We Fell In Love In October - Wintumn Flufftober

Playing With Hair

A/N - Don't know how I feel about this one really...But writing a story a day for 31 days you can't expect them all to be winners LOL. Hope you still enjoy <3 

Autumn's hands were always in Winter's hair. When they kissed, when they cuddled, even when they were just watching TV her fingers were always tangled in his locks. And he was the same way with her. Playing with each other's hair was the surefire way to calm either of their nerves. For Autumn the feeling of Winter's hands in her hair was the only thing that could get her to relax, even on her worst days. His gentle touch made her feel completely safe, completely at ease. On nights where her insomnia was at its peak, that was how he got her to sleep. It was her favorite feeling in the world.

For Winter, just this small interaction meant even more. More than Autumn even knew.

Winter never really had a problem with his confidence. From a young age he knew exactly what he wanted in his life and wouldn't let anyone tell him that those plans were bad. He never cared when people made fun of his aspiration to go into childcare no matter how often they told him it was not suitable for a man, he never let anyone dissuade him from the activities he enjoyed, and he never gave into the pressure to spend time ogling girls with the other boys in his class. Winter was completely himself in every way.

He knew he owed a great deal of thanks to his family for that assuredness; they were a wonderful support system growing up. Sure it took a while for his dad to realize he was never going to be the sporty type; but once he did you couldn't find a person more supportive of the local theaters. They truly made him believe that he could have the kind of life he always dreamed of.

And now, all these years later, he had exactly that. He followed his dream of working in childcare, he lived in a lovely neighborhood in a picturesque home with a woman he loved more than he ever thought possible. There was nothing he would change, nothing anyone could say to convince him that his life wasn't perfect.

But that didn't mean no one ever tried. Really he found that they tried to get to him more because he was so secure in himself. He started dealing with bullies at a young age and was still dealing with them well into his thirties. He heard a new, vaguely misogynist opinion at least once a week. Now that he was older, and dating Autumn, all he had to do was drop his girlfriend's name and they would back off. But he knew from experience that when you don't have that, bullies can really get to you.

That's why he took such a strong stance against bullies in his first interview at the Knight nursery; he'd dealt with it so long that he wanted to make sure no other child had to go through what he did. He didn't want them to have to wait until they were 35 to accept what made them special.

There was one part of him that he never was confident in though and the bullies zeroed in on that immediately. The one thing that they made him feel bad enough about to change. His hair. From the minute he was born he had thick, dark, curly hair. When he was really young, he loved his hair. His mother and his grandmother had the same hair and they were two of his favorite people in the world. Of course he loved matching them.

That changed when he started school. His curls made him a prime target for bullying. And that never really stopped until he adopted the trendy new emo style. He was able to play off that straightening his hair was just part of that "style." No one had convinced him to do it, that was just what you did. You had to have stick straight hair and a swooped fringe. It was important. As he got older and finally shed the all black clothes and polished nails some hallmarks of the style stayed with him. He still enjoyed wearing eyeliner on occasion, there was no way he was just going to throw out all of his Converse, and he kept straightening his hair. He'd gotten used to not having to hear all the comments on his curls.