"Skwisgaar?" a small voice asked as the bed shifted with the added weight. Not a lot of weight, the Swede noted.
"Whats do you wants Tokis?" pale fingers didn't even slow as the conversation started.
"Do yous… remembers my audition?" Toki asked, his voice a little more sure now.
Skwisgaar shifted to look at his bandmate. The younger man didn't look much better than he did when they rescued him. He was still pale, too thin with dark hollows under his eyes. Toki clutched his Deddy bear close to his chest as he sat on the corner of Skwisgaar's large bed. The other members of Dethklok had been careful to keep an eye on the youngest member. Nathan had made it especially clear that the lead guitarist be …nice… to his rhythm counterpart.
"Ja. I remembers. Yous played slightly less dildoes than everyone elses." He remembered that day with striking clarity… ever since he saw that flyer in the Depths of Humanity bar. "Whys ares you askings about that day?"
"Abigails tolds me to thinkgs about my happys place. I thoughts abouts that day."
"Oh. So whats abouts that day ams makings you thinks abouts it now?" Skwisgaar actually put his guitar down to face Toki, even though the other man was turned away.
"I don't wants you to think I ams goingks to be a babies about practice now." The Norwegian said quietly, still looking down. His injuries from his capture and torture were healing, but slowly. They had hastily put on a show as soon as Toki could stand upright long enough, but the stress of it had exhausted the man. And the band's medical staff hadn't yet cleared Toki for practice, let alone playing another show.
"Tokis, this is the onlys times yous ams gettinks a pass for not practicing froms me. Yous better ams being enjoyinks it."
"The reason why I messed ups the last parts," Toki started, hunching his shoulders, even though the motion hurt him a little, "I hads a fracktureds wrists and two broken fingers. And I hads beens hitchhikkings across the countries for a months befores I evens heards about the auditions."
Skwiagaar's mind boggled at the implication that Toki hadn't been at the top of his game when he's pushed Skwisgarr past his previous limit. The World's Fastest Guitarist had always counted that day as that glass ceiling shattering. He looked over at Toki again. "Tokis… whys didn'ts you tells me this befores? Especkisallies when I was makings you learns all of the songs?"
"Pickles ams the ones that tooks me to the hopsikal. Got bandaged and splinted and kepts on goingks."
"How dids you breaks your hand?" Skwisgaar had several thoughts swirling around in his mind, but that was the only one that exited his brain through his mouth.
"Befores I lefts Lillehammer, I… traded somethings for my guitar. And my mother found it. I thought…" Toki trailed off a moment, then shook his head. "I thought she would throw it aways but… instead she quilted me a guitar case and a new hat. And she told me to go aways from home. Leave and not come back. But… but my father came home early."
There was a heavy silence and Toki didn't need to finish the tale. During the telling, the Swede had inched closer to his bandmate. "Whats dids you trade? Did you… did yous trades your soul fors the guitar?" Skwisgaar whispered… his eyes round, his worldview had been shaken with Toki's truth already, he'd believe it if the other man had met the devil at a crossroads.
The sound of sarcastic laughter came from Toki Wartooth. It sounded alien. He looked at Skwisgaar with a look that most of the band leveled on Toki. That look that said 'Oh you naïve fool'. "No. I didn'ts trade my soul for the guitar."
"I ams was goings to say… you should have gotten your money back," Skwisgaar laughed, though it was a little nervous. He was still trying to compose himself after Toki caught him being very not brutal.
The younger band member turned back down to look at Deddy, hugging the little bear tightly for a long moment. He seemed lost in a memory. Skwisgaar reached out a pale hand, almost reaching for Toki's shoulder. To comfort him. But Toki turned those big blue eyes back on him and he dropped his hand.
"Anyways Skwisgaar, I wanted to tells you that I ams goings to be pracktising tomorrow. No matters what the medical gears say." And Toki Wartooth got up off the bed and shuffled slowly back to his own room.
It was a long while before Skwisgaar Skwigelf picked his Explorer back up. He found himself fingering the solo that he and Toki had played together on that first encounter. "Buts what ifs you hadn't been injured?"
That thought would haunt him for the rest of his life.