100 words of Hairbrushing - Orion & Nine
Jun. 22nd, 2019 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
strange_natures"Do I want to know why you look like you've been dragged through a hedge backwards?" Orion asked as he worked a couple of handfuls of conditioner into Nine's damp, silver curls. He'd managed to perch himself on the tiny ledge at the back of the three-quarter bath aboard his narrowboatboat, half-manifested so that he could use his tentacles for balance. They filled the tiny bathroom, a gleaming mass of purple and pewter lights that shifted in and out of physical reality in a way his human form didn't.
His younger sister didn't look up from her position between his legs in the tub, too busy contemplating her own fingers. "Went forwards, not backwards. There was a pillywiggin; I wanted to watch it dance."
He sighed and set to work with the detangling brush, picking out twigs and leaves as he went. She'd probably scared the poor fairy out of its mind.
"You could leave it," Nine suggested. "I didn't used to bother before... Eight didn't care what my hair looked like."
Orion let out another long-suffering sigh, and then told himself to stop it before she took offense. "Eight didn't want to live among humans, I do, so if you want to stay with me-"
"I can't walk around looking like I was raised by a patch of brambles," Nine interrupted, having heard it all before. "I had on clothes." She didn't add, What more do you want?, but that didn't make the sentiment any less audible. "Could just make it look tidy."
Except he knew she wouldn't just recalibrate her aspect for him - she enjoyed being fussed over too much, only used the complaints to pretend that she didn't, to make out that he was imposing on her rather than the other way around. Orion bit his tongue and went back to brushing her hair, wondering again whether he'd have still agreed to let her stay if he'd known that teaching her how to feign humanity would be this much trouble.
Probably, he thought as she tilted her head back and reached up to boop his nose with a conditioner-coated finger. They might be two quarters of two very different wholes, but at least together they added up to a half
*
https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/374581.html?thread=2192627509
His younger sister didn't look up from her position between his legs in the tub, too busy contemplating her own fingers. "Went forwards, not backwards. There was a pillywiggin; I wanted to watch it dance."
He sighed and set to work with the detangling brush, picking out twigs and leaves as he went. She'd probably scared the poor fairy out of its mind.
"You could leave it," Nine suggested. "I didn't used to bother before... Eight didn't care what my hair looked like."
Orion let out another long-suffering sigh, and then told himself to stop it before she took offense. "Eight didn't want to live among humans, I do, so if you want to stay with me-"
"I can't walk around looking like I was raised by a patch of brambles," Nine interrupted, having heard it all before. "I had on clothes." She didn't add, What more do you want?, but that didn't make the sentiment any less audible. "Could just make it look tidy."
Except he knew she wouldn't just recalibrate her aspect for him - she enjoyed being fussed over too much, only used the complaints to pretend that she didn't, to make out that he was imposing on her rather than the other way around. Orion bit his tongue and went back to brushing her hair, wondering again whether he'd have still agreed to let her stay if he'd known that teaching her how to feign humanity would be this much trouble.
Probably, he thought as she tilted her head back and reached up to boop his nose with a conditioner-coated finger. They might be two quarters of two very different wholes, but at least together they added up to a half
*
https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/374581.html?thread=2192627509
