Kairi smiled at the way Riku pushed up into her hands like a cat as she ran her fingers through his hair. Ever since the boys' return to Destiny Islands, Riku had come to her each morning and let her play with and eventually pull back his hair into whatever style she wanted. There was only one rule about doing Riku's hair, and that was his bangs had to be left alone.
It was a nice arrangement, and it soothed Kairi's own worries that the boys had once again left her behind, when she awoke to her father and a very sleepy Riku making breakfast and discussing things like after school enrichment activities for the Islands. They would eat breakfast and Kairi would distract the pair with whatever gossip she'd heard from Selphie the day before and the atmosphere would take on that nostalgic dreamlike quality that reminded her of before the Door opened.
The next step of their morning routine included her dad clearing the table as Kairi got out her extensive collection of hair supplies and Riku made himself comfortable sitting slightly hunched in front of the the sofa so she could brush out his hair without having to stretch out awkwardly. She kept the mood light by handing him ridiculous hair ties to choose from as she gently eased the knots out of his long hair. It always amused her as she worked on his mid-back length hair that it was Riku who had ended up with the longest hair of the three of them; people had always assumed she, the only girl of their group, would have taken that position but no, it was Riku who never bothered with cutting his hair in the two years he was away.
Some time during the brushing of Riku's hair, her dad would head back upstairs to get ready for work. During that brief timeframe Riku would tell her stories of the worlds he'd been to and the people he'd met. They weren't like Sora's stories, full of adventures and companions and grateful people. No, Riku's stories were brightdark times, saving people from the shadows, both literal and figurative, or occasionally after a bad night, stories of Maleficent and his time spent with her. She knew he didn't talk about the worst moments, too scared of her father coming down at the wrong moment, and sometimes he was just too scared of himself. Most of the time she would hum in the appropriate places to show she was listening and run her fingers through his hair soothingly under the pretense of considering hairstyles. Riku never mentioned it, but she knew he appreciated the lack of judgement she gave while listening to his stories.
Eventually her dad would come down again, Riku hearing his descent as soon as her dad's foot hit the top of the stairs and changing, often mid-sentence, back to talking about the local drama. Her dad would eventually enter the room, kiss her on the forehead and playfully threaten Riku to keep her safe, to which he always replied with the utmost sincerity that she could take care of herself, but he would do her best when she lapsed. She would shove him gently in the shoulder in joking protest, but she could never hide her wide smile that crept onto her face whenever he expressed his faith in her. Her dad would laugh, but she could see it in his eyes that he knew that Riku was being serious. Her dad then would break the moment by grabbing his briefcase and heading to work, once again leaving her alone with Riku.
In the moment of silence right after her dad left, Kairi would finally actually start styling Riku's hair. The gentle tugging would on occasion coax him into taking a nap, which she would only realize when she got to the end and asked for a hair tie and be met with absolute silence. The fact that he didn't jolt awake when she talked to him made her grin at the subconscious show of trust. On days where Riku slept, she would gently pull out the styling she had done and would start something more elaborate since he wasn't awake to protest.
Today Kairi decided to go all out as Riku napped, back against the sofa and slightly hunched over. Drawing inspiration from a princess's hairstyle in a book she was reading she carefully started weaving the front of Riku's hair into braided headband, being careful to leave enough hair for the rest of her plans and to leave his bangs undisturbed. She tied off the end and looped the unbraided section for the aesthetic. Kairi hummed and considered her hair supplies before fishing out a tiny bundle of pink flowers that matched her favorite dress and carefully threaded them into the braid. She sat back and considered her work so far and giggled as she looked at the contrast between the flowers and Riku's silver hair, already imagining the ribbing Sora was going to give Riku when they met up later.
Taking a deep breath to resettle herself she started working on the harder part of her plan. She ran her fingers through the back part of Riku's hair considering, twisting bits into tight spirals and then letting them loose and watching his hair settle. Riku's hair could be interesting to work with, it was thick overall with lots of body, but the strands themselves were very fine, which could make it finicky to style. Eventually she pulled out the heavy duty bobby pins and started styling.
She sectioned off Riku's hair into four bits, two on each side of his part just behind the headband braid. She twisted each section tightly and secured them down with both actual functional bobby pins and sparkly fascinators. Then she pulled from the base of his head, separating his hair into multiple smaller sections and twisting them up and together causing the free strands to look like a cascading ponytail. Kairi then fished out a delicate hair comb from the pile of hair supplies, one Sora had brought back and given to her, and put it into Riku's hair, taking great care to avoid all the bobby pins she had just spent so long putting in. The jade and delicate pink flower decorated hair comb slid in with little resistance and Kairi nodded to herself as she leaned back to take in the whole effect.
Kairi fussed minorly, tucking in stray hairs, then nudged Riku awake with her socked foot. Riku groaned quietly and stretched up and back into her lap, being careful with his head, before slowly climbing to his feet. He shook his head slightly, testing how sturdy his hairstyle was for the day. Kairi looked up at him expectantly, "Feel good?"
Riku frowned slightly, "Needs another couple pins in back, but otherwise fine. Should I expect comments from Sora about my hair today?"
"Of course!" Kairi giggled into her hands, "Now come back down here, you giant, and point out the spots that need help."
Riku knelt back down and pointed out a couple spots near the edge of the comb, "Here and here," he paused as she put the pins in before doing a few more test shakes, "One more here, and then just the hair spray."
"You got it!" Kairi agreed and put in the last pin before pulling out the hairspray. Because of Riku's sensitive nose, they used an unscented, very gel-like spray instead of the traditional aerosol spray that Kairi had normally used previously. A few seconds of spraying later, the pair retreated to their rooms to go get ready for school for the day and Riku finally got to see his fancy hairstyle.
When Kairi got back downstairs, Riku was waiting by the door while Sora bounced up and down in front of him. She heard Sora say in a sing song voice, "You have flowers in your hair, pink ones!"
"I think they look nice, Kairi did a good job."
Sora rolled his eyes in response to Riku's flat response, "Of course, Kairi did it so of course it's perfect. Geeze Riku, don't be so sensitive."
"I'm a princess, of course I'm good with hair," Kairi called from the top of the stairs, "Now let's get to class before the administration finds more reasons to try to hold you two back."
Sora jumped, too high to be quite natural, "Shhhh, don't give the universe ideas Kairi, my ego couldn't take being held back again."
Riku snickered into his hand, "That's what you get for sleeping for months, you lazy bum."
Sora put his hands on his hips, "At least I was sleeping! What's your excuse?"
"Boys, argue and walk, or we'll never get to school!" Kairi said as she threaded her hands into both of her friend's hands and pulled them along, unable to hide her smile. They may not know where things were going, but for now they had each other and it was enough.
My contribution to the Ties That Bind Zine, greatly fed by friends Birby and TC. This maaaay lead down a rabbit hole later. Anyways, we Need more Riku and Kairi being friends and currently I'm providing.
Also, inspiration for the hairstyle is a demented cross between Lunfreya from ff15 and Lindsey Stirling the Violinist.
Anyways, yell at me mikiri on tumblr!