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“Are you really sure you wanna touch it up?” Philip asks as they step into Helen and Gabe’s home. His foster parents are in the kitchen, curiously peeking towards the front door. He was only ten minutes later than he normally got home from school. In any case, he can blame Lukas for making them late.
The blond mop had insisted he bleach out the dark roots starting to grow in, making a pit stop at the town Walgreens to get supplies.
“Yeah,” Lukas starts, hanging his jacket up by the entrance. “Plus, you said you used to do your mom’s hair. You gotta have some experience.”
“I have some,” Philip sighs. "I like how your hair is now, though.."
“Hi, Lukas,” comes Helen’s voice as she approaches from the other room. “I thought you were just driving Philip home today.”
“Sheriff Torrance,” Lukas says, ducking his head a bit. Philip can tell his boyfriend’s still a little afraid of her. “Sorry for not asking before, um.. but Philip said he’d help me with my hair, and..”
Helen lets a smile show, and pats Lukas on his bicep. Philip just knows Helen is loving hazing him into the family.
“You know I don’t care if you come over,” she says through a small laugh. “Just be careful, please? Don’t get bleach all over that bathroom.”
Lukas’ expression changes quickly, and his teeth peek out ever so slightly as he grins. He then turns to Philip, gesturing with his head to the stairs. The two make a beeline, Lukas holding the drugstore bag in one hand, clutching Philip’s in the other as he nearly drags him upstairs.
“No funny business!” Helen calls to them as she leans over the bannister. “I’m gonna come up and see how it goes in a bit. So keep that door open, boys!”
When they finally get to Philip’s room upstairs, Lukas chucks the plastic bag onto his bed, and turns to face him again. Philip leaves the door ajar, distracted enough to the point where he gasps when Lukas starts to back him up against the wall beside it. His hands are warm, languid over the front of Philip’s shirt, grabbing and bunching up the fabric.
“You heard what Helen said,” Philip says through a giggle. He’s starting to become aware that he’ll only ever act like this around his boyfriend. He feels like a schoolgirl with a big, fat crush. Butterflies in his stomach every time.
“I don’t fucking care,” Lukas whines, and he ducks down to bring his lips to Philip’s. His hands are like snakes, winding around his waist, then cupping his ass, trying to get into his pants. Lukas is obsessed with his ass.
“Hair first!” Philip argues after interrupting the kiss, pushing him away ever so slightly by his chest.
Lukas ducks his head and hits it against Philip’s chest. But, he turns on heel and starts to head to the bathroom. Philip follows with a bubbling laugh, grabbing the bag from his bed before unpacking everything on the sink counter.
“I usually get this done at the salon, go into the city..,” Lukas trails off as he takes a seat on the closed-lid toilet, and Philip starts to pop open the box of bleach.
“Okay, so why am I doing this?” He asks, glaring down at Lukas all confused.
“Because we’re in a relationship so we do things together?”
Philip squints in mock anger.
“So you went to a salon, and didn’t get Rose to do it?”
“Stop picking out the details!” Lukas grins. He pokes at a bit of skin showing under Philip’s tee shirt, making the boy yelp. “I’m gay, does that matter anymore?”
Philip hums, then reaches out a hand to run through Lukas’ platinum hair. He shuts his eyes, letting Philip push his hair out of his face. He looks serene, like he’s never been this comfortable around anyone in his life. And Philip thinks that maybe, that’s true. Trauma bonding was a dangerous thing. It wasn’t like they chose to witness a triple homicide. But somehow, he walked out of a severely shitty situation with an angelic, popular, jock boyfriend that feels the exact same way about him. Philip wins.
Philip continues combing through his locks, fingers nimbly separating knots as he leans down to press a kiss on Lukas’ exposed forehead.
“My stomach hurts,” Philip says, barely under his breath, and Lukas whines. Lukas knows what he means. It’s their way of saying those three words, without saying them explicitly. They’ve never said it to eachother, not out loud, not over text. At the very least, not yet.
“Don’t do that right now. You already said hair first. Now you’re teasing? Don’t be a dick, Shea,” Lukas grabs Philip’s hand from his hair, bringing it to his mouth and biting lightly.
“Ow. You’re the dick.”
“Shut up and do my hair.”
So, Philip puts on the gloves in the package, mixes up the developer with the powder and starts to apply it to Lukas’ roots methodically. He separates it into parts, applying chunky blue-tinted bleach to each side and moving onto the next. Halfway through, Philip flicks on the bathroom fan to suck out the eye-watering smell. They don’t talk, because Philip’s so focused, and it’s just their slow and soft breathing sounding in the room. Lukas is pliant under his hands, moving like putty whenever Philip has to tilt his head one way or the other. Lukas’ hands find their way to his waist eventually, thumbs rubbing circles into his skin under his tee.
It’s so intimate that Philip’s stomach ache hurts worse. It does flips every time Lukas’ eyelashes bat, looking up at him all expectantly, and he’s at that level, right at his crotch, so Philip bends down to kiss him. Just to satiate any urges.
“Done,” Philip says after ten or so minutes.
Groggily, Lukas nods.
“How long does it say to leave it in for?”
