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When your college roommates make a bet that directly threatens your dignity as a human being, what you do is; laugh awkwardly, pretend to think it over for a bit and then, politely reject it.
Thomas messed up the last step, not because of peer pressure, not because it was his friends, during the second step he actually thought about it and he came to the naive conclusion he would look good.
And that was his only mistake.
“Listen— is not that bad” Rotation begins.
“It is bad,” Completes Fluixon as he stands just outside the bathroom door of their way too small dorm, he have barely looked up from his phone the entire time and when he did it was almost like he was the one who got his hair fucked with.
‘it will look better dried’ Thomas had tried saying, Seraphim who by the way is supposed to be two buildings away in her own dorm and NewKids that nobody have heard enter in the first place looked at each other, one more concerned than the other, recently removed kitchen steel sheets stained with peroxide cream still in their hands.
Seraphim clicks her tongue, might be a guilty gesture might be her holding back a mean laugh “I have brown hair dye back in my dorm, if you regret this big time” she says, body resting against the wall with Newkids just beside her who for wherever reason refused to sit normally in the sink (Sitting in a sink its not really normal to begin with)
Thomas washes off the remains and then is put into suffering caused by three pairs of hands rubbing a towel rudely against his scalp before deciding they surely could have just used Rotation’s half abandoned hair dryer instead. (In their defense,when they checked they were sure the thing would not even turn on)
So Thomas' hair is dry, the popular opinion in the room is that his hair does not look any better, everyone in there realizes in horror as Thomas seems to have the opposite opinion, the objectively wrong one.
“I like it!” He says, a wide smile in his face that would be too cruel to take away by wherever thoughts are occurring in the others minds right now (Fluixon, especially Fluixon’s)
“If i wore glasses i would look just like Rotation actually—” “Rotation this is probably the worse idea you ever had, not even the fake marriage booth in valentines day can top this” Fluxion opens his mouth just like a drawer full of knives
The accused in question gets his hands up in defense “What!?”
NK adjusted himself with a clumsy movement almost bending the faucet, legs dangling lazily from wherever the exorcist position he is trying to recreate “It 's giving…sunscream commercial boy, you know, it's like you are using fake tan now..” he makes a hand gesture that is like the one in Spongebob in that one chapter saying imaginatiooooon.
“That is literally just Rotation's in paper, you could be the dad, Thomas” Seraphim adds, pushing NK away to wash her hands and abandon the crime scene as quick as possible, the other follows suit making the steel sheets into balls to throw them away, everyone else in the room ignores how both of them always seem in sync in favor of crucifying Rotation for;
One, making a bet, again, like the last one dint ended up with Fluxion, the current president of the student council getting dragged into an arranged marriage with Saparata, the school's infamous in process to nothing athlete.
Winning the price for the most tacky possible hair bleach ever, if anything it makes hair look more yellow than anything and woah, even hay is less stiff than wherever this thing did to Thomas hair, Flux really cant stress this enough
But the internal chaos of everyone was not enough for Thomas to realize that brunettes are not quantumly allowed to turn blonde on a random Sunday afternoon. There was a bet, a stupid one and now the consequences might interact with the world it has created.
“Theres pink hair dye” NK points at the unused colors that would have been way better than a full on bleach, Thomas shakes his head politely at the suggestion, just slightly disappointed NK turns his head slowly to the side “Rotation,”
The room is silent for not reason at all from the exception a guy named NewKids mixing hair products together to make the most neon unicorn shade of pink
Another fate is sealed that day, not only Thomas’s
Thomas brushes his teeth, goes to school, wakes up and acts like he always does, not in that order.
It's an awfully average day, people complain a lot about Mondays for being the one day to snatch away the illusion of finally being able to breathe when every day as a college student can suck the same degree, at least for Thomas is ‘not too much’.
The school day has just started.
“What the fuck happened to your hair!?” “Are you okay?” Snowbird and Gotoga said almost at the same time, Thomas blinked really slowly, still smiling.
