Chapter Text
Kozi was early. This was not normal behavior, as his habit was to show up at least ten minutes late for band practice every time, regardless of how important it was. This had been his custom for the past several years, and this strange break in his late streak immediately set Mana off as he walked through the door.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, the irritation evident in his voice. “You’re supposed to be the late one.”
“I can’t be the early one?” Kozi retorted playfully, rising up from the chair he had been sitting in and producing a small paper bag from behind his back.
“I made you a present,” he continued, gesturing to the bag, barely able to hide the devious smile on his face.
“What did you do this time?” Mana asked with narrowed eyes, clearly not amused by this entire charade. Kozi regularly attempted some type of half-hearted apology after screwing something up, and Mana was in no mood for it.
“Nothing!” Kozi said with a laugh, attempting to lighten the mood just a tad. “I can’t be nice once in a while?”
“This is highly suspicious,” Mana remarked, watching Kozi open the paper bag with a wary gaze. The other guitarist produced several delectable looking brownies, individually wrapped in plastic with large smiley faces drawn on them. Mana didn’t get a chance to make a snide comment as he immediately found one of the brownies flying towards his face, pelting him in the nose and tumbling down onto his chest. He grabbed at it reflexively to catch it, making sure to glare at Kozi the entire time.
“What do you want me to do with this thing?” Mana asked rudely, pretending not to understand the concept of delicious desserts or their consumption. Kozi merely rolled his eyes as he began to unwrap a brownie for himself, discarding the plastic wrap onto the studio floor (much to Mana’s dismay) and shoving half the dessert into his mouth at once.
“You’re supposed to eat it!” He said through a mouthful of chocolate deliciousness, earning an overly dramatic eye roll from the other guitarist. Reluctantly, Mana began to delicately peel away the plastic wrap surrounding his slightly crushed brownie, making sure to set an example by throwing the plastic in the garbage before taking a single dainty bite out of the chocolate sweet.
“This tastes a little strange,” Mana remarked with a raised eyebrow. Despite the strangeness he took several more bites, waiting for Kozi to reply when he had finally swallowed what was in his mouth.
“Hey, I don’t know how to bake,” Kozi said defensively, feigning hurt. “I’m trying my best here!”
Mana scoffed and continued to chew, finishing the brownie a few moments later. As Mana downed the final bite, Kozi began to smile, obviously attempting to hold back his laughter. Mana chose to ignore his odd behavior and sauntered off down the hall. Kozi assumed he was going to unpack his things and prepare for band practice but he couldn’t have been sure. After all, he had never been this early before and wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself.
He simply grinned at his own genius and sat back in his chair, watching the seconds tick by on the wall clock with anticipation. After he’d watched the little hand make it halfway around the clockface, Mana came stumbling into the room, his hand lingering on the wall for support.
“I feel funny,” he said, his voice sounding much less crisp than usual. “What have you done to me?”
“Do you know what day it is?” Kozi asked, cocking his head to the side. What was normally an insignificant movement seemed to increase in intensity a hundred times as he began to feel the effects of his special brownies.
“It’s the 20th,” Mana replied, annoyance and mild confusion evident in his tone of voice. “April 20th.”
“And?”
“Um…”
Both of them ceased to speak at that point, Mana watching the ceiling tiles with increased concentration as he slowly slid down the wall and landed on the carpet. Kozi watched him and burst into laughter, nearly falling out of his chair in the process.
“Am I dying?” Mana asked with a whimper, turning his head slowly towards Kozi. His band mate was now slumped over in his chair, staring intently at the floor and nodding as if they had some mutual understanding.
“Oh, you’re not dying,” Kozi responded with a laugh after a brief pause. He then proceeded to continue his staring contest with the textured carpet.
“Kozi, I’m going into the light!” Mana cried out with fear as he stared stupidly into a light fixture. Kozi responded by bursting out into a fit of hysterical laughter as he finally rose from his chair, covering the distance between them and reaching down to pull Mana off the floor.
“You’re going to be fine,” he said reassuringly, guiding Mana to an empty chair and gently placing him in it. “Just wait until everyone else gets here.”
