And they were roommates by Short_shorter_shaved

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For as long as he could remember, Duke had felt like his name didn't quite fit him. It was masculine, tough, something that should belong to some kind of grizzled marine from an old action movie, and meanwhile he was, well…

Duke looked down at himself, his chubby build, Minecraft hoodie from when he was 15 that still fit because he'd never gotten any taller since then, shaggy brown hair falling into his line of sight like curtains framing a play, specks of dirt on his glasses that could just never seem to stay clean no matter what he did, Duke knew he wasn't anything to write home about, and as if that wasn't bad enough, there was also his… fixation; he'd had it for as long as he could remember, hair, haircuts, short buzzcuts especially, all of them seemed to spark his interest like nothing else did. He always felt like a freak for it, especially when he saw his roommate, all tanned skin and light blonde hair and easy confidence, the thoughts his mind drifted to every time he saw that hair, well…He supposed "fixation" wasn't really the right word, a more accurate word for it would be a—"Ey, Dukey! You wanna help me go through this box?"

That, Duke thought, affection creeping at the edges of his mental voice, must be Bailey; his roommate had gone to pick up a few old boxes from his parents about a day ago.

Bailey's relationship with his parents wasn't great, but not bad enough that they didn't communicate, even if that communication was, "we're done paying for our storage unit, pick up whatever's yours in there or it's getting trashed."

Looking up at Bailey carrying a small mountain of boxes, Duke couldn't help but see everything he wished he could be.

Bailey was tall, confident, broad-shouldered, pale blonde hair on tanned skin with eyes like shining amber; he had a similar chubbiness to Duke that the taller man just seemed to wear with so much more confidence.

There was something about him that just felt… intentional, in a way Duke felt like he didn't, Like a sketch by a master artist compared to a child's scribbles; to be honest, Duke felt a bit inadequate just looking at him. But the pair had managed to be friends despite that, and right now Duke's friend wanted help doing… well, Duke wasn't sure what exactly, but he was gonna help.

Duke heard his own voice say "yes" before his brain even had time to think of the words, and before he knew it, the pair were sat, looking through piles of old boxes and deciding where in the apartment all these things were supposed to fit.

Bailey picked up an old photo album, the taller man flipping through the pages with a mix of melancholy and an odd sort of nostalgia.

A few photos fell out as Bailey opened one of the pages, the glue holding them in having long since lost its stick. Duke reached out to pick one up, and he felt his heart skip a beat just looking at it.

"Th-this-this is…"

It was Bailey, about 19 in the photo, sporting an uncomfortable expression Duke was more used to seeing on himself, his usual long, almost white blonde hair shaved nearly bald.

Duke could swear he felt the whole world stop for a second when he first laid eyes on it. It was like something ripped right out of one of his fantasies (well, Bailey probably would have looked a bit happier if it was one of his fantasies, but still).

He felt his face flush just from looking at it, and it took a solid couple seconds of fantasizing before he registered the voice currently trying to get his attention.

"Duuuuke! Duke! Earth to Duke?"

The man in question quickly shook his head to regain focus. He'd done it again, hadn't he? He completely zoned out the moment he was reminded of his stupid fixation. God, he was such a freak.

The shorter man forced himself to focus as he shifted his attention to the topic at hand.

"Oh, uhhh, sorry? I just kinda zoned out for a second, y'know? You uhh, look pretty nice in this photo, by the way." "Eh?" Bailey made a confused noise as he reached for the photo, his expression saddening as he looked at exactly what it was he had been handed. He stopped for a minute as if collecting his thoughts, before letting out a nervous laugh.

"Yeah, hehe… that was me when I first got home after college, I told my dad I was a grown man now and he could choose my own haircut, he didn't like that and, well… I ended up with the same haircut he gave me every summer…"

Bailey's unstoppable confidence seemed to deflate before Duke’s very eyes as the shy young man felt a mix of emotions swirl within him. Anger at Bailey's father, disgust at himself for finding that photo as attractive as he did, and complete self-loathing for the fantasies that were currently swirling their way around his mind like ice in a glass at the thought of Bailey receiving a forced haircut. God, he hoped Bailey never found out just how much of a freak he really was.

