Owen’s day off had become miraculous to him. He had begun to understand his parents all the more though nothing could compare to what he imagined his mother’s exhaustion to be. He woke up feeling a little gross though. He had fallen asleep in his clothes talking late into the night with Slaine. She had actually fallen asleep first and he just lay there watching her sleep on her screen, waiting for the day he could do that every night. He had started to drift and vaguely remembered her waking long enough to say goodnight and end the face time call. He ran his fingers over his phone and then rolled over a bit, thinking he should send her a morning text and then his hair stuck to his pillow as he tried to lift his head.
“Ah fuck!!” He had been chewing gum last night and while he didn’t choke on it in his sleep it had managed to get squashed into the pillow and work it’s way all through his hair. He fought to free himself from it and lost and then just picked up his pillow attached to his hair and walked into his brother’s room as the door was open. Seamus appeared to be reading on his bed.
“Shaybus...I have a problem….”
Seamus is on his bed, laying back with a magazine open in front of him. Most might assume it was pornography, but it was the Latest issue of Archetecture Monthly. He was in clean jeans with a clean shirt, looking like he might go out on the town at any minute. When he hears Owen’s voice, he replied before he looked. “I know, but you have a girlfriend for that now.” and then he looks up and blinks, raising both of his pale brows. “What the actual fuck, Owen?” he asks, placing the magazine aside and standing, looking at his brother, perplexed.
Owen sighs while turning beet red “I fell asleep in gum…...please save me from myself...just cut it out if you have to...seriously….I’ll wear a hat for the next 3 months…...I can’t even….”
Seamus stared for a while, trying to process what his brother was telling him. “You….” he blinks, still a bit slack jawed from shock. “Let me see…” he moves to his brother and tries to take pillow from hair. He can’t help himself, he starts laughing lightly. “I’ll help you. I will. I should do that by drowning you in the toilet, but it’s too late. You’ve already reproduced.” he shakes his head and points to his desk, which is neat, like the rest of his room. There is a large mirror on the wall. “Have a seat. I’ll get my hair cutting shit…” he opens the bottom drawer of his dresser and starts searching. It doesn’t take long. Seamus is neat and organized. It’s one of the things that seperates he and Owen.
Owen laughs a bit too “I feel like an idiot. Please don’t butcher me for it. I don’t want to scare Slaine off…” He laughs nervously but Seamus has been cutting his own hair and it looks amazing every day “Don’t put a bunch of smelly shit in it either please. That stuff makes me want to puke.” He notices Seamus’s set up and looks impressed.
Seamus gets things ready. It’s really pretty simple. A comb, scissors, electric trimmers. There is a container of … something on his desk, but he isn’t touching it yet. “You should feel like an idiot. Let me guess. Chewing gum in bed?” he rolls his eyes and removes the pillow from the pillowcase and tosses it onto his bed. “Hold on….” he hurries into the bathroom and comes back with a couple of large towels, one of which he sets on the floor and the other he sets over Owen’s shoulders. He balls up the pillowcase and holds it away from Owen’s head so it tugs but not painfully. He looks and then cuts the case away from the hair. “OK …. Now … a real, proper haircut. You haven’t had one of those since you were in single digits.” he rolls his eyes. “Mom and not stunting personal growth.” he shakes his head as if in disbelief.
Owen shifts his lips sideways and admits “Yeah.” and then he argues “Well when you have long hair you don’t have to cut it. In a few years I would have just been Uncle Jude….” He jokes. “Mind you mine’s not like his and I’m not nearly as bad ass. In fact I’m really not bad ass at all…...I can’t remember the last time I had a hair cut...maybe grade 8 before school pictures that time when Mom made us.” He confesses.
Seamus begins by combing through Owen’s hair … which is not as easy as he thought it would be. “My guess is that Uncle Jude doesn’t chew gum when he’s tired. Plus his is kind of curly, but very cool. You’d think he’d be rocking come kind of military cut, but his hair is so long .. he has too have been growing it out for YEARS.” he reaches a tangle and begins to work through it .. not gently because he isn’t spending the rest of the spring combing his brother's hair. But not like he’s mad at Owen either. “I remember that. She got us the exact same haircut, and before we even got to school, yours was a mess.” he rolls his eyes. “Don’t squirm. Jesus you’re worse than Olivia.”
