Exception

By: Aviantei

66. Spooky Scary Hairstylists (Send Shivers Down Your Scalp)

The fight between the Lee siblings went approximately as such:

"Lenaleeeeee! I heard you got partnered up with some boy for your social studies project! I'll go petition to your teacher this instant, so don't you worry about a thing!"

"Nī-san, you're the only one that's worried about it. Please don't cause any trouble when you don't have to."

"You don't understand; boys are awful! With a cute girl like you around, there's no way that they'd be able to resist your charms. If something happened to my precious Lenalee, I don't know what I'd do!"

"Nothing's going to happen! Besides, I already told you to knock it off, didn't I? I'm old enough to take care of myself, so please don't—"

"Oh, I've got it! It won't be a problem if I just give this kid some drill therapy. Let's see, if I look up his schedule I can bombard him before first period tomorrow…"

"I hate it when you get like this, Nī-san!"

And thus Komui had been left to wallow in a puddle of his sorrows right in the middle of the hall, his precious little sister's final words echoing in his ears like a death sentence, at which point Lenalee had stormed off and managed to intrude on the end of Lavi and Kanda's conversation, as you've already seen.

Given that he'd born witness to the argument the two had gotten into while he was over for tea, Lavi wasn't all that surprised to hear the contents of the most recent bout, but he was surprised that Lenalee had followed through on her word of declaring she hated Komui without any hesitation. After all, no matter how exasperated Lenalee got with Komui throughout the years, she always was able to come back to a place of appreciating everything he'd done to raise her after their parents had died, and the two would reconcile. And given how much patience that alone took, Lavi had kinda always assumed that Lenalee would be able to forgive her brother for anything he did and the two would live in chaotic sibling harmony.

The present situation seemed to be determined to let Lavi know that such an assessment had been dead wrong.

Still, compared to me an' Ari arguing over some cookies, this seems way more serious.

In the end, Lavi was the one that volunteered to drive Lenalee to her impromptu haircut, and he glanced over at the girl sitting in his passenger seat. While Lenalee wasn't the type to care about nothing but appearances, she did recognize that appearances were important to others, and so she tried to conduct herself with as much grace as possible when in public. Now that she was in the relative privacy of Lavi's car, though…

"…I'm just so sick of all of it!" she said, concluding her complaining. She was the slightest bit out of breath from the length of the rant she'd gone on, and her brow was furrowed in a pure frustration. Even her thin hands were clenched atop her lap in tight fists, wrinkling her skirt of the day. It was enough that seeing her experiencing such high levels of tension made Lavi wonder if he should offer himself up as goalie again, just so she had a healthy way to channel all that stress. "Why can't he just easy up a little? It's not like I want to live a life of debauchery or anything. I just wanna enjoy myself without Nī-san breathing down my neck about every little thing. Is that so much to ask?"

The honest answer would be, with Komui, that's way too much to ask, and both of them were well aware of it. Still, Lavi wasn't about to outright say it with Lenalee so worked up, so he decided for a different opportunity. "Well, have you tried having a serious conversation with him about it? I know he's hardheaded, but surely he'll listen to you, right?" Besides, as he'd just witnessed, having a frank one on one with someone could do wonders.

If it could work on Kanda of all people, surely it could work on Komui, right?

Well, maybe. But better than nothing!

But Lenalee huffed, which seemed to be answer enough. "I've been trying to talk to him seriously about it, but it doesn't get through to him. He always just gives me the 'oh, I'm your big brother, I'm just looking out for you' line, and it gets nowhere! 'You're my little sister, of course I'm gonna always worry about you'—and, yeah, I can't make myself older than him or anything, but it's like he still sees me as a little girl! At this point, it's kinda insulting."

Lavi nodded along, taking mental notes to be careful on how he treated Ari, though he didn't suspect he'd have the same problems as Komui. After all, Ari could be a menace when she wanted, and that had made it pretty easy to stop babying her a long time ago. "You've always been so mature, Lenalady, so I'm sure that's been super frustrating."

"Exactly!" Lenalee was really getting worked up now, and Lavi just prayed for his wonderful junk car's safety that she didn't end up using any of that leg strength to vent. Though at least if a hole got punched into the floor of his car, it was spring, so it wouldn't be too big of a deal with the weather having been so nice. "And then it hit me—I mean, I kinda was already thinking about how I haven't changed my hairstyle in, like, forever." It was just one of those things that once you got into the habit, you didn't think much about it. "I mean, sure, I do it up different for stuff like dances and whatnot, but I've been wearing the pigtails since I was a kid. And they look hella cute on me, no doubt, so it's not like I think I've grown out of them or anything, but…"

"…but also cutting it off and changing things up might make Komui realize you're not a little kid anymore?" Lenalee nodded, and Lavi had to agree with her strategy. After all, such a drastic change was sure to shock Komui to the core. Hell, he might even need to take time off work. Though we just gotta hope it helps him see the light instead of making him buckle down even more hardcore or anything. Well, it wasn't like Lavi was the person you went to whenever you wanted help making good life decisions. He was sure Kanda would've said something about it, but the big grump had decided that he'd used up way too much of his empathy battery for the day and went home, so chaos won the day! "Aight, I'm here to support you, Lenalady. Besides, I know you'll rock whatever look you decide to work with. Oh, maybe we can go shopping to pick up a new outfit so you have a super awesome debut at school tomorrow."

