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Who: Niou and Tachibana
When: 21st June
Where: In front of the cargo lift on B3
What: Niou big mad at Tachibana
Niou seethed as he made his way from the engineering lab to the corridor near the cargo lift. He did not have time to deal with this, but he was going to be so pissed if Tachibana suddenly showed up with shaved hair and sadness about cutting off his hair and his angsty friendship.
“You better be there already, Tachibana,” he called out as he rounded the corner, one minute after the allotted 3 minutes that he’d given. “And there better be no hair cut off.”
Tachibana was not only there, but he still had his long, blonde hair, and he wasn't feeling particularly sad about anything. He stood, ready to dodge punches this time. "I'm here." He called, wondering if Niou was really that pissed because he wanted a haircut. "And not a single hair is missing."
Oh good, he was there. Niou approached and gave a very quick scan over Tachibana’s hair - it still looked the same as it had before, for the brief moment that he’d seen it before he’d punched Tachibana in the face and then left. “Good.”
And he’d be stupid if he went for the same tactic as before, so Niou shoved his hands against Tachibana’s chest instead. “The whole Rapunzel thing was meant to be a joke, for god’s sake.”
Tachibana stared down at Niou, or more the hands on his chest. "It just hit a little close to home, alright?" He sighed. He really didn't like making anyone upset, but he also really felt uncomfortable with the analogy.
"I'm about to head out, and I thought a haircut would be a good change of pace. Is there a reason you're getting so worked up over it, Rapunzel aside?" As strange as it was, Tachibana did value Niou's feelings, even if he didn't understand them.
“If you didn’t like it, then you should’ve just told me to fuck off and change the topic,” Niou said, whacking his hand against Tachibana’s chest before he pulled away. “Or just told me ‘I don’t like that question’, or just stood up for yourself or something.”
He turned away and ran his hands through his own hair, pacing for a couple of steps in each direction. “I don’t know why I’m so worked up either. I’m just exhausted and I had the stupid medical today, and you’re being dramatic. And I just can’t.”
Tachibana was concerned for Niou. He didn't look well at all. "You're right. I should have… but I didn't want to just cut off our conversations like that." He smiled wryly. "I suppose it might seem dramatic, given our last conversation, but the whole haircut thing is mostly just me being practical about the expedition."
Tachibana wasn't sure what to do to help Niou feel better. He had seen people push the whole sleep thing with limited success. Instead, he reached out to place a hand on Niou's shoulder. "You shouldn't let me get you so worked up. I promise I'm fine."
“Well for future reference, you can tell me to just change the topic and I will.” It wasn’t like coming up with new questions was particularly hard, especially when Tachibana was weirdly happy to answer all of them. “Sorry. I’m tired and have bad emotional control right now.”
Niou flinched at the unexpected hand on his shoulder and turned to face Tachibana with a loud exhale. “I just don’t see the practicalities of the short hair. Most people on the expeditions have long hair. Everyone will suffer sandy, gross hair and have amazing hair wash sessions at the end.”
Tachibana nodded, for now not moving his hand. "Okay. I promise I won't let myself get uncomfortable, and I suppose an awesome hair wash session does sound pretty good…" He took a good look at Niou. "I can tell you're tired. Is there anything I can do to help?" He wasn't sure why Niou was having trouble resting, but if there was even the tiniest thing he could do to help, he would.
“You’re not allowed to cut your hair until after the expedition,” Niou said, putting his finger up in front of Tachibana’s face. “Or get dramatic about Rapunzel things until I can actually mentally function properly again.”
The muscle in his jaw ticked and Niou glanced down at his watch - he really did need to get back to work. “I’m just working. A lot. No time to sleep.”
If not cutting his hair would stop a total meltdown, he would do it. Still, the tension in Niou's body was painful to watch. "Somehow, I feel like this isn't just the chickens…" Surely, chickens weren’t that much work… were they?
"There is always time to sleep. Just ten minutes would do you better than none." Tachibana was wondering if the higher ups condoned the people here being so stressed.
Niou very belatedly noticed that Tachibana’s hand was still on his shoulder and he stared at it for a moment before pushing it off and he stepped away. “The chickens are a 24 hour, 7 day a week job. I’ve been having to rescue them from all of the base the past few days.” The lie slipped out so easily.
