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The cold air of a cheap box fan and the chatter of the television filled the living room where Haymitch and Lenore Dove were lying on top of each other, basically. They weren’t supposed to be in the house alone together per Clerk Carmine's demand, but Tam Amber was at work, and Clerk Carmine was doing whatever it is he does during his day. Haymitch wasn’t quite sure what he did, but he really didn’t care. School had just gotten out of the summer, and he wanted to spend time with his girl. It was about 96 degrees out, so sitting outside in this heat wasn’t really an option, so they just lounged on the couch and watched TV and talked. Their relationship being romantic is still new to both of them so it’s not like they were doing anything that would send Clerk Carmine into a tizzy but he also felt like he shouldn’t be disrespecting his rules, Lenore Dove didn’t seem to mind the idea that she could get into trouble but she never got into real trouble with her uncles even when she got arrested detained in one summer her uncles basically gave her a smack on the wrist. If Haymitch got into half the trouble she did, he would never see another human being again outside of his family, Hattie, and people at school. This summer, Haymitch had started working for Hattie, not legally because he wasn’t old enough to really work, but a job, which is what his Ma says. So his time with Lenore Dove has been even more limited because of that, but because he has a job, he has been able to buy her little gifts here and there. Today, she was wearing an old hair clip with a goose on it, keeping her auburn curls behind her ears. He had gotten it from a second-hand store in the next town over, which is where Ma drags him and Sid a few times a year. Geese are a very fitting bird for Lenore Dove. They fit her personality more than doves do, but a goose isn’t a color; it's just a bird.
“Hay, have you ever considered bleaching your hair and getting a nose piercing?” Lenore Dove blurts out as if it had been a thought that she had been sitting on for a while. Her brown eyes looked directly into Haymitch's, doing that blank-staring thing most people find unnerving, but he thought it was adorable because it meant she was really excited about something.
“ No… Why?” He knew exactly why, but he wanted to hear her say it
“How about we do it! My cousin Evie Rose touched up her hair this weekend; she has leftover bleach, and Molly Blaze has a collection of fancy septum rings, so if I took just a basic gold one, she wouldn’t notice, plus I think you could pull both of those things off” Haymitch agreed to go ahead with Lenore Dove's idea to completely change his appearance without even thinking twice about it. Haymitch doesn’t exactly question why he told her that he absolutely wants to do that until he’s sitting in the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his shoulder and it feels like his scalp is going to burn off from the bleach.
“ Lenore Dove?” Haymitch asked softly
“ You got five more minutes with it on your head, Haymitch,” she yelled from across the hallway, where Molly Blaze’s room was. She was digging around, looking for where she kept her piercing supplies. This was the fifth time he had asked her about it, but he was over this and just turned on the shower to wash the bleach out himself. He really didn’t want to get fully naked or fully soaked, so he threw his shirt off and stuck half of his body into the shower. Washing the bleach out of his hair felt so good, but his scalp was super sensitive, and his hair felt like grass. It took him about five minutes to rinse his hair; half of that time was just him being paranoid that there was still a beach on his head. He took his head out of the shower and put a towel right on his head so that he didn’t turn around and have to face what his hair looked like. He looked over and saw Lenore Dove standing in the doorway. “ When you're ready, just come into my room. I think it’s going to be best if you lay down for me to do this”
“ Is my hair the right color?” He had to assume she had seen his hair already; she just kinda looked at him for a minute before he pulled his shit back over his head when he could see some of his hair that fell in front of his eyes, but that didn’t tell him much. When he walks in the hallway, Lenore Dove takes a minute to run her fingers through his hair. Haymitch loved her playing with his hair, but his refusal to look in the mirror made him anxious about her silence. “ I think so, it looks like how the merchants hair looks, not like yellow but it’s definitely blond, if you want I can have Evie Rose throw whatever she uses to make her hair more of a brown” her response made him relax a little bit because at least it didn’t turn out red, he has knew that the pair of Chance and McCory girls had put lemon juice on their heads before and sat in the sun for hour and there hair turned out straight orange last summer and they still haven’t heard the end of it “ I think it’s fine, let’s do the piercing!” Haymitch may have sounded excited, but he was terrified. Lenore Dove wasn’t a professional, and he knew she hadn’t done this before. Maybe she had watched Molly Blaze do it? But yet again, Molly Blaze isn’t a professional either; she was only two years older than Lenore Dove, yet here he was, now lying on her bed with her sitting on his chest. For them, this was weirdly intimate, but maybe that’s because she took the opportunity to kiss him around his face without him really being able to reciprocate the kisses, given she was right on top of him. “ Ok, so I guess I am just gonna feel your nose for a minute before I stab you, then I’ll just slide this guy through.” Lenore Dove held up a small gold septum ring in a bag.
