#dyeing my hair in his bathroom sink. I MISS YOU LEO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we did not date but he had a crush it counts

[moldwood]

as of today right now i can now say that every person i've dated has either been transgender or become transgender. yeah i hit them with the beam

[halfgclden]

The Ol’ Chop

Summary: Haircut, Blonde, Neapolitan ice cream

Date: Mid-December

Abel, lying upside down on their couch, flipped over completely to land on their feet on the floor, then stayed squatting. They rested their elbows on their knees and their chin on their fists and looked at Rory for a long moment before speaking. “I have a strange inch-long ring of black hair now that my roots have grown out.” It seemed as though this was not the end of their thought, but they paused. “Have you ever thought about dyeing your hair?”

Rory jumped slightly when Abel suddenly moved, having been distracted by her text conversation with Macey. They had trapped her legs underneath them some time ago so she wiggled them to get the blood flowing again, then twisted her body, now crossing them instead. At their words, her hand reached out to pick up a strand of hair, inspecting the inch of black hair they were talking about. “Yeah, I’ve noticed that. Did you have a new master plan to cover it up or did you just wanna touch them up?” She tilted her head, both waiting for their response as well as the question she had been asked. “Yeah? I mean, not a super crazy color or anything, but I’ve always thought about doing it at some point.” Her eyes now narrowed, though the smile slowly growing showed she was joking. “Why?”

Abel closed one eye as Rory touched their hair. “I don’t know.” They hummed. “I could go totally dark, but Jacob might think I’m copying him.” They opened their eye again to focus both on her. “Well,” they said as they tilted their head to one side, cracking their neck. “Speaking of Jacob, he decided to go back to black, which has left me with an excess of bleach, which, if you don’t know, I don’t need.” They shrugged. “So if you wanted to try anything while I figure out what to do with this mess,” they pointed to their head. “We very easily could.”

“I mean, yeah I’m down. I don’t even the last time I got a haircut, definitely before everything happened.” Dropping the piece of hair in her hands, Rory’s attention then shifted to lift one of her braids, investigating the dark brown hair in her hands. She tried to picture what the strands would look like in a different color, but it was hard to imagine for some reason. She looked back down at Abel, a small frown on her face. “What do you think would look good?”

“Oh my gods.” Abel climbed back onto the couch, and dug their knees into the cushions as they picked up Rory’s other braid to inspect. “You must have a lot of dead ends.” They raised their eyebrows at her. “You down for a makeshift salon in my bathroom? I can give you the ol’ cut and colour. Blondes have more fun, you know.”

Rory swatted their hand away at the dead ends comment, then grabbed the braid for herself and held onto it, looking almost offended. “No, I’m a leo, my hairs perfect.” She paused, blinked then let go of her braid and sighed. “I need to stop listening to Macey with this astrology shit. I have no idea what I just said.” She admitted, but turned to face them on the couch, allowing Abel to pick up her braid again. She looked at her hair again, trying to picture it blonde and felt nervous excitement at the idea of a whole new look. After all, it was hair, it’ll grow back eventually. Looking back at her cousin, she grinned. “I’m down.”

Abel grinned. They hadn’t said the comment to make her upset, but seeing Rory pout was always amusing. “Ah, you’re right that you have good hair, and I suppose it’s a leo trait, but that doesn’t stop you from also having dead ends.” They picked up her braid again before dropping it and climbing off the couch. “Okay.” They were still grinning, clearly excited for the endeavor. “Awesome, cool. I’ll set everything up in the bathroom. Might bleach bath myself to try to turn this,” they pointed to their black streak. “At least brown without making it gross.” With that, they turned to grab tinfoil from the kitchen, then disappeared into the bathroom, obviously waiting for her to follow.

In a totally adult fashion, Rory stuck her tongue out at their back once again in protest of the dead ends. Watching Abel walk off as they spoke, she stayed in her spot on the couch for a minute before letting out another sigh and pushing herself up onto her feet. Entering the bathroom behind them, she looked at everything that had already started happening and was suddenly grateful for the decision to wear one of her older, more comfy shirts. “Need me to do anything? Or do you just want me to sit down?”

Abel was pretty much a pro at getting a bathroom set up to dye hair. They normally did it at Jacob's, just so that their friend wouldn't have to wash his hair out in an unfamiliar bathtub, but since Rory could see, it posed less of a problem. They tapped their lip in thought as they handed her a towel to put around her shoulders, and moved to their room to pull a stool out from it for her to sit on. "Do you need to borrow a shirt?" they asked as they scooped up Soup to get him out of the way, though he just reappeared in the doorway once he was put down. "But just sitting is fine." They filled a spray bottle with water and pulled a few more things from under their sink to prepare for the spontaneous mock-salon. "I'll start with the cut. I'm not gonna buzz it or anything, but how short are you willing to go?"

