Atlas giggled, stumbling after Emrys. "K, first, I take my shirt off so that I don't accidentally dye it." Following his steps, he pulled off his shirt and threw it out of the bathroom. "And next, um do we have gloves? Like latex or whatever they are?" He asked, looking around the small bathroom.
"Yeah, they come with the thing. I'm doing the dying, so I get the gloves." He slipped them on with a smile, pulling out the rest of the stuff from the little container and tossing it to the side. "Now what? Do I pour it in or do I get your hair wet or what?"
Atlas looked at the container and everything that had been inside. Some dyes are different than others with different instructions than others. He scanned the instructions then turned to Emrys. "So, you mix these two," he grabbed two bottles and handed them to Em, "together and apply that first and we'll just go from there, yeah?"
Emrys watched him skim over the instructions, nodding thoughtfully and taking the instructions just to double-check. One of the downsides about being famous was the sheer amount of people waiting to laugh at your mistakes. "Okay, will do!" He mixed the two, shaking them up in the provided bottle and then urging Atlas to lean forward. "Alright, close your eyes."
"Close my eyes!? You sure you're not gonna blind me or make me bald or something?" Atlas asked a little concerned. He's, of course, never closed his eyes when he does it himself, but he's never closed his eyes in general.
"No! I've just never done this to someone else before, I don't want you to get hurt on accident." He kissed the back of Atlas' neck with a smile and the started pouring the solution into his hair, making sure he spread it evenly and didn't spill it too far down his neck or cheeks. "Also getting bleach in your eyes fucking sucks."
"Oh man I know, the first time I dyed my hair I got a tiny bit in my eyes, it was hell. And don't worry, I've had many problems doing this myself, so I think you'll be fine, even if you accidentally mess something up a bit." Atlas assured Emrys. He hoped they had enough time to do it all in one day, but if it all wasn't done today, they didn't have to worr about performing until night time.
Emrys laughed, brushing Atlas' hair away from his scalp to make sure he got the roots. "Yeah, the first time I dyed my hair I spilled it all over my face and it sucked, but I'll tell you from experience that it didn't make me any more immune to the effects of dye in my eyes. It just made me more purple." The dye boxes said to let things sit for half an hour, so they'd probably have time to get things done. "Alright, all bleached. What now?"
Atlas listened to Emrys' story, his eyes wide. "Ah that must have been so bad!" He felt Emrys remove his hands from his head, done with the bleach. "We just wait, I'm pretty sure. So what d'ya wanna do while we wait? I'd say let's lay down, but I'd rather not dye the hotel sheets and pillowcases." Atlas turned around to face Emrys, a smile on his lips.
Emrys laughed and kissed him sweetly. "Yeah, I don't think the hotel will be too pleased if we ruin all their bed dressing. It's not exactly a classy move." He plopped down on the toilet, using it as a makeshift seat. "Maybe we can just talk? I know we do it a lot but it's always nice to catch up and it's not like we've got anything better to do."
Atlas nodded, agreeing. He sat down on the edge of the tub, facing Emrys. "I love talking to you, honestly there's not ever a dull moment, even if we're talking about how well we slept or something. It's probably 'cause I love you much and you can't go wrong with being with your boyfriend. And speaking of boyfriend, are we gonna come out to everyone at the concert tomorow?"
Em smiled and reached over to take Atlas' hands, blushing slightly. "Well I love you too, and I think I agree. Talking with you is just… easy. Normally I get so nervous but with you my guard's always down and I feel comfortable enough to talk freely. It's really nice, and… um… I think we should check the internet first 'cause we kissed a lot at the aquarium. Someone probably saw us."
Atlas smiled as well, leaning to Emrys to plant a soft kiss on his lips. "Let's check it now then, yeah?" He was almost eager to see what people picked up and took a picture or video of. "Do you have your phone with you, I don't have mine. But if neither of us have ours then I can go get them."
Emrys kissed him back happily, laughing a little at his enthusiasm. "We're supposed to count this as a bad thing, you know." He pulled his phone out of his pocket and noticed, with some dismay, that he had about a thousand notifications. "And I… uh… I think the secret's definitely out. Just look at this." He unlocked his phone and passed it over, letting Atlas scroll through everything.
Atlas giggled, he was honestly too excited to tell everyone to count it as a bad thing. But he took Emrys' phone, his eyes going wide. "Well, shit. That's more than I thought… At this point, there's no reason to say anything, anyone not living under a rock would have seen this. Is there anything from management here?"
