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Kuon walked into the Team Z common room, where a couple of couches, tables, and chairs were set up for the members to relax in during their free time. His head was down while roughly tousling his wet hair with one of the Blue Lock standard towels.
He was humming a tune to himself happily, from a song that Gagamura had introduced to him from one of his favourite bands. Kuon and him had strangely formed a bond after learning of their shared music tastes, and Kuon actually enjoyed the quieter moments he shared with him.
A streak of pink peeking out from a gap in his own hair brought him out of his thoughts, looking up to investigate the sudden burst of colour. It really shouldn’t have been as much of a surprise as it was when Kuon was presented with Chigiri. He was just sitting on one of the grey couches, legs up on the couch, cross-legged with a book in his lap. Based on the hairdryer off to the side, Chigiri had just finished drying his hair off before Kuon came in. Or, Chigiri had finished ages ago and had just neglected to put it away. Either seemed plausible, really. He could sometimes be a bit of a slob. What didn’t escape Kuon’s notice was the loose strands of hair that Chigiri often preferred to put into a half-up half-down situation.
Chigiri was looking over at Kuon, likely alerted by the psssshhhh of the automatic door. For a while, no one said anything. Kuon didn’t break the silence, wanting to let Chigiri set the tone of the conversation (if he allowed any at all; the kid wasn’t much of a talker).
But eventually, Chigiri decides to speak up;
“What do you want?”
Kuon can’t help but have his lips quirk into a small smile, a chuckle abruptly escaping his lips in an ugly-sort of laugh. “Nothing. The others are still out practicing, but I wanted to hit the showers before it gets all crowded, y’know?”
Chigiri hummed and nodded slightly in acknowledgment, going back to his book. Kuon was feeling talkative so he took Chigiri’s not outright refusal of conversation as an invitation for him to sit down next to him. Chigiri side eyed him with a blank look when he felt the dip of Kuon taking a seat, but didn’t say anything. Another win, Kuon thought. He was on a roll.
“What is it you’re reading?”
There was a long, awkward silence with just Kuon’s words sitting in the air and he was about to give up and maybe try a different conversation starter before Chigiri quietly shut the book and looked at Kuon, finally giving him his attention. “Dead guy literature. It's depressing.”
Kuon couldn’t help but snort at the blunt description and be thankful that the guy was even talking to him at all. He’d take this chance and run with it. “Poor guy is dead, of course he’s sad about it.”
Chigiri quietly scoffed at the poor joke, but Kuon could swear there was a faint smile on his lips. Or maybe he was just finally going crazy after being locked in a facility with only ten other boys. There was a quick lapse of silence, but Kuon was feeling more confident after the positive, albeit brief, interaction.
“Why aren’t you out practicing, actually? It's good to practice at least a little bit everyday, you know.”
Based on the way Chigiri’s shoulders grew tenser than normal and he tore his eyes back down to the book on his lap, obviously he said the wrong thing. Kuon cringed and his smile strained. Damn. He was doing so well, too. He didn’t think he’d ever heard Chigiri talk so much throughout the entire time he’d been there. Of course, they weren’t actually there for too long, but still. Quiet guy.
“Eh- Did you just finish doing your hair?” Kuon redirected instead, gesturing at the hairdryer next to him.
“Obviously. You did too.” That brought Chigiri back into words and he mimicked Kuon’s gesture by waving at the towel resting on his head. Kuon laughed, hoping to bring a sort of casual vibe to the conversation that would make Chigiri come out of his shell a bit. Or something. He really didn’t know what he was doing. All he knew was that he was gifted a golden opportunity to figure out what the deal was with Team Z’s resident mystery.
“Haha, yep! Though I bet mine doesn’t take as long as yours. Dry it off, put it up out of my face, bam, I’m all done.”
Chigiri just nodded and Kuon watched as his shoulders relaxed (a strong word, he was still strung up, but not as much) back down. “I guess sometimes. My hair has more layers, but I’m betting that you don’t do yours properly anyway.”
He couldn’t contain his smile growing wider the more Chigiri talked, and Kuon tilted his head to the side in a visual show of engagement as he latched onto the crumb of information. “Do you know a lot about hair care? It would make sense, what with how healthy and long yours is. I’ll admit that I’m not an expert, but I promise I’m not clueless either.”
