Chapter 4 - Hottest Topic

Chapter 4: Hot Topic (pre-party)



Toguro woke up and for a moment, forgot where he was, he looked around the room and his eyes trailed to the Hoobastank sticker stuck to the back of the computer chair in his room. He sat up and looked around anxiously, and found a note in on the nightstand written in his brothers handwriting. He read it over and over, realizing how good it was to see the familiar print. It read,


'morning,

Sorry I couldn't stick around for long. I had to go to work. My manager came down and saw Ex an I were missing, Ioko bought us bit of time
telling him I was really sick, but I still had to report. I'm really sorry I couldn't stick around. i have something planned, for us, if you want to.

Later,
Ani
p.s. Ex is comin' home early so you can hang with her. If you want.



Toguro replaced the note on the table and stood up. He found that his brother must've removed his slacks and coat during the night. They sat washed, ironed, and folded nealty on the desk next to the labtop. Toguro pulled them on and walked into his brothers bathroom. he stared at the mirror and combed his hair before going back to the room and retreiving his sunglasses. He went downstairs, ate breakfast, and found the map his brother had drew for him. He studied it for anout five minutes and slipped it into his pocket before setting out to Hot Topic. Along the way, he noticed that his brother lived in a good and decent neighborhood. The lawns were neat and tidy with chldren playing and parents out enjoying the morning air or heading out to work.

When he reached Hot Topic, the System of a Down clock read 11:49 as he walked in. The radio was playing Death Angel and Toguro realized he was watched by a man with a name tag: Ioko. He walked to the counter, removed his glasses, and smiled at the man.

"Is Ani around?" He asked. The man smiled back at him. "I'm his brother......." The man nodded and leaned back looking into the back room.

"Hey!" He called. "Ani! You're Bro's here lookin' for ya! And while your back there, bring the cd's, I'm already sick of Tool, I want Rob Zombie! NOW!!!!!!!" He sounded angry. but his eyes flashed jokingly as Ani walked out looking peeved. However, at the sight of Toguro, his expression of irritation melted into an uneasy smile. Toguro gave him an easygoing grin and a brotherly wink that made Ani shrink away. He gave Ioko the cd case and watched Toguro through scared eyes.

"Hate to do this to ya," He said, looking uneasy at being in the same room with Toguro, "but the managers going to show soon, pretend to be a customer, or something." And sure enough, a man who looked to be about 47 walked in. He looked as though he had attempted to copy Ani's style but miserably failed. He didn't look too happy as he walked around Ani, staring at him as if observing or inspecting him. When he was finished, he walked to the counter, checked the register and cd player. Toguro found a shirt, a watch, and a belt he actually liked and continued to "shop". The manager paid no mind to him but turned his attention to Exile as she walked out of the back room holding several more belts from which Toguro picked out two more and, smiling, she dumped them in the rack with the others.

"Exile!" The managers voice sharply barked. "Your shift ended half an hour ago. What are you doing here, still?" At first Exile paid no mind to him while she showed Toguro a bottle of cologne that he added to his now seemingly large pile. But when the manager continued to glare, she turned her gaze to him.

"Because, sir," She coolly began, "I, unlike others, dedicate my time and efforts to my job and duty even though my managers thinks me as a tramp." She gave a quick, cheap, and fake smile before turning her back on him. The manager roughly put a hand on he shoulder and spun her around where he grabbed both of her shoulders, he started to yell at her but was cut off by Ani.

"Pardon me, sir." He calmly called, he said this particuarly loud so his boss would take notice of him. "I believe you have the power over our shifts, pay, positions, and whether you want to fire us or not, but I know for a fact you are not authorized to lay hands on your employees in such the manner you are doing so now. I believe it is a felony if you are a man and your employee is a woman, and I'm very sure Exile is a woman. As her boyfriend, fiancee or whatever you want to call me, I will have to ask you to remove her hands form her or I will be forced to take action on her behalf." he spoke clearly and very slowly, so slow in fact, by the time he was finished, Toguro had accumalated 6 spiked braceletes, 4 black trenchcoats, 7shirts, 2 bottles of cologne, 3 posters, 8 cds, 5 belts, 1 watch, 5 leather bracelets, 27 novelty pins, 2 keyrings, 4 necklaces, 12 stickers, a two headed cat stuffed animal for Exile, about 26 different rings and studs for Ani peircings, and he was sitting down for Ioko to peirce his tounge and eyebrow. The manager looked at him with raised eyebrows as he didn't even flinch as Ioko peirced his tounge and started to get the gun ready for his eyebrow.