Owen wasn’t at all used to someone else brushing his hair. Their mother had given up on him some time in late elementary school. He had been pulling away without realizing it, twisting as he pulled which really did make it hurt more. His teeth were gritted and he breathed out little grunts like he was being tortured. When Seamus called him on it he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I can do this...I am a grown up...adulting...this is what adulting looks like right? Haircuts and having big relationships and babies?” He sounded happy and nervous “If I don’t fuck it all up…”
Seamus rolled his eyes, worked through one tangle and moved on to another. “Yes. That is what adulting looks like.” he shrugs. “Like I said, I’ll help if you want .. with what I know from helping Daisy with Olivia.” he keeps combing out the odd tangle. Not only did Owen sleep with gum, he panicked and came to him with bed head.
Owen sighs “I graciously accept. Although you’re not going to believe this...I helped deliver puppies at work….7 of them. I mean I didn’t do much but pet the dog...but it was wild. It still blows my mind that creatures grow inside humans and then come out and just…” He waves his hands around, accidentally shaking his head a bit “This….just human…..ow fuck…
Seamus is working. He’s got the worst of it. “No shit?! Really?” he snorts. “I’ve never seen anything born before.” he grabs Owen’s head when it starts moving forcing it to be still. “Yea that’s really weird.” he begins to comb around the whole head, looking for any tangles he’s missed. “Just wait till her body starts changing.” he speaks absently, looking in the mirror and considering what cut to give Owen more than watching his mouth. “Daisy had the flatest little belly the first time we fucked. And then it got bigger and bigger.” he snorts. “And sometimes Olivia would kick me. And you could see her foot through Daisy’s belly.” he shakes his head, making something like a decision.
Owen nods “Yeah me neither. Except those videos in health class and back then I closed my eyes. I didn’t tell Theo that though. I didn’t want him to laugh at me. I mean he’s probably stuck his whole arm in a cow or something…” As Seamus talks about Daisy his eyes go a bit wider “You guys had a lot of sex when she was pregnant? Weren’t you worried about hurting the baby?” Owen’s betraying a genuine fear of his own with Slaine. Then he has another thought “Where did you even...I mean she lived with her mom and god knows we didn’t have any privacy……”
Seamus snorts. “Thanks for that visual. Looks like I’ll be vegan for the rest of the week.” he quips. Then Owen asks about him and Daisy. “Yea, I kinda was at first, but she told me not to be stupid and I did some research on my own and …. Turns out sex doesn’t hurt the baby and can actually be GOOD for the mother. Orgasms can help with labor, so towards the end I got to make her cum … a lot.” he shrugs when Owen asks where and hikes a thumb over his shoulder. “In that bed.” he isn’t really thinking. “Not many other places for us TO fuck, but the first time no one was home and she’d been crying and I comforted her and … then we fucked.” he nods to himself and finally picks up the scissors.
Owen seems to accpet this, thoughful about the info that sex wouldn’t hurt a baby and then his eyes bulge “Wait...THAT bed?” He points without moving his head “Shay….it was Fi’s bed then. You had sex in Fi’s room in her bed? Does she know this? I’m kinda thinking no. Because you’re still alive…”
Seamus froze when he realized that Owen was right. His bed HAD been Fiona’s bed. “Uh … yea .. she doesn’t know. She doesn’t need to know that. It was YEARS ago, for fucks sake.” he clears his throat, now desperate to change the subject. Casually he begins to cut a lot of the length off of Owen’s hair. “So you getting little Liam a puppy.” he isn’t even remembering that the kid isn’t even with his mother anymore.
Owen just blows out a big breath about Fi’s bed. “I’m not gonna tell her. She would just kill us both.” He laughs and then frowns about Liam and the puppy “Well no because he’s not with her…..I don’t want to remind her of that. I’m hoping we can...Bitteto can help her solve it…..And I don’t think that apartment building will allow dogs...cats maybe. Best to leave that alone…..I just want her here...Liam too if we can.” He smiles a little “Paul asked for a puppy for his girls. It’s the police dog...Daisy so Chief Greene makes the call on who gets one. I’m assuming his granddaughter gets first dibs. Theo thought the papa dog might be the fire dog...that beagle. Just when I thought work couldn’t get any crazier….we had puppies in the back room….” He laughs again as he has an after thought “Oh and I got hit on earlier in the day…...must have been a full moon….”
