On Top of the Universe

[inky_starlight]

 Sequel to "Turn Back the Clock"

Now that Minseok and Yixing have moved away from the aquarium, Minseok wants to dye his hair.

It had taken probably more effort than was really necessary for something like this, but Yixing was determined to not let any stray dye pollute the beach. Minseok had been much more blasé about it, but Yixing was adamant that they had no idea how the chemicals would affect the surrounding ocean habitat, or Minseok himself, and so they were going to do this as sanitarily as possible.

After a move outside of the city, and several months of them adjusting, Minseok was finally getting the colorful hair he wanted.

It hadn’t been an immediate priority. Minseok had slipped back into the severe depression before they’d left the aquarium, and it had taken a combination of both human and aquatic treatment before he was feeling well enough to function. It had been a few months, and it hadn’t always been smooth sailing, but they could finally say that Minseok was having more good days than bad.

And so when Lu Han had driven out to visit, with his own hair newly dyed a pastel blue, Minseok had gotten back on the subject. He wanted to dye his hair, and now that Yixing no longer had to go to aquarium administration for every single decision (or at least, what felt like every single decision) he was able to.

Yixing helped Minseok decide what colors he wanted, and it was colors, plural, while they sat under the dock that held up Yixing’s house. It was a hot day, but the area under the dock offered shade, which made it much more bearable, and the sea breeze certainly didn’t hurt at all. It was nice and calm; Yixing sat on a wide, flat, rock that was just barely in the water when the tide moved out, and when the waves lapped back in, the water came up to his chest. It wasn’t quite enough to move him, and in the shade, the water cooled him off even further. Even if the water did get a bit high, one of Minseok’s tentacles covered his lap, heavy enough to keep Yixing still and seated, while the merman had several others clinging to nearby rocks to keep himself stationary. Minseok kept changing the color of his tentacles, trying to decide what would look best together.

“Why don’t we do darker colors first?” Yixing offered. “I don’t want to bleach your hair just yet.”

“But I wanted to try pastel pink,” Minseok pouted, and turned his tentacles a brilliant bright pink.

“Maybe later,” Yixing said.

“But Xing!”

“For the sake of my mental health, I want to take it slow. The last thing we need is your skin reacting poorly if any dye gets on you, and bleaching your hair would make it a lot worse.”

“Okay,” Minseok agreed fairly quickly, and slumped over so that he was laying on Yixing.

Yixing sighed contentedly, closed his eyes, and began to run his fingers through Minseok’s hair. Minseok was so much happier out here, and if he was honest, Yixing was too. Not only because of Minseok, but it was easy for him to be happy when Minseok was, out in the peace and quiet.

Yixing could hear a boat engine off in the distance. Just loud enough to be heard, but they were far enough away from the local tourist spot on the beach that it wasn’t quite loud enough to disturb them. He could feel one of Minseok’s tentacles moving up his chest so that the tip of it attached with a light smacking sound to the side of his face. Out of the water, the tentacle was heavy, but Minseok kept the base of it off Yixing, so it wasn’t heavy enough to hurt him.

It was a minute or two before Minseok spoke:

“Will you dye your hair pastel pink?” His voice was light, almost teasing. “You’ve already bleached your hair.”

Eh, why not? He hadn’t gone with anything bright in a while, even though Lu Han had bleached his hair the last time he was here because his roots were showing (Lu Han said his roots looked “horrific” but Lu Han always over-exaggerated that sort of thing) and it wasn’t like he had to worry about looking professional in front of guests or anything. The museum administration checked in every few weeks, but they wouldn’t care.

“Sure,” Yixing nodded, but didn’t open his eyes.

Minseok made a little happy noise, and the tentacle on Yixing’s face moved. The pads let go with small little pops, and pulled Yixing’s skin slightly, but no more than a kiss would. Minseok slid the tentacle down so that the tip rested on Yixing’s chest instead, and Yixing felt him relax even further.

Yixing drove into town the next day. It wasn’t far, but the stretch of road was lonely. The museum had made sure that the land was isolated, only a few houses nearby and none of them tourist rentals, so Yixing didn’t pass any other cars as he drove in. He had to go to a beauty supply store for this, the grocery store in town wasn’t that well-stocked on hair dye, but he’d been inside the beauty store before and the employees were friendly.

They recommended a particular brand after Yixing told them that his friend “swam a lot” and before too long, Yixing was on his way back with several different packages, including his own pink, and a giant bottle of conditioner.

