"Oh, come on. Please?"

"No, dammit, how many times do I have to tell you?!" Arakita narrowed his eyes to mere slits as he glared at the man in front of him. His temper was getting the better of him, yes, but he just couldn't stand the way that asshole was standing there, stubbornly, not even bothering to take the energy bar out of his mouth when he talked to him.

"You can trust me – I do it for Usakichi all the time." Shinkai's eyes steeled with a determination that made Arakita recoil even more.

"Hell no! I told you it's fine the way it is!"

"It's really not."

"Shut the hell up!" Arakita spat before he stomped up to Shinkai with fire burning in his eyes. Before he could consider if it was really a good idea to shout and act violent towards someone with a pair of scissors in their hands, the ace sprinter pushed his face forward to meet Arakita's. The ace assistant flinched back at the glint of amusement in his eyes.

"I can reward you."

Arakita sneered. "With what? Energy bars?"

"Is that not to your liking?"

"I don't want your fucking energy bars!" Arakita screeched, finally blowing his top. To his extreme annoyance, however, Shinkai just laughed.

"I'm just messing with you. You're fun to tease, Yasutomo."

"Who the hell gave you permission to call me by my first name?!" Arakita sneered again before he crossed his arms stubbornly and glared him down. "You're not winning yourself any points right now."

"I don't need points to win." Shinkai had a weird glint in his eyes that made Arakita nervous as he opened and closed the pair of scissors in his hand. "Come on – I promise you'll like it!"

"Do I have to spell it out for you?!" Arakita roared, causing some of the younger Hakone Academy students to glance over at them in concern. "No!"

"It'll help reduce your wind resistance when you ride!" Shinkai cried out before he lowered his head so that his bangs covered his face. "I'm just trying to help you, Yasutomo…"

"I told you not to call me that—!" Arakita stopped dead as Shinkai lifted his head, a river of tears cascading down his face. Arakita blanched. "Why the hell are you crying?!"

Shinkai's loud wails were almost comical as he held his face in his hands, tears seeping through despite their presence. Arakita could do nothing but stare at him. Why was this guy crying over something as trivial as this?! Did this really mean that much to him?! And how did he know that people crying was Arakita's weakness?!

Hating himself, Arakita gave in. He turned to the side, not able to look at the crying mess in front of him, and mumbled, "… Fine. You can give me a haircut."

Shinkai perked up at his words, a satisfied smile on his face as his tears completely disappeared. Arakita blanched again; no one could stop such heavy crying that easily! Just who was this bastard?! It was then that it occurred to him what had actually happened and he felt a growl develop in his throat. "You bastard, you were faking it!"

"Too late to go back now, Yasutomo!" Shinkai shouted triumphantly as he advanced, opening and closing the scissors in his hand repeatedly. "You already gave me the go ahead."

Arakita barely had the chance to take a step back before the sprinter jumped on him. Though he tried, vainly, to fight back, Shinkai was easily able to drag him over to a chair and plop him down. Though he was gentle about it, Arakita found himself stunned and he couldn't even react as the redhead wrapped a Hakone biking team towel around his neck. By the time his wits returned, it was too late for him to do anything but sit and let Shinkai have his way with him.

"You must really hate pompadours, huh," Arakita grumbled as Shinkai started snipping his bangs. He was still pissed at himself for caving in so easily, but he was also pissed at the redhead for being able to jump him and force him into a chair so easily. It wasn't good for Arakita's self-esteem or his ego, dammit!

Shinkai hummed as he expertly clipped with his scissors. "I just think you'd look so much better without it. Besides, you want to forget your past, don't you?"

"Whatever. Just wake me up when you're done," Arakita growled, ignoring the implied jab at his image.

Letting himself relax back in the chair, Arakita closed his eyes and tried to get some shut eye. Though he would never admit it out loud, or even consciously acknowledge it, getting the haircut was kind of soothing. There was no noise outside of Shinkai's humming and the quiet snip of his scissors, and the redhead's gentle hands running through his hair and massaging his scalp felt stupidly nice. A quiet sigh escaped him as he felt himself start to doze off.

