It was the night before the Spring Fling. Flash hadn’t gotten a lot of schoolwork done, not with all the buzz of the dance around school. He’d been too busy lining up all the things he needed to get ready. He had his suit to pick up from the dry cleaners, refill his cologne, and get his hair cut. At least he knew who was going to cut his hair.
He’d barely been out the door when he took out his phone and pulled up her number.
“Let me guess. Spring Fling.”
He chuckled. “How’d you guess?”
She groaned. “Sonata has been pestering me about it for weeks now. It’d be fine if I was just doing her hair, but I’ve got four other girls to do the night of. I’m even doing one during lunch.”
“That’s… busy.”
She smiled. “Consider yourself lucky. You’re not the only dude I’ve got lined up tonight. I blocked out a whole hour for you. I know how much you like your… hair washed.”
She’d set aside a whole hour for him? Flash blushed, but shook his head. “Actually, I washed my hair beforehand.”
A smirk, with hands on her hips. “Oh, is that so? Aww, I was looking forward to spending quality time with you.”
“I- What?” He spluttered as realization dawned on him. “You- You enjoyed doing that?”
Her grin deepened, and her eyes went lidded. His brain froze. He was suddenly very aware at how much she was pumping her hips as she was walking towards him. And was she licking her lips? He shook his head. When his vision cleared, she was right on top of him.
He would have jumped away if she hadn’t fixed him with her gaze.
She took hold of Flash’s hair, getting a yelp out of him as she inspected it. More cries and noises escaped him as she tugged on the strands and rolled them over in her fingers.
Could she even tell anything from looking at his hair?
“…Your hair smells like apples again.”
“That’s what you got out of all that?” He pulled away and swatted her hands out of his hair, Aria snickering at his outburst.
“Well, not the only thing. Not bad, there’s some decent shine in there, and it looks you’ve managed to preserve some of the natural oils. Not a lot of fraying, either. You’ve been washing correctly for some time now.
“Although…” She gave a cross between a sigh and a grunt. “You had to go back to your precious apple shampoo.”
“I ran out, okay? And we still had some left over, and I didn’t want it to go to waste.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Excuses.” Another sigh. “Still, it looks like you managed to do it correctly, so I can let it slide this time. I won’t even charge you extra for putting me through this torture.”
“Torture? What about all the things you do to me?”
“Like?”
“Like…” Despite wracking his brain, he couldn’t come up with a concrete example. Not one he was willing to say aloud, anyway. “You know what you do!”
There was that damned grin again. “Don’t act like you don’t like it.”
“It’s… very confusing,” he conceded.
Her grin softened into something that looked like a normal smile. “Get in the chair.”
“Same as last time?”
“I guess. Unless you have another idea?”
She stepped around to in front of him, examining him. She pulled his hair up, down, twisted around. Her lips pursed as she continued to play with his hair. It was a strangely pleasant feeling.
Then she went back behind him, and flicked on the clippers.
“Uhh… So?”
“Do you trust me?”
How could he? The teasing, the condescension, the way she played him like a puppet on strings. She’d made her disdain for his usual look clear, never mentioning it without a dig. And ever since she’d first gotten him in that shower naked, she’d done nothing but turn up the innuendo with him, and not in a friendly manner. She had him on a leash, and whenever she wanted to, she yanked the chain to remind him she could.
How could he not? She’d gone above and beyond in making sure he looked good, even going so far as to wash his hair herself to make sure it was done properly. All he’d asked for was a haircut, and even if the pretense was a bit mean, she’d given him much more. Despite being in a prime position to ruin his hair and/or murder him, she’d done nothing of the sort.
He turned his head around to see Aria still standing there, expectant look on her face. Strange. He’d half expected her to cut his hair before he even answered.
“Well?”
“…Yeah. I trust you.”
She smirked at him, but a softer smirk, as she turned his head back around and started to cut.
“Do you miss it? Do you miss your powers?”
It was a stupid question.
“No.”
Apparently not as stupid as he thought.
“You don’t miss it? Not at all?” The snip of scissors on hair ticked the seconds away. Moments passed, and Flash resigned himself to never knowing.
“I don’t have time to miss it. I’m working two and a half jobs, have two other mouths to feed, bills to pay, lies to cover.”
No, he had been right. It was a stupid question.
“There. You’re done.” She handed him a mirror and he looked inside.
As he looked at his reflection, his hand subconsciously ran through his hair. She’d kept his classic swept-back look, but instead of a ruffled mess, it was slick, with sharp, defined peaks. His sideburns were trimmed down, and the back of the scalp was squared away. The cut was overall shorter, but still looked just as voluminous. “I… wow.”
He could see her smirk in the mirror. “You like it.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yeah, I really do.” He ran his hand through his hair again. “I thought you’d do something more… different from my usual look.”
