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It starts with Botan. Because, really, all things start with Botan and that bubbly, cheerful smile of hers.
"Shizuru, I need you to fix my hair!"
Out on the apartment balcony, Shizuru glances up to see Botan poking her head through the open doorway. Shizuru had just stepped out here for a quick smoke to be courteous, not wanting to fill the apartment with smoke while Botan's visiting.
"What's there to fix? Your hair looks fine," Shizuru replies with half a smirk, the cigarette in her mouth probably making the gesture look a little lopsided.
Botan steps fully out on the balcony and slides the door shut behind her. She's holding a magazine in her hands, and her eyes shine with excitement as she offers it to Shizuru.
"But I was looking through this fashion magazine and there are so many pretty hairstyles," Botan explains. "I wanted to try one."
"I'm off the clock," Shizuru replies, but is already putting out the cigarette in the nearby ashtray.
Shizuru takes no shit from her brother and his friends, but somehow she can never manage to say no to Botan, no matter how silly or strange the request. She reaches out for the magazine to see what she has in mind.
Later, after they've talked through the options and settled on one style that'll suit Botan's long blue locks, Shizuru grabs the hair brushes and hair clips and other necessities, and then gets to work. They squeeze into the apartment's small bathroom, even smaller now with a kitchen chair dragged in for Botan to sit.
Shizuru brushes Botan's silky hair, makes jokes about how nice Spirit World's shampoo must be, and starts twisting and curling the strands. Botan happily chatters away the whole time, and Shizuru replies the best she can while also holding a handful of hair pins with her teeth.
Despite being a hairdresser for years now, Shizuru's never simply styled a friend's hair just for fun. But this doesn't feel anything like work at the salon; it's more entertaining because Botan keeps asking inquisitive questions and goes off on tangents musing about hair dyes, and Shizuru has to stop a few times to laugh so she doesn't accidentally tangle the strands in knots.
"You're very talented, Shizuru," Botan declares, beaming at her reflection in the mirror after it's done. She seems pleased at the elaborate updo showcasing all her pretty blue hair. "Do you have anything to take a photo with?"
Shizuru is sure Kazuma has a Polaroid stashed somewhere in the apartment that he never uses. After some rummaging, she finally digs it up and snaps a couple of quick photos. Hands all of them over to Botan, except for one she keeps for herself. It'll be nice to hold onto a tangible memory of this, she thinks, even though the camera does not capture how radiant Botan truly looks.
"Let's do this again sometime," Botan says as she prepares to leave later, probably to show off her fancy temporary hairstyle to her friends back in Spirit World. "Maybe we can switch and I'll do your hair next time."
"Not sure I'd trust you with that," Shizuru replies, and hides a smile with another cigarette she’s just pulled out of her pack.
"We'll see. I think I could be pretty handy with a pair of scissors" is all Botan says with a grin as she sweeps out the door.
Shizuru lights the cigarette up, ready to smoke at least ten more just to settle the butterflies that somehow have found their way to her chest.
~~》~~》~~
Yusuke gets his hair styled against his will.
It's Keiko who drags him to the Kuwabara apartment, and who, a bit sheepishly, apologizes for asking the favor.
Shizuru sizes him up, as he scowls on the doorstep. He's partially covered in some kind of sticky goo – a lot of it settled in his hair – and Keiko is explaining that she can't get it out no matter what she tries. She's hoping Shizuru can help.
If it was just Yusuke alone, Shizuru would tease the hell out of him for whatever situation got him into this very literal mess. But Keiko is so earnest about getting help, that Shizuru simply gestures for them to come inside and tells Yusuke to try not to drip shit on the floor.
"Woah, dude, why does it look like a demon puked on you?" Kazuma asks, wandering in the room from the kitchen while Shizuru searches for her strongest shampoo.
"Uh, because that's basically what happened," Yusuke scoffs.
"Some idiot was causing trouble outside the ramen stand," Keiko explains, "but Yusuke got him to stop."
This brings out Yusuke's trademark proud grin. "I kicked his pasty demon ass." The grin then slips away again, recalling the rest of what happened. "Then he blew chunks all over me as he passed out."
