#i also tested julie's braid on my own hair to see how the larger chunks and looseness would look

[arcaneprism]

Hair - Julie & Willie

I did two of these in one day it’s a late April miracle!

I saw that the prompt was hair and got excited because braids. I love braiding. Next thing I know, this is done and one of the longest in this domestic fluff instalment haha

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“Do you want flowers? I think you want flowers.”

“Well, thank you very much for asking,” Julie laughed, more amused than anything else as Willie started grabbing fabric flowers from the accessories pile she had next to her.

She may not have been facing him, but she could almost see the grin on his face as he carefully pinned flowers into her braid. “Okay but when you see this, you’re gonna agree with me, Ju. You want flowers.”

“Of course I do.”

Julie couldn’t help grinning as Willie finished off her braid. The moment he did he jumped off the couch and pushed her behind him to where he had been sitting, both of them laughing as she complied and Willie settled down in front of her. Excited to see her own hair once she finished with his, Julie didn’t spend much time on small talk before she started brushing the tangles out of his hair.

Once upon a time, she thought Willie’s hair was like Carrie’s. Straight and thick and untangled and wonderfully well maintained. She made the mistake of brushing root to tip one time and never did it again. Willie’s hair was wavy and very fine. It was ridiculously soft to the touch and from a distance looked deceivingly well maintained. Though he wasn’t as bad as some of the boys, and even occasionally Kayla’s, Willie did not spend much time taking care of his hair, and often let it get tangled into a bird’s nest that Julie more often than not found herself having to carefully untangle. It wasn’t like Willie couldn’t do it himself, or that he couldn’t find someone else to help him. He just seemed to prefer Julie for it. It would be nice if he could have his hair untangled more often in between their biweekly braiding sessions though.

Julie hummed as she carefully brushed his hair, tip to root, slowly untangling any knots she found as best as she could without snagging and tugging, leaving the fine strands silky smooth. Willie had practically melted under her careful fingers, happy to let Julie have her way with his hair.

When she was done, Julie frowned down at his hair, trying to remember the braid tutorials she had watched the past week before she settled on an adjusted version of a simple five strand braid she had seen. Separating the hair at the top of Willie’s hair into five equal strands, she started manoeuvring the strands over and under each other, carefully adding more hair into the braid as she braided down his head.

Right, over, under. Left, over, under.

She was barely focusing on the braid, fingers moving on autopilot when she got to the base of his head. Willie was humming contentedly as she worked. 

Right, over, under. Left, over, under.

She continued braiding down, already thinking about how she could decorate the braid to make it look fancier. 

Right, over, under. Left, over, under.

By the time she tied off the braid, she had settled on flowers and ribbons. She didn’t bother giving Willie the illusion of a choice as she took a blue ribbon and then just started grabbing the fabric flowers she wanted – yellow roses, daisies, and carnations and started tying them into his hair.

“Hey,” Willie pouted, pretending to grumble about not getting options. But he grinned nonetheless when Julie sat back, looking over her work and making a few small adjustments to the flowers before, finally satisfied, she declared that she was done.

He was quick to tug Julie to a nearby mirror, though he needn’t have bothered really, Julie was just as excited as he. Both of them were practically running, equally eager to see what the other had done to their hair.

Julie managed to get to a handheld mirror first, and she held it up behind Willie’s hair so he could see what she had done in the mirror, proud of her work. Willie gave a delighted gasp, hands flying to carefully touch the braid.

“Ju! This is so pretty!” He laughed then, fingers moving to the flowers in his hair, “Oh hey, we match!”

He grinned as he took the hand mirror from Julie’s hands, gently pushing her in front of him so he could show her his handiwork. Julie’s eyes widened as she saw her hair.

Willie had gone for a fishtail braid, but he had taken larger chunks of hair than she was used to seeing for a fishtail to keep it just loose enough for the natural texture of her hair to be noticeable. She felt like a mermaid. It was then that she noticed the flowers. She had made sure not to look when Willie was taking flowers for her hair, and she gasped now to see that he had chosen the exact same flowers that she had, artfully arranging them to look almost like a laurel in her hair.

She couldn’t help the delighted laugh that left her lips as she turned to hug him, Willie easily catching her and laughing along.

She knew that Willie would suggest going out soon since they were all cute and matchy and they would have the best time of it. Julie would suggest ice cream. She’d get mint chocolate and Willie would get bubblegum and they’d take pictures to send to the group chat. Reggie and Flynn (at the very least) pout and playfully complain about being left out, Carrie and Kayla would demand one of them braid their hair, and Alex would whine about seeing less of Willie when he agreed. It was building up to be a wonderful evening and Julie couldn’t wait.

But for now, she was content to be laughing in her friend’s arms.