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The new essence was coming out soon, and the outfits were already ready. There was a lot of excitement around the manor.
Tracy herself was pretty excited. She hasn't had an essence skin in a while, and she really liked the dress. It was quite pretty, and elegant.
Issue was, she didn't know what to do with her hair. When she asked Mrs Nightingale, all she said was, "Change it up a bit, however you'd like." That wasn't very helpful, but she was too embarrassed to bother her more.
...However Tracy only knew how to do simple stuff, like a ponytail. That was far too boring for an extravagent outfit like this. She'd be the laughing stock of the manor.
So she stared in the mirror and started experimenting.
First off, an attempt at a braid. Tracy had never braided her hair on her own before. It looked quite simple when Anne was doing it though, with her delicate fingers quickly tying the strands. So surely, Tracy could do that too, right?
That, sadly, was not the case, and she ended up knotting her hair. She hastily brushed the knot out, ripping her hair out in the process. Great, just... wonderful.
Well then! Stay clear from braids then.
Next attempt, a bun.
Tracy remembers Martha helped her with those last time for her new years costume. She had to fix those many many times, and the younger eventually gave up and let Tracy go around with curly twintails instead. Which was fine, Tracy got a lot of compliments for the hairstyle, but she felt bad that Martha's hard work kept getting ruined.
Trying to remember how Martha did it, Tracy twirled her hair around into a circular shape then tied it and... it fell out, immediately. So she tried again. And again. Aaaaand again.
It stayed, but it looked more like she glued a hair ball to her head. It didn't suit the fancy clothes at all, so she took the hair tie out.
Twintails... Tracy remembered how people kept saying she looked cute with those (though only one opinion was important to her). It was just two ponytails right? So she should be able to do it on her own.
She fixed her hair up a bit then looked in the mirror. She did it! Twintails!
But they were uneven.
So Tracy let out a groan and took one out and redid it.
Too high up.
Too thick.
Too much hair fell out the tie.
Tracy glared at herself in the mirror, on the verge of throwing a tantrum. Why the fuck was hair so hard to do? I mean, come on, it's hair!
In a burst of anger she took the small bag of hair ties and threw it straight at the door- right as it opened, hitting someone square in the face.
"Tracy- ow- jesus!" They let out a yelp, holding their nose. Oh. Oh fuck.
"Oh my god I'm so sorry I didn't know you were there- are you okay?" She panicked and went over to them, glancing at their face. Stupid Luca Balsa, what was he doing here now of all times!
He winced in pain but chuckled nonetheless, lifting his face to look at her. "It's- It's alright, I should've knocked. I can see you were... busy?" His eyes trailed over her hair as she flushed. Oh, right, she totally forgot she looked like a mess.
"Haha, yea, so if you could just- leave, that'd be great!" Tracy grabbed him by the shoulders and attempted to push him out, but he stood his ground and chuckled.
"Do you... need any help? You look like..." "A mess. I know. No I don't need any help, please get out Luca Balsa." She pushed at him harder and he tripped a little. "Y'know, I do my own hair so I can help-" "Not needed, get outttt."
Instead of getting out, he stepped to the side and she fell right on her face.
"Ow- fuck- goddammit Balsa-"
Luca leaned down and picked up the bag of hair ties on the ground by Tracy's face, snorting at her grumpy expression and threatening mutters.
Jumping up and snatching the bag from him, she grumbled as he started speaking. "Awh, the talented mechanic can't even do her own hair? What a surprise."
With a click of her tongue, Tracy went back to her mirror and sat down in front of it, undoing the twintail she was working on.
Redoing it, she flinched when she felt a glove over her hand. "What the fuck Luca Balsa-" "Relax, let me help." Tracy glared at him through the window as he winked (with his good eye, which made him look ridiculous), but ultimately let him do it.
He took the hair tie and gently lifted her hair, tying it around as carefully as possible. Tracy shivered as his fingers brushed against her neck, why did this feel so... weird? Luca Balsa is weird. Definitely weird.
"Hey hey, I'm done, what do you think?" Tracy winced as his voice broke her out of her trance, and looked up. It wasn't perfectly even, which irked her a little, but it looked much better than what she had done.
Touching her hair lightly, she nodded. "It looks better, thanks I guess." His chuckle in response pissed her off. "You're very welcome, now, let me guess, this is for your upcoming essence skin?"
With a pout, she nodded. "Yea, what about it?"
Luca stared at her in the mirror for a moment,(why did she feel so nervous suddenly?) before clicking his tongue. "This isn't gonna go with your outfit at all." "Eh!? Why not!?"
He looked her over again, shaking his head. "The outfit theme is fancy, these twintails contradict it as they're on the cute side. Twintails can work, sure, but they have to be done differently."