The easiest way to do this would have been to just drag a giant bucket onto the beach, but Yixing was determined to not let more hair dye than would come off of Minseok’s hair naturally pollute the beach. The most sanitary place to do it was the bathroom in Yixing’s house. Meaning that, for the first time in his life, Minseok would have to come completely out of the water.

 Yixing contemplated format: it would be faster and less distance for them to go up the ladder on the dock, but he didn’t think the ladder could hold both of them, and while Yixing was fit, he was not strong enough to pull both of them up. So onto the beach and up the stairs it was.

While they were in the water, it was easy. Minseok wrapped several of his tentacles around Yixing’s waist and shoulders, and helped move with the others so that Yixing would have a better range of motion. It got harder once Yixing was out of the water up to his waist, but Minseok was still submerged enough to help him move.

Out of the water, however… Minseok would not have been heavy as a human being. His human half was really fairly petite and slim. His tentacles, however… Yixing felt like he was trying to carry a horse on his shoulders. Yixing knew Minseok’s tentacles were big, but somehow in his head that hadn’t translated properly into how much they would actually weigh. It took forever to get not only to the stairs on the beach, but up them.

He couldn’t complain, though, not when Minseok was so excited. He couldn’t see Minseok’s face, but he could feel him looking around. When they finally (finally) reached the top of the staircase, Minseok looked back towards the ocean.

“This is amazing!” he shrieked. “I can see so far! It’s so pretty!”

Minseok sounded excited in a way that he hadn’t sounded in a very long time. Yixing would carry him up the stairs as many times as Minseok wanted.

Yixing wasn’t entirely sure how they did it, but they made it inside his house. The house wasn’t very big: it was larger than Yixing’s old apartment, but not by much, but Minseok was completely enthralled with it. He kept trying to ask questions, but Yixing didn’t have the strength to answer them.

“Seok… wait… a minute,” he grunted.

Finally Yixing managed to get the two of them into his bathroom. With Minseok’s help, he was able to maneuver the merman into his bathtub, and fill it up enough that his tentacles could stay hydrated.

Yixing flopped onto the floor, panting and completely prone. He was dripping with sweat and his muscles were screaming. All he could do was stare up at the ceiling and breathe as he tried to get his heart rate under control.

He watched as Minseok leaned over the side of the bathtub to watch him, and the tip of one of his tentacles slid out of the bath to reach down and stick gently onto Yixing’s cheek, like a kiss.

“Thank you, Xing,” Minseok’s voice was gentle.

Yixing nodded, and managed to pant out “just maybe wait a while until we do this again, yeah?”

Minseok giggled. “I’ll start working out and maybe next time I can pull myself up the ladder.”

“That would be good.”

When Yixing felt like he could move again, they got to work. Yixing explained how hair dye worked, as in what all they had to do, and Minseok listened well. He watched while Yixing mixed the dye and conditioner, and sat perfectly still while Yixing started.

“I hope this looks okay,” Yixing said as he put the colors in Minseok’s hair. “I’ve done this occasionally but usually Lu Han does it for me. And I haven’t done multiple colors like this before.”

“I’m going to love it,” Minseok insisted.

Yixing finished up with Minseok’s hair, changed gloves, and then did his own. Minseok put on gloves and helped a bit, and Yixing answered all of Minseok’s questions about the stuff in his house that he had tried to ask before while they waited for the dye to take.

Yixing washed out his hair first, and Minseok smiled as he ran his fingers through it.

“I was right,” he said proudly. “You look good with pink.”

When they washed out Minseok’s hair, Yixing had to admit that it looked better than he thought it would. Minseok definitely had an eye for color combinations, and Yixing had done a better job dyeing it than he thought he had.

He made Minseok wait until he was completely finished, but then let him look. Minseok eased himself out of the bath, trying not to get water everywhere and failing, and slid over to the sink before propping himself up on the counter.

When he saw himself in the mirror, he gasped in delight. His hair was mostly dark blue, but Yixing had mixed in sections of green and purple. On their own they weren’t super visible, but when his hair caught the light… it was a very neat effect. Yixing watched as the colors in Minseok’s tentacles shifted through the spectrum until they matched.

“Xing!” he squealed in delight. “It’s perfect!”

He motioned Yixing closer, and at first all he did was look at their hair in the mirror and smile. But then, very gently, like how he was with his tentacles, he leaned over and gave Yixing a soft kiss on the cheek.