“Mmm. Sure you aren’t,” Chigiri hummed at Kuon, seemingly disinterested. Kuon, however, was slightly taken aback. It wasn’t unusual for Chigiri to hit back with blunt and conversation-stopping answers, but to be so blatantly sassy? He wondered if this was what Chigiri was like in his everyday life, outside of Blue Lock. Kuon didn’t mind it, of course. He’d managed to get along with far less savoury personalities than Chigiri.
“If you don’t believe me, I could do your hair up for you. I noticed that you didn’t get around to finishing it. Would you mind?” Kuon wasn’t sure if that type of offer would make Chigiri close up like the practice one, but if it was, Kuon was already considering different ways he could potentially recover from the blunder.
And again, for a while, Chigiri stayed quiet. Kuon noted that he did that a lot. So, he waited. And that paid off when Chigiri huffed, barely noticeable, and shuffled around on the coach until his back was turned to Kuon.
Kuon’s brain stuttered, eyes a little wide and mouth open in an ‘o’ as he processed. Apparently, he was taking too long because Chigiri turned his head around to raise an eyebrow, unimpressed, at Kuon. “Well? What's taking you so long? Get on with it.”
Again, Kuon was hit by the new, demanding nature of Chigiri. He could roll with it. Kuon laughed and scooched closer to Chigiri until he could comfortably reach him. “My bad, my bad. I’ll hurry up.”
Gently, Kuon grabbed a thick section of hair. It took only a few seconds for him to frown and remember there wasn’t really a brush around here. Chigiri came to that conclusion too, if the brush he materialized and handed over his shoulder was any indication. “Had it with me. Be gentle.”
Kuon nodded even though Chigiri couldn’t see and got to work. He knew to start at the ends if someone had long hair so he started there. Gently stroking through the very bottom ends, he quickly noted that there was nothing tangled there. If he remembered correctly, he wasn’t supposed to just tug his way through it if he found a knot. That made sense. At least Kuon was pretty sure Chigiri would tell him off if he did anything wrong. Apparently the quiet and passive character he pictured wasn’t accurate. At all.
Chigiri’s posture stayed straight and perfect throughout the entire he’d been sitting, Kuon thought. Really weird for a teenage boy, even Kuon himself who was scolded for slumping by his mother. He got a little lost in thought when Chigiri shook his shoulders to startle him out of the daze.
“Hey. You’ve been brushing at the part for like, five minutes. I thought you said you weren’t clueless?”
Kuon chuckled and smiled, very quickly getting used to Chigiri’s personality. “Sorry about that, just got lost in my thoughts. There aren’t very many tangles. You must take good care of your hair,” He commented as he moved onto the middle of Chigiri’s back, watching the brush slowly flow through the strands of hair.
“I guess. It feels gross if I don’t,” Chigiri shrugged off.
Kuon hummed in acknowledgement and moved closer up to the base of Chigiri’s neck. There he found a tangle, and he ended up tugging on it with the brush. He felt Chigiri flinch and he cringed, already apologizing before he fully thought about doing it. “Ah, I’m sorry. Are you okay? I’m trying to be gentle, I promise.”
Chigiri huffed again and began to shake his head, but probably thought better of it with Kuon having the brush stuck in his hair. “I’m fine. You tugged a little, it's not a big deal.”
“Ah, well, I’ll be more careful from now on anyways,” Kuon lightly said. Frankly he was just relieved that Chigiri didn’t revoke his hair brushing rights after that. Because apparently he was a prickly guy.
Instead of continuing on with the brush, Kuon remembered how his mother would put her hands in her hair to comb through it with her fingers. He set it aside on the couch for now and began to very lightly pull on the strands of hair to get them to come apart. It was instantly working more successfully and he silently gave himself a pat on the back.
For a while, time ticked on with silence. Chigiri seemed to enjoy the quietness of it, but Kuon couldn’t help being naturally inclined to some kind of noise reverberating around him. He decided a soft humming would be good. Not too noisy to bother Chigiri, but enough noise to fill in the void of silence that Kuon so detested.
After a while, Kuon was able to carefully work his way up to the scalp and he was now basically just dragging the brush through Chigiri’s hair for the heck of it. No tangles left in sight, though there really weren’t many to begin with. He really did take good care of his hair. But, he didn’t mind sitting there for a while and having Chigiri get used to presence. At some point, the pink-haired boy took out his book again and angled his head down to read better. It made it a bit more difficult to brush but its not like Kuon minded, so he wouldn’t mention it.