The taller man silenced that last thought as quickly as the shorter one had had it, duke scolding himself mentally once again.

"Hey, look, I can tell what your thinking and it's fine dude, really, you didn't know"

Duke froze for a second, mentally scrambling for the right thing to say like a loading screen on an old computer.

"Th-thanks man but uhhh for the record I'm still really sorry, that that happened to you I mean, your dad he uhhh…kinda sucks?"

Whatever the perfect words to say in this situation were, it probably wasn't that, but the awkward phrasing of Duke's comment seemed to earn a laugh from the taller, more confident man, his easygoing smile returning once again seemingly just as quickly as it left.

"Yeah, you're uh… you're not wrong there man, glad I pulled off the look, though!" Bailey replied, playing with his own hair absentmindedly as he spoke. "You really think I looked nice like that?"

Duke felt a heat rise to his face as he tried to look anywhere but at the man standing in front of him, fighting back a million fantasies as he screamed at his brain to give his stupid fixation a rest for five measly seconds.

"Y-yeah, man!... I mean, I dunno, I've always kinda had a thing for guys with haircuts like that, so I guess I'm biased or whatever, but uh… I dunno, even if it sucks how it happened, I can't help but think you looked kind of… nice? N-not that you don't look nice now, I mean, it's just—"

Duke quickly descended into a mess of incoherent rambling, stuttering and tripping over his words with increasing intensity before Bailey finally showed him some mercy and cut him off.

"Really, dude? You?" The young man asked, seeming genuinely incredulous at the revelation." You're telling me the guy with hair down to his shoulders has had a secret thing for army haircuts this entire time? What are you, torturing yourself or something?"

"N-no! It's just… I dunno, liking it on other guys and liking it on me are two different things, y'know? I just don't think I could ever…"

"Pull it off?"

"Yeah, I mean, you looked really cute like that and and all—"

Duke mentally kicked himself again. Quit telling him you think the forced haircut from his abusive dad looks hot, dumbass.

"And I guess I've always had a bit of a… fixation on those kinds of haircuts, how they look, how they feel, everything. It's just, I don't really think I… I dunno, have the face for it?"

Bailey looked at him incredulously, brown eyes locking with Duke's hazel ones, face deep in thought as though studying him under a mental microscope.

"Dude, our faces are, like… literally the same shape, the hell are you on about?"

"Well, y-yeah, I mean, you're not wrong, but—"

Duke was starting to panic now, arguing as though one wrong word would mean a forced haircut just like the one in the picture, the idea of Bailey forcefully taking the clippers to him wouldn't leave his mind now, it was a fantasy just as much as it was a nightmare scenario. The young man felt dizzy for a moment as a million different conflicting thoughts all swirled around inside his head at once.

"Look, dude," Bailey said, Duke's mental spiral, "I'm not gonna force you to get a haircut you don't want or anything, lord knows I've had enough of that for one lifetime. And I'm not gonna cut my hair like that again, as much as I get the feeling you kinda want me to."

Duke averted his gaze, his silence telling Bailey everything he needed to know.

"But I am gonna hit you with a question."

"A… question?" the young man asked.

"Yes, dude, a question, and I need you to answer me honestly, even if you're scared: do you want me to cut your hair like I had it in that picture? Would doing that make you happy? Cause if it would, then you owe it to yourself to try it at least once, trust me, man, it'll feel a hell of a lot better when you rip that bandaid off and just do it, y'know?"

Duke felt himself freeze up a bit, face flushing and struggling to articulate what to say next, eventually just settling for the truth.

"I mean, as much as it scares me, uhhh… yes? Yes, it sounds nice, I mean, erm—do you really think I could pull it off?"

Bailey had already gone to the bathroom, looking for something, eventually finding the clippers he'd bought back when undercuts were in fashion, holding them up triumphantly with an "ah-ha!" as he looked over at the man he intended to use them on.

"Well, there's one way to find out, ain't there?"

He clicked on the device with a rickety "buzzzzzzzzz," the old electric razor clearly not having found use in a long time.

