor that game.)
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2 weeks later, Ryuji is extremely proudly boasting to his friends that he has ‘perfected’ a very simple braid. When he shows off pictures of you, smiling with the braid he made in your hair, he can't help but think about how he wants you to stay with you, like this, forever.