Perish • Ben Parish

01

"Canary, I want it like Zombie's," Nugget whined, looking over his shoulder at me.

I carefully cut the ends of his curly locks, nearly slicing my finger in two every time he'd make a sudden movement.

"Nugget," I said, for what ought've been the hundredth time. "I've already told you, that's not how haircuts work."

Nugget wanted his hair to look exactly like Zombie's, which posed as an issue because Zombie's straight hair was nearly down to his shoulders, whereas Nugget's curly hair only reached to the bottom of his ears.

"I can't make your hair grow longer," I stated, rolling my eyes.

Nugget let out a loud, dramatic sigh. "Well I don't wanna get my hair cut then," he said, swatting my hands away.

The scissors clattered to the ground and I crossed my arms.

"We had a deal, Nugget," I said. "I'm not playing around with you." 

Nugget had promised me that I could cut his hair if, in return, I taught him how to do a choke hold. After an hour of me training him, he had finally sat down for his haircut and now he was trying to pull this shit. 

"Well, I've changed my mind," Nugget grumbled, crossing his arms in a defiant manner. 

"Nugget, you made a deal. You need to honor it," Zombie said from the door way. 

We were on the porch, overlooking the thicket of trees outside. It wasn't as cold anymore, the bitterness of winter was starting to ebb away to the warmer days of spring. 

Zombie moved out of the door way towards us, his limp almost entirely gone. 

It had appeared that I'd been right - all Zombie needed was some rest and then he'd feel better. 

After nearly six weeks without any encounters with the Others, he'd been able to recover at Grace's old house. I was even starting to see the old Ben back. After a good shave and a new set of clothes that weren't covered in blood, he was starting to sport the old high school football star, swoon-worthy Ben Parish look. 

And after all the time of getting to know him as rugged Zombie, it made me slightly uncomfortable to see him so refined again. 

I even found it harder to talk to him now that I didn't have his wound to fuss over. As a result, we'd talked less in the past couple weeks. 

On top of it all, everyone knew that Zombie and I had a thing for one another now, so it was almost impossible to be within five feet from one another without getting suggestive looks from the entire squad. 

Zombie walked around to Nugget, crouching down so he was eye-level with him. 

"Listen bud, if you get your hair cut, I'll get mine cut, deal?" Zombie said. 

Nugget nodded eagerly. "Deal," he said. 

I picked the scissors up from the ground just as Zombie ruffled Nugget's hair, standing up. 

I rolled my eyes, slightly irritated. Nugget had been giving me shit for the past however many weeks but whenever Zombie stepped in, he'd do whatever the hell came out of his savior's mouth.  

After much deducing, I'd come to the conclusion that he was jealous of how Zombie spent more time with me than him. 

I took the scissors in my right hand and resumed cutting his hair.

Zombie then came up beside me and pressed his lips softly against my temple. 

"I need to talk to you later," he said softly.