Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lila sat exhaustively on the closed toilet lid. A purple towel, which used to be white, draped over her shoulders. Her hands stained, you guessed it, purple.

But even though she complained, it was always the highlight of her month whenever her hair was in need of a touch up. Despite the hassle, it was quite relaxing to just sit and think, knowing that by tomorrow she'd have her hair freshly coloured. 

"Mooooommm??" Her son called out. Lila could hear speedy yet light footsteps as Skid approached the door, which was left slightly ajar. 

"Mom?" Skid peeked his head through the door before fully entering.

"Hi son," Lila unintentionally sighed as she spoke.

"Whaaat are you doing?" Skid looked from his mother's face to her stained hands with a confused expression. "Why your hands are purple?"

"Oh, it's just from that damn hair dye.."

 Skid momentarily paused before his facial expression turned to shock

"HAIR DYE??"

"Yes?"

"YOU DYE YOUR HAIR??"

"YES??"

"IT'S NOT JUST NORMALLY PURPLE??"

"NO??" 

Skid stood with his mouth open and his hands either side of his head, his entire life was a lie.

But his disbelief didn't last long, as Skid came to another realisation. 

"So could I dye my hair?"

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"Are you sure about this, son..?" Skid shook his head vigorously in response. 

"Are you sure you want it neon green?" Lila questioned. "Because you could have it any other colour."

"Yup! I'm sure!" Skid was beaming and grinning from ear to ear.

"Well, you know.. just, it's a lot of effort when you'll probably just wear your costume over it anyways."

"Hmm.. you bring up a good point.." Skid appeared to be deep in thought, as Lila began to question if she'd convinced him not to dye his hair neon green. "I'll just have to not wear the mask for a bit! Ooh maybe I could make one which only covers my face and not my whole head.."

Lila sighed before she spoke, "Okay, okay.. you can dye it.. neon green.. but we'll have to bleach your hair first, and then you'll have to wait a day or two. Plus, now I've gotta go and get some dye.."

"Okay!!" Skid said as he went to sit down on the closed toilet, facing his body sideways so that his mother would have access to his head.

It wasn't that Lila was particularly against her son dyeing his hair, I mean, she did agree to it, and she of course loved to see him happy. But she guessed at times she was a little too conscious to the fact that she was a single mother, and bringing up her kid alone was hard. She hated it but she was all too aware of the opinions of others. She already knew that her son had been bullied before, and she didn't want for it to happen again. But, then again, she supposed that her son having his hair dyed was probably a lot better and a lot more tame than being chased by a sentient doll - with a knife, no less.

And so, Lila retrieved the bleach from the cupboard under the bathroom sink, placed a turquoise towel over her son's shoulders, and she got to work; as her son sat with his legs dangling over the edge of the seat, moving them side to side and hitting his feet together happily.