Summary: Tai-eun rattled at Tao. "You're a perfectionist, you know that?" Tao said. "I bet you picked that up from Boss."

Huh, thought I'd used 'they' for Tai-eun but I guess not.

A New Friend

By Dark Ice Dragon

Tai-eun rattled at Tao.

"You're a perfectionist, you know that?" Tao said. "I bet you picked that up from Boss." He undid the part of the braid he'd just done and tightened it. That had to be the third time he'd had to redo a section. "There, better?"

Tao slithered over from where it was perched on top of Takeo's head and prodded the new section. Then it nodded, trilling.

Takeo shifted, and while Tao couldn't see his face, he knew Takeo was laughing at them. Him.

"Tai-eun wants it to look good."

"Maybe it picked the perfectionism from you," Tao grumbled, continuing to braid under Tai-eun's watchful gaze. "This is your hair." That was Tai-eun's domain and Takeo's unspoken pride, after all.

"It might have..." Tao snickered at that, giving Takeo's hair a small tug.

"And done!" Tao tied it off and held it up for Tai-eun to inspect.

It prodded each section and then nodded. Just as Tao was about to let go, Tai-eun looped itself around the base of the braid, trilling. When it was done, it looked at Tao.

He'd talked with Tai-eun enough to guess what it wanted. "Like this?" he asked, curling the braid into a bun.

Tai-eun trilled again and dived into the centre of the bun. When Tao was finished, Tai-eun weaved itself into each layer and Tao chuckled as he stepped back.

"Yeah, that's not coming out," he said.

"Good." Takeo waited until Tai-eun had given one last tug and trilled before standing up and turning around.

Tao was already reaching for his phone to take pictures. "That look a little longer than I thought it would, but it looks good."

Tai-eun swung up, perched on its favourite spot on Takeo's shoulder and gave the smuggest trill Tao had ever heard it make.