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The touch of the razor against Kallus’ face was nothing new. Ever since he had been able to grow something resembling facial hair, he had maintained it meticulously. (Obsessively, someone else might say, if there had ever been someone in his life to comment on things like that.) The razor was slick enough against his cheek, but he felt a large padded finger smooth more shaving cream gently against it.
The razor made another swipe. “That alright?” Zeb asked.
“Quite,” Kallus said, eyes closed and focused on the sensation of it, trying to move his mouth as little as possible. It was strange being…. doted upon like this.
“I’m going to leave the little dips alone, if that’s okay. Hate to accidentally cut one off and leave you mismatched.”
“The little dips?”
“Yeah,” Zeb said, “The little triangles you’ve got. Right-” and Kallus felt the brush of his finger against his cheek again, tracing the divot “-here.”
“It would be a shame to lose those, yes.”
They were quiet for a moment as Zeb made more careful, careful sweeps along his cheeks.
“Okay, if you could-” he said, thumb pressing gently under Kallus’ chin. Kallus lifted his head back, and was unable to stop the impulse to worry about his now-bared throat. But Zeb’s hand, which could easily wrap around it, only brushed gently with the back of his fingers to urge Kallus’ head to keep tilting. Kallus was struck with how safe and taken-care-of he felt. It was a fairly novel experience.
He ran a few small sweeps under Kallus’ jawline, and let out a low chuckle. “This is what it looks like when you’re in a ‘pressing, desperate need of a shave’?” he made another swipe, then swished it around in the water bowl “I don’t think I’m even picking anything up.”
Kallus blew out an irritated puff of air, hoping to hit Zeb’s fingers with it. “It’s been days since I’ve shaved, and my hair is fair. We can’t all grow it at your rate.”
“Are you saying I’m hairy?” Zeb said, in mock offense. A moment later, Kallus felt the tickle of hair against his cheek, and popped his eyes open to see Zeb rubbing his chin hair against it.
Kallus laughed, immediately and helplessly, and put his hands against Zeb’s chest to stop the onslaught. Zeb pulled back, grinning, shaving cream stuck to the bottom of his chin hair. “Looks like you’re a bit ticklish.” He said, looking absolutely delighted. A situation had never come up before to determine whether or not he was ticklish, so Kallus was as surprised as Zeb looked.
“Looks like I am,” Kallus said, not laughing any longer, but still grinning like a fool. From Zeb’s mischievous look, he imagined the lasat was going to make sure he eventually found out just how ticklish.
“It also looks like I’m done,” Zeb said, tilting his head slightly to examine his work.
Kallus reached a hand up to inspect it, and came away with his fingers covered in shaving cream.
“Oops, here-” Zeb said, grabbing a clean cloth from the side table. He covered Kallus’ hand with it, and for a moment, they were almost holding hands through it. Kallus still had his other hand rested against Zeb’s chest, and when he looked up into Zeb’s eyes, he was looking back at him.
They both looked away quickly, and Zeb pulled the cloth away from Kallus’ hand, clearing his throat a little. Kallus wondered if he could see his blush through all the cream.
Kallus reached over to the table himself for his own cloth and wiped off his face.
“Thank you, Zeb.” He said, chancing a glance over at him.
Zeb was fiddling with the cloth in his big hands, looking down at it. “Anytime.”
“If you’ll allow me, I’d like to return the favor,” Kallus said, before he could lose his nerve. Zeb looked up at that, and quirked his the ridge above his eye, where a human would have an eyebrow.
“I’ve got fur, I don’t actually shave.”
“Yes, right, I know. I meant--return the grooming favor, if you will,” Kallus stumbled, feeling foolish. “You trim your whiskers, do you not?”
“Oh, these?” Zeb ran the back of his fingers under his chin hair, and it was his turn to get shaving cream on them. He frowned down at them.
“Yes, those.” Kallus said, reaching out with a cloth and cleaning off Zeb’s hand, then up to carefully brush the cream off his whiskers. He was trying very hard to keep his blush in control, so he didn’t look up into Zeb’s face. “I brought some scissors with me, if it’s alright if I use my own.”
“More than alright,” Zeb said, soft, and Kallus practically fled to his supply case in the corner, feeling the heat on his face.
When he returned, Zeb settled into his chair, folded his hands in his lap, and closed his eyes. Kallus was overwhelmingly grateful for it, and stepped into Zeb’s space, looking down slightly at him. He had only ever had the opportunity to study Zeb’s features in pictures, as they had spent so little time together in person.
His face, and the rest of his body, was covered in a short layer of fur. Along his jawline and under his chin the hair was longer, thicker, resembling something like human hair. Kallus reached out and ran his fingers along the hair on one side of jaw and realized it was more like human head-hair, not the course, curlier hair that grew on human faces. Kallus allowed himself to briefly run his knuckles along Zeb’s check to feel his fur, and found it soft.
Kallus then touched the side of Zeb’s face, trying to be as gentle as he had been, to suggest he tilt his head to the side. Zeb did so, and Kallus carefully held one hand under his jaw hair, so his scissors wouldn’t accidentally cut further, and began carefully snipping.
