Toki didn't even try to act cordially to Skwisgaar. If anything, he seemed to be going out of his way to torment the man. During practice, he'd gone so far as to mess with Skwisgaar's amp. He hid the blonde's extra guitar strings, and had "accidently deleted" a recording that he'd made.

Skwisgaar was doing his best to deal with it. He held his tongue when Toki taunted him or yelled at him, and quietly undid any changes to his set up that Toki had made. When he heard about the recording, he simply took a deep breath, pinched the bridge of his nose, and stated that he would re-record the part, and that it wasn't a big deal anyway because it was just an idea he'd had.

This made Toki more angry. He wanted Skwisgaar to get upset at him, to yell at him. He felt hurt and that made him mad, which made him want to fight.

The rest of the band had noticed what he was doing, as it affected them too. If Skwisgaar's equipment didn't work, it took time out of their practice for him to fix it. The same if one of his strings broke and there were no replacements to be found.

Nathan finally had it when he caught Toki trying to flick food at Skwisgaar while the band ate dinner.

"Toki, what the fuck are you doing?!" Nathan asked, nearly yelling.

Right then, the spoonful of casserole that Toki had launched hit Skwisgaar's cheek. The blonde's eye twitched. Toki thought that Skwisgaar might finally break, but instead he picked up a napkin with shaking hands and wiped the food away.

Toki scowled and began preparing another spoonful of food to throw, when Nathan yanked the utensil away.

"Toki, stop it!"

"What? I didn't do anythings!"

Nathan glared at him.

"We all literally just saw you flick food at Skwisgaar."

"What? He deserves it! He ams a dead beats dads and doesn't helps supports me or his babies!"

That, finally, caught Skwisgaar's full attention.

"I tries to be theres and yous yells at me!"

"Ja, because you ams a man whores!" Toki shot back.

"Jesus Christ," Nathan mumbled, "Will you cut it out, Toki? You've been bothering Skwisgaar for days and we're all getting tired of it."

Toki crossed his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, Toki, Nathan's right," Pickles chimed in. "It's, uh, gettin' pretty frustrating to watch."

Toki sighed loudly.

"Of course you takes his side! Everyone likes Skwisgaar mores than me! Maybe I should just leaves and raise the babies alone on the streets!"

"Okay, you're gonna make yourself have those fake contraction things again. Calm down," Nathan instructed.

"How can I be calms when everyones taking his sides?!" Toki yelled. He stood up as fast as he could and headed towards the door.

Nathan shook his head, hating the drama that had come between them.

00

Nathan knew that Toki probably wouldn't listen to any lecture he gave on forgiveness, so he asked Charles to visit him instead.

The manager found Toki in his room, lying on his bed, once again staring at the ceiling. His headphones were pulled over his stomach again, blasting angry metal music.

"Uh, hi Toki," Charles greeted him. "Playing your baby some music?"

"Ja." Toki answered. He didn't make eye contact.

"I see. Well, as you may realize, the band asked me to come talk to you about what's going on with Skwisgaar."

"Pfft," Toki sat up, "He ams a mans whores, that's whats going on! He cheated on me with the sluts!"

"Right, and I can understand why that's hurtful, but is it really productive to do all of this to him?"

"It feels good, if thats whats you means."

"Right." Charles had forgotten Toki's penchant for revenge. "Right, I get that, but you're going to end up making things worse. I doubt the band will want you to stay if you keep this up, Toki. You need to think about that."

"Of course they sides with hims. They likes him mores," Toki said, sadly.

"It's more of that you're delaying their practices and making them uncomfortable, whereas Skwisgaar isn't acting out. I'm not saying that you have to like the man, but you need to work on at least getting along with him when you play."

Toki sighed.

"It ams hards. I always liked Skwisgaar. Since we first met. I hads these dreams for us, for our family." Toki felt as if he were about to cry again. He hated how often that happened.

Charles felt a pang of sympathy.

"You know, I think that if you could be friends, you could still have some of those experiences that you dreamed of. The fact that Skwisgaar tried to be in a relationship with you proves that he's serious."

"But he cheated on me," Toki replied.

"Skwisgaar isn't good at long term monogamy. That doesn't mean he can't be there to help you raise the baby. He cares about you and the child. Haven't you noticed that he hasn't fought back against you at all?"

"Ja."

"That means something, Toki. You need to really think about all of this."

"Ja, okays," Toki agreed. "I will."

"Good. And feel free to come to me if you ever need to talk, okay? I'm here for you boys."

"Thanks," Toki answered. "I appreciates it."