Promises, Promises

five. super cliche trope

There was a small knock on the bedroom door, causing Iris to stir slightly. Another small knock was heard. Iris groaned in response, letting the person know she was still half asleep and most likely going to go back to sleep.

They opened the door anyway.

"Good morning, Iris!" Ruby greeted cheerfully, taking a step into the room and closing the door behind her.

Iris squeezed her eyes tight for a moment before sitting up, rubbing her eyes. She squinted, glancing around the room she was in.

Oh. Right.

She looked ahead, finding Ruby staring at her. Ruby's cheeks were puffed up like a chipmunk and she was biting her lip before she couldn't hold in her laughter any longer.

Iris raised a brow at the strange reaction, "Uh, what happened?" She murmured, yawning softly.

"Your hair." Ruby answered, still giggling to herself.

Iris reached her hand up to her hair, finding it was sticking out from different places. She had put it up in a bun last night but from Ruby's perspective it probably looked like a melting ice cream cone.

Iris sighed softly, undoing her bun and taking her hair tie out of her hair. She put it back on her wrist as she began to pat down her untamed waves.

"I can braid it for you." Ruby said with a small smile, walking further into the room.

"You can braid?" Iris asked, finding the young girl's knowledge to be slightly unbelievable.

"Mhmm. My mom taught me!" Ruby grinned with pride, playing with her own pigtails that she must've done herself. They looked pretty neat too.

"Wow..that's actually good for you." Iris muttered, unsure if Ruby was able to hear.

It was quite surprising to hear that. At Ruby's age, Iris didn't care about her hair or what to do with it. She just played with her toys, ate her applesauce, and talked about cooties. Part of her always thought it was because her mom wasn't around then. If she was, maybe she would've known more feminine things at Ruby's age.

"One braid or two?" Ruby asked, walking over and sitting on the edge of Iris' bed. She ran her fingers along the fuzzy blanket and smiled to herself.

"Two is good." Iris said, watching Ruby fiddle with her blanket.

Then she turned around, giving Ruby access to her frizzy hair. The young girl ran her fingers through it, undoing any small knots along the way. As Ruby braided her hair, Iris looked ahead at the wall.

She half-expected to wake up from this nightmare but now she knew that this was it. This was reality. And she'd have to figure out how to live with it.

There was another knock on Iris' door that took her from her thoughts. She couldn't hear anyone on the other side so she couldn't tell who it was.

"Come in!" Iris called out to them, clearing her throat from the hoarseness of just waking up.

The person took their time to open the door. They seemed to hesitate from the other side. When the door swung open, Iris assumed it was because they didn't want to come in here.

Oliver stood in the doorway, glancing around the undone room before his eyes landed on the two girls in Iris' bed. He looked to his sister first, watching her braid Iris' wavy hair. Then he looked up, meeting his dark brown eyes to her hazel ones.

"Uh morning.." Oliver greeted awkwardly.

As soon as Ruby heard his voice, she perked up and looked over at her older brother with a wide smile.