Gavin Toys with a Longhair Enthusiast P5 by Whittaker

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Previously on "Gavin Toys with a Longhair Enthusiast Part 4":



"Now what’s the real secret?" Miles prodded.

Gavin smirked, "The fake posters are actually real posters."

"Goddamnit Gavin!"

Gavin squealed with delight and ran away from Miles’ attempt to playfully swat at him.







Gavin Toys with a Longhair Enthusiast Part 5:




Four months later the posters had multiplied and been joined by banners, a stage, and balloons. It felt like hundreds of people showed up to participate in or support the St Vincent’s and Wigs for Kids charity hair drive.

Miles hadn’t fallen for Gavin’s claim that the posters had been fake. Before he and Gavin had even talked about it, he had checked with separate sources and confirmed that the event was indeed real and in that process also found out (of course) that Gavin was the lead event coordinator and was also going to be the M.C. on the day of the event.

So, Miles, being Miles, had helped Gavin set up the stage, and the barbering stations with their hair ties, scissors, clippers and combs. He blew up balloons and hung posters and the whole time his gut tied itself into a tighter and tighter knot thinking about Gavin having his hair shorn off yet again.

Gavin had had a pre-event pep talk with Miles where he asked him to be his barber and Miles, as much as it killed him, had declined. The thought that someone else might touch Gavin’s hair during this whole process made him upset, but the thought of being put back in the headspace he was in four years ago (and in front of a crowd no less) was immeasurably worse. He could barely think back on the day that he had shaved Gavin’s head without tearing up. He had been genuinely terrified that Gavin was going to die. Gavin reassured him that he didn’t actually want his head shaved, but he did want to donate again and if Miles would be willing to cut off enough hair for him to donate, he could do whatever he wanted with what was left. Miles hummed and hawed over the idea, but in the end he chickened out, too uncomfortable with the idea of being on stage.

So Miles sat uncomfortably at a picnic bench off to one side of the crowd as people went up to the stage in groups of 2 or 3 and donated their hair. Some donated long tails, others had hair that was too short, but they had raised money from those who wanted to see them shave their heads anyway.

Gavin worked the crowd like a natural as always. Cracking jokes as he called friends and colleagues to the stage. Flaunting his (as of yet) beautiful and unmarred braid at those with denuded scalps. It was all in good fun, as everyone knew that Gavin’s tail was also on the chopping block today.

Gavin even wielded some hair tools as well, whipping out the scissors when it was Doc Greene’s turn on the stage.

"I called dibs on Doc Greene the second I saw his name pop up on the list of donors," he recounted to the crowd. "I don’t know about you guys, but I never thought I’d see the day."

Doc Greene stood there slightly self consciously with his hands tucked in his pockets. He was the hospital’s senior intensivist. He sported a long, gorgeous, straight and pitch-black ponytail that exceeded the length that even Gavin’s hair had been at its longest. He was known for always keeping it held back in that sleek and simple style, causing heads to turn wherever he went.

"Well, I’ve seen you do this 3 times now and come out unscathed, so I figure it must not be as scary as I’ve made it out to be in my head. Just go easy on me, please." Gavin was the only one mic’d up, so the audience only sort of heard the Doc’s nervous comment.

"Absolutely," Gavin replied softly and gave the man a firm pat on the back. "How much do you want to donate?"

"Is 2ft okay?"

"Yeah, of course it is."

"Alright then, let it be done."

Gavin looked like he had been given the greatest honour that could be bestowed upon him as he caped up the Doc and applied a hair tie below the one already holding the man’s formidable ponytail together. It was truly flawless, a rich ebony with a smooth cuticle that reflected so much light that the hair was warm to the touch in the sun. Gavin let his fingers linger in the tail for a moment, wondering if this was how Miles felt when holding his hair. He measured, and slid the tie down, and measured again, then paused.

"You ready, Doc?"

"Ready as I’ll ever be, I think," the man responded nervously.

"How long’s it been?"

"God, I don’t even know anymore, 15 years maybe?"

"F*cking right, eh?" Gavin whistled amazed, until he remembered that he was mic’d up and there were children in attendance, and he frantically covered his mic with his hand as if that would change anything. "Sorry!" he exclaimed. The audience laughed and Gav shook off his embarrassment.

"Alright, here we go!" he announced. He smoothed the length down again and slid the scissors above the lower hair tie, taking measured snips until the weight of the severed pony rested solely in Gavin’s hands. Doc bobbed his knee under the cape anxiously the whole time. When he was done, he held it up for the crowd and mimed a half-bow and Doc Greene stood up in his cape and bowed as well. The remainder of his jagged ponytail flopped over his shoulder and dangled towards the ground.

