One evening, after fighting the local wildlife to keep the people of Torna safe, Minoth and Haze have a bit of a moment, when she suddenly decides she really wants to do his hair.
Enjoy, and please do let me know what you think!
New hairstyle
Minoth stretches out his arms, before settling down to get some writing done after their last little adventure. They just finished a mission involving clearing out some Arachno that had been attacking people travelling through the desert to and from the capital.
The monsters had been easy to find, even if they had been hiding away in a cave, and easy to defeat as well, even if they had been tossed around a bit by their attacks. By the time they had felled the last one, it had been too late to make it back to Auresco, so they had decided to make camp for the night and head back to the city the next day.
They had found quite the nice spot to stop at, too. A bit to the side of everything, with no hostile wildlife nearby, as far as they can tell. There are bunches of small flowers growing all over the place, in different colours, primarily red, blue, and yellow, giving the place some nice colours that set it apart from much of the desert with its many different shades of brown and grey. There's even a small, shallow pond nearby, filled with crystal-clear blue water.
His travelling companions are all settling down with their own things as well. Or some of them at least. Haze is playing with Lora's hair while talking quietly with her. Apparently she makes some kind of interesting comment, because soon Mythra, Addam, Brighid and Hugo are also there, joining the conversation, while the children are listening nearby.
Gossip, he thinks and starts writing. A nice, short story inspired by their fierce battle against the monsters to keep travellers safe on the roads at night.
He hasn't been writing for long when he lifts his head to cast a glance at the others, only to notice they're all focused on their own thing now. Jin is busying himself with cooking, Lora and Brighid are working on their respective crafts while Hugo is near them tinkering with some machine-parts they found laying around. Aegaeon is keeping watch, standing still as a statue. The children, along with Addam, are splashing around in the water, while Mythra is watching them with an amused expression where she's sitting at the edge of the pond with her feet in the water. Haze is... waking toward Minoth with an expression that's some kind of mix between determined and anxious.
Minoth turns to face her with a raised eyebrow, waiting for her to let him know what's on her mind. He doesn't need to wait long.
"May I sit with you, Master Minoth?" comes the first of no doubt at least a couple of questions. Polite, very much Haze-like behaviour, complete with a tilt of her head and a small gesture with an ever-so-slightly shaking hand.
"Go ahead," he tells her, gesturing to the empty spot on the rock where he settled down earlier. "You look like you're got something on your mind," he points out as she takes the offered seat, but doesn't try to pry or question her, because he's at least learned it's usually best to let people just do things at their own pace.
While waiting for Haze to speak, he tries to push down the weird, bothersome feelings he gets form being referred to as "Master Minoth". He knows it's just how Haze refers to people, regardless of who they are, having heard all the "Master Addam's" and "Lady Lora's", and "Lady Brighid's", but it seems to be one of those things he just can't wrap his head around. Addam's friendship was already unexpected as it was, grateful as he is for it. But thinking back he's somehow managed to go from failed experiment, to friends with a Prince of Torna, to being called "Master Minoth". It's almost mind-boggling.aze
"Well, you see..." Haze starts, fidgeting with her fingers and the hem of her clothing. "I was wondering..." she cuts herself of, takes a deep breath, and then blurts out "couldImaybedoyourhair?"
"... Why?" is the first thing Minoth asks as soon as his brain manages to transcribe the mess of words that just tumbled out of her mouth.
"Well, I normally do Lady Lora's hair, but that's fine now since I just did it, and everyone else is busy or something else, and your hair looks like it might be very soft and nice to work with, despite how it looks right now." She finishes with a small, satisfied smile and a deep breath.
"What's wrong with my hair right now," Minoth has to ask, almost feeling offended she'd imply there's something wrong with his hair. He knows there's plenty of messed-up things about him, but he'd like to think his hair isn't one of them.
"Oh, nothing's wrong with it, really," she immediately answers. "But it's all covered in sand, which doesn't seem comfortable at all."
Minoth has to resist the urge to reach up and feel his hair. He knows it's absolutely drenched in sand, after one of the Arachno they were fighting earlier managed to knock him back into a particularly deep pit of loose sand.
Haze is now staring at him with bright, hopeful puppy-dog eyes and a small smile, and her words sound normal and confident enough, but she's still wringing her hands together anxiously, which doesn't really make sense because – wait, they fought Arachno today. And Haze is scared of spiders. She's probably still a bit shaken after fighting the giant Arachno, and is looking for something to occupy her mind, and doing Lora's hair had probably been her go-to method so far. But if Lora's hair is already done, but Haze hasn't calmed down, she'd be looking for something else to do and – Minoth looks around for a second – he's the only one available, asides from maybe Mythra, and one doesn't have to be a genius to know Mythra probably wouldn't let anyone touch her golden locks.
"All right," he finally agrees with a nod. "Go ahead."
He just knows she would have made him feel horrible if he said no and besides, the bright smile and cheery "Thank you!" he gets makes him more confident he made the right choice. Lora always seems to enjoy it whenever Haze does her hair, so surely it will be fine. Besides, if he doesn't like whatever she does, well, he's going to have to properly clean up once they get back to the capital, so it's not like it's going to be for too long.
Minoth sets his things aside, to not smudge anything or get sand in it, as Haze goes to fetch a brush, and makes himself comfortable.
