A/N: Hello, my lovelies. How might thou be this fine day? Welcome to my first TIH fic! Well, the first one I'm posting anyway. None of the others are anywhere near ready to be posted. But enough about that. Thanks go to the wonderful stormygrace for the beautiful cover art. You're a doll, my dear. And now, onward!
Disclaimer: I don't own Ten Inch Hero, or Priestly, Or Tish. But, man! Do I want a Priestly! He's so awesome and wonderful!
"That was fun," Tish Madison sighed happily as she unlocked her apartment. Behind her, Boaz Priestly nodded his agreement. After setting her purse and keys down on the counter, the couple flopped down on Tish's couch.
Though they'd agreed against sleeping together in favor of a more meaningful relationship, Tish and Priestly both enjoyed sitting and snuggling on the couch to unwind after a date night.
As they watched Priestly's favorite movie, Tish couldn't help feeling something was off about them. While their banter and how they acted together hadn't changed, the young woman couldn't help but feel that something in their relationship just wasn't quite right.
She cast a surreptitious glance over at her boyfriend of six weeks, taking in his white tshirt, nice jeans, and only slightly disheveled hair.
When he finally noticed his girlfriend's eyes on him, Priestly looked to her and gave her a smirk. "I know I look good, Tish, but I have to admit the staring is making me a little uncomfortable."
The joke had its desired effect, and Tish shook herself out of her stupor. "Please," she snorted a chuckle, "my staring has never made you uncomfortable."
"This is true." With smiles still on their faces, they leaned in to share a kiss. Tish lifted her hand to Priestly's jaw, but his smooth skin made her pause.
Priestly noticed her hesitation and pulled away. "Everything okay?" he asked gently.
"Yeah," Tish answered quickly, giving herself a mental head slap. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Priestly studied Tish a little while longer, looking for any sign that she wasn't fine. Finding none, he leaned back toward her for another kiss.
That same discomfort from before slammed Tish, so much so that she jerked away from Priestly. "I can't," she gasped, jumping to her feet.
"Tish, what's wrong?" Priestly asked. All his insecurities rose to the forefront, and he feared that, after all these weeks together, he still wasn't good enough for Tish.
"I-I don't know," Tish stammered, hands hiding her face as she paced her living room.
"Did I do something wrong?" asked Priestly. "Something that made you uncomfortable?"
"No! No, you didn't do anything," Tish insisted in exasperation.
"Then what's going on? What's making you uncomfortable?"
"I don't know, okay!" Tish finally snapped. "I don't know what's wrong, but something about this just isn't right."
Tears sprang to Priestly's eyes. This was just what he'd feared: the woman he loved telling him that she didn't want him after all.
What he didn't know was that Tish was just as upset about this as he was. Priestly was the first man to want her for who she was, not how she looked or how good she was in bed, and she dearly wanted to hold onto that.
"What can I do, Tish?" Priestly asked helplessly, desperately. "How can I fix this?"
"I don't know, Priestly," she cried. As she said his name, a thought occurred to Tish. She looked back at her boyfriend and took in his appearance.
The clean cut man before her, in a plain tshirt under a nice button down and a pair of brand new jeans, didn't fit the man she'd befriended so long ago. Every time he moved or she turned to look at him, she expected to see a brightly colored mohawk or obnoxious tshirt. But every time, she was disappointed to see this well dressed stranger.
'Is that what's wrong?' she asked herself. "I'll be right back," she said cryptically and left the room. Standing alone in his confusion and heartbreak, Priestly could only wonder what Tish was doing and how he could change himself to fix this problem.
When Tish returned a minute later, she tossed a bottle at Priestly. "Here, use this," she commanded vaguely.
Looking at the tube in his hands, Priestly saw it was a bottle of pink hair gel that he remembered Tish buying for a Halloween costume the year before. "What do you want me to do with this?"
"Just go to the bathroom and use it," Tish grumbled, giving the taller man a shove toward the bathroom.
Getting the hint, Priestly stalked off to the bathroom and closed the door, rather loudly, behind him. He looked at himself in the mirror, then glanced down at the bottle of gel in his hand. "She doesn't mean..." he mused in wonder.
It was true that Priestly didn't like his new clean cut look, much preferring the witty tshirts and spiky hair to the Banana Republic style he was sporting now. But he'd wanted to be a man Tish could be proud of, proud to proclaim was hers. But now, she was giving him pink hair gel and telling him to "use it."
Taking the gamble, Priestly uncapped the bottle and squeezed some gel out into the palm of his hand. As he worked the gel through his hair, spiking it up and tinting it pink, Priestly began to feel more like himself. He realized that the crazy hair and clothes weren't his mask. The preppy Banana Republic look was his mask, and he was tired of wearing it. He wanted to be his real self.
Satisfied with both the spikes and the epiphany, Priestly took a deep breath and headed back to the living room and his girlfriend. 'If she'll even still be my girlfriend after this,' he thought self-deprecatingly.
When he reentered the living room, Tish stood to face her boyfriend, hoping dearly that he had gotten her message, however vague it was. As soon as she saw the bright pink mohawk, that crushing dread flew off of her shoulders and was replaced with blessed relief.
'That's my Priestly,' she thought happily as she approached him. Seeing the nervous look on Priestly's face, Tish gave him a reassuring grin. "That's what was wrong," she said.
"What? The mohawk?" Priestly was glad to see her smile at the colored spikes, but it just made him even more confused.
"Yep," answered Tish. "While you look very handsome with this clean cut, good boy look, it's not you. The real Priestly is the guy who changes his hair color like I change clothes." The chuckle that statement drew from Priestly made Tish's smile grow even bigger. "That's what was wrong here. Real Priestly needed to come back."
Tears once again stung Priestly's eyes, but this time they were happy tears. But Priestly didn't want Tish to see his tears, so he leaned down for a kiss, and this time, Tish didn't turn away.
"Best kiss ever," Tish hummed in content. Priestly couldn't agree more as he held her closely. "Now, this is right."
A/N: Yay! Happy ending! I love happy endings. Well, you know the drill. Tell me what you think in a review! Thanks for reading!