Lenalee giggled. Lavi having her back was starting to make her mood feel better. As much as she hated Komui being overprotective, she hated fighting with him even more, and it was nice to have some sense of normalcy amongst everything. "Thanks, Lavi. I think retail therapy is just what the doctor ordered."

"Alright, it's full speed ahead to adventure, then!" Lavi declared, gripping the wheel tighter and shifting the gears to go just a little faster. "Though I'm a little bit curious. Do you know how much you wanna cut off?"

Taking a moment to look at herself in the sunblind's mirror, Lenalee hummed. "All of it?"

Oh, Lavi realized, Komui's not just gonna panic; he's gonna faint.

Once they arrived at the hair salon, Lavi also felt like he might faint as well, though it wasn't quite for the same reasons as Komui's predicted unconsciousness.

No, Lavi's reasons were because whenever he'd been driving Lenalee to her hair stylist of choice, he'd already crafted an image of it in his mind. It would be a trendy affair, maybe one of the shops in one of the pseudo-brickwork styles that were pretty popular, brightly lit with individual stylists each working at their own stations amongst an interior that looked pretty homey, all things considered. And while he'd expected some difference from his imagination, he hadn't thought that they would be so…drastic.

What stood before them both seemed like it would've fit in much more if this fic had ever bothered to fit a Halloween special into its timeline. Between the black walls, dim windows, and general aura radiating off the place, Lavi was tempted to think that he'd accidentally taken a wrong turn somewhere. "Um, Lenalady, are you sure this is the right place…?"

"Hm?" Lenalee asked, already having marched halfway to the door, a clear purpose in her step. She glanced over her shoulder. "Yeah, this is where we need to be. I reserved an appointment on my phone while we were driving, so I don't wanna be late. Come on!"

Is this some kinda prank? Or maybe I slipped into an alternate dimension or something? Maybe they just bought the place and need to do some sort of renovations? It would be just like Lenalee to know some super exclusive hair stylist. It could look normal inside! With those sorts of reassurances floating around his head, Lavi took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and followed Lenalee through the door.

Spoiler: It did not look normal inside.

Sure, there were the expected pieces of a hair salon in there. Several mirrors were lined up against the left and right walls, each with a rotating seat before them and plenty of tools of the trade on hand. There were even a few others in store, getting their hair taken care of. With the gothic looking design of most of the furniture pieces, though, it wouldn't be unfair to say that Lavi felt like he'd stumbled into a vampire castle and that he was never going to leave alive. Hell, even the plants looked like they wanted to suck your blood, and Lavi inched away as slowly as he could from the ominous piece of foliage. No sudden movements now. Don't wanna set it off.

Shit, did that plant just grin at him?

"Oi, Lenalady, I think we should—"

"Do you have an appointme—Oh, it's you Lenalee! How are you today?"

As if things weren't looking gloomy enough, a pale man with a shock of white hair hanging over his face stepped forward. He was dressed in even darker blacks than the salon's décor, and the dark color of his lipstick just made him look even paler. He was pretty much a vampire from the nineteenth century brought to life, and Lavi wanted to know where the hell Lenalee met such strange characters.

But as far as Lenalee was concerned, she was returning to a place she'd always been, so she smiled without the faintest bit of hesitation. "Hi, Kroy-san! I'm doing well, how are you?" It wasn't like she didn't notice that Lavi was getting disturbed by the surroundings, but she might've just been having a little harmless fun with him to blow off steam from earlier.

"Doing as wonderfully as ever. And who's our friend over here?"

Lavi flinched, but at least restrained himself from attempting to hide behind Lenalee, who was significantly shorter than him and wouldn't have made much good of a hiding spot anyways. "This is Lavi Bookman; he's been a friend of mine since middle school. Lavi, this is Arystar Kroy III, and he's one of the owners of this salon."

Well, at least that answered the question of who the Kroy was in the Kroy's Haircutting Castle sign outside. And if Lenalee trusted him, then that was just going to have to do, so Lavi mustered up all his social energy. "Nice to meet you, Kroykins." Give him a cute nickname so he wouldn't seem so intimidating! That would do the trick.

"Nice to meet you, too." Kroy offered a smile, though it wasn't enough to confirm or deny the presence or absence of any sort of spiky teeth therewithin. "Your appointment's with Miranda, right, Lenalee? I'm sure she's just about ready for you, so you can head on back."

