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Moe had gone out for the day, something about a festival. This left Ze and Regect on their own. Both were bored so they decided on going swimming, much against Regect’s wishes. As they drove, Ze drove, Regect grumbled and complained the whole drive.
“Do we have to go swimming? Being wet is not something I tend to partake in willingly.” He groaned, placing his hand on the window dramatically like it would make Ze feel guilty.
“You don’t have to get in the water? You’re allowed to just… hang out. It’s really not that fucking deep.” Ze quipped. “Unless it’s because you can’t swim.” Eyes never leaving the road to acknowledge Regect’s dramatic movements.
Regect scoffed. Glaring at Ze a few seconds before he crossed his arms over his chest, turning away to look out the window. He continued to complain under his breath.
Once they were at the aquatic center, Ze took to grabbing the bag they had packed prior. Full of towels, snacks, and drinks. He was not going to pay for the overpriced snacks, even though there was maybe three things offered there, at the center.
Regect stood next to the passenger door, arms still crossed and pointedly looking at the ground.
“Come on, bitch baby. We have to get a somewhat okay place to set our stuff down.” Ze had walked in front of Regect, rolling his eyes at the others overreaction to a simple day trip to a pool.
They paid the $5 entrance fee, since this was an aquatic center and not just a public swimming pool. It had slides and a lazy river, so they had to pay. Finding a nice spot was only a little difficult, with them coming later in the day and on a weekend. Everyone seems to have wanted to go swimming. How unfortunate. The spot they grabbed was in the shade, since Ze expected Regect to stay there and eat all of the snacks they pack. He didn’t want him to sit in the sun and bake.
Which was weird.
He was so worried over Regect’s comfort, despite being insistent on coming here. Which was a little hypocritical. They each chose a chair, Regect choosing the one deeper in the shaded area, further from the heat he hoped. Setting his towel down on it and immediately diving into the bag to grab snacks.
“Jesus fuck, dude. I literally haven’t even set my shit down. If you eat all the fucking food I’m going to be so pissed off.” Ze glared at the entity, who in response stuck out his tongue.
“Don’t care. You brought me to the torture chamber that is an aquatic center. Not even just a pool,” his tone changing to mimic Ze, “little baby wanna go down the swides?”
“Fuck off.” Ze threw his towel onto his chair, removing and throwing his shirt as well, and stormed off to the actual pool in this place.
He got in the water, it was warm enough. It was an outdoor pool. The sunlights been beaming onto it all day, so he figured it’d be warm. The pools were crowded, to say the least. There was room to swim, yeah, but there was a risk of bumping into someone if he were to swim under the water and not open his eyes. Not that he couldn’t open his eyes underwater, it was just uncomfortable. Blurry and it stung slightly.
Uncomfortable.
Why did he even want to come here? Did he really think he could convince Regect to get in the water with him? Did he want Regect in the water with him?
No.
He dunked his head under the water, in hopes it’d help him cool off a bit.
It did somewhat.
It was later in the day, the sun was setting and the center was clearing out of people anyways. It’d been an hour or two of swimming, and yeah, going down some slides. God forbid Ze slide down the slides he paid for.
He padded back over to Regect. Watery footsteps left in his wake. Grabbing his towel to dry himself a bit before grabbing a pack of fruit snacks. That was all that Regect had left. One pack of fruit snacks. Ze scoffed and rolled his eyes, turning to complain to Regect when he noticed he wasn’t in his seat. Looking around, he didn’t see him anywhere. Whatever. He probably teleported home after he got bored.
Ze finished his measly pack of like 5 fucking fruit snacks and went back to the pool. It was finally clear enough for him to swim the length of it without bumping into someone. He gets in the pool, it has cooled off a bit as the sun set, and went under the water again. He swam towards the other wall, touching it before coming back up to the surface. Water dripping down his face, getting in his eyes he purposefully kept shut to avoid getting it in his eyes.
He ran his hand through his hair, getting it out of his face, his other hand holding onto the wall for comfort. His eyes were closed and he wasn’t familiar with the pool enough to just– know where he was. When he opened his eyes, he saw Regect was staring at him. Crouched down next to the pool.
“What?” He snapped.
“Your hair is curly?” Regect’s voice wasn’t interrogating him. It was soft, genuinely curious. Reaching out to curl a strand of hair around his claw. So, so gently.
Why was he being so gentle?
“Yeah?” Ze shakes his head minutely, like this was common knowledge.
“Do you straighten it?”
“Yeah??”
Regect pauses, absent-mindedly curling the hair on his claw before tilting his head slightly, “Why?”
That caught Ze off guard. Why does it matter? It’s his hair? Also it’s none of Regect’s business as to what he does with his hair. It’s hair.
“Does it matter?” Ze rolled his eyes.
Regect squinted at Ze. Confused as to where the hostility came from. The reason behind it. Why he felt he needed to be defensive after being asked such a simple, non-invasive question.
“No. I’m just curious.”
Ze looked at Regect.
Regect looked at Ze.
