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Deniss stood in front of his window, watching the stormy clouds outside and hearing the rain patter gently against the roof and windows. Rainy days in Champéry weren’t uncommon in the spring, but of course, even though he loved the spring, it didn’t mean they were Deniss’ favorite days. He preferred sunny days, being able to go out on a nice walk amongst nature and feel the fresh air and warm rays of sun on his skin. On the contrary, today was dark and gloomy, the skies filled with clouds that made the sunshine feel almost nonexistent. He sighed, walking away from his bedroom window and walking towards his closet, picking out a comfortable outfit, seeing he’d be staying home all day. Perhaps breakfast would lift his spirits a bit. Heading downstairs, he noticed Stéphane sitting at the table, having some coffee and reading a book, the light dimming and brightening across his hair as clouds were pushed around by the wind. The dark haired man looked up from his book, feeling the other one’s presence near him.
“Good morning, Deniss,” he smiled softly, “how’d you sleep?”
“I slept fine,” he shrugged, “just not so happy about today being rainy and cloudy. I really wanted to spend some time outside today.”
“That’s ok, there’s plenty of things we can do inside” he offered an encouraging smile, trying to cheer up the younger one.
“Yeah, I guess so,” he smiled, sighing softly as he ran his fingers through his long blonde hair, “I’m just not sure what to do.”
Stéphane looked at him, then back down at his book, raising his eyebrow a little as if he were thinking about something. “I have an idea,” he got up slowly, closing his book and putting it away on the shelf as he headed into the kitchen. He opened a drawer and pulled out a recipe book. Flipping through it, he found what he wanted, putting his finger on the page he said, “Aha! There it is.” He smiled.
“What is it?”
“I have the perfect plan for today,” he turned the recipe book around to show Deniss, “we’re making some fresh bread, what do you think?”
“Sure, that sounds nice.” He turned to go grab his Latvia apron from where it was hanging, when he stopped in his tracks. “Wait, first I need coffee.”
“Of course,” he laughed, “let’s make your coffee first.”
A couple minutes later, and after some arguing about which was the best way to make coffee, they were ready to start making the bread. The materials were out and after mixing and kneading for a bit, the dough was ready. Stéphane took the dough and started forming some strands with it, twisting them into a braid.
“What are you doing?” Deniss asked curiously, turning his head to the side.
“I’m forming it into a braid first, so then we can let it rest for a bit and finally bake it.”
“But why a braid?”
“Well… because it’s more fun!”
“Alright,” Deniss was pleased with that answer, it’s always nice to have fun with what you do, “it also looks really good.” Deniss smiled at him.
“Thank you.” He finished wrapping the ends together and placing the braid in the baking tin. He covered it with a clean kitchen cloth and set a timer for it to rest before baking. As he turned around from the kitchen counter he found himself face to face with Deniss, a questioning expression on his face.
“Where’d you learn how to do that?” he asked, pointing to the bread.
“My sister taught me, I used to practice on her hair sometimes, for fun.”
“That’s so nice. I wish I knew how to do more fun things with my hair.” He grabbed at the loose strands falling by his shoulders, feeling a little defeated that after all this time, he still hadn’t mastered any hairstyle other than the ponytail and the occasional “man bun”.
“Well, you can always ask me to do a fun hairstyle.” He offered, noticing Deniss’ look of disappointment with himself.
“Really?” he looked up with excitement, a smile beaming on his face.
“Of course!” how could he refuse when the younger one looked so happy about it. “Anytime you want.”
“Well, how about now?”
Stéphane shrugged, “Sure! Why not?” He walked over to the couch and sat in the middle, patting down the space in front of him, signaling for Deniss to sit on the floor in front of him. Deniss walked over and sat with his legs crossed on the floor between Stéphane’s, making it easier for the older one to reach his hair. He started running his hands through it, brushing through the few knots that had gathered in it. Deniss relaxed into his touch, leaning back slightly into his gentle hands. The sound of the rain falling softly outside filled the silence of the room, and even if Deniss didn’t love the rain so much, he did love the calm sound it made.
“I’ll try to be as careful as possible not to pull your hair, but let me know if it hurts at all.”
“Okay,” he nodded softly, not wanting to move his head too much and disrupt the soft brushing. He thought it was so caring of Stéphane to first of all, do this for him, and secondly to worry about not hurting him.
After a couple minutes of running his hands through the soft locks, he started splitting the hair into three different sections. He alternated each strand towards the middle, creating a beautiful braid.
“Do you have a hair tie with you?” he asked. Deniss lifted his hand, where he always kept one on his wrist, Stéphane took it and tied the braid, admiring his work. “There you go” he gave him a pat on the shoulder, his hand lingering on it for a bit after.
Deniss turned his head around (as much as possible given that Stéphane was directly behind him) and gave his coach a grateful look before getting up and walking over to the mirror by the door, “Wow! I’ve never had such a hairstyle before.” He looked at his reflection, turning his head at different angles to admire the work, “I think it looks really nice,” he added, pushing his shoulders back excitedly.