"Feel lighter?" Gavin quipped, reaching out a hand to touch the ends of Doc’s hair, twirling them between his fingers.

"Disconcertingly so", he admitted. He pulled out the upper hair tie and shook out his remaining hair, which still cupped his rear. He combed his fingers through it a few times in long unbroken strokes.

"I can’t believe you can just do that", Gavin gestured to the behaviour in question. "Your hair is so slippery, mine could never."

Doc blushed, "Oh, yeah I guess it’s always felt pretty easy to manage." He tied his ponytail back into place.

"No wonder you’ve kept it long for so long. I don’t think I could ever get tired of my long hair if it behaved like that."

Doc smiled pleasantly.

Gavin was struck with an idea. "Hey Doc, how do you feel about returning the favour and being my barber? Get a little bit of revenge if you want?"

"Oh, r-really? You’re sure?" Doc stammered.

Gavin waves him off, "Yeah sure, why not?"

"But doesn’t your husband want toâ€""

"Nah, he said he didn’t want to. I was gonna draw a name from a hat, but you can do it."

"Um, okay then", Doc extricated himself from his cape and set it aside, looking at the array of materials laid out on the table beside the chair.

Gavin put his game face back on and raised his voice for the crowd. "Alright St Vincent’s! Incredible turnout, thank you all so much for coming together today for a great cause!" The crowd cheered.

"It’s time for the final shearing." He announced, his voice settling down to its normal volume. "I think it’s only fair that Doc Greene, as tonight's largest donor, of both hair and fundraising, gets the honour." His eyes subtly found Miles’ off to one side of the crowd. He was looking a little nauseous. He had both hands placed on the wooden picnic table in front of him, one hand curled and fingernails digging into the weather-softened surface.

"For those of you who don’t know, or maybe didn’t hear the Doc say, this will be my fourth time doing this, but last time it got followed up with a smidge of brain surgery, so I’ve got a pretty wicked scar under all this." He said, holding up his long rope of hair for the crowd to appreciate. "So, I don’t know that I’ll be taking it all the way down to the wood this time." He chuckled. "We’ll have to see. It’s barber’s choice after all."

Miles felt sick, Gavin hadn’t said anything about barber’s choice to him!

Gavin plunked himself down in Doc’s recently vacated seat. He picked up the barber’s cape and proceeded to try and wrangle it around himself. Doc saw him fumbling "Here, let me help you with that." he said, and reached for Gavin’s braid, holding it out of the way so that Gavin could secure the cape properly around his neck. When it was laying as designed, Doc lowered the braid but left his hand lingering on it.

Miles clenched a fist. Gavin made eye contact with him again and gave a tentative smile which Miles struggled to return.

"Okay, so what do you want me to do now?" Doc asked.

"Just go ahead and throw a hair tie at the top of my braid and cut it off!"

"The whole thing!? Just like that?"

Gavin laughed, "Yeah the whole thing."

Doc blew out a surprised breath. "Oh boy, yikes, alrighty then." He ran a hand slowly down the full length of Gavin’s braid, thumb gently tracing the bumps. Doc was a tall man, with strong, heavy hands, but he caressed the braid delicately, like it was a work of art. He grasped it at the base experimentally, even his large hands struggled to encircle its full thickness.

"Wow Gavin, it’s absolutely gorgeous," he ran his hand gently down the thick braid again. "The whole thing, you’re absolutely sure?"

‘Just f*cking get it over with Greene." Miles hissed under his breath.

Gavin shrugged like it was nothing, "I mean sure, why not?"

"Okay," Doc answered hesitantly. He grabbed a hair tie off of the table and went to smooth all of Gavin’s hair into a single bundle. He was obviously quite practiced with restraining long hair. His lips were pursed however and his fingers pulled at some unruly flyaways. "You know what," he said, "your braid has gotten a little messy, I should probably fix it properly before I cut it, so it’s neater for whomever has to make a wig out of it."

"No, that won’t be necessary…" Miles continued his grumbly personal commentary.

"Oh, yeah, sure," was Gavin’s response.

Miles shook his head subtly but Gavin wasn’t looking at him, instead just sort of staring off into the middle distance.

Doc unbound the end of Gavin’s braid and unraveled the strands, letting them spill over his shoulders and into his lap.

Some people in the crowd wolf-whistled at the sight of his unbound hair and Miles glared in the direction of the enthusiasts.