“ Is this gonna hurt?” She was putting on the pair of rubber gloves from the box she had set on her bed, which Haymitch assumed contained what she needed. Before she could answer, she was grabbing at his nose, trying to find the right place to slide her needle through. “If you stay still, you’ll be fine; your eyes will probably water, but I don’t think it’s painful.” Haymitch, for good measure, closed his eyes before feeling a sharp pain in his nose, quickly followed by what he assumed was the nose ring going into the hole, which hurt as well. Lenore Dove was right when she said his eyes would be watering. “ Are you ok? You look good.” Lenore Dove got off his chest and grabbed his face, giving him another kiss on his cheek.
“ I am fine, you're fast at that, it's a little scary.” She just giggled at him before taking him by the arm to look at himself in the mirror on the floor of her bedroom. “You look so good and did such a good job sitting through that piercing.” Lenore Dove gave him another kiss on his forehead. “ Ma’s gonna have my head,” Haymitch told himself, glancing in the mirror from the corner of his eye.
Haymitch took a minute to take in what he looked like now. He felt like he looked older with this shade of almost-gold hair and with piercings. “ I look cool as Hell! Thank you.” Haymitch gave her a sloppy kiss, and he bumped noses, which really hurt. He liked it a lot more than he expected. It reminded him of some of the alternative bands he listens to, like Garbage and Deftones, and how people look on the covers of magazines Blair steals from his older brother. But the more he loves it, the more the impending doom of his mother creeps in.
“Lenore Dove! Who’s in my house?” shit, it's Clerk Carmine. Lenore Dove shoved Haymitch out of her room, shoving him right into the wall, trying to keep his nose from hurting more. Making sure that he turned his head before hitting the wall. By the time the pair was no longer flailing around the hallway, Clerk Carmine had his hand on his forehead and was shaking his head
“Haymitch,” he took a deep breath in were you blond and had a nose ring before you walked into my house?”
Haymitch shook his head
“Did you lie to your Mother about where you were going, or should I expect a call from Willamae after she gets home?”
“You should expect a call from Willamae”
“ Get out of my house before I find something else I don’t want to do.” Clerk Carmine walked back into the main area of the house, leaving Lenore Dove and Haymitch alone again. Both of them looked at each other and just started laughing, for what reason? Not quite sure, maybe it’s because of how bizarre this situation was, or maybe it was to help break the tension that Clerk Carmine caused. “ ABERNATHY!Get out before I force you out,” the aforementioned cause of tension yelled. Lenore Dove rolled her eyes before kissing Haymitch one last time for the day, resting her hands on his chest. “ I expect not to see you for a while?” He kissed her forehead stupidly. He pressed the tip of his nose against her face, making it sting. “ Probably, but how do I wash this thing? Do I need to go to the pharmacy and grab something?” Haymitch questioned, pointing to his nose.
Lenore Dove dug through a closet in the hall, pulling out a bottle of some mystery liquid. “ Just pour some of this out, clean the piping twice a day, once a week, though I would do salt water clean.” Haymitch held the bottle and looked a little confused about what Lenore Dove was telling him, but he’ll figure it out. Before he got out the door, Lenore Dove took a good look at him. “ I’ll have Hazelle come over and help you, see ya, Hay!” She gave him a hug before Clerk Carmine started to loom over her, and Haymitch started to feel a little intimidated by his presence. “See you, Dove!”
Haymitch’s feeling of impending doom, which he had had the whole walk home, ended up being very valid. His Ma ended up being much madder than he expected. He was stuck doing housework and watching Sid until his birthday, which was still almost a month away. On top of that, to make sure he actually came home after working for Hattie, he had to be walked home by Burdock's Mama, who watched Sid while she worked in her shop. Sid really liked the shop. She has been teaching him beadwork and knitting, which he seems to enjoy. Sometimes he gets Burdock as a walking buddy back home. The first time Burdock saw him, he couldn’t stop laughing because, of course, Clerk Carmine had told Burdock's Ma, who told him and his Mama. Then, the next day, conveniently, both Blair and Burdock walked Haymitch and Sid home. Blair also thought the situation was really funny, but he was really into Haymitch's septum ring. Blair and Burdock did think that the bleached hair was a little much for him, but Haymitch really couldn't care less because he liked it, and obviously so did his girl, who was sneaking around his Ma to see him and make sure that he was taking care of his piercing. He used it as an excuse to give her all the affection he could, without his Ma catching him not doing the work he was supposed to.