The young man felt his heart nearly beat out of his chest, his body freezing up as he sat there in a daze. His head was being flooded with every emotion at once—fear, anticipation, nausea, arousal—all he could manage to do was give his roommate a little nod as if to indicate his approval.

He saw Bailey lead him to the bathroom and felt his legs move before his body could even stop and think. Before he knew it, Duke was standing before Bailey, the more confident of the pair holding up the clippers almost menacingly, tilting his chin up as the two roommates locked eyes once again, the clippers rickety hum-buzz droned on like a backing track, a musical score for the quickly impending transformation.

Bailey spoke his next words clearly and carefully, cutting through the young man's anxiety like a blade cutting through thick vegetation, clearing a pathway through for the both of them.

"Now I'm just gonna ask you this one last time before we start."

Duke felt something funny in his stomach, not sure if it was anxiety or anticipation.

"Are you absolutely SURE you want this? Like, not just doing it cause I said you should or I rushed you into it or whatever?"

Duke stopped and thought for a second. He could get out of this if he really wanted to, just move on with their lives and act like nothing happened, they still had a small mountain of boxes they needed to finish sorting through.

But Duke couldn't help but wonder, what would happen if he didn't chicken out for once? If for once his fear of—well, to be honest, he didn't even know WHAT it was exactly he was afraid of—stop him from doing what he wanted?

But he wasn't the only one he had to be thinking about here. Bailey knew he wanted this, sure, knew he had a fixation, an obsession, but he didn't know just how deep this ran, didn't know the degree to which it ruled his life, didn't know it was a full-blown, no exaggeration, honest-to-god—"

"...fetish?"

Duke felt his soul leave his body at the very utterance of that word.

The word he had always hated referring to it as, his fixation, his obsession, his… well, Bailey had put the whole thing into words pretty damn simply, hadn't he?

"H… how do you know that's what it is?"

Bailey looked at him with an incredulous, arched eyebrow, clippers continuing their stuttering buzz as an unspoken, sarcastic "really?" hung in the air between them.

Duke looked down at his pants, a pair of sweats that left very little to the imagination, and nervously crossed his legs, a sheepish grin spreading across his face.

"Yeah, THAT'S how I know, dumbass, now do you want me to do this or not?"

Duke gave it a bit more thought, really considering it, putting on an air of finality in his voice before finally croaking out a "yes," clearly sure of himself despite the nerves in his tone.

Bailey just sat Duke down on the bathroom's toilet, which would be serving as there makeshift barbers chair, giving the young man's shaggy brown hair one last affectionate ruffle, equal in length like a dark brown copy of Bailey's own light blonde locks, before finally giving the hungry-sounding electric razor fill, driving them right down the middle of the young man's head.

Duke could tell there wasn't a guard, could feel the cold metal of the steel teeth on his scalp, and he had no view of the mirror from where he was sat. He suspected that was on purpose.

The clippers struggled a bit with just how thick Duke's hair was, but Bailey was nothing if not good at thinking on his feet, grabbing a pair of scissors he usually used to cut his own hair, and hacking off another swath of the man's dark brunette locks before shaving it off completely.

Duke, meanwhile, looked well…

"You okay down there?" the taller man said, a caring edge to the usual easygoing tone present in his voice.

"Y-yeah, of course I'm fine, it's just—"

"Finally all becoming real?"

Duke just sat in silence for a second, cool air blowing on the shaved stripe right down the middle of his head. Bailey always seemed to have a way of knowing exactly what Duke was thinking, because that's exactly what it was, wasn't it?

He'd spent he didn't even know how long wanting this—wanting to see it happen to someone else, wanting it to happen to himself, just… wanting it, in the same way one wanted air or water. And suddenly getting it all now, getting it all at once, it felt satisfying like nothing else had ever been, and also like the scariest thing he'd ever experienced in his life.

Duke was stirred from his thoughts as he felt the taller man bundle his hair together into a thick ponytail, holding the scissors over it as if pausing for dramatic effect.