“Skeet skeet mothafuckas,” Klaha said loudly and inappropriately as he burst into the studio office with a huge blunt hanging out of his mouth. A large clock was taped to his black t-shirt, his face adorned with comically large sunglasses.
“I see you already got the party started,” he remarked with a head nod towards Mana, who was currently staring up at the ceiling tiles with glazed eyes and a wide smile on his face.
“So did you,” Kozi answered just as Klaha blew a massive puff of smoke into his face. “I appreciate that, thank you.”
“Where’s that lame one?” Klaha continued, sitting down next to the still oblivious Mana. “I want to get some tacos up in this bitch.”
On cue, Yu~ki burst through the door, clearly flustered and in a rush. Lateness wasn’t usually his custom, but something had seemed off about today from the start. His suspicions were confirmed when he noticed the state of the studio and the obvious lack of any work being done. Not to mention the horrible smell of marijuana smoke that permeated the room.
“What are you guys… doing… today?” he asked slowly, taking in the sight of his three band mates all seated in little chairs next to each other, staring at him (or at nothing at all) with wide grins and half lidded eyes.
“Celebrating this world wide holiday,” Klaha answered simply as he exhaled once more, causing Yu~ki to cover his mouth and cough more dramatically than was necessary.
“Um, did I, uh,” Mana began suddenly, a look of urgency on his face. Yu~ki frowned in disapproval, as he was sure Mana never would have joined in on this plan of his own free will. He shot a critical glance at Kozi, who merely smirked back at him while they waited patiently for Mana to collect his thoughts.
“Did I hear something about tacos?” he finally finished, quickly glancing back and forth between Klaha and Yu~ki. “Was one of you going to get tacos? Because I’m starving.”
“Yeah, Yu~ki’s going to get some tacos,” Klaha answered before Yu~ki could utter a word of protest. “He has the sweet hookups at the taco store.”
“No! I’m not going - ”
“Take me to the taco store, Taco Man!” Mana screeched, suddenly rising from his chair and violently grabbing Yu~ki by the shoulders. “I need tacos! I need them now!”
“I don’t want to go!” Yu~ki said, taking several steps back as Kozi pulled Mana back down into his seat. He then began to sway back and forth to music only he could hear.
“I have a wonderful idea,” Mana continued, his swaying intensifying. Kozi smiled and nodded, urging Mana to continue talking it out while he waved a dismissive hand towards Yu~ki, indicating he should have been at the taco store five minutes ago.
“Get the fuck out of here Yu~ki,” Klaha burst out in frustration, vocalizing what Kozi wasn’t going to say.
“No!” Yu~ki suddenly cried out in defiance, which was very unlike him. “I want to be part of something! I want to hang out with you guys! I don’t want to be the taco boy anymore!”
“If that’s the case,” Klaha began, tipping his sunglasses so he could make eye contact with the bassist, “you have to hit this.” Klaha handed his still-burning blunt to Yu~ki, who seemed perplexed.
“You don’t have authority over me, newbie,” he retorted, scrunching his nose up in disgust as smoke lazily made its way to into his nose and eyes. “Only Mana can tell me - ”
“He says you have to smoke the blunt or he’s gunna beat your ass silly,” Kozi interrupted in Mana’s stead. The latter was still swaying to his own music, his eyes closed, giving absolutely no indication he had spoken to Kozi at all.
“You can’t just make stuff up, Kozi,” Yu~ki continued. Klaha watched with apprehension as the blunt continued to burn, unsmoked.
“I didn’t,” Kozi continued slyly. “We can communicate telepathically. I hear his thoughts. Right now he thinks you’re being a little bitch.”
“I am absolutely not a bitch!” Yu~ki protested, not even questioning Kozi’s bizarre and most likely false explanation. He brought the blunt to his lips and inhaled deeply – too deeply for his first time, Kozi thought.
“Sure,” Kozi chuckled, watching Yu~ki sputter and choke as the harsh smoke filled his lungs. Klaha laughed heartily, quickly snatching the blunt from the bassist to take a few more hits before handing it back.
“Am I - “ Yu~ki hacked away. “Am I cool now? We chill? …Dudes?”
“Eat this,” Kozi said, throwing one of the plastic wrapped brownies at Yu~ki. Klaha snatched the other one from Kozi’s hand before he had a chance to offer.
