Warnings: None

Word Count: 1356

Author's Note: Hey, everyone! I forgot to mention this in the last post, but I apologize if my posting schedule is a little wonky right now. School started up for me again this week and between adjusting to classes and commuting every day, my posting times end up being wildly inconsistent! And I'm not a huge fan of scheduling posts because I like to keep my timing the same across all platforms. I've also been struggling to find time and inspiration to write requests, so it may be awhile before I get to those! Anyway, thank you for your patience and enjoy chapter three! 💛

This was bad. Really bad. It needed to be fixed immediately, if that was even possible.

You leaned forward, twirling a strand of your now bright orange hair around your index finger. It was supposed to be a nice blonde color, but somewhere along the way something had gone terribly wrong. There was no way you would be able to go to work like this, your coworkers would never let you hear the end of it.

You stormed out of the bathroom, thankful that you had decided to do this on a weekend when Matthew was out of town. It had been a week since things between the two of you ended and you were still less than civil to one another. There was no way you would have been able to avoid his nasty comments. Besides, he had always said you would look dumb as a blonde, even when you were dating.

Your phone was still sitting on the coffee table where you had left it, so you snatched it up and began to search for ways to correct hair color. There had to be something you could do without leaving the apartment. You weren't sure that you would be able to handle all the stares that you would no doubt get in public with your current condition.

Twenty minutes of in-depth internet searching ending up yielding no usable results. You groaned and threw your phone down on the couch and rubbed your temples. All you needed was to find a way to get in and out of the grocery store without drawing too much attention to yourself. Ideas began to cycle through your mind, but none of them seemed doable.

That's when you spotted it: an oversized sweatshirt tossed into the corner. You ran over and grabbed it, pulling it over your head. As you walked to the bathroom, you pulled the hood over your head and cinched it around your head so that only your face was visible. Sure, it made you look a little bit dorky, but it was better than having strangers comment on your fluorescent hair.

You looked over yourself in the mirror, making sure that your hair was covered from every angle. Yes, this would do perfectly. Now all you needed to do was get to the grocery store, find a dark color to cover up your mistake, and re-dye it before Matthew got home tomorrow afternoon. How hard could that be?

Your odd outfit gained you a couple stares as you shuffled towards the back of the grocery store, but your mind was focused on one thing and one thing only.

You breathed a sigh of relief as you spotted the row full of hair dye. There were seemingly countless colors to choose from, and you weren't sure how you were going to decide. It had taken you long enough to decide to go blonde, and look how that had turned out.

You were looking over some dark brown options when you spotted someone round the corner at the end of the aisle. He was walking fairly quickly, so you hoped that he would continue right past you and not give you a second glance. Unfortunately for you, he came to a stop a few feet away from you and began to look over some of the brightly colored options. At least he hadn't commented on your weird outfit.

You decided a glance at the stranger wouldn't hurt, so you discreetly turned your head so that you could better see him out of the corner of your eye. Your heart skipped a beat as soon you laid eyes on him and for a moment you stumbled from your carefully balanced squatting position.

A beautifully colored tattoo sleeve covered the arm closest to you, ending right at his wrist. Your eyes moved further up to his face, which was covered in light stubble. His brown eyes were just barely visible as they roamed over the color options. Brightly colored strands of hair, some of which were hanging over his face, stood up at all angles with dark brown roots just starting to show. You were pretty sure that you hadn't ever seen someone so beautiful before.

He started to reach for something, causing you to quickly redirect your attention back to the boxes of hair dye in front of you as if you hadn't just been admiring him. Your cheeks were burning from embarrassment, despite him not so much as looking towards you.

"The fact that you have a hood cinched around your head and you're in the hair dye aisle concerns me," he said suddenly, laughter just barely detectable in his tone.

You turned towards him, only to realize that he was looking at you. He had grabbed his own box of red hair dye and was holding it between his hands. His mouth was turned up into the slightest hint of a smirk.

"It's a long story," you smiled, standing back up to your full height.

"I've got a fair amount of experience with dying hair, if you want some help," he said. It seemed like a genuine offer.

"Well," you sighed, taking a glance over your shoulder. Once you realized that it was just the two of you in the aisle, you reached up and pulled down your hood. "How do I fix this?"

The man's eyes went wide for a moment before he began to laugh. He brought a hand up to cover his mouth, "I'm really sorry, I shouldn't be laughing, but-wow-yeah, that's definitely something."

"Tell me about it," you grinned.

"Ok, let's see," he said, walking over closer to you. "You were definitely on the right track with a darker color."

The two of you looked over the hair dyes together, grabbing random colors and asking for the other's opinion. You eventually settled on a dark brunette color. Oddly enough, it wasn't too far off from the color of the man's roots.

"Are you going to be able to handle that?" he laughed.

You rolled your eyes at him, "I actually dye my hair pretty frequently, thank you very much. It just so happens that today went very poorly."

"I can see that," he smiled.

You pulled your hood up and tied it once again, hiding your terribly dyed hair from view. The man watched as you did so, laughing a little bit. You were sad that the two of you would have to part ways so soon, your few minutes together were the happiest you had felt since the breakup.

"Well, I suppose this is where we part ways," you sighed.

"You know, I could give you my number, if you wanted it. I wouldn't want you to get stuck in another hair dye emergency and not have anyone to turn to."

"I would like that," you smiled. "Who knows, if my second dye job goes as badly as my first, I'm definitely going to need the help."

You pulled out your phone and opened the contacts app before handing your phone off to him. He quickly typed in his information before passing it back to you.

"Josh Dun," you read out loud.

"That's me," he said, holding his arms out.

"I'm Y/N," you said as you sent him a text.

He pulled his phone out just as it dinged. This caused him to smile.

"It was nice to meet you, Y/N."

"You too, Josh. And thank you for all the help."

"It was no problem. If there's one thing I know a lot about, it's hair dye."

"I wish I could say the same," you laughed.

"You'll get there."

You rolled your eyes again, but smiled nonetheless.

"So, I'll see you around?" you asked, starting to walk backwards.

"Definitely."

You threw up your hand in a half-wave before turning on your heel and walking back down the aisle. It was hard not to let a smile take over your face. After spending the last week feeling absolutely miserable, it was nice to finally feel like something was going your way, even if your hair still looked like a mess.