Doc picked up a brush and dragged it through each side of his hair once gently, just enough to be able to pick up Gavin’s mane into a single bundle. He stroked through the length from the bottom up, working out the few small knots that had accumulated. He got to the scalp and Gavin closed his eyes, leaning involuntarily into the sensation of the brush massaging his head. Then Doc added his hand into the mix, digging his fingers into the scalp and running them through the blond waterfall, followed by a stroke from the brush, followed by another stroke from his fingers.

"Alright there bud, that’s enough, dial it back." Miles gritted out. A stranger heard him talking to himself and turned to give him a weird look, he gave her a weird look back.

The man’s methods might be questionable, but his results were sublime, Gavin’s hair shone like gold, rippling enticingly with each brush stroke. The ends were looking thick and healthy contrasted against the black cape.

"Do I have to pick up the scissors? We could just keep doing this instead?" Doc tried to joke, hand resting on the back of Gavin’s neck.

Miles stood up jerkily as if to make his way up to the stage, and then slowly forced himself to sit back down when the lady from earlier gave him the stink eye again.
Gavin’s eyes were open now, and he made a little look at Miles that said he had not been expecting this to go this way.

Gavin’s silence was apparently enough for Doc to get the hint, and the man smoothed his hands through the hair one final time before splitting into three strands and twirling them into a thick rope.

Miles’ throat got real tight, looking at that final gathering of hair, realizing that it would be the last time he’d be seeing it like this for a couple of years. Realizing that the last memory that Gavin would have of his hair being braided wouldn’t even be of him, but some relative stranger instead. He thought back to the last time he had pampered Gavin and played with his hair. Miles hadn’t even savoured it, what had he been thinking?

He got up slower this time, so as to not draw as much attention to himself, and made his way to the stage. He wasn’t sure what his plan was, he just knew that he needed to stop this. It should be him up there.

Gavin was looking at him with confusion.

Doc Greene had grabbed the scissors and was sliding them into Gavin’s braid, oblivious to Miles’ semi-frantic approach. He heard the harsh ‘schrrrk’ of the first cut picked up by Gav’s microphone before he saw any evidence of what had happened.

He reached the edge of the stage and froze. It was too late. He stood in mute horror as Gavin’s colleague repositioned the gleaming silver scissors at the nape of Gavin’s neck for bite after bite, the shortened strands falling forward into his face.

When Gavin had been separated from his beautiful braid, Miles felt the embarrassing and possessive urge to run up and snatch it out of Doc Greene’s stupid, meaty hand.
Gavin, ever the one to know how to smooth over an awkward situation, stood up and proceeded to dramatically ruffle up his short uneven hair, "What do you think, does this look suit me?" and got some laughter from the crowd. "I gotta say, I’ve definitely had worse."

Miles took that as his opportunity to be able to make his entrance onto the stage appear more or less natural. "Ouch, are you talking about me?" he played up for the audience.

Gav slapped a hand over his heart. "You!? No! Never!" He winked in an overly obvious manner.

Miles walked to meet Gavin in the centre of the stage. Gavin wrapped his arms around him and Miles cupped his hands on either side of his face, blocking the microphone secured there. "You alright?" he asked.

Gavin nodded. "You?"

Miles snapped his gaze over to Doc Greene, who appeared to be slowly inching himself off the stage. He narrowed his eyes on him and Doc intelligently realized what he was holding in one hand and offered Gavin’s severed braid to Miles the way one might offer raw meat to a jungle cat; that is to say, slowly and carefully and keeping his vital organs as far away from the exchange as possible.

"Yeah I’m okay." He answered.



***



"Alright, what on earth was that?" Miles asked as they finished loading the last cardboard box of supplies into the trunk of their car. He slammed the door closed and the items rattled inside.

"What?" Gavin asked, slipping into the passenger seat as Miles took his spot behind the wheel.

"There’s no way that was just me, Doc Greene was totally coming onto you on stage back there." He pulled them out of their parking spot and into the road.

Gavin grimaced and then ruffled his hack-job haircut, hastily tying the top half of it into a small bun, the bottom half flaring out against the nape of his neck. "Oh yeah, sorry about that, I didn’t exactly see that coming."

Miles shook his head, "Nah, not your fault." He said, and then let out an involuntary squeak when he hit a pothole.

Gavin laughed and they fell into silence, watching the trees go by.

A few minutes passed before Miles piped up again. "You could have landed a doctor," he mused.

"Are you jealous?" Gavin asked, surprised.