“Oh, and afterward,” Kozi said, a look of intense concentration on his face as he pretended to use his ESP, “please get tacos delivered.”
Mana awoke sluggishly, taking in the dark studio from where he had been lying on the couch. It turned out he wasn’t the only one who chose this place for a nap, as Kozi was lying unconscious beneath him, one of his arms draped around Mana’s back. He pushed the offending appendage off with mild disgust as he rose, confused when his bare feet touched the carpet and several crinkled taco wrappers; apparently, he decided he didn’t need shoes today, just as someone else had decided they didn’t need a trash receptacle.
“Kozi,” he said plainly, shaking his bandmate by the shoulder to rouse him. The first bout didn’t seem to do any good, so Mana opted for the quick-start method: an open-handed slap across the face.
“I wish you would stop doing that,” Kozi mumbled, rubbing the store spot on his cheek as he sat up. His face fell when he noticed the general state of the room, realizing in an instant that he was going to be blamed for all this.
To be fair, it was entirely his fault.
“I think you have some explaining to do,” Mana began coldly, hands on his hips as he stood over a meek looking Kozi. The other guitarist scanned the room, noting that they were alone – a perfect opportunity to pass the blame.
“See, Klaha thought - ”
“It was the weed!” Klaha screamed, bursting into the room. The clock he had taped to his shirt had apparently ripped a hole in it, and one nipple stood out proudly amongst the black fabric.
“What?” Mana asked, one eye twitching in disgust as he eyed Klaha’s exposed nub of flesh.
“Kozi fed you weed brownies,” Yu~ki weakly interjected, only the top of his head visible behind the doorframe he hid behind. Mana shot an ice-cold look of rage in Kozi’s direction before Yu~ki continued.
“He’s trying to blame it on us, even after I ordered taco delivery,” Yu~ki continued, more than a hint of irritation evident in his voice. Kozi shrugged in response.
“It’s entirely his fault!” Klaha affirmed, dramatically pointing an accusing finger in Kozi’s direction. “He forced me to come in here, like a derelict rap star, smoking… the marijuanas.” Klaha delicately whispered the last word so as not to offend Mana’s delicate sensibilities.
“Alright, listen,” Mana began, addressing Kozi at first. Klaha and Yu~ki took this as their opportunity to escape, but were quickly stopped in their tracks by one of Mana’s icy death-glares.
“Do you have any sense of responsibility? Any of you?” Mana continued disdainfully. “Do you know what day it is?”
“Yeah,” Kozi said with a laugh, “It’s 4/20.”
“I would strangle you right here if I didn’t need - ” Mana said with clenched fists, stopping himself before he could accidentally give Kozi a compliment in the middle of his reprimanding. “Yes, it is April 20th. We have a deadline in three days. We spent this entire day unproductively. Now, you’ll make up for it.”
“B-but it’s home time…” Klaha said innocently, pointing to the clock on the wall that read 6:00 PM.
“There’s no ‘home time’ now!” Mana spat, stamping one bare foot on the carpet, his fists clenched. Klaha and Yu~ki looked on in fear.
“Now, get to work,” Mana commanded coldly, shooing them both out the door with a dismissive wave of his hand. The others complied, hurrying to their respective spaces to practice.
Only Kozi remained, though he now stood next to the small table in the centre of the room, organizing a pile of papers while remaining completely unaffected by Mana’s current control-freak attitude.
“I thought you were apologizing for something this morning,” Mana remarked, turning to face his bandmate in the half-lit break room, “but now, you’re really going to have to make it up to me.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got it right here,” Kozi replied with a smirk, gesturing to the stack of pages he held. He thrust them out towards Mana, who took them hastily and without interest.
“What, more eyeball doodles?” He said snidely. It was when he looked down at the notation on the pages that he realized what he was looking at: not just sheets of paper, but music, penned in all too familiar colours.
“This is - ”
“Your masterpiece from this afternoon,” Kozi interrupted, smirking at his own dramatics. Mana didn’t catch his display, as his eyes were busy roving over the score, clearly impressed with his stoned self.
“You’re welcome,” Kozi said, grinning. He clapped the still stunned Mana on the shoulder as he passed, shutting the door behind him.