Hi! Here's another fanfic from me to you! And this is dedicated to my friend MadcapMila! You're so awesome! Enjoy everyone!

Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of the Abyss. If I did, GuyxLuke would sooo be an official pairing. But it's not... why'd you have to make the yaoi fan girls cry? Why?

One dry, desert morning in Chesedonia, at the Kimlascan-side inn…

"Luke! What's taking you so long in there?" Natalia raised her voice toward the other side of the bathroom door.

"Maybe he fell in," Jade joked, lifting his arms and shrugging as he closed his eyes, corners of his mouth hinting towards a grin, Of course, Natalia and the other occupants of the room in the inn - Tear, Anise, Ion, and Mieu – still couldn't tell whether the Colonel was kidding or not, which made sense, despite it being such a simple comment. In Zao Ruins, while looking for Ion there, he had made it perfectly clear that he was going to make it a point to drive them crazy as part of his goal to "create a memorable character".

Other than Luke, Guy wasn't in the room waiting like the rest of the party. No one really knew where he went, but unlike a certain redheaded individual he was a lot more responsible and therefore much more trusted on his own.

"What's taking you so long?" Anise complained as she knocked on the door in frustration. "Other people here need to use the bathroom too!"

"Hold on a second!" Luke growled from the other side of the door. "Geez…"

"He's done this every single morning," Tear sighed out of aggravation, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she sat on one of the beds in the room.

Concerned for his master, Mieu called out in his squeaky voice, "Master, did you fall in? Are you all wet? Are you okay? You didn't drown did you?" as he flapped his big fluffy ears.

"Shut up, Thing! I'm in the middle of something here!" Luke shouted from the other side.

"Mieu…" cried the Cheagle, lowering his ears and looking down with a hangdog expression.

"Just what, exactly, are you doing in there that's taking so long? This is more than just rude, Luke!" Natalia exclaimed, irritated by the redhead's behavior.

"I said shut up! I'm doing something!"

"Then what are you doing?" Anise inquired.

"Nothing!" Luke shot out before yelping in pain. "Ouch… not so hard…"

"Who are you talking to, Luke?" Ion asked kindly, as always, curious about what the redhead was doing rather than giving him grief, which the ladies were giving him plenty of now.

"N-no one!" Luke stammered.

"Nah-ah-ah. You shouldn't lie, Luke," Jade smirked.

"Really, there's no one in here other than me. Now leave me alone!"

The girls gathered up at the bathroom door, quite done with Luke's current behavior, and Natalia did the honors of turning the knob and opening the door. A startled cry left Luke's mouth as the door flew open and knocked the redhead off his block and onto Guy. The blonde was without his gloves, his sleeves were rolled up, and held a brush in one hand and some of Luke's hair that looked like it was in the process of being spiked and gelled in the other. As everyone looked upon the scene, they noticed a mess of cans and bottles of hair product and spray strewn across the bathroom sink, as well as some that were knocked onto the floor.

"That's more hair stuff than me, Tear, and Natalia combined!" Anise gasped out in amazement. She then looked toward Guy and questioned, "You were in here this whole time?"

"Well, yeah…" Guy put down the brush and started to scratch the back of his head with his non-gelled up hand, uneasily wondering how to go about the situation. His other hand went away from Luke's hair and rested on the floor.

"Why?" Natalia asked, her eyes blinking in confusion.

"Well-"

"Guy!" Luke hastily shot out.

"Luke, calm down. It's okay," Guy tried to reassure his friend. He then directed his attention to all the others, some of which were poking their heads in to get a better view of what was now the main attraction. "A lot more often than not, I usually help Luke out with doing his hair."

Everyone stood silent, letting the explanation sink in. Natalia was the first to come out of her thoughts and say "Is this another one of your duties, Guy?"

Guy was starting to run out of things to say, or more like he had never prepared on telling others about what Luke had him do in the mornings. Eventually he replied, "It kind of is and it kind of isn't." Save for Jade, everyone else furrowed their brows in confusion. Seeing this, Guy added, "You didn't think that his hairstyle was a one-person job, did you? It's a bit of a pain to do."

Luke elbowed Guy in the side as he turned his head and shot the blonde a worried look.

This was something the redhead did not want getting out. It wasn't so bad as it was embarrassing. Back at the manor it was awkward enough for the both of them, with all the maids and even Pere teasing them about the long drawn out early morning routine. More specifically, Luke was getting all-out perplexed about what some of the maids meant when they said, "What else do you and Guy do in there?" of course referring to either Luke's room or one of the bathrooms, and Guy was either poked fun at for just styling the redhead's hair, being accused of doing something else (Luke crying out when getting a knot brushed out did not help), or even rushing in just in time to get Luke out of the same hallway or room before the maid or maids in question defiled the redhead's ears with an explicit explanation of what they meant by their inquiries and remarks. And thank freaking Lorelei that Duke Fabre didn't catch wind of any of it, he simply thought Luke did his hair himself or one of the maids took care of it. He definitely didn't suspect Guy to be the stylist. The Duchess knew and was seemingly the only saint there as to make no big deal out of it.

