FicWad

*MICHIRU*

*3 Days Later*

Snippets of my hair drifted to the floor in front of me. I cringed with every tuft that fell past me, wishing that I hadn't asked Yumi to cut my hair. He elbowed me.
"Stop cringing. You asked me to cut it, and I'm going to cut it right," he growled. "Don't you want to look even more beautiful?"
"That depends...How much are you cutting off?" I asked him.
He gathered up a large remaining chunk of my hair, one that he proceeded to show me was still as long as it was originally, and sheared it off in one clip. "That's how much I'm cutting off," he said indignantly. I gasped as he dropped the handful in my lap. That was ALL of my hair. "He really hacked your hair up. So one side is going to be really, really short."
"One side?"
"Hush, let me work."
I sighed and gave up. There was no way I was going to talk him out of something he found aesthetically appealing. If he liked it, and he thought it would make me some kind of goddess of beauty, then whatever. I could stand a little change.
He brushed the rest of my hair over to the left side of my face, cutting extremely close to my scalp on the right side of my head. He flipped a little tag of longer hair over my shoulder. It was still elbow length, attached right in front of my ear like a little tail. He flipped a second one over the other shoulder.
"What are these?" I asked, tugging at them. They felt like antennas to me.
"Don't question me, Michiru," he warned me gently. "I promise it'll look wonderful."
I let him work for a few more minutes until he stopped cutting. He primped and fluffed my hair for a moment, walking around in front of me to inspect his work. "Perfect, as always. Here." He held a mirror up in front of me.
I nearly panicked. Just nearly. There was maybe an inch of hair left on the entire right side. The back of it began to lengthen bit by bit to the left until it reached my chin, where it was its longest. The natural wave in my hair was nearly invisible with this hair cut. "Yumi, my hair is gone," I said quietly.
He rolled his eyes. "Michiru, it looks wonderful. I don't see what's wrong with it." He fished for something in his pocket, withdrawing two golden cuffs. "Here. I meant to put these in. Maybe you'll like this better."
He tied one into the little trails of hair on either side, and when he dropped them they jingled quietly. So now I was a cat toy.
"I think you look absolutely lovely," he squealed. He was obviously proud of himself. "I got it off this magazine I stole from the human world. Some kind of thing called Vogue. They called it...an a-frame? I think?"
He handed me the magazine. It confused me, really, that the women were wearing such odd outfits, but if he liked it I wasn't going to bother him. I saw my haircut on a particularly tall girl in the center of the book. It looked much better on her.
"Can I go now?" I asked. I shifted uneasily, feeling my ribs twinge in pain. The wound hadn't healed over totally yet.
"If you must. Oh, and here." He pulled out another tiny golden cuff, but this one was obviously an earring. He jabbed it into the only piercing I had--thankfully, it went through without a hitch. The cuff fit around the top part of my ear snugly.
The paper door rattled and slid back, revealing Ikkaku. He looked particularly chipper for some reason, grinnning from ear to ear, as he made his way over to me. "You look nice," he told me, quickly wrapping his arm around my shoulder as I stood up. "Do you feel any better?"
Yumichika shot me a look. This was highly uncharacteristic of Ikkaku, and we both knew it.
"I feel ok," I murmured. I squirmed in his grip.
"Good." He ruffled my hair. "Well. Tomorrow, you're going to have to head over to see Captain General. Important stuff and whatnot. So get all spiffed up and get ready," he told me.
The words didn't quite click. I wondered for a moment about what he meant, and why Captain General was relevant to the situation. Yumichika shook his head.
"Are you dense, Michiru?" he asked, sighing. "Captain General. Promotion. You."
Ikkaku shook my shoulder gently. "And don't you know your Academy graduation is soon? About a month, and you'll be done," he said. "You know the last semester is short."
I stood still for a moment. Everything began to fall into place in my head -- Captain General wanted to see me, I was going to graduate soon. Captain General had something important to tell me.
"Shit," I blurted. Ikkaku burst into laughter, finally letting go of me.
"How rude," Yumi muttered, but he snickered too. But the truth of the matter was that I needed to get my act together. Injuries or not, I had a lot of work to do, and this whole deal with Captain General was surely some kind of squad placement or punishment. Which, I wasn't sure. I knew I didn't want the punishment end.
"You're behind on the schedule, aren't you?" Ikkaku asked, turning toward the door. "I guess if I was in a coma for 5 days I would be too. But anyway. You should go get a new uniform made. Something. This is important."
Yumichika agreed. "You should. And go take a bath, by the way..."
I glared. "Why? I took one this morning!"
"Well, you have all these little hair snippets all over you, and that's just not attractive."
Ikkaku rolled his eyes and continued out the door, chuckling down the hallway. Yumichika shoved a towel in my hand.
"Well, go on," he urged. "I'll take you to town later to get you a new uniform."