I'd say the porn run might be wrapping up but I don't want to jinx it
Title: Outside In
Fandom: Fairy Tail
Characters: Fried, Mirajane, others; past Fried/Laxus and incipient Fried/Mirajane implied
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,042
Summary: A learning experience on haircuts, self-image, and measuring up.
A/N: My theory on why Fried cut his hair, why he grew it back, and how it relates to his term in the Raijinshuu and his place in Fairy Tail. Also Mirajane being the Helpful One needs to happen more often.
One year, in the boiling heat of summer, Fried cut his hair.
It wasn’t too short, but short enough to keep it off the back of his neck and out of his eyes; Evergreen did it for him, and insisted that it was a marked improvement. Of course, it took a lot of badgering on her part - he would have let her do it straight off, but her continued insistence that he must be miserable in the heat and that she didn’t know how he could stand it made him want to prove her wrong. It wasn’t until Bixlow suggested that Fried just didn’t want Ever to be the pretty one that he finally acquiesced.
His new look didn’t last a week before Laxus raked rough fingers into the shortened fringe at the back of his neck and gave a sharp tug. “I like it better long,” he remarked, casual and just the wrong side of cajoling. “You look like you’re trying too hard to be manly.” A sharper tug followed. “You don’t think you’re manly all of a sudden for some reason, do you?”
Fried grew it back out the next day. The spell was simple, and trying to work up the nerve not to do it took longer than it did to actually do it. Bixlow was all smirks and teasing quips, but Ever’s eyes, eyes that always saw more than they should, followed him for days.
It was a few years later that Laxus was excommunicated and the Raijinshuu were accepted back into Fairy Tail’s ranks. Fried had expected his master’s expulsion, but not the peaceful acceptance with which he took it; it gave Fried hope, and more importantly, enough strength to rally Evergreen and Bixlow from their depression and convince them to remain a team.
Fried was certain that they would someday meet again. Knowing it barely kept his heart from breaking, but barely was enough.
The day after the festival, Fried had a long, hard look into a mirror, and then he found Evergreen and asked her to cut his hair. She did a wonderful job - it was similar to how it had been the last time, but not completely the same, and he appreciated her rare display of silent understanding. At least, he appreciated it until he remembered fingers twisting harshly into short-but-not-short-enough hair, and then he went home and shaved it the rest of the way off.
The next time he met Laxus, Fried decided, he would be a man worthy of being his former master’s equal.
Somewhat surprisingly - or perhaps not at all - it was Mirajane who changed his mind.
“I like it better long,” she told him, soft fingers brushing against the cropped hair above his ear as she set his drink down at his secluded corner of the main hall. She smiled, sweet and almost apologetic. “You look like you’re trying too hard to be manly.”
Since Lisanna’s death, Fried had never known Mirajane to be so direct. She was undisputed master of the veiled insult, marked by the fact that any guild member would be aghast a the very suggestion of their Mira-san having a less-than-innocent opinion, but to speak frankly to him of all people was a shock to say the least. It was always possible that she’d changed in his absence, but somehow, Fried didn’t think so.
And what a time to be direct she’d chosen, he mused, not initially noticing the way his fingers went white-knuckled around his mug.
But Mirajane did. “I’m sorry,” she said softly, and took the seat across from him without angling for an invitation. “All I meant was that it seems like a silly way to go about it - and trust me, I know all about silly ways of acting manly.” Her smile widened with affection, and Fried would have smiled back at another time.
“I thought it was time for a new look,” he said flatly. It didn’t seem right for her to be talking to him in this manner after everything that had happened between them. It didn’t seem right for her to be talking to him at all.
Mirajane’s smile grew sympathetic. “I thought about cutting my hair after…well, you know.” Yes, Fried thought with a mild pang of guilt, he supposed he did. “I found myself standing in front of the bathroom mirror with a ponytail in one hand and a pair of kitchen shears in the other, once. But I thought about it for a long time, and I decided, well…after everything that had changed about my life, and about me, maybe something needed to stay the same.”
Fried couldn’t quite bring himself to look into Mirajane’s eyes. He knew he wouldn’t find sympathy there, but empathy, and he didn’t believe he deserved it. “I think that if I were to choose one thing to stay the same, it would have to be something else.”
A pause, and Fried felt Mirajane’s hand on his wrist. “If it’s an act of defiance,” she began, her voice quiet and unaccusing, “I don’t think it’s very likely to change his mind about you. You’ll have to work a little harder for that.”
“I know that,” Fried responded. He wanted to put more force behind it, to snap at her, but he felt helpless and the annoyance simply wouldn’t come.
Mirajane was smiling. He wasn’t looking up to see it, but to imagine otherwise would be absurd. “I also think that if you want to prove to him that you’re more than what you appear, you should work on proving it to yourself first.”
With that, she patted his wrist one last time and stood, and Fried managed to look up in time to see her looking down at him with a faint smile and an expression that he didn’t think anyone had ever shown him before. She turned to leave just as Fried opened his mouth to speak.
Fried grew his hair back out the next day. Bixlow smirked and teased and Evergreen rolled her eyes, but Fried could only smile, and the next time Mirajane brought him his drink, the back of her hand brushed the long hair at his temple, and she smiled too.