"Probably." He took his phone back scrolling through his text and wincing when, sure enough, a few from management appeared in the queue. He left them unread. "I'm just gonna pretend like I didn't see them. We've got an interview on a talk show tonight, should we come out publicly then? Just to make it official?"
Atlas winced at the thought of the messages, there probably many messages on his phone as well. "Oh yeah, I totally forgot about that interview, but that's the perfect time to make an official statement about it. Let's hope management doesn't beat us up behind the scenes afterward." He sighed, the fact that this was actually happening completely registering in his head. "Whatever happens, we'll get through it, together, k?"
"They're probably gonna beat us up beforehand too, but… yeah." He reached over to take Atlas' hand, setting his phone to the side for now. "We'll get through this together, and if management doesn't like it then fuck 'em because we're getting a new company as soon as this tour is done and there's nothing they can do about it."
Atlas nodded, lacing his and Emrys' fingers together. "Exactly, management hasn't got anything on us. Like they can't cancel the tour since we've already started it and they can't stop us from putting out music since we're leaving right after. This whole thing is like a big 'fuck you, management'." He leaned in and planted a soft kiss on Emrys' cheek.
Em laughed and some of the tension in his body seemed to ease at the reassurance. "Yeah." He took a deep breath and then kissed Atlas sweetly, smiling. "Management can't do shit except yell at us, and in two weeks we'll be off tour and they won't even be able to do that."
Atlas nodded, smiling. "I really wanna hug you, but I don't want to get bleach on your face, hair or shirt." He sighed, a dramatic frown on his lips. "How long has the bleach been in my hair? When is the talk show interview again?"
Emrys laughed softly and opened his arms for Atlas, pulling him into a warm hug. "Nah, fuck this shirt. It's old anyways, and my hair's not gonna get dyed just from exposure and I can wash my face." He squeezed Atlas tight, smiling. "Our interview's at 12. It's a late-night show. Aad you can wash out the bleach in a minute."
Atlas giggled and tightly wrapped his arms around his boyfriend, nuzzling his neck. "I'll stay here for a bit then wash out my hair. I like your hugs too much to not stay here for at least 5 minutes." He squeezed Emrys for a second. "I'm so glad it's late, plenty of time to show up with cotton candy on my head."
Emrys laughed and pulled him closer, kissing Atlas on the cheek. "Alright, then I guess I'm gonna be here for a while, aren't I?" He squeezed Atlas back, smile big and bright on his face. "And I wouldn't say it's exactly cotton candy colored. This shit is bright."
"Pink highlighter then? But yeah, you're gonna be here a while." At that point, Atlas was on Emrys' lap, unwilling to move. He pecked Em's neck, closing his eyes while doing so. "Oh man, we should take a nap after we wash out the pink dye. I just got tired."
Emrys laughed and spilled Atlas out of his lap after a few minutes, getting him settled with his head over the edge of the tub so he could rinse out the bleach. It seemed like it had taken without any horrible consequences, his hair was a nice off white color. "I'd love to fall asleep with you before the concert, now cover your eyes again. We've gotta add the pink stuff."
Atlas groaned dramatically when he was forced out of Emrys' lap. But he complied and helped rinse his hair. After drying it off with one of the towels, he took the hairdryer, turning to Em. "WAIT! Before we add the pink, let's dry my hair first. I'm not sure if it's true, but I always make sure my hair's dry before dying it again."
Emrys laughed but he nodded and kissed Atlas with a sweet smile. "Alright, alright, gimme that. I have two sisters and a mother who burns her self on everything, I know my way around a hairdryer better than most hairdressers." He got Atlas settled on the counter and started blowing out his hair. "How long d'you think the host'll wait before he asks if we're really gay?"
Atlas kissed him back, a smile on his lips. "I feel so pampered, no one's ever dyed my hair for me and stuff, I like it." He giggled and thought about what Emrys had said. "I'm not sure, if we make it slightly obvious right from the beginning, then they'll definitely ask sooner or later."
Em smiled and ran the blowdryer through his hair, pecking Atlas on the time. "Well I happen to like pampering you. You should let me do your nails some time. Oh! Or let me give you a face mask!" He snickered at Atlas' answer, nodding. "I bet they're gonna talk about your hair and be like 'big changes huh? well speaking of big changes, I heard you were gay now' and we're gonna have to fumble through it."
