A/N: I guess by now it's apparent I dislike writing along a canon timeline. I hope nobody gets a headache trying to follow my AU logic.

...

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 © Sunrise

...

"It's been awhile," Neil said, flexing his fingers.

"Sure has," his brother laughed. "I bet you'll blow it."

Neil grinned back. "Probably. Good thing I'm practicing on Amy instead of one of us."

"Yep. I'd like to remain beautiful."

Amy scowled. "You two are jerks."

Neil made a pretentious display of whipping a barber cape around Amy's shoulders while Lyle assisted with the choking noises, trying to make Amy think Neil was going to tighten the Velcro a bit too much. He didn't, of course, being the gentleman that he was, but he did make certain to say oops and then pause after the first few snips of Amy's auburn locks hit the floor. After a few more tentative cuts, Lyle stared at the top of his sister's head, bug-eyed and open-mouthed. Amy glared. The boys remained silent.

Amy rolled her eyes. Her brothers never shut their big mouths, and Lyle couldn't act seriously to save his life. "Neil," she said, "I'm gonna kill you if you've messed up my hair already."

Her words were enough to get Lyle laughing, and the joke was bust. Satisfied, Amy settled more comfortably atop her bar stool and waited for Neil to finish trimming while Lyle cracked jokes, argued with his brother, and generally made use of his loud-mouthed reputation. Neil kept pace with little difficulty, enjoying the easy conversation as he worked. Amy chose to stay out of the banter; it could drive her batty, trying to converse with a pair of twins who instinctually filled in one another's thoughts.

"And that's when Julie - "

"You're kidding! I thought Mark - "

"Nah. Left the keys on the counter."

"So she - "

"Absolutely."

"Huh."

"Sixteen grand."

"I expected twenty."

Fortunately, she'd been listening to Twin Dylandese long enough to understand they were talking about Mark's precious boat - the one his girlfriend Julie sold because she didn't like how he had been seeing Tiffany as of late.

Lyle, the one not preoccupied with comb and scissors, caught sight of her face. He smiled at her and looked to Neil, saying, "The little lady's bored."

"That's your fault," Neil shot back. "I'm already paying her attention."

Amy groaned. "No, you're not! You're chattering about the boat again."

"I'd like to own a boat."

"You get seasick!"

"That's Lyle."

"Is not!"

The three-way argument continued, with each sibling trading sides at random intervals. Their voices only momentarily abated as Neil ran the hairdryer. Lyle and Amy settled for making faces to pass the time.

(Neil had acquired his reputation as the family hairdresser from the many years he'd spent watching Grandma, a skilled beautician, on the days when Lyle had detention and the twins couldn't walk home together. He'd stuck with his habit of visiting her through high school. Lyle and his underage pals would drive off to break the law and Neil would grab his backpack and head off to see Grandma...Amy had always said Lyle was the fun one.)

"And...voilà!" Neil cheered. You're done!"

Amy first looked at Lyle, whose mischievous eyes glittered happily. Uh-oh. The twins were still in a playful mood. After turning around to look at Neil's innocent expression, she knew she was in trouble. Her eyes met the handheld mirror and she sighed.

...

"What? You afraid you'll end up with your bangs dyed blue, tied up with a big pink bow on top of your head?" Lockon Stratos asked.

"No."

"Then what? Kid, you need your hair cut. It's terrible, all in your eyes."

"I like it the way it is."

"Yes, but will you like it when it's stuffed inside your helmet? We have enough insulation as it is! Your head's gonna sweat! How do you pilot a Gundam when your face is roasting in its own personal sauna?"

Setsuna fixed his fellow Meister with a level gaze. "I don't see how this is relevant to our briefing."

"No, no, he's got a point," Allelujah cut in. "It is getting a bit long."

Miss Sumeragi did her level best to keep the smile off her face, but she couldn't chase the mirth from her voice. "You know," she mused aloud, "we could all use a few days off."

Setsuna's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What about the rest of the meeting?"

"Ah, well, I guess you boys already know what I was going to tell you. Wang Liu Mei's brought you up to date with her email, and there's no need for me to devise a mission plan just yet. Without having a set of instructions to holler at you, I don't have much else to say." She finished with a shrug.

"You're abandoning protocol?" Tieria asked, arms crossed and eyebrows raised. "Adjourning, just like that?"

Miss Sumeragi winked back. "Just this once, Tieria. Just this once."

...

"Now where are those scissors...?" Lockon mumbled to himself, searching through his bag of personal effects. "I know I have a good pair in here somewhere."

Allelujah blinked between Setsuna, seated and cloaked in the middle of Wang Liu Mei's house, to Lockon as he continued to rifle through a duffel bag stuffed with beauty supplies. "You, uh, do this a lot?" he asked, eyeing a professional grade hairdryer and matching curling iron.

"I've had training, if that's what you're asking."

"Really?" Allelujah was impressed.

"Oh, yeah. No actual license, though."

Setsuna's face remained expressionless, but his eyes went straight to Miss Sumeragi. She shrugged in reply. "Hey, don't look at me. I don't know a thing about your personal histories."

"You could try to lie a little better," Setsuna replied.