“Remenber the bet Rotation was yapping about in the groupchat? See i think it looks great I don't know why everyone is so pressed—”
“It looks bad” Both of them say because they are such supportive friends, normally when they find themselves on their way to class there would be small talk, mostly Gotoga talking about how the grass students step on every day probably tastes better than wherever healthy food the place has been trying to push into their mouths.
Thomas is not opposed to a change in talk if only it was not about him looking like Rotation if he happened to get divorced one day, he does not exactly tell them to stop.
“I saw Rotation earlier” Gotoga mumbles into his comically large dusty pink scarf, “He looks…”
“Really pink, yeah, Newkids idea…” Thomas does give the context to a situation because he is not a fan of leaving people in the dark, hah, that is a lie by the way.
Gotoga hums. “It looks like he haves a kirby in his head”
“That is a lame reference, you could've just said it looks like cotton candy” Responds Snowbird getting a harsh nudge in response. Thomas looks at the right, then at the left.
These really are his closest friends.
When Fluixon asked his friends to aim for the student council as soon their second year started they just nodded along with it, during their first ‘meeting’ however they all agreed they needed someone flashy that was social enough to have a chance against other groups, the closets fit at the time have been Snowbird who argued that he was better off doing the unseen work
So Gotoga mindlessly mentioned Rotation and everything including Thomas' current situation spiraled from there.
Snowbird turns out had a point, when asked after the elections he said the Mattel sorority girls were cool with bribes and that is about it, the win was theirs.
Thomas' second class ends, he takes out his phone and in the mere seconds that trivial action takes someone slams their hands in front of his table, “You are going to help me,” No prompt, no explanation, but Thomas knows that voice well and he knows they are up to no good.
“Sidefall, good afternoon”
“New look, its… wherever, you are accompanying me to take pictures of the football field” they respond by stepping into his attempts of being polite with such ease Thomas could almost get mad. And were they about to insult his hair?
There's a thing about being part of the student council and it's that sure it looks good after graduating or some propaganda like that, but with it you unwillingly learn a lot about people you would not be able to tell apart in a crowd. Or maybe that is just the current student council and it shouldn't be like that,
Sidefall is one of those individuals, Thomas' first impression of them was that they work for the local newspaper, every single journalism major benefit, the second one was when they were exposed for being the one behind the college twitter gossip account and Thomas finds himself constantly surprised they haven't been stopped or expelled yet.
Thomas contemplates the proposal a bit, humming for the dramatic effect, “And you want me to go because?...”
“I was not the best during freshman year” Sidefall admits like someone does when pleading guilty, out of character for someone whose alt twitter account user is ‘sidefallisaliar’ and is in fact known for being that, a liar, they literally own a gossip account. "I might or might not…posted about someone I shouldn't, my life is in danger, all that, I mean sure your boyfriend is there but—”
“Micro is not my boyfriend”
Sidefall chokes down a scoff “Of course he's not, he's just a friend you like a lot, my point is, I get along with him just fine and I want to believe he won't let me die if someone happens to…jump me?”
Thomas stares at them “You want me to go because you are scared”
“We got a winner!” They slam their hands on the table again, looking almost desperate now because Thomas turns all sly and ominous when he's not with his main friend group. Sidefall manages a small giggle out of him and now they have someone to act as a meat shield.
Thomas thinks seeing a certain someone around will lift his mood.
The field is the size the dorm buildings were meant to be, or maybe they are supposed to be small to make the actual dorms inside as cramped as possible because when it's about football every single educational system finds a way.
Sidefall goes on a ramble how much they didn't want to be here to begin with, ‘This stupid fake grass here literally full of dried sweat, blood, oh shit..people literally have thrown out here before’ and that they are just doing it because it's an assignment for extra credit, and that the only other sport practice place is like twenty minutes away and that is long for a walk because their dorm is literally like a turn away after class and why do that when they can just make the football players useful for once as zero dollar paycheck models.
All Thomas hears is that Ymis is probably still busy with her business project and that is why she could not just drive Sidefall there, Sidefall is a lot of things and Thomas today learned driving licensed is not one of them.
