”Hold still; stop fidgeting.”

Derek deemed the command to be unworthy of even a mumbled grumbling under the breath. He shifted, grimacing as some suds began to slip down his forehead. Leigh hurriedly swiped them away before they could reach his eyes and gave an admonishing tug to his hair.

”What did I just say?”

He shifted again -more out of spite, really, than discomfort. This time liquid slid down his neck, ran over his chest, and dropped into the rippling pool below. He scowled, glaring down into the water.

”Eyes closed,” She warned. He managed to shut his eyes just as a bucket of warm water was dumped on his head. He sputtered as his long reddish-orange hair fell all over his face, following the same path as the water droplet into the water.

She gathered his hair into her arms once again, and he could feel the cold sting of the conditioner as she squirted nearly half the bottle into his thick mane. He leaned back against the tub as she massaged it into his scalp, her ministrations soothing as he relaxed in the warm bathwater and allowed his mind to temporarily shut down.

After a while he felt a delicate hand come over to cover his eyes, and tensed. As water once again slid down his head and over her hand he managed to force himself to relax again.

She ruined it by tossing a towel over his head and rubbing down his scalp roughly. He grunted in irritation, which earned him a pinch on the cheek.

”Be nice, I did just wash your hair.”

At this he turned around to face her, making sure that the water remained above waste level. ”I didn’t ask you to. I was taking a bath.”

She pursed her lips. ”Your hair was getting dirty. It’s too long for you to just go a month without washing it.”

He rolled his eyes. ”I don’t care.”

She rolled hereyes. ”I do. You’re not allowed to have such pretty hair and not take care of it.”

He scowled, turning back around so she could finish toweling off his head. ”I do wash it.”

”No,” She retorted. ”You submerge it in the water when you take a bath, run your hands through it, and call it clean.”

”I use soap.”

”Soap is meant for the body. You need to use shampoo and conditionerfor long hair like yours.” This was coming from someone else whose hair practically swept the floor, so apparently she would know.

She took the towel off his head, tossing it behind her to be picked up later.

”Can you leave now? I would very much like to finish bathing, mind you.”

His hair was still piled in her arms to keep it from hanging over the edge of the tub and onto the floor. Shrugging to herself, she sat down, draping the damp locks over her lap and pulling out a comb from her back pocket. ”Go ahead,” She replied offhandedly as she began to de-knot his hair. ”Nobody’s stopping you.”

He opened his mouth to retort, then snapped it shut, unsure what to say to that. He finally settled on a snappish, ”You’re still inhere.”

”And?” She tugged on a particularly hard knot and he winced. ”I’m back here. I can’t see anything.”

”Leave,” He bit out.

”Your hair is still tangled. If I don’t comb it out now it will be that much harder when it’s dry.”

”…Get out.” That came out as more of a whine than a command, they both noted, and Derek sunk lower in the water, his cheeks pink.

They sat in silence for the next few minutes, before Derek sat up with a sigh. Leigh reached up and grabbed a washcloth from the sink, handing it to him. Derek took it, and Liegh knew he was blushing fiercely, because the back of his neck was red.

She giggled at his predicament, and Derek mentally bashed his head into the shower head above.