Work Text:
"Ugh, this hair is now becoming a pain in the ass!" Enya groans as she's trying to run a brush through her now tangled long hair. "Why did I think growing this out would help!"
For two years she had been growing her hair out, just for fun to see how long she could grow it without problem. And after nearly two years, she was now just sick of it. If not braided back properly it would get caught on door handles, and was a pain to brush and wash every time she had to fix it. Honestly the only upside to the hair was that Soren got to practice his braiding when he'd get bored during council meetings, quietly grabbing a few strands to braid and tie off with some ribbons he probably borrowed from her father’s workshop, so by the end of the meeting she was left with just a bunch of random braids in her hair.
Yeah I need more than just a trim. Enya thinks as she walks over to the dresser where a mirror sat and started to carefully brush some of the hair to the front of her face. Maybe do something about the front too, oh maybe some new bangs that won't look horrible?
"Hey, something wrong?" She hears someone say as they enter the room and felt an all too familiar calloused hand gently grab her chin and turn it towards them. "Ha, your hair looks like my sister's when it gets wet."
"Not funny, shut up." Enya mutters as she tries to blow a strands out of her face. "I'm getting it cut, it's official Soren."
"Aww, but then I won't be able to braid it during meetings when I'm bored." Soren says as he brushes the strands out of her face so she could see him properly. "You even love those little braids, wouldn't take them out to sleep unless I did it so you wouldn't ruin my work yourself."
"You have long hair, braid yours!"
"No, and it's more fun when I braid yours!"
Enya made an annoyed huffing sound. "I'm still cutting it. And I wanna see if I can give myself bangs too."
"You're actually gonna do this?" Soren asks as he carefully grabs more of her hair to pull it from her face. "Want some help at least?"
"You can cut hair?" Enya asks skeptically.
"Yeah who else gave my sister the bangs and short hair she had when we were little?"
"Soren I didn't get here until I was eleven, by then she already had a length that went past her shoulder blades and in the process of growing out the hair in the front of her head."
"Still, I'm an excellent hair cutter!" Her husband protests.
"Hairdresser, that's the correct term." Enya corrects him. "A mhuirnín, as much as I would love your help…I don't think I can trust you near my hair with scissors."
"I'm offended by that statement, but you're my wife so I'll let it slide."
Before Enya could respond, a knock was heard from the door. "We're we expecting anyone?" She asks in confusion. "Or is someone here to tell us a meeting is being held that was a spur of the moment?"
"Not that I'm aware." Soren says as he hurries to the door. "Oh hi Callum! Hey, can you give me a hand with something?"
"Soren what are you doing?" Enya asks as Callum is brought into the room.
"Okay Enya is not convinced that I can cut hair well, but you are a great example that I am handy with scissors! Tell her."
"You're not." The prince states bluntly and turns to the tailor with something in hand. "Hey I hate to bug you, but can you fix these? Ezran tripped and tore a spot in the knee, and they're his favorite pair too."
"Sure I can do that, but my supplies are in my father's workshop so let's go there." Enya says as she takes the pants from Callum to unfold and makes a tsking sound. "Geez, he's twelve and still ripping his pants at the knees. What was he even doing?"
"Chasing Bait."
"Makes sense."
"Hold on aren't we gonna cut your hair?" Soren asks as he followed them out, now holding Enya's hair. "You know the second I let go of this, you're gonna look like some ghost that crawled out of a well."
"It's fine Soren, I'll just tie it back."
"So can I still trim it for you?"
"He's not gonna give up on that, is he?" Callum asks as they walk out of the room.
"Knowing my husband, he's not." Enya agrees. "Okay fine, you can give it a trim, just nothing too short or I'll look like Callum."
"Hey!" The prince protests as he ran a hand through his hair. "This is a great hairstyle! Even Ezran and Zym agree!"
"Callum you look like one of those parrots from Duren." Enya laughs.
"Yeah you do." Soren laughed. "But don't worry love, I won't make you look like Callum. Should I cut it to the length it was two years back?"
"Nah, I want something…a bit shorter. I'll show you when we get to the workshop."
The three soon made their way to the workshop and entered, Enya placing the pants on her work table before digging around in the drawers for her supplies as Callum grabbed a chair to sit on and Soren went grabbed a lone green ribbon.