Thomas is just slightly glad about the hoodie he's using now to avoid any extra negative attention for the day, Saparata had tried starting conversation with him about it and Thomas had intelligently avoided it, already knowing his pattern of behavior (Seriously, if Saps wants to talk to Flux, he can just do it himself, there's no need for a middle man). Sidefall takes some pictures of the open view of the field and the beaches ‘You could have just downloaded this one from the school page’ Sidefall ignores him again.
Then among the fuss of football players chasing each other as training for their next game there he sees him, Micro, black eyes focusing way too much on his phone fully blocking out the argument happening just beside him. “Do I have to repeat myself?” Banana says rather harshly, clapping his hands for emphasis as he spits each word “Its. Just. A. Fucking. Plant”
A gasp “No you didn't!” says Neptune, holding a mysterious pot close to his chest in Indignation, Thomas actually knows what the mysterious pot is, Micro told him, apparently it started with a simple activity that had to do with growing something ‘Plants yk?’ Neptune chose sugar cane and failed because he didn't care enough to find out how much time it actually takes for it to grow, so basically he's been taking care of it out of spite since freshman year.
It's kind of weird he’s remembering this just now, Micro's presence always brings a lot of thoughts and stories into his head, no correlation to one another or even a nice wording just the ever burning image of Micro holding back a giggle while he tells them to him.
“I ‘on wanna see you talking about my child like that, ever again” Neptune declares firmly in a more dedicated tone than what should be expected. Panzer is there just in the middle, spacing out before he notices Thomas, who is already busy looking at a certain guy with short white hair, Panzer does not even ask any questions because he's already shaking the other out of his block blast 19030 points streak. “Micro,”
Their gazes meet and for a moment everything feels like trying to watch a youtube video with a terrible signal, paralyzed in place, it's like their social awareness turns off when the other is around, they think they aren't obvious, they are.
Neptune makes a point back and forth to the enchanted guys and makes a little up with his chin “Geleda monkeys— are of the few primates that are directly at each other as a way of—!”
“Courting, yes, you can leave this to documentaries" Panzer interrupts just to get a sudden rush of irritation “..Holy fuck just renew the Netflix subscription!!”
Sidefall, always the one actually causing the chaos, never the mediator claps his hands getting their attention, not from Thomas and Micro tho, they are doing that flirting thing, this is literally worse than stumbling across people making out in the middle of the halls, ‘Get a room’ he prays internally.
“Sooo I like, i have this really important thing to do and I need models, sporty looking ones, and you guys do sports, yeah? It'll be quick” It does not actually take so much convincing, Banana has been making cringing faces the whole time now so as soon as he followed along so did Panzer and Neptune.
They are now alone. Definition of alone is that the people who would give a small fuck about their interaction are now far away posing like the models in zara magazines, and taking some really obnoxious photos.
Micro has that easy smile on him as he gets closer to him, shamelessly reaching for his shoulders rubbing his palms against them, with their faces this close Thomas rediscovers something: Micro is pretty, he looks really pretty, he's been pretty, Thomas almost wishes Micro was not Micro because then he would be any jock with white hair and void pupils, but he's Micro, that is Micro.
“What's up with the hood?” He says pulling it down getting a barely audible startled noise in response, when Thomas' view returns back to normal Micro haves lead him barely in the corner of the near building.
“Well it was just a bet, about…turning blonde if I failed to get a hundred percent in any song in karaoke revolution..”
“You lost.”
“Obviously” Thomas tries and fails to not sound as annoyed, Rotation dint get nearly as flamed like he was all day long, Rotation does not even like pink, Thomas at least likes yellow “I like how it looks, but i quote ‘its just that you are so terribly brunet its uncanny valley to see you like this’ so well, kinda don't wanna anybody to see it now”
A startle laugh comes from Micro, perhaps expecting a horrible haircut instead of slander to blonde people, they stay quiet for a while “You wanna see it now” Not a question
A small grin forms in his face. “Please?”