"Timbeeeeeeer" the man said, a playful edge to his voice as he hacked through the thick brown locks like a lumberjack sawing through a mighty oak.

The noise it made was horrible, a sick hacking sound that Duke would've plugged his ears to block out if he wasn't scared of putting his hands so close to the busy scissors.

After a few more agonizing seconds that seemed to stretch on an eternity, Bailey triumphantly held up the ponytail like a fisherman holding up his prized catch, letting out a victorious belly laugh as Duke felt himself get lightheaded in more ways than one.

Bailey had picked up the clippers which had been set aside to focus on the scissors. They had still been left running out of fear they might not turn back on, their perpetual rickety drone becoming an oddly soothing sound for the pair of them.

The shorter of the pair just focused on the sound as he tried his best to get his mind off the panicked thoughts that raced through his mind a mile a minute as the clippers, the scissors, and the man wielding them, all continued to do their work without hesitation.

"Shavey shavey~" Bailey said, the sing-song tone in his voice earning a laugh from his nervous companion as he once again worked the clippers through the young man's still quite thick brown hair. It didn't get caught quite as much now, but the old razor was clearly running on inertia more than anything else, as much as he wanted to stop and savor the moment, Bailey would have to make this fast.

"You enjoying it so far?" the tall man asked, finishing up on the top of Duke's head as the clippers moved over to his left sideburn, the sound of them louder than ever now as they buzzed right past the young man's ear.

"Y-yeah, it…"

Duke took a deep breath to clear his anxiety, focusing on the warm jitter of the electric razor as it did its work removing any excess hair. It felt kind of nice in a weird way, when he stopped and just let himself enjoy the moment.

"It feels really nice, actually," he eventually admitted.

Bailey grabbed a long patch of hair he shaved off one of the man's sideburns and held it up like a mustache up to his lips, the pair sharing a laugh as he finished up the left side of his head and moved on to the right.

"Hey, so uhhh, since I'm nearly done here do you uhhhh—"

"Think you look any good?" Bailey asked, an affectionate edge to his voice as he shaved the right sideburn now, that loud rickety buzzing sound once again filling the other man's ears and leaving just as soon as it started.

More hair rained down as the pile around the young man increased in size, a mountain of dark brown fluff that they both knew would be a pain to sweep up later. As his anxiety faded (or maybe just got pushed down, both were reasonable explanations), Duke felt himself leaning into the clippers a bit, letting out a contented hum as they made their way along the side of his head.

"Man, someone's enjoying this," Bailey said, looking down at his roommate acting like his crappy old hair clippers were the most satisfying sensation in the world. "I mean I knew you had a thing for it, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but still—"

Duke couldn't help but blush a little at that. To be honest, he'd expected a much worse reaction when his roommate found out about his secret fetish, especially since it was hearing about one of his past traumas that triggered it. He hadn't expected him to just be so… cool about it, about one of the most repressed and shameful parts of him. How nice it felt, he thought, to be accepted so wholly and completely.

Bailey was working on the back now, he had to crane his neck a funny way to see what he was doing. He tried his best to work fast, as the clippers had begun to make a funny noise that Bailey suspected didn't mean anything good.

He buzzed away, watching the long hair at the back come off in swaths. The shorter man was smiling now, his anxiety having long since gone away completely as he finished up at the back almost as quickly as he'd started (he really was in a rush to get this done). Buzzing away one last time to make sure everything was even.

He leaned into the razor like a dog leaning into the hand of someone petting them. He let out a satisfied sigh as the taller of the pair inspected his head for any trace of remaining fluff; when he found nothing he set aside the electric razor and gave the man one last once-over just to be sure before finally turning the machine off.

Duke looked so different now, his head looked rounder, his chubby chin was more visible, his ears stuck out just a bit, like an animal's ears; add in a pair of glasses and a big dopey grin on his face, and the whole thing just screamed "cute!" in a way Bailey couldn't entirely articulate.

He playfully rubbed the man's head and smiled to himself as his roommate let out an involuntary noise somewhere between a laugh and a moan, the shy young man blushing in embarrassment almost immediately at the way his body had betrayed him.