"Gross, man."
Shizuru finds what she was looking for and cuts the conversation off before it gets any more detailed. "Weren't you cooking?" she pointedly asks her brother.
"Aw crap, the curry!" Kazuma shrieks and dashes back towards the kitchen.
Shizuru gets the water going in the sink and then manhandles Yusuke to stick his head under the running faucet. Keiko watches from the doorway, an amused smile playing across her lips at Yusuke's stream of profanity. Like the professional she is, Shizuru ignores the protests and starts the tedious process of washing sticky demon vomit out of Yusuke's hair.
"This is the worst shit that’s ever happened to me," Yusuke says in between spluttering through water and shampoo streaming down his face.
"Haven't you died at least twice?" Shizuru quips.
Yusuke's response is just a gurgling noise.
Men. Always so dramatic.
It takes a while – the sticky goo wants to stubbornly cling to Yusuke's hair – but Shizuru eventually gets it all out. Kazuma appears at some point in the process to offer up a clean pair of clothes (and a muttered promise to burn the messy ones because they smell awful). Keiko forces Yusuke to accept.
After that's all done with, Shizuru towels Yusuke's dripping hair dry, berates him for the gel he constantly puts on his head (it's almost as bad for his follicles as demon vomit), and then brushes through his mess of black hair to give it some semblance of normalcy again.
"Botan showed me the pictures of what you did to her hair," Keiko says while Shizuru is working her way through a particularly stubborn knot. "It was really pretty."
"If you start curling my hair, I'll punch you into next week," Yusuke grumbles. It's hardly a real threat; even less so when his face is scrunched up with an ouch, stop pulling my hair expression.
Shizuru rolls her eyes. "You're lucky you even still have hair on your head right now. Be careful not to make anyone throw up on you again."
"Yeah, yeah, but that jerk had it coming," Yusuke grumbles.
When Shizuru's done, Yusuke's hair hangs down loosely, covering his ears and parts of his forehead. It's a pretty drastic shift from the slicked-back style he regularly showcases. But Shizuru notices the fond smile on Keiko's face as she gives her boyfriend a closer look. It's like she's quietly reminiscing over times in the past when she's seen Yusuke's hair down like this. Shizuru almost opens her mouth to ask, but it feels too much like a private moment.
She busies her hands with cleaning up instead.
"Thanks again," Keiko says when they leave, and then elbows Yusuke sharply to add his own thanks too.
"You owe me a new bottle of shampoo," Shizuru replies, only half-joking.
~~》~~》~~
Alcohol is involved when Shizuru gets the chance to mess with Kurama's hair.
It's a birthday party for Kazuma, so the whole extended team and an assortment of old allies are all crowded into the living room of the Kuwabara apartment. It's lively and raucous, and Shizuru is surprised the neighbors haven't called in a noise complaint yet.
Shizuru has spent most of the evening juggling her time between lounging on the couch with Botan and threatening bodily harm if any of the boys get blood on the furniture while roughhousing. She's itching for a cigarette to go with her beer, but she's too comfortable curled up beside Botan to move much.
Then Kazuma gets into some dumb pissing match with Hiei over something, and Yukina tries to settle them down, and Yusuke tries to egg them on, and somehow it ends with Botan shouting "Shizuru should braid Kurama's hair!" as some sort of improvised distraction.
It's enough to get the party guests to quiet down for a moment, parsing through their confusion.
"Shizuru is a professional," Botan continues, grinning. "Have you seen the photos of when she styled my hair?"
Yusuke snorts. "We've all seen the pics a million times by now. Stop shoving them in our faces every day. Damn."
Botan pouts, and it's kinda adorable.
"Well, I don't mind if Shizuru-san would like to braid my hair," Kurama admits, somehow managing to re-rail the rapidly derailing conversation.
Shizuru thinks she needs to be more drunk to get through this nonsense, so she grabs Kazuma's forgotten beer and chugs it. It's his birthday; someone will get him another one soon anyway.
"If I stick my hands in your hair, no freaky plant is gonna pop up and eat my fingers, right?" Shizuru asks.
