Lightyears Away- The braid scene

She was sitting at the edge of the bed with her legs splayed out to her side, with her hands behind her head and her yellow bow between her teeth. Her hat was placed in front of her and a Barbie brush sat in her lap. Her lovely red yarn hair hung loosely down her back.

Buzz walked over to her. “Mind if I join you?”

Jessie shook her head and patted the space next to her. He sat down with his legs dangling off the edge of the bed. She took the untied ribbon out of her mouth and handed it to Buzz. “My hair’s come all undone in the rowdiness,” she explained.

He nodded. “You do throw a wild party.”

She laughed. “Could you give me a hand with my braid?”

“Uh, sure.” He slid behind her and took her hair into his hands, twirling some strands of yarn in between his fingers.

Jessie looked down and fidgeted with her hands.

“What am I saying? I don’t know how to do this,” he said, laughing.

Jessie giggled. “What’s the matter? They don’t teach you how to braid in the space academy?” she asked teasingly as she turned her head to look at him.

“No, I must have been absent from class that day,” he answered, smiling his wide, sparkly smile.

“Well, that’s okay.” She picked up the Barbie brush and proceeded to pull it through her loose hair. “I’ll just fix it later.” She frowned when the brush got stuck in her tangled hair and tugged on it harder. “I guess my hair’s too thick for these cheap plastic brushes,” she grumbled.

“Here, let me,” Buzz said, gently pulling the brush out of her hair. He handed it to her and she threw it on the floor. He raised his hands up to her head, then hesitated. “May I?” he asked.

“Sure,” she smiled. “Have at it, if you’re brave enough.”

Buzz gathered her soft yarn hair into his hands and lightly combed his fingers through. “You know I saw what you did for Slink,” he began. “That was really sweet of you.”

Jessie shrugged her shoulders. “No critter’s gonna be left out so long as I’m here,” she said.

Buzz’s long plastic fingers worked much better on her hair than the tiny brush and he had the tangles out in no time. “There, you’re all set.”

She smiled, slightly disappointed that he was done so fast. “Thank you.” She put her hands behind her head and proceeded to twist her hair back into a braid. “How am I doing?” she asked.

“Much better than me,” he answered seriously.

“Could you tie the bow for me?” she asked a little timidly.

He picked the ribbon up and moved her hands out of the way. “Now that I can do.” He was pleased to find that even though his heart still pounded at the mere sight of her, it was becoming much easier to talk to her. He wasn’t even surprised that he was actually able to tie the bow for her.

She whirled around. “How does that look?”

He nodded his head. “Perfect.”

She scooted closer to him. “So… “ she began a little awkwardly.

Uh-oh, he thought nervously. Now that he was done helping her with her hair, he didn’t really know what to say.


From Lightyears Away, a Toy Story fanfic by Jennnifer Collins