Shaking her head, Rory moved to sit down on the stool they brought in. She laughed when Soup rebelled and immediately came back into the room, and she reached out to give the cat some rubs before sitting back up. “No I’m good, I don’t really care if this one gets ruined or anything.” As Abel continued getting things ready, she busied herself with undoing her braids, running her hands through her now loose hair to try and get some of the knots out, which doubled  as a way for her to try and get the nerves out over cutting it. “I...don’t know.” She moved her hand away from the strands to try and gauge it out, not really going above her shoulder. “Around here probably? Fuck, I don’t know, Abes. I trust you, just don’t make me ugly.”

Abel nodded as they listened to Rory, glancing up at the mirror to wonder what they were going to do with their own hair in the meantime. Once everything was set up; the bleach ready but not yet mixed, they ushered Soup out once more to keep him from eating the hair dye. They laughed as they sprayed her hair to get it damp and shook their head. "Impossible. You could pull off a mullet. Not that I'm going to give you one, don't worry," they said with a laugh, realizing that the fact that they were bringing up less than appealing hairstyles to her with scissors in their hands. "I'll go simple. But really, I think you could use a change, you know? Mix it up for once."

Rory gave her best dead pan stare through the mirror when mullets were brought into the picture. Her eyes quickly flashed to the scissors though once they got closer to her with them, and let out a breath to get and get rid of some of the nerves.  Rory was a creature of comfort at heart, and once she finds something she likes, she rarely deviates from it. That included hair length, so she couldn’t remember the last time her hair had been any other length, and while she was extremely nervous to be breaking that comfort, she couldn’t help but feel excited about the change. “Okay, yeah. Let’s do it, go ahead.” When the scissors got close again, she shut her eyes to prevent herself from freaking out more.

Abel just smiled at the look, knowing that she would (hopefully) end up loving anything they did. Once they were satisfied with how wet her hair was, they combed through it, then clipped pieces of it up. They kept in mind how long she said she was comfortable with, then made the first cut a bit longer than that. “I tell you I’m getting a dog?”

At the mention of dog, her eyes flew open and she gasped. Barely able to keep herself from turning around - remembering there were scissors almost at her neck helped a lot, her eyes instead moved to meet Abel through the mirror. Luckily she couldn’t see the cuts they were making so her full attention could be on the dog. “Are you really?! When? What breed?”

Abel laughed, pulling the scissors back as a precaution. They should have known that the casual mention would warrant this reaction from her, and they shook their head, pointing at where their phone rested on the sink. “Last few pictures on my camera roll. Cute little thing. I think some sort of border collie-aussie mix?” They waited for her to take their phone before they started at her hair again. “I’m getting it a special magic harness thing to make it so that Alec doesn’t die living with it, and I’ve read through like four training manuals.” They unclipped a bit of her hair to start on the next layer. “We’re stuck on a name. I’m thinking Ramen, or Noodle, to match Soup, but Salt n Peppa, Bones, and Yorick are all contenders too, since I asked the roomies for help.”

Quickly grabbing the phone, Rory unlocked their phone, having known the code for some time now.  A few taps later, and she was gasping over how cute the dog on screen was.  "Oh my gods, I love them. Him? Her? I don't care, I'm in love." She flipped between the few photos multiple times, pouting at both how cute the animal was, and over the fact that it made her miss Sheep.  Hopefully soon her and Keaton would actually talk at some point so it wouldn't be weird for her to randomly show up and see her baby.  "Noodle! Fuck, that's so cute, Abes.  Bones is cute too." She said casually, unsure if Abel knew of her obsession with the show of the same name.

"He, not that it really matters for a dog." Abel was pleased with how well their new pet was serving as a distraction for Rory. She wasn’t flinching with each snip, and they were making good progress with the haircut. They combed through another layer and cut to make sure that it was even, then unclipped another piece of her hair. “Koda’s a big fan of ‘bonesy’, but it might all come down to a coin flip or seeing what he takes more of a liking to." The show didn't cross their mind as they sprayed her hair again; it wasn't as though they were thinking of naming the dog 'Charmed'.