"Of course not," Kurama responds politely, but the smile on his face says something more like no promises but we can reattach any fingers if necessary.
Kurama's bright red hair feels silky and healthy in Shizuru's hands. She wonders vaguely if good hair care is something he learned from Mrs. Minamino or whether that's a holdover from the vain fox he used to be.
She doesn't ask.
Shizuru separates strands of hair out, carefully weaving them together into an intricate French braid. Hiei glares at her from across the room – and she swears he looks a bit jealous, which is hilarious – but he generally glares at everyone anyway, so Shizuru isn't very concerned.
When she's done with the braid, Kurama looks even more radiant and elegant than usual.
"Not bad," she remarks, looking at her handiwork. She's secretly grateful she didn't accidentally uncover any of the seeds he allegedly carries around up there.
"See?" Botan points out, gleefully clapping her hands together and beaming at Shizuru. "A true professional!"
"Thank you," Kurama says gracefully, even ducking his head in a brief bow.
"Now he looks too classy to be hanging out with delinquents like us," Yusuke declares with a loud laugh that gets cut off abruptly when Hiei kicks him.
Ignoring the newest round of squabbling, Shizuru just cracks open another beer and settles back down next to Botan again to resume their earlier conversation. It's easy to tune all the idiot boys out.
~~》~~》~~
Shizuru almost chokes on smoke when Hiei shows up for an impromptu hair appointment.
He has a penchant for perching on balcony railings, but Shizuru doesn't generally expect to find him on hers. She recovers from the shock quickly, however, and tells him that if he's looking for her brother, he's out with Yukina today.
Hiei narrows his eyes at that bit of news, but otherwise ignores it. In fact, for a long while he doesn't say anything, like he's working up the courage for what he wants to ask. Shizuru would find his staring unnerving if she hadn't grown immune to strange happenings back when she learned Yusuke took orders from an immortal toddler. Nothing really phases her anymore.
So they sit there on the balcony, and Shizuru smokes two more cigarettes while she waits. Hiei is like a feral cat; any sudden movements might scare him away.
Finally, he speaks.
"I'm supposed to accompany Kurama somewhere and I need to look…" Hiei pauses, looking mildly disgusted, "nice."
Shizuru resists the urge to laugh, and puts out her last cigarette.
"Nice?" she repeats.
"I'm not going to share the details," Hiei sneers. "I just need you to do," he waves one hand in an exasperated motion, "whatever you do."
"Alright," Shizuru stands up, wondering just how many people are getting referrals from Botan and if she should start charging. "I'll make sure your hair looks nice for your date."
Hiei glares in a way that says he's resisting the urge to throw her off the balcony. But he never actually disputes her assumption.
There isn't much she really needs to do to Hiei's hair, of course. She knows he isn't going to let her try to change up how it's styled (though she quietly entertains herself with the thought of how he'd look with Yusuke's slicked-back style). But she does brush through his dark locks and trims the split ends. Unlike many of her clients, Hiei remains silent the whole time she works, tensed up with an uncharacteristic anxiety. Shizuru doesn't try to interrupt his thoughts, knowing that he'll shake off reassurances like water off his back.
Instead, her mind wanders while she works, trying to guess where Kurama and Hiei are going and what they're going to do. It's a little hard to imagine the two demons on a typical human date. Neither one of them are the "dinner and a movie" type. Nor does she think Hiei would agree to somewhere fun like an amusement park or an aquarium. Those two are still such mysteries to her.
Now if it were Shizuru on a date, she'd be happy with a simple walk around the city, hand in hand, hoping to stumble across something new and interesting with her date…
Shizuru pauses, realizing that she'd automatically envisioned a certain blue-haired person into that random fantasy.
Huh. Weird.
She focuses back on Hiei again, checking to make sure she hasn't missed a spot.
"Okay, I'm done, unless you want me to do anything else," Shizuru says, stepping back to let Hiei observe her work.
"It's… nice," Hiei declares with an air of disdain for his own reflection.