“I tried the 10 minute nap before and it turned into like 30. I’ll sleep properly… soon. In a few days.”
Tachibana let his hand drop, mentally telling himself not to take that personally. When Niou stepped away, he noticed the uniform. Oh. Well…
"I could help. With the chickens." Tachibana had raised a few back home when they were starting their urban garden. "And… I mean, I could wake you up, if you trusted me to."
He wasn't going to call Niou out on the lie. He probably had his reasons, and it was presumptuous of Tachibana to think himself close enough to be privvy to those reasons.
"...but if not me, maybe there is someone else. You're not going to make it much longer on no sleep…"
“I’ve left them with Yukimura and Yanagi, with lots of tapes to control them,” Niou said. And hopefully they were actually cared for properly. “They’ll be fine for a few weeks.”
He bit back his outright telling Tachibana that he didn’t trust him, because he didn’t need the man having another dramatic sad right now, no matter what he’d promised. “I can sleep for a couple of hours later today,” Niou said finally. “I have some long jobs to run simultaneously, so I’ll just set some alarms so I get up when they’re finished.”
Tachibana was glad there was someone else helping out with the chickens. Even more glad that sleep seemed to be on Niou's schedule for the day. "Well, then that's good." He smiled gently. "I didn't mean to throw a wrench into your day, Niou-san." He really hadn't. It was part of the reason Tachibana kept people at arm's length. He couldn't deal with causing any sort of distress or trouble. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
Sleep actually wasn’t on Niou’s schedule for today, but even he was aware enough that his patience was getting very frayed and putting on an act was getting very hard. And so, he needed at least a little sleep. “It’s fine. It got me out from… work for a bit. Maybe it helped.”
Niou snorted at the apology and waved his hand as though getting rid of it. “I don’t believe in apologies. They’re a waste of time.” He gave Tachibana a grumpy look and stepped forward to poke him in the cheek with a finger. “Your hair better be exactly the same when I see you after the expedition. Or I will shave off your eyebrows in your sleep.”
Tachibana blinked and moved a hand up to touch his eyebrows. With a laugh to his voice, he nodded. “Got it. That’s a very serious threat.” One he knew Niou would possibly make good on in his state. “Perhaps when I get back, you can show me the best way to get two weeks of sand out of my hair.” Speaking of… “Do you happen to have any hair ties you could loan me? If I’m keeping it long, I’ll still want it off my neck, and I don’t think just one will last two weeks.”
"Maybe I'll just shave off one, and you can decide what to do with the other," Niou said, poking Tachibana right on the left eyebrow before he let his hand drop.
He raised an eyebrow and laughed. Right, he had to figure out how to get 2 weeks of sand out of his hair as well. "Sure. I'll uh… do some research while you're gone and help get your hair sparkly clean."
… Tachibana only had one hairtie? Niou patted his pockets and came out with one, took another off his wrist and then the one from his hair (and helpfully flicked the bit of white hair that came with it onto the floor) and held them out. "Here. I've got more at my office if three's not enough "
Tachibana felt his eyebrow twitch, almost as if it sensed impending danger. “Leaving a man to shave off his own eyebrow to save his face. How cruel.” He quipped, happy that the tension seemed to, for the most part, be gone.
He smiled and took the hair ties. “No, I think three will be plenty.” It was really poor planning on his part. “I really should have brought more. I’ll pay you back for them later.”
"That's the point, so you have to make the final hard decision," Niou said with a grin. "Maybe you could tell people your monobrow just migrated to one side of your face only."
He shrugged off the thanks awkwardly and patted his pockets again to check if there was a fourth so he could use it to tie his own hair back again. "They're just hairties, I have a lot. Consider them payment for punching you earlier."
Tachibana laughed. “I suppose weirder things could happen. You punched me so hard, my eyebrow ran away.” He shook his head. “No, I needed that wake-up call. I won’t lie about that. I guess I just got so used to pushing people away, I didn’t realize I was doing it. Which…isn’t really helpful since I’m stuck here for 5 years.”
