An Unbreakable Bond

Haircut

Synopsis: A young Towa asks Bamba for a haircut because he wants to be a boy

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"Nii-san?"

"Yes, Towa?"

"Can... can I have short hair? I wanna look more like a boy!"

Bamba stared at the young kid in front of him. This had been an ongoing issue for a while now. He hadn't done much about it but now that he was the one responsible for Towa, things were getting a bit more complicated.

Towa had been insisting he was a boy for as long as he could probably have. Everyone had always just said it was a phase and it would pass before long. Bamba had thought so at first. Kids liked to pretend. It was normal. But... this had been going on for way too long to be just a phase of pretend.

Bamba didn't care. That wasn't his problem. His problem was that no one else agreed with this. Everyone else still insisted it was just a phase. Had even told him to start putting his foot down about the situation. Bamba had stopped asking for advice about what to do a while ago because of that.

Towa was still waiting for an answer. Bamba tried to not let on any hesitancy as he finally responded. "How short do you want it?"

Towa showed the length with his hand. It wasn't too bad. Girls had short hair too. Bamba figured he could probably find some reasoning to tell anyone who started asking why he would let Towa cut his hair.

"Alright. Tomorrow I'll see what I can do." Bamba said.

"Really?! Awesome!" Towa smiled happily.

Bamba ruffled his hair. "Just don't tell anyone, okay?"

...

The next morning, Towa was all over him asking when they could do it. After feeding him, Bamba brought him to a mirror and had him sit. Towa was excited. That was very clear. At least he was sitting still. Bamba didn't want to mess this up.

He slowly started cutting away. He was nervous about doing this. He wanted to let Towa dress how he wanted, but also wanted to try and protect him from the other people in the tribe. He knew they weren't going to like this at all.

It took quite a while, but eventually he got it to the length Towa had asked for. It was definitely a big change. But, Towa was smiling brightly as he stared at himself in the mirror. He liked it.

"Thank you, nii-san." Towa said.

"Go get a shower and wash off the rest of the hair on you." Bamba nudged him in that direction.

He cleaned up the mess as he waited. His anxiety was growing at the thought of going outside. Once everyone saw, there were no doubt going to be comments. He really wished people would just keep their mouths shut and let him do his thing.

He was in charge if Towa and if he said it was okay, they had no right to tell him otherwise. He was doing what he thought was best. If it was making Towa happy, then he definitely felt he was doing what was the best for him.

Hopefully one day people might understand better. That was all Bamba could hope for.