Seamus laughs a little. “I’d appreciate that, thanks.” then he winces and groans. “Oh fuck! I’m sorry O-man. I didn’t forget. I was just thinking of Fi castrating me and …” he sounds and looks truly sorry he’d brought the puppy idea up. “Oh .. Daisy .. yea … Daisy the human used to get teased a lot cause they had the same name.” he rolls his eyes, but then they widen. “Wait, the lazy one?” he snorts a laugh. “Well, whatever, but they might be some strange looking dogs.” then Owen mentions getting hit on. “Who hit on YOU?” he demands to know. “I mean you had to leave the island to get laid in the first place.” he teases, beginning to cut Owen’s hair in a professional like manner. Quasi-professional.
Owen protests “Hey! I’m being insulted by my hairdresser…..no tip today sonny!” He shoots back and then backtracks “I do appreciate the haircut….seriously I’ll cook for you and do all your chores for a week Shay.” He looks guilty “This girl Pixie….funny name I know. She suits it though, cutesy with cat hats and pink hair and rainbow makeup and stuff. She’s actually really nice and I feel bad if I hurt her feelings. She just asked if I had a girlfriend and then got all oh of course you do look at you...and kinda...I dunno mushy and stuff. So I just blurted it all out. Slaine, the pregnancy….” He holds up a finger indicating a new point “and then Ziggy Alvin falls through the door...she heard it all. She works with us now….so yeah I’m sure everyone’s gonna know between my big mouth and the two of them….” He throws up his hands in a mock dramatic gesture.
Seamus snorts and outs his hands on his hips, assuming a pose like he thinks Kurt might if Kurt ever got insulted. “I vill give ju a style like zat Greene.” he threatens and then can’t continue. “Oh fuck yea. Cook for me. I’ll order some spices from … someplace. Maybe you can get a recipe from online someplace, unless Slaine cooks Thai food. Not trying to stereotype here.” He listens to the Pixie come on. “Jesus Christ, Owen. I’ve seen Slaine, so I know you can attract a very pretty looking girl, but … fuck. Cat hats? How did I miss that one. Give her my number.” he winks and then he begins to laugh as Owen explains how he wound up telling the whole story of his girlfriend and their baby. And then Ziggy. “Hey, I like Ziggy. She taught me how to tag.” and then he stops. “Yea .. don’t tell Mom … or Uncle Mike because when I did get busted that time I didn’t tell them anything. They just think I’m artistic .. cause … I want to be an architect. I let them think what they want.” he chuckles. “It’ll be all over town regardless. Mom probably told Stephanie, who probably told Indoa Tor who probably told YouTube.”
Owen smirks “Yeah she cooks Thai. It’ll be a good balance if we both cook...like Mom and Dad.” Which was really all Owen ever wanted. A family like the one he came from. He looks intrigued by the tagging “I’m not gonna tell them...but what did you tag?” He bites his lip looking at Shay for a second and then curiously asks “You really want me to give Pixie your number or are you just being an ass? Because right now with social distancing it would all be…...” He makes a blatant gesture for masturbation in front of his abdomen “Show and tell…” He adds now cracking up.
Seamus snorts a bit. He knows what his brother wants. Well, he was getting his family. He trims a little from the left and then the right of his brother’s head. “One of those buildings down in the Bottoms.” he tells him. “It got cleaned up pretty fast, so i don’t think it was good. People tend to leave Ziggy’s alone.” he chuckles as he trims. “Show and tell .. well she wants big Reinhardt cock, I can show her big Reinhardt cock. I can’t take long drawn out showers all the fucking TIME and some variety from Daisy is always nice.” it's a statement for him. “And if neither of us is bored once quarantine breaks … I have a nice new supply of condoms.”
