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Though his face remained unchanged, Ashlyn could almost see the lightbulb go off in Aiden’s mind as he turned his face towards Ashlyn.
She knew that his gaze was locked on her hair that formed long waves down her shoulder and back.
Oh, no. No, no, no… She thought to herself. She knew just what he was thinking.
His grin was just as unyielding as always. It was almost uncanny just how much and how wide he smiled.
“I could do your hair?” He said it so easily, as if the suggestion wouldn’t send a shiver down Ashlyn’s spine. “You said your mom usually does it for you, and it’s all loose and messy right now, yeah?”
“Well, yeah, but–”
“I know how to braid hair, Ash.” He smiled and leaned closer. “Plus, your parents aren’t home right now, and we’re planning on going out to the graveyard when Ben gets here, right?”
Why couldn’t you have just come here together? Ben could have done his homework here…
Ashlyn grew silent as she sat on the ledge of her bed; her hands clutched the quilt draped over it, and her foot beat the ground almost relentlessly as she scrunched her face in a frown. There’s no way you know how to be careful with it. She thought to herself, her foot hitting the floor even harder at the thought of him hitting a tangle. There’s no way.
“I–”
“Just give me a chance?”
Her foot came to a sudden halt as she averted her gaze.
She had to admit, she wasn’t entirely comfortable with having her hair down. On her neck. Getting pushed around and thrown in her face by the breeze. Aside from it being a sensory nightmare to her, itchy, hot, and uncomfortable, it would just get in her way while she, Aiden, and Ben were prepping the graveyard.
It was a hassle to braid on her own.
“Sure. Yeah, alright, Aiden.”
Aiden perked up at her acceptance, and pushed himself up off of the hardwood floor and sat next to her on the bed. “Come on, turn around.” He beamed.
Reluctantly, she turned her back to him and leaned back until she hit his knees. She glanced back over her shoulder just in time to see him produce a small wide-toothed comb from his pocket.
She silently thanked god that it wasn’t a brush that had the balls at the ends of the wires.
It looked new, and it looked surprisingly sturdy–which was also a relief. Her hair had broken comb after comb on tangle and snag, though it happened more frequently when she was overwhelmed or upset.
He reached up to the base of her head and delicately pulled a portion of hair that was closer to her jaw towards him; he carefully pulled his hand down along the strands before following it with the comb.
Despite just how careful he was being, he eventually hit a snag, causing Ashlyn to flinch. Her shoulders tensed and her eyes remained clenched shut as she waited for him to jerk the comb further down her hair and rip through the tangle.
And she waited.
But instead of the sound of her hair being forcefully shredded through by a comb, or the painful pull on her scalp, she felt small tugs–only small pings of pain every so often as Aiden fumbled his fingertips through the tangle, being as careful as he could while unwinding it.
Huh. She relaxed a little and leaned back into it as he finally worked the tangle out and combed through her hair again. He didn’t actually hurt me.
She barely opened her eyes and tilted her head, hoping to catch a glimpse of him; but there was no way that she would. He had moved on to comb through another portion of her hair, just as gentle as he was before as he pulled the comb through it and eased any snags out with his fingers.
He lightly tapped Ashlyn’s shoulder, and moved about half of her hair over it before dividing the remaining half into thirds along her back; he held each strand close to her head, one section along his right palm, the second section between his pointer and middle finger, and the third in his left hand.
He was completely silent as he lightly pulled the right strand over the one in his palm, placing it carefully in the middle of the two. With his newly-freed hand, he moved the hair from his fingertips to the middle, recreating the motion, and then repeating it, each motion just as smooth and light as before.
“One down,” Was the first thing he said after… Eight minutes?
Ashlyn wasn’t counting. It felt like a long time, compared to how long her mom took. Though, she wasn’t hating it at all; she felt more comfortable than before as his hands tied the braid off with a black band.
She could swear that she heard a hint of a smirk alongside the confidence in his voice.
“Told ya I was actually super good at it.” He hummed, pushing the finished braid over her shoulder and pulling the mass of hair that remained to her back.
She wanted to nod, but settled for a quiet ‘’m-hm’’ of acknowledgement as she shut her eyes and felt her shoulders loosen further.
“You’ve been quiet.” Ashlyn murmured, her head turning to follow the motion of her hair. She met his eyes briefly before closing her eyes again; the comb lightly ran through her hair two more times before he separated it, and started the braiding process again.
“Well, yeah, I’m right next to your ears.” He paused long enough to free one of his hands and poke at the back of her head. “Did you want me to talk loud? Right here?”
“Fair enough.” She paused and took the second that he remained motionless to turn her head fully forward again. “I… Appreciate that you remembered, I guess.”
“No problem!” He said cheerfully. “How could I forget, you’re kind of the reason that we usually have a heads-up on phantoms.”
“Yeah,” Ashlyn responded. “Right…”
Something about the entire experience told her that, maybe, just maybe, he was more considerate than he initially led her to believe.