barbershop duet (wyn/avery)

[weirderwest]

no editing we die like warriors (i am exhausted after this week of work and i do not remember how to write NOR how to make genuine dialogue, especially for avery. good day) - technically not fallout because i've couched it all in Vague Space Terms (ignore the [] brackets around things that don't have analogs yet), but these are technically fallout characters. avery, as always, belongs to silt @sideways

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barbershop duet

"stop moving, munir," wyn chastised, putting one foot on the wheel at the bottom of the office chair to stop it from spinning if the man sitting under her hands decided to pull away again. "one wrong snip and i'll have to give you a buzz cut instead."

munir made a noise not unlike a malfunctioning engine and immediately tried to move to look back at her - perhaps to spit back something suitably scathing - but she lightly slapped the top of his head with her free hand before grabbing the corded muscle at the back of his neck and forcing him to hold it where she needed it. he resisted, at first, but she kept the pressure on until he accepted the movement and looked forward again.

"i'm not a fucking dog that you're grooming - "

"you're right, i could muzzle a dog!"

"very original, sawyer. i'm sure you have plenty of people you like to muzzle in other ports, right?"

the retort lacked his trademark bite, though, so wyn patted the spot on his crown that she'd slapped a few seconds prior to reinforce the 'dog' messaging and turned her attention to the task at hand: shearing the ill-tempered customs officer at her mercy before he could think better of it.

avery's hair had been growing unchecked for more than seven consecutive visits to the transit station, and he'd passed into a phase of immense irritability as he struggled against the perennially hot operations department office, since it sat so close to a station reactor deck. the nigh-constant nasal sighs of overheated frustration were a bit funny, but it distracted him from more important (wyn-related) matters and looked a bit too unkempt - even for her. she'd decided enough was enough and led him with somewhat accurate promises of quick results into one of their usual, slightly more secluded spots for a trim. sure, munir's coworkers would wonder if they were fucking, but it wasn't exactly a secret. and, well… they still might, if she made quick work of it.

wyn combed her fingers back through his hair again before he could try to move, holding a longer chunk between two fingers and extending it to its full length, which was certainly longer than she'd ever seen it before. pursing her lips, she gauged the tightness of the curl, gave it a bit of slack, and quickly snipped the excess hair. another piece - pull, judge the target length, cut. the repeated movement held a certain meditative quality, and she found herself sliding back into an old, sleepily-remembered rhythm.

under her fingers, avery was clearly trying his best to not fidget since her chastisement, and - to her satisfaction - succeeding. the slope of his shoulders had started high, tight to his sides as he fought the instinctive pull from her every movement, but seemed to relax by degrees. once wyn established a cadence, occasionally nudging his head or lifting his chin with the lightest of touches, she needed to hold back in expectation of the lurch less and less. there were several pauses where she thought she heard him inhale as if to speak, but whatever wrung-out irritability he had upon being coaxed into this had seeped away in the resulting half-resigned sighs. it was nice, actually; this was perhaps the longest period of time she'd gone around him without either of them opening their mouth, in any context. it made her work on his hair easier, and she found her thoughts wandering to the last time she'd done this, nearly a decade prior.

in her mind's eye, a smaller pair of hands held an ever so slightly shittier pair of scissors, the head under her ministrations smaller, too. the haze of memory dulled the irritation she'd felt at the time, since her brother's hair grew like a weed - much like the rest of him - at that age, and that was the second time that cycle she'd had to deal with his impatient wriggling on their lopsided bathroom stool. wyn came back to herself abruptly - she had been humming the janky undercity radio song she remembered being popular around that time, and cleared her throat before properly coughing into the bend of her elbow to cover the realization that she had no idea how long she'd been embarrassing herself like that for. not a peep from munir, though, which was… a blessing, nominally, even if it was a bit suspicious.

she'd finished clipping the shaggy curls at the back and sides of his neck, and stepped around their makeshift set-up to begin on the hair on the front of his head, diving in with renewed vigor now that she'd snapped out of her reverie. tight at his temples, then getting longer and longer as she worked her way to the familiar peaked shape of his hairline in the middle of his forehead. she intended to match the slightly-non-regulation mussed look he'd had a few months ago, when they… wyn paused before her next decisive snip of the scissors and looked down for a moment, trying to bridge the silence stretching between them and the background station noises after she'd stopped sloppily humming a pop song he'd never heard less than two minutes prior. to her muted surprise, his shoulders had completely relaxed to a natural slope and his eyes were closed, though they snapped open to borderline glare at her from under dark brows as soon as he detected the mildest shift in conditions - which was very like him, she supposed.