"Alright, I want to have it around my shoulder blades, like it's short enough to not be too long, you know?" Enya says as she gestures to her back. "Hand me that ribbon?"
Sore hands her off the ribbon, allowing her to grab her hair and tie the ribbon around a section of it and tighten it.
"In all the years I've known you, I don't think I've seen you with hair that short." Callum comments from his seat. "It's always been to your waist or hips."
"Still long enough for me to braid." Soren says with a shrug as he grabbed the scissors off the table. "Should I do this right now, or wait until you are done with your work?"
"As long as I'm not moving so much, you can try to cut it." Enya says as she grabs a needle and a spool of brown thread. "Just don't try to disturb me, my process for neat and small stitches requires a lot of concentration and focus."
"Right, no disturbing."
As she began her work, Soren got to work carefully trimming the longer parts of her hair that led up to the ribbon, not wanting to cut the area straight away. He'd watched Ella trim someone's hair recently, how she held strands between her fingers as she carefully evened everything out. He didn't have a comb unfortunately, but all he had were just his fingers to gently rake them through the long dark hair he had grown accustomed to running his hands through. Soren heard Callum get up from his seat and walk over, and out of the corner of his eye he could see the young mage watching.
“I think you should cut below the ribbon, just in case.” The teen says quietly. “Also shouldn’t her hair be wet? Maybe we should wait afterwards to do this once we soak and comb it out.”
“I’m just carefully trimming the ends off right now so it won’t be a hassle later.” Soren responds as he turns to glare at Callum, not noticing where he raised the scissors. “So shush and let me do my thing.”
“No seriously, if you mess it up she’s gonna end up with hair worst than a badly trimmed bush! Just let me help-”
“No I am just fine-” Soren stops when he feels something hit his boot and looks down to find hair and that ribbon Enya was using to tie it back.
"Oh no…." Callum mutters a little too loudly.
"W-what? Whats wrong?" Enya asks in concern, fear now lacing her voice as she looks up from her work.
"Umm…well the good news is…you have shorter hair!"
"Oh yeah, it's…very nice!" Soren agrees with a nervous laugh. “Uh…don’t look in a mirror - yet.”
With a frown, Enya puts her needle down and pushes her chair back to look down at the floor and her eyes widen when she sees the hair on the floor. She then bolted for her old room, slamming the door shut right behind her.
“Oh my ancients…” Soren mutters when they hear a loud scream and something fall over. “Enya? It’s not that bad I swear!”
“Don’t sugarcoat it, it’s awful!” Callum groans. “I told you we should have waited! Or maybe asked Ella to cut the hair, this is why Claudia didn’t trust you with scissors!”
The two flinch as the bedroom door swung open, Enya fuming as she stood in the doorway. Soren then puts the scissors back in it’s drawer and shut it quickly before giving his wife a nervous smile.
“Uh…it doesn’t look so bad? Maybe this…choppy hair thing could be a new hairstyle trend!” He says quickly, faltering when his wife says nothing. Just dead silence from her. Enya then lifts her head to glare at him before she storms out of the room, slamming the door right behind her loudly.
"Oh boy…she's gonna kill us isn't she?" Callum asks with a groan. "Well she'll definitely kill you, I don't know what she'll do to me."
"Yeah I messed up big time." Soren admits with a groan. "Better start writing a will and leaving all my things to Bait."
"Wait why Bait?"
"Do you really want to me to give our dog dangerous weapons? She's already terrorizing everyone in the castle when she gets ahold of a knife or someone's unsupervised sword! Your own aunt even encouraged it, and Janai!"
"Fair point, but now she's gonna walk around with bad hair! Maybe we should get Damian to fix it? He's good with scissors and I'm sure he's been cutting Enya's hair since she was little."
"Her dad's gone right now, remember? Trip to Duren to visit family, remember?"
"I didn't know! I'm not as close to him like you are!"
"Well now you know, maybe we should just leave it be and apologize."
"Oh no, this is your fault not mine!" Callum protests. "You had the bright idea of giving her the haircut, not me! You apologize to her and wait for her punishment, and knowing Enya, she's not gonna be returning any affectionate gestures until she's not mad anymore."