Despite the soft atmosphere, Kuon couldn’t help but be nagged by a couple things. A couple soccer-related things, that is. He was fighting in his head on whether it would be a smart idea to bring it up. On one hand, Chigiri wasn’t a fan earlier and he bet it wouldn’t have changed that by now. On the other, Kuon suspected he scored himself a positive impression, so maybe he’d be more lenient and open with him. A risky move it would be, to potentially damage the new growing friendship he was developing. But what was Kuon if not a man who strived to be the best?
“Chigiri, I’ve been curious; is there a reason you only play in the defensive position? We could work you in as a striker, I’m sure the rest of Team Z wouldn’t mind. And if they did, they’ve all got their turns anyway.”
As expected, Chigiri hunched his shoulders and lowered his head more, hiding his face from Kuon’s view. “It's none of your business, okay?” Chigiri snapped, his voice unusually agitated instead of the disinterested sarcasm he was getting used to. But he didn’t move away. So Kuon kept combing his fingers and moving the brush through his hair calmly, hoping the motion was soothing for Chigiri.
“You’re right, it is none of my business,” Kuon said placatingly. “But just consider it, okay? I know I don’t know you well and I don’t claim to, but I don’t think you’re the type of person to just sit around in the shadows and let everyone else shine. Am I right?”
Chigiri stayed stiff in silence for a couple more moments before his shoulders slumped down, the most imperfect posture he’d seen from him yet. It also allowed Kuon to peek over and see his expression. Chigiri was biting down on his lip, gnawing on it as his eyes glared a hole into his book. Kuon couldn’t tell if it was the lighting or not, but there was a glossy shine cast over his eyes.
“Chigiri, I-”
“Shut up for a second, okay!?”
Kuon’s mouth snapped shut, his teeth clinking together abruptly. The shout echoed through the room, easily the loudest he’d heard Chigiri before. He was blunt, sassy, and downright ride at points, but he was also quiet about it, never raising his voice above a soft speaking voice. Kuon was compelled to listen and let Chigiri gather his thoughts, watching his shoulders rise up and down with his breaths.
He’d been through a lot of different silences through this encounter with Chigiri. Awkward, slightly tense, peaceful, but this time it was practically suffocating for Kuon. He only had to bear with it a little longer, he told himself. Chigiri huffed again, more aggressive and snappish than the last two, and shook his head slightly, hair flying around. He whipped his head around to meet Kuon’s eyes over his shoulder, lips pressed together and eyebrows furrowed.
“You don’t know shit about me, got it?” Chigiri said firmly, less as a question and more of an order.
Kuon raised his hands up in the air, meeting Chigiri’s eyes with his wide, mostly calm but also admittedly a little surprised, eyes. “Got it.”
“And you have no business prying into my life like this?”
Well, Kuon didn’t think he was prying , but he nodded anyway.
It seemed to calm Chigiri because his face lost the determined and aggressive edge to it, nodding before going on further, “Good. Never even suggest that you do. But… I don’t like being overshadowed,” Chigiri indirectly admitted to Kuon’s point. He had to school his face away from a grin, not wanting to set Chigiri off any further. Instead, another, this time more frantic nod.
“Of course. We’re all at Blue Lock, aren’t we? Just a whole batch of egoists.” He hoped a light-hearted comment would bring down Chigiri’s ‘passion’, and it seemed to do the trick. An uncaringly attitude consistently settled him, Kuon would have to remember that.
“Obviously,” Chigiri said with a dramatic roll of his eyes as he returned to his back facing Kuon. Cautiously, Kuon picked up the brush and began stroking it down from root to ends, given more confidence when Chigiri didn’t scold him.
“Look,” Chigiri started again now that they weren’t facing each other, “as long as you never bring this up again, I’ll think about it. Kay?”
Kuon lit up and excitedly began, “Got it-!” But cut himself off to clear his throat, not wanting to sound too excited, “Uh, I mean. Got it. Capiche.”
Chigiri snorted and leaned back briefly to remind Kuon of his previous job. “Whatever. You said you were going to do my hair. That includes more than just brushing it.”
He paused, a comedic ‘eh?’ escaping him as Chigiri passed on the new objective. Kuon wasn’t prepared to do any sort of styling ! When he said he wasn’t clueless, Kuon only meant in regards to brushing, he seriously had no clue how to do any of the fancy stuff he saw his aunts whip out for formal events. He remembered swearing it was magic just a few years ago, and to be honest, he was still totally clueless on the logistics of it all.