Haze soon comes back with a brush and settled down behind him. Because of their height difference, she has to sit up on her knees in order to properly reach his hair. After working out the hair tie that keeps his hair in its usual ponytail, she gets to work.
He's not surprised to feel gentle hands running through his hair, working out the knots and rubbing his scalp. It feels almost like a strong breeze blowing through his hair. Haze hums quietly to herself as she works, but otherwise they're both quiet. Minoth closes his eyes and tilts his head back, letting Haze do whatever she wants.
After a few minutes she switches to the brush, to get the last of the tangles, as well as the sand. All throughout the process, sand has been slowly trickling down from his hair, but with the brush it's coming down in heaps.
"That's... a lot more sand than I expected," Minoth hears Haze mutter quietly to herself, but he doesn't bother answering.
It all feels very relaxing and pleasurable. Occasionally the brush catches on something and tugs gently at his hair, with just the right amount of strength to make it feel good without being painful.
After brushing through his hair thoroughly, Haze puts the brush aside and starts working some magic with her hands. That's what it feels like anyway, as he can't think of any other way something so simple can feel so lovely. This work involves more tugging and twisting as she works his hair into some kinds of patterns. She briefly pauses now and then, and he wonders if it's been a while since she did this articular style, or if it's just more difficult than what she normally does. He soon forgets about it when she drags her nails over his scalp in a particularly pleasing manner and lets out a quiet hum at the feeling.
Minoth doesn't know how long exactly he's been sitting here, letting Haze play with his hair, but is brought back to awareness with a pat on the shoulder and a cheerful "All done!"
When he opens his eyes the first thing he notices is that Haze has somehow managed to tame that stubborn bit of hair that doesn't quote reach his normal ponytail, a rather impressive feat.
The second thing he notices is almost everyone in their little group watching him with various degrees of thoughtfulness and amusement showing on their faces.
"Well, what do you guys think?" Haze asks from beside him, hands clasped loosely together in front of her, somehow managing to look cheerful and smug at the same time. Something with the way she looks at Mythra, he decides.
"I think it looks great!" Lora decides, smiling happily, while at the same time looking like she's about to start laughing or something. "Haze has always been so good with hair."
"The flowers are a nice touch," Brighid comments, tapping her chin thoughtfully with a finger.
... Flowers?
"M-mmm," Addam hums, nodding in agreement, tilting his head as he studies Minoth. "The blue goes very nicely with his eyes."
All right, what the hell? Minoth raises his hands to his hair to figure out exactly what Haze did to it. It's a braid. A very expertly made braid, with several flowers from the area interwoven all over. It's very well done, from what he can tell, something that requires skills and time. He's certain he looks stupid. At least he only has to keep it until they arrive in Auresco, as he's certain undoing it now and even implying he doesn't like it will do nothing but result in a pair of sad puppy-dog eyes and make him feel like the scum of Alrest.
"I was right, by the way," Haze says, tugging at the end of the braid and twisting the tip around her fingers. "Once I got all the sand out, it was indeed very soft and nice to work with."
He's about to give some kind of retort back at the bunch of them, but is interrupted as Mythra makes her way over to them. She looks at him for a few moments, mostly indifferently, but with a glint of surprise in her golden eyes.
"I didn't think you'd actually let her do it," is all she has to say before handing Addam a handful of gold, after which she goes over to the camp, probably to bother Jin about dinner.
"She bet me 100 gold you wouldn't let Haze touch your hair," Addam explains as he's putting the gold away, in response to Minoth's questioning look. "But luckily I know you better than that," he adds with a grin, reaching to stroke his hand carefully over the braid, playing with the tip until Minoth swats his hand away.
"So, what was up with the whole betting thing?" Minoth asks Addam later that night, when the others have gone to sleep and the only ones awake are the two of them, after they volunteered to take night watch.
"Well, Haze did really want to do your hair, she mentioned it when she was doing Lora's," Addam starts answering, moving to sit right next to him. "I think Lora mentioned the flowers, though, and then it started from there." He takes a few moments, probably to remember exactly how things went from there.
"Mythra immediately thought for sure you'd just refuse her. Brighid thought you'd accept the hair-doing but refuse the flowers. She also refused to be part of any bet. Jin and Aegaeon weren't part of it at all, and Hugo thought you might let her comb your hair to get rid of the sand, but nothing more, and he also refused to be part of any bets. The children are too young to gamble, and they just thought you'd look weird with a new hairstyle," he finishes with a sweeping hand motion toward the rest of their sleeping group.
"As for me," Addam continues after a few moments, reaching with his hand to brush his fingers against Minoth's hair, minding the braid. "I just happen to know you love having someone play with your hair, and probably wouldn't even notice if she snuck in some flowers."
As if to prove his point, he sinks his fingers into Minoth's hair, scratching his scalp just so, causing Minoth to practically melt into his hands, and because it's just Addam, he won't even feel embarrassed for it.
"I'm almost surprised Mythra didn't accuse you of cheating on that bet, since you know me so well," Minoth says after a moment.
"She knew what she was getting herself into when she started it," is all Addam has to say.
"Hmmm," Minoth hums, content, allowing himself to lean more comfortably against Addam, who in turns shifts to accommodate him, while softly stroking his hair. They soon fall asleep, slumping down in what they will both in the morning agree to call the most uncomfortable sleeping-position ever.