"Yeah that's punishment enough, but you helped so this is also your fault!" Soren points out. "She's mad at the both of us, but I'll go and apologize. Wish me luck."
Soren hurries out of the room and began to search the castle for Enya. So far she wasn't in the stables, nor in the library or the crow tower, and she certainly wasn't at the blacksmith (thank goodness for that). So where was she?
"Okay how easy is it to lose her?" Soren mutters. Maybe…the throne room? Probably seething there with Ezran trying to calm her down, or in the courtyard where the soldiers were and knocking the straw stuffing out of training dummies to blow steam off. He'll check there too, and maybe Barius' bakery in case he was letting her blow off steam by baking.
Once he was allowed into the throne room, Soren didn't find Enya with Ezran, instead he was greeted with the sight of Corvus speaking with the young king.
"Oh Just the man I wanted to see, where's your wife?" Corvus says when he spots his friend. "She's almost always with you attached to the hip."
"Ha ha very funny." Soren mutters as he approached. "Uh listen, I did a bad thing and Enya is very mad at me but I want to apologize. Do you two know where she is?"
"Oh she was here a few minutes ago, dragged Ella out of here in a huff." Ezran responds and frowns slightly. "What did you do this time?"
"I…may have messed up her hair." Soren admits quietly. "A lot actually. And it's bad."
"Wait that was you?" Corvus asks in surprise. "I thought that baby dragon you two took in a while back made that mess."
"No that was me, I made that mess. Tart wouldn't do that to Enya, she's the only one who will give her belly rubs in the right places that won't result in getting bitten."
"Wait what did you do to mess up her hair that badly?" Ezran asks. "It looks like someone hacked it off with a sword."
"A pair of scissors actually."
"I knew it." Corvus mutters. "Well just give her some space, she looked ready to murder someone when she dragged Ella off. Give her until tomorrow to cool down a bit and then try approaching."
"Yeah that seems like the best approach." Soren agrees. "So…some apology tarts are in order, maybe that will soften her up tomorrow if she's still mad at me.”
“And maybe not offer to cut hair anymore, until you learn how to properly do it.” Corvus adds. “And maybe…I don’t know, hope that whatever Ella does to fix it won’t look so bad.”
---
The next morning, Soren was a bit of a nervous wreck. Enya hadn’t come back at all to his room in the evening, most likely staying the night in her home instead of with him like she usually did when her father was gone. He went through his day checking on the soldiers with Corvus, making sure all weapons in storage were up to perfect standards, making sure the barracks were clean as well and that the new fresh recruits were doing their training properly.
“You think she’s gonna try to give me the silent treatment again like last time?” Soren asks his friend as they are eating their lunch outside under the tree in the courtyard. “Like last time she got mad at me, it didn’t last long because I ate butter in front of her.”
“No I don’t think she’s gonna be that mad at you.” Corvus assures him before taking another bite of his sandwich before chewing it a few times and swallowing. “Trust me on this, and Ella will make sure she gets a good haircut.”
“I sure hope so, I probably should have asked her to help with the hair cutting. You don’t think it was bad enough to make her cut it way too short? It kinda looked like I cut it with a knife and it was uneven too.”
“Nah, maybe it’d need to get cut past the shoulders so it could be even, but not bad enough to shave her whole head.”
Soren nearly choked on his sandwich at the thought before elbowing Corvus, who just laughed. As the two were finishing their meal, Ella approaches them with a big smile on her face.
“Hi!” She greets them cheerfully. “So, what’s up with you Soren? You don’t seem as cheerful as usual.”
“He’s nervous about Enya.” Corvus responds. “More or less nervous about her reaction about what happened yesterday since she left in a huff.”
“Ooooh, that. Yeah, she’s cooled down so far after I fixed her hair a bit." Ella says with a grin. "Even looks quite cute too if I say so. She's in the throne room right now if you wanna talk to her."
"Wait but I don't have any apology tarts!" Soren protests as Corvus pulls him onto his feet and pushes him to the castle.
"Those can wait!" Ella yells as she grabbed the knight's hand to lead them to the throne room.