Zeb let out a long sigh, and for a moment Kallus was worried he was bored, but after a study of his face and body language he looked… content. Kallus brushed off some clippings that had fallen onto Zeb’s terrible green and yellow jumper, and moved to the other side of his jaw. Intimate didn't feel like the right word to describe this… maybe something closer to domesticity? Whatever it was, it made him feel good to do this for him.
When he was done, he looked back and forth between the sides to make sure they were even. Satisfied, he moved to the chin hair.
“Do you want to keep it this long?” he asked, a hand against it.
Zeb snorted. “It sounds like you don’t want me to.”
Kallus frowned. “Long it is, then.”
Zeb opened one eye at him, smirking a little. “You sure you’ll be able to live with that?”
Kallus continued to frown at him. “It’s not my over-long chin hair, you’re the one that’s going to have to live with it.”
Zeb grinned all the way. “I can try it a bit shorter. Just for you.”
Kallus huffed, and held the bottom of Zeb’s hair between two fingers, about two inches up. “This short?”
“Now you’re pushing it,” Zeb reached his own hand up and moved Kallus’ down, to somewhere about a half-inch from the end. “I think that’s far enough. Baby steps.”
“You know, someone could grab this in a fight. There’s a reason the military has hair length requirements.”
Zeb laughed, “You really hate it, don’t you?”
“I don’t actively like it, no.”
Zeb considered him for a moment, squinting his eyes slightly. “I’ll let you cut more off, if….” he glanced around Kallus’ person, and finally settled on the hair on his head. “You grow out your hair.”
Kallus rolled his eyes. “I just mentioned hair length regulations, didn’t I?”
“Can’t you push it?”
Kallus went to open his mouth-
“Just a little longer than normal? For me?”
Kallus closed his mouth. Zeb was still touching his hand, eyes bright and-- not twinkling definitely not, because eyes only twinkle in children’s stories, and Kallus was not going to allow himself to even consider the description.
“I cannot believe you’re giving me an ultimatum.”
“Hey, I didn’t correct you before, but this hair actually takes a long time to grow. You cut off this much-” Zeb moved Kallus’ hand back up to where he had it originally “And it’ll take me months to grow it back. Only fair you join me in losing a bit of your iconic look for a while too.”
Trapped by Zeb’s hand, Kallus’ own didn’t have a lot of room to move, but he rubbed his thumb as best he could against Zeb’s chin hair, considering.
“Alright,” he said, after a moment. “Deal.”
“Wait--what, really?”
“I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed in the length my hair will get, but in compensation, I will grow it out as long as allowed before I cut it, and I will continue to do that until such time as we can see each other again. Maybe you’ll get lucky and the rebellion will be able to get some shaggier pictures for their posters.”
Zeb blinked up at him. “Karabast,” he said. “I didn’t think you’d actually go for it.”
It was Kallus’ turn to grin. “I know. Do we have a deal?”
“Outsmarted by an Imperial agent,” Zeb grumbled, “I can’t believe this.”
“If it’s any consolation, you outsmart me considerably more often.”
Zeb considered that. “That does make me feel better, yeah. Alright. You have a deal.”
“Here’s to us both regretting this,” Kallus said.
“Ugh,” Zeb said, dropping his hand and closing his eyes again. “Get it over with.”
Kallus brought the scissors up, and paused a moment. He felt slightly guilty, but more than that, he felt ridiculous. He wanted to cut Zeb’s hair, not because he had any true deep dislike of the length, but because he wanted to be the one to do it. Maybe Zeb would think of him every time he remembered the change in length, or went to touch it and found air.
Kallus make a cut before he could chicken out, and bit his bottom lip to hold in his snort when he realized he’d done it crooked. He finished the cut across, and made it reasonably even without sacrificing too much more length.
“Done,” he said, pulling back to admire his work.
Zeb kept his eyes closed and reached a tentative hand up to feel it. “Force, it’s like I’ve been shaved. I won’t be able to look in a mirror for weeks.”
Kallus took the hand Zeb was using to mournfully investigate his beard, dipped his own head down, and unceremoniously placed Zeb’s palm against the top of his head.
“It can get to be about twice this length before I start risking a write-up,” he said, to the floor “Which, for an Agent, would be quite the embarrassment, so I won’t be pushing it past that.”
He felt Zeb’s hand move slightly, hesitantly testing the length.
“Does it lay flat as it gets longer, or does it poof out?”
“It has an unfortunate habit of deciding it wants to be wavy once it has any weight, so it sort of poofs, I suppose.”
Zeb laughed, and Kallus could feel it through his hand against the top of his head. “I can’t wait to see it.”
Kallus seriously doubted they’d be able to coordinate it so that his hair was longer when they saw each other again, if they even managed to see each other again, if one of them wasn’t killed in action before then, if they didn’t meet each other on the battlefield, if-
Zeb’s hand moved a little more confidently against his scalp, gently petting him, and Kallus smiled.
“I can’t wait, either.”