Nordic

୧ ‧₊˚ 🥩🦴 ⋅

Growing up William had always cut his hair, along with his brother’s, Jackson’s. It’s not that they didn’t trust barbers or anything, but Mama used to do their hair. The nearest town was at least a fifteen to twenty minute drive, so she had opted to just cut her boys’ hair.

Even after Mama’s passing, the routine still stuck with William and he took over Jackson’s hair cut as well. So, once a month William would spend about thirty minutes in a mirror just cutting his hair with scissors lying around the house.

However one day when William was cutting his hair, he had somehow lost control of the scissors and it cut a big chunk off of his hair. He had panicked a bit but had swooped his hair over into a side part, and ever since then the style had stuck, even into his twenties.

On top of cutting the brothers’ hair, Mama would wash it for them. This is one of the only things that didn’t carry over into their adulthood, especially Jackson.

Look at the state of their house, their personal hygiene isn’t going to be much better. Most of the time William’s hair is greasy from how much he sweats doing outside work. Jackson’s hair is just stinky.

———

However, this neglect from the brothers would change drastically in many months. When you had stumbled onto Cottonwood Farms in need of directions, you weren’t expecting to stay long at all.

William’s hesitance to let you go made you rethink your decision to leave despite the condition of the house and brothers’ mental states.

Both were extremely damaged in their own ways. You always managed to attract people in dire need of help, and they definitely needed it.

So, you made a deal with them: you’d call home and let them know where you were in exchange for cleaning the house.

After a bit of convincing, they let you call home to let your family know you’re doing alright and then you got to work.

Perhaps you shouldn’t have seen those shows of free house cleanings; but you knew that beneath the layers of grime and dirt was a beautiful antique home waiting to be brightened up again.

It took multiple weeks to get the house to not look like one on a hoarder show. Throwing out useless junk and trash combined with scrubbing floors, walls, even ceilings took longer than expected.

You weren’t the only one cleaning, however, the brothers did help when they were able to. Mostly Jackson helped you out, since William did all the ‘blue collar work’; but he helped when he could.

Cleaning with Jackson went how you thought it would: horribly. Seriously, you would have rathered cleaning without him at this point. Having to reteach two adults how to clean was a bit annoying but sad at the same time.

It made you wonder how they grew up, and how their parents raised them. How could they let their children be this way? Perhaps they were absent.

After weeks of hard work, it had paid off to see the house turn into a home; to watch it shine in all its glory. (You’re not even THINKING about touching the outside garden..)

Since you’d thrown out a lot of things, their decor had grown a little sparse now. Looking around while sitting on a newly clean couch, you think that you’ll bring them to a furniture store of some sort later.

——

During the weeks of cleaning, you had noticed William’s odd behavior around you. He was already a weirdo to begin with, but this was almost next level. To begin with, he would stare at you an unhealthy amount.

Then it was the gestures and gifts, like lending you a coat or giving you pie; those were cute but the staring was a problem.

You’d also gotten to know them both better, especially William. On the weekends, you guys would have a ‘movie night’. Picking out one of their VHS tapes and watching it on their old tv while eating homemade popcorn.

One night you had fallen asleep on the couch next to William. When you awoke, your head was on his shoulder and his head was on yours. There was also a blanket you were now sharing despite it not being there last night.

Your conclusion was that he had a little crush on you. Every interaction you had with him led to a more personal and close relationship.

Eventually, you had baited him into confessing to you once you’d realized he wasn’t going to anytime soon. Going out and pretending to almost die had done the trick.

Having William as a boyfriend is a lot like owning a cat that was once stray. First he was weary and not trusting, but later became more unguarded and showed himself.

——

This had resulted into where you currently were now: hunched over a sink uncomfortably with William’s head under the faucet. Cleaning the house wasn’t enough, you also wanted to help the brothers not be so nasty as well.

Forcing Jackson to take daily showers was extremely difficult. He was also like a cat, except if it was feral and loathed being in water.

Putting some shampoo on your hands, you put them into William’s dark brunette hair, lightly scratching his scalp to get rid of buildup. He let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes, surprisingly not putting up a fight against you.

Continuing that for a few minutes, you turned on the faucet to lukewarm and put his head towards it, letting the water go through his locks. Careful not to get any soap in his eyes, you put your hands through his hand to get all the shampoo out.

You repeated that process two more times, once for the second shampoo and the other for conditioner. You straightened up to get a towel for his newly clean hair before coming back to put it on his head.

Drying his hair a bit and combing it out, you made William sit on the closed toilet seat so you had better access to his hair. Grabbing the scissors off the counter, you stepped a bit closer to him for a better angle.

In doing so, you stepped between his spread legs and began your work. While you were focused on his brunette locks, William had looked up at you, quietly examining the look of concentration on your face.

Being up closer to him allowed you to smell the faint fragrance of the woodsy and bourbon shampoo you’d washed his hair with. Clearing your throat, you lifted up the scissors and a section of his hair, snipping it shorter.

Furrowing your eyebrows, you cut the front and sides of his hair into the way he had always styled it. As you were doing so, you felt something touching your hips which made you lost focus for a second.

Looking down to see what was touching you, you’d found the person guilty; or, rather, their hands on your hips. Guess you’d started to bore William, because now he had a slightly content look on his face while lightly squeezing your hips.

He didn’t notice you look at him, just carried on with his thoughts and actions. Shrugging, you did the same, carried on with what you were doing.

Neither of you said anything, a comfortable silence filling the air along with the distance crackle of a radio station Jackson had put on earlier.

Speaking of which, you figured Jackson was out of the house since you hadn’t heard his loud voice in a while. He will probably be back soon though.

Finally finishing up, you did some final touches to Willam’s cut before being officially done.

“Alright, I think that’s good, what do you think?” You asked him while holding up a nearby hand mirror.

“Hm. Could be worse.” Is all he says, but you know he likes it deep down, he just doesn’t want to admit it.

William’s eyes spoke more than his mouth, saying everything he couldn’t or didn’t want to. If you had no idea what he was thinking, just look in his eyes and they’ll be a dead giveaway to his emotions.

You smiled down at him, stepping back and putting your supplies back. “I’m glad you like it, Will.” He stayed on the toilet seat, once again watching you in the admirable way he always does.

Once you were done cleaning, you stepped closer to him again and crouched down, giving his cheek a light peck before walking away. However, as you did you heard the quick steps of William close behind you.

Smirking a little to yourself, you went to the living room and sat down on the couch, knowing he was following you very closely after you’d given him a bit of affection.

As expected, once he arrived not long after, he sat down somewhat close to you and reached for the TV remote, clicking on a random channel.

You on the other hand grabbed the blanket from the back of the couch, putting it over your laps and getting a bit closer to William. Letting out a huff, you put your head on his shoulder and look at the TV.

He reciprocated, putting an arm around your shoulders as he watched the TV. It wasn’t long before you had slowly started to drift off to sleep, you’d had a day full of work beforehand.

Just as you were at the cusp of unconsciousness, you felt a soft press of lips against your temple and words muttered into your ear by a deep voice, “Thank you for everything.”

—————-

Author’s Note: If this is the first work of mine you’re reading, please consider reading my short story: Keys, Pies, and Bullets! 😊