Rory thought that she'd be able to feel her hair getting lighter with each snip she heard in between gushing over the new dog, but when Abel dropped more of her hair out of the clip, decided that it was probably because she has a number of layers to still go through.  "Poor boy is gonna get so confused having so many people calling him different nicknames.  Sheep would get confused if we used to many different pet names in a row." Closing the photos, she busied herself with searching for their Spotify app, scrolling through playlists before putting on one that had more indie vibes to it.

Abel let out a small laugh. “Yeah, I’m gonna try not to confuse him too much. Can’t let the fact that our household is overwhelmingly air signs hinder his training.” They changed scissors so that they could feather her hair out properly, then paused and shook it out a bit so they could make sure it was all even enough. “How’s Piper doing? In general, I know she’s probably pretty indifferent to her name, in normal cat fashion.” They picked up a hair dryer to plug in and dry her hair out a bit, brushing it as they did. “Sorry to drown out half your song,” they said with a laugh once they were finished. “That wasn’t me being passive aggressive. I like the choice, I swear.” They brushed a few strands of her hair from her shoulder. “But, uh, the cut’s pretty much done. Ready for some colour?”

Rory grinned. "That's okay, that's what I'm for.  I'll bring some fire into that dog's life.  I'm gonna be his favorite aunt and spoil him silly." As Abel continued to work, she gently hummed along to the song on the radio, stopping as they spoke up again.  "It's okay, this is on my running playlist so I hear it too much anyway. But, she's doing good, all her nicknames are variations of her actual name, loves the cabin, she cuddles up with me at night and Bailey gives her all the rubs she wants during the day.  As far as she's concerned her life is made." She raised her fingers to count every point as she made them, then moved them to run through her hair when the cut was deemed finished.  It was short, and it was weird beyond words, but glancing in the mirror and catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror made her smile.  "I love it." Her eyes flashed to Abel's through the mirror again at the question.  "As I'll ever be, make me blonde, Abes."

"Oh come on, Ror," Abel started seriously before their lips twitched upward in a smirk. "You missed the chance to say you were going to bring electricity to the dog's life. But, I do approve of you spoiling him, just make sure he doesn't like you more than me, or I'll get jealous." They nodded as she spoke about her cat, not mentioning anything as she brought up Bailey. "Wow, is it bad that I wish I was a cat?" They began mixing the bleach as she inspected her hair, excited by her reaction. The smile was more than they were expecting, and they were glad that she was as pleased as they were by the chop. "And I'll show you how to braid it. If I can manage to get my hair into braids, we can totally do yours. You won't have a total loss of self." Once the bleach was mixed, they separated and clipped up different parts of her hair again.

Rory rolled her eyes at the joke, noting that she had to slap them later for how lame it was. “I’ll make sure to let you be the one to give the treats, there’s no way he’ll love me more if you’re the one with the food.  But yeah seriously, sometimes I just wanna be Piper for a day, it would be way less stressful.”  She grew quiet again as the bleach started going into her hair, sending a quick mental prayer that she wouldn’t regret doing this before pushing the thought aside. Her shoulders relaxed a bit at Abel’s promise of braiding lessons, relieved that she would still be able to keep her braids in. “Thank you, that would be awesome.”

“True. And if he only loves me because I give him food, that will be good enough for me.” They began applying the bleach, jamming quietly to the music as they wrapped her hair in tinfoil. “I doubt my life would be too different if I was a cat. I’d eat more fish, dye less hair, but probably blink about as much,” they joked, their lips twitching upward as they did. “Braids are only slightly harder on shorter hair. Not even harder, you just need the dexterity.”

"Same, honestly." She said in reply to living the life of her cat.  "I'd be able to sleep more, which would be kinda cool."  As time went on and more foils were added to her hair, Rory realized that one: this was going to take a while to finish, and two: the foils covering her head is gonna get really old, really fast. Letting out a small huff at the realization, she fought the urge to lean back and rest against their legs as they spoke about braids.  "That's fine, it's better than nothing.  I think i'd go insane if i had to keep my hair just loose every damn day."

Once Abel had most of her hair dyed and wrapped, they grinned at Rory and poked her cheek lightly. "You're not gonna zap me because of this, right, sparky?" They knew that they were going to get jabbed as soon as they weren't messing with her hair, so they went back to it, hoping she might let them off if they put it off for long enough. "Yeah, your ponytails might half half of them falling out, but that's cute, as long as you can stand the hair on the back of your neck."

