Chapter Text
“Oh, for— Scarlet, give me that comb,” snaps Vodka, swinging her legs off her bed as she stands up.
Her roommate sputters, “Wh— I’m using it! What’s wrong with—”
Vodka takes the comb right out of Scarlet’s hand as she spins around. Yes! Just as cool as I planned. “You’ve been fussin’ at your tail for ten minutes and you have to leave in—” she looks up at the clock. “—two and a half. You’re still missin’ a tangle, and if I have to hear about how Little Miss Perfect’s tail was anything but perfect all day long, I’m gonna run straight into the sea.”
Scarlet’s face twitches. She opens her mouth to reply, then looks up at the clock to confirm the time and bites her lip. Vodka counts down to herself: three, two, one—
“Ugh, fine,” huffs Scarlet. “Thanks or whatever. Don’t think this means I owe you one, though. This was your idea.”
Vodka twirls the comb around her fingers and not-entirely-gently grabs Scarlet’s appropriately red tail. Stupid Scarlet with her stupid pretty hair. I really couldn’t bear to hear her whining about it, but… even if I would never tell her, it also would be a shame for such nice hair to be tangled up.
She starts at the tip of Scarlet’s tail, then works her way up. It only takes one of the two available minutes to work the last tangle loose with the advantage of being able to see what she’s doing. She looks up to give the comb back over Scarlet’s shoulder, but before she can reach a hand out, she notices something odd. Her ears were all pinned-back grumpy-grump a minute ago, weren’t they? But those ears, so often pinned in frustration in Vodka’s direction, were now soft and relaxed—the left one even had a gentle fold.
Well, I can’t blame her, I like a good brushin’ as much as the next girl. Out loud, she says only, “Here, all done.” For possibly the first time in her life, it didn’t feel like the right time for Vodka to tease her roommate about something. I’ll just… keep that in my back pocket.
Later that week, the two are getting ready to head to the racecourse. Scarlet has a mock race against Silence Suzuka to help test the pace of her front running, and she’s doing her best to act confident. To Vodka, though, who’s had to listen to her roommate gripe about how her training’s been going for two weeks, Scarlet’s twitchy ears clearly betray some nervousness about doing well up against such a high-profile opponent. Ugh, if she doesn’t win, she’s not gonna shut up about it for months. She’s got the pace for it, if she can just get hold of herself and calm down a bit…
She’s struck by an idea and grabs Scarlet’s favorite comb off the corner of her desk. “Hold still, dummy. You, uh, missed a spot again.” Scarlet didn’t miss a spot this time, but it seemed to relax her the other day and… yup, mission: success. It only took a few brushes through Scarlet’s tail for her twitchy ears to settle down. “Don’t think I’m doin’ this for you, like I said—I just don’t wanna hear about it later.”
Scarlet rolls her eyes. “Like I said, as long as you don’t think I owe you one or anything.” She sighs. “Thanks, though, or whatever, I guess.”
Vodka smiles and punches her on the shoulder. “Go get ’em, tiger.”
She carefully avoids thinking about how she wanted to brush Scarlet’s soft tail again.