"Ah! Sh-s**t, I'm sorry, it-it just, it feels really good, y'know? Like when you—er—um—uh—"

"Oh my god, dude, relaaaaax, I knew you were gonna be at least a little weird about it, it's chill."

The shorter man's blush deepened, staring at his roommate like a child that had just been scolded.

"W-wierd? Did I make it weird? I'm sorry…"

It was Bailey's turn to look a bit embarrassed now at his own poor choice of words. He stopped for a second, as if deep in thought, and chose what he said next very carefully.

"Aw hell I'm sorry, dude, I didn't mean it like that, you're not weird weird, you're like… cute weird, y'know? It's what makes you so cool to hang out with."

Duke clearly perked up at this now, eyes lighting up more visibly now without fringe in his face to obscure them, looking every bit like an excited little puppydog.

"You're like, the best roommate I've ever had in my life dude, if you ever did anything like… bad weird, I'd let you know, alright? Now do you wanna see your new haircut or not, baldy?"

Bailey could see the quick flash of shock on Duke's face now, so much more expressive without the long hair to hide it. The quickest flash of recognition at the reminder that he was, in fact, almost bald, and it would be a very long wait for it to grow back if he decided he didn't like it. Bailey just chuckled a bit at Duke's reaction and reached an eager hand out, inviting the man to come and take it.

"You ready?"

Duke just nodded, the pair locking eyes for a brief moment as the shy young man took Bailey's larger hand in his own and finally took a look at the new him.

"O-oh my… I-i look…"

He looked good, even Duke with his complete lack of self esteem could see that. The shaved head gave a certain roundness to his face shape, cuter but not boyish, heck he could actually look pretty tough like this if he dressed it up right.

He'd spent years afraid of how he'd look if he gave in, if he let himself do what he'd spent years telling himself he was a freak for wanting, and he still didn't know how other people were going to react, of course.

But looking at himself now, at the thing he had spent years being afraid of that was suddenly not so scary after all, at the crop of dark brown stubble where his long hair once stood, nothing but a round chubby face with a pair of big hazel eyes and a dopey smile he'd spent so long hiding from the world, well, to be honest, he didn't really care what other people thought about it, cause he thought he looked great!

The young man gave his newfound stubble a cautious rub, slow first, then faster the more he started to enjoy the sensation, it wasn't long before he started laugh-crying at just how amazing it felt, giant grin plastered on his face all the while. To think he'd spent years denying something that felt this good just cause he was scared of how people were going to react.

"So uhhhh, you like it?" the taller man asked, an edge of sarcasm in his voice as he looked over at his roommate clearly enjoying himself.

"Yeah!" the young man said, whatever nerves he once had having long since disappeared as he happily rubbed his own head, utterly enraptured by the new sensation.

"I was so scared I'd look stupid, but it actually looks pretty good! And the heat doesn't feel as bad anymore, and it feels really cool when I pet it, and-and—"

God damn that smile, that stupid dopey grin Bailey had on his face as he rambled about how good his new haircut felt. It felt…almost inviting, like some kind of crazy infectious siren song asking the young man to join him. Bailey had to stop himself before he started getting any kind of crazy ideas.

"Alright, alright, I'm glad you like it, dude, just gotta be careful flaunting it in front of me like that or you might just make me do something stupid ok? No offense but you're kinda giving me a hard sell on the buzzcut there." The taller man had an edge of something else at the corners of his voice now, and the shorter of the pair had a flash of recognition, followed by a mischievous grin that quickly crept its way across the young man's face.

"Do you want me to cut your hair like I have it?" Duke said, his voice shifting into a surprisingly good impression of Bailey's. "Cause if doing that would make you happy, then you owe it to yourself to try it at least once, don't you think? Trust me, man, it'll feel a hell of a lot better when you just rip that bandaid off."

Bailey could've sworn he felt his eye twitch a little. It hadn't been lost on the man that Duke hadn't stopped playing with his new buzzcut ever since he got it, that same content little smile on his face practically daring the man to try it for himself, like an itch at the corner of his brain that wouldn't be scratched until he acted on it. He sighed, as if resigned to his fate, and clicked on the electric razor once again.