At the poke, followed by the words, Rory turned her head to narrow her eyes at Abel. Raising a finger, she made of show of letting the sparks dance across her skin before quickly jabbing them. The zap was no more than a static shock. “I was just going to slap you, but thanks for the idea.” She teased, now turning fully around to face them. “Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll look stuff up on Pinterest too and find some things.”

Abel jolted slightly at the prod, laughing. “I meant because of the foil. I was wondering if it was like sticking a fork in a socket.” They grinned. “But thanks for the opportunity to call you Frankenstein. Can you believe we didn’t do anything like that for Halloween?” They shook their head. They put the dye down, clicked their phone on, and set a timer. “Oh Pinterest. That’s a good idea for finding stuff.” They leaned against the sink. “I just forget it exists because I’m not a stay at home parent or getting married.”

Rory looked up at them, a confused look on her face.  "Neither am I? So what kind of excuse is that?" What she wasn't saying is she had Macey to remind her that Pinterest did in fact exist, as a nice chunk of their texts where links back and forth of various things.  Pulling a leg under, she curled up on the stool a bit more.  "Just because you're dumb and forgot it exists isn't my - or any bride-to-be's problem, Abes." She teased.  "But yeah, I do believe it cause you didn't even try to have a matching costume with me.  You knew I was doing the scooby doo gang with Macey and them, yet nothing."

Abel gave a exaggerated eye roll. “Okay, but your best friend is planning a wedding, so I think that counts.” They raised one eyebrow at her. “Okay, I don’t see what you wanted me to do about that. Be Scrappy?” They held up a hand and shook their head. “Don’t tell me that’s exactly what you wanted me to do, because I wasn’t going to be a sidekick to Macey’s dog.” Their amusement was clear on their face. “I didn’t see you offering to dress up as Sakura either.”

Rory waved her hand dismissively at the Macey comment and had immediately opened her mouth in rebuttal, but was halted by Abel's hand lifting up.  After a second, she pouted slightly then closed her mouth, slumping in mock defeat because that was in fact, what she was going to say.  "Okay, but those are two totally different vibes, Abel.  It wouldn't have gone with Velma and Kim Possible." Her words had a hint of a sarcastic tone to it, especially since they both knew she would've happily dressed up with them if asked.

“Liar,” Abel muttered, mostly to get a rise out of their cousin. “Next year we’ll do all matching costumes, how ‘bout that?” They stretched their arms out over their head. “But, if I’m honest, doing a group costume is a great way to guarantee that you won’t stick together during the night. I had a friend who matched costumes with her boyfriend twice and didn’t stay with him either night.”

"Every single one?" Rory let out a long, dramatic sigh.  "I don't know, Abes.  Piper might wanna do a costume with me and I don't wanna just double book myself like that, you know?"  As they stretched, she quickly jabbed her finger at their stomach, letting another small static charge hit them, not even attempting to hide her amused grin.  "Cool with me, who said I wanted to spend the whole night with you anyway?"

Abel somewhat maintained their composure during the shock, but shuddered. “You’re being awful to someone who can literally fry your hair right now, Ror,” they warned, though it was clear that they were joking. They poked her forehead and shook their head. “But fine. Dress up like one of the main characters from Cats and ignore me all night. Sounds like a great Halloween. I’ll be sure to take pictures for you.”

While Rory made a small attempt to look offended at the mock threat and return poke, it was clear she didn’t take it seriously. “You wouldn’t dare, I would just give you a really shitty Yelp review.  But nope, pick literally anything else - Cats is fucking nightmare fuel and I refuse to be a part of it.”  She shuddered as if to prove her point, then reached out for his phone again to peak at the timer.

Abel barked a laugh at the Yelp comment and pushed themself away from the sink so that they could start cleaning the hair from the floor. “Nope, too bad. I’m imagining you as... Taylor Swift? Jason Derulo? James Corden? Take your pick.” They checked on her hair as she checked the timer. “We might be able to wash it out a bit early thanks to your virgin hair, but I’ll leave it for a few more minutes, just to be safe.” They dumped the hair they swept up into the garbage and looked up at her. “You know, Renee has a bunch of pink hair dye. I might see how that works on me.”

Rory's eyes just rolled in response to their list of celebrities, barely stopping herself from zapping them for a third time.  She stayed silent as they started checking the foils in her hair, only speaking up after they commented.  A sigh fell out of her mouth. "You know, my hair was the only virgin part of me left.  At least it was good for something though." She blinked, trying her best not to burst out laughing at her own stupidity, instead focusing on the pink hair dye situation.  "Well, she is the queen of pink, so I'm not surprised that there's just bottles of pink dye here." Her eyes flickered up to their patch of natural color, then nodded.  "Might as well try it, I think it'll be kinda cool."

