⌈ ♡ ⌋ @solitaeres, kinsey oliver .
❛ wait . . . are you braiding my hair ? ❜
lost count of the days the minute she’d woken up in their hell on earth . time felt unreal, seconds merged to minutes merged to hours ; neither of them had a clue how long they’d been there . and though filled with so much sunlight mallory began to wonder if they’d ever get out . sour a thought it is, she’d’ve lost her mind by now were kinsey not by her side . but even then, this was not the kinsey that she knew, just as mallory had not been herself . shells, a distant echo, stripped of everything that made them them and turned to numb nothingness .
fingers are gentle in the other’s hair, head in her lap, carefully brushing out all of the knots and tangles that had begun to form on her head . upkeep they’d forgotten about, with so much time to do nothing and a man ill - prepared . . . she could barely remember how it felt to stand under a working showerhead . head shakes thoughts from consciousness, focusing instead on the task at hand . a memory she shifts into as she shuts her eyes : the warmth of her childhood bedroom, her mother’s soothing hand lulling her to sleep providing safety . chest aches, her yearning for home grows stronger .
something they’d done a hundred times over in the past, in the middle of make overs and bored, can’t - fall - asleep nights in the treehouse . harder to work at an angle : she didn’t think such a menial thing required an exertion of kinsey’s limited energy . a french braid, taught to mallory by her older cousin one summer years ago ( so proud once she’d finally learned, she couldn’t wait to share that knowledge with kinsey ), hands twist strands around one another, careful not to pull too tight . words break the silence, causes a twitch to mallory’s arm and a jump in her heart .
❝ mhm ❞ mallory’s head nods, despite kinsey being faced away from her . response is soft as hands lift and hover above the crown of her head . she knew what it was like to feel dirty, beyond what scrubbing could wash off she should have asked before she’d begun . ❝ . . . is that okay ? ❞