"The Exchange"

When one was fighting demons - or training to fight demons for living - an injury was a pretty expected thing to happen. No matter how careful a man was, accidents still were waiting to happen.

So, Suguro wasn't too surprised when his right protested painfully, when he was standing back up. Actually, he was quite relieved, that the first injury - a twisted wrist - showed up during one of the cram school sessions. It was better this way, truly. Now Suguro knew how he reacted to sudden pain and what he was able to do, while having a hand injured. He didn't like the answer too much - his movements were much more clumsy and the hand seals were all out of rhythm and ridiculously slow, but if he was forced to, he could pull through.

The most annoying thing about hurt wrist was the fact that Suguro couldn't do his own damn hair properly. No matter how much time he spend in front of the mirror, it just wasn't working when he had only his left hand at disposal. At least Ryuji had a few headbands, so he could keep hair out of his face. It was still annoyingly messy though.

"You look like a crap," Kamiki pointed out, because she wouldn't be herself if she wasn't picking on someone.

"I know," Ryuji rolled his eyes. "Can't do anything about that, I'm not supposed to move my hand."

She snickered. "I told you, you Aria guys are completely useless."

"I can still talk perfectly well," he grunted.

"Yeah, yeah. But the other half of your stuff is useless."

"That's why I want to be a Dragoon too."

"How exactly are you planning on shooting anything with your wrist like that?"

"You can use guns with one hand."

"It's not that easy and you know it."

Of course he knew it. That's why he was spending a lot of time at the shooting range, trying to work on his accuracy, while he had free time. Reloading was a bitch, but Ryuji was too embarrassed to ask anyone to do that for him. Besides, the ability to do it fast and using only one hand would might be of some use later.

"You need some help?" Kamiki suddenly asked.

Ryuji blinked, surprised by the unexpected offer. "With what?"

"Your hair, dummy," she winkled her nose. "That really do looks stupid. Couldn't you ask someone to help you with that?"

"Shima decided I'm funnier this way," Ryuji shrugged. "And don't ever let Neko touch hairgel. Trust me."

"That bad?"

Ryuji shuddered at the mere memory. "It looked like a helmet, really. So flat and shiny... Took almost an hour to wash it all of my head."

Kamiki raised her eyebrows in astonishment. "Your hair actually can do flat?"

"Har, har."

"Oh, don't look at me like that!" she snorted. "I can help, you know. I sometimes to things like that."

"Wouldn't guess that," Ryuji shook his head. "But yeah. I would appreciate the help. It's getting really annoying."

"Hah!" she actually smiled. "I never played hairdresser before. This is going to be an adventure!"

"Adventure," he sighed. "Sure."

It wasn't as bad as Ryuji expected it to be. She made him sit down and then kicked at the chair, without warning him. It suddenly dropped as low as it was possible and Ryuji's stomach did the same thing. He hoped she didn't hear him swallowing the surprised yelp.

Then she carefully opened the jar with his hair gel and sniffed at it, grimacing slightly.

"I hope the smell will not stay on my hands," she muttered. "Smells like guys perfume. Yuck."

"...what were you expecting?"

"True," Kamiki admitted. "I uh... I'll need you to walk me through it, I only have a vague idea what to do."

"You can just bind them, you know."

Kamiki shook her head. "Nah, that would be no fun."

She was oddly careful, when she ran her fingers through his hair, like she was afraid they would fell off the moment she touched them. Then the fear disappeared and it's place was taken by expression of pure concentration. Kamiki furrowed her brow a little and a tip of her tongue was sticking out at the side of her mouth, while she was working or him like his hair were some sort of a clay statue.

She wasn't pulling his hair or anything - a small surprise, considering her character - and Ryuji found it to be actually quite pleasant, to fell her hand slowly moving on his scalp. Much different than with a professional hairdresser, who was moving so much quicker and confident, but still pleasant.

"You looks like you enjoy yourself," Kamiki suddenly said.

"I don't think I'm the only one," he smiled back. "You're having fun, don't you?"

"You're like a really big Barbie," Kamiki happily grinned, noticing his annoyance at her choice of words. "But I think I'm done now."

"It went quite well for a first time," Ryuji nodded. He wasn't lying, it really wasn't bad. He definitely needed more time to learn how to make his own hair look somewhat acceptable.

Kamiki ignored the compliment, too occupied with sniffing her hands.

"Uh, now I smell like you," she said with a small grimace. "I really do hope it will wash out."

"It's not that bad," Ryuji grunted.

"Uh-huh, you say that," Kamiki shuddered theatrically. "But then, your cologne usually occupy half of the room."

"It's not that bad!"

"I'm joking, I'm joking!" She shook her head. "Honestly! You and taking a joke... But I still prefer to not smell like a guy."

"You uh... want something in exchange?"

She ginned widely. "Oh, now we're talking!"

Ryuji sighed with resignation. "Just don't make me wear that blasted crown again."

"You're joking, right? After I worked so long on making you look somewhat decent?" Kamiki shook her head. "No way!"

"Somewhat decent, huh?" he repeated after her.

"Not in this way, idiot!" she instantly jumped away, blushing furiously. "You still looks like a gorilla! Now you're just a... a well-groomed gorilla!"

The insult was so ridiculous, he ended up bended in two, laughing like crazy, while Kamiki was scolding him for risking destroying all of her efforts by moving in such way.

xxx

Kamiki ended dragging him to the cinema for some chick-flick. Ryuji had no idea what the movie was even about, because he carefully fell asleep five minutes in. Watching TV with mom taught him well, chick-flick were dangerous and sometimes they were balancing on the fair line between romance and just plain old porn. He really didn't want to see the more exciting scenes, especially not while sitting arm in arm with Kamiki of all people. Way too awkward.

She seemed to not mind his pulling that off at all. She ate her popcorn, then she ate his popcorn and was just overly happy about the whole thing.

"It was fun," she said, after they finally walked out of the building.

"Really?" Ryuji eyed her. "That's good I guess."

"You slept through the whole thing," she pointed out with a small smirk. "Wanna me to tell you what it was all about?"

"No, thank you," he groaned. "Why do you think I slept through the whole thing?"

"Aw!" Kamiki nudged him under the ribs, not being delicate at all. "And here I was, hoping for someone to discuss how cute it was!"

"Next time take Rin, then," he muttered, massaging his side. "He would enjoy it much more."

And probably watch the whole thing biting his fingers, or something like that. He was exciting way to easily and over really stupid things.

A/N: What can I say? I ship it. Not much of a canon reason for it, I doubt there is going to be a canon reason for it, but I still enjoy those two together.