This has been an insanely long time coming, and it's not even what I said it'd be. Rather than do more song-inspired drabbles, I went back to writing a more conventional (and more in my comfort zone) one-shot, after inspiration randomly hit. I hope you like :D
DISCLAIMER: Furuba is not mine, tbh.
Machi's reaction to Yuki's freshly dyed black hair would have been humorous if Yuki hadn't already been quite self-conscious of it. He'd come to his long-term girlfriend in hopes of reassurance and positive feedback. Instead, he was met with:
"What… happened?"
Her wide eyes weren't on his face as she spoke. They were focused upwards, on his mop of darkened hair.
"I dyed it." He replied, trying to sound nonchalant, but failing. "I just thought, well, first day of work next week, and I want to give a good first impression."
"But… your hair." She gawped, and he wondered whether she'd taken in a word he'd just said.
"Well… I've always had people say that my hair's natural colour couldn't possibly be real. I guess it was kind of unusual. I'm just hoping to draw as little attention to myself as possible when I start next week."
Machi seemed to be still rendered rather speechless, stricken in what appeared to be horror, not the admiration and compliments he'd been looking for. He was starting to feel uncomfortable under her staring.
"Does it look… that bad?" He asked. He couldn't even fake confidence now. If it really looked that terrible, he'd have to… shave it off or something before he could face his first day at work.
He couldn't help but pick up on the long pause in which Machi seemed to collect herself and look away.
"No. It's… fine. You definitely won't stand out at all amongst your new colleagues."
Although this was exactly the desired effect, somehow Machi made it sound incredibly negative.
"But you don't like it?" He asked, coming to kneel down right in front of her on the floor of her apartment, where she couldn't avoid looking at him.
"It's not up to me what you do with your hair."
"Machi… I'm a big boy now, I think I can take hearing what you really think." He smiled, whilst inside cursing himself for inviting her to share her true thoughts. After all, from the look on her face, he wasn't going to like them.
"I liked it better before. I'd never seen anyone with hair the same colour as yours before." She said, unexpectedly softly, "When I saw it for the first time, I was sure it was dyed." She pondered for a moment, "I thought it made you look pretentious."
"What?" He was taken-aback. He'd never really asked her about her first impression of him. He'd always assumed that it can't have been too bad, seeing as where the two of them were now.
"I guess… I thought it was just for show, that it was a kind of cry for attention, a 'look at me!' kind of thing."
Yuki wasn't sure whether he should be offended by this revelation. Did he really give people that impression?
"I mean, after that, I spoke to you, and I realised your hair was just part of you, it wasn't a flashing billboard to get people to look at you or anything."
"Well, then it's good that I have nice, normal hair now then. No boss wants an employee who's pompous and pretentious right down to the very hairs on their head." He smiled slightly. How Machi managed to be so blunt, but at the same time endearing, was beyond him.
"Well that's settled then." Machi said, in a way that said absolutely nothing was settled. "I'm going to make a start on the dishes. I'll call you and your new hair to dry up when I'm done."
She got up, and headed towards the kitchen. Yuki grinned at her retreating back. She was unfailingly adorable when she was perturbed. Still, she might be even cuter when he tells her the dye's only temporary.