Shadowplay | Tony Stark

FIFTEEN - THE BARBERSHOP

"Alright, what are we doing today?"

Mila had tried her hardest to not let the news of Tristan's father returning to her hometown to plague her mind. She'd spent the following three days playing with her son outside and spending the evenings with Tony, all three of them routinely taking a walk at sunset to watch the deer in the fields beside the house.

Tony felt a responsibility to keep Mila's mind occupied with something else, anything else, knowing that she would spend hours worrying about something he knew he'd go to the ends of the earth to prevent.

He made time to help her with household chores over the following days, taking regular breaks from working in the basement to do a load of laundry or clean the bathroom. Tony wanted to make sure that Mila never felt like she was on her own with anything, even down to the day to day jobs that she didn't think twice about.

Tony was sat on a dining chair in front of a full length mirror hung up on the wall, a towel draped around his shoulders as Mila pulled a comb through his freshly washed hair, letting the water drip down the sides of his neck.

"I'm thinking a little off the top, it's getting kinda long. You know best, though, you do whatever you think will look good, I trust you."

Mila was finally giving Tony the haircut she'd offered him when they'd first met, and although at the time she never actually thought she'd have to do it, she was more than happy to give him a well needed trim.

She ran her fingers through his hair and pulled it upwards, holding it between two fingertips about an inch from the top.

"This much off the top? The length suits you but it'll be in your eyes if you leave it to grow any longer. I'll take some off the sides, too. Sound good?"

Tony looked at her in the mirror and smiled, fascinated at her seeming far more relaxed and confident in a different way to how he'd seen her before, clearly in her natural element with a pair of scissors and a razor at her side.

"Sounds perfect."

Spraying some leave in condition in his hair, Mila ran her fingers through the ends before grabbing her scissors and starting to work her magic.

It was by far the most innocent way Tony had ever felt a woman run their hands through his hair, but it was probably his favourite. She was gentle with her movements and turning of his head, Tony finding it interesting watching her narrow her eyes when she levelled up the sides of his hair, noticing the way she'd squint with her teeth sunk into her bottom lip before realising that she'd already done a perfectly even cut.

She blow dried his hair after throwing in some more product that he'd never heard of or used in his life before shaking out the towel around his neck and replacing it with one that was dry.

"Alright," she said with a breath, walking around to the front of him and placing a hand underneath his chin, "Look up for me."

Tony did as he was told and tilted his head up, still feeling her fingertips holding his chin in place as she took the razor to the sides of his face, scarcely clipping away at his hair.

"And look back down."

He tilted his head back down and met her gaze, her hand underneath his face that gently turned him from side to side so she could assess her work.

"Want me to do your beard or shall I leave that to the expert?" Mila asked with a pull of a smirk, still leant over slightly as she kept straying her gaze from his eyes to look at his hair, only for it to return every few seconds.

"Go for it, it needs trimming anyway."

Tony shrugged and Mila changed the guard on the razor before crouching down lower in front of him and taking his face back into her hands. She felt his eyes watching her the whole time though pretended not to notice, keeping her fixation on the razor in her hand and not messing up his lines.