Kiyoko groaned in frustration, running her brush roughly through her hair. When it was sufficiently detangled, she began sectioning it again. Within a few minutes, it was back to being a tangled, frizzy mess. With a sigh, she picked up her hairbrush once again, mentally preparing herself to start over once more. Her arms were beginning to tire from half an hour of failed attempts to do something with her stubborn hair.

"Maybe I should try curling it or something," she muttered, surveying her reflection critically.

Her phone vibrated, and she was surprised to see it was Haru.

Haruka: Are you home?

Yes, why?

Haruka: I got out of practice early. I'll be over soon.

Sounds good. Should I order dinner?

Haruka: Sure.

Kiyoko smiled. He had long since stopped giving her his order as she had long since memorized it. Thankfully he was incredibly predictable and seldom branched out with his food. After making a quick phone call to their usual take out place, she turned once again to her hair. Surely, she would get it this time.

Oh, god, how did this even happen?! Kiyoko wondered, trying to detangle the biggest knot she had ever managed to create in her hair. Her eyes watered from her efforts, and very little progress was being made. From within her vanity she grabbed a bottle of spray in detangler. Ten minutes and a significant amount of spray later, and she was cleaning out her hairbrush yet again, though the knot was still firmly in place.

There was a soft knock on the bedroom doorframe drawing her attention. Haru stood there, clearly fresh from swim practice. His dark locks were still damp, clinging slightly to his forehead. He still wore his track pants and swim team jacket, too.

"What're you doing?"

She frowned at him and turned back to her reflection, twirling her brush between her fingers. "I was trying to do something fun with my hair. I was unsuccessful."

"Why?"

Kiyoko sighed and said, "I don't know, I was bored, and I was browsing the internet, and there were all these supposedly easy tutorials…"

"And now you're worse off than when you started."

"Shut up," she huffed, getting up to move into her bathroom.

She heard Haru let out a sigh of his own and approach her. "Sit back down."

"Why?"

"Just do it or I'll make you answer the door when the delivery person gets here."

The thought of someone else seeing her hair in its current state was enough for her to return to her vanity. Steel grey eyes watched as he leaned in, surveying the state of her knotted locks. He hummed thoughtfully then said, "Here, let me fix it."

"Do you know what you're doing?" she asked, watching warily as he picked up her hair brush again.

"Yes."

"Very reassuring, Haru."

He rolled his eyes and gently separated the knotted tendrils from the rest. As he began slowly working at it with the brush, the swimmer explained, "Makoto has a younger sister. When she used to go swimming, her hair would get really knotted. When he had to take care of his brother, too, I sometimes ended up helping her brush through it all. I got pretty good at it."

Kiyoko lifted a brow skeptically, but didn't say anything else. Admittedly, he was causing her almost no pain and the brush had yet to cease moving. They sat in silence for a few minutes before he took a step back, nodded, and gestured for her to look at the mirror. To her surprise, her hair was completely straight and smoothed down.

"You weren't kidding," she breathed, threading her fingers through the sleek sheet of black appreciatively.

"Give me a couple more minutes."

"What're you-?"

"How did your exam go the other day?"

Kiyoko humored him by answering his question in some detail, letting him brush off her curiosity. She watched his reflection, but couldn't tell what he was doing as he stood behind her. There was a lot of shifting and weaving of her hair, but it didn't feel like a simple Dutch braid. In only a few moments, Haru leaned around her, grabbing a hand mirror off the vanity. He positioned it so that the reflection of the back of her head could be seen in the mirror in front of her. A beautiful, intricate looking braid met her eyes.

"It's a fishtail braid," he supplied.

It was fitting that Haru somehow knew how to do an aquatic themed hairstyle. "It looks amazing!"

"Ran began insisting that not only did I have to brush out her hair, but I had to make it pretty, too."

Kiyoko laughed and stood from her seat. She placed a kiss on his cheek before gingerly touching her newly braided hair. "You need to teach me how to do this."

"It looked like your hair styling skills were… bordering on hopeless."

Her eyes narrowed and she asked, "Oh?"

"I've never seen someone do that to their own hair before," he shrugged.

After a pause, she said, "Teach me or the next time you have to go to a dinner with important swim people I won't pick out what you should wear."

"I can pick out my own clothes…" he mumbled, though Kiyoko could hear the note of uncertainty in his voice.

"And I won't go with you," she added, knowing that was the stipulation that would seal the deal.

Haru sighed and nodded his agreement. Kiyoko grinned and did a brief victory dance which was cut off by the ringing of the doorbell. "Come on, let's go eat and then I'll teach you."

"Perfect!"

A/N: Thank you for reading and for those of you who have followed and favorited; I really appreciate it!