"What's going on?" Stevie said suspiciously from the doorway. "I thought we were going to lunch?"
"David's braiding my hair", Alexis supplied from the floor, and David frowned at the top of her head.
"Stop moving", he snapped, and she wiggled back a little, David wedging her between his knees. "Alexis always had to have the most intricate hairstyles for school... and I learned". His voice dropped to a mumble and Stevie took a seat on the edge of Alexis's bed, watching as he expertly weaved her hair together.
"You can be next, Stevie", Alexis offered.
"No, thank you". She shook her head firmly.
Alexis had been doing her own hair since she was a preteen, since her child modelling career. But sometimes David still offered. She knew it was more for him than for her- David was very methodical about doing her hair, and even though she still sometimes moved when he pulled too hard, she knew it was soothing to him.
"Come on Stevie", Alexis wheedled, her grin growing.
David tapped Alexis's shoulder, and she handed him a hair tie. He smiled, satisfied, as he tied the end of her braid.
"Done".
"Thank you David".
"Stevie". He nodded at her. "Sit".
"No, I don't like people touching my hair-"
"That's a lie, and we both know it".
"Ew, David!" Alexis screwed up her nose, and Stevie sighed reluctantly, sliding onto the floor.
Alexis took Stevie's place on the end of the bed, watching as David gently teased the tangles from Stevie's hair.
David knew he and Alexis didn't have a typical sibling relationship. He didn't know if they'd ever had one- they were the children of television's Moira Rose. But doing Alexis's hair when the braids were too intricate for her hands was just one tiny thing he could do for his baby sister.
It was the first time he'd offered since she was seventeen. He'd done it plenty of times since, where she was drunk or high and he needed to keep her hair out of her face if only to avoid washing her vomit out of it, but it was the first time he'd offered. It came back to him with surprising ease.
"Thank you, David", Alexis said quietly, and he bit his bottom lip to keep himself from smiling.