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Merlin stood in front of the bathroom mirror, running his fingers through his hair. It fell to his eyes now, loose wavy curls covering his forehead, and occasionally blinding him when a chunk wouldn’t stay up.
He sighed, exiting the bathroom and walking down the hall to the kitchen. Arthur was standing by the stool at the counter, a towel draped over his shoulder. He greeted Merlin with an over-eager grin.
“You ready?” Arthur asked, snipping the scissors in his hand.
Merlin sighed again. “I guess, but you better not make it any shorter than what I want: just a trim.”
“Do you have such little faith in me, Merlin? I do this for a living, you know.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Merlin mumbled, and Arthur chuckled before walking up to Merlin and placing his hands on his shoulders.
“I want it to be mid-forehead at most,” Merlin said.
“Are you sure? Why don’t you want to show off that beautiful face?”
“I just like it long,” he said, both of them ignoring the blush on his cheeks, “but I hate when I can’t see because of it.”
“If you’re sure,” Arthur said, moving to pat the stool at the counter. “Have a seat, then.”
***
Merlin stood in front of the bathroom mirror yet again, surveying the damage, with Arthur behind his right shoulder.
“Do you like it?” Arthur asked, tone hesitant.
Of course Merlin liked it. Arthur had done exactly what he wanted (once again) and now his hair was the perfect length (once again). How could Merlin not like it?
“It looks great,” he said, smiling at Arthur in the mirror, “thanks.”
Arthur smugly smiled, shrugging. But then his smile fell and his brow furrowed.
“Oh no, what is it?” Merlin groaned. “I know that look, Arthur what did you do? Something to the back of my head?”
“No, there’s nothing, Merlin. See, it’s fine! It looks great, actually.” Arthur said, pulling the handheld mirror out of the drawer and holding it up so Merlin could see the back of his head. “I was just thinking…”
A moment passed.
“What?”
“Well, so I ordered this new brand of dye that I’ve never used before, and I had it delivered here instead of the salon, so…”
Uh oh. Merlin had a feeling he knew where this was going. Still, he feigned confusion. “So?”
“So, I could try it out on you?”
Yep. “On me? I’ve never had my hair dyed ever, Arthur.”
“Please? I just want to make sure that it’s better than the dye I used to use so that I can use it on my clients, Merls. How about just a few streaks?”
Merlin walked past Arthur out of the bathroom, Arthur on his heels as they walked to sit on the kitchen stools.
Streaks. Now that actually sounded kind of cool. Oh, why did this have to appeal to him?
“What colors do you have?” he asked, finger tracing a metallic line in the granite countertop. He wasn’t looking, but he could see Arthur’s surprised little smiling face in his head.
“I can get just about any color. I can mix them. What were you thinking? We could even just do some subtle light brown highlights if you want it to be really tame. I could do other bold colors too, but for some of them we’d have to do a round of bleach first; that’s no trouble though, bleaching doesn’t take too long, and-”
“Can you do lilac purple?”
Arthur paused. “Lilac purple?”
Merlin nodded, meeting his gaze. “Just a few streaks.”
Arthur grinned. “Of course! Let me just get everything together and then we can figure out what exactly you want. How much and where you want it and stuff.” Arthur said, already walking to the spare bedroom where all of his extra supplies were.
***
“How does it look?” Merlin asked cautiously from the stool.
“Hot,” Arthur said, running his fingers through the curly locks of his fiance’s hair, double checking the length and dye.
Merlin snorted.
“Have a look for yourself,” Arthur said, and held out his hand for Merlin to take as he hopped off the stool, heading to the bathroom.
When Merlin saw his reflection, he was shocked.
There were only a few streaks, as he didn’t want to do too many too soon, but they changed his entire vibe.
He loved it.
The lilac purple really did go with his black hair.
There was one main streak that fell down on his forehead, curled together with a chunk of his black hair, and another one by his ear. There were a few other streaks around the rest of his head too.
“Well?” Arthur asked.
“It looks...great,” he grinned. “I really love it!” he said, stepping back to sling an arm around Arthur’s waist. “Thanks babe.”
Arthur nodded, wrapping his arm around Merlin’s shoulders. Then he kissed the top of his head.
They walked out of the bathroom and plopped onto the couch, Merlin leaning on Arthur with his head on his shoulder.
“I feel like I should get a tat sleeve now,” Merlin chuckled into Arthur’s arm.
“That’d be so hot,” Arthur said. They both laughed, despite knowing that Arthur was completely serious.
“Oh my God,” Merlin suddenly said.
“Hmm?”
“What are my students going to think? Ugh, they’re going to tease me about it for days,” he groaned.
“You bet they will, but they’ll also be jealous and then you’ll have to hand them all my business card.”
“You’re not stealing my students for your business,” Merlin grumbled.
“I already have. Jacob and Hannah Spinoza?”
“Shut uppp,” Merlin groaned, though it was more of a laugh.
“I love youuu,” Arthur jokingly sang, planting a big wet kiss on Merlin’s forehead.
“You love my hair.”
“And you,” he said, nuzzling his nose to Merlin’s.
“Whatever,” Merlin said smiling, capturing Arthur’s lips with his own.