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Eda resisted the urge to scream obscenities behind her as she ran off from an Emperor’s Coven scout. Stupid guard just had to be by the potion’s market at the same time as her, didn’t he? Thank Titan for her hair, or else she’d have had to leave her stash behind. Instead, she was able to toss the white bag into her pocket dimension before making a run for it.
The people of the market just watched her as she ran, no one offering assistance to either her or the coven guard. At least that second part was a plus. If they’d all mobbed her, she might actually be in some trouble. As it was though…
“Spicy toss!” she yelled, turning around quickly to shoot a cross of fire at the guy. He yelled and stopped, managing to just avoid the flames. Ah well, close enough. Her aim was getting better, at least. She’d almost hit Hooty while he was on one of his bug expeditions last time she’d tried that one.
Probably shouldn’t have tested it in a crowded market place. Oh well. It was fine.
“Get back here, Owl Lady!” the guard shouted, grabbing a potion from a nearby stall and throwing it at her. Her eyes widened as it arced in the air, hitting her on the back of the head.
And it burst into flames.
“You bitch!” she yelled, casting a blast of water at her own head. “I’ll get you for that!” She cast a spell circle and suddenly a large, stone Hooty came out from the ground and charged right into the guard’s center, pushing him back into a stall. She’d feel bad about wrecking the stall later. Maybe. Probably not.
Hey, they didn’t offer to help her, now, did they?
Now that that was taken care of, she patted the back of her head and wanted to scream.
It was crunchy.
That bitch fried her hair.
The entire walk back to the Owl House was done with angry stomps and muffled grumbling, to the point where Hooty could hear her coming from a mile away.
“Hoot hoot! I love the new look, very… fried noodle-y,” he said, reaching out to take a full look at her hair.
“Fuck off,” she said, shoving the bird tube to the side and opening the door.
“You don’t have to be so rude! HOOT!”
Yes, yes she did.
“RAINE!” she called as she entered the house, ready to murder someone.
“I’m right here,” they said, popping out from the kitchen. They had a dish and a rag in their hand, having been cleaning the dishes. “What’s wrong? Oh…”
Yeah. Oh.
“I wonder what could be wrong?” she seethed, pulling a few strands of her fried hair out. Raine bit their lip, nervous for what was to come. “It’s not like I’m a few seconds away from letting myself beast out and go eat some coven guards for lunch.”
“Eda,” Raine said, putting the dish and rag down in order to come over and put their hands on her shoulders, “you have to calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down!” she practically shouts in their face. Raine was used to this behavior when she was heated, however, and did not flinch. They just shot her a look.
“Murder isn’t the answer.”
“Murder is absolutely the answer. They ruined my hair!” She was so frustrated that tears began to bead up in the corner of her eyes, and that just pissed her off more. She didn’t want to cry because of those dingwads.
“Take a deep breath,” Raine instructed, filling up their own lungs. Eda glared, but followed their lead. “And out,” they instructed after a few moments. They repeated the action a few times until the stiffness to Eda’s shoulders calmed down. “Feel better?”
“No,” she insisted, crossing her arms. “I feel ready to bash someone’s skull in. But I guess it can wait until next time they start chasing me.”
“That’s the spirit,” Raine encouraged, knowing it was the best they’d get. “Maybe I’ll be with you and can help out.”
“You’d better,” she said. “Show them all what a badass bard you are.” Eda was all for pumping Raine up, knowing that bards were often put down as ‘lesser’ or ‘weaker’. But she’d sparred with them before, she knew just how strong they were.
“In the meantime…” they began, walking to the back of Eda to take a look at her hair. “I’m not sure there’s much we can do to save this.”
“Can’t we just dump some burn salve on it?” she begged.
“Eda. That’s not how burn salve works.” They stared at her, sure that she knew this. She just sighed and dropped her head into her hands.
“Well, maybe it should!” she cried. Raine sighed.
“We’re going to have to cut it,” they said, knowing she’d react badly. She just groaned and reached her hands back to pull at her ruined hair.
“No, no, I can fix it, I’ll just invent a new potion!” she explained, already going over ingredients in her head.
“Eda,” they said, trying to calm her racing mind. “It needs to be cut, so it can grow back healthy.”
“Nope, I refuse.” And that was that.
“Eda.”
“Where else will I store my snacks?” she asked with big eyes. Raine just rolled their own.
“In your pockets like a normal person.”
“Women's clothes don’t have pockets, you fiend!” she shouted, pulling a thing of Hex Mix out of her hair and throwing it at Raine. It hit them square in the face.
“Eda,” they repeated.
“You have to do it,” she finally said. Raine was shocked she agreed so fast.
“I don’t know the first thing about cutting hair,” they said, very against this idea.
“Well, you do it, or it doesn’t get cut,” she said, crossing her arms again. “I don’t want anyone else that close to my neck with scissors. Besides, I’m a wanted witch, I can’t just walk into a hairdresser.”
“...Eda, when’s the last time you got a haircut?”
“I’m choosing to ignore that question.”
Raine rubbed at their forehead and sighed once more.
“If I cut your hair, you can’t be upset about how it comes out,” they explained.
“I won’t,” she promised.
“I don’t trust you.”
