Summary: M-21's hair is getting long; Tao knows what to do to convince him to get it cut.

Post-season 5.

Convince

By Dark Ice Dragon

M-21 had started drinking his tea in the living room when he felt someone's hands in his hair. There was only one person who would do that and he sighed, not pulling away.

"Tao, what are you doing?"

"Braiding your hair; it's getting kinda long." Tao split his hair into three parts and was twisting them together.

"And how do you know how to do that?" Tao's hair was shorter than his own, so there was no reason for him to know.

"Takeo."

"…Right."

Tao petted the braid and then let it go. M-21 felt it unravelling straight away.

M-21 ran a hand through his hair, making sure it was back to normal. Once he was sure, he eyed Tao, knowing better than to open his mouth.

"It's not long enough to tie up. Yet."

"You're going to do that every day until I get it cut, aren't you?"

"Maaaybe."

Which meant 'yes'.

"Anyway, that's my break over, so I'll see ya later, M!" Tao waved and turned to go further into the house.

"Mmhm." Which Tao was gone, M-21 went back to drinking his tea in peace.

xOx

The next time Tao got him, M-21 had been warming something in the microwave.

"Hey, hold still – it'll be lopsided if you keep moving."

"I'm trying to eat."

"And I'm trying to sort your hair out."

"You can explain to Frankenstein why there's food all over the floor then."

"I'm not distracting you so much you'd drop your plate."

"I might if I elbow you."

"Ha, ha, funny."

M-21 kept still anyway.

xOx

"You know, I think your hair's growing faster."

"That's because you keep pulling it."

Tao nudged him in the shoulder. "I am not pulling it."

"Uh-huh."

"Next time I'm getting hairspray so your hair stays like this."

"And then I'll wash it out."

Another nudge. "Fine then, ruin my fun why don't you?"

"You're already playing with my hair on a daily basis."

"More of my fun."

xOx

Tao's face fell at the scissors in M-21's hand. "Aw, you don't like the braiding? It was just about long enough to tie up!"

"I thought the reason you started doing that was because it was getting long," M-21 said, shaking his head. It was getting annoying fighting to keep his hair out his eyes every other minute.

"Well… Yeah. But still." Tao looked at the scissors again and then held out his hand. "If you do it yourself it'll be uneven."

M-21 didn't care, but he handed them over. "You learned from cutting Takeo's hair too?" he asked wryly.

Tao laughed and waved him towards a stool. "Right – he wouldn't let me near his hair with a sharp object. I think it was because of Shark," he added under his breath.

"I had to do my own hair," Tao continued.

That made sense, but… "Here?" In the kitchen?

"It'll be easier to sweep your hair up here than hoovering carpet."

"Ah, yeah." M-21 sat down on the stool and felt Tao's fingers go through his hair.

"How long?"

"When we first saw each other," M-21 said after a pause.

"Coming right up!"

M-21 snorted but didn't move as Tao selected a part of his hair.

"It would be funny if your hair-"

Kkkck!

There was a second of silence before Tao burst out laughing and M-21 groaned, realising what had happened.

"S-so," Tao wheezed, letting go of his hair, "I need to make you a special set of scissors too, huh?"

M-21 just sighed and nodded. "And buy Frankenstein a new pair of scissors." Because it had to be destroyed if his experience with regular nailfiles was anything to go by.

"Haha, yeah, of course." Tao was still grinning when M-21 got off the stool. "Buuut it takes a while to get all the materials, so in the meantime… Can I braid your hair again?" he asked, looking as pleading as he could, his eyes wide (and trying to be innocent).

With a snort, M-21 turned back around and let Tao play with his hair.

Written for the otpprompt prompt, 'Person A badly needs a haircut but is too lazy to get one, so Person B decides to braid their hair whenever he sits down to annoy them into booking a haircut. Person A either secretly enjoys braids and it becomes a daily routine or one of them gives in to the other. Bonus round: the new haircut surprises the OTP.'

Now has fanart! :D The link is in my profile.