Spelling errors are a thing, please point them out to me.

Btw this is based off of an old conversation I once had about Xander's hair, that was a fun discussion.

--xx Avanni Cinders

The door of the Swordflames dojo was loudly flung open, and a (h/c) female darted inside, wincing as the sound reverberated. You gently slid it shut, before eagerly scanning the room for one person in particular.

Xander Shakadera.

While you only may have last seen your laughing giant of a boyfriend the previous afternoon, the two of you had made plans for that very special day, and you could not wait to be in his presence once more. However, it soon became apparent, that your partner was nowhere in sight.

Deciding to go and find him, you darted down an almost unnoticeable hallway, that housed a series of small rooms for the students at the dojo who sometimes opted to stay over night.

A figure approached you, and you smiled cheerfully upon seeing Yugo, yet his reaction was quite the opposite.

"What are you doing here?"

Normally you would have been slightly hurt by the less than polite greeting, but you couldn't help but notice that something was off with the samurai. His eyes were wide, and he appeared to be nervous and fidgety.

"I was going to see Xander," You told him cautiously. "Are you okay?"

Yugo seemed to choke on something, and he began to splutter.

"Yugo?" You asked, now more than a little worried, you patted him on the back, trying to help clear his airway.

"You can't see Xander," he finally choked out upon regaining his breath.

You pouted, confused. "Can I ask why?"

He shook his head furiously.

You arched a challenging brow, and made to step around him, but Yugo stepped with you, not letting you pass.

The two of continued this impromptu dance for a few minutes, before you steadily began to get fed up and annoyed with the normally polite male. Just as you was about to say something, a door toward the end of the hall slid open.

You glanced up, hoping to see Xander, and to get an explanation as to what was going on. Only that it was Ukyo who instead slipped out of Xander's room.

You opened your mouth as Ukyo approached, to try and ask the bluenette what was happening, but he paid you little to no attention.

"It's worse than I thought," he said, fear filling his eyes, speaking directly to Yugo.

"What do we do, then?" He asked nervously.

"What's worse than you thought?"

Neither of them spared you even a sideways glance.

"We need at least two tubs of hair gel, a new brush, and another bottle of extra strength conditioner."

"Huh?"

"It's that bad?" Yugo wondered.

Ukyo nodded grimly. "Worse."

"Guys, what the hell is happening?" You demanded, stamping your foot for emphasis, only to garner the same fruitless results as before.

Huffing, you took the chance to slink past them, and sneak toward Xander's room. By the time they took note of you absense, you were already outside of his door, but by then it was too late. Laughing quietly to yourself, you stepped inside, taking extra care to lock the door behind you.

"Ukyo?" A very familiar voice echoed from the adjoining bathroom.

"Close, but I'm prettier." You replied dryly.

There was a loud crash, followed by the sounds of several somethings clattering to the floor and what sounded like a small hose getting turned on. A loud shout accompanied, and before you could glance inside, the bathroom door slam shut and locked audibly.

"Xander?" You called out hesitantly.

"I'm okay!"

"What happened?"

"Uh... nothing?"

"Why doesn't that reassure me?"

"I'm fine, (Y/N)." Xander attempted to reassure you. "Is Ukyo there?"

"Nope," you replied. "Wanna tell me why you need him?"

"...Not really," came his response.

You scowled, and sat down on Xander's rather comfortable bed.

"What about why they wouldn't let me see you?"

There was no response.

"Xander?"

Still there was nothing.

"Xander, can you please come out so we can talk about whatever this is?"

You thought he was going to remain silent, but then he spoke, in a voice that was so oddly quiet for him, that you had to strain to hear it.

"Look, (Y/N), can we talk about this some other time?"

"Xander?"

"Please leave."

Those two words hurt. They hurt like hell. You never thought you'd hear them come out of his mouth, so to find them directed at you hit like a brick.