“I’m offended. Relationships are built on trust, Rainestorm, you taught me this.”
“Don’t use my own words against me, you dingus.”
The two began to laugh before Eda turned once more to Raine.
“But seriously, please cut my hair,” she pleaded. “I really don’t feel comfortable having a strange witch with scissors right at my neck.”
“If I do this,” they began, tentatively agreeing, “you have to do the dishes for the next month.”
“A week.”
“Two.”
“Deal.”
“Hah, I’d have done it for one,” Raine joked, walking off into the kitchen. “Might as well get this done now, then.”
They grabbed a pair of scissors and carried one of the table chairs outside, Eda right behind them. There was no way they were letting this happen in their house. Eda just had too much hair - they already found strands of red locks all around the house, they didn’t need to make it worse.
Setting the chair in the grass, Eda quickly took a seat and brushed her ruined hair behind her. Raine didn’t even know where to start. Probably with cutting off all the dead hair, right? They held their breath - both out of nerves, and to avoid the smell - as they grabbed one big chunk of hair and…
Snipped.
Okay. This wasn’t so bad. They could do this. They grabbed another chunk and repeated the process. That was… not even. But they could fix that later. First, to just get the bulk of the hair gone. As they worked, they could feel the sun beating down on them, sweat dripping down their forehead. They wiped their arm over their head, cleaning it off.
“Are you really that nervous, Rainestorm?” Eda asked with a laugh. “What, do you think I’m going to kill you if you mess it up?”
“It’s your hair, so, yes,” Raine answered honestly.
“Nah, it’s already ruined. You’re just fixing the problem. It’ll grow back.”
Raine was surprised at her blase attitude. Usually she was overly protective of her hair, as seen by her refusal to let anyone else touch it. She always said that her luscious mane was part of who she was.
Well, it was getting cut off whether it looked good or not, so they guessed she was just trying to keep her own spirits up.
“There,” they said, looking down at the giant mound of hair that buried their feet. It almost matched the grass, though it was a few shades lighter. They tried kicking it into the wind, but there was just too much hair. Oh well, that would be nature’s problem. So long as they didn’t trek it all back into the house.
“It’s done?” she asked, excited.
“No. But it’s clear of gross burning if you want to feel it.”
She did so, reaching her arm back to feel the back of her head.
“Oh Titan, it’s so short. It really burned that high?” she asked, dismayed.
“I saved as much as I could.” They felt terrible cutting off as much as they did, but there really was no other option.
“Well, thanks for doing this, Rainey,” she said with what Raine imagined was a sad smile.
“No problem, Calamity,” they said, taking a look at the hair. How to style it? Something that matched the way that it just sprung up at all ends now, surely.
They started with just matching the end lengths of hair, to make it look neater. Right now it was all different lengths depending on how high the fire reached on her hair. At least now they could breathe while they worked, with all the dead hair being down at their feet. They could still smell it, but it wasn’t right up in their face.
Running their fingers through her hair once that much was done, they teased at it a bit. Her hair seemed to naturally try to stand up at the ends, so they’d go with that - they knew Eda didn’t want to have to spend much time on her hair, anyways. Going with how it naturally fell would help with that.
When they were finally done, they cast a quick wind spell to blow away the loose hairs. Of course, that had the added effect of blowing all the remaining hair directly into Eda’s face. Revenge for making them do something so nerve wracking, they supposed.
“It’s done,” they said at last. They were pretty sure hours had passed at this point - the sun’s movement in the sky certainly seemed to indicate it. It was probably almost time for dinner, now.
“I want to see!” Eda said, jumping out of her seat. She turned around and saw the large pile of burnt hair. “Oh… wow.”
“Yeah, wow. We’re probably going to need to bag some of this up later,” Raine said with a frown.
“That’s a later problem,” Eda said with a wave of her hand. “Right now, mama needs a mirror.”
She raced into the house (before Raine could check her for loose hairs, Titan damn it) and up to the bathroom. Raine didn’t hear any shouts of outrage as they walked at a much calmer pace, so that was good.
As they walked into the bathroom behind her, they saw her frowning at the mirror. Uh-oh. Well, they’d lived a good life. A weird life, but it’d been good.
“I like it,” she finally said, and Raine breathed a sigh of relief. They’d live another day.
“I’m glad,” they said with a smile, running their hands through her now much shorter mane. This would take some getting used to. Usually, they spent a lot of time running their hands through her hair, but it didn’t give the same satisfying feeling at this length.
She turned around and put her arms on Raine’s shoulders, looking into their eyes. “Tell me what you think. Really.”
“I like it,” they admitted. “It’s different but… kind of sexy.” They reached their hands into her hair and pulled her head back a bit. Then they leaned in and placed their lips on hers. They could feel Eda smile into it.
“You did good, Rainestorm. You should start a haircutting coven,” she joked.
“Ahh, yes, my one true passion,” they deadpanned. Eda laughed. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if that already existed.”
“True,” Eda acknowledged. “They’ve got a coven for everything.”
“Everything but amazing wild witches.”
“And thus I’ll forever be on my own,” she said with a dramatic sigh.
“Hey, at least we’ll be alone together,” Raine said, smiling at her with that smile that couldn’t help but make Eda fall for them all over again.
“Alone together. I like that.”