Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Kohane!” An shouts from across the cafe, gesturing towards the open seat next to her. “Over here!” The aforementioned girl raises her head, scanning for the source of An’s voice, standing in the entrance of Weekend Garage. Their eyes meet and Kohane instantly makes her way towards the other girl, picking up her pace so that she doesn’t leave her waiting for too long.

Kohane clasps her hands together and shifts her gaze towards the floor. “Sorry I’m late! I got caught up at school by a friend and lost track of time.”

“No worries!” An gets up, Kohane only just now realizing that An is still wearing the cafe uniform. “More importantly, can I get you anything to drink? Are you hungry?”

Kohane takes a moment to contemplate if she wants anything or not, eyes accidentally fixing on An in the process. She looks at the way her hair flows all the way down to her back, and how the blue dyed tips trail from her shoulders to the rest of her hair. She looks at how the small yellow star clips in her hair contrast the blue color of her hair perfectly, creating a little galaxy of her own. She looks at the two larger hair clips fixed on top of each other at the top of her hair, pinning back just a bit of her hair from the side. Her side-swept bangs with the ever so slight hint of blue near the end of the strands of hair. She looks for entirely too long.

“Kohane? Are you alright?”, An fiddles, running her fingers through her hair absentmindedly.

The other snaps out of her thoughts, widening her eyes a bit at how she let herself trail that far. “Yes! I’m okay…”

There’s a quick silence between the two girls, An expecting Kohane to finish her thought and Kohane trying to collect her thoughts.

“Umm…” Kohane starts, “An-chan? What made you want to dye your hair like that?”

An looks a bit taken back by the question the girl asks her, but smiles and pulls out the chair she was sitting in to sit next to the other once again.

“When I was younger I wanted to try every color possible,” An reminisces. “I still have most of them left over in my bathroom cabinet. I ultimately stuck with blue because I thought it suited me the best.”

“I think you’d look good with any color, An-chan.”

An blushes and giggles at her response, wiping a stray strand of hair from out of her face.

“I wonder… if I would look good with dyed hair?” Kohane asks, thinking to herself out loud.

At this, An leaps up once again, with an extra bright grin on her face. She takes both of Kohane’s hands into her own, grasping them as she looks at the girl with almost stars in her eyes.

“I’d love to help you find out,” An offers. “Trust me, I can help you with everything, and I have a ton of colors that you can try! Your hair is already light, so it’ll be easy to do.”

“A-are you sure? I’ve… never tried anything like this before,” Kohane looks down a bit, both hands still being held on to tightly by An’s own.

“I think you’d look super cute! It would definitely suit you. Plus, you’re in great hands,” An smirks, giving Kohane’s hands a quick squeeze before letting them go, her own hands falling back to her sides.

Kohane takes a brief moment to think about it before she eventually nods her head in agreement.

“Well… The rest of you guys do have dyed hair, so I guess that would make me fit in, huh?”

The blue haired girl nods eagerly and wraps her arms around Kohane, jumping straight into a hug. The other smiles at how excited she seems by all of this, and ready to try something new that maybe can help her put herself out there a bit more.

The pair both walk out of Weekend Garage, An shooting her dad a quick, “I’ll be back!” and tossing the cafe apron onto the counter before making their way to An’s house so that she could attempt to dye Kohane’s hair. Outside, they pass by all the colorful graffiti which has accumulated onto the street walls over the years, and Kohane wonders which color would look good on her. She has a few in mind that she wouldn’t mind trying, but she can’t bring herself to decide on just one, worried that she won’t be able to pull it off well or that people will judge her.

Kohane follows the other with ease after having memorized the way to An’s house pretty well at this point, being she’s gone there together with her a lot after school or on the weekends, to practice or just spend time with each other. She’d rather spend her time with An than just staying home, doing nothing but studying.

“What other other colors did you like? Besides blue?” The dirty blonde turns towards An while walking, gesturing to her hair.

“Well, I think pink was nice. A lot of people really seemed to like it, but it still didn’t really feel right to me. I tried red and purple at some point. Those were okay. Nothing really stood out to me like blue did, though.”

The other girl tries to imagine An with any of those colors, but can’t come up with anything since she’s only ever seen her with blue hair. She could only think that she would look just as amazing with any other color as she does with blue.

They both reach An’s house and waste no time getting inside and immediately heading straight for An’s bathroom. For the most part, it’s really well kept. Save for the strands of long, blue hair on the sink counter and on the floor. An reaches up to where the cabinet is over the sink, revealing her large collection of hair dyes that she has tried over the years. Kohane can see different shades of pink, blue, green, red, purple, practically any color that you could think of in there. Most of the bottles still seemed to be mostly full, except some of the blues seemed to be a bit closer to being empty.

