"This is dumb," the shorter of the twins huffed.
"Oh come on, Fern I thought you said you wanted to dye your hair!"
"Well YEAH!" Fern whined "But I didn't want YOU to do it!"
The taller rolled his eyes, pulling on gloves.
"What, would you rather Jake do it?"
"No! You know he doesn't like me, Finn." This gave Finn pause.
"You don't really think that, dude?" Fern rolled his eyes, Finn only catching it through the reflection of his twin.
"Haven't you seen how he looks at me these days? He's barely said a word to me since I went loony."
"But… he still loves you. He's our big bro, he always loves us."
Fern seemed to give up on arguing, letting out a sigh and slumping his shoulders. Finn noticed him picking at the edge of the ratty shirt he wore.
"Will you just start putting the dye in, please?"
"Okay… Can we talk about this more later though?"
"…Maybe."
Finn held his brother's hair in one hand, the tint brush in the other. He started by applying the dye to roots of Fern's hair, pausing every time he flinched.
"I think green's gonna look good on you, especially with the shorter cut,"
A ghost of a smile appeared on his twin's face in the mirror. Finn would take small victories where he could.
"I won't be looking like you with that absolute rat's nest you've got, that's for sure." Fern motioned to Finn's—admittedly very tangled and messy—shoulder length blond hair.
In retort, Finn smudged some of the dye on the shorter's nose. Fern whined, whacking Finn's arm.
"Remind me again," Fern teased "What are your qualifications for this?"
Finn scoffed.
"I dyed AND bleached Phoebe's hair, didn't I?"
"Still don't believe that was you."
"Oh come on bro!"
Fern snickered.
"Do I at least get credit for cutting your hair?"
"Fine, I'll let you have that, Mr. I can't brush my hair to save my life."
"HEYYYY!"
"It's true!"
"Nuh uh!"
"Yeah huh!"
"Does your nose need more dye?" Finn threatened
"Ah! No! Nope nope nope nope nope!"
"Good! Because I'm actually done."
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah."
"That didn't take long." Fern started tilting his head this way and that to look at his hair in the mirror.
"Well, you don't have a lot of hair."
"Fair, fair." Fern hummed for a few moments "How long do I have to leave it in, again?"
"Likeeeeee…" Finn thought for a moment "An hour, probably."
"What?! That's wayyyyy too long!"
"We can start that TV show you've been talking about while we wait…?"
"Oh HELL yeah!"