"what?" - and it wasn't a question, really, but a sharp demand as to why something had changed. wyn didn't deny herself a smug smirk as she considered whether or not he'd actually been enjoying himself - was he relaxed, even? the novelty factor in itself had her tickled. there was an undeniable appeal at having him at her fingertips in as unguarded a state as he ever seemed to get - not that she'd let him know that, of course.

"oh, nothing. just, um, wondering how this -" she flicked the still-long curl falling over his forehead, taking the open opportunity to tease him, " - even happened. did they push all the barbers out the airlock?" she bent forward slightly to leverage the rare moment of having a height advantage, leaning in to meet avery's gaze with a playful, eyebrows-raised expression.

he tilted his head back to look over her shoulder, then, the intensity of their eye contact for longer than a few moments still to be avoided. she knew by now not to take it personally, and quickly reached forward to cut the last, long chunk before their conversation got any more animated.

"no, and technically, this is your fault -"

wyn couldn't contain her guffaw, but she made sure to pull the scissors back from his face as she laughed. a scar would add a little something to the sharp planes of his cheeks, but she could just as easily take out an eye by accident.

" - since our one single aide who knew how to trim hair overheard your bullshit tales of stellar derring-do and, in a fit of what i can only assume was temporary lunacy, decided he was going to run off to the moon to chase fool's gold." the exasperation was palpable, but she could tell it wasn't entirely directed at her.

"you sound a little jealous, munir."

"jealous? as if i had the - " he paused to inhale sharply. "i just can't get a haircut that doesn't look like it was done by a fucking infant anymore, so color me anything but green. especially considering i'm sitting in a heat sink corridor letting a known criminal near my neck with a pair of scissors."

agitated movement in his lap - she saw him rubbing a few fingers over some scars on the opposite hand, one of his most predictable poker tells and the prologue to more dramatic gestures if no one put a foot out to trip him.

"well, good news - i'm basically done. that wasn't so bad, was it? i think it looks quite fetching."

she held up her pocket mirror for avery, then, passing it off so he could inspect it himself. a flicker of surprise passed over his face, replaced quickly by a more genuine expression of relief - he seemed to remember himself, then, and looked at her half-squinted, instead.

"i'll admit, sawyer, i thought this was going to look like dogshit."

she grinned guilelessly and made a gesture of exaggerated humility with both hands before leaning forward to brace her arms on the back of the chair behind avery's torso, falling on either side of his head as she leaned closer to his level - he gave no indication of moving away, which was an open invitation from munir if there ever was one.

"i used to trim my brother's hair when he was about yea high - " she held her hand up to roughly wave around her mid-chest. "his cuts came out to worse, though, because you cannot convince a ten-to-thirteen year old to sit still when he wants to go watch ships coming to port. but your curls are similar enough to get the gist."

munir's head tilted slightly again, brow furrowed, and his eyes trailed back to her face as if to clarify an unspoken question - and. oh, moons. she had probably never mentioned even having family to him over the course of their relations - and she should have kept it that way. stupid! it was nobody's business, and certainly not his.

"i didn't realize you had… um, family."

great.

"don't get excited, mun, i was just sharing a topical anecdote."

something in her face must have changed or gone hard at the comment, though, and the freshly-trimmed officer reached up to hestitantly tuck her mirror back into the breast pocket of her jacket, if only to have something to do with his hands.

"how… how long am i going to be paying for this? i'm assuming you won't take [credits] for it."

she put her smile back on instantly, grateful he decided to have the most basic ability to back the hell off - which wasn't always true of munir, but maybe the renewed ability to avoid overheating had sweetened the deal.

wyn leaned in closer as if to answer and released the lever that controlled stabilization on the chair with her foot - the chair went spinning backwards towards the corridor wall, and she used the momentum to pull herself into his lap. he yelped in surprise, the relative calm of the jury-rigged salon replaced with a lapful of smuggler, and automatically closed his arms around her in a vice grip - he did that without thinking whenever her trajectory suddenly entered his space, and she could admit she found it endearing.

once near enough to one of the largest pipes, she used her foot again to halt their transit, and the sudden shift sent the chair and its occupants into the closest foam-built wall.

before he could start with any complaints, she reached up to grab his chin with one hand, guiding him in for a kiss.

"no credits from [ring] government employees, yes, but i take alternate forms of payment. would you know anyone who has something like that?"

wyn punctuated her tease with another press of her lips to his and a hand wound into his fresh haircut, months of familiarity melding into a pleasant warmth between them as she waited for his omnipresent churlishness to melt away - and at that moment, she found none. avery met her halfway, and she smiled into him with an authenticity that she didn't need to manufacture.