#as the one where tulip meets jesse after he got shot by a crossbow

[the-aggro-crag-car]

"You're really okay with doing this? I can manage myself I think, if you don't-"

"Lake, it's fine. The tutorial I looked at online didn't look too hard," Jesse said, trying his best to assure his friend and not show the nerves he felt holding the electric razor. He'd never cut anyone's hair before, let alone shaved it all off.

This hadn't been how he'd planned on spending the evening either. He hadn't thought much of it when Lake had texted asking to come over, but he probably should have. Lake didn't usually have to ask after all. He was pretty sure his family had just accepted at some point that there was just a non-zero chance of Lake being in the house at any given time.

So the fact that they had asked should have been a warning that something was wrong. He hadn't picked it up then, but he definitely had when they immediately made a beeline for his bed, hiding under the covers without a word.

It didn't take much to figure out what was wrong. Setting the blanket up as the world's worst fort had managed to break through their dismay enough to get a laugh, and then an explanation.

Another fight with their parents, which spilled over into a fight between their parents, which meant more arguing with Tulip until eventually Lake had stormed out and started stomping down the familiar walk to his house.

Apparently, the start of it all was that Lake had wanted a haircut. Things had just spiraled from there.

Jesse didn't know if the arguments and miscommunication would get better or worse if Lake actually came out to their family, but that was their choice, not his.

He couldn't fix everything like he wanted for them, but he could look up some videos and offer to steal the razor from his parents bathroom to cut Lake's hair himself.

"Okay, I'm ready when you are," Lake said, and Jesse nodded. It really had been just sort of, set the razor to the length you want and try to not miss any spots or take off an ear.

It didn't actually end up taking all that long. Lake's hair was usually pretty short already, but it had gotten near about down to their shoulders now. Even still, Jesse was kind of surprised by just how much hair was coating the bathroom floor by the time they were done.

"Okay, lemme know what you think and I'm sorry if you hate it," he said, stepping back and shaking the last bit of hair out of the razor.

Watching their face as they inspected themself in the mirror, Jesse could feel his stomach twist and flutter as a smile broke out on Lake's face. It was- people always made comments about how angry and irritated Lake was all the time, but that wasn't true at all. Jesse got to see them smiling plenty.

They had a really, really nice smile.

"Dude, it's perfect," they said, running a hand over their head and sending more tiny bits of red hair falling down and clinging to their clothes. Jesse's first instinct was to try to brush it off, but it was kind of everywhere.

"You might want to get a shower, unless you want to be itchy forever," he said, and Lake nodded, still not looking away from the mirror.

"Yeah, fair enough. Uh, do you have-"

"I'm pretty sure there are more of your clothes in my drawers than mine at this point," he said, which was only a slight exaggeration. Lake snorted, rolling their eyes.

"That's because you throw all your clothes in the bottom of your closet," they insisted, which was maybe a little fair.

"I don't throw them, they just fall off the hangers," he insisted, already heading out to grab them an outfit that wasn't covered in hair to change into.

When he came back Lake had managed to sweep up most of the floor hair into the trashcan. It was still pretty obvious that someone had been more or less sheered in there, but it was better than nothing.

Lake wasn't in the shower for too long, bursting into his room and collapsing down on his bed again. Unlike last time though they were smiling, a confidence solidified in them that Jesse hadn't even realized wasn't there before. He couldn't resist reaching out and petting their new buzzed hair when they laid down right in his lap. He was pretty sure they were trying to be annoying, but it didn't really work.

"Fuzzy," he commented, and Lake snorted at that.

"I know, right?" they said, their mood such a stark contrast to when they first showed up. "Seriously though, how's it look?"

"Super cool," Jesse assured them, because it did. "You look a lot more comfortable? It's,- I don't know, it's just really good," he continued, pausing some before adding with a wince, "even if this is definitely going to make your mom hate me even more than she already does."

"Eh, my parents hate everything that makes me happy," Lake said with a shrug, simple as anything. Jesse kind of wanted to argue, to tell Lake that probably wasn't true.

The casual way Lake had just admitted to Jesse making them happy though kind of distracted him. After a moment he managed to huff.

"Man, Lake you know how bad I get when I know people don't like me," he grumbled, getting a snort from his best friend.

"Well, you could stop doing so much for me. That might get my parents to stop being all dumb about you," they suggested, and he knew it wasn't a sincere option.

"Yeah, that's not happening," he insisted, becauseit wasn't. "Maybe a cake?"

"Worth a shot," Lake said with another shrug. It had been a bit of a joke, but he might actually need to get some sort of apology gift after this. He could only imagine the fallout that was sure to come when Lake actually went home.

They could put that off for a while though. This sort of thing had happened before. Lake's family probably wouldn't be expecting them back until at least morning.

"Thanks. Again," Lake muttered, and Jesse couldn't help but smile as he continued to run his hand over short buzzed hair.

"Hey, i told you it's fine. Worth it to see you so happy," he said, which was maybe more straightforward than he usually would be, but it was true.

He could deal with some people being mad at him for his part in this, if it meant seeing Lake so happy.