Hey all! I was given an idea about an alternate ending and since people want me to continue I figured I'd set up an alternate ending as another chapter! That way the story continues, but it doesn't ruin any of it! So without further introduction I give you the alternate ending of Braided Up!
Disclaimer applies as previous chapters
Chapter 5: Braided Persona (alternate ending)
It's another day at the preventers. Duo and Heero are back on good terms (it took about a day. Duo was very forgiving). They both now had a new problem. Not only was Heero forbidden to be Duo, but they were both unneeded at this point in time. It had been about a month since Heero disguised himself as Duo, and now they had the same vacation time. Heero had always been curious about Duo's braid, so he figured now was a good time to ask about it; within the shelter of their room.
"Doesn't that get in the way, Duo?" Heero asked pointing at Duo's braid.
"Nah, lotsa people love it, too." Duo replied. "I know! Let's try it with yours!"
After a very short time with Heero's hair, it didn't look anything like a braid. It looked more like Wuefei's hair during the eve wars. Heero couldn't see it thought, so he was stuck asking Duo about it.
"How does it look?" Heero asked.
"Hmm…you're hair's a little short, man." Duo honestly informed.
Taking out the mini pony Heero asked another question, "What about Trowa?"
"Trowa's could work." Duo agreed.
They both accepted the mission and went to find Trowa. He was still working at the circus and was only called in if they needed people of the pilots' caliber. They got into the system and found where the circus was at that point and where it would be next. Doing some calculations it was going to be faster if they just met Trowa on the L1 colony. They took a ship and flew to L1 colony just as the circus was packing up. They met up with Trowa fully aware that Catherine was watching from a distance.
"Is it a missioin?" Trowa asked.
"Kinda." Duo nodded.
Heero grabbed Trowa and held him down as Duo braided Trowa's hair in record time. Catherine had just gotten there to pull the boys apart, but the damage had been done. Standing up Heero saw that Duo had been right; Trowa's hair was long enough to braid. The amazing thing too was that it maintained his hair style. So it looked more like Trowa the unicorn, than Trowa the pilot. Both Heero and Duo seemed forget that Trowa had home field advantage and was really close to the lion's cage. Opening the cage calmly (if with a deadly aura) he let the lion out.
"Sic 'em Lion!" Trowa ordered.
The lion did as he was told and chased Heero and Duo around the circus but soon lose interest because the two couldn't stop laughing, it's said that animals will not attack if the other party shows no fear or shows uninterest. Or maybe he decided that his master's praise was not worth it if they start braiding his mane. After all, being the king of the jungle with braided hair is just a tad embarrassing. Finally Catherine had to call Une and asked her to send agents to retrieve those two because Heero and Duo's laughter had begun to frighten the circus' visitors (Duo laughs thunder and Heero's is plain creepy) and she feared that they will start braiding anything in sight, for she had seen the gleam in Heero's eyes when seeing the iron bars on the lion's cage. In the end Sally had to sedate them because their laughter starts anew when spotting her braids, thus sparing the other agents from damaged hearing and losing their sanity.