Work Text:
Bruce isn't fond of cutting his hair.
There's something unpleasant in the sound of hair giving in under the blades of the scissors, and the sight of it on the floor afterwards is weirdly disturbing.
He only does it because having long hair is even worse than having someone cut it.
For most of his adult life he's been going to the same barber every time he needed a haircut. The man knows what he likes and he's always fast and efficient, making the unpleasant visit as short as possible.
When Bruce and Clark are on a vacation, staying with the Kents for the whole summer, he complains about his hair getting too long and touching his neck and ears.
He could easily have Clark drop him in Gotham at his barber's doorstep, but before he can suggest that Martha offers to cut it for him.
She looks so excited, Bruce doesn't have a heart to refuse her.
That's how he finds himself on the Kents' back porch, the scent of apples and cinnamon coming from inside the house because Martha just put a pie in the oven.
He's sitting on a chair under a cape that's probably older than him, and Martha's holding a pair of scissors that may be even older.
“They may be old, but they're still razor sharp," she says, snapping the scissors a few times.
“Kinda like you, honey," Jonathan says with a smirk from the garden swing where he's sitting with Clark, drinking freshly made lemonade.
Martha turns around, hand on a hip.
“Don't make me walk to you and prove just that, mister" she warns, pointing her scissors at him.
Jonathan raises his palms in defeat, an awestruck expression on his face while their son watches the loving interaction with a big smile.
Bruce finds himself smiling too.
His barber never talks while he works.
Martha talks a lot.
She tells Bruce every gossip she heard in the last few weeks, talking about people Bruce never met or only met once when she and Jonathan sent him and Clark shopping to town.
Bruce doesn't know those people. Doesn't know the context of most situations, but he finds himself entertained and lost in Martha's voice as she tells a story of Mrs. Anderson’s cow that escaped and joined a herd of the local bison.
Martha needs to pause cutting his hair a couple of times because Bruce laughs and his body vibrates with laughter so much she's afraid she will cut his ear off accidentally or leave a bald patch in his hair.
She gets a good chuckle a few times too. Mostly when Jonathan says something and makes her laugh on purpose.
It's easy to tell where Clark got his sense of humor.
Despite those breaks, Bruce feels like haircutting took no time at all.
Before he knows it, Martha puts the scissors down and runs her palm through his hair to style it a little, and Bruce closes his eyes, leaning into her gentle, motherly touch.
“There, all done," she announces and takes her hand back to take the cape off him. “Clark, dear, can you bring Bruce the mirror?"
“Sure thing, Ma," Clark replies and vanishes into the house for a few minutes.
He returns with a hand mirror and two more glasses of lemonade. He hands one to Martha.
"Here you go, handsome,” he says with a smile when giving Bruce the mirror.
Bruce looks at his reflection, and he immediately notices his new hair cut looks a lot like Jonathan and Clark's.
It's nothing like the way his barber does it - it's uneven, it's messy.
It reminds him of the haircut his mom used to give him ever since his first visit to the hair salon ended with him crying so hard he almost passed out.
Bruce tries not to cry now.
“I love it," he tells Martha, who drags him down by a shoulder and kisses his cheek.
Bruce wraps his arm around her and pulls her into a hug.
“I'm glad you like it, honey," she says, brushing some hair clippings from his ear before pulling away. “When you get back to Gotham and start a trend with your new, dapper haircut, be sure to tell everyone where you got it.”
Bruce chuckles, briefly glancing at Clark when the other man steps beside him and slips his arm around his waist, handing him a tall glass of lemonade.
“I will," Bruce promises and takes a refreshing sip while leaning into his boyfriend’s side.
A few months later, when he needs another haircut, Bruce calls Martha and asks if she could give him another one.
She says yes, even right now.
Clark takes them to Smallville just five minutes later.