“Sorry what? I thought I’d just be brushing! Chigiri, please, mercy, I have no idea what I’m doing here!”
Kuon was brought out of his despair when he saw Chigiri’s shoulders shaking lightly. There was a brief period where he was worried that he somehow made the guy cry, but Kuon glowed when he connected that it was more likely to be laughter . He didn’t hear it, but he could damn well see it. God, Kuon was doing so well today.
When he spoke Chigiri’s voice had a notable lift to it. “Relax man, you’ll be fine. I’ll walk you through it. Section my hair into three parts to start with.”
Kuon diligently did as he was asked, squinting hard to make sure each one of them was even. Once he felt it was good enough, he hesitantly said, “Alright, done. What do I do now?”
“Grab all three sections and start by putting the right section over the middle, then the left, then keep repeating.”
He lagged a bit at the first instruction. “Grab… All three?”
Kuon fumbled around for a bit with the hair, dropping it and trying in vain to figure out what he was even supposed to be doing before Chigiri spared him from the shame and grabbed the left section to pull over his shoulder, announcing, “Watch me.”
Astonishingly quickly, Chigiri put that section Kuon made into three more and demonstrated how they were all meant to be held at once. Two in the right, different fingers finagled together to make it work, and the left just holding one. Confusing and difficult to maneuver, but alright. Left strand over middle, easy, but then Chigiri did some sort of sorcery as his hands worked quickly to… tug the middle strand into his left hand and pull it over again to overlap the middle strand. Luckily it only seemed to repeat after that, but Kuon seriously couldn't wrap his head around that. He would just do his best, he resolved.
Chigiri glanced up at Kuon while undoing his mini braid, checking in. “Get it all?”
“Uh… Yeah, sure.” Kuon would just improvise, it couldn’t be too difficult in reality.
He raised a skeptical eyebrow at Kuon, but let it be as he turned back around and waited for Kuon to get started. Kuon started off by staring at the three sections like they killed his dog. He worked up the nerve and eventually took the strands in his hands and slowly began threading the hair together in a poor imitation of Chigiri’s neat, no strands left behind, braid that he did himself.
Biting his lip in concentration, it only took a couple slips and a long fifteen minutes for Kuon to reach the end of the braid and for Chigiri to hand over a couple of hair ties he had on him. With satisfaction, Kuon let go of the braid and admired his handiwork. It was messy, for sure, with lots of loose strands sticking out, specifically missing locks around Chigiri’s face, but it worked for his first attempt.
“So? How did I do?”
Chigiri grabbed the braid and flung it over his shoulder, inspecting it and running his fingers over the braid. Kuon watched with nothing short of absolute glee as Chigiri slowly began smiling. It was a pretty small one, but it was undeniably there. Slightly crooked into a more smirk-like than a smile, all sharp lines and nothing soft about it.
Kuon just couldn’t suppress his own smile, far more of a grin than Chigiri’s. He glanced up from his brand new braid and raised an eyebrow. A consistent habit, it seemed. Either way, Kuon just grinned brighter. “Oh it's nothing. It's just the first time I’ve seen you smile.”
He caught on and slipped the smirk off his face and dramatically flipped his braid back over his shoulder. “Whatever. Don’t get used to it. This thing barely counts as a braid, by the way. Oversold your abilities back in the beginning.”
Kuon groaned lightheartedly and hid his face in his hands. “I did my best! I’ll get better at it eventually.”
“Eventually? What, planning on holding me hostage to practice hair styling?” Chigiri did some weird stretches with his right leg before he stood up, taking the brush and his book with him.
“If you’ll let me, of course. Developing friendships is good for teamwork and morale.”
Chigiri huffed (Fourth? Fifth time?), blowing loose strands away from his face. “If I feel like,” is what Chigiri left him with as he walked away. Kuon barely had time to wave before Chigiri was stepping out of the room with the hissing of the automatic doors. With Chigiri gone, Kuon awarded himself a fist pump for all of his efforts. Out of everyone on Team Z, there was not a single person that could get that many words out of Chigiri, let alone a full conversation like Kuon somehow accomplished.
He relaxed onto the couch, sighing in contentment as he practically melted into the fabric. Long day of bonding with the quietest member of their ragtag striker squad. Kuon let his eyes droop shut, a smile easily rested on his face as he planned and planned for ways to help integrate Chigiri well into the team.