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“How comes I’m the only ones who didn’t knows abouts kitty whiskers Mondays!”
Toki cried. The band stood there shrugging with blank whisker-covered faces, trying not to smirk.
The truth is they were hanging around the Haus bored out of their minds and had decided to prank Toki. Maybe prank wasn’t the right word, mess with him. The kid was so reactive and hyperactive, sometimes it was just really funny to see him get worked up. And after all, Nathan, Skwisgaar, Pickles and Toki had all had their fun messing with Murderface last week, hiding his civil war memorabilia and changing the password to his planet piss website (the only one he finally managed to register a domain name to, Ϸlanet Ҏizz.) He threw such a tantrum, screaming at the top of his lungs, forcing himself to puke baked beans into the hot tub, generally whining all week, that Nathan, Skwisgaar and Pickles decided to give messing with Murderface a rest and pick on Toki a little. The brat had it coming anyway, sucker punching them all when he had too much caffeine or just wanted attention. Messing with each other was just something the boys did to keep each other on their toes creatively and make sure none of them got too big of a head. Murderface and Toki, being the laziest members, for some reason seemed to need to be put in their place the most, but they had all had their turn. Every once in a while they would get drunk and ornery and four of them would gang up on one and threaten to kick someone out of the band. Every one of them had been in the hotseat. Most of the time it really wasn’t that serious. If it was, Charles or even band therapist Twinkletits would get involved and things would work themselves out after everybody in the band felt heard/wore themselves out with enough tantrums. It wasn’t a perfect group dynamic but hey, they had all dedicated their lives to brutality, how else were they supposed to bond except to prank/bully eachother?
“Ams nice of us to even thinks to makes fun of him!” reasoned Skwisgaar when they were planning their “prank.” “I don’t know guys, I mean, kitty whiskers? Do we have to? I mean, is it really metal to wear cutesy makeup on purpose, I guess that’s what I’m getting at…” Nathan mused. “Now hold on Nat’en. You know this cutesy stuff is really important to Toki. I see him drawing animals and playing with cats and…well the other day he admitted to me that his favorite KISS member is Peter Criss! Just think of how much thought we put into this prank! It’ll mean so much to Toki when we just…just exclude him from something he’d be so into! Just think of the brutality of how much this will crush him! It’ll be so funny!” Pickles rambled. “Thatch such a dick move, and you schould all be aschamed of yourschelfs! I approve!” Murderface added, never one to turn down a cruel idea that sucked in every way possible. He was the one that brought the most brutality to the band after all. The other four always had to hand it to Murderface, he took being a dick to a whole new level. “Okay, when you put it that way…” Nathan answered. He was convinced. Tomorrow at breakfast they would all don their whisker makeup together and act like it was a special invitation only event in front of Toki.
Later that evening, after a day of having fun at Toki’s expense, Toki was sulking in his room, brooding angrily. Pickles knocked on the door softly. He was accompanied by Skwisgaar. “Hey Toki, can we come in?” “Fucks off! Leave me alone dildos!” Toki answered. “Hey, Toki, we ams having ice creams out here!” Skwisgaar tried his best to be persuasive. “That’s right!” Pickles added. “Sugar Free chocolate ice cream flown in specially from Peru! Come ahn!” Toki cracked his door open, letting them enter as he flopped back down on his bed. “How comes in this band we always just act like dildos to eachother,” Toki sulked, showing some genuine vulnerability, even if just a little. “Toki, we’ve beens over dis. We don’t think it ams brutal to be nice to each other.” “ Well sometimes I think dats just an excuse sos we can push our feelings deep down forever. Ams hard for Toki!” Pickles, not exactly comfortable getting into this level of emotional depth but knowing he would need to engage a little to placate the youngest bandmate decided to be a bit genuine with what he said next. “Toki, okay, who else would know how much you like kitty whiskers besides yer pals? We all thought out dat prank ‘specially fer you! Cuz yer our bandmate and we like you! That’s why we mess with you!” Toki sat up, sniffing. He seemed to accept this. “I guess you ams right. My parents never even knows what kinds of stuff I likes, and if they dids theys just says ams sinful wastes of times.” “Ja, sees Toki, we pays attentions to you! Now comes on, lets gets some ice cream!” Skwisgaar said with a sunny demeanor. Toki nodded, brightening a little. “Ja okays. You alls have such wonderful sense of humor, sometimes it’s a little much, but I feels better now.”
They left the bedroom and roamed into the kitchen where Nathan was carefully doling out ice cream into a bowl for each band member. He even scooped some into a sixth bowl, knowing Charles would be working late tonight and feeling he should bring him a little snack. “Hey, Toki, I put some of your jeans through the wash, they’re folded on top of the dryer,” Nathan said completely nonchalantly. As tough as he acted, Nathan was always doing things that betrayed how he much he truly did care about his band mates. The laundry chore he did for Toki started when he noticed how the kid never seemed to fold anything, leave clothes strewn about on the floor and always have the faintest tinge of BO about him, which was to be expected with how much he worked out. Once they were all moved into Mordhaus Toki, of course, had the means to just buy new clothes, but would forget to go shopping as often as he needed to. Wanting to maintain some semblance of privacy, the band insisted that the Klokateers were not allowed in the band members bedrooms, but of course that meant the rooms stayed as messy or as clean as each of the men were, and it also meant that Toki’s laundry was never done, that is until Nathan started doing it. “thanks you Nathans, I will learns how to do it myself someday, don’t worry” Toki answered, still a little embarrassed but touched that Nathan would take this chore on. “Don’t worry about it” Nathan mumbled. “Hey Toki, check it out, Neverending sctory is on TV!” Murderface called from the couch in the other room, knowing Toki would be happy to watch a kids movie. Maybe they were all being a little overly nice tonight, but they were just like that, sometimes overcompensating when they felt like their pranks or indifference had gone too far. “aw come ‘ahn, are we really-“”YES!” Nathan cut off Pickles complaint. “there’s a disgusting rock muppet in that movie, WHO EATS ROCKS! ITS TOTALLY BRUTAL… I think, I haven’t seen it since I was a kid, but WE’RE WATCHING IT.” Nathan said decisively. “Oh wowie, ice cream and Disneys movie, you guys ams the best band ever! Toki cried gleefully. “Damns straights.” Agreed Skwisgaar as he picked up his guitar and continued with his fingering practice as he got comfortable on the couch. They settled in for a night of brotherly band bonding and palling around.