“Fine! Since you’re so nosy. It’s hard to maintain. If I don’t take care of it, it’s frizzy, if I do, it clumps together and looks bad. I don’t like how it looks but I don’t want to shave my head again because I hated that more.” He spoke quickly. Like if he spoke fast enough maybe, just maybe, Regect would’t hear him properly and wouldn’t question him further.
They both pause. Regect is silent. His mouth slightly agape as he processes what was just spat at him.
“It 'clumps' because you’re not doing it right.”
Ze pauses. He feels the anger boiling beneath surface. Who is he to tell him he’s not ‘doing it right’. He doesn’t even have hair. Does he?
“Who the fuck are you to tell me that. You don’t have hair to take care of? The fuck?”
Regect sighs.
“Let’s go home. Let me do your hair.”
He pauses.
“Please?”
The drive home was silent. Neither spoke. Regect picked at his fingers. He was nervous. Very nervous. Finally pulling up to their home, Ze put the car in park and sat back in the seat. Sighing before turning his body towards Regect.
“I will let you do my hair but if you fuck this up I will actually kill you.” Ze pointed at Regect and spoke with warning.
Regect nodded, turning to get out of the car. They both entered the house.
“Okay, I need you to either shower, which is probably preferred because you were in a chlorine pool for hours swimming around like a stupid fish, or we can just… wet your hair in the bathtub or something.” Regect rattled off options on how to wet his hair again. Ze opted for a shower because he did, in fact, swim in a pool. For hours.
Once Ze was out of the shower, clothed, and no longer starving, he noticed Regect had set out a ton of hair products and such on the coffee table. When he finally noticed Ze, he got excited. He had been rearranging the products to be in order of use and setting aside the other items that were necessary the entire time. Physically squirming and motioning Ze to sit in front of him on the floor. Ze plopped down in front of him, sitting in between his calves. Regect wrapped a towel around Ze’s shoulders to prevent his shirt from getting wet. Then, he grabbed the spray bottle first.
“Okay, so when doing your hair it should also be really wet.” He began to spray the water into Ze’s hair. Making sure it was dripping wet before moving on.
“Thennnn we use this. It’s mousse. I really can’t explain why half of these things get used but it works for me so I do it…” He shakes the container before putting a slightly generous amount in his hands and rubbing them together gently. Not trying to make the product disappear but wanting it to be on both of his hands. He scrunched the mousse into Ze’s hair very gently.
“Okay this part is a little weird.. it might be easier if we were standing.” He moved around Ze to stand, keeping his hands open and making sure not to touch anything with them as he very clumsily motioned for Ze to stand in front of him. He spread the mousse into Ze’s hair gently before moving the the back of his head to scrunch it in.
“Tilt your head to the right fully.”
Ze obeyed. Regect moved some hair on the left over top to be on the right side before scrunching it in all the way to the roots.
“Now the left.”
Repeating this motion again. Once more when he asked Ze to lean forward. Regect wiped the excess product onto the towel around Ze’s shoulders. Turning around to grab something else from the table. He picks the spray bottle back up, rewetting Ze’s hair just the slightest bit more.
“Okay, this is literally just hair gel. Easy as that. We’re gonna do the whole,” motions with his hand, twirling his wrists in circles, “head… spinny thing again though.”
Ze groaned before nodding. The whole ‘head spinny thing’ was hurting his neck.
“I know. It’s annoying as hell but at least this isn’t a daily thing!” Regect moved back behind Ze before doing the same process but with gel.
“Tada! We’re almost done! Do you want to let it air dry or use a hair dryer…?”
Ze paused. Air drying would take longer, yeah but then he got to hang out with Regect.
Ew. He’d have to hang out with Regect.
“Hair dryer.”
“Okay! Can you do the head spinny thing and scrunching but with that towel over there? It’s better for your hair.”
Regect pointed to a blue, cotton towel. Ze nodded his head, grabbing it and doing the same, stupid fucking motion for a third time. This was getting so fucking annoying. Regect on the other hand, was plugging in the hair dryer. Attaching the diffuser and turning around to Ze again.
“We should be able to actually sit for most of this.”
So they sat again. Regect on the couch, Ze on the floor between his legs. Regect turned on the hair dryer. Just hovering it all over his head. Humming a song Ze didn’t recognise. It was also insanely hard to hear over the ear-blasting sound of a fucking hair dryer pointed directly at his head and sometimes his ears. After a few minutes of just hovering the hair dryer, Regect began to use the diffuser to scrunch-dry his hair. Combing his claws in Ze’s roots to pull it up as he held the diffuser closer to the roots.
Repeating this motion until Ze had the clumpy curls he was always unhappy with. Ze was irritated. Right as Regect turned off the hair dryer, he began to complain.
“Is this not literally what I was complaining about? Why the fuck did I trust you to do this.”
“Bup bup bup. I’m not done fuck ass.” Regect had his finger held up in a sort of shushing motion. He reached over the grab oil. Presenting it like a beauty blogger.