“I told you to trust me, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but I know how much you don’t like my usual cut.”
“I told you to trust me, didn’t I?”
He turned around, and for a moment, he looked at her, and he couldn’t place the expression on her face. Her head was cocked to the side, an all-too-knowing smile, but a soft smile, not a smirk or predatory grin. It was a… good look on her.
She raised an eyebrow and her smile widened as he continued to look at her. “You know I charge extra for that.”
He groaned and shook his head as he rose out of the seat and took out his wallet. “I thought that was only for you naked.”
“Oh, would you like that too? I’ve still got some time before my next appointment.”
“Oh, shut up.” She grinned at him. “How much do I owe you?”
“Sixty.”
He paid her her due, and while he was fishing the money out of his now significantly emptier wallet, she gave him some advice. “You think it looks good now; it’s going to look way better tomorrow when it settles. Just don’t mess with it too much. And when you shampoo tomorrow… please, not the apple shampoo.”
He grinned back at her. “What, don’t want to smell it when you go to the Spring Fling?”
A snort. “As if I could go to your silly dance. Two and a half jobs, remember? Also, it’s… not my thing, parties. Too noisy and lively.”
He shrugged. “Alright. I’ll see you around.”
She nodded, and was out the door. Flash stared at her retreating form through the open door until she was out of sight.
Out of all the people that could have pulled up next to him at the punch table, Aria Blaze was not among them.
“I thought you weren’t coming.”
“Neither did I.” Flash raised an eyebrow at her, but she gave no explanation. He leaned against the table, and she alongside him. “So, where’s your date?”
“She’s with her friends right now.”
A teasing wince. “Ouch.”
A sigh. “No, it’s nothing like that. I think they’re outside taking pictures.”
“And you don’t have a posse of guys to hang out with in the meantime?”
Flash shrugged. “It’s nice, just sitting on the edge and taking it all in.”
So the two sat on the edge by the punch table and took it all in for a few moments, occasionally sipping from their cups. For a while, Flash’s attention bounced from various kid to kid, each bustling about, chatting, laughing, dancing.
His attention drifted to his newfound partner. She leaned against the table, arms crossed, eyes scanning. She spoke nothing as she looked around. Instead of trying to take everything in, she lingered on places or people – he couldn’t tell. Occasionally Flash would try to follow her gaze, but he could never pinpoint what she was focused on.
Instead, he studied her more. Even leaning casually against the table, her body was tense, poised to spring; Flash idly wondered if she was looking to strike something. The hard line that was her mouth never moved, not even as she sipped her punch.
“You know I charge extra for that.” She didn’t spare him a glance.
“Yeah, yeah…” He waved her off as he resumed watching the party.
“There’s no alcohol in this punch,” she noted, irritated.
“We’re all under the age, remember?”
“And not one of you smuggled anything in?”
“If someone did, it wasn’t me.”
She scowled. “Being here is stressful enough. Someone has to make sure Sonata doesn’t do something too stupid. The least I’d appreciate is something to take off the edge.”
“Relax, it’s just a school dance. What’s the worst that could—”
“Don’t you dare.” Her warning had an edge he’d yet to hear from her.
He decided to push his luck. “What’s the worst that—”
“Don’t you dare.”
Now it was his face that had the grin. “What’s the worst that could hap—”
“I swear on the old tentacled ones, if you finish that sentence, I will—”
“What’s the worst that could happen?”
She snarled viciously at him, but before he could register it fully, her attention was back to the crowd, frantically searching for what he had to assume was her fellow siren.
His attention was on her once more. No longer leaning against the table, she was hunched forward, eyes wide. She’d placed her drink on the table, her arms hung dumbly at her side. If she had been tense before, now she was wound up, on the brink of sprinting off.
She gave him a passing glance, then fixed him again with her glare, as if he was at fault for the whole debacle. All he could offer was a humored smile.
Slowly, she unwound, leaning back against the punch table and picking her drink up again. But not before elbowing him.
“See? Nothing happened.”
She scowled, but when she turned to address him she had a smile. “You’re lucky I was the one who cut your hair. Otherwise I would have dumped this punch all over you.”
He smiled back – a warm, friendly smile. “Small blessings.”
Again the two observed the party before them, in comfortable silence between them. They spoke nothing. They didn’t need to.
They watched the student body chat, laugh, dance.
Suddenly, Aria rose and inclined her head. “Your date is here. I’ll spare you the questions and embarrassment.”
He turned to where she gestured, and his date was indeed coming back. But – “Wait, how did you know who…?”
But she was already walking away from him, and he couldn’t help but follow her retreating form.
Flash counted it a small blessing that she had disappeared into the mass and mess of bodies when his date pulled up next to him.