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“Why did Phil say you can dye your hair?”
With his gloved hands, the teen looked over at the blond. Tommy was wearing his normal white and red shirt, hands stuck in the pockets of his tan cargo shorts. He had curled hair hanging into his blue eyes, as the ten-year-old watched the teen.
Phil, their foster father, had gone to an overnight thing, something for his work that couldn't be done over his computer at home. At least he left the three pizza money, leaving techno in charge.
“Cause I’m not cringe,” he stated, making sure to put his curly hair back over the sink, hands working to incorporate the weird goop of bleach and dye into his hair. He glanced over at Tommy, who was looking over at the pile of empty boxes sitting on the counter. “Why? You wanna dye your hair bubblegum pink?”
He shook his head. “Can someone put hair dye into shampoo, like the kind that Wilbur uses?” the blond had grabbed one of the boxes, looking it over. “And say, I wanted to use that on Wilbur tonight?"
Techno stopped running his fingers through his hair. “Are you planning on pranking Wilbur? Golden Boy? The guy who can make your ears hurt just from belting out a song?” he raised a brow at the kid. “Are you crazy?”
“I’m not crazy, more… wanting to get revenge.”
“You are a ten-year-old, do you even know what revenge is?”
“I know that Wilbur is a bitch.”
“If you get in trouble, don’t blame me,” he told the blond as he went back to his hair. “There’s a few extra sitting on the tub, don’t tell Phil I let you take them.”
The kid grinned, thanking the older, grabbing a box from the side of the bathtub, and ran off. Techno rolled his eyes, grabbing the bag he needed for his hair.
There was a knock on the open door, and as Techno put his hair into a messy plastic bag and placed it over his head, he looked up. Standing at the door, was his twin brother.
Wilbur was wearing his normal yellow swear, curls hanging over one of his eyes. There was a grin on his face, one that the now pinkette knew spelled trouble.
“Hey, Tech?”
“What do you want Wilbur?”
The brunet looked over at the empty boxes of hair dye, the same look Tommy had to give not two minutes earlier.
“You bought extra hair dye, right?”
“Of course?”
“Did Tommy ask for some?”
He gave a weird look, one that Techno took as his brother had a plan, one that can spell either something funny or will make Techno wince for whoever the prank had targeted. Most of the time, the pranks were aimed towards his friends or even their younger foster brother, Tommy.
Since their foster dad, Phil, had brought home the little gremlin, it had sparked a prank war between the two, one that Techno had to both unfortunately and fortunately got to record.
From flower in Wilbur's fan to a bucket of glitter over Tommy's door. Neither of the two was safe, bystanders beware.
Both of them planning to dye the other’s hair? They are either sharing the same brain cell or had been watching the same YouTube prank videos. Techno was leaning on the latter than the former.
"And if he did?"
He watched as his brother grabbed one of the boxes and grabbed the dye from within. "He's a blond, it'll turn him flamingo pink."
"Are you mocking the shade I picked?"
"No, I just think this would funny."
The sixteen-year-old sighed. "Why do you both want to do it tonight of all nights?" He watched as Wilbur dimpled the whole pack into the shampoo that Tommy used, the apple-scented kind that doesn’t burn your eyes.
"Tomorrow is April Fools."
"That makes sense," he stated, as his brother throw away the package into the trash.
Wilbur looked over at his twin. “Do you think you can help me get the dye from Tommy? Just to make sure he doesn’t prank me.”
“Why should I help you?”
“I’ll clean your room for a week.”
“Make me those peanut butter cookies and we can talk.”
The two had a stare-off, with Techno holding out his gloved, pink-dyed hands in front of him.
"Then we have a deal."
The twins shook on it, Wilbur grinning while Techno felt like this was a bad idea. It not like he could stop his brother now. The deed was done and now they just had to wait.
After they had ordered and eaten a pizza, the three brothers took showers and went to bed. Techno advised his twin not to use his normal shampoo for one night, since Tommy most likely used that one for the dye. It was in the morning that the two saw the outcome of their deal.
The outcome of Tommy waking them up with a shout.
Usually, Techno didn't sleep the night before, staying up and doing school work. And that meant he was the first one to hear Tommy's shout come morning.
He was nodding off for an hour of sleep when the room next to his heard Tommy yellow out.
Ever the fencing player he was, the now pinkeye grabbed his fencing sword and rushed out to the hall. He saw his twin stubble out of his room, blinking beady-eyed at Techno.
"Wots going on?" The voice of the musician asked, watching as his twin went to their youngest foster brother's room. "Wait what's wrong with Tommy?"
Techno didn't answer, instead of opening the blond door.
