To say Yuri was baffled was an understatement.
He could never have imagined how on Terca Lumireis Estelle had gotten their hair tangled up together, but leave it to the clumsy princess to keep surprising him.
It had started with a simple question.
"Yuri, can I braid your hair?"
Yuri paused for a moment, unsure if he heard her correctly, although he was seated on the ground right next to her. He turned and stared at her for a moment before replying.
"Come again?"
Estelle shifted in her seat nervously, wringing her casual sky-blue dress in her hands. She met his eyes before trying again.
"I'd… like to try braiding your hair… please?"
Yuri smirked and relaxed in his spot on the floor. He was thankful that he wore his usual garb today, as it definitely made it easier to stretch out and kick back a little.
"You know, Judy has some pretty long hair, and come to think of it, yours is coming along nicely, too. You could just try braiding yours or hers."
It was true; it had been about 2 years since the fall of the Adephagos, and Estelle had started growing her hair out, "just because", she had always told him. It had now started reaching down past her shoulders.
Estelle tried once more.
"But... I don't know where Judy is right now, and I think it would be easier to try on someone else than my own... I just learned how to do it in this book, see?"
Yuri glanced at her tome, outstretched towards him. Sure enough, it was a collection of hairstyles and how to make them. She'd apparently become curious about what she could do with her own after it had grown out some more.
He sighed; it certainly didn't help that, mere days ago, Karol had practically kicked him out of their base of operations in Dahngrest, saying he should "take a day off or two", and Flynn nearly shoved him out his office window at Zaphias Castle yesterday, stating he was "too busy to deal with him today". So he found himself here, in Halure, reading a book Estelle had forced onto him. Some typical story about princesses and knights in shining armor. Whatever.
Any other day, he might've found a perfect excuse not be her guinea pig, but he really had none, and Estelle knew it too.
He looked up at her, and found a slightly forlorn look on her face, coupled with the perfect pout. Gods be damned, if she couldn't get him to do what she wanted with that look.
"...Alright fine. Just don't... yank too much, okay?"
Estelle beamed, and it seemed as though a bright light had just been lit in the room.
"Oh, thank you! I'll do my best to be careful!"
She pulled off her gloves and sat up in her seat, and Yuri shifted until his back was facing her. She seemed hesitant at first, but slowly began running her fingers through his dark hair. He was surprised by how relaxing the simple motion was. This was a sensation he'd never felt before, and immediately, he felt like he was going to fall asleep.
Until a tug jolted him awake again. It wasn't a particularly hard pull, and definitely wasn't intentional, but Yuri could sense her growing frustration as she tried over and over again, yet still couldn't weave the strands just right.
Yuri furrowed his brow a little when he felt another tug.
"Doing okay back there?"
Estelle seemed deep in concentration, but answered him anyways.
"It's, umm... I could use some more practice..."
"Well, that's what we're doing now, right?"
"R-right..."
Yuri could tell everything wasn't so great, and could almost picture the disaster his hair had become. He forced down any laughter, to spare Estelle's feelings, of course. She was trying her best, after all.
"...Okay, I think that's... well, it's not perfect, but... it's a start?" Estelle held the ends of his hair together, and a sheepish smile graced her features. Yuri merely shrugged.
"Got something to tie it off with, then?"
"Uhh... oh! This will do!"
From where she was seated, Estelle couldn't easily reach her vanity, but on her side table was a single rubber band, among other things. Yuri blanched as soon as he saw it in her hand; in his experience, rubber bands hadn't been kind to his hair.
"Estelle, I don't think that's-"
"Oh! I think I can fix this part if I just-"
In one hand, she had been in the middle of tying the ends together. In the other, she tried fixing one of the strands that had been messily weaved together. At this point, she was leaning over her work, too focused to notice that her own hair was getting caught up in the mess.
Suddenly, everything went still. A moment of silence passed before Yuri tried looking over his shoulder to ask if something was wrong. That's when he felt a small bump to his back, and he immediately knew what had happened.
"O-oh dear..." Estelle spoke quietly, and Yuri could practically see the absolute horror on her face as she realized she had essentially tied them together.
"...Did you just-"
"W-wait! I can fix this!"
A sharp yank left him reeling off balance, and he fell backwards onto her.
"Oh gosh! I'm so sorry, Yuri!"
"Ha ha... well, this isn't awkward at all," Yuri chuckled, in spite of himself.
He moved to sit up, but was pulled back down when Estelle had tried to move off to the side.
"Sorry!"
Puzzled, Yuri's mind raced through different scenarios; when stuck together, where did one even start? He finally decided that being sprawled out on the floor would get them nowhere, and he'd actually have to see the damage to start trying to fix it.
"Hmm... try moving with me, okay?"
They slowly sat back up together, and simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief.
"Okay Estelle, what part of your hair is stuck with mine? I want to turn around to see what we're dealing with here."
"Er, the left side..."