"Now where...oh! There they are!" Lockon interjected, triumphantly holding up his best salon shears. "Right where I left them."

"You don't have a license?" Allelujah continued.

"Never bothered to get one," Lockon shrugged. Then he caught the guarded look in Setsuna's eyes and laughed. "Hey, now, it's no big deal! I definitely could've qualified. I just liked shooting guns more than I liked styling hair."

"Well, that explains why your own always looks so nice," Miss Sumeragi commented.

Lockon blinked innocently. "This? Oh, no, completely natural."

"Uh-huh."

Lockon grinned and started combing through Setsuna's tangled mop. "So, you guys want me to trim yours too?"

"We'll wait to see how this turns out," Allelujah replied.

"Sure thing. I'll make sure I mess up Tieria's so nobody else has to worry." He received a pointed glower in response, but ignored it. "I'll be careful with Miss Sumeragi's, though. Never mess with a lady's hair; I learned that real quick."

Wang Liu Mei smiled sweetly. "Wouldn't that include Tieria?"

Lockon decided it'd probably be best to change the topic of conversation before things progressed any further.

...

"There! All done!"

Allelujah and Miss Sumeragi leaned in for a closer look.

"Hey, not too bad."

"Not too bad at all."

Lockon brought over a handheld mirror, holding it steady for Setsuna. "What do you think, kiddo?"

Setsuna stared at his reflection a moment before nodding his approval. "It looks good."

Lockon beamed. "Glad you think so. Now you're my Little Bro, too. I never do hair outside the family; it's too much of a hassle."

Setsuna quirked an eyebrow. "Little Bro?" he repeated.

"Sure, why not?" Lockon shrugged. "We're all one big family here. You just happen to be the smallest, so you get to be the Little Bro. I'm the Big Bro."

Setsuna had no idea how to respond, so Lockon continued, eyes glittering. He was on a roll, now. "Of course, if that's getting too familiar...we could always refer to our machines as nicknames."

"Our...Gundams?"

"Absolutely! You can be Little Gundam and I'll be Big Gundam." He smiled and put an arm around Setsuna's shoulders, pointing discreetly toward Allelujah. "That one's Tall Gundam, and that one...that one's Fat Gundam," he finished in a whisper, not daring to point at Tieria lest he catch the other Meister's attention. "Since Virtue's so huge and all."

Setsuna couldn't stop the beginnings of a smile. This conversation was too absurd.

Lockon considered the reaction a monumental success. Straightening up, he turned to address the others. "Now that I've had a practice round, anybody else...?" he asked, staring pointedly at Allelujah's straggly bangs.

"Sure," Allelujah shrugged. "I guess it's getting long enough to rival Feldt's."

"Nothing wrong with that."

"Don't really want to be confused with a girl."

Tieria left the kitchen before any new jokes could be pulled at his expense.

...

Neil made his way to his room, tired but content. It felt like years since the last time he had been allowed to relax and laugh as freely as he had this past afternoon. His own family was still alive - he saw them as often as he could, pretending he worked overseas at a secret military base (hey, it was mostly true!) - but visits were infrequent and rare. He had missed the bright smiles.

Celestial Being was a massive organization. As such, it was structured and rigid, especially when concerning Gundam Meisters. But when you lived out on the Ptolemaios, away from everything familiar, you realized those rules were meant to be broken. Required code names and confidentialities...they were all safety measures designed to protect and preserve, but only served to alienate the crew from one another. Really, if you were going to place your life in the hands of a total stranger at every waking moment, you needed a way to connect.

They were a family out there. They didn't always follow the rules, and they certainly weren't perfect, but they relied upon each other and supported one another. Hell, he could even say he loved them all, with their strange little quirks and strange little problems. It wasn't all that hard adopting them, and he definitely thought his own siblings would approve.

...

The sea breeze gently ruffled Setsuna's hair, making it difficult for Lockon to see what he was doing. He paused a moment before continuing, careful to not make any careless mistakes. The kid sat atop an old wooden crate, wrapped in a makeshift cape. Lockon had done Setsuna's hair so many times already that he could practically do it blindfolded, but it was nice that the kid held so still.

Allelujah was in a talkative mood. The banter between them volleyed light and easy as the latter peeled apples with a pocket knife. Tieria studied a cookbook and mostly went about his measuring while ignoring everyone else, focusing entirely on his task because he was loathe to do something incorrectly. (It was for this reason that the others had a running joke that Tieria's cooking tasted like science, but they were careful to not say it to his face.) Setsuna remained silent, simply waiting for Lockon to finish.

Announcing the completion of his task, Lockon deftly threw his shears into the surf, points embedding in the sand. He complained loudly that he needed a new pair because those things were getting old and squeaky. Setsuna listened as Allelujah suggested washing off the salt next time, but said nothing himself. He let the breeze tousle his newly shortened hair before standing, tossing off the cape, and wandering over to his fellow Meisters.

It took him a while to notice the smile on Lockon's face. Raising his gaze, he looked to the other Meisters and noticed similar mirth - to varying degrees of concealment. Setsuna sighed and ruffled a hand through his hair.

He discovered two tiny ponytails amid the rest of it, secured tight with bright yellow ribbons.