Owen tries to keep his head still now. His long hair is gone and now it’s just taking shape. He feels an odd shift in identity from a long haired dude to a short haired dude and he feels air on his neck….air. He listens about the tagging with quiet fascination. He’s never done anything like that. Owen makes a face when Shay goes right for it in his description “Wow man...I know I started that….but you fuckin win..” He laughs and looks awkward. “I’m not going to advertise your phone number that way to anyone unless you want me to write it on the staff bathroom wall…..but seeing as how we have the same last name…..all the nopes dude….”
Seamus chuckles and strikes a pose when Owen says he’s won. He looks closely at Owen’s head, not rushing the haircut at all. “Fair enough.” He agrees and starts cutting hair again, making sure the sides are symmetrical. It’s coming out a bit longer on the top, medium in the back and shorter in the sides. “So … boy or a girl?” he asks.
Owen chuckles at the pose and then admires Shay’s work on his hair “You’re actually….GOOD at this man.” At the baby gender question he shrugs lightly “We dunno yet. I’m not sure when you get that information...but later right? I mean I don’t even know if I want to know or need to know. I just want a healthy baby and for it to be healthy for Slaine….and as easy as it can be I guess. I know it’s not easy….but it can be easier in some cases I guess. Maybe I should read one of those books because I’m way out to lunch on all this……” He snorts “Poor Slaine.”
Seamus grins. “I bugged the barber so fucking much during the Fog he wound up teaching me some things.” he confesses. “I was supposed to start some apprentice work as soon as I graduate, but at this fucking rate I’ll be rushing to get my application shit for college in and classes and shit. If we’re not all still quarantined by then anyway.” Owen is super hyped and excited to start college. Then he nods. “I think it's later. It’s been a long time since Daisy talked my ear off about pregnancy. And no … it’s not easy, but it helps if you have help., and Slaine has you, so … that’s help … “ he snorts. “After a fashion.” he grins and combs Owen’s hair back. Then forward. Then left. Then he starts combing and snipping again. “We’re not in the fog anymore, dufus. Go online and search all about pregnancy and childbirth and all that. Diapers aren’t hard, really, but those blow-outs can be fucking gross.” he proclaims.
Owen makes a face “I don’t think I need an explanation on that part. That sounds disgusting. What did you mean about the colours? I mean shit is shit right? Baby shit...big adult shit...Uncle Uilick shit…..never mind that’s some kinda toxic shit he’s got. He always clogs the damned toilet…….” He shudders “So you’ll design hair...and buildings. Maybe you need to be a salon architect?” He muses.
Seamus snorts. “No but the pay plus tips will keep me in books and hopefully decent clothes throughout my college career.” he has a lot of his financial plan worked out in his head, already. Then he smiles. An almost evil looking smile. “Oh no, no, no, no, NO. big brother.” he protests. “Shit is NOT shit, Shit sort of grows with your body. Like Uncle Ulick. It’s like black at first and then it can be green or mustard yellow and sometimes orange. After the liquid comes the REhydrated shit .. raisins … and other stuff that rehydrates in their little bodies. And it doesn’t get solid and brown for a WHILE.” he stops cutting and stares at his brother through his mirror. “And the baby …. It has no timer. Like … Olivia had a blow out .. when the shit literally blows out of the diaper .. arms and legs and the top part. All over her clothes. I cleaned her up and put on a clean diaper and put her in a new outfit. I pick her up and she's smiling at me and …” he makes like a fart noise. “She did it AGAIN … ANOTHER blow-out. Had to clean her up and everything all over again. I mean .. how much shit can one little girl have in her?” he demands to know.
Owen begins to look truly frightened. He wasn’t a squeamish person by nature. He had once wanted to do a whole scince experiment about the power of flatulence, but the force of excrement in a small person exploding twice….”That sounds like a fuckin horror movie…..”
Seamus just shakes his head in amazement reliving the experience all over again. “Bro….” is all he says about it. Then he brightens. “But they’re cute when they’re not screaming at you. Like I’d turn on some music and sit on the couch and put Olivia on my chest and she’d fall asleep. Sometimes I would, too. It’s not ALL a nightmare.” he assures his brother. “And they grow up, so there’s that.” he takes another look in the mirror and at Owen’s hair and finally reaches forward for what looks like a glass container full of … vaseline?