As gently as he could, Yuri turned around until he was just about face-to-face with Estelle. Or rather, nose-to-nose, and Estelle's face flushed almost instantly when he looked at her.
He set himself to work attempting to detangle the large knot the accursed rubber band had caused. Several minutes passed, and he didn't realize he was wearing a face of pure irritation until Estelle broke the silence.
"I'm really, really sorry, Yuri..."
He stopped and, with what little movement he could make, shifted his eyes to her face. She looked absolutely heartbroken, and he felt as though he had gotten punched in the gut.
"Hey, it was an accident. And I'm pissed about this rubber band, not you," he tried to brush the situation off casually. Estelle suddenly looked like she was about to cry, and panic quickly set in.
"I just... wanted to practice, so one day... one day I could be pretty, too..."
A strange feeling overtook Yuri in that moment, and he placed a hand on her shoulder. She shifted her face upward, her emerald eyes meeting his steel.
"You don't need to change a thing about yourself, Estelle, not a damn thing."
"Y-Yuri..?"
"You want to be beautiful? Then just be you. You don't need makeup or hairstyles, or anything trivial like that."
His face softened in the wake of her stunned expression.
"Don't believe me? I'll tell you what puts you above the rest: it's your kindness. Your concern for others' well-being makes you radiant."
He smiled before continuing.
"And your radiance puts Brave Vesperia to shame. That's how beautiful you are."
Yuri knew exactly how cheesy his last line had been, but knowing Estelle, he figured it would be the best way to reach her. He was willing to put aside his pride for a moment to bring her spirits back up. Not only that, but he truly meant it.
As they had traveled together, he'd always- in the very back of his mind- thought she was fairly cute. However, time was extremely kind to her, and she quickly blossomed into an elegant angel. And over time, he would catch himself staring at her, and would hastily regain his composure before she could notice.
He knew Estelle had low self-esteem, but hearing her degrade herself made his heart twist something awful.
Estelle was still astonished by his words, a gentle blush present on her cheeks. Tears filled her eyes, and finally, she found her voice again.
"Do you... really mean that?"
"Absolutely," Yuri nodded firmly, "don't change yourself... please."
Her lip quivered, and a tear escaped her eye. Placing his hand on her face, he used his thumb to brush her tear away, but kept his hand there.
He leaned in slowly and kissed her then. She hadn't moved from her spot- not that she could, but at least she made no attempt to pull away. He wasn't sure what exactly had come over him in that moment, but something told him it was the right thing to do. After a few seconds, Estelle wrapped her arms over his shoulders and returned his kiss. He set his other hand on her waist and pulled her closer. Everything seemed perfect in that moment; all the trouble Yuri had been through these past two days didn't seem to matter any more.
When they finally pulled away, however, they realized they couldn't get very far, and remembered their current predicament.
"So... about this, then..." Yuri muttered quietly, a small dusting of color made itself known on his face.
"...Uh huh..." Estelle was still in a daze, it seemed.
Yuri considered their situation carefully, then smirked mischievously when an idea came to him.
"We could always just do this the easy way," he stated coolly, and held up his sword of choice, Second Star, which was never far from his reach. Estelle snapped out of her daze in a heartbeat.
"Yuri no!"
"Gah!"
Instinctively, she pulled away quickly, but dragged Yuri down with her. Second Star clattered off in the room somewhere after flying out of his hand. Thankfully, he had stopped himself from completely crashing into her by bracing his arms on the floor, but that didn't stop him from falling nearly on top of her rather gracelessly. Estelle opened her eyes, and immediately guffawed at the face of absolute shock on Yuri. He definitely wasn't expecting that, and his face slowly shifted to a mixture of slight annoyance and amusement.
"Oh, that's really funny, right?" he questioned with feigned seriousness.
"S-sorry, it's just... your face was-" her peals of laughter were finally calming down, but a bright smile was still in its place. Yuri moved to sit up again, and realized that, in the last collision, the rubber band had broken, and they were free.
"Aww... and here I was kinda hoping that would last a little longer," Yuri winked at her playfully.
"Yuri! You're... you're mean!" was all Estelle could think to say. She was still trapped underneath him, he realized, so he bent down to kiss her again before pulling himself upright all the way.
"It's okay if you want to experiment for fun, but you're fine the way you are, I promise."
They shifted back to their original seats, and Yuri picked up his book, paying no mind to the complete wreck of his hair.
"You can practice with my hair anytime if you want, but don't get too crazy, okay?" he grinned at her before turning back to story in his hands.
Estelle smiled, and picked up her hairbrush to fix her own.
"Thank you, Yuri."
AN: Aaaand done! It's my first time writing something romantic (MY OTP HHHNNNGGGHH), so it might be a little awkward, haha! I absolutely love reading YuriXEstelle fanfics, but there definitely aren't enough to satisfy my fangirl needs, so I figured, why not help contribute to the fandom?
Special thanks to my older sister for helping me figure out details for this story, and to HiroNinja for grammar/spell-checking, suggesting, and editing!