That's as close to a compliment as Shizuru's gonna get, she supposes, so she nods and starts to clean up. She then wishes him a nice time on his date, suggests he take the train to his destination to avoid messing up his hair, and even offers him some money for the train fare because she knows he doesn't carry any. (Ugh, when did she start thinking about Kazuma's friends as her little brothers too?)
Hiei glares at her as if he's hoping she'll spontaneously burst into flames, but again doesn't deny the "date" label for whatever he's doing with Kurama today.
Instead, he bolts away, but through the front door this time.
Shizuru grins. She can't wait to tell Kazuma about this when he gets home. They had a bet going about Hiei and Kurama, and now he owes her some money.
~~》~~》~~
Of course, Shizuru is no stranger to messing with her little brother's hair. Even before she became a hairdresser, she was always practicing on Kazuma's head of curls.
She never could get him to stop with that stupid delinquent pompadour style though.
"You don't have to do this, Sis," Kazuma complains as she drags him into their small bathroom, and forces him to sit. "I think my hair looks fine."
"You always think your hair looks fine," Shizuru grumbles. "Which is why your hairstyle is now a decade out of date."
Kazuma covers his head with his hands, like he's hoping they're big enough to act as a helmet. He mutters something about a reputation to uphold.
But he's not getting out of this that easily. Not when he's going to be the Best Man at Yusuke and Keiko's wedding tomorrow.
"It's just a trim," she says, prying his hands away. "Don't be an ass."
While she trims up the split ends and the few strands that look like they're getting a little too unruly, they talk about the wedding. Mostly, it's speculation on how drunk Atsuko will get, and if Kurama will somehow convince Hiei to wear matching ties, and whether or not Genkai will still call Yusuke a dimwit on his wedding day, and how radiant Yukina will look in her outfit. (This last bit is really just Kazuma's starry-eyed rambling, but Shizuru allows it because he fidgets less when he's talking about the love of his own life.)
They talk a bit about how strange it feels that Yusuke's getting married, how strange it feels that the junior high delinquent they used to know is all grown up now. Shizuru doesn't point out how strange it feels to see her little brother all grown up too.
The head of curly orange hair she used to practice on isn't the same as it was all those years ago.
"What if I trip while walking down the aisle and fall flat on my face?" Kazuma muses nervously, just as she's finishing up her work.
"We'll all laugh hysterically."
Kazuma pouts. "Aw, come on."
"But it'll be a good story for us to talk about for years and years to come," she continues.
"Gee, that's real encouraging, Sis." He stands up and leans towards the mirror to get a better view of how his hair looks, poking tentatively at his dumb pompadour as if it's in danger of falling off.
"Think of it this way," Shizuru adds. "Would you rather stumble and make the day more memorable for everyone, or have everything go perfect but be boring as hell? You ought to know by now how to make the most of getting knocked on your ass."
Kazuma shifts his eyes away from his hair to stare at her instead, and then, after a long silence, he lets out a loud, goofy laugh. So very typical of him.
"Guess you're right," he grins.
He starts cleaning up the hair trimmings scattered on the chair and the floor, but pauses long enough to give her a sly smile. The one that screams mischievous little brother.
"Hey, you should consider taking your own advice sometime," he says. "Go do something that'll make the day memorable for someone, instead of being boring as hell."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she grumbles as she lights up a new cigarette.
"Oh, y'know, like confessing your feelings to someone or whatever."
Shizuru whacks him in the gut with a hair brush for being cheeky.
Little brothers can be such a pain.
~~》~~》~~
“I’ve been reading fashion magazines again,” Botan says as soon as Shizuru opens the door to let her inside.
Botan, eyes shining with excitement, holds up a handful of magazines as if Shizuru needed proof. The covers are adorned with pretty models making pouty faces in ridiculously expensive clothes. Shizuru’s never been interested in reading them herself.
“Hello to you too,” Shizuru says.
It’s been a few weeks since they last saw each other, busy schedules just not lining up right for a bit. But Botan has been on her mind while she's been working lately. There's an ache in her chest from missing their conversations. She keeps trying to ignore it, but there's no denying the smile that pops up on her face as soon as Botan arrives for an unexpected visit.
