The Dragon Prince Arranged Marriage AU

Haircut

"Callum." Sarai opened the door to his room to find it empty. Scanning the room, her eyes caught to the light coming from his bathroom as well as the 2 voices.

"I don't wanna go bald!" The laughter in her son's voice was evident.

"Stop movin and you won't." Rayla. Peaking her head into the bathroom, Sarai openly laughed at the sight. Callum sat on a small stool with part of his hair tied up to keep it out of the way. Rayla was standing next to him with her sword in hand, attempting to 'cut' his hair.

"Oh, hey mom." Callum spoke upon noticing his mother's presence.

"Rayla, no offence, but I don't think you use a sword to give a haircut." Rayla's cheeks immediately went red in embarrassment. "Here, let me help." Sarai spoke as she opened one of the drawers and pulled out a pair of scissors. With a quick explanation from Rayla on how it should end up looking, Sarai easily set to work.

"I guess you weren't as skilled as you thought." Callum teased.

"Oh, hush. I wasn't doin bad. Just not as good as I thought." Rayla admitted.

"Well, either way, I'm happy to finally get rid of the mess."

"I wouldn't have called it a mess, but you didn't do anything with it anyway." Sarai pointed out.

"You're saying that because you prefer long hair." Callum shot back.

"Even so, I can agree with Rayla that this will make you look quite handsome."

"Do I get to know what it is?"

"Sure." Rayla answered. "A surprise."

"Viren, is how is everything going with the party?" Harrow asked as he walked into the building.

"We squared away all the guards for the evening, all the food has either been made, or will be finished tomorrow, about half the guests have already arrived, and I still don't know if it's a good idea to have both Callum and Rayla at the event." Viren's voice was filled with both stress and worry.

"On that we agree. But Callum has made it clear he wants her there, and Rayla would probably sneak in even if we tried to keep her out. There's no way of separation the two."

"Then just have Callum stay in the castle. Tell everyone he's sick."

"And let the people come up with their own rumors? You know that's what will happen."

"I'm more concerned with the possibility of an assassination. There are a lot of people who will be in close proximity to both Callum and Rayla. It's not hard to see the opposition to the two. There are plenty on the guest list from our kingdom alone who'd gladly take the opportunity." Harrow sighed at his friend's overthinking.

"True, but Callum has fought off his fair share of assassinations. Whether they were physically or fighting off poison. And Rayla is a moonshadow elf, an assassin in training. She knows what to be aware of. I'm sure if I asked Runaan and Tiadrin, they'd be more than willing to keep a watchful eye."

"Even still, accidents happen. You've almost lost him once." Viren's face dropped into a look of regret.

"Viren." Harrow rested his hand on Viren's shoulder. "Do you still blame yourself for what happened?"

"It was my advice to go near the breach. With natural magic being strongest there, I believed it would be good for him. Had I just kept quiet; he never would've had to go through what he did."

"Viren, can you travel through time?"

"What? Of course not."

"Then why bother holding onto those feelings. Callum has never blamed anyone. Even Amaya who was at the breach with Callum. He doesn't blame you, so don't feel like you need to be. You only gave a few ideas; it was ultimately my decision to agree." Harrow smiled widely. "Don't make me order you to be happy, your fake smiles are quite unsettling."

"It's..... short." Callum studied himself in the mirror. His hair now was cut far closer to the sides of his head. The scars were visible, but only if one looked hard enough. The top was longer, almost resembling Lain's hair, though not as long.

"That's all ya got? Just short?" Rayla raised a brow.

"I never said it was bad."

"You never said it was good either." Rayla seemed slightly annoyed.

"I'll just need to get used to it. It's not something I'm used to is all."

"Well, despite my preference of long hair, I have to agree wit Rayla on it. It makes you look much better." Sarai cut in. Turning around to face Rayla, Callum had his usual smile.

"I love it." He spoke as he loosely wrapped his arm around her.

"You're just sayin that to make me feel better." Rayla huffed.

"Nope. As I said, I need to get used to it, but you thought about it, so that means I love it." Rayla couldn't hold onto her straight face while looking at Callum's.

"Fine." She spoke, her smile now on full view. "But you're not keepin that." She gestured to the hair forming along Callum's jaw.

"Wasn't planning on it." He turned to his mother. "Did you need something? You came in looking for me before helping Rayla."

"Oh, right. I'm having everyone meet tomorrow morning with the tailor for last minute corrections." She turned to Rayla. "I even requested some of the Xadian tailors specially make clothes for you and your family. Of course, they're only rough fits so you'll all need to be there. And on that note, I'll let you to be. Goodnight." Sarai waved as she left.

"Wait, she's ok with us stayin together?" Rayla asked confused. "When we were here last, they made us sleep in separate rooms. After everythin settled down."

"Yeah, but with the guard's stories of a strange shadow on the roof, it didn't take them long to figure it out. She knows you'll sneak in anyway, so they no longer mind." He let go of Rayla to walk over to the sink. "How you don't mind, but we officially, not publicly, share a bedroom." He pulled out a straight razor and began to cut away what little hair had made its way onto his face. Even when Rayla locked her arms around his waist, he managed to not cut himself.

"Does this mean we'll get a bigger bed?" Callum pulled the blade away from himself before speaking.

"You say that as if you don't sleep literally on top of me. There's already too much room." He was given a laugh in response.

"True. But it's nice having my own personal heater." She tightened her grip on him as he easily finished his work.

"How's Runaan doing?" Rayla looked up at him as he spun in her grip to face her.

"He's fine. You didn't do that much damage. Other than the horn, you'd neve know a human kicked his ass."

"We all know that if he was thinking clearly, I never would've stood a chance."

"Even so, ya still beat him." She looked out the window to see the moon starting to rise. "We should go to bed. It'll be a long day tom..." Rayla was cut off as Callum easily lifted her small figure. In reaction, she quickly wrapped her legs around him.

"I haven't seen you in 6 months, and you believe you can just go to sleep?" His smug smirk let Rayla know exactly what he was thinking.

"But I'm tired." She half-heartedly wined, leaning closer to Callum.

"And I know exactly how to help you relax."

"I don't think you understand the word relax."

"Then allow me to demonstrate my definition."