Work Text:
Foolish was lingering around Green Faction's area again. He wasn't exactly eager to visit this part of the realm, obviously.
He, as a king, should have royal duties to attend to. Should. Maybe this did count, after all, it was tactical! Right?
That's why he was here, to keep an eye on Bad. He knew the sneaky little demon's history, and knew he would threaten Foolish's royal status in any way he could. It was all tactic.
At least that's what Foolish was telling himself.
Shockingly, Bad's attention was actually turned to the cathedral for once, hunching over something around the altar. Bad seemed to have some sort of internal alarm that went off whenever he was around, often resulting in him coming up to Foolish and the two spending hours together. Hatefully.
So when Bad stayed put, disappointment flickering on his face for a reason Foolish couldn't quite work out, he was shocked. A weird feeling twisted in his gut, something akin to sympathy but definitely couldn't be because of who it was.
To be fair, Foolish had noticed upon closer inspection, that Bad looked dishevelled. Hell, the guy looked exhausted, like he hadn't slept in weeks. Foolish couldn't often see Bad's hair, as it was masked by a hood he always wore up, but the parts he could see were tangled and unkempt. His clothes were wrinkled too.
-
Foolish's fingers twitched and without a second thought he sauntered over to where Bad was sitting, trying to make it look like he had only just turned up. Bad was slumped against a wall with his head in his hands, groaning about some mission. Foolish had some idea, but decided against prodding him about it.
"You're a mess," The totem grinned, sitting down next to Bad. He hadn't bothered with a proper greeting in a while, they didn't need one.
Bad shifted, looking Foolish in the eye for the first time, only just noticing he was there. He wore an expression of mock anger, yet Foolish was distracted by how tired his eyes looked.
"Look at yourself," Bad said, shifting, presumably to try and jab Foolish with his elbow.
"I'm completely fine, just waiting for something. No big deal." He continued explaining, his eyes darting back and forth between the altar and Foolish's face, lingering slightly longer on the empty lectern each time.
Foolish's face softened slightly. He knew.
He reached out and gently lifted a clump of Bad's tangled hair, and held it between two fingers, almost inspecting it.
"When was the last time you picked up a hairbrush?" He teased.
Bad parted his lips, probably to snap back with some angry retort, but Foolish stopped him with a quiet shush, still holding a piece of his hair.
"Let me fix it," He started. "I mean, you can't go around looking like this, how could I be seen in public next to you?"
He sat across from Bad, knees touching, and reached out once again, running his fingers through a particularly nasty tangle, trying to separate the strands of hair carefully. Bad tensed a bit at the pressure on his scalp, grumbling at Foolish.
"What are you doing?" Bad squirmed in his seat, trying to escape. Any fight in him wavered slightly when Foolish once again threaded his fingers through his hair again.
"Just sit still," Foolish snapped, attempting to cling to some semblance of control. But the protests started again, Bad was clearly doing it to rile him up. He saw right through it every single time.
So without warning, Foolish gave a sharp tug to the demon's hair, smug as Bad was yanked closer to his face, close enough that he saw Bad's eyes — if you could call them that — in disgusting detail.
Bad gasped in outrage.
"Hey, you can't just pull me around like that!"
Foolish pulled again before resuming as though nothing had happened. He could get used to this, fixing Bad up while he whined in the background.
-
As time went by and more of Bad's hair was untangled, the grumbling about Foolish 'daring to put his hands on him' slowly turned into more of a relaxed hum, with Bad getting less tense and resistant. Foolish felt the easy slump of Bad's shoulders and his posture loosening with each pass through his now significantly less tangled hair.
The totem felt inclined to make a few teasing remarks about how Bad had now changed positions and was pretty much in Foolish's lap, but he left it alone. Bad seemed more at peace than he had been in a while. Still, maybe some information to aid his side could be squeezed out of Bad. He didn't want to talk to him any longer than he had to, but if it was for the good of the Kingdom, he supposed he could entertain the idea. Or not. Foolish had finally managed to get him to shut up for once, surely he should take advantage of that.
-
Eventually, Bad's hair was fully combed out. It had taken hours, the sun was now setting, but it looked half-decent. His hair was wavy and dark and came down to his waist, and Foolish was addicted to running his hands through it.
He took a strand of hair and started twisting it around the demon's horns decoratively, playing with it more than he needed to now. Foolish chuckled to himself, just having fun with styling because when else would he get to do this again? Maybe he'd look good with some royal jewellery around him, or ribbons braided through his hair. Wait, what was he even thinking?
"Are you done yet, Foolish?" Bad sighed, dragging out the last syllable, trying to make it sound like he was enjoying it much less than he actually was.
"Nope," He replied.
With that, he separated Bad's hair into three and started quickly yet clumsily braiding it. It was clear he had gone through the motions plenty of times before, but was out of practice.
"I didn't realise it had gotten so long," Foolish murmured, before untying a ribbon from his complex outfit to put tie the braid up with. He wouldn't notice its absence anyway. "This should be easier to manage if you're not planning on taking care of yourself. Just stop walking around like that, you freak." He had said, tying the thing in a little bow.
Bad touched his hair, feeling the stark change of the matted hair. He turned round to face Foolish, who was admiring his work and absolutely nothing else.
"Hey, you clean up nicely, at least. You better thank me."
Bad was still feeling out the style, he hadn't put this much effort into his hair in a long time. Not since the ball.
"I guess it's okay, for someone like you." He said, yet he was unable to hide the small smile on his face.