Niou narrowed his eyes at Tachibana. He didn't know when he'd somehow become this man's… pseudo therapist, but whatever. "We'll have to talk about this more. After I've slept properly." He hesitated and gave Tachibana's eyebrow one last threatening poke. "And reminding you again, cutting your hair won't fix things. I'll even help you wash the sand out, but you're not cutting it. I like it long."
"Yeah, sure." Tachibana didn't want to talk about it, but he supposed bottling it up wasn't helping. At the second poke, he couldn't fight down this weird feeling in his stomach. "You like it long, huh? I'll keep that in mind." Because it was totally normal to keep your hair long just because some guy you barely know says he likes it.
“Good.” Niou also did not want to talk more about it, but he was in for it now. He glanced at Tachibana’s hair, which… yeah. “Not like, Rapunzel long, but yeah. Yeah it looks good long.” And maybe with them and Oshitari they could see whose long hair looked the worst after the two week expedition. “I have to get back to work. I spent too long getting mad at you.”
“I’ll do my best to make sure I don’t make you angry anymore.” Tachibana laughed, good-naturedly. “And do make sure to get that sleep you said you would get, okay? I’ll make you a really good vanilla cake for you to eat when you wake up, okay?”
Niou was about to walk away but had to turn around again to whack Tachibana on the arm. “No. Stop being so nice,” he went to hit Tachibana again. “If you want to make me angry, do it. Stop being so stupid and considerate and don’t you dare start apologising right now for being nice.” Niou chewed his lip and shot Tachibana a grumpy look. “Cake is fine though. You can make me cake as long as you don’t do your doctor nutrition thing on it.”
Tachibana sighed, rolling his eyes. "Did it occur to you that I didn't want to make you mad because you're stressed out?" He wouldn't apologize, not if there was no real reason to. "And I promise, nothing nutritional, just pure cake."
Niou stared flatly at Tachibana for a long moment and then shook his head and whacked him on the arm one more time for good measure. “Fucking idiot.” He exhaled loudly and turned again to leave. “I’ll tell you when I’ve had my sleep, so you can bring the cake here again.”
Tachibana smiled fondly. "I like that we have a rendezvous point now." He teased. "I'll see you then." He stood there for a few more moments before turning to leave himself.
When: 21st June
Where: In front of the cargo lift on B3
What: Niou big mad at Tachibana
Niou seethed as he made his way from the engineering lab to the corridor near the cargo lift. He did not have time to deal with this, but he was going to be so pissed if Tachibana suddenly showed up with shaved hair and sadness about cutting off his hair and his angsty friendship.
“You better be there already, Tachibana,” he called out as he rounded the corner, one minute after the allotted 3 minutes that he’d given. “And there better be no hair cut off.”
Tachibana was not only there, but he still had his long, blonde hair, and he wasn't feeling particularly sad about anything. He stood, ready to dodge punches this time. "I'm here." He called, wondering if Niou was really that pissed because he wanted a haircut. "And not a single hair is missing."
Oh good, he was there. Niou approached and gave a very quick scan over Tachibana’s hair - it still looked the same as it had before, for the brief moment that he’d seen it before he’d punched Tachibana in the face and then left. “Good.”
And he’d be stupid if he went for the same tactic as before, so Niou shoved his hands against Tachibana’s chest instead. “The whole Rapunzel thing was meant to be a joke, for god’s sake.”
Tachibana stared down at Niou, or more the hands on his chest. "It just hit a little close to home, alright?" He sighed. He really didn't like making anyone upset, but he also really felt uncomfortable with the analogy.
"I'm about to head out, and I thought a haircut would be a good change of pace. Is there a reason you're getting so worked up over it, Rapunzel aside?" As strange as it was, Tachibana did value Niou's feelings, even if he didn't understand them.
“If you didn’t like it, then you should’ve just told me to fuck off and change the topic,” Niou said, whacking his hand against Tachibana’s chest before he pulled away. “Or just told me ‘I don’t like that question’, or just stood up for yourself or something.”
He turned away and ran his hands through his own hair, pacing for a couple of steps in each direction. “I don’t know why I’m so worked up either. I’m just exhausted and I had the stupid medical today, and you’re being dramatic. And I just can’t.”
