Work Text:
"Did I do it right? It looks blue," Hinata says, peering in to the bowl he's been mixing, nose crinkling against the smell that was already filling the room despite the open window. He tilts the bowl so Aone can look in.
"That's fine," Aone assures him after a quick glance. "It's supposed to look like that."
"Oh, okay!" Hinata smiles and sets the bowl down on the bathroom counter. "Now what?"
It's cramped in their apartment's bathroom, with Aone's bulk and the countertop already practically half in to the shower as it is even before they had dragged in a stool for Aone to sit on, but Aone doesn't mind. When Hinata had seen him come home with the bleach bottle and other supplies, he'd asked if he could help and Aone was touched. No one had ever helped him dye his hair before. It would hardly be the only first he'd had since meeting Hinata, but he never got tired of them.
"Do you need to get your hair wet?" Hinata asks as he pulls on a pair of the purple latex gloves. He'd had to go out for another box after they decided to do it this way, since there was no way the gloves Aone had gotten to fit his hands would work for Hinata.
He shakes his head. "It goes on dry," he says and sits down on the stool. It's a tiny thing, usually used to help Hinata reach the highest shelves, close enough to the ground that Aone has to shift a little to find a way to keep his knees drawn up without it being painful, but it manages to put his head below Hinata's eyeline, where he can comfortably work on it.
"It's kind of funny to look down at you," Hinata says and Aone can't disagree. He doesn't mind looking up at Hinata, though. It reminds him of when they first met, when Hinata jumped so high, soaring above everyone on either side of the court. He'd been breathtaking, even then, even before Aone knew the dazzling white of his smile or the pink of his blush.
Hinata is too busy rereading the instructions Aone had written out for him to notice how warm Aone's gaze has turned. "Okay," he says. "Root to tip, careful on the scalp, wrap it up. Sound right?"
"Yeah," Aone says and closes his eyes as he feels Hinata's fingers, gentle against the back of his head. "Use the other end of the dye brush to part the hair."
"Got it," Hinata says and starts in. He hums as he works, which doesn't surprise Aone. Hinata hums a lot when he concentrates. Aone most often hears it on the nights he's in charge of cooking dinner, but he'll also hum when he scrubs the toilet or folds laundry. Aone can never pick out any specific song.
He likes listening to Hinata hum. Though Hinata has moved to work on the back of his head, he can imagine his expression, the way his tongue will be poking out the side of his mouth, his brow slightly furrowed. If his little sister was around, she'd probably take the opportunity to poke him in the sides, make him squawk and jump.
It doesn't take Hinata long to finish putting the dye on Aone's hair. He doesn't keep it very long, after all. He helps Hinata wrap it up and starts the timer on his phone.
"When did you start bleaching your hair, anyway?" Hinata asks as he pulls off the gloves and stretches.
"Last year of middle school," Aone says. He'd read in one of his sister's magazines that people with naturally angry looking faces shouldn't wear their hair dark, because it would bring out the lines and make them look angrier. He's not sure if bleaching his hair blond had really helped with that, but he'd gotten used to it. And Natsu said it made him look cool.
"Maybe I should start dyeing mine so people stop mistaking me for a high schooler," Hinata muses. "I could put in black streaks! Or maybe, like, leave it like normal at the top and bleached at the bottom?"
"I like your hair how it is now," Aone says. Hinata's orange hair is such a quintessential part of him, Aone can't imagine him with it any other way. He's like the sun, or a meteor, glowing more vibrant and beautiful than anything else around him, full of fire and warmth. "It fits you."
"Hmm, if you say so," Hinata says. "Hey, we have to wait awhile now, right?" He waits for Aone's nod and then slips into his lap "I wonder what we can do to pass the time," he says with a grin, leaning in for a kiss. "I think we sho- waugh!"
Aone grabs for Hinata as he lunges back so he doesn't smack his head against the counter. "What's wrong?" he asks, more than a bit alarmed.
"No offense, but you really smell right now," Hinata says, grabbing his nose. "I can't kiss you like this- my nose is too near your scalp."
"Sorry," Aone says. He doesn't think the bleach smell is all that strong, but Hinata's nose is much more sensitive than his own. Sometimes, Aone finds him with his face buried in the practice bag where Aone keeps his Air Salonpas. He tries not to worry about that. Everyone has weird quirks, after all.
"Wanna play some more Zero?" Hinata asks.
Aone nods. Hinata loves the series, but he's too scared to play it by himself, so he only will play if Aone is there to take over when he needs his hands to hide behind. Aone isn't really sure why Hinata is so scared of this game in particular, since he's seen him play things that Aone considers much scarier, but apparently Hinata is weak against ghosts.
And, when Aone's timer goes off in the middle of a particularly intense scene, Hinata's face turns as white as one.