But despite the intial shock and pain, you knew then that something was definatley off. No matter how he felt, Xander had never asked to be left alone. In the rare event that he would push someone away, you were always the exception, he would always want you with him.

Which begged the question. What had changed?

"Did I... do something wrong?" You asked him hesitantly.

"No, (Y/N), look-" Xander trailed off mid explanation.

"Just forget about it," you muttered, standing up from the bed and smoothing out your shirt. "I'll see you later."

Trying to ignore the heaviness on your chest, you unlocked the door, only to have Ukyo fall inside.

"He's looking for you," you informed him listlessly and stepped out, closing the door behind you.

As you walked out, you tried to attempt shaking away the irrational thoughts in your head.

'Everyone has their problems,' you scolded. 'And sometimes they need to work through those problems by themselves.'

'But Xander has never pushed you away before,' a little voice whispered back cruely. 'You're the only one he's always let's in.'

'Yeah, well there's a first for everything,' you scowled, halting in your internal monologue as you reached the street and passed Yugo.

"(Y/N)?"

"You told me I couldn't see him, and you were right," you said, forcing an overly cheery expression, your voice strained despite your best efforts. "I'm going back home now, do me a favour and tell Xander not to worry about getting a rain-check for today."

"Rain-check?"

"Our anniversary," you supplied,  brushing past him. "Catch you later."

You had barely made it three metres when you heard someone calling your name.

"(Y/N)!"

For a second, you froze at his voice, but you forced yourself to keep walking.

'He didn't want to talk it out, he wants space? Then he can have all the space he wants.' Came the little voice for a second time.

"(Y/N), wait up!"

'Just keep walking.'

"Xander!" Ukyo called from somewhere even further behind you. "Your-"

"Doesn't matter!" Xander shouted back, now sounding much closer than before. It was then that you heard the steady rhythm of a pair of feet quickly hitting the ground, and you realised he was chasing you.

Resisting the urge to break into a sprint or turn around, you made the concious effort to maintain your brisk pace.

"(Y/N)," this time, you felt a large hand clamp down on your shoulder as Xander's breath tickled your ear.

You stopped, but refused to turn around and look at him.

"What's wrong?"

You failed to supress the snort of disbelief that came from you.

"What's wrong? You're really asking me that? What, after we made plans, and then you didn't even bother to let me know you would be cancelling, instead choosing to ask your friends to keep me away from you?"

"(Y/N)-"

"On our anniversary Xander."

"Look, just..." he trailed off and you heard him take a deep breath, his tone now laced with audible nerves.

"Yes, Alexander?"

There was a sharp inhale as you used his fullname, and Xander's grip tightened slightly as he realised how upset you really were.

"Just... turn around."

Your eyes fluttered closed and you released a sigh, and decided to humour him and turn around. Slowly, you turned your body, opening your eyes and tilting your head back to properly take him in.

The sight that greeted you... was unexpected for lack of a better word, or perhaps odd. Either way, you were speechless and silently astonished.

"Please don't laugh," he muttered, his eyes downcast in shame, refusing to meet your startled gaze.

"Your hair..."

Xander winced. "I know."

It was flat, as unbelievable as that may seem. Not a spike was in sight as you scanned every inch of his red hair. All of it was simply... deflated. You were left with a sense of shock as you tried to take everything in. As trivial it may seem to anyone else, Xander's spikey hair was trademark. It was one of the first things that came into mind when he was mentioned. You understood everything. Xander was a lot of things. Kind hearted, funny, determined, but underneath all of that, only if you really knew him, there was a faint vain streak to be found.

If there was one thing that Xander prized above all else, it was his hair. Sometimes you even entertained the thought that he loved his hair even more than he loved you. There was never an instance where even a single hair on his head had been out of place, so to see it now, so flat and lifeless, was a little overwhelming.

"What happened exactly?" You had to ask.

"It's always like this," he admitted.

"So how-?"

"Alot of hair gel."