"I meanâ€" I don’t know, maybe? I guess? He’s good looking, he’s built like he could bench press a horse, he’s intelligent, wealthy, successful…"

"And he has beautiful shiny long hair?" Gavin teased. "Are you sure you don’t want to land him?"

Miles scoffed but couldn’t stop the blush from creeping up his neck.

Gavin continued, "Yeah, I could land a doctor, so what? I could also become a doctor. He’s just some dude. There is no one on this planet for whom I would trade the almost two decades of our lives that we’ve shared together. The amount of trust and intimacy that builds over a lifetime, you can’t just replace that with ‘a doctor’." He airquoted the last words.

Miles smiled to himself. "Fair enough." He spun the wheel sharply to pull into their driveway. "You’re good at this, you know?"

"I’m good at everything", Gavin declared cheekily and Miles rolled his eyes. "I’ve decided that I deserve a glass of wine."

"Of course, your majesty."

They left all of the random leftovers from the wigs for kids charity drive in their car for later, including the large box of ponytail donations that Gavin would need to mail out come Monday.

They ate reheated leftovers with their wine, sitting at their kitchen island.

"Do you want me to cut your hair into some sort of style tonight?" Miles asked.

"Awe, you don’t think this particular look is cute?" Gavin teased, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear.

Miles smiled, "Very cute", he reached out and untucked the same strand and twirled it around his finger. He then went and undid the half-bun that Gavin had secured his hair into, letting it fall around his neck. "Less cute. It’s giving Lord Farquad."

Gavin cackled. "Wow. I, in no uncertain terms, tell you that I wouldn’t trade you for anyone in the world and you call me Lord Farquad. I am so lucky to have you."

Miles laughed in return.

"The answer is yes, trim me up Scotty, I look insane." He whipped his shirt off and twirled it in the air.

"That’s just the outside finally matching the inside." Miles quipped.

Gavin gasped in mock offence before plunking himself down in a dining chair. Miles pulled out his haircutting tools.

Miles carded his fingers through the choppy hair. "What do you want me to give you?"

"One flattop please!"

"Eew, no, pick again."

"I don’t really care."

"So a flattop then?" He revved a pair of clippers and moved them towards the back of Gavin’s head.

"Nope!" Gavin squeaked and dodged the blades in a panic. "Nothing too short, no clippers!"

"I seem to recall you giving our boy Doc there ‘barber’s choice’ privilege at the charity drive, what would you have done then if he had pulled out the clippers?"

Gavin shrugged, "I took a gamble, figured I’d be safe with a fellow longhair at the helm."

Miles chuckled and turned off the machine. "Are you planning to grow it out again?"

"Yeah, I don’t see why not."

Miles hummed in satisfaction.

Gavin smiled knowingly, "Does that make you happy?"

Miles smiled, "Not at all!" He hugged Gavin from his spot behind him and pressed his cheek into the top of his head. "But in that case, I know what I’m gonna do, if you trust me."

"Of course I trust you."

Miles nodded before dampening Gavin’s hair and sectioning a triangle at the back. He started by evening up the jagged ends to create his guide, then gradually added more and more hair into the sectioned triangle, directing and layering the pieces as he went. He left it all quite long, enough that Gav would be able to tuck it behind his ears or pull it into a small ponytail, but he added so much texture that the final look still ended up coming out looking like a ‘short’ haircut. (Or, well, more like a medium length haircut, but it was short for Gavin).

"Thoughts?" Miles asked when he was done. "Wanna check it out?"

Gavin got up and went to the closest mirror, he smiled when he saw himself, and played a bit with the top, tousling it and then smoothing it back behind his ears, testing out different partings. He gave a low whistle. "I’m impressed, you keep getting better at this, this looks great! Maybe I shouldn’t grow my hair out after all."

Miles pouted.

"Alright fine, I’ll still let it grow…"

"No! It’s okay, you don’t have to…" Miles was however unable to get rid of his disappointed expression, regardless of how hard he tried.

"Mi, hey, I’m just teasing." He nuzzled against him. "I want to grow it back out again, I like having long hair. Besides, if I don’t let it get long again, how am I ever gonna land a doctor?"

Miles let out a faux scandalized gasp and Gavin pecked the tip of his nose in response.

"What do you say to taking this haircut for a test drive? We should make sure it's got good grabability."

"Yeahâ€" test drive. Uh… yeah we should probably do that." Miles nodded, letting himself be pulled by Gavin towards their bedroom.





End-Note: I have an alt-perspective for Part 5 coming, and after that Part 6 hopefully shouldn't be too much longer down the pipe. Its alternate title will be "Miles's Revenge". I hope you're all looking forward to it.

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