Owen looks suspiciously at the container but more suspiciously at his brother “Shay….you realize you sound like….” He hesitates and then says it “A father figure to Olivia. Are you sure you and Daisy are just casual? This is like bragging rights coming across here...and you sound like you love the kid….”He screws up his nose at the jar “What is that stuff?”
Seamus freezes with his hand halfway to the jaw and actually looks at his brother, instead of at him through the mirror. “What? I mean … no .. well … I guess I kinda am. I mean I baby sit Olivia, but she doesn’t call me ‘Daddy’ or nothin. I told you. I’m ‘Say’.” he rolls his eyes. “And, yea. Me and Daisy are friends with benefits. I benefit her by babysitting when she works. She benifits me by lettimg me fuck her. And … love … I dunno. O’s a good kid. And both of them are happier now that Daisy’s mom is out of the picture.” he looks at the jar and actually reaches it this time. “This stuff….” he tells him. “Is aloe vera. Buni told me about it. We went nearly three years without hair gel …. This works as hair gel. And if you’re a politically correct pussy or one of those people who freaks out about animal testing, its all natural. Buni hooks me up when I need it.” he shakes the small container. “And you need to use it. It’s good for your hair and it will keep it styled.” which probably sounds like too much work for Owen, but Seamus is going to use this opportunity to school his unfashionable brother and change the subject all at the same time.
Owen looks even more suspicious now but doesn’t say anything more. Shay had revealed a lot more than in previous conversations. He leans over the aloe vera and sniffs it “Ok...do your worst. It’s not too flowery and I’m a politically correct pussy.” He chuckles now. “Go Buni.”
Seamus rolls his eyes. “When have I ever smelled like fucking flowers, man?” he demands. When he could get scents, he gravitated more towards the woodsy kind. “Now pay attention…” He unscrews the lid and sticks in two fingers. “Rub it between your hands…” and he does. “Then rub it through your hair…” which he does for Owen, obviously. “I gave you a cut you can kinda do without a mirror .. because you are you.” He works the hair into a nice shape that isn’t ‘businessman neat’, but also isn’t ‘Owen morning’. “Now …” he looks at Owen. “Don’t mess with it. Let the aloe dry and don’t fuck with it. Hands OFF.”
Owen holds his hands up like he’s being held up “Yes Sir……” He smiles genuinely “I like it. Thank you Shay. Can I ask one more favour? Would you take a picture of me with my phone? I want to send it to Slaine…..like in front of the house maybe…..”
Seamus chuckles. “It’ll take you ten seconds to do your hair in the morning. And you’re welcome.” he starts to take off the towel from Owen’s neck and drop it on the floor. He even has a brush and brushes the hair off. He initially rolls his eyes, but then smiles and even says “send it to Slaine.” at the same time Owen does. “Yea. I can do that.” he looks at him. “Might want to get dressed.” he teases. “You look like you just rolled out of bed with perfect hair.” he looks ready to go when Owen is. “Have you ever considered like a walk through tour of the house? Hell, of town? I mean she IS moving here. Are you furnishing the place already or .. what?””
Owen nods and stands, impressed by how pro Shay’s set up truly is. Ten seconds. He’d try and live up to the cut...at least for the first week. Owen looks down at his worn old Jurassic Park shirt and ripped jeans “I am dressed. It’s cool man.” Slaine would know he wore the same thing the night before but he was pretty sure she was on her third day on one of her shirts or maybe she just had a few that looked similar. “I’m thinking about some kind of tour today. And I’ve asked around at work. Lydia has some stuff to get rid of and Paul’s brother has an extra futon. Cory says his folks have some kitchen stuff. It’s coming together……” He passes Shay his phone and begins to walk towards the stairs and down them if Shay is inclined to follow.
Seamus facepalms when Owen announces that he is dressed. Then he snorts. “Your place will look like Fi and Vincent’s. No two pieces of furniture looking alike.” he shakes his head, then looks at Owen’s hair, memorising it because it will be a miracle to him if he is still looking that good in a week. He takes the phone and heads down the stairs with him. It will be a damn good picture, if Seamus has anything to say about it.
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