“I think you look beautiful,” a soft voice was heard behind him, getting closer until he saw his reflection in the mirror as well, “it’s just missing something…” he glanced thoughtfully towards his hair, subconsciously tucking in some loose strands behind his ear.
“Hm?” Deniss turned slowly, giving him a curious look. And it wasn’t just because he said something was missing, he definitely heard Stéphane call him beautiful a second ago.
Stéphane met his eyes for a second, but then Deniss saw him look down. He was still looking at his face, but no longer at his eyes, it was lower than that. He saw Stéphane’s eyebrows go up in a small surprised expression, a small smile appearing on his face. He lifted his hand and picked an eyelash from Deniss’ cheek.
“Make a wish and blow on it.” He held it up close to the younger one’s face. Deniss shrugged and did as he was told. Stéphane was about to ask what the wish was, when the kitchen timer rang, it was time to place the bread in the oven. Removing the kitchen cloth, he took one more look at the bread to make sure it was alright, and then grabbed the tin and placed it in the oven, grabbing a small kitchen timer they had on the counter and setting it to 40 minutes.
“Alright, now we just have to wait for it to bake.” he walked back over to Deniss, who was still standing by the mirror, looking at his hairstyle. Stéphane really did think he looked beautiful. He didn’t even notice he was staring until he noticed a ray of sunshine hit the side of Deniss’ face. He turned towards the window and noticed the wind blowing hard against the trees. The storm was moving away now, letting rays of sunshine appear here and there.
Stéphane walked over behind Deniss, grabbing him by the shoulders and looking at him through the mirror, “It looks like the storm is going away now.” He turned to the window, Deniss following his gaze to the outside.
A smile slowly grew on Deniss’ face, “This is great! I guess this means we can go outside!”
“Sure, I guess we can,” Stéphane smiled back at him, then thought about it for a second, “You just have to put your coat on because it’s so windy I don’t want you to catch a cold.”
“Ok, ok, fine.” He rolled his eyes playfully, then walked over to the front door and grabbed both their coats.
They went outside, a light drizzle still falling. Stéphane clutched onto his jacket a little tighter, feeling a cold breeze pass by, moving his hair softly. They sat on some steps outside, watching the clouds move away and the sun come out more and more as time went by. After just a couple minutes, the storm was gone, and the warmth of the sun caressed their faces.
“I’m so happy it finally stopped raining,” Deniss smiled, turning to look at Stéphane. The way the sun hit his face made him look even more handsome than usual, which is something Deniss would never admit to anyone else.
“I’m happy that you’re happy, mon chéri.” He smiled back at the younger one, their eyes locking. He noticed a glimmer of something in Deniss’ eyes as he said that, but thought it might’ve been his imagination. “Hey um, remember I said something was missing? With your hair, I mean.”
“Oh yeah, what was that all about?”
“One second,” he stood up and walked over to a small patch of flowers that was in their front garden, he picked out a couple small colorful ones and walked back to Deniss, “I thought you could use some color, it’ll look nice.” He took the flowers from his hand, and one by one, carefully placed them amongst his student’s soft braided hair.
“There, now it’s perfect.” he smiled, looking from his hair, down towards his eyes.
“Stéph?” he looked up to meet his eyes, “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course, anything.”
“Did you really mean it when you said that I look beautiful?” He looked down, a bit embarrassed about his question and scared for what the answer might be.
He felt soft hands lift his chin up so their eyes met, “Of course I meant it, mon amour.” He ran his thumb across his cheek, caressing it softly. “Why are you asking me this?”
He noticed how Deniss’ face turned pink, a deep blush on his cheeks. “I’ve noticed you’ve been staring at me these past weeks… and I was wondering if there was something else behind that.”
Now it was Stéphane’s turn to blush. He looked down for a second, then met his eyes again, he noticed the way the sun was hitting his hair, making it look almost golden. “Well, yes… but I never found the way to say it.”
“It’s ok, you don’t have to say it.” he looked at him lovingly, “I think I already know.”
They smiled at each other, when they heard the kitchen timer ringing. “Oh, we better go get that. Don’t want it to burn.”
They walked inside, Stéphane got some oven mittens and took out the baking tin, the bread looking almost golden, just like Deniss’ hair did outside.
He got them both a piece and they headed outside to eat their bread under the warmth of the sun. They sat side by side, eating quietly and just enjoying each other’s presence.
“What’d you wish for?” Stéphane turned to look at his student.
“I wished that it’d stop raining, but this is even better.” He looked over at the older man.
“What do you mean?”
“I love being here with you.”
Stéphane leaned his head onto Deniss’ shoulder and closed his eyes, he felt happy and at peace. The birds chirped softly among the trees, the sun’s warm rays fell onto their skin, and now Deniss knew that not all rainy days were days that were wasted.