Tracy just grumbled, leaning back in her chair. "I give up, I'm just gonna go with a wig I have." "No way, let me help."
Raising an eyebrow, she looked up at him. "Yea? What are you gonna do? Give me your classic rat tail?" Luca pouted and flicked her in the forehead, earning a wince in response. "Nope, I have an idea, trust me."
With a sigh, Tracy accepted.
Luca immediately got to work, carefully undoing the twintails. He brushed her hair out, even quickly leaving to his room to get some kind of hair softener spray he had...? Tracy had no idea what it is, but she let him go ahead.
She felt like she was being pampered with how gentle he was being. Like she hired a butler, not fucking Luca Balsa. Tracy noted to ask him if he's ever been a butler as a side job or something. He hadn't even actually done anything with her hair yet.
Luca gently brushed her hair out with his fingers before moving in front of her, as Tracy raised an eyebrow. "Relax, this is part of my idea." She sighed but sat there, confused, as he did her hair.
He grabbed one section of her bangs and started braiding them over to the side, carefully and slowly weaving the strands together as he leaned over her. Tracy didn't know how to react, not even where to look, so she gulped and looked down at her legs. Someone must have possessed Luca Balsa or something, or someone was pretending to be him, because there was no way this was the same asshole that kept saying his inventions were better than hers.
Her face felt really warm as he continued. Was he done yet? This was taking way too long, it felt like she was dying. Her heart felt so heavy in her chest. Is this what people were talking about in those dumb romance books? Tracy decided to risk a glance up at him, and regretted it. He was way too concentrated on something as dumb as hair. Did he do people's hair as a hobby or something? It was so weird to see him like this.
It felt like it took him years to finish just that one side of her hair, and she let out a breath of relief once he pulled away. "I'm not done yet, but do you wanna take a break?" "A- break, why?" Why did her voice crack oh god this was so embarrassing.
"You look like you're about to pass out, I'm gonna go get you some water." Before Tracy could protest, Luca ran off and left.
The air felt heavy. That was really awkward, she really hoped it was just her imagination though. If not then a trip off the balcony sounds fun. Much better than ruining the friendship(?) she had with Luca Balsa.
Holding her face and glancing in the mirror, Tracy wanted to die. Her face was bright red, oh god. Please, please let it not be awkward. Just... make up some excuse, yea! There's no real reason she's this red, really.
By the time he came back, Tracy had calmed down enough to talk.
"Sorry about that, it's just really warm in these clothes and you radiate heat like a fucking furnace." She grunbled, taking a sip of her water as he chuckled. "Right, of course, whatever you say." That tone implied he didn't believe her, but she ignored it.
"You could always take them off if it's so warm, it's not like you need to be in costume-" "Nope, need to know what it looks like with it on." Luca quirked an eyebrow in question but seemed to accept that answer.
Leaning back in, he got started on the other side of her hair. Tracy focused on her breathing and looking down at her legs, pretending Luca wasn't there. It was much easier to do that than acknowledge him.
He, however, had other plans. "You know you can look at me, right?" She flinched, glancing at him in question. "It won't kill you to look, or am I too ugly for little miss mechanic?"
"Oh, cut the crap Balsa, don't make fun of me." Tracy grumbled as he just chuckled. "Not making fun of you, just saying."
With a sigh, she glared up at him as he worked. Luca caught her gaze and let out a toothy grin, before focusing back on her hair. It made her feel warm inside. That's weird. Nevermind.
His finger lightly pressed against her neck and she choked on air. "What the-" Tracy flinched and he raised an eyebrow. "Is there a problem?"
Tracy opened her mouth to protest before deciding not to, feeling like she was being led into a trap. "No, nothing, just be more careful." With a chuckle he nodded, "Right-o, missy."
Tracy knew it was on purpose now because he continued on doing it, but both of them opted to ignore it. Stupid Luca Balsa, what was he trying to do?
After what felt like ages, he was done. She wanted to bite off his hand for that. Moving away behind her, he grinned at her through the mirror. "What do you think? Did I do a good job?"
He had braided her hair into two low twintails in the back. It was pretty, and it looked good with her outfit. It gave her a much more elegant feel than the twintails before.
"It's... definitely better than before." She leaned forward a bit to see herself better. Honestly, Luca probably could've gotten her to pay actual money for how good he did.
"Welp, thank you, you can go now!" "Eh?" Tracy jumped out of her seat and hurriedly pushed him towards the door. "No thanks or anything? You're cruel, Miss Reznik."
She clicked her tongue and quickly gave him a kiss on the cheek, before shoving him out with a bright red face. "There you go, bye now!"
With the door slammed behind him, Luca stared in astonishment as he held his cheek. He shook his head and chuckled, leaving a note at her door before running off with a wide grin.
ill help you again next time ♡
luca balsa