“So?” An showcases the vast collection to the other girl, seemingly very proud of how many different dyes she has.

Kohane smiles up at her and laughs. “There’s so many! I don’t even know where to begin…”

“Is there anything in particular you want to try?”

“I’m… not sure…”

An’s eyes light up once again, another seemingly great idea popping into her head. “How about you close your eyes and I pick the color for you?” She pauses a bit, before adding, “I’ll pick a good color, I promise!”

There’s a small bit of hesitation from Kohane, not because she doesn’t trust the other, but because she doesn’t trust herself enough to be able to pull off dyed hair. She pushes all of that out of her thoughts, and she nods her head before she ends up backing out. Kohane turns her back to An and closes her eyes, putting her hands over them as well to ensure that she’s really not peeking. From behind her, she can hear the blue haired girl shuffling through different bottles of hair dyes, picking them up and putting them back. An begins to hum to herself, still going through different colors before picking one up that Kohane assumes she likes and humming proudly.

“Okay! I’ve found one!”

Kohane almost turns back to face An before she feels both of An’s hands on her shoulders, keeping her facing away from the other.

“Make sure you don’t turn back around, I wouldn’t want that to ruin the surprise!” An explains, an almost sing-song tone apparent in her voice. “While I go get a bit more stuff, why don’t you just take a seat on the floor?”

She complies, taking a seat on the floor, while An is still behind her, rummaging through various cabinets in search of everything else that she needs in order to dye Kohane’s hair. It’s almost completely silent in the bathroom, except for the sound of An opening and closing different cabinets and the sound of Kohane’s own breath. It’s quite peaceful, and Kohane feels herself closing her eyes once again, just basking in the calm of it all. The rays of sun shine through the single window in the bathroom, highlighting the really light bits of her hair, making them stand out more compared to the rest of the dirty blonde hair. She’s completely taken her hair out of the two usual pigtails she wears, resulting in her hair going a little bit past her shoulders. It feels kind of awkward, with her having not really let her hair down in front of anyone before, but An told her that it was a good look and that she looked cute regardless.

The noise behind her completely stops and she assumes that means An is finished finding what she needs. She feels two hands run through her hair, grabbing it all so that she can pull all of it behind Kohane and brush through it. The brush strokes are soft, An not wanting to tug too hard on Kohane’s hair. It’s fairly easy for the blue haired girl to run the brush through her hair, as her hair usually doesn’t have too many tangles or anything. An takes all of Kohane’s hair in one hand and Kohane can hear her fidgeting with a hair clip from behind her. She sections all of the dirty blonde hair on her head and opens the bottle of hair dye, getting it ready so that she can put it in her hair.

The hair dye is a bit cold on Kohane’s hair, and she shivers just a bit before adjusting to it. An stops for a moment, worried that she did something to hurt the other.

“It’s fine, just cold is all…”

With that reassurance in mind, An continues running her now hair dye covered hand through certain sections of Kohane’s hair that she set aside. She decided on just doing streaks for now, since she wasn’t sure if Kohane would be comfortable with dyed tips, or completely dyed hair. She knows that Kohane could make anything look good though.

A few minutes pass, with An still going through the dirty blonde’s hair, the latter still seated on the floor, eyes travelling around the part of An’s bathroom in front of her. The design is really nice, and she can tell just based off of the design choices that it fits An completely. There are hints of blue, green, and even some star motifs in some of the furniture she can see. It’s nice, and it reminds her of An a lot.

At some point An stops running her hand through the other girl’s hair, scooting back just a bit to assess her work. She seems satisfied with it because she claps her hands together and jumps up to wash her hands of the excess hair dye currently on them.

“Now, you’re gonna need to sit here for a bit while the dye settles in, but I’ll sit here and wait with you!”

Kohane chuckles to herself at An and turns herself around so that she is now sitting facing towards An. She still can’t see what color the other put into her hair, as her hands are completely dye-free now, and the bottle of hair dye is nowhere to be seen. An takes a seat in front of Kohane and smiles at her, admiring her work from where she is now sitting.

To pass the time, Kohane asks, “Hey, An-chan… Do you know when our next performance is going to be? Do we have any plans for it?”

An takes a moment and puts her finger to her chin in thought before answering, “No, I don’t think so. Not recently, anyway. I guess it’s up to Akito since he’s usually the one to deal with that sort of thing.”

“But… You know, Kohane,” An trails off, “I’m really glad that we became partners. I don’t think I would rather do this with anyone else. You’re amazing.”

