Momoharu Week 2021

Day 3: Hair

The morning started off well. Maki for once was sleeping in, which she deserved after waking up so early in the mornings. This meant that Kaito was able to watch her sleep for a little bit before going on a jog in the park just around the corner from the apartment building that he and Maki lived in. Normally, Maki joined him, but he felt like she deserved to have some extra sleep today. The weather was good for the hour and a half that he spent exercising. There were no other problems going on that Kaito should be concerned with. So far it looked like it was going to be a good day.

"I'm home!" Kaito declared as he entered the apartment. No answer. Was Maki still asleep? Concerned, Kaito went to the bedroom, finding the bed abandoned. "Maki Roll?" Again, no answer. Kaito looked around the apartment carefully, suppressing the concern that he was starting to get. Nothing seemed to be too out of the ordinary. Kaito can't jump to conclusions that something had happened. He listened carefully, wondering if he could hear anything that indicated where Maki was. That's when he heard it. Something like muttered cursing. It sounded like it was coming from the bathroom.

"Maki Roll?" Kaito asked, gently knocking on the door.

"Don't come in!" Maki's voice suddenly erupted out from the other side of the door. Kaito flinched back at how harsh her voice was. It was rare for her nowadays to speak to him like that. She used to do it when she felt someone was begging for the Ultimate Assassin to kill them. But now that she left that life behind for good, she started to be more relaxed and like who she is meant to be. So to hear her speak like that was quite concerning.

"Are you okay in there? Something happen?" Kaito asked again, concern filling his voice

"No..." Maki's voice argued, but it sounded weak. That wasn't a good sign.

"Maki Roll, you can't lie to me. What's up?" Kaito asked one more time. Silence. Kaito sighed heavily as he was starting to become impatient. "I'll break down the door if you don't open up." He wouldn't, that threat was as empty as a bottomless pit. But Kaito wanted to prove that he truly was worried about Maki. After a tense and silent minute, Maki finally gave in. The lock was heard clicking and the door cautiously opened. Maki stood there timidly, looking quite ashamed of herself. At first Kaito didn't see what was wrong. That was when he noticed long, dark brown strands of hair on the bathroom floor. He looked back up at Maki, seeing that he hair was shorter than when he saw it earlier. It wasn't tidy either. It was sloppily cut, with chucks of her remaining hair left in uneven lengths.

"Wha-" Kaito started to ask, completely taken by surprise.

"Don't laugh!" Maki shouted defensively, getting ready to shut the door in his face.

"I wasn't going to! But what in the world were you doing?" Kaito quickly asked, stepping back a little in defence.

"I...I just wanted a change..." Maki muttered, instinctively reaching to fiddle with her hair before she remembered that it wasn't as long as it was. Seeing Kaito's perplexed face, she sighed and started to explain further. "Since I started living with you, I just wanted to do something that could help make a new start. I thought cutting my hair would do it, but I've made a mess." Kaito gave her a sympathetic smile as he opened the bathroom door a little wider. So this was meant to be a surprise for him to come home to. Well, it was a surprise, just not in the way that Maki clearly wanted it to be.

"It's not that bad." He commented, gently taking a strand of hair between his fingers.

"I look like a freak!" Maki argued, smacking his hand away from her.

"Hey! Hey! I don't want any of that. It just needs tidying up, that's all." Kaito smiled, stepping into the bathroom finally. Maki mutely let him as he grabbed the scissors that she used and gestured her to kneel in front of the toilet, back towards him. When she did, he sat on the toilet seat behind her. With careful movements, he started to finish her drastic hair cut. All the long ends became shorter until her hair gradually met her shoulders. Maki relaxed as Kaito's cool hands brushed the back of her neck a little, gently grabbing her hair as he cut it. Her head slowly started feeling lighter as all the weight that her hair had was slowly fading away.

After a few minutes, as Maki was starting get to pins and needles in her legs from kneeling, Kaito finally finished cutting Maki's hair. He set the scissors down and brushed stray hairs from Maki's shoulders. He gently brought her to her feet and got her to stand in front of the bathroom mirror. With her hair much shorter now, the weigh that came with it's previous length had vanished. It also seemed to bring out the shape of her face out a little more.

"You want to know something?" Kaito whispered, wrapping his arms around her from behind.

"What?" Maki asked, getting a suspicion that she knew the answer.

"No matter what, you'll always be beautiful to me." Kaito smiled giving Maki a peck on the cheek. As he did this, Maki smiled brightly, counting herself lucky to have the man that she loved by her side.