"Oh hey, where are you three going?" Callum asks when he spots them. "And why are you pushing and dragging Soren?"
"We're off to show him my greatest masterpiece!" Ella states proudly. "Enya's fixed haircut!"
"Callum save me, I can't face her yet!" Soren yells. "Also how are you that strong Ella, you're tiny compared to my wife!"
"Sheer willpower." Ella responds with a grin. "Now shut up, and Callum, you are welcome to join us if you want."
"Well I don't have anything better to do right now, so I'll come." The young mage says with a shrug as he follows the three. "And I'm curious to see what will happen."
"I feel like you're all conspiring to see me get murdered by Enya." Soren mutters before they reached the throne room and he's released. "Guys seriously, Enya was in such a bad mood yesterday I thought she was gonna cut my hair off in retaliation! Or worse, sew my sleeves to my sides and my pant legs together with me still in them!"
"Oh she wouldn't be that mad to do either of those, just mad enough to give you the silent treatment." Callum scoffed as they are allowed into the room by the guards. "It can't be that bad!"
Inside they found Ezran and Opeli talking to a short haired woman who had an all too familiar little red, black and gold dragonet and fluffy black and white dog at her side as she was reading something from a sheet of paper she was holding. Soren wasn't exactly sure who that was, but she seemed…familiar. And why were his pets with her?
"Amaya! Jelly Tart! Come to daddy!" He yells, catching the attention of the animals. Amaya barked excitedly as she bolts from her spot and practically leaps onto Soren as she attempted to lick his face. "Hey hey calm down! You act like you haven't seen me this morning! Also where's your mama?"
"She's right here." Opeli says with a frown, pointing at the woman, who looked up from her papers to look at them.
Enya was now sporting a hairstyle shorter than the uneven mess Soren had accidentally given her, the choppy and uneven hair and bangs were now shortened, the back of her hair were now layered neatly and the bangs were fixed to cover most of her forehead. She actually was nearly unrecognizable.
"I told you cutting it that short was a terrible idea, they're speechless!" Enya exclaims, turning to Ella. "And my own husband doesn't recognize me!"
"Umm, you..you actually- I mean-" Soren stammered and look to Corvus for help.
"You could just say "you look nice", "I like their new haircut", anything complimentary." Corvus suggests. "Or your stammering can just indicate that you're too stunned - in a good way."
"It's actually a lot better than what you got yesterday!" Callum comments with a smile and elbowed Soren. "And it looks nice on you too!"
"Thank you." Enya says before turning to Soren.
"Am I still getting the silent treatment?" He finally manages to ask.
"She told me earlier to tell you that it will end tonight when you get off your shift." Opeli responds and Enya nods in affirmation. "Also next time Soren, don't cut people's hair, especially when you're distracted."
"That was Callum’s fault." The knight mutters before Corvus elbowed him. "Ow! Okay fine, it's entirely my fault and I'm sorry! I won't do it again! Ever!"
"Punishment lifted, thank you A mhuirnín." Enya laughed as she stepped over to him and kissed his cheek before giving it a pat.
"Wait, I thought your silent treatment would be lifted later!"
"That, or if you admitted fault to your actions I would lift it earlier than expected."
"So…do I still need to hand you apology jelly tarts?" Soren asks. "If you’re not mad?”
“I was quite upset that you messed up my hair, but after talking to Ella I’m no longer mad. So no need for apology tarts this time.”
“Oh, then I’m gonna have to cancel that large order of raspberry jelly tarts, Barius is not gonna be happy.”
“That or we can all just eat them.” Ezran suggests and their friends laugh. “How many did you even order anyways?”
“Like…twenty…six.” Soren admits and the young king gasps. “What? There’s no such thing as too many apology jelly tarts!”
“I think there is, I’m not you two or Bait to be able to consume so many in a day without feeling sick to my stomach.” Enya points out with a laugh. “How about we do this, we still take the tarts and split them with everyone, fair?”
"Sounds fair to me." Callum laughs. "Also it probably would be a crime to not share any with Bait and Ezran if you have too many."
"I'll pass thanks, but I'm glad to see you two resolved your problems without escalating it." Opeli says and looks at the stack of papers she had in hand. "Now perhaps we should all get back to work. Ezran, we need you to look over a complaint someone filed about a town in our kingdom banning elves from entering."