“The secret weapon is not only scrunching it while it’s dry, but also applying oil to break the cast from the gel!”
He paused, lowering his hands slightly as he looked at the oil. Grumbling under his breath, “which you’d know if you did any research.”
Ze slowly turned around to look at Regect. His face showing no emotion.
“Shut the fuck up and do my hair or I swear to god I will shove my foot so far up you-”
Regect cut him off mid-sentence, grabbing his jaw and turning him forward.
“I’m busy shut the fuck up.”
Regect put a small amount of oil in his hands before rubbing them together quickly. Flattening his hands over the curls, like a sandwich. Hand-hair-hand. Rubbing it on gently. Then he scrunched. Again. Lot’s of scrunching to achieve a hair style that doesn’t last that long. It pissed Ze off. Who the fuck does this when it doesn’t last that long anyways? Every time he did do his hair to his liking he’d go to sleep and it’d be all sorts of fucked up in the morning and he’d be so pissed off that he’d just flat iron it again.
“AAAAND done! It looks really good if I do say so myself.”
Regect’s loudness startled Ze out of this thoughts. Moving to grab the mirror Regect had also pre-planned and placed on the coffee table. Looking at his hair, Regect wasn’t… wrong. It did look good. The curls framed his face nicely, it wasn’t a frizzy mess that looked like he didn’t know what he was doing. It wasn’t sticking out every which way it looked…
Nice.
Ze smiled very, very slightly. Quickly catching himself and clearing his throat. Hoping Regect didn’t catch that. Regect did, though. He wasn’t going to draw attention to it. He knew it wasn’t meant for him and he didn’t want to ruin this for Ze.
“Do… you like it? I can try again if you want. Or like. I guess you could just flat iron your hair.” Regect nervously prattled on. Rubbing his hands together in a sort of self soothing way.
“No… I–I actually do like it.” Ze looked at himself again before thinking. He looked back to Regect again, turning his whole body and propping his arm on the couch, though it was actually Regect’s leg but no one was going to point that out if they wanted to live.
“Can I ask, first why do all…” He points to his hair, “this if it’s going to be ruined after I sleep? Second, how the fuck do you know how to do this?”
Regect paused, he did in fact notice that Ze’s arm was essentially draped across his leg. He was just going to ignore that.
“First. Do you not wear a bonnet or have… anything to protect your hair when you sleep? Second, because my hair… is uhhhh curly?” He said the second point in one breath.
They’re both really shitty at admitting things. Try as they might to brush past it, primarily by speaking fast, it never works.
They should know it never works.
“No.”
Ze proceeds to process the second thing. He has curly hair. He has… hair? What?
“You have hair?” Ze blurted out after a minute of silence.
Regect sat there. Not saying anything. Not making eye contact. Ze stood up to sit on the couch next to Regect, no longer preferring the distance the floor gave him. Sitting as close as he could to Regect, squinting his eyes at him and leaning closer like he could magically will the concept of seeing Regect’s head into existence.
It didn’t work.
Regect whined.
“Yes! I have hair it’s curly I do all this to feel somewhat normal and I was practising on myself because a friend I had couldn’t take care of his hair so I learned.”
Regect said that all in one breath. Again, like speaking it quickly in one exhale would make Ze brush over it or change the topic.
It never worked. Nothing ever works between them.
“Oh.” Was all Ze said.
He backed up slightly. Looking at the floor in front of him trying to imagine what his hair could feel like but not really knowing since he couldn’t see what texture it could possibly have.
Some people think before they speak.
Ze does not.
“Can I touch it?”
Regect pointed at himself. “My? My hair?”
“Yeah?”
Regect paused. He looked away for a second.
“Yeah.”
They turned towards each other on the couch. Ze raised his hands to place them on Regect’s head before hesitating. He didn’t really know where his head started or ended and didn’t want to go for it and stab him in the eye or something. Regect somewhat picked up on this. He wasn't an idiot but he was sometimes dense. Regect grabbed Ze’s wrists and moved his hands to place them on the side of his head, in his hair.
“If you fuck up my hair I am going to gamble all of your money and fucking lose on purpose.”
Ze nodded. Mesmerised already. His hair was extremely soft. Feeling his curls they were extremely tight curls. He twirled the curls in his finger. The curls wrapped so easily and nicely around them. Moving his hands down to feel the length of it.
“You… have a mullet?” Ze asked, looking Regect in his eyes.
“gulp.”
Ze removed his hands from Regect’s hair. That was extremely weird to do. Ask someone, ‘hey can I shove my hands on your head and twirl your hair on my finger?’ Holy shit.
“Thanks… for letting me do that and for doing my hair…” He paused before standing up. “I’m going to bed.”
He ran away. He went upstairs to his bed. Laying down he placed his hands on his face and groaned. Then there was a knock at his door. Opening it revealed all there was was a gold bonnet, with a note next to it. He picked them up and walked over to his bed to sit down.
The note read,
‘Put this on to protect your hair so you don’t have to redo it so often.
Goodnight :D’