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The room was silent but not in any particularly unsettling manner. Rather it was silent in the content sort of way that’s filled to the brim with the sound of fans buzzing, gentle humming, and scattered hrumphs of frustration. Karen lay down on their shared bed flipping absentmindedly through a magazine occasionally stopping to mark pages she thought Sandy would like. Perched on the end of the bed Plankton was methodically unbraiding his hair, grunting in frustration when a hair tie would find itself tangled.
“Karen, baby?” he mumbled, his voice slightly muffled by the hair tie in his mouth.
Karen only hummed in acknowledgement flipping to the next page and dog earring its corner.
“Would you pass me the hair brush?” he asked, his voice clearer now that he’d placed the hair tie around his wrist.
Karen nodded, rolling over to the edge of the bed and standing up with a yawn and stretch before venturing into the joint bathroom and grabbing the desired item. When she’d returned he was still methodically braiding and unbraiding sections of his hair before glancing up in her direction as she re-entered the room.
“You need to clean this thing out sometime, you could build yourself a wig with the amount of hair build up”
Plankton snatched the brush out of her hand, rolling his eye in disgruntlement.
“Get off my back woman, I've got far better things to do with my life….”
He paused
“Thank you”
He leaned up to press a quick kiss on her cheek before going back to his original task but not without secretively picking out the hair from the bristles.
Karen smiled and flopped down next to him.
“Are you planning on coming to bed anytime soon?” she inquired more so out of desire for conversation rather than any real want for an answer.
He nodded, standing up as if on cue and humming in response
“Once I’m done washing the gel out of my hair then yes”
Karen nodded
“I’ll be here”
“Where else would you be?”
“Shut up and wash your hair.”
He snickered and disappeared behind the turn, the sound of running water following shortly. Karen huffed, knowing Sheldon it was going to be a 50% chance he’d actually take a quick shower and a 50% chance he’d spend 30 minutes racking up the water bill and scalding his skin with the hottest water known to man. She was willing to take her chances on the latter.
She’d already settled herself into bed and was starting to doze off when he emerged from the bathroom, skin red from his clearly flagrant abuse of the water bill.
Karen yawned turning over so that she could look at him
“Did you remember to dry your hair?” she asked, staring at him through lidded eyes. He groaned, drooping down next to her on the bed and burying his face in her side. She sighed, taking that as a no and tried to push him away.
“Sheldon, you're going to get the pillow wet!”
He rolled onto his back looking up at her with the eyes of an elderly stray cat that had very recently been kicked in the ribs.
“You’re a cruel cruel woman, Karen…”
“And you’re going to grow mold on our pillow cases if you don’t dry your wet ass hair, so I ask again, go dry yourself off.”
He whined rolling back over and burying his face in her side again.
“I’m tiredddd please just let me go to sleep.”
Karen dragged a hand down her face staring down at him with a mix of exhaustion and endearment.
“God, you are such a child.”
He stuck his head up to stick his tongue out causing her to smack him over the head.
“Oww” he whined “but you’ll let me stay?”
She paused momentarily before nodding
“Don’t make a habit of it.”
Grinning with far too much glee he pressed himself further up against her, toying with her hair with gentle calloused hands.
“You straightened it today” he said more as a statement than a question.
She nodded, rolling over to give him more room to fidget.
“Wasn’t in the mood to try and deal with it today”
She couldn’t see his face but she could hear the slight pout in his voice as he retorted with
“Your hair looks pretty naturally though..”
She scoffed
“I know, I just didn’t want to deal with it”
He nodded, taking that as his cue to shut up.
“I like it like this too”
“I know sheldon”
She could sense the small smile on his face.
It was a few minutes before the gentle braiding of her hair came to a stop and she felt his hands fall away. Karen smiled to herself
“I love you” she whispered, leaning over to turn off the lamp.
And then.
Barely audible but very clearly there a “love you too” was mumbled back.