At any rate, because of what happened back at the manor, Luke and Guy mutually agreed to keep quiet about the daily routine since traveling with everyone else, especially Jade.

"Is that all you're doing?" Jade teased.

So much for that.

"Well, even if it were," Jade paused, slightly adjusting his glasses, "I'd say it's not so much of a 'job' as it is just that Guy likes to play with Luke's hair."

"Oh… oh!" Anise gasped, first thinking about her diminishing chances (there was no chance to begin with) of marrying Luke for money, then perking right back up as another interest of hers came to mind. "I never thought things were like that between you two!"

Guy and Luke cringed. It was going to be like the manor again, only worse.

Tear stood silently at the doorway. She wasn't going to add fuel to the fire, but she wasn't going to save them either. To her, it was payment for stalling everyone else every single day.

"Yay! Master didn't fall in the toilet!" Mieu cheered as he hopped around in circles in celebration.

"Shut up, Thing!" Luke yelled.

"Mieu…" the Cheagle pouted.

"He fell on Guy though," Jade teased.

Luke growled in annoyance at the jab.

"I think that it's nice that they have such a good relationship as to not be too bothered about doing the other's hair," Ion innocently commented, adding in his two gald. "It's as adorable as a bunch of cute bouncing Cheagles!" After that statement Tear went off to lala land on a 'cute' tangent and Anise was gone, snickering at how Ion used the word 'relationship' and not 'friendship'.

"Yeah, but shouldn't Luke be able to do his own hair by now?" Natalia asked.

"I do!" Luke shouted indignantly.

"Then why make Guy do it?" Jade smiled amusedly.

Luke's eyes shifted, glancing around as if the walls had the excuses he needed written on them. He had no such fortune. There was a specific reason he still had Guy do his hair most of the time, just one that he wasn't going to admit openly.

"Because… he does it better and… he's good with his hands and stuff…?" the redhead had faltered in explaining upon hearing himself. As if sensing that he had not fully gotten to the point, everyone other than Guy, who was still on the floor behind him (Luke was actually sitting on the blonde), stared at him…

And stared at him…

…And stared at him…

"Okay! Okay! I… I like it when he pets me…" Luke mumbled softly, hoping no one heard him and that they would quit pushing the subject.

"What was that now? We couldn't hear you. Speak up," Jade goaded the redhead, his voice laced with amusement.

"I said I like it when he pets me! There. Happy now?" Luke huffed, crossing his arms and using his long hair like a curtain to hide the blush radiating on his face. Guy couldn't help but blush and hide his face as well, turning his face away to vainly avoid the gazes and once again scratching the back of his head out of nervous habit. As for the rest of the party, Natalia was surprised upon hearing the declaration, Tear found the scene in the bathroom to be cute, Ion was gently smiling, Anise was smiling wider than before for completely different reasons than Ion, Mieu was bouncing around singing, "I like to be pet, too!", and Jade stood there and smirked.

Anise, who was now feeling especially impish, then asked with a smug grin, "If Luke already knows how to style his own hair, then why does Guy still do it knowing that?"

The blonde in question halted his previous actions, in exchange for expressing the horror he felt in that it was now his turned to be picked on by widening his eyes and curving his mouth into a slight frown. "Well…"

"Well?" the Fon Master Guardian egged on.

Guy sighed, relaxing his features. "I guess… it's kind of fun to do-"

"I thought you said it was a pain to do," Luke interrupted.

Guy gave Luke a sheepish grin before continuing. "I really don't know… it's really calming though. I don't mind doing it…"

"Aaand?" Anise pressed.

"…And… I guess you could say I like the bonding time." Guy and Luke both turned red once more after running the words through their minds one more time.

Anise began waving her whole body back and forth out of joy, cheering, "Oh wow! I can't believe how adorable they look together! Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so!"

"Who are you talking to?" Luke questioned as he shot her a bewildered look.

"As much fun as we're all having here, we do need to move on," Jade spoke up. "I do hope everyone is ready now. Or do you two still need some morning bonding time?"

"We'll be there in a second! Just go!" Luke snarled and made waving motions with his hand indicating for them to go away.

"As you wish." With that said they went down to the lobby to wait, the girls giving up on the bathroom Guy and Luke were occupying and hoping to find one elsewhere.

Luke suddenly fell back onto Guy's chest, prompting the blonde to ask, "What's wrong?"

"I'm stressed…" Luke paused, thinking about what else to say.

"To much excitement this morning, huh?" Guy asked as he played with a few strands of his friend's hair. Luke silently nodded. "Is there anything I should do?"

"…Pet me," Luke suggested.

"What?"

"Just pet me dammit."