Tachibana was concerned for Niou. He didn't look well at all. "You're right. I should have… but I didn't want to just cut off our conversations like that." He smiled wryly. "I suppose it might seem dramatic, given our last conversation, but the whole haircut thing is mostly just me being practical about the expedition."
Tachibana wasn't sure what to do to help Niou feel better. He had seen people push the whole sleep thing with limited success. Instead, he reached out to place a hand on Niou's shoulder. "You shouldn't let me get you so worked up. I promise I'm fine."
“Well for future reference, you can tell me to just change the topic and I will.” It wasn’t like coming up with new questions was particularly hard, especially when Tachibana was weirdly happy to answer all of them. “Sorry. I’m tired and have bad emotional control right now.”
Niou flinched at the unexpected hand on his shoulder and turned to face Tachibana with a loud exhale. “I just don’t see the practicalities of the short hair. Most people on the expeditions have long hair. Everyone will suffer sandy, gross hair and have amazing hair wash sessions at the end.”
Tachibana nodded, for now not moving his hand. "Okay. I promise I won't let myself get uncomfortable, and I suppose an awesome hair wash session does sound pretty good…" He took a good look at Niou. "I can tell you're tired. Is there anything I can do to help?" He wasn't sure why Niou was having trouble resting, but if there was even the tiniest thing he could do to help, he would.
“You’re not allowed to cut your hair until after the expedition,” Niou said, putting his finger up in front of Tachibana’s face. “Or get dramatic about Rapunzel things until I can actually mentally function properly again.”
The muscle in his jaw ticked and Niou glanced down at his watch - he really did need to get back to work. “I’m just working. A lot. No time to sleep.”
If not cutting his hair would stop a total meltdown, he would do it. Still, the tension in Niou's body was painful to watch. "Somehow, I feel like this isn't just the chickens…" Surely, chickens weren’t that much work… were they?
"There is always time to sleep. Just ten minutes would do you better than none." Tachibana was wondering if the higher ups condoned the people here being so stressed.
Niou very belatedly noticed that Tachibana’s hand was still on his shoulder and he stared at it for a moment before pushing it off and he stepped away. “The chickens are a 24 hour, 7 day a week job. I’ve been having to rescue them from all of the base the past few days.” The lie slipped out so easily.
“I tried the 10 minute nap before and it turned into like 30. I’ll sleep properly… soon. In a few days.”
Tachibana let his hand drop, mentally telling himself not to take that personally. When Niou stepped away, he noticed the uniform. Oh. Well…
"I could help. With the chickens." Tachibana had raised a few back home when they were starting their urban garden. "And… I mean, I could wake you up, if you trusted me to."
He wasn't going to call Niou out on the lie. He probably had his reasons, and it was presumptuous of Tachibana to think himself close enough to be privvy to those reasons.
"...but if not me, maybe there is someone else. You're not going to make it much longer on no sleep…"
“I’ve left them with Yukimura and Yanagi, with lots of tapes to control them,” Niou said. And hopefully they were actually cared for properly. “They’ll be fine for a few weeks.”
He bit back his outright telling Tachibana that he didn’t trust him, because he didn’t need the man having another dramatic sad right now, no matter what he’d promised. “I can sleep for a couple of hours later today,” Niou said finally. “I have some long jobs to run simultaneously, so I’ll just set some alarms so I get up when they’re finished.”
Tachibana was glad there was someone else helping out with the chickens. Even more glad that sleep seemed to be on Niou's schedule for the day. "Well, then that's good." He smiled gently. "I didn't mean to throw a wrench into your day, Niou-san." He really hadn't. It was part of the reason Tachibana kept people at arm's length. He couldn't deal with causing any sort of distress or trouble. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
Sleep actually wasn’t on Niou’s schedule for today, but even he was aware enough that his patience was getting very frayed and putting on an act was getting very hard. And so, he needed at least a little sleep. “It’s fine. It got me out from… work for a bit. Maybe it helped.”
Niou snorted at the apology and waved his hand as though getting rid of it. “I don’t believe in apologies. They’re a waste of time.” He gave Tachibana a grumpy look and stepped forward to poke him in the cheek with a finger. “Your hair better be exactly the same when I see you after the expedition. Or I will shave off your eyebrows in your sleep.”