"So when Ukyo sent Yugo out for hair gel, a brush and conditioner?"

"I ran out of conditioner last night," he informed you somewhat sheepishly. "I was getting ready this morning and the gel wasn't working and I might have broken my hair brush."

"And you called for Ukyo," you finished, the notion striking you as somewhat odd. Out of the entire time you had known him, Xander had only ever let you touch his hair. The idea that he had let anyone else in a thirty centimetre radius of his precious locks struck you as hard to believe.

"He's basically my hair stylist." Xander confessed.

You let out a small chuckle, but before Xander could shrink away, you wrapped your arms around his waist and pressed your head against his chest.

"Baka," you admonished, with no real heat. "I thought you were annoyed with me or something."

"Of course not," Xander said, hugging you back and dropping an affectionate kiss to the top of your head. "Forgive me?"

"Hmm..." you pretended to mull it over, before looking up at him innocently. "On a few conditions."

"Anything," Xander promised immeadiantly, and you struggled to keep up your guilt free expression.

"First, you forgive me for walking out like that." Xander made to protest, but  you shook your head. "I'm not finished."

Obediently, your boyfriend fell quiet, allowing you to continue.

"Second of all, tomorrow night I want dinner to make up for today."

Wordlessly, he nodded his acceptance.   So far so good, but your final demand you weren't too certain he'd comply to.

"And last but not least, my number three," you paused, to build up a measure of suspense. "While it's still flat..."

Still remaining quiet, Xander widened his eyes, pointedly begging you to hurry things along and finish.

"I want you to let me plait your hair."

His face fell in what seemed like reluctant acceptance, as if Xander had somehow known you would ask him for something more or less along those lines. It took a moment, before Xander slowly nodded his head.

You grinned up at him. "Then yes, all is forgiven."

Xander's face stretched into a wide grin, before he leaned down and captured your lips in a sweet, tender kiss that filled your body with warmth.

_______________________________________

Bonus

"All done," you sang happily, tying off the black hair tie on the plait you had woven with no small measure of triumph. "Ta- da!"

You handed him a largely sized hand held mirror, where Xander proceeded to carefully inspect his new hair style. Finally he put it down and grinned at you.

"I like it."

"Really?" You asked him excitedly.

Xander nodded. "Ukyo has some competition."

"So do you think that maybe you'd let me do this again sometime?"

Your boyfriend threw his head back, closing his eyes as he gave his signature boisterous laugh.

"Why not?"

"Good," you smiled, before discreetly palming a small silver cannister and pouncing. "Because you're stuck with it!"

You used your thumb to flick off the plastic cap and pressed down on the aerosol, spraying the sweet smelling mist over your boyfriend's head.

"All day!"

Xander let out a long sigh of acquiesce before opening his eyes and gazing up at you from the chair he sat in.

"Okay then." He agreed, pulling you down from the stool you stood behind him on, and onto him.

You struggled against him, as his hands found your waist and his fingers began to move against your ribs without hesitation.

"Oh my God Xander, no stop! Please!" You begged, writhing in his hold as he tickled your mercilessly. Gradually, you words began to blend together. "Stopitstopitstopitstopitstopit, pleeeeeease!"

Xander's own laughter mingled with your own, and pretty soon the two of you could be heard throughout every inch of the dojo's grounds. In fact, your shrieks were so loud, that they completely masked the sounds of the door to Xander's room sliding open.

"Hey, Xander! Oh..."

Xander's hands stopped in their ceasless tourture, and your gazes both snapped to the person who had unintentionally intruded.

"Hey Valt." You smiled, slightly breathless from laughter, chest still heaving as you tried to refill your lungs with air.

"Hi (Y/N)," Valt lifted his hand in a wave, looking at Xander absentmindedly. You knew that Valt had noticed something was amiss, and it was taking him a few moments to notice.

'In three, two-'

Your internal monologue was cut short, as Valt shouted out, proving your timing.

"Your hair!"