"Alright......" He said in a growling and dangerous tone. He let go of Exile who slunk away next to Ani. Ioko had finished and was summing up Toguro's finds. "Alright. Exile, my apologies. I will now be leaving." He walked out, slamming the door behind him. Exile turned to Toguro, then back to Ioko.

"Well, he's gone, we can really party now!" She then noticed Ani dabbing some sort of liquid on Toguro's new peircings though he looked at Toguro as if expecting him to attack. But she noticed how good Toguro's peircings loked, which she found made him look even more attractive in a dangerous way. "Hey, since when did we start doing peircings here?"

"Since I got a job here. I'm certified!" Ioko said confidenly. "That's $836.28, Toguro." His eyes boggled open as Toguro took out his wallet and handed him nine one hundred dolor bills and handed them to Ioko grunting somewthing about keeping the change for his service in the peircings. "Thank you, sir! And don't worry about the peirces getting infected, I am certified."

"Puh-leaze!" Exile moaned rolling her eyes. "You don't need to be certified to poke a hole in someones face! Who are you kidding?" Everyone had a good laugh at her joke as she slung her bag over her shoulder. "Well, you heard the big boss, my shifts up! I'm headin' home to get ready to part-ay! You wanna walk home with me, Toguro? Hey! Toguro, I got an Idea! Why don't you let me do your hair, I'll get it to look cool for the party!" Toguro shrugged as Exile walked behind the counter to Ani where she gave him a kiss and they whispered at eachother, a moment later, they both burst out into laughter and Exile picked up some of the bags with Toguro's stuff in it to carry it for him as Toguro walked over to Ani and gave him a hug, he noticed that Ani stood perfectly strait and did not hug back.

"Party, eh?" He asked his older brother while hugging him, but Ani coldly pushed him away and looked fearfully at him. "Er---- sounds good to me. See you when you get home." He pat Ani's shoulder before picking up the rest of bags and walking out after Exile.

Along the way home, Exile was silent except answering Toguro's question on how Ani was doing. Throughout the entire walk home, Toguro thought of how Ani was still scared of him after what happened, regardless of the reassuring explanation Toguro gave him.

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When Toguro and Exile got home, Exile showed him to a guest room that was painted black with poster of various rock singers and bands. There were as sorts of funky lamps and the bed had a black fuzzy comforter and fuzzy pillows.

"Sorry, it's kinda girly......." Exile began as she set the bags down on a desk nesk to the closet. "It used to be my room.......But you're welcome to it." She motioned around the room before sitting on a black bean bag in the corner, watching Toguro as he unpacked his new stuff into the empty dresser drawers, and closet. He then sat down on the black papasan and looked around.

"It's pretty nice....." He said looking around. Exile disappeared into her room, emerging holding a poster and bottle of hair dye. Toguro looked cautiously at the dye and saw it was blue. The poster was handed to him.

"I want you to have it." Exile said. Toguro's eyes grew wide as he examined the poster. The background was a dark evil looking caste and in the courtyard, it showed Exile in the front, her face covered in dark makeup with her face particularly paler than usual, she was holding a guitar. Behind her, Ani stood holding a guitar similair to Exiles with one hand on her hip, Ioko stood on the other side, sitting in a careless postition, holding two wooden drumsticks. Toguro's eyes strayed to another man standing a little ways behing Exile, his back was turned towards the group, but he looked over his shouler. Toguro also noticed that not one of the people had one colored hair, it was either streaked blue, red, silver, or green. He saw that all the members wore black with lots of silver jewelry and the men even wore dark eyeliner, everyone in the poster was posing and glaring at the camera. The sky was pitch black with several streaks of lightning in the sky. The name below all of the people was jagged and looked demonic, it read:

"Essence of Death"
It was a poster of a band.

