Chapter Text
Arthur looked up from his mobile when he entered the barber shop across the street from his company. Getting his hair cut was a necessity, something that had to be done. It didn’t mean that he had to enjoy this waste of time, did it?
A petite girl with long dark hair approached him. “Hi! Good morning, what can we do for you today?”
Her name tag said ‘Freya’, as Arthur absent-mindedly noticed. “Your sign said ‘walk-ins welcome’. Would you have time now?”
Freya smiled at him and looked at his hair. “What needs to be done?”
“A cut?” What did he know about hair? It needed to be washed once in a while and cut more often than he liked.
“Let me check who’s available.” Freya scanned the room just as a tall bloke with ridiculous black hair that stood out at every end and made his head look three times the size approached.
“Blond gods, as you know, Freya dear, are my responsibility here.” He smiled widely at Arthur and his blue eyes that were lined thickly with black eyeliner crinkled up. “If you’d follow me, dear.” A gesture that was just as ridiculous as the hair motioned over to an empty seat.
Blond gods? Dear? Who did that bloke think he was? And what was it with this stupid hair and horrible eyeliner and black nail polish and the leather bands and the all black outfit? And why did he gesture with a limp wrist and what did the nasal camp accent mean? Arthur didn’t say anything, but mentally rolled his eyes. Why did some gay guys always think they had to shove their sexuality into everybody’s faces? But damn, he needed that haircut and maybe that bloke at least knew what he was doing with scissors and a comb?
When Arthur was seated and already pulled out some papers he needed to go over before the next meeting, the man was fussing about, getting things and finally sitting on a small stool and smiled at his reflection in the mirror over his shoulder. “Hi. My name is Merlin and I’ll take good care of you today.”
Arthur had a hard time not groaning. “A simple haircut will do.” And what kind of stupid name was ‘Merlin’? His real name probably was Joe or Tom or Harry.
“There is no such thing as a simple haircut. You’ve got such wonderful hair, you should take better care of it. And why don’t you put those papers down, dear, you’re here to relax, not to work.”
He had no idea why he didn’t get up and leave right away, but something in the bloke’s blue eyes held Arthur’s attention. “Because I need to prepare this for the next meeting and I’m only here to get my hair cut, not for a spa weekend.”
“Awwwwww, too bad, dear.”
“And if you would stop calling me ‘dear’, the name is Arthur.”
Merlin, who had picked up a comb, playfully hit his arm with it. “That’s a start, Arthur dear.” He beamed widely. “Let’s take a look at that wonderful golden silk you have for hair.”
Instead of giving it a quick comb-through, Merlin reached out and ran his fingers through the hair. He lifted some strands here, examined some ends there and hmm-ed and frowned once in a while. Arthur looked at him uncertainly. What was this? He needed a haircut. Not a count of each and every of his already too-thin hair. “So, are you going to cut it or what?”
“You know, you have rather fine hair and it’s very dry, your scalp is totally stressed. What products do you use?”
What products? “Err…shampoo in the morning.”
Nodding knowingly, Merlin kept on running his fingers through Arthur’s hair. “No conditioner? No treatments once in a while? You know, you could just put conditioner in and then wrap a towel around your head while you work on those papers of yours in the evening.” Merlin winked.
How on earth did he know that he continued his work as soon as he got home? And why on earth would he put some product in his hair and wrap a towel around it and sit about with a towel turban for hours? Ridiculous. Couldn’t he just cut the hair so he could get out of here to never return?
“Listen, can we just continue? I have a meeting in an hour.”
Sighing dramatically, Merlin rolled his eyes. “Always in such a hurry, you business folks. Okay, Arthur, let’s get to work and make you even more gorgeous.”
He fastened one of those large cloak thingies around Arthur’s neck and led him over to the sinks.
Just as Arthur pulled out his mobile, Merlin shook his head. “Nononononononono!” He snatched the device from Arthur’s hand. “You’re about to enter the relaxation zone. No mobiles allowed. I’ll take it back to your seat.” Arthur watched open-mouthed how that cartoon of a gay guy swayed his hips as he danced over to his seat and put the mobile down.
He gasped when Merlin came back, put the chair into the right position and pushed a button that started a massage function.
“Good, isn’t it?”
Arthur couldn’t object. He never thought much of those chairs, but it felt really good on the tight muscles in his lower back.
“Just lean back, relax and let me work my magic.”
Even though Arthur couldn’t see Merlin now since he was standing behind him, he could hear him smile. The sooner they were done and over with this, the sooner he could get back to the office.
When he felt the warm water, he closed his eyes. Gentle but determined fingers worked through his hair, getting it all wet.
“Is the water temperature okay for you, Arthur?”
Just a whisper, but it almost startled him. Was he imagining things or was the camp accent gone? “Yeah, fine. Don’t worry, I’ll let you know when something’s not right.”