Tommy was sitting on his desk, looking like he was about to boot up his computer and play a game or chat with his friends. Instead, he was staring at his reflection on the screen, hands holding a strand of hair infront of his face, a look of shock evident on his face.
The thing was, that Tommy's once fluffy golden blond hair was now bright pink. He looked ridiculous, with the change of color looking odd on the boy.
He could hear Wilbur stumbling to the door behind him, and then starting to chuckle. A chuckle that turned into full-out laughter, laughter turned into wheezing. Wilbur looked to be running out of air from how hard he was laughing.
"This isn't funny!" Tommy screamed out, his face angry. Techno could see the telltale sign that Tommy was about to start crying. His eyes had glossed over, tears starting to well up. "Why is my hair pink? It was blond when I went to bed!"
"Did-did you look in the mirror last night before you went to bed?" Wil gasped out, trying to stop his laughing.
"I'm not you Wilbur, I don't have to look in the mirror 24/7," the boy snarled, voice starting to waver. Techno had a feeling the dam was about to break. "I HAVE PINK HAIR FOR CHRIST SAKE!"
Techno sighed. "Tommy, take a deep breath, ok?"
"Take a breath? I’ll take a breath when my hair isn't bright ass pink!"
And now the ten-year-old was crying, great. Techno wasn't good with emotions, Phil and Wilbur were better at that than him. Tears were starting to stream down the kid’s face, lip trembling.
Techno whacked his twin over the head with his fencing sword, quieting the brunet's laughter. He gestured with the blunt blade, at their crying foster brother.
"Oh Toms, I'm sorry," he said, his smile had morphed into a frown. "I didn't mean to upset you."
"You did this?" The boy asked, crying. "Why?"
"I had a feeling you asked Techno for one of his spare boxes of dye and wanted to prank you before you got to prank me," he confessed, opening his arms to hug Tommy. The boy hesitated, letting go of the lock of hair in his hand. He tackled Wilbur into a hug, tucking his head into the teen's shoulder as he started to finally cry.
The pinkette stood there, shifting a bit uncomfortably. He always let his brother deal with the emotional people, always let him say caring words and hugs and gifts. He was more of giving someone a card, never been good at trying to comfort people.
The twins had a way with words, but trying to comfort people were two different things to them.
He sat on the edge of Tommy's bed, trying to smile reassuring at his brothers. Then an idea hit him.
"Oh, I got a plan…"
~~~~
"You three want to explain yourselves?"
They were standing in the living room, the TV was paused on a musical that the three foster brothers were watching. They stood in front of the couch, each looking a bit nervous.
The boys looked at each other before, looking at the man in front of them.
He was shorter than the twins, about half ahead or so. His blond hair was pushed down by a green and white striped hat. The green shirt he wore had a gray trench coat thrown over his shoulders.
The man seemed tired, if not a bit stressed out.
“Phil, we can explain?” it was Techno who said that.
He looked at the long-haired boy expectantly. “Go on then,” he said, waving his hand at the three. “I told you, you could dye your hair. Why do all three of you have rose-colored hair?”
Wilbur glanced over at his twin and foster brother. “Ok, so Tommy was planning on using some of the extra dye that Techno brought in case he needed it, so-”
“Wilbur pranked me before I could prank him, my hair went pink, and I, being the big man I am, made him dye his hair in revenge.”
“That isn’t even true, you gremlin-”
“Yes, it is, bitch-”
Phil sighed. “Techno, what happened?”
The teen started to fiddle with his hands as the other two continued to argue. “Well, Tommy asked for the dye, and then Wilbur asked for another of the dye, and then he put it in Tommy’s shampoo, and then the last night we all went to bed, Tommy must have taken a shower or something, and then his hair went flamingo pink and-”
“Techno, breath.”
Taking a deep breath, the teen continued. “I came up with the idea for Wilbur to dye his hair so if anyone messes with Tommy about his hair, we would all get the end of it cause, ya know. Brothers stick together."
Phil rubbed at the bridge of his nose before laughing slightly. "As much I commend you three on sticking up for each other, I didn’t think you all would dye your hair."
Wilbur ran his hand through his pink-tipped, brown hair. "It should fade out in a few months, I think," he shrugged. "That’s what the box said at least."
"As long as you three don’t pull anything like this again, I’m not going to be mad,” he told them, smiling as Wilbur and Tommy started to quiet down their fight. They all looked at each other before smiling at Phil. “I brought some donuts home, anyone wants one?”
“ME!”
“FRIED DOUGH, YEAH-”
“Um, sure?”
He smiled before gesturing to the kitchen. “Come on, then. There are rainbow sprinkles on them.”