With a quick thanks and a wave, Lenalee did just that, almost skipping in her excitement, even as she made a beeline for what had to be the most gloomy-looking person Lavi had ever seen. Lavi was excited for her, sure, but also he was now alone with one vampire-adjacent looking fellow, and he wasn't quite sure what he should talk to a hairdresser about. It didn't seem like the interior had any room for people to wait near those they'd come in with, to Lavi just pointed vaguely to one of the leather armchairs near the entrance. "I guess this is the waiting area, then? I'll just…"

"Pardon me, if I could have a moment of your time." The words hadn't had any pressure to them, but Lavi had frozen regardless, feeling just a little bit too much like a kid getting caught right before he'd stuck gum on someone's back or something. Man, when the hell did I get so jumpy? he wondered, unable to ponder the matter too long once Kroy continued, "Of course, I have no problem if you sit and wait for your friend. But forgive me if I'm wrong, it seems like it's been a while since your last haircut? Even if you're planning on growing it out, I think it would be best to at least trim off the dead ends by this point…though that's just my opinion. Feel free to ignore me if you wish."

As was wont to happen whenever someone mentioned the possibility of a haircut, Lavi reached up to play with the bit of bangs he let fall onto his forehead instead of shoving it into his updo. Sure enough, he could feel that the ends were starting to get a bit crunchy. Given that he had to put some effort into his hair (the effortless bedhead look was never ever effortless in reality), Lavi tried to keep up at least the basic level of maintenance, but Ivy wasn't the only one feeling frazzled from the past couple of months. Between the SSGTIK, QUADrilateral, and panicking about the hotness of one Tyki Mikk, the non-essentials had kinda fallen to the wayside.

Starting to feel a little more at ease, Lavi chuckled. "You sound just like the Lenalady. Or maybe if she's been coming here a while, the Lenalady sounds just like you?" Nowadays, Lenalee was an old hand at the fashion and styling scene, but she'd had to have learned it all from somewhere, he supposed.

Regardless of the design of his shop and his overall spooky appearance, Kroy was almost downright adorable whenever his expression lit up. "If I've helped someone else become knowledgeable about such things, then that's a job well done as far as I'm concerned," he said, and Lavi decided that anyone who was so passionate about their work couldn't be all that bad to spend some time with. "Of course, I'm sure it sounds a bit like a sales pitch for me to suggest a haircut, so do feel free to ignore me if you like…"

"Nah, you're right. Some maintenance is in order." Though Lavi had to admit a little bit of apprehension for his wallet's sake, since he was sure a place like this cost way more than his usual do-it-himself job, but he could swing it every once in a while. Besides, with the weather warming up, there was always pawning himself off as manual labor and yardwork in the neighborhood should it come to it. "I heard Lenalady say she made an appointment; am I gonna…?"

"We're not busy enough right now that you need to go through that," Kroy said, switching to business mode with ease. "My next appointment won't be until later this afternoon, so I have plenty of time to fit you in." Lavi nodded his assent, and Kroy gestured in a grand sweeping motion towards his workstation. "If you'll come this way, then, dear customer, we can talk over what you'd like."

Whoa, I'm kinda diggin' this vibe, Lavi thought, pulling off his jacket and hanging it and his scarf up on a nearby coat stand. The last time he'd been anywhere fancy had been during his super-secret ninja infiltration of Millennial, and that didn't even count since he'd been in hiding most of the time. Getting pampered every once in a while was good for you, or so Ari seemed to declare at least once a week while she lounged around in pure indulgence. Lavi hadn't tried to stop her, seeing as the first time he'd almost intruded on the sacred time, he'd almost lost what little remained of his sanity in the process, but now he was starting to see the point. Plus what was more living in the moment than doing things on whim? Now that the opportunity had been presented, Lavi's soul was singing to YOLO at the loudest decibel possible!

"You know, now that I'm thinking about it, Kroykins," he said, examining himself in the mirror. With his bandanna out of the way, his hair partway fell down, and the absence of the eyepatch (lest the string get caught up in the scissors) almost made him look like a different person if you weren't expecting it. Kroy, who had no such point of reference, was feeling through Lavi's hair, trying to decide which part would work best for the whole ordeal. "It hasn't just been a while since I've had a trim, but since I've changed up my whole look, too." You didn't need to have a catastrophic fight with your sibling like Lenalee to want a change, after all. So Lavi asked the most YOLO question that he could:

"Got any suggestions?"

[Author's Notes]

Hello, again! I'm back from my trip and I've been on break this past week, so my brain has a lot more space to process. Which is great, because I have some quick notes to drop in here.

We've made it to the next arc in full swing! This time, the primary focus will be on Lenalee. While Komui's...Komui-ness is used for comedic effect, I think that sort of thing would become stifling, so Lenalee's at her breaking point. I also knew I wanted Kroy and Miranda to be referenced, so the idea of them running a hair salon together just seemed fun. After all, I wanted to integrate Lenalee's hairstyle changes someway, and this is what I came to! And then Lavi's being Lavi, so nothing new, there.

There's tons of fun scenes this arc, so I'm looking forward to sharing them with you!

Also, tomorrow, there will be a bonus posting for my [K] Project fic, Reconstruction. I've been slowly poking that story back into existence, so check it out if you like what I do.

Next Time: "67. A Little Bit of Change Goes a Long Way." Please look forward to it!

-Avi

[16 March 2024]