Work Text:
'I love when you wash your hair
I hear you tell me lightly
You were quite a mess
But I worship you no less'
-When You Was Your Hair, Matt Maltese
El is peacefully pouring a fresh glass of apple juice when Eddie ungracefully stumbles through the door to Steve's kitchen, holding two bags of what is presumably shopping.
She watches as he carries the bags over to the counter, wiping his brow dramatically before rooting through, clearly looking for something. He finds said something with a proud 'Ah-ah!', holding it up with pride.
“What is it?” She asks, taking a sip of her juice.
“Shampoo and that for curly hair, 'cause Steve 'The Hair' Harrington,” He air quotes it for emphasis, she guesses. “only has shampoo for straight hair, and my hair is paying the price.” He finishes, stoking his hair solemnly.
She blinks at him. “Why are you showering at Steve's?”
His eyes widen fractionally. “Well uh, we use the pool quite a lot, especially in this weather, 'we' being Robin and Vickie too! And the chlorine's bad for the hair so..” He trails off from his ramble, smiling weakly.
She nods but senses that there's more to this than he's letting on. He clears his throat awkwardly and turns to continue unloading the shopping.
“Before me and dad moved in with mum, Will told me that he saw dad's toothbrush at his house. Are you moving in with Steve?” She takes another sip of her drink, blinking at Eddie.
He whips his head round so fast El thinks she can hear his neck click. He's a bit pink in the face as he starts rambling again. “No, it's not like that! I don't think Harrington likes my company that much.” He jokes, a tad bit self deprecatingly if El had a say.
She just blinks at him again. “So why are you helping him with the shopping?”
“Okayy! That's enough questions for one night!” He declares, voice strained and cheeks still pink.
There's period of silence, only disturbed by El sipping from her drink and Eddie placing various cans and boxes onto the side.
“Can you cut my hair?”
“That was a question.” He points out, moving away as he starts to put stuff into the cupboards.
“I know.”
"I told you no more questions."
"I know." She sips her drink. "So, can you?"
“I did music at college, not hair and beauty.” He points out, still looking into the cupboards.
“So? Mum cuts Will's hair and she didn't do that?”
He closes the cupboard door and turns to face her. “Exactly, so ask her? Although,” He pauses, his face grimacing at a thought. “Maybe don't. Why do you want me to do it?”
“Your hair is curly too.”
His eyes fill with confusion. Maybe the fact she also has curly hair isn't as obvious.
He hold up his hands in defeat. “Fine okay. Don't kill me if its bad though. I haven't had a hair cut since I cut my own hair in primary and it was so bad my mam had to shave it.”
El can't help but snort a laugh into her cup. “I will not.”
They amble around the kitchen, looking for suitable supplies to cut El's hair with. ('Where are the scissors?', 'Bin bags?', 'Should we cut it in the bathroom?')
“Harrington!” Eddie yells, making El startle from where she's looking in a drawer. “Where are your scissors?”
“In the second drawer down by the fridge? Why?” He calls back suspiciously.
The two glance each other before bursting into silent laughs. Eddie points roughly at the drawer, indicating El to get the scissors. Still breathing laughs, they start to make through the hallway to the bathroom.
“What the fuck?” They turn around to see Steve, looking mildly alarmed at the sight of them. “Are you off to kill someone or what?”
El scrunches her brows in confusion.
“You're walking around with scissors and bin bags.” He says simply. Now she can understand where he's coming from.
“No, Eddie is cutting my hair.” She smiles.
Steve looks like he's about to say something, but in the end he just sighs, turning away. “Just don't let her come back with a bald patch Munson, or Hopper will kill me.”
Eddie mock salutes.
The bathroom they chose is quite big, with white decorative tiles on the wall and a bathtub opposite the door. The move around silently, El placing down bin bags near the bath as Eddie looks through the cupboards under the sink, finding a few towels and a hair brush.
“Now,” Eddie starts, El watching him from where she's sat on the side of the tub. “Reminding you that I haven't cut hair for years. So if I butcher this, I might have to shave it.” He says seriously.
“Okay. Can you cut it short?” She grabs her hair and using her fingers to mimic scissors, shows Eddie how short she wants it. Which is quite. She wants it like it was when she was twelve.
“Woah. You sure?”
She nods.
“Okay, then. Again, don't kill me if it's bad.”
They arrange themselves so Eddie is stood in the bath behind El, who's sat on the side with a bin bag wrapped around the back of her shoulder, like a cape. She can hear the scissors cut through her hair, the sound making her nose scrunch up.
“No going back now.” Eddie mutters, continuing to cut away big chunks of hair. He works in silence for a minute before he breaks it. “I didn't know you had curly hair?”
“Yes, but I don't know how to look after it so I just brush it out.”
“Makes sense, mine's a nightmare and it's not even that curly.”
They talk about hair products as Eddie continues to cut her hair, swearing under his breath every now and then. Their conversation is interrupted when Eddie tells her to put her head under the tap.
“It'll make it curly so we know what to cut.” He doesn't sound very confident, but El trusts him.
With El's hair now wet and curling, Eddie gets back to work with the scissors, cutting and snipping in every direction. At one pint, she moves her hand to feel the absence of hair at the back of her neck, but pulls it back when Eddie promptly slaps it. “Oi, watch it or I'll cut your fingers off.” She decides to not mention how much he sounded like Steve just then.
Eddie's finishing off the front of her hair when the bathroom door opens.
“-where you are..” The voice of Dustin trails off.
Eddie moves out the way once he's finished, meaning El can look at the surprise on Dustin's face.
“Woah! That looks mint!” He says, stepping forward in the bathroom. “It's like your hair in year eight!” He sounds excited, which hopefully means Eddie's done a good job.
“Yeah.” She smiles back at him.
She can hear the voices of the others as they make their way to the bathroom.
Max calls first, “What's happening here-” She stops abruptly at Dustin's shoulder, eyes widening at El. She opens and closes her mouth for a moment, seemingly lost for words.
“Is it bad?” El asks, starting to panic slightly.
That seems to kick some sense back into Max, her face flushing slightly. “No! No, it's,” Before she finishes her sentence, she's pushing past Dustin and marching over to where El's sat. Before El can say anything, there's a hand running through her hair. She can feel her ears start to burn. “Pretty.” Max whispers, seemingly forgetting everyone else in the room.
They stand there like that for a moment, Max running a hand through El's hair while El ignores the funny feeling in her stmoach.
Someone in the room clears their throat, and Max's hand leaves El's hair like it's burnt her. “Shit sorry, I should have asked before.” She apologies, still slightly pink.
“It's fine.” El smiles, trying to ignore the absence of Max's hand.
Max smiles back, seemingly unable to take her eyes away.
Deciding the moment between the two is over, the rest of their friends join them in the bathroom, complimenting El and laughing in disbelief when she says Eddie cut it.
Eventually, they make their way back to the living room and for the rest of the night, El swears she can feel Max's eyes on her.