"For the record," Bailey said, "if I hate this, it's on you for selling me on it so hard."

"Wait, holy crap, Bailey, I didn't think you'd actually—"

But it was too late. It was already happening. Bailey had taken the rickety old electric clippers, driven them straight down the middle of his head, and…

"K-chunk!"

The silence hung in the air for a couple seconds, almost deafening.

Bailey looked at his reflection, bald stripe right down the middle of his head. Duke looked at Bailey, a million emotions on the two men's faces.

A few more beats of silence passed, and the two men erupted into loud, uproarious laughter.

"Oh my god, of course," Bailey said, laughter still creeping into the corners of his voice, "of f***ing course THAT'S when these stupid clippers finally give out, holy s**t."

"I didn't think you were actually gonna do it, to be honest," Duke said, hands still rubbing his shorn head as if glued there. "I mean, I'm glad you did, I'm just surprised you actually went through with it, or started to atleast." Bailey shot the man a playful glare for that little comment. "Yeah, well, just for that, YOU'RE gonna go out to the shop and buy me the new clippers."

There was another beat of silence between the pair for a moment, as if some kind of truth neither party had fully registered up until now was finally sinking in for the both of them. The silence lasted one more beat, and then…

"Oh my god, what did we just do?"

"What did WE just do? I just got an awesome new haircut and look great, I don't know what you're going for, mr. reverse mohawk."

Bailey gave Duke a playful punch in the arm, but there wasn't a laugh there. He just stared off into the middle distance, deep in thought before finally breaking his silence.

"Man, y'know what I told my dad last time he made me cut my hair like this?" The taller man was rubbing the short stubble in the middle of his head now, something on his face between nostalgia and sadness.

"I told him that one day I'd be moved out and living on my own and I was never gonna wear my hair like that again as long as I live."

Duke gave Bailey a look now, something between sympathetic and curious. He pushed down his own nerves just long enough to force the question out.

"So, uhhh… does that mean you regret it? The haircut I mean"

Bailey rubbed the stubble on his head again, he had been forced to wear his hair like this so many times before now, and each and every time he had absolutely hated it, so what about this time that felt so different? What was it about seeing Duke with that big stupid smile on his face, rubbing his basically bald head like an idiot, that made him want to do something he'd spent years of his life swearing he'd never do again?

But that was exactly it, wasn't it? HE wasn't the one who'd done it before all those times, it was his father, just one of many things that man, that tyrant, had decided about his life without letting him have even the tiniest bit of input. This had been his choice, his choice to look at a guy he thought was cute, grinning at him like an idiot, the guy who'd managed to take one of the worst moments in his life and carve out something fun from it, and follow his example. He looked at Duke again, at the worried look in his eyes as he waited for an answer, and ran his hands over the shaved stripe in the middle of his scalp, the sensation was familiar in a way that should've been unpleasant .

"Well… I definitely don't regret it, I know that much, but let's get those new clippers and finish the job and we'll see together if I look any good, yeah?"

Duke just gave him a laugh, the calm, carefree kind of laugh that Bailey is usually known for, and playfully ruffled the man's partially shorn hair.

"Well, I better head out to the shop and get to it then, but uhhhhh just for the record?"

Duke leaned down and gave Bailey a kiss, right on the shaved stripe in the middle of the young man's head. Bailey felt his face heat up.

"I think you'd make a pretty cute baldy."

Bailey just sat there for a moment, blushing and completely dumbfounded. He could see that Duke was blushing too, but his stance was just as confident as it was the moment before, more confident than the man ever thought he'd see him, and just as fast as this crazy whirlwind of a day had started, Duke was out the door, whistling a tune as he went out to buy the instrument of Bailey's complete and total transformation, Duke had always joked to him about how his name didn't fit, how it sounded like it should belong to a much more confident man than he was. But seeing him there, standing proud after giving him a kiss like it was nothing, heading out to show the whole world his radical transformation with so much as a hat to hide under, Bailey couldn't help but think it suited him pretty well after all.

(End)

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