Kohane can feel her heartbeat speed up, and a blush slowly makes its way onto her cheeks. “I’m really grateful that I can do this with you too, An-chan. I… really love singing with you.”

“Kohane, I really like you.”

The thought comes out of her mouth before she can stop it, and as soon as the blue hair girl realizes what she’s said, her face turns bright red and she immediately starts stuttering.

“I-I mean… I mean that I really like your hair. It’s good. Super cute. I’m glad you let me do it.”

Kohane notices just how hard An is trying to backtrack, and as a way to make her feel more comfortable, she replies, “I like you too, An-chan.”

An’s heart is still racing a mile a minute, as her head swirls with different ways she could deflect the situation. Instead, the timer on An’s phone goes off, causing her to remember that she ended up setting it so that she’d know when Kohane’s hair would be ready to wash.

“Your hair is done!” An blurts out. “You can, uh, wash it out in the sink, if you’d like.”

“Wouldn’t I see the color of the dye if I did that?”

A quick “hmm” comes from An before she responds, “You’re right! In that case, you can close your eyes and I’ll wash it out for you. Just stick your head over the sink faucet and put your hair in the sink.”

Kohane gets up slowly, closing her eyes to avoid the mirror so as to make sure to not spoil the surprise An has been so excited about all this time. An puts an arm around her back and guides her over to where the sink is and the other tilts her hair into the sink so that An is able to wash through it easily enough. An turns the faucet on and soon the sink water is dyed the same exact color as what she put in Kohane’s hair. It makes a bit of a mess, but An reasons that she’ll just clean it up later. She pulls one hand from the dirty blonde’s hair and uses it to search for a hair dryer in the cabinet above her. After pulling it out, as well as a small towel, she places each of them on top of the counter.

“And done! Now, I just need to blow dry your hair and it’ll be all finished!” An exclaims. “Oh, and here,” she passes the towel over to Kohane, “You can put this around your neck while I dry your hair so that your neck doesn’t get any of the leftover hair dye on it or anything.”

With the towel now wrapped around Kohane’s neck, An plugs the hair dryer into the wall next to her and slowly starts sifting through Kohane’s hair, making sure to get all of it so that it’ll look good once she finally reveals the final result to the girl.

Kohane can still tell that the other is retaining the same gentleness she used to brush through her hair earlier, and it really makes everything feel a lot nicer. As her thoughts begin to trail, she recalls the events from earlier in her head. Her face begins to heat up again at the thought of An actually liking her. She’s never thought of anyone quite the same way as when she first met the girl. She was impulsive, fun, carefree, and outgoing, everything that Kohane has always thought she would never be able to be. But slowly, she’s been opening up more, now able to meet the same pace as An, and it’s all thanks to her.

An flips off the hairdryer, and brushes through Kohane’s hair just once more before being completely happy with the result.

“You can look now!”

An brings Kohane over to the mirror, and Kohane stares in awe at the pink streaks that are now present in her hair. They’re different, they’re nothing like anything she’s ever tried before, but they suit her. Kohane runs her hands through her hair slowly, admiring the work An has just done.

“They look so cute on you!” An smiles. “And hey, look,” and brings her head closer to the other’s, almost leaning on her in the mirror, “we’re matching now!”

Kohane giggles at that. ‘Matching, huh…’ she thinks to herself.

“Actually,” An interrupts, “I had an idea, if you don’t mind.”

Kohane tilts her head in confusion before she sees the other pull out a pair of white satin ribbons. “I’ve had these for… a while. I thought it would be cute if your pigtails were tied up with them.”

An hands the ribbons to Kohane, who takes them and runs her fingers over them. The material is soft and feels nice on her hands. The ribbons themselves look brand new, probably having barely been used before by the other girl. A grin makes its way to Kohane’s face and she nods before An sticks her palms out again, pointing towards the ribbons.

“I can put them in for you,” An says, almost a little shyly.

Kohane gives the ribbons back to her and turns around, facing away from An again so that the girl can work on her hair once again. She runs her finger slowly down the middle of Kohane’s scalp, sectioning the hair into the best equal halves she can get in the middle. Then she ties her hair up into her two usual pigtails, taking the ribbon and slowly tying them around the hair ties keeping the dirty blonde’s hair up. Her hands move slowly, as if she went too fast she would completely ruin everything. Kohane can feel her tie the bow on one side of her hair, and then the other.

The blue haired girl then turns Kohane towards the mirror once again, as she steps behind Kohane and wraps her arms around the girl’s waist, placing her head on her shoulder.

“Is this okay?” An asks, not sure whether she’s referring to the position they’re in or the hairstyle she’s just given Kohane.

Kohane doesn’t ask. She doesn’t need to.

“Of course.”