Botan's still rambling about fashion and barely even seems to notice as she stumbles to take her shoes off by the door.
"I've done lots of research, so now it's my turn to play with your hair," Botan announces.
"Reading those magazines don't count as research," Shizuru points out.
Botan smiles, that bubbly cheerful smile of hers Shizuru can never say no to. "Just let me do this for you," she says. "You take care of everyone else all the time, and never let anyone do the same for you."
Shizuru pretends she didn't hear the tender care in Botan's voice just then, and grumbles a little bit more for the sake of her pride, but she doesn't fight when Botan guides her to a chair in front of the bathroom mirror and starts digging around for a hairbrush.
She watches Botan in the mirror. The way her eyebrows draw together in deep concentration, the way one side of her mouth curls as she surveys the progress she's made, the way she puffs out her cheeks when something's not turning out how she expects.
Adorable, honestly.
Like watching a version of herself when she first started learning cosmetology.
Botan touches her hair gently, like she's afraid she might accidentally break something. Shizuru thinks it's probably more care than she deserves – not a lot of people take the time to look past her tough, chain-smoking exterior – but this feels nice.
Feels like something she wouldn't mind doing more often with Botan.
"Let me know if I'm doing something wrong," Botan says after a while, a bit more hesitant than her usual confident self. "You're the expert after all."
"As long as you're not pulling my hair out, you can't go wrong," Shizuru laughs.
Botan beams at the approval. "Ah, you're quite right," she exclaims, and gets back to finishing up a loose braid she'd been fiddling with for the past five minutes.
When Botan finally takes a step back and declares herself finished, Shizuru immediately reaches for a small mirror to get a better view of the back. The style Botan had settled on is a bit nonsensical and nothing like her usual simple one, but Shizuru likes it.
Shizuru has her hands in other people's hair every day, but it's rare that someone else touches hers. But if she had to choose anyone to do it, she's glad she has Botan.
"We simply have to take photos," Botan insists, clapping her hands together with excitement.
"You gonna show them to all our friends hundreds of times, like you did with the other photos?" Shizuru teases as she searches for the Polaroid again.
"Oh, absolutely!"
Even though she's dying for a cigarette, Shizuru sits patiently as Botan snaps several pictures. And then, finally, she leans closer to Shizuru's side and holds the camera out like she's trying to catch the two of them in the frame.
"I'm not quite sure that'll work," Shizuru points out, as Botan wraps her free arm around Shizuru's shoulder and pulls her closer.
"Well, we won't know until we try," she replies with a mischievous smile. "So what's the harm in trying?"
Botan's still focused on positioning the camera, but Shizuru isn't thinking about the photo anymore. She's thinking about all the what ifs that keep swirling around whenever she thinks about Botan.
She'll never know if she doesn't try.
So right as Botan clicks the button for the photo, Shizuru turns just enough to press a kiss against Botan's cheek.
The camera flash blinds them before either can react.
Suddenly self-conscious, Shizuru pulls away, ready to apologize. Botan raises her hand to touch the spot on her cheek, hiding half the blush that rushes to her face. The photo – a blurry mess – lies forgotten on the countertop.
Shizuru's heart is pounding so fast now, it probably sounds like a drum solo from one of those metal bands Kazuma likes so much. But just as she's about to apologize, Botan speaks instead.
"You missed."
"Huh?"
Botan smiles, looking pleased. "Isn't it human custom for kisses to be on the lips?" she asks. "You missed mine. Maybe you should try again."
Oh, so it's not a rejection. Shizuru can't hold back her relieved laugh, and then she reaches out to cup Botan's face and kiss her again. Properly this time.
When Kazuma gets home later to find them cooking dinner together in the kitchen, he laughs as soon as he sees Shizuru's temporary new hairstyle. Botan promptly whacks the top of his head with a spatula.
"That was only my first try," Botan says. "I'll need more time to get even half as good as Shizuru."
"Sis, you always get to mess with everyone's hair, but you've never let anyone mess with yours before," Kazuma points out. "Why're you gonna let Botan keep trying to style your hair?"
Shizuru grins as she answers.
"Botan has girlfriend privileges."