Tachibana blinked and moved a hand up to touch his eyebrows. With a laugh to his voice, he nodded. “Got it. That’s a very serious threat.” One he knew Niou would possibly make good on in his state. “Perhaps when I get back, you can show me the best way to get two weeks of sand out of my hair.” Speaking of… “Do you happen to have any hair ties you could loan me? If I’m keeping it long, I’ll still want it off my neck, and I don’t think just one will last two weeks.”
"Maybe I'll just shave off one, and you can decide what to do with the other," Niou said, poking Tachibana right on the left eyebrow before he let his hand drop.
He raised an eyebrow and laughed. Right, he had to figure out how to get 2 weeks of sand out of his hair as well. "Sure. I'll uh… do some research while you're gone and help get your hair sparkly clean."
… Tachibana only had one hairtie? Niou patted his pockets and came out with one, took another off his wrist and then the one from his hair (and helpfully flicked the bit of white hair that came with it onto the floor) and held them out. "Here. I've got more at my office if three's not enough "
Tachibana felt his eyebrow twitch, almost as if it sensed impending danger. “Leaving a man to shave off his own eyebrow to save his face. How cruel.” He quipped, happy that the tension seemed to, for the most part, be gone.
He smiled and took the hair ties. “No, I think three will be plenty.” It was really poor planning on his part. “I really should have brought more. I’ll pay you back for them later.”
"That's the point, so you have to make the final hard decision," Niou said with a grin. "Maybe you could tell people your monobrow just migrated to one side of your face only."
He shrugged off the thanks awkwardly and patted his pockets again to check if there was a fourth so he could use it to tie his own hair back again. "They're just hairties, I have a lot. Consider them payment for punching you earlier."
Tachibana laughed. “I suppose weirder things could happen. You punched me so hard, my eyebrow ran away.” He shook his head. “No, I needed that wake-up call. I won’t lie about that. I guess I just got so used to pushing people away, I didn’t realize I was doing it. Which…isn’t really helpful since I’m stuck here for 5 years.”
Niou narrowed his eyes at Tachibana. He didn't know when he'd somehow become this man's… pseudo therapist, but whatever. "We'll have to talk about this more. After I've slept properly." He hesitated and gave Tachibana's eyebrow one last threatening poke. "And reminding you again, cutting your hair won't fix things. I'll even help you wash the sand out, but you're not cutting it. I like it long."
"Yeah, sure." Tachibana didn't want to talk about it, but he supposed bottling it up wasn't helping. At the second poke, he couldn't fight down this weird feeling in his stomach. "You like it long, huh? I'll keep that in mind." Because it was totally normal to keep your hair long just because some guy you barely know says he likes it.
“Good.” Niou also did not want to talk more about it, but he was in for it now. He glanced at Tachibana’s hair, which… yeah. “Not like, Rapunzel long, but yeah. Yeah it looks good long.” And maybe with them and Oshitari they could see whose long hair looked the worst after the two week expedition. “I have to get back to work. I spent too long getting mad at you.”
“I’ll do my best to make sure I don’t make you angry anymore.” Tachibana laughed, good-naturedly. “And do make sure to get that sleep you said you would get, okay? I’ll make you a really good vanilla cake for you to eat when you wake up, okay?”
Niou was about to walk away but had to turn around again to whack Tachibana on the arm. “No. Stop being so nice,” he went to hit Tachibana again. “If you want to make me angry, do it. Stop being so stupid and considerate and don’t you dare start apologising right now for being nice.” Niou chewed his lip and shot Tachibana a grumpy look. “Cake is fine though. You can make me cake as long as you don’t do your doctor nutrition thing on it.”
Tachibana sighed, rolling his eyes. "Did it occur to you that I didn't want to make you mad because you're stressed out?" He wouldn't apologize, not if there was no real reason to. "And I promise, nothing nutritional, just pure cake."
Niou stared flatly at Tachibana for a long moment and then shook his head and whacked him on the arm one more time for good measure. “Fucking idiot.” He exhaled loudly and turned again to leave. “I’ll tell you when I’ve had my sleep, so you can bring the cake here again.”
Tachibana smiled fondly. "I like that we have a rendezvous point now." He teased. "I'll see you then." He stood there for a few more moments before turning to leave himself.
