Title: Hair Styles
Characters: Honda Hiroto, Professor Cobra, Rick Cobra
Word Count: 1,458||Status: One-shot
Genre: GeneralRated: G
Challenge: Diversity Writing Challenge, D07, a one-shot; Yu-Gi-Oh All Seasons Non-Flash Bingo, prompt #50, point.
Notes: This takes place loosely in 2000, five years after the Ceremonial Duel and four years before the beginning of Yu-Gi-Oh GX.
Summary: The pointed hairstyle is not one worn by just anyone. Honda can pull it off, but he's met few others who can. A visit to the barber will increase the count by one. Maybe one and a half. Someday.
Clip, clip, clip. Hair that had been snipped off caressed the back of Honda's neck and he bent his head forward so that the barber could brush it off of him. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror across the room and mentally nodded. Already he looked more together than he had when he'd come in.
"Still a little more to go," the barber murmured, though Honda didn't think he expected an answer. Indeed, the other got back to work at once, scissors and comb working their special brand of magic on hair that had been untended just a bit too long in Honda's opinion.
The bell over the door rang and the barber glanced up for a quick moment, hands stilling. "If you'd take a seat, sir, then I'll be with you once I've finished with this gentleman."
Honda glanced up as well, mildly curious, and blinked at the sight of the tall man in the doorway. The newcomer nodded politely, heading over to one of the empty seats, while the barber again returned his attention to Honda's hair.
I don't think I've seen anyone else with this hairstyle, at least not someone that guy's age. The man had to be in his thirties, and very clearly in some form of military. He had that bearing, shoulders erect and spine as stiff as if it had been infused with a steel rod. He wasn't wearing a uniform, but his clothes were so neat and bland – a pair of stiff black pants and an absolutely white shirt – that he might as well have been. The boots completed the image as well.
But indeed he wore the same hairstyle that Honda did, a sharp point of hair hovering over his head. It wasn't the rarest hairstyle that Honda had ever seen, but it still wasn't a common one, either.
"Almost done, Honda-san," the barber commented, comb flickering to get everything into shape. "This should keep you for another few months."
Honda let out a small laugh. "Good. Anzu was about ready to skin me if I didn't get this taken care of." She'd been about ready to do it herself, or so she'd threatened. Honda would let his friends do a lot, but raising their hands against his hair wasn't on the list.
His attention flickered back to the other customer, and he blinked a little to see the man going through a dueling deck. It was hardly the most amazing thing in the world; a lot of people dueled, from all ages. But it just hadn't meshed with the mental image Honda drew of the other.
"You're a duelist?" The question fell out of his mouth before he could stop it. The stranger looked up at him.
"Yes." He tilted his head to the side. "What about you?" There was that gleam in his eyes, the one that Honda had seen before in Yuugi's or Jounouchi's or even Kaiba's. The look that said the duelist in question was in the mood for a duel.
He shook his head, though. "Not me. I've got a couple of friends who are, though." Not to mention that he'd met the guy who invented the game himself. Granted, Pegasus had been far more interested in those who played the game, but Honda wasn't unfamiliar with how it was done.
"I haven't had time to have a good duel lately," said the other, looking down at his deck with a hint of regret. "We have to move a lot because of my job." His eyes darkened just a touch more. "I keep thinking that I should find one that doesn't involve all this travel, at least until Rick is older."
Honda knew a father's tone of voice when he heard one. He didn't see a wedding ring, but that could mean a lot of different things. The guy was a widower or divorced. The guy just didn't wear one.
"I'm having a discount on family haircuts this week," the barber put in as he started to finish up Honda. "If the young gentleman is in need of one, of course."
"He is getting a little shaggy," the man admitted. "He should be in here shortly; he's looking at cards at the store down the block."
Honda bent his head, partially to give the barber a better angle from which to work and partially to see if there was any sort of name tag on his fellow customer.
"If you really would want, I could talk to my friends and see if we could arrange a duel," Honda suggested. "I know Jounouchi's always good for one. Yuugi's been kind of busy lately, but I think he could make time for a new opponent."
The man's mouth opened, but then closed again, a kind of wonder lighting in his eyes that Honda couldn't remember ever seeing from anyone else in the last couple of years. "Jounouchi Katsuya? Mutou Yuugi?"
"That's right." Honda did not bother keeping the pride out of his voice. "Heard of them?"
The man laughed, a rich and deep sound. "To a duelist, those names are like the sun! Anyone who knows the difference between attack position and defense knows them!"
Honda could not disagree. There were plenty who didn't know the difference who still knew them.
"I do not know if I am that good," the man said. Then he shook his head a fraction and held out his hand. "Harrison Cobra."
American? English? Honda couldn't place the name off-hand but it wasn't Japanese. The man had little trace of an accent either way. He took the offered hand. "Honda Hiroto."
"I should've guessed." Cobra gestured toward Honda's hair. "There are few who know duelists and who have that style as well." There was something that may well have been a grin on his features, if it hadn't set so oddly with them.
Honda shrugged; it wasn't as if it were untrue. "I like it like this." At a tap on the shoulder, he got out of the chair and quickly checked his reflection, nodding. Just the way he liked it.
Cobra stood as well as the barber began to tidy up the area quickly. "I would accept your offer to arrange a duel, but my time around here is short, unfortunately. Perhaps another time."
"All right." Honda would have liked seeing what kind of a deck this guy used. Given the breadth of his shoulders and the unmistakeable military cut of his attitude, he was more than willing to bet on it being full of powerful warrior monsters. That would be a sight to see.
The bell over the door rang again and this time a young boy, perhaps about nine or ten, entered. His eyes lit up when they landed on Cobra. "Papa! I saw some of the new booster packs! Can we get them, please?"
"Rick," Cobra acknowledged with a small nod, gesturing for his son to take a seat. "We can talk about that later. Would you like to get a haircut too?"
The kid's eyes somehow got even wider. "Can I get it done like yours, Papa?" He tugged at his bangs, trying to look up at them and not doing a good job of it. Then he caught sight of Honda. "Whoa… you've got Papa's hair too!"
Honda held back a laugh. "It's what all the really awesome people have these days," he confided. "I don't think you quite have the hair for it yet, though."
Rick pouted. There was no other word for it. Then he brightened and it was like the sun coming up. "So I'll grow my hair until I can! Cause I'm gonna be just as awesome as Papa is one day!"
The corner of Honda's mouth quirked upward. This kid so clearly adored his dad it was practically written across him in letters of fire. "You do that, then."
He brushed himself off one last time. "I've got to be going, though." He bid the barber and the other two farewell and headed out the door, the sound of Cobra and Rick's amused chatter fading away as he did.
Cute kid. Wonder if he's gonna go to that school Kaiba's been going on about. He looked a bit young for it, but if it really took off, then who knew? It was possible.
He could not help the image of that kid with a spike hairstyle of his own, darkened to a rich brown with age, fighting with a warrior deck while his father cheered him on. It almost made him want to have a kid of his own one day.
Oh well. Plenty of time for that in the future. And he strolled on down the street.
The End
Note: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the story. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.