“Don't laugh”
“I would never do that” Micro lies just a bit, he sighs, putting his fingers just on the edge, hesitating a bit before pulling a good chunk back. It's just Micro, he reminds himself but it's not reassuring enough as the next thing he hears is a giggle, Micro’s giggling
“Yeah, fine, fine” says Thomas as he pulls the drawstring in a late attempt of hiding just to be stopped by Micro hands messing with it “Whatttt? I would say more than fine” Micro responds in a tone Thomas would have normally assumed to be mocking, but that is just really Micro's voice, he likes doing that, mess with his brain and touch his hair while doing so.
“It's cute” Of course he would say that, he would say that about anything, Micro finds him cute in the way Thomas finds calculus interesting, it's not something a lot of people think neither say out loud.
Thomas does not respond, just for a moment, he turns his gaze just in time to see Neptune and Banana trying to balance Panzer feet into their shoulders in a poor attempt of imitating a cheerleader pyramid, it distracts him just a little from the turmoil in his heart,
“Thomasss you are ignoring me..”
“Sure” he responds, surely if he texts Seraphim she will have mercy on him and help him dye his hair back to brown in no time, one day being blonde is enough time being blonde, his eyes have been opened, that is just not his style. “I also think your hair is cute”
“AWW, thank you Thomas, did I tell you that you do in fact look really hot today?”
“That is an entirely different thing, it actually fits you, it's what i mean” He sighs, pulling up the hood back to cover the hay looking mess in his head, he hopes the growing heat spreading in his face is not visible to the human eye, he hopes and keeps hoping, why was he even in the field again? Why didn't Sidefall ask Snowbird for help instead? Why did Thomas even entertain for a second the bet? Why…
“Thinking a lot?” Yes, is what he wants to reply but it's already obvious, choosing to nod instead, he never considered ’thinking a lot’ a problem, thinking keeps you alive, even in times he was reckless his mind was all over the place, something happens and then suddenly he's asking himself the why’s and what’s.
Maybe that is why Micro is so special, he's a hit the car first ask later type of person, words escape his brain before he can think them over easily, Micro is that guy who seems to be known by everyone until you realize how little there is actually of him at simple view.
Thomas does not have a low self-steem, far from it, he just chooses to not say a lot of what he actually thinks, saying what you think out loud turns into conflict quickly, there's a right time, a specific moment for it.
It is a mess, his hair, his feelings, wherever he and Micro have been dragging for the past few months now. In full display for both of them to see just to be swiped under the rug, there on a specially terrible Monday Thomas stops thinking just for a moment about what is next, and that is enough.
“I like you”
“What?”
“I said i like you”
“WHAT!?”
There's not a romantic scene right after, Sidefall stands between the two like exactly five seconds later to thank Thomas for quote “Not letting them die” and drag Thomas back to the dorm because they are such a caring friend while Banana just straight up tells Micro to get ready because they deserve some Chick-fil-A after a long day of free modeling.
It's at 2AM, technically a Tuesday now with his hair still damp after making Seraphim crash in late to fix it, at least its brown now, not the exact shade but its brown. He frowns at the sound of a notification, almost being blinded by the brightness of the tiny screen.
”Heyyyyy do you actually mean what you said in the field?”
The perfect opportunity to deny everything, turn back and never look back.
”Yes”
It's been six minutes now and Thomas thinks perhaps this is Micro's way of rejecting him. For the first time in the day he's proven wrong.
”Thats good”
”Because i like you too”
It's been exactly one month after the bet, the last drop of pink has finally faded from his hair, Rotation’s hair. “So basically, thanks to me Micro and Thomas are now together, I literally made them” is what he says.
“And because of me, you had a Kirby in your head for a month,” NewKids says.
“That is a lame reference.” He responds.
“I think it's the best one yet.” Gotoga says “It's not that hard to accept.”
“I agree with Rotation.” Snowbird, who hasn't said anything since they sat down says. “In both these matters…”