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When Matthew and Alfred were still very little Francis used to always cut their hair. Winter had just passed and it was time for a fresh new haircut for the boys. It was due time because their hair grew like a bunch of weeds and the spring demanded a new, shorter cut. Despite them being kids they both already seemed to have developed a specific taste. Matthew always wanted his hair to look ‘like papa’s’ and Alfred always wanted to have it short ‘so it wouldn’t get in my eyes’ he would say. It was a good they both wanted it differently, they were twins after all and without that slight difference it would have been pretty hard to keep them apart. Even if it was Francis who would be cutting the twins hair and not some stranger at a barber shop, the boys were always scared to get on that chair and let that par of dangerously sharp scissors move through their hair- afraid they light lose an ear or both. So to reassure them, Arthur always had to go first.
After he finished cutting Arthur’s hair the boys would get all excited, telling him “you look so cool!” and “I want it just like Arthur!” even if Francis only cut of a couple of split ends. So Francis would put on these little capes, to make sure they weren’t covered in hair, and put them on high stools right next to each other. He always left Matthews hair a little longer than Alfred’s. Despite being twins they had completely different hair types. Matthew had wavy hair whereas Alfred’s hair was completely straight. As soon as Francis was done cutting their hair they would jump off again to check it out in the mirror yelling “cool!”, even though nothing much changed, leaving Francis to clean the mess. He was usually the only one not getting his hair cut at the same time as the others. He maintained it himself whenever it was necessary and never really needed an entire cut.
He remembered Matthew walking up to him later that night, tugging at his sleeve, asking him why he didn’t want to get a cut too and be cool like them. Francis ruffled his hair and answered with a simple “don’t you think papa looks cool already?”. Alfred usually laughed at that and Arthur would let out a snort while Matthew simply frowned. It had been pretty that day, so both him and Arthur put the boys to bed early before heading off themselves. They weren’t being dragged out of their bed that evening or heard either of them fight or whine so they both fell asleep pretty easily. Little did they know, the two of them were planning on surprising Francis with a little ‘thank you’ for always cutting their hair. They were going to make Francis look as ‘cool’ as he had them and give him a surprise haircut. “We need to get Francis’ scissors” Alfred said excited. To which Matthew replied, being the goody two shoes that he was “but Al, we’re not allowed to use the big scissors”. Alfred usually got what he wanted either way while Matthew just waddled along after him.
Both Francis and Arthur had, instead of sleep, been a little ‘distracted’ by each other the moment they went to bed and got themselves even more tired than they already been. They were fast asleep when the twins came into their bedroom, big scissors in their hands. “Are you sure this is gonna work? Can you even cut hair Al?” Matthew whispered, hiding behind his brother. Alfred held out the big scissors in front of him, a determent look upon his face. He whispered softly “Sure Matt! It’s not that hard. It’ll look awesome” in reply. Neither of the older nations woke up while Matthew held out the strands of hair and Alfred started cutting them. They were done in a little under 5 minutes and both left the room to head back to bed, happy and proud of their work. “I hope he likes it” Matthew smiled widely, crawling back under the covers. “He will look just as cool as us!” Alfred assured him, putting the scissors away and crawling back underneath his sheets
When morning came Francis was rudely awoken by a loud “What the—“ from the brit, followed with a muffled laughter. Of course Francis had no idea what was going on yet and rubbed his eyes, trying to slowly adjust to the light. The first thing he saw was Arthur just .. staring.. at him. His face full of shock, yet trying to cover his mouth the hide the fact that he was laughing. “What are you laughing about..” Francis grumbled, running a hand through his hair when he suddenly came to a stop. He was missing entire parts of his hair..
His eyes shot open immediately. Sitting up in bed as he felt around for his missing hair, hoping that it would miraculously return if he felt for it another time. He turned around to see strands of blond here all across his pillow. He had no idea how to respond to it, he couldn’t even bring himself to yell out the name of either one of the boys. Arthur, who had finally stopped laughing seeing how upset Francis really was by this, immediately went to fetch a hat to cover his hair. It didn’t work much for Francis immediately ducked into the bathroom to hide himself. Arthur, not really knowing how to respond either, just went downstairs to tend to the boys and make them breakfast. He wasn’t really for yelling at them either and by the looks of France, he wouldn’t have to be the one doing so- not today.
Francis took the hat off the moment he was in the bathroom to take in the damage. Nearly the entire length of his hair was gone and it came scary close to Alfred’s own short haircut. There wasn’t much he could do about it anymore and already dreaded the months it was going to take to grow his hair back to its regular length again. It was a good thing his hair grew pretty quickly or it might have actually taken him years. He looked around for his scissors to see they were missing. This was enough to say it was indeed the twins that had cut his hair and the proof was right there, on Alfred’s night stand, when he went to look for it. He picked up the scissors and walked back to the bathroom. If anything, he had to make it look at least remotely good before he would even consider downstairs.
Thinking back to Matthews question the day before he started to wonder if they did it because they wanted him to look cool just like they did. A fond smile grew upon his lips. They weren’t trying to make him look bad, they were trying hard to make him look good. Francis almost thought it would be cruel if he came downstairs now looking like the most awful thing imaginable had happened to him and blame these kids who were just trying to make him happy. So he put the scissors in his own hair and started cutting it, making it look as decent as he could manage.
His hair was still far from how he wanted it, almost feeling like he was looking into the eyes of a stranger in the mirror. It has been ages since the last time he could even remember having short hair. Even back when he was a child his hair had always been long. It was going to be an adjustment he was just going to have to accept. When he came downstairs he was met by another shocked expression on Arthur’s face and two bright smiles on the little boys’. “bonjour” he greeted them, sitting down at the table like nothing was going on at all. He smiled up at the twins sitting on his right who both seemed to be bouncing in their chairs with excitement.
It was clear the two of them were even prouder of their work the next day, even if they didn’t know Francis had to fix it before heading downstairs. Alfred and Matthew both gave each other a look before turning back to the Frenchman. “You hair is different papa” Matthew said, a while smile plastered to his tiny face. “Did you do that in your sleep?” Alfred snickered, far too obvious. Francis just laughed “I think two tiny monstres came into my room last night and cut my hair” the two of them faced each other again, frowning. “But I’m glad they did, it looks really good” he said through gritted teeth. He really wasn’t happy with it but the smiles on the two little faces was enough to make that better again. “As long as it doesn’t happen again petits”