“You’re supposed to be the expert at this,” Philip retorts. He grabs his phone, opening the camera app from his lockscreen (very appropriately a picture of Lukas snoring on his chest, drool darkening Philip’s grey tee) and snapping a few pics of Lukas with his roots covered in bleach. The boy scowls.
“Read the goddamn package!” Lukas laughs, reaching out and tugging on the belt loop at the back of his jeans. Philip stumbles backwards, landing in his lap, as if Lukas had planned it. The brunet scowls, but grabs the box from the counter and reads the back.
“Leave on for 20 minutes,” Philip reads, as Lukas’ hands sit on his waist again. “How do you wanna fill the time?”
Philip shifts in his lap, as if making some sort of suggestion, and Lukas shuts his eyes tight. His tongue darts out to wet his lips, just as Philip captures Lukas’ mouth in his. He lets out a soft, wanton mewl, hands gripping tighter on Philip’s waist.
There’s a knock at the door. Philip shoots up, and Lukas gasps as he tries to regain his breath. Shit, they’d both forgotten what Helen had said. Philip’s cheeks are flushed, and there’s a slight tent in his jeans, but he sits down on the edge of the bathtub and covers it with his hands casually in his lap.
“Boys, how's it going?” Her voice calls, peeking into his room.
“In here, Helen,” Philip calls back, and she then leans on the doorframe of his bathroom.
“Wow, Lukas,” she grins. “It’s certainly a look.”
Lukas clears his throat all awkwardly and grins.
“Yeah, for now,” He says, glancing at Philip.
“It’ll look better once it’s washed out,” Philip supplies.
“Well,” Helen says, “I just came to check in. What do you want for dinner, boys? Gabe said he’d make something, or we can order in.”
“I’m allowed to stay for dinner?”
“Your dad called, asking if you were here. He said you can stay over since it’s Friday,” Helen explained, before playfully nudging Lukas’ shoulder. “Plus, you’re like family now. So don’t worry about it.”
“T-Thank you, Sheriff Torrance.”
“You’re sitting in my house with bleach in your hair,” she jokes. “Call me Helen.”
“Chinese takeout, maybe? I know Lukas would want the broccoli.” He hooks his foot over his boyfriend’s.
Philip smiles warmly to her as she looks to him, before giving a thumbs up, turning and leaving. She actually shuts the door behind her, as Philip gets up to watch her leave.
“Holy shit, she closed the door,” Philip breathes, looking down to Lukas. “Do you think she, like, realized she did that?”
“Who the fuck cares why she did it!” Lukas whispers, standing up. “We’ve got some privacy, baby.”
Philip’s lips start to curl into a mischievous grin.
“Hair first,” he reminds him.
Lukas just groans, flopping back to sit on the toilet lid once again.
Philip takes Lukas’ brief moment of disappointment to connect his phone to the speaker in his bedroom, turning up the volume as light R&B plays.
“I love SZA,” Lukas says softly.
“I know you do,” Philip replies, with a light exhale. “It’s our playlist, dummy.”
The time passes eventually, Philip’s phone ringing an alarm to signify Lukas could wash his hair. He lets Lukas take over the bathroom, reveling in a brief moment of singularity and reprieve. Philip lies on his stomach, feet slightly moving with the beat of the songs, humming along as he takes to Instagram with the picture of Lukas from earlier. He posts it to his story, doodling whiskers and cat ears with the pen tool, and tagging Lukas in it.
Lukas is drying his hair, and then the door to the bathroom opens. Philip angles his neck to gaze back, watching as the boy steps out in his boxers. His roots are now the same shade of blond as the rest of the hair, but still a little yellow. He’ll have to go at it with a toner once he gets back home.
“Um,” Philip supplies, feeling his throat go dry at the sight. “Hair looks good.”
Lukas’ cheeks grow pink, as he looks to the floor as he grins and makes his way to Philip’s dresser drawers. He picks out one of his boyfriend’s sweaters, and a pair of flannel pants, then flops on his back next to Philip once he’s dressed.
“Hey, where’s my phone?” Lukas asks.
“Uh,” Philip sits up, looking around before he spots Lukas’ phone on the floor next to his backpack. He leans down, grabbing it before passing it to him. Philip takes the opportunity to snuggle up against Lukas’ side, his arm protectively winding around Philip’s shoulders like it was second nature.
Lukas clicks on his phone (of course, his lockscreen being Philip, too) and scrolls through his notifications.
“Philip tagged you in a story,” he reads with a grin, then clicking on the pop up. “Oh, man! What is this!”
Philip hides his face in Lukas’ neck. He’s stifling a laugh.
“Dude, why am I a cat? You’re so weird,” Lukas says with a snort. But he hits the heart in the bottom right to like the story anyways. It was cuter when Philip didn’t have the whole school following him but now once they told everyone, his follower count began to skyrocket. He knew it was just because of Lukas, unfortunately, but a lot of people like his photography now. It’s a little odd being popular by association, Philip thinks.
Lukas huffs and shuts off his phone, letting it sit screen-down on his chest. His hand runs up and down Philip’s arm, soothing him softly as Philip lets his eyes close.
“Dinner’ll be here soon,” Lukas says, but Philip just hums. “You don’t want to make Gabe wait. He hates it when we’re late to the table.”
“I wanna lay here a bit,” Philip says after a moment. “Just be here with you.”