Work Text:
“Can I braid your hair?”
The question caught Gawain a bit off guard, he stared at Mordred for a few seconds before scoffing. “Are you serious?” He asked, swishing his drink around in its glass mindlessly before drinking from it again.
“Well, yeah,” Mordred replied. “If you don’t mind”
“Why?”
“Well you’ve got long enough hair”
Gawain paused, thinking it over “I guess?” He shrugged, hesitantly taking off his hat and placing it on the table in front of the two. “Just don’t make me regret this” He muttered, taking another drink.
“Come closer” Mordred gestured for Gawain, to which he obliged. The chair scraped against the wooden floor as he moved it closer, the sound drew a few looks but mostly got lost in the chatter of the saloon. Without much delay Mordred took a bit of Gawain’s hair, grabbing no more than he needed to put it in a thin braid. He ran his fingers though it carefully before splitting it into three parts to work with. The long brown hair felt smooth and almost soft in Mordred’s hands, it almost made him just want to play with it for a while longer. Though was playing with his hair not the whole purpose of the request to begin with? He gently started braiding it, humming softly as he did. Just as Morgan had done for him many times before as a child. Gawain simply watched Mordred work, occasionally looking around the saloon only to be reminded to hold still.
“I can’t braid your hair if you’re moving around all the time-” Mordred looked up from what he was doing, a touch of annoyance in his voice.
Gawain groaned in response, turning his head back to Mordred, “Fine, fine I’ll stop moving..”
“Thank you” Mordred’s voice softened once again, no longer carrying the annoyance as he looked back down at the half finished braid. Gawain’s hair was quite long now that he thought about it, longer than he’d ever really noticed. Though he supposed you only really think about those kinds of things very hard unless you’ve actively doing something with it. He wasn’t complaining though, it just meant he had more hair to braid and less time to pass. At some point Gawain had started rambling about something, Mordred wasn’t really listening to what it was though, simply just more focused with what he was doing. Still humming softly he only replied with occasional nods to what Gawain was saying. Not that it discouraged Gawain’s ramblings at all, which were only interrupted by short complaints about Mordred pulling too hard or whatever have you.
A few more minutes passed before Mordred finally finished the braid, he pinched the end to keep it from unbraiding and used his other hand to grab a small hair tie from his pocket. He carefully twisted the hair tie around the end of the braid and let go, sitting back in his chair and looking at his work. Perhaps it was far from the most impressive thing ever done, if impressive at all but he couldn’t help but smile. “Alright I’m done” He said, taking a sip from his own forgotten drink.
“Finally” Gawain put his hat back on, his hand wandering to feel what Mordred had done. He looked down at it, surprisingly he actually quite liked it. A small smile showed on his face but he quickly went to act disinterested. “Took ya long enough..” He said, shaking his head and looking back to Mordred.
“Not my fault you have such long hair”
“Wasn’t the reason you wanted to braid it in the first place was ‘cause it was long?” Gawain retorted, “So technically it was your fault”
“Fine, you win.” Mordred sighed, shaking his head. “But still I didn’t grow out your hair for you.”
“Irrelevant” Gawain mindlessly fidgeted with the braid, wrapping it around his finger before letting it fall. Perhaps he’d have to let Mordred do it again sometime, not that he’d ever want to admit it.