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𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘐 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬.
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Arthur rubbed his temples as he looked down at the head of dark, thick, relentless hair that refused to move under his comb. He had been wrestling with Minho's hair for well over twenty minutes to no avail. He truly couldn't get it to fix itself. His constant whining didn't help as Arthur tugged his comb through it again. "Have you brushed this mess since I last did this?" He pulled the comb out with a sigh.
"You're doing it wrong!" The most repeated phrase came out of Minho's mouth and Arthur let out a loud groan before mimicking under his breath.
"I've been doing it for three years Sunshine, It's not wrong." Finally getting it to yield he got a strand of hair between his fingers and started trimming the ends. He could practically hear the dark-haired boy rolling his eyes as he shifted in his seat.
Minho let out a deep sigh as if he were dealing with a difficult person. "Yeah well, you're still doing it wrong! I can tell." Arthur resisted the urge to throw his brush at the boy's head and continued to brush, running water through it with his hands occasionally.
"Can you tell when I dump all this water on your hair because I'm about to?" He caught Alby and Newt's eye from across the way, they were both shaking their heads. Obviously, he knew what he really wanted to do.
"Well, then you would most certainly be doing it wrong." Minho's voice took on a jokingly condescending tone and it took everything in Arthur not to tip him off the chair and watch him fall face-first into the dirt. Picking up another strand of hair and pulling on it, smirking when Minho let out a noise of complaint he continued to cut his hair.
He dropped the strand of hair when Minho squirmed again. "I won't do it if you keep whining and wiggling around like that. So keep still!" Arthur grasped firmly on Minho's shoulder and held him still.
For a second when Arthur slowly lifted his hand, he really thought he could just continue without the constant rambling of the dark-haired boy but when he could see him beginning to turn he wondered if his luck was just horrible.
Now the unamused Arthur and the very amused Minho were face to face.
"Pipe down pretty boy and get on with it." Arthur let out a scoff and grabbed Minho's face before spinning him to face away from him.
With a repressed urge to ruin Minho's hair with an unfortunate slip of the scissors, he slowly began cutting his hair again, nearing the end.
He looked at the water bowl before looking at Minho again, his hand ruffled all the loose hairs out of the freshly cut hair and swiftly grabbed the bowl of water and poured half of it over his head.
The response was instant as Minho shot up from his chair with a loud gasp and a betrayed look on his face. Arthur had already ditched his place behind the chair and was running away towards the unsuspecting Gally who stood talking to the builders.
"Shit, Sorry Gally!" He had already used the taller boy as a turning point as he swung himself away from the soaking boy and away from the group who watched the two runners' antics with an amused look.
Nearing his target, Arthur grabbed the nearest person and held them in front of them. "What the bloody hell are you doing Artie!" Finally opening his eyes he spots the person he had used as a shield against Minho.
"Blondie! Just the person I was looking for, I need to cut your hair. Look how long it's getting." He wrapped an arm around Newt's shoulders and moved him forward towards the slightly wet chair. Arthur glanced back at Minho who glared at him and flipped him off with his spare hand, watching as he turned to Alby.
Newt on the other hand looked back towards Alby who was now in a conversation with Minho before looking back towards Arthur who sat him down in the chair and reached down towards the water bowl.
He ran a wet hand through Newt's hair, soaking it with water and working it into the roots, a great deal more gentle than he was to the dark-haired male. Every so often a piece of hair fell onto the back of his neck causing Arthur to brush it off before it fell down the back of his shirt. Newt had to remind himself to breathe constantly.
"Have you been getting this weird feeling in your gut?" Arthur nervously asked once he had finished, absent-mindedly curling Newt's hair around his finger, all earlier confidence now gone.
Newt frowned, spinning round in the chair to look at Arthur, who was biting his lip in thought. The hand previously in his hair was now placed on the back of the chair. The two made eye contact before Newt spoke up.
"What feelings Artie? Have you told Alby?" The blonde looked back to Alby before turning to Arthur who was biting his thumb. Newt studied Arthur, watching as his eyes were trained on Newt, glancing towards Alby every once in a while.
"Well, no. But I have a feeling I know what it is." The sun was hot against his back, his black vest-top clinging to his body and in Newt's very humble opinion, he could not look more attractive than he did right there.
He was a bit slow to answer but once he had finally clocked what was going on he looked at Arthur's eyes again. "What?"
"I mean it's Greenie Day coming up. It may be that... Is something going to go wrong Blondie?" Newt furrowed his brows further and stood up, he came face to face with Arthur who looked very worried.
"No, nothing's going to go wrong. Everything has been okay for three years, why would it go wrong now?" He grasped Arthur's hands firmly and held them up. "You got us, alright."
Arthur took a deep breath and nodded, smiling at his friend in front of him. Newt held his gaze before bringing Arthur's hand up to his mouth and kissing it. "You'll always have us."
The brunette flushed, whether it was due to the heat or the action was Newt's guess but Arthur fumbled with a brief response before nodding. His heart fluttered as he smiled at the blonde boy who let go of Arthur's hands and cleared his throat.
"Thank you, Blondie." Arthur bent his head slightly downwards and kissed him lightly on the forehead. "I know I do. You go talk to Alby, I'm going to talk to Chuck, Hey buddy!" He patted Newt on the cheek and smiled at him before walking over to the young boy.
The curly-haired boy bounced on his feet, having been watching the exchange and had a shit-eating grin on his face. "Arthur!" Chuck looked as Arthur crouched down in front of him, the older male's flush slowly cooling down and retreating back into his skin. "Thank you for the trim."
