Primped and polished 'til you glow with pride

[icare]

Kicking her legs in the community pool, Kristen brushed some stray hair back - the summer was way too hot to have that sticking to her forehead - and a thought crossed her mind. Not for the first time, she remembered: Riz had really nice hair. Everyone knew it after spring break. Shouldn't he be doing something with his hair other than stuffing it under a hat?

Look, she wasn't about forcing a way of life on anyone, but would she really be forcing anything on her friend? No way! He could just say no thanks! But really, with those pretty curls, Riz probably only had them hidden away all the time because he didn't know what to do with his hairstyle, right? As someone with more hair than she ever knew what to do with, Kristen could relate! And what's more, she could help!

In theory, anyway... But c'mon, how badly could she mess it up? Well, why wait and wonder when she could just find out? Kristen grinned before she plunged entirely into the water, swimming across to pop up on the other side where Riz was sitting by the pool with a notepad, because of course he was.

"Hey, hey Riz, I've got an idea!"

Comments

[nightyorb]

Riz loved his friends, he really did, but for all their many good qualities, they all lacked followthrough. Which is how he had ended up on his own, wrapping up the last few dangling threads after their spring break adventure. Fabian kept complaining and telling him it wasn't necessary, that they had already gotten their grade, and that he (Riz) was going to shrivel up from a lack of sunlight and fresh air working in that office all day, but it was very important to Riz that everything was finished nice and neat.

First had been the unfortunate store owner who Fig had robbed while possessed. That hadn't exactly been a mystery anymore, but still, he had gone out of his way to collect some evidence for her to present to the insurance company, including legal references for the fact that Fig couldn't be held responsible for her actions on account of the possession and that if the insurance company had any desire to find the actual demon responsible for the possession, he charged extra for infernal cases.

Next had been the case of the Hotel Cavelier. The mystery there centred around the staff -- what had happened to the staff? Had the demons replaced them? Killed them? How long had the hotel been under infernal ownership and had they committed any lesser crimes such as tax fraud or noise violations?

Thankfully, progress on that particular case was going quite well. He had already managed to track down six of the eight former staff members, before Fabian had bodily turfed him from his office, threatening all manner of retribution on his head if he didn't come to the pool with the rest of them this instance.

So. Now Riz was at the pool, feet dangling in the water as he scribbled away on his notepad. It wasn't a compromise Fabian was entirely happy with, judging by the prickle of a heavy stare he occasionally felt on the back of his neck, but so far, he had left him to his business.

If only Kristen had gotten the same memo.

"No," he answered automatically. Because gods, he loved Kristen. Who didn't love Kristen? But her ideas were always incredibly bad.

[icare]

Well, she hadn't expected him to protest that quickly, but Kristen's mood wasn't dampened. She simply blew a raspberry at Riz before she went on to try again:

"What? You can't say no before you even know what it is! Come on, dude, you gotta trust me on this one-- You'll even thank me!" And before Riz had a chance to further refuse, she just pushed on as she climbed out of the water, wringing out her own hair over the pool. "We can figure out what to do with your hair! You'll look great, and I'm the perfect one to help you with it. I've brushed my brothers' hair before."

It had never been true styling when she did that, not to mention the fact that her brothers had thin, straight hair that was nothing like Riz's... But hey! She just had to sell him on the idea, she knew she could do this.

[nightyorb]

"Yes, I can. I just did so."

His protests though went unheard as Kristen managed to clamber out of the pool without incident (not always a guarantee for her) already expanding on her plan as Riz rushed to guard his notebook from the water being wrung from her hair.

His frown deepened as he heard exactly what Kristen had in mind.

"Wait, when did this thing become about my hair? You can't just introduce a subject like that!"

[icare]

Kristen flashed a truly shit-eating grin at Riz's exclamation, resting her hands on her hips.

"Well, sure I can. I just did so."