"Exile....." Toguro began, dumbfounded. "Is this...........Is this what I think it is? Is my brother really in a band?" He looked up at Exile, who smiled and nodded. Toguro turned his gaze back to it and saw four signatures in the corner, one, he reconized as Ani's. "This is great." He breathed, and he actually meant it.

"You might want to have this too." She said. She handed him a cd case, with the same "Essence of Death" on it. The picture on the front showed a picture of Ani and Exile, they were cheekbone to cheekbone, they appeared to be glaring at eachother while smiling, the entire picure seemed to be tinted bluish gray, it looked sad and dark, but it looked cool without a doubt. "I'm the lead singer and Ani's the songwriter and main guitarist. We were a rock band."

"Thanks," he said. "It's kind of weird thinking my brothers a star." He admitted with a hint of laughter in his voice. He put the poster up and placed the cd in one of his drawers. He then eyed the bottle of hair dye in Exile's hand. "W-w-wait a minute................................."

"Chill," Exhile said. "I won't mess it up. It's gonna look awesome." She started to the bathroom, followed by Toguro. They walked in and Exile pointed to the sink. "This can get messy....." She told him. Toguro grinned as he took off his coat.

"Whoa!!!!" She yelped as he towered over her topless. "Let's talk!!! I don't know you, you don't know me, I'm dating your brother, lay off, pal!" Toguro burst out laughing as he sat down in front of the sink.

"You're a surprising, person." He said as she began to wet the tips of his hair. "I mean, you have a great personality. You seem pretty nice and-" he broke off as he watched Exile apply the blue dye to the tips of his hair. Toguro though it looked nice, actually. "That looks good. Hey!" Exile let a small dot of the dye run down his back. She wiped it away and blew dried the tips of his hair before rinsing them and towel drying it. When she was done, she styled like it normally was and dragged him into the room. She tossed him a black trenchcoat, two spiked bracelets, and two necklaces along with a spiked belt. She picked out one of the muscle shirts he got from the shop that read: "I'm not as think as you stoned I am." He put the shirt on and put the coat on after it and he left the coat open (the shirt was black with blue writing). He put the belt on with the jewelry. He looked pretty good as Exile stood back to look at him.

"You look good." She said, a strange glaze covering her eyes. "Your brother will be pleased." That's all she said while flicking back a starnd of hair from her flusterred face. Toguro smiled softly to himself.

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A few hours later, Toguro was sitting in his room watching the plasma tv on the wall when he heard the door open and close, he jumped up, and walked down the stairs. He found Ani setting his bag down and drinking a soda. Ani looked at him while still drinking and nearly choked. He examined his new look and forced a smile.

"You looke pretty nice...." He quietly told him. He handed Toguro the rest of his soda and started up the stairs to his room so he could change. Toguro looked after him and swallowed the soda Ani gave him in two gulps. He crushed the can with ease before throwing it away and following Ani.

When he got to Ani's room, he saw Ani had changed his black trenchcoat for a black muscle shirt with "Rebel Demons" written in red letters. The shirt showed off his spiked bracelets and a tattoo of a black dragon the started at his shoulder and went down to his elbow. He had a spiked choker on and several silver chains. He looked up at Toguro and shivered. Toguro reached out and put a hand on his back and led him to the hallway where Exile waited in black jeans looped with chains and zippers as she wore an Emily shirt (she had been deleighted when Toguro gave her the Emily stuffed animal cat). She took Ani's hand and cast a shy look at Toguro before starting down the stairs.

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Chapter 5 preview:

Just as Ani, Exile and Toguro get to the heavy metal rock party thrown by Ioko's cousin, several lost soul bounty hunters rush in and forcibly take Ani. They tell Toguro that Ani's being taken away for the new leader of the Demon realm, and Ani's abilities will prove to be useful and fight off Toguro and Exile. Toguro fears what they plan to do with his brother.

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