Work Text:
Golden Braids
"Oh, come on!" Ray blinked at hearing a familiar feminine voice groan.
"Anna?" he called as he poked his head into one of the many rooms of the of the hide-out.
"Ah! Ray!" a flustered Anna cried at seeing the boy.
She was standing in front of a mirror, hands gripping at a few locks of hair of which the top half were tangled together in a messy braid as the rest of her hair hung down.
Together they stood in silence for a few moments, staring at each other.
"Uhm... Everything okay in here?" Ray asked awkwardly after a while.
"Oh, yes, of course! I mean, not really but it's nothing you need to worry about!" Anna answered quickly though this only earned a raised eyebrow.
"I'm fine, really. It's just that my hair isn't cooperating with me." she smiled sheepishly as Ray blinked.
"I see." he said.
"Want some help?" he suddenly asked.
"Eh?"
"With your hair. You want some help with it?" he offered again.
"If you don't wanna I'll just leave." he added and already started turning around to leave.
"Wait!" Anna cried, making him freeze.
"I-I mean I'd really appreciatie it if you would be so kind to help me." she smiled awkwardly.
"Okay." he gave a small smile back.
Slowly he walked inside and carefully went to stand next to her.
He started to reach towards her only to stop at realizing he actually had no idea what he was supposed to do.
"If you could please help untangle it first?" Anna asked, having figured out why he was hesitating.
"Right." Ray nodded and got to work, carefully running his fingers through the golden locks.
The messy braid came undone with almost no resistance, easily smoothing out as Ray combed with his fingers.
"This much?" he asked as he gathered three locks.
"Yeah, that should be good." Anna nodded lightly, careful not to accidentally pull her hair from his grip.
With the needed confirmation Ray started braiding them together, glad how he had let some of the youngest girls back at Gracefield talk him into braiding their hair sometimes which had given him enough practice to make a pretty decent non-crooked braid without large pieces of hair poking out.
As he braided he couldn't help his mind from wandering.
Back to certain regrets, that it.
Anna used to wear her golden hair in two large twin-tails, always hanging gently over her shoulders or trailing behind her as she moved.
Everyone used to always used to tell her how pretty her hair was and they were right.
Her hair was beautiful and yet at that time she had cut it all off.
She had cut off her so short that it barely even touched her shoulders and she had done it for him.
All because he'd been crazy enough to try and burn himself alive back at Gracefield and she, Emma and the others wanted to make a substitute that would smell like his body was burning.
She cut her hair to safe him when all he wanted was to die.
"Ray?" Anna asked, noticing he had stopped and was instead just staring at the braid in his hands.
"Ray?!" she called again a little louder, successfully snapping it him out of his trance to look at her with surprised eyes.
"Are you okay?" she asked, frowning when his face shifted from surprised to sad.
"I'm sorry, Anna." he answered softly, almost in a whisper.
"Why? I don't really mind if you get lost in thought for a moment and-" "That's not what I'm talking about." he cut her off and she frowned before realizing what he was thinking about.
"Ray..." she trailed off.
"I'm really sorry. Back then you lost your beautiful hair because of me..." Ray repeated himself, gently lifting the thin braid a little in his hand.
Anna sighed at this.
"I already told you many times I don't mind and never have." she gently reminded him.
"But you-!" "Hey!" she stopped his protests loud and firmly in a way that was more fitting of either Emma or Gilda but it worked as Ray started at her with wide eyes.
Taking another deep breath she smiled gently at him.
"Ray, you need to let it go. I cut off my hair because I wanted to help everyone. I wanted to help you." she emphasized, her smile growing at seeing his eyes slowly starting to light up more.
"And just so you know, if there ever were something to happen and I'd have to choose between my hair and you, I'd always choose you." she added and to her delight he smiled back.
It was a small, barely noticeable smile but it was definitely there.
"I guess I beter stay out of trouble then." he said sheepishly and Anna giggled.
He slowly twirled the braid he was holding onto.
"I'm at least glad for you that it all grew back so quickly. Say, can I ask why you started wearing it like this?" he asked.
"I... guess I just thought that I could in a way change the style to go along with out live-style having changed but I wanted to keep my braids in a way to still remember out previous lives. Ah! That makes no sense, does it? I'm sorry, I know I'm being weird!" she apologized awkwardly, looking down as she felt herself blush.
She stopped at feeling a hand under her chin, lifting up her head to look Ray in the eye.
"I think it makes perfect sense. I looks good on you." he told her and for some reason her face only grow warmer at the compliment.
"Especially since by tying it at least partly, it doesn't get in front of that pretty face of yours." he told her and with that Anna's face turned into a tomato.
"E-EHH?!" she squeaked as he chuckled.
"Hey, I should go look for Emma since she wanted to plan another search. You take care yourself and your hair, okay?" he said and with that walked off, leaving a flustered Anna behind.
"What just happened?" she softly asked to herself while at the same time trying to calm her rapidly beating heart.
Meanwhile Ray was, despite his earlier act just as bad off as Anna as as soon as he been out of the room Anna had been in, he had sprinted away as fast as he could.
One moment he had been feeling normal, the next guilty and depressed and suddenly as Anna eased his mind he felt himself overwhelmed with affection and the desire to act on it in some way, doing so without thinking and forcing him to flee before he did something else stupid.
Was this how Norman used to feel around Emma?
A part of Ray wanted to bang his head against the wall but another, much bigger part found he didn't mind the feeling at all.
Still, while finding Emma had mostly been an excuse, he probably should really look for her and make plans for their next trip.
He could always think of Anna and maybe being able to touch her hair again and twist it into golden braids again as a motivation to come back quickly.
The End