Abel looked up at Rory, an incredulous look on their face as they laughed. “Um, gross Ror. Are we there? Are we going to be like the Tyche kids? Explaining our various exploits in great detail?” They sounded more amused than appalled, and grabbed a bottle of pink hair dye from the cabinet. “Please call her that to her face, she’d love it. Also, I think I’ll do it. I can zip it into my roots and let it set as we wash yours out?”

Rory couldn't help but laugh along with Abel.  "Oh, I totally thought we were, did you not agree?" She teased, watching them as they pulled out the bottle of dye.  "Maybe not the great detail part, of course. I mean, I'm not thirteen anymore, Abes." She held up two thumbs up in agreement.  "Sounds like a plan, and I definitely will.  I'll be declared Renee's favorite in no time."

"Sorry, my virgin ears couldn't take it," Abel replied, their lips twitching upward. "Oh yeah, be careful if Koda hears that. Don't let the bright hair and smiles fool you, she's a real killer if she's jealous." They were quicker with their own hair than they had been with Rory's, but still careful. Still, since it was just their roots, it took almost no time to apply, and they were just about finished when the timer went off. They jabbed at their phone to shut it off and pointed to the edge of the bathtub. "I can wash it out for you if you sit there, or you can do it yourself s'up to you."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm very aware of how dangerous she is.  Or did you forget that her and I use to train together when we were younger?" It had been a while since she had trained with the other girl, especially since after Koda left, Rory moved away from fighting with knives as often.  "I have no desire to bring that rage anywhere near me, thanks."  Following their directions, she got up off the stool and made her way over to the bathtub, sitting down on the edge of it instead.  "I mean, you are the professional here, so I'll let you do it."

“Just thought I’d give you some fair warning.” Abel turned and ran the water, making sure it was a good temperature before they began taking the foil from Rory’s hair. “Oh yeah, the bleach definitely worked.” They waited until she tipped her hair back to start washing the bleach out, and once they were done, they immediately put toner in so she wouldn’t yell at them for giving her yellow hair. As they waited for the toner to set in her hair, they rinsed their own roots out, and grinned at Rory as they scrubbed their hair dry with a towel. “You’re gonna look so cool.”

Rory didn't retort, opting to keep her mouth shut and eyes closed to try and prevent herself from accidentally eating any bleach, shampoo, or toner as Abel washed her hair out.  Once the water was shut off, she lifted her head up enough to give them room to wash out their own roots, grinning as they spoke again, her eyes focused on the pink they saw poking through as they dried their hair.  "I already feel cool.  The pink looks really good though."

Abel just kept grinning at Rory. "Oh yeah. I make anything work though." Once they felt their own hair was dry enough, they poked her forehead to get her to tip back again, and rinsed the toner from her hair. "Alright. Blow dry and then the big reveal?" They raised their eyebrows as they moved to pull a hair dryer from below their sink. "Are your friends going to freak out on me for this?"

At the poke, Rory pouted, but obeyed and tipped her head back once again to let them wash out the toner, closing her eyes once again until the water was turned off.  Stealing the towel they had just used for their own now pink hair, she quickly ran it through her new hair, before dropping it onto her lap as Abel pulled out the blow dryer.  "No way, Macey's going to practically send you flowers or something.  She's been trying to get me to change up my hair for years now.  No one else will really freak out though, so you'll be fine."

“Perfect, I love flowers,” Abel before blasting her with the hair dryer. Before long, her hair was finished, and they couldn’t hide how pleased they were with their handiwork. “Okay, no denying we’re the hot cousins now.”

When the blow dryer shut off, Rory immediately opened her eyes to look up at Abel, wanting to see and gauge their reaction first before seeing it for herself.  Seeing the wide grin and overall very pleased look on their face, a smile was already growing on hers as she moved to look into the mirror.  "Holy shit." Her hands ran through her now very short, very blonde locks, turning her head this way and that way to get every angle she could of the new style.  When Abel ducked into the mirror to be side by side with her, she laughed.  "Oh for sure, we're the hottest cousins this place has ever seen."  Meeting their eyes through the mirror, her grin widened.  "I fucking love it, Abel.  Thank you."

“Of course,” they said, giving her hair a small ruffle, careful not to actually mess it up. They snapped a few pictures of the two in the mirror for their story. “Tell Macey I like wisteria.”