~Mello PoV~

With Maria gone, things were much more pleasant-even Mello noticed. She, like most, was grudgingly “kind” to Maria. Even if she was rather open with her dislike of the girl.

“So who else is glad Maria’s gone?”

As she often did while speaking with Mello, Rae dropped her manners in favor of honesty for a moment. “God I am…I’ve hit my max for the lies I can handle in one day.”

“And that VOICE!” Mello added.

“It’s so dumb that she’s only doing it to impress Andrew, AND it sounds worse than usual!” Rae froze and blushed, suddenly remembering Andrew’s presence, and looked down.

He chuckled softly-god it reminded her of an unborn baby’s giggle-but seemed to agree. At least he was smart enough to notice Maria’s dreadful attempts at attracting him, and ignore them.

“Rae, what’re you looking down for?” She knew the reason-and it confused her-bt she just wanted Rae to realize it was time to lift her face up again.

She looked quickly at Mello. “Nothing!”

Andrew laughed again, they both turned to look at him, and he shook his head, leaning back.

The three of them chatted leisurely, Mello occasionally answering the phone and setting up appointments, until eventually they heard the doors feint jingling, and the smell of pizza filled the salon.

“Order up!” called out Jumpe, smiling and jiggling the bag of food slightly.

“Come and get it!” Added Maria, her annoying voice cracking. She would’ve jiggled a bag, but she made Jumpe carry all the food so there was nothing to jiggle.

Jumpe distributed the food, and Maria complained she had nothing-although she hadn’t ordered because of her “diet”- until Mello eventually surrendered a piece of pizza. Anything to stop that falsely high-pitched sound Maria’s throat somehow emitted. She was beginning to dislike the girl more and more.

After Mello passed Maria the pizza, lots of other food sharing began-thank god none of them had mono, or oral herpes, or some other terrible mouth-transmitted disease. Rae shared half of her unexpectedly large sub with Andrew, who split his fries with everyone.

Mello thought it was odd just how quickly he’d fit into their little ‘group’ of Visconti’s workers. Rae and Maria drooling over him must’ve helped, of course, but it was sort of weird how they all got so clique-y so fast.

~Andrew PoV~

Shortly after eating, Andrew ran his fingers through his hair-it was a bit long, and he was beginning to feel plain next to the brighter-haired workers.

“Could I get a cut ‘ Color?”

A bit quicker than expected, Rae jumped at the opportunity. “I’ll do it!”

He was caught off guard-Rae knew he’d meant for free, right? She was there when he said he was out of cash…

“I can pay you so-”

She interrupted, smiling. “Don’t worry about it-all you have to pay for is the dye! So just give me 7 dollars or so anytime you can, okay?”

He frowned-he felt like he was cheating her out of money. “Are you sure?”

She nodded, smiling sweetly. “Just go to the shampoo chair right over there, okay?”

He sat where she indicated as Rae retrieved hair products. Leaning back, he closed his eyes as the water sprayed for just a moment. It was lukewarm, but not too hot. He nodded when she asked if it was an alright temperature, and she began working something through his hair-most likely shampoo- while asking him random questions. She was much more social while behind the sink than before, although if he opened his eyes and leaned back his head he could see a very red face. What he wanted done to his hair came up.

“I want some red streaks, and a trim. Same, style, if you can.”

She frowned, cocking her head to the side, and suggested changing his bangs a bit. He frowned in response-he was rather fond of his hair as it was. Shrugging, he said agreed, and she went back to talking about his life. After what he guessed was conditioning, she gently towel dried him and lead him to a styling chair. It felt weird-he hadn’t gotten his hair done in a salon like this before. But it was pleasant.

She left a moment, returning with some sort of apron to cover his front, bleach, and red dye. She buttoned it on him, and proceeded to combing through his hair. It was sort of odd how much more casual she was while snipping away at his hair-she was rather speedy about it too, he could practically see smoke rising off her scissors. He shut his eyes when she turned him in the char to face her, snipping carefully at his bangs.
He peeked a moment, forgetting he wasn’t in front of the mirror, and saw that she was staring intently-rather red faced- at him while adjusting his bangs. He shut his eyes immediately.

There was a pause, and she began oiling, with the bleach. She’d stopped talking, and her face was still fairly red, and she stuck him under the heating-chair in silence, waiting patiently in the chair while the bleach cooked his locks.

He vaguely wished he’d gotten a magazine, but didn’t ask for one. Instead, he watched the workers in the salon-his eyes meeting Rae’s a second time-and doing his best to pretend that the sound of the machine he was under was too loud to converse with Maria. It was a good excuse to tune her out.

She seemed to have returned to her more chatty self when she took him back to the chair, blabbing about his job a bit while putting the red in his hair. He was surprised by what a long process was. Again, he watched the other employees and waited as his hair soaked in the color.

Soon enough that was done as well, and she straightened his hair, but twisting him so he couldn’t see himself in the mirror. He hadn’t even seen how the red looked yet, and wondered if she wasn’t showing him because she’d messed it up, but she told him “I like the final style to be a bit of a surprise” while smiling.

He complied, not cheating by looking in one of the mirrors angled towards him on the side. He didn’t open his eyes as the hair-straightener smoothed out his bangs, but could tell she was standing on his side to avoid another interaction like earlier anyways. After the bangs were done, she spun the chair around, showing his-rather shiny- new hair.

She was right, the bangs suited the new red-and his look in general-better than the old ones. He hoped it wasn’t just because she’d straightened them, though.

He thanked her multiple times before leaving that day.

----

Agg, Mello PoV AND Andrew PoV. My least favorites. [I don't really like limited omniscient to begin with...] Ahh well, I think the final turnout is alright. Considering the fact that it's midnight now. Andrew and Rae's little Saturday Lesson is coming up,. I think it might be how I begin the next chapter. nothing like a good timeskip.

I want to be more consistent, honestly. We're trying. I know it's been a month-I'm going to try to do another chapter before I leave for my beach house. [I'll only be gone a week] and leave liz with some -real- pics -nto character sheets- of the characters to upload slowly while I'm gone.

Anyways, I'm out. ~Rae.