Hair cuts

[for_everyone]

It's morning, bright and early.

Hera rubs the sleep from her eyes, still finishing up brewing the first of the day's cups of caf.

When, of course, a terrifyingly tangled horror emerges from his cabin, similarly sleepy.

"Um. Kanan?"

Comments

[for_everyone]

Hera's mouth twitches, and she hides any hint of laughter by bringing her cup of caf up to her lips.

"I hope it doesn't hurt your feelings if I say I don't believe you."

[notallofus]

Kanan grabs his cup, before Hera can stop him, without spilling any thank you very much.

"Oh, I'm Hera, I know all about having hair."

[for_everyone]

"I know absolutely nothing about it," Hera admits, actually taking a sip of sweet, sweet caf, nectar of life. All right, bitter, bitter caf, but that's really the way she likes it.

"Which is why yours continues to horrify and amaze me."

[notallofus]

"I promise it can't hurt you."

Kanan takes a sip of his caf. "It's not like your lekku, I can't strangle anything with it."

[for_everyone]

"And now we're right back to me not believing you."

Some portions of his hair are bouncing a little as he talks. It's . . . a little mesmerizing.

[notallofus]

"All right -"

Kanan drinks down more of his caf. "Give me a vibroblade and I'll do it now."

[for_everyone]

That sounds comforting.

"Maybe we'll wait until you've finished your caf. I think you might hack off pieces of you that aren't hair, like this."

[notallofus]

Kanan returns to his caf, though with his free hand he resumes his attempts to flatten down his hair. It stubbornly bounces back each time.

[for_everyone]

Hera finishes her own caf, which takes longer than usual because drinking while trying not to laugh is challenging, dammit --

Then heads off to grab a vibroblade. She entirely believes that Kanan knows the best practices for hair-cutting.

[notallofus]

Kanan finishes his caf, watching her go. He sets aside his cup, and stops trying to flatten his hair, instead pulling it behind his head like he's preparing to tie it back. It definitely is getting longer.

"Maybe I should just cut it short."

But that's a lot more work, and he hasn't kept short since...

... it's been a while.

[for_everyone]

There's a slight widening of Hera's eyes as he says that, not least due to the weight of the silence afterward.

Then, voice just the slightest bit dry --

"Let's just start with getting it shorter, this time."

[notallofus]

"Yeah."

He keeps one hand on his hair, or at least as much of it as he can grab at once, and holds out the other for the vibroblade.

[for_everyone]

"Are you . . . "

She starts to hold the vibroblade out, then stops herself.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but are you sure you don't want any help with that?"

[notallofus]

"Wha -"

Beat. "You want to cut my hair?"

She's not talking about Chopper, right? That's his most pressing concern right now.

[for_everyone]

"You think I'm asking you to let Chopper do it?"

Please, Kanan. She's met both of you before.

[notallofus]

"Um."

His hands drop, though he quickly raises his right to run through his hair again.

"I wasn't going to let Chopper do it."

[for_everyone]

"That's because every so often you actually do something sensible."

She punctuates this with a smile, because it's still early and he might actually take her seriously.

[notallofus]

Kanan's still a little too dazed, perhaps by the early hour or something else, to think of a comeback.

Instead, he just rubs the back of his head (further messing up his hair), and says, "Well, all right."

[for_everyone]

There's a momentary pause as Hera absorbs that response.

" . . . really?"

He said himself that she knows nothing about human hair.

"You don't get to grumble if I make a mess of it, though."

[notallofus]

His mouth twitches into a smile.

"Are there things I do get to grumble about?"

[for_everyone]

Hera smiles back, a little slowly.

"You'll know when I tell you about them," she offers, reaching out to take back the vibroblade.

"Do I just start hacking at this? Or do you usually plan some kind of strategy first?"

[notallofus]

"I usually just..."

He reaches back again, quickly wrapping his fingers around as much of his hair as he can. "... hold it together and slice it off."

Not exactly an elegant method, but Kanan hasn't worried much.

[for_everyone]

Hera quickly stifles her sudden, startled laugh.

"No, no, that's very efficient. And a good explanation for me to follow, considering."

She shifts position so that she can wrap her own hand around his hair, just above and almost on top of his own hand.

"I still don't understand how it gets like this."

[notallofus]

"It... grows?"

Kanan sighs. "I probably don't take great care of it."

[for_everyone]

"Do you have to feed it, or something?"

It almost sounds like a pet, except not at all.

"Here, tilt you head back this way and I'll make the cut."