Work Text:
“Can I ask you for a favor?”
They had been sitting in silence, Aaron staring off into the distance while Alex attempted to tidy his room. Key word: attempted. He had hoped that having Aaron here would have inspired—or perhaps, embarrassed—him enough to clean some of the nonsense off his floor, but Alex had never enjoyed doing laundry, and it seemed more and more likely with each passing day that he never would. Instead, he’d gotten distracted going through some of the miscellaneous knick-knacks and forgotten spell components and half-finished sculptures hidden on his shelves, but to call it tidying would have been generous.
He put down the half-finished wooden choir of birds he’d started whittling ages ago, glancing over his shoulder at his brother. He was sitting on the end of Alex’s bed, knees pulled up to his chest, feet half on the edge of the blankets.
Alex almost thought about responding with some passive-aggressive quip, but he wasn’t feeling particularly mischievous lately. The complete and utter destruction of Quill was still a fresh wound. (Really, he should have been working on the new housing instead of doing whatever he was currently, but his brain felt like it was going to explode if he thought about it any more.) He figured that probably wouldn’t have helped Aaron feel much better about the situation—it probably wouldn’t have helped Alex himself, either.
So he replied, “Sure. Shoot.”
“Could you, uh...cut my hair?”
Alex stared at him a little blankly, taken aback by the simplicity of the request. He figured it would’ve been something to do with Quill, or giving Aaron permission to use certain spell components. Not something so...mundane.
It was still weird, having Aaron around for the mundane things.
Alex opened his mouth to respond, but Aaron kept talking before he could start. “It’s just getting a little long, and going back to Quill with it this long just felt...strange. Also, I don’t want it to get as long as yours—I mean, it won’t for a long time—so no one mixes us up again, you know? I don’t want to worry you with that, and I don’t want to pretend to be you again, either. I almost asked Ishibashi or Ito or Sato to do it, but...I didn’t want them to think I was...” He struggled for the words for a minute, raising his hand and waving it a little bit as he did. After a few seconds, he sighed in frustration and wrapped his hands around his knees. “I know you never liked it when Mother did it...and then in the university, they just gathered us all up every now and then to have it done...and in the palace, Secretary did it for me until...you know. And then Liam did it, once, but his hands shook so bad the entire time that I figured he’d cut me, and... I think that was the last time I had it done. And you cut Kaylee’s on the boat, so I figured...” He trailed off.
Once he was quite sure that Aaron was done, Alex said, “Of course I can cut it, Aaron. I don’t mind.”
He wandered into his bathroom, opening various cabinets until he finally found where he’d left his scissors. He had been cutting Henry’s hair pretty regularly for a while now, but keeping things in a consistent place was, admittedly, not Alex’s strongest skill.
“Do you wanna come in here to do it?” Alex called. “I don’t want your hair all over my bed, scratching at me while I sleep.”
Aaron tentatively got up and wandered in after Alex, who pulled out the little stool he kept under the sink for the days when he really couldn’t get himself to stand on two feet. “I was going to try doing it myself, but, um...” He glanced in Alex’s mirror, then looked away. “Still not really used to mirrors.”
“That’s okay,” Alex said, patting him on the shoulder. He almost asked Aaron if he wanted to wash his hair first, before realizing that he never did, before cutting it back in Quill, and probably would’ve found the offer strange. Best to do it dry, then—it would be more accurate to its everyday length if he did, anyways.
“Quill style?”
“Yeah,” Aaron said softly.
Alex got to work.
It wasn’t as strange as Alex had expected it to be. Aaron had always been better at sitting still than he had, and didn’t flinch at all as the ends of his curls dropped to the floor.
It only took a few minutes before he had finished, Aaron’s hair back to its normal length, only slightly curled under Alex’s fingers as he fluffed it, getting the last little pieces to fall out onto Aaron’s shoulders. He brushed them away lightly, then stepped back to survey his work.
“What do you think? Did I do as good a job as Mother always did?”
Aaron raised a hand, running his fingers through his hair a few times, before nodding in satisfaction. “This will suffice.” Sheepishly, he added, “Thank you, Alex. Really.”
“It’s not a problem. I don’t mind doing it every now and then, when you need it done, you know.”
“Sure,” Aaron whispered. “That would... That would be wonderful. Thank you.”
Still weird to hear him saying “thank you,” Alex thought, but after one too many scoldings from Sky, he knew better than to voice it. He stood Aaron up and took another careful look at his own work, making sure it was even on both sides, making sure it fell properly...
And it was still uncanny, the way Aaron looked at him. Sure, his expression was a little softer than it used to be, and the new scars on his forehead were still glaringly obvious, and his clothing had slight colors and patterns to it... But underneath all that, he still looked like the same old Aaron that Alex had grown up with. His shirt was buttoned all the way to the collar, his sleeves were rolled up, his hair was short...
“Stay here for a second, would you?” Alex stepped out of the bathroom, almost hitting the light switch out of habit before he caught himself. He moved back over to his shelves, rummaging through a little collection of jewelry, earrings and bracelets and necklaces. He wore one necklace all the time—Meghan’s treble clef—and typically a pair of earrings he’d forget to switch out for weeks at a time, but he’d collected quite a large stash in the years he’d been living here.
Aaron, despite being an avid rule follower, had not listened to Alex. He’d clearly been peeking over Alex’s shoulder, because he asked, “What are you doing?”
“I figure you deserve some kind of necklace or something. A gift, from me to you. Unless you want to pierce your ears or something.”
Aaron grimaced at the latter suggestion. “A necklace... Why?”
“You deserve nice things?”
“Hmmm.”
Alex sighed, then admitted, “You still look like you’re fresh out of Quill. I know you’re not some fancy fashionista or anything—neither am I, but yeesh, you could at least use some proper color in your outfits—don’t frown at me like that, you know it’s true—so I figured, maybe a necklace would be nice.” Alex shoved his hand under the neckline of the robe, feeling around for the little chain, then pulling out his own necklace to demonstrate to Aaron what he meant. “Like this.”
“...Okay. Sure.”
“If you see one you like, let me know.” He didn’t expect Aaron to pick one, but he laid out a few all the same, trying to separate out ones that hadn’t been made specifically for him.
To his surprise, Aaron’s hand shot out, pointing at one as Alex inspected it. “What’s this one?”
At the end of a silver chain was a small silver albatross, held up by the edge of its impressive, thin wing. He hesitated for a moment, remembering when, and where, he’d gotten it—from Mr. Today. “A bird,” Alex said. “Do you like it?”
Aaron nodded silently.
“Here, I’ll put it on for you. These things can get a little tricky.”
Once Alex had fastened it around his neck, Aaron held his fingers around the charm, pulling it back and forth along the chain, the metal making a slight buzzing noise as he did. He didn’t tend to smile, but Alex could tell he was pleased with it, so he didn’t say anything about its origins.
Aaron returned to sitting on the edge of Alex’s bed, and now that he’d made a mess of his jewelry, Alex returned to sorting out his collection.