Fandom: Fairy Tail
Characters: Fried, Mirajane, others; past Fried/Laxus and incipient Fried/Mirajane implied
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,042
Summary: A learning experience on haircuts, self-image, and measuring up.
A/N: My theory on why Fried cut his hair, why he grew it back, and how it relates to his term in the Raijinshuu and his place in Fairy Tail. Also Mirajane being the Helpful One needs to happen more often.
One year, in the boiling heat of summer, Fried cut his hair.
It wasn’t too short, but short enough to keep it off the back of his neck and out of his eyes; Evergreen did it for him, and insisted that it was a marked improvement. Of course, it took a lot of badgering on her part - he would have let her do it straight off, but her continued insistence that he must be miserable in the heat and that she didn’t know how he could stand it made him want to prove her wrong. It wasn’t until Bixlow suggested that Fried just didn’t want Ever to be the pretty one that he finally acquiesced.
His new look didn’t last a week before Laxus raked rough fingers into the shortened fringe at the back of his neck and gave a sharp tug. “I like it better long,” he remarked, casual and just the wrong side of cajoling. “You look like you’re trying too hard to be manly.” A sharper tug followed. “You don’t think you’re manly all of a sudden for some reason, do you?”
Fried grew it back out the next day. The spell was simple, and trying to work up the nerve not to do it took longer than it did to actually do it. Bixlow was all smirks and teasing quips, but Ever’s eyes, eyes that always saw more than they should, followed him for days.
It was a few years later that Laxus was excommunicated and the Raijinshuu were accepted back into Fairy Tail’s ranks. Fried had expected his master’s expulsion, but not the peaceful acceptance with which he took it; it gave Fried hope, and more importantly, enough strength to rally Evergreen and Bixlow from their depression and convince them to remain a team.
Fried was certain that they would someday meet again. Knowing it barely kept his heart from breaking, but barely was enough.
The day after the festival, Fried had a long, hard look into a mirror, and then he found Evergreen and asked her to cut his hair. She did a wonderful job - it was similar to how it had been the last time, but not completely the same, and he appreciated her rare display of silent understanding. At least, he appreciated it until he remembered fingers twisting harshly into short-but-not-short-enough hair, and then he went home and shaved it the rest of the way off.
The next time he met Laxus, Fried decided, he would be a man worthy of being his former master’s equal.
Somewhat surprisingly - or perhaps not at all - it was Mirajane who changed his mind.
“I like it better long,” she told him, soft fingers brushing against the cropped hair above his ear as she set his drink down at his secluded corner of the main hall. She smiled, sweet and almost apologetic. “You look like you’re trying too hard to be manly.”
Since Lisanna’s death, Fried had never known Mirajane to be so direct. She was undisputed master of the veiled insult, marked by the fact that any guild member would be aghast a the very suggestion of their Mira-san having a less-than-innocent opinion, but to speak frankly to him of all people was a shock to say the least. It was always possible that she’d changed in his absence, but somehow, Fried didn’t think so.
And what a time to be direct she’d chosen, he mused, not initially noticing the way his fingers went white-knuckled around his mug.
But Mirajane did. “I’m sorry,” she said softly, and took the seat across from him without angling for an invitation. “All I meant was that it seems like a silly way to go about it - and trust me, I know all about silly ways of acting manly.” Her smile widened with affection, and Fried would have smiled back at another time.
“I thought it was time for a new look,” he said flatly. It didn’t seem right for her to be talking to him in this manner after everything that had happened between them. It didn’t seem right for her to be talking to him at all.
Mirajane’s smile grew sympathetic. “I thought about cutting my hair after…well, you know.” Yes, Fried thought with a mild pang of guilt, he supposed he did. “I found myself standing in front of the bathroom mirror with a ponytail in one hand and a pair of kitchen shears in the other, once. But I thought about it for a long time, and I decided, well…after everything that had changed about my life, and about me, maybe something needed to stay the same.”
Fried couldn’t quite bring himself to look into Mirajane’s eyes. He knew he wouldn’t find sympathy there, but empathy, and he didn’t believe he deserved it. “I think that if I were to choose one thing to stay the same, it would have to be something else.”
A pause, and Fried felt Mirajane’s hand on his wrist. “If it’s an act of defiance,” she began, her voice quiet and unaccusing, “I don’t think it’s very likely to change his mind about you. You’ll have to work a little harder for that.”
“I know that,” Fried responded. He wanted to put more force behind it, to snap at her, but he felt helpless and the annoyance simply wouldn’t come.
Mirajane was smiling. He wasn’t looking up to see it, but to imagine otherwise would be absurd. “I also think that if you want to prove to him that you’re more than what you appear, you should work on proving it to yourself first.”
With that, she patted his wrist one last time and stood, and Fried managed to look up in time to see her looking down at him with a faint smile and an expression that he didn’t think anyone had ever shown him before. She turned to leave just as Fried opened his mouth to speak.
Fried grew his hair back out the next day. Bixlow smirked and teased and Evergreen rolled her eyes, but Fried could only smile, and the next time Mirajane brought him his drink, the back of her hand brushed the long hair at his temple, and she smiled too.