"Of course mate, You didn't really need it though." He scruffed the boy's hair. Chuck who was the newest Glader to have graced their Glade had written his name on the name wall a few weeks ago. The name wall had dozens of names scattered across the rock, some crossed out and some so old that they had chipped away.
"It was fun to be included in this, Do you guys always do this the night before Greenie Day?" Chuck looked at Arthur, his eyes shining with youthful curiosity that struck Arthur with a rush of memories from his days at the start of the Glade.
"So I was there for a year, and everyone's hair was proper long so I got scissors from the box and I cut it. I don't want them to scare off the Greenie, Chuck!" Arthur looked around the Glade. He had just finished cutting over 20 boy's names and he was exhausted.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, what is it?" Chuck looked around and Arthur raised his eyebrows as he waited for the younger boy to talk.
"When are you and Newt getting together?" Arthur's jaw dropped as he stared at Chuck who looked innocently back. Blinking a few times the older boy looked around and made eye contact with Minho who smirked at him. Smirked. What the hell had Minho been telling people?
"What." Arthur was in a state of pure disbelief as Minho was nudging Alby and pointing over to Arthur and Chuck, Arthur who looked to be having a mid-life crisis and Chuck who looked undeniably confused.
"Alby, go get the Greenie."
"What does that even mean?" Chuck's knight in shining armour reached him, tapped Chuck on the shoulder and pointed at him to move away whilst he crouched in front of Arthur who was taking deep breaths. Obviously having been taken very off guard by the question. "I was just doing haircuts! Why are little kids so weird."
Alby patted Arthur on the back. The attention of the Glade had been on them for a second but they all kind of guessed what it was about. "Arthur, you need to get under some shade for one, you might be the same temperature as the sun if you're not careful." He grasped Arthur's arm and they both stood up, one stumbling more than the other.
"What did he mean by that Alby, don't tell me you don't know because I know you do." The brunette cleared his throat as he looked at Alby who sighed and waved in the direction of Minho and Newt who were in an in-depth conversation, with one of them waving at Arthur. Minho.
"Maybe talk to the reason you're panicking. It could help you fix-" Alby waved a hand at Arthur's dishevelled state. "-this."
"One, that's really fucking rude. Two, what now, tomorrow?" The older male shrugged and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Today might be best, get it out of the way before Greenie Day. Get everything smoothed over. It's been three years Arthur."
"You need to say how you feel, it's too late to do anything else. I don't wanna know what you're going to do but do something okay? It's painful." Minho was holding Newt's shoulder and was looking at him with such a serious expression that Newt was letting out a long sigh and getting himself shaken.
"I think everyone knows that I like him but him at this point." Minho finally stopped shaking Newt and they both looked towards Alby and Arthur, Alby who looked so done and Arthur who looked significantly calmer than before but still stressed.
"Then let him know."
Arthur was biting his thumbnail as he stared at the empty fire pit. He could hear the footsteps behind him but he refused to turn around. He had time to go over his thoughts and he has never felt as dumb as he did in that moment as well as embarrassed.
Newt glanced at Arthur before moving to stand beside him, his gaze fixed on his nervous friend beside him. He knew Arthur was aware he was there, purely because he did that thing he always did when he could hear something, the slight tilt of the head.
"Three years." Everything seemed to stop for Newt when Arthur finally spoke. His voice was a mere whisper but it was something he sought every time.
"Three years?" The blonde's voice was quiet, as if scared to break the fragile atmosphere. Arthur stopped biting his nails and screwed up his face before taking a heavy breath, almost as if a great weight was pressing down on his shoulders. His hands twitched at his sides as he prepped himself to speak again.
"I know you already probably know. I don't even know why you are still friends with me." He let out a pitiful excuse of a laugh and Newt hates it. "I mean apparently I'm fucking dumb because I didn't know you knew!"
"Know what? Artie, what are you on about?" Arthur let out another laugh but this one sounded too much like a sob. Turning around to face Arthur who was still facing the fire pit he caught sight of the tear streaks on his face.
"Newt don't fuck with me, the fact I have had a huge fucking crush on you for the past three years. Have you known this entire time?" He brought his hand up to wipe his eyes and cheeks, wanting so desperately to hole up somewhere alone but knowing he needed to handle this. He can't let this mess with him.
"You- Listen to me Arthur, I'm not fucking with you alright? Look at me." Newt pressed two fingers against the side of Arthur's chin and turned it to face him. When his head turned his body followed and soon they were face to face.
"You either knew or didn't."
"I didn't know. If I knew I would have done something sooner." Newt's voice remained at the same level of tone however Arthur could see the slight frustration glinting in his eyes.
"Done what sooner." The brunette was irritated, he was overwhelmed and very tired. He had worked himself up throughout the day to think of the worst-case scenario. His hands flexed in front of him as he stared at Newt.
"You really have no idea do you?" The blonde boy's voice was low as he spoke to Arthur, who in return furrowed his eyebrows.
"No idea of what. What the hell would I have an idea about? What you like me back?" Arthur rolled his eyes at the last statement, the idea being so impossible in his eyes that he was positive it wasn't happening. "That's utter bullshi-"
If you asked Arthur he wasn't sure what quite happened. It was an attack. A nice one yes, one he had wanted for quite a long time but an attack nonetheless.
If you asked Newt, he would say with one hand he grabbed Arthur's waist. With the other, he grabbed his face and kissed him.