As Dave was carelessly clamboring out of the large pot he had been stewing in, his reflection caught his eye between the floating onions and carrots. He sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair, lightly pulling some of it straight out from his head and staring a bit.

GC: D4VE! WH4T 4R3 YOU DO1NG NOW?
GC: YOU SUR3 4R3 T4K1NG YOUR T1ME LOOK1NG THOUGHTFULLY 1NTO TH4T SP1CY COOLK1DL3SS SOUP
GC: 4R3 TH3 ON1ONS ST1LL C4US1NG YOU EMOT1ON4L TURMO1L?
TG: nah im thinking of eating it
TG: im starved and this coolkidless coolkid soup sounds like just the thing that would hit the spot
TG: water and root vegetables graced with perfection by whatever skin cells and stray bicolor hairs i left behind
TG: smooth with just a hint of cannibalism
TG: be a shame to let this crap go to waste
GC: B1COLOR H41RS?
TG: never mind

'I'm going to have to take care of this soon.' He smoothed the hair he was messing with back into place and continued on his way.

It had been about four months since the beginning of their journey.

When Dave deigned to grace the others with his presence, which was often because even the most aloof of assholes needed some human and/or troll interaction, Karkat had taken to staring at him.

Dave figured it was harmless, and honestly it probably was. He just hadn't gotten around to teasing the troll about it yet. He would eventually. Karkat's staring was increasing in length and intensity as time wore on, so he could take his time.

It didn't completely catch him off-guard when Rose brought it up first one day on one of the rare occasions where all of the meteor's occupants were eating together.

"Why the recent fascination with Dave, Karkat?" she said, less a question and more a statement that demanded a response.

Karkat jumped, apparently caught off guard by the observation, and turned to Rose, gesturing at Dave's hair.

"Why is it doing that?"

"You're gonna have to be more specific, Kar-dear," Dave drawled. "My body does a lot of things, many I'm sure you're very interested in."

Karkat glared at him and opened his mouth to deliver a no-doubt furious retort when Kanaya cut in.

"I had been wondering about that myself, actually," she said. "You humans do appear to have more variety in hair color than we do, but does it really change as much as Dave's is appearing to? It has changed at least once significantly throughout his lifetime from what I witnessed on the timeline feature provided by Trollian, and it appears to be changing again, though more slowly than the first time. It is very similar to his original color, though perhaps a tad darker."

"So that's why he was smelling more toasty!" Terezi said in exaggerated wonder.

Rose laughed.

"I assure you, while some humans' hair occasionally changes throughout their lives, it generally does not do so this abruptly."

"Then what is it?" Kanaya asked. "Is it some kind of disease?"

Dave made an offended noise, but Rose spoke over him.

"I take it you neglected to pack any hair dye in your sylladex, Dave," she said, her teasing smirk growing more pronounced.

"Yeah, no shit," he said. "We were in kind of a hurry when we left, and it wasn't exactly at the forefront of my mind when we ventured out. I didn't arrive on LOHAC and immediately say, 'Oh hey, there's a chance I'm gonna have to spend three years on a cold rock with a bunch of grey assholes, a mayor, and my sister. Better pack my shit full of hair dye immediately!'"

"I'm sure," Rose said.

"So wait," Karkat interjected, holding up a hand, "you people actually dye your hair bizarre colors? Like the way you dye clothes? What kind of pan-rotted bullshit is that?"

"Wait, you guys don't have hair dye?" Dave asked. "What about that douche who was hanging out with the troll who brought the Mayor back to life?"

The Mayor made a swooning motion next to him at the mention of Feferi.

"Eridan?" Kanaya said. "His purple hair was a small cosmetic mutation, thus why it corresponded to his blood color to some degree. Just not, uh," she glanced awkwardly at Karkat's glowering face, "just not a cull-worthy mutation."

"Yeah, I stopped caring the moment I asked," Dave said. Then he swatted at Terezi who was closing in to sniff at his head.

"So it's going to keep turning a yummy toasty brown?" Terezi asked. "No other interesting and potentially delicious colors? No more banana-vanilla yellow?"

"Nope," Dave said. "Soon that fruity vanilla delicacy will be swept away by Rose's scissors, never to be seen or heard from again. Unless I can recreate the dye in the alchemiter."

"No luck so far?" Rose asked, raising an amused eyebrow. "I suppose you're doomed to be a brunette. I hear it's not so bad. I wouldn't know since I got our father's hair, but our mother seemed to like it."

Though it wasn't obvious behind his shades, Dave glared at her.