"Yasutomo." Too soon, there was a hand shaking his shoulder and a soft voice in his ear. Arakita mumbled some gibberish as his eyes fluttered open and he saw Shinkai's smiling face in front of him. He had to suppress a groan. That level of cheeriness was too much for someone who'd just woken up from a nice nap.

"Yasutomo," Shinkai repeated as he stepped back out of Arakita's line of sight. Arakita closed his eyes again. "You're done. What do you think?"

It took Arakita's sleepy brain a moment to remember what he was even talking about. When he did, he cracked an eye open and glared at his image in the mirror Shinkai held up for him. He was expecting to find it ugly, or at the very least annoying.

What he saw instead shocked him.

"Of all of the things to do in the clubroom – you better clean up that mess," Toudou's obnoxious voice echoed across the room as he entered. Shinkai answered with a light chuckle, but Arakita ignored him. For some reason, Toudou deemed it appropriate to keep yapping. "A haircut isn't going to do anything for him."

Arakita ignored that, too. He was too speechless to respond.

The raven had had many different hairstyles in his short life. He'd been practically bald when he'd played baseball because hair in his eyes when he pitched was annoying as fuck; he'd had his pompadour so he could fit in with the crowd in his transition between sports; he'd had long hair before his sisters were born so his dad could practice his styling. All of his hairstyles had been tailored specifically to what he was doing and who he was with, and though Arakita had never consciously cared about his appearance, he couldn't hide from himself the self-loathing he felt whenever he looked in a mirror.

What he saw now was the first time he'd ever looked into a mirror and actually liked what he saw. It was on the short side, with ragged bangs in the front, and it looked right, as if Arakita had been born to have that hairstyle and had just never realized it until now. It was also the first time he'd ever had a hairstyle that was purely for himself.

It was liberating. And Shinkai had done it for him.

Finally Arakita pulled his eyes from his image in the mirror and looked at the redhead beside him. He was looking back at him with the warmest smile on his lips, causing a weird stirring in the raven's chest. How was Arakita, the most badmouthed and irritable person on the team, supposed to ever express to Shinkai the level of gratitude he felt in that moment?

However, something of his thoughts must've shown through on his face because Shinkai's smile warmed even more, if that was possible, and he chuckled. "I told you you'd like it."

"Pah, it's okay," Arakita grumbled as he looked away from Shinkai again. He had to save face, after all.

To his utter annoyance, Shinkai just laughed.

A couple of months later, Shinkai's phone rang. He'd been lounging around on his bed, trying to ignore the stack of math homework on his desk, and to be honest the distraction was more than welcome. Especially when he read the caller ID.

No sooner had he answered did Arakita's gruff voice start shouting in his ear, "Shinkai, I'm coming over right now and you can't stop me."

"I wouldn't try to," Shinkai chuckled as he rolled over onto his stomach, his legs dangling off the side of the bed. "Need another haircut?"

The flustered sputtering on the other end of the line was the only confirmation he needed. Shinkai laughed as Arakita finally seemed to find his words. "No! I mean yes! Fuck, fine, I want a haircut! But not because it's good or anything! It's just convenient – I can actually look forward when I bike! Like Fuku always said I should!"

"Whatever you say, Yasutomo," Shinkai hummed as he set his phone on speaker and got up from the bed. As Arakita continued to shout about how horrible the haircut was and how much Shinkai needed to improve his barber skills, the mentioned redhead scavenged his room for the supplies he'd need to cut Arakita's hair.

When he'd finished collecting his supplies, and Arakita had run out of steam, Shinkai returned to his bed. "See you in a bit, Yasutomo."

Arakita seemed thrown off for a moment before he mumbled gruffly, "Yeah, whatever," and hung up.

Sticking his phone in his pocket, Shinkai took his supplies out of his room and down the stairs to the kitchen. He set up a chair and readied a towel, all the while avoiding his brother's pestering questions about what he was doing. Yuuto had a right to be suspicious – the older of the Shinkais couldn't keep a stupid grin off of his face.

He was happy Arakita liked the haircut he'd given him, and he would keep cutting his hair for as long as the man wanted him to.