"Well, this went well." Enya comments as they left the throne room. "Anyways, I have to return to work, my dad and I received a whole bunch of clothes that needed to be mended and I have a wedding dress to make."
"Oh did a certain someone propose?" Ella asks, giving Soren a teasing smile.
"No its not for me, it's for a Skywing elf who's getting married this month to one of the humans in the capital." Reyna corrects her. "I'm not making any wedding dresses for myself - yet."
She sends Soren a coy smile, earning herself a blush from the captain and a laugh from their friends.
"Well we've got stuff to do, so…bye!" Ella says as she grabs Callum’s arm. "And you are coming with us, it's super important!"
"Uh…so…just to be sure, you're not mad?" Soren asks when their friends are gone. "Like positively sure you're not mad? No lingering upset feelings?"
"A mhuirnín, how many times must I tell you, I'm not mad." Enya sighs and puts a hand on his shoulder. "I promise I'm not mad or holding a grudge, after Ella fixed my hair I was no longer upset with you. Sure I was frustrated that you messed up my hair but it got fixed anyways, no need to be worried, I'm not upset with you anymore."
"Oh, okay then. Just checking to make sure, you know?"
Enya sighs before stepping in front of Soren to gently grab his face and look him in the eyes. "A mhuirnín, I promise I'm not going to act like your father when I get upset with you. It's been nearly two years since we started this relationship, and I swear on my life that I'm not going to do anything like him. No need to apologize, we make mistakes all the time, no one is perfect." She says with a small smile before she stood on her toes to give him a kiss on the nose. “If you still feel like you haven’t made it up to me, what do you want me to do to feel like we’re even? Trim your hair? Shave your stubble?”
“Nope not my hair!” Soren yells, yanking his face out of her hands and covering his hair. “No touching!”
“So the stubble I can get rid of? It’ll grow back.”
Enya nearly burst out laughing at the pouting face Soren made as he was thinking about her offer.
“Okay fine, you can shave the stubble just this once, and only once!” He finally says as he dropped his hands. “You know how to shave a beard, right?”
“I used to help my father maintain his facial hair when I was little before he decided to try growing it out, so you’re in safe hands I promise.”
---
“Careful, I don’t want to get nicked.” Soren warns as Enya is carefully dragging the razor along his cheek. “As cool as a facial scar would be, I don’t want one from shaving.”
“Oh hush you, I’m being careful.” The tailor scolds as she dipped the blade into a bowl of clean water and shook it out before moving it to another soapy area. “Hold still, unless you actually want a facial scar.”
“I don’t not from a razor.” Soren mutters. “Maybe from something drastic, like defending Ezran from an evil knight.”
“Oh the women and men of Del Bar would swoon if they saw that.” Enya teases as she continues to carefully shave, repeating the earlier process of cleaning the blade. “I’d have to fight them all off because they think your shaving scar makes you attractive.”
“And I’ll fight them all off to keep them from having to fight you.”
“Aww, you care. Alright, I think that’s done for now, you can rinse.”
Soren grabs the standing mirror they kept nearby to examine his reflection, shuddering when he saw his bare face.
“I look like I’m sixteen.” He groans, earning a laugh from Enya. “It’s not funny! This is why Corvus keeps stubble on his face, it makes him look older and I like looking my age!”
“You sure don’t act like it.” Enya snorts as she hands him off a towel to clean his face. “Aw don’t be cross, you look just as handsome with a bald face as you do with stubble.”
“You hated my stubble two years ago and made me shave the minute we got home, and now you actually like it!”
“I got used to it, I was just very unnerved by it because I was used to your baby face.” Enya laughs as Soren stands to stretch before putting an arm around her. “You can just grow it back, but try to keep it maintained if you don’t want to look like one of your mom’s relatives.”
“Maybe in a few years if I try to keep that maintained.” He suggests with a laugh before taking one of her hands and wovees his fingers with hers. “But for now, you’re stuck with my smooth face and my good stubble.”
“Oh how unfortunate.” Enya laughs as her free hand rose to touch his face. “But I’m glad about that.”