“Fine.”
The water stopped and the smell of shampoo filled Arthur’s nostrils as he heard Merlin working up a thick lather before gently putting it in his hair. But he didn’t only wash the hair, he massaged Arthur’s head and neck and despite himself, Arthur started to relax. Those long strong fingers really did magic, finding all the spots that needed soothing. For a moment, he wondered what those fingers could do on other parts of his body, but before he could question these thoughts, the water was turned on again and the foam washed out.
“You know what, Arthur?” Oh, Mr. Gay Posterboy was back, even though he spoke a lot more gentle than before. “I’ll put some deepening conditioner on, too. Your hair really needs it, it’ll work wonders, you’ll see. It needs to work for a few minutes and I’ll be back in no time.”
Before Arthur could argue, the stuff was on his head. Oh well. He could relax for a few moments longer, right?
When Merlin came back and started to wash the conditioner off Arthur’s head, Arthur almost jumped. He’d been in such a deep state of relaxation that he was close to falling asleep. For almost ten minutes, he’d been able to shove all thoughts of meetings, contracts and negotiations out of his mind.
A towel wrapped around Arthur’s head, Merlin ushered him over to his seat again, a kind smile on his face. “See what a difference ten minutes and good products can make?” He took the towel away and Arthur looked at himself in the mirror. There was nothing different about his hair, as far as he could see, but he had to admit that he looked less tired than before.
“Okay,” Merlin was back with the comb and the scissors, gesturing with the scissors, “I’ve given this some thought. How about we’ll take a bit away in the back, will make you look a bit less…how do I put it…compact? But we’ll leave the length on top, if we cut that too short, your receding hairline will be too visible. It’s not too bad yet and with the right treatment it can be at least slowed down, but we won’t have you look older than you actually are.”
For most of Merlin’s speech, Arthur just watched in fascination how the scissors were being swung around and hoped he would catch the right moment to duck if they came too close to his head. But none of that happened and the one thing he caught was ‘receding hairline’. Oh, thank you very much. As if it wasn’t bad enough to lose your hair at the age of 29, did that bloke have to point it out, too?
“Would you be okay with that?” Merlin looked at him expectantly and not for the first time Arthur noticed the blue of his eyes. He took a deep breath. He was not into fairies. He liked his men tall and muscled and all male, not fluttering about, gesturing and talking as if they had a bad case of adenoids. He found that behavior disgusting. Especially since all the world seemed to think that this was the prototype of a homosexual man. And he should not be thinking about the prototype of all prototypes of fags – he was gay himself, he was allowed to use the word – having nice eyes or a wonderful smile or great hair, if it wasn’t piled up like that.
“Err…yeah, just do what you have to do.”
Actually he had planned to reach for his papers again to get some work done, but he settled for watching Merlin work. Small shivers ran down his spine every time Merlin touched his neck and more than once he had to close his eyes. The long fingers ran through his hair, cut little pieces off and wandered along to find the next strand that didn’t fit into the new haircut yet. Arthur was almost disappointed when Merlin declared “Done, let me get the hair dryer.”
And once again, he just used his fingers as he blow-dried Arthur’s hair. When he seemed to be content, he put the dryer aside and grabbed another little jar, smeared a dollop of white-ish stuff onto the palms of his hands and rubbed it into Arthur’s hair. “Just some wax,” he winked and plucked at one strand of hair or another.
“Here you go, Arthur dear, even more gorgeous than before.” He held up a huge mirror so Arthur could see the back of his head.
But Arthur just nodded. He was much too confused. So he grabbed his things as soon as the cloak came off, thanked Merlin and rushed to the counter to pay. He left a generous tip for Merlin, wished Freya a nice day and hurried back to his office.
Arthur sat at his desk and just stared into space instead of finally preparing for the meeting, wondering what had just happened. He had just gone to get a haircut. Something you had to do once in a while if you didn’t want to look like a hippie. Usually, he went over papers and made a few calls while some faceless, nameless person worked on his hair. But now…this Merlin bloke had managed to make him relax for the first time in…Arthur couldn’t even remember if he had ever been this relaxed. And those damn long fingers, the blue eyes, the contagious smile…aside from the fact that Arthur hated queens like him…oh, he wasn’t half bad.
Lance stuck his head in. “Ready to face the enemy, Arthur?”
“Wha…? Oh, sure, come on in, I’ll need a moment.” Arthur jumped up and collected some papers from his desk and stuffed them into a folder. He grabbed his favorite pen and gave Lance a shaky smile. “Let’s nail this deal.”
Lance gave him a sideways look.
“What?”
“There’s something different about you. New tie? Different kind of shirt? Have we seen this suit before? You look really smart today.” Lance smiled.
“Just got my hair cut over lunch. Thanks.” Without even noticing, Arthur walked a bit straighter. Maybe that Merlin bloke really knew what he was doing?