When Tom went downstairs, the last thing he was pleased to see sitting on the couch was a very bored, and irritated Tord.

Needless to say, the house arrest sentence wasn't the exact punishment anyone was looking for-especially Tord-, but their Norwegian 'friend' had several connections that gave him the lesser of two evils. After having the house rebuilt, all four were quick to establish three very important rules:

Tord wasn't allowed to take/do anything without permission

Tord wasn't allowed to anyone's room but his own

Tord wasn't allowed to use the phone for "personal" calls

Naturally, Tord was the most against the new rules and even attempted to leave a few times, but he was quickly restrained and brought back home every time. Now, he'd seem to cool down and, for the most part, kept to himself; rarely speaking unless spoken to first. Despite walking around the house with a very haughty air, Tord was more distracted than angry, muttering plans to himself or closed up in his room working and drawing up blueprints. Their days would usually be tense, the three trying to avoid or flat out ignore their old friend, who didn't seem to care much about the quiet, and their nights were filled with dread. Edd would prepare dinner for four, but Tord would rarely from his room, leaving the three to discuss either their roommate, or anything else but their roommate. But whenever Tord did make his sudden entrance, dinner didn't last very long. It would be very quiet, and after ten minutes, they'd all finished dinner quickly before disappearing to their nightly errands; Edd to his commissions, Matt to his reading, Tom to his practice, and Tord to...whatever it is he did.

It was like clockwork, everyone could avoid everyone and the world spun normally.

Until Tord broke the cycle, and stayed downstairs.

This left Tom in a most aggravated position; he wanted to watch the news, and here was Tord, sitting on his couch, in his house, and watching some inane bloody B-Movie.

"You gonna move any time soon?" He sneered, crossing his arms and eyeing his red-hoodied roommate.

Tord's eyes remained glued to the television as he replied, coldly, "Free world. I can watch what I want." Tom gritted his teeth, growing angrier as he was ignored further, but swallowed his fury and added "Don't you have anything better to do commie?"

Usually, the spiteful nickname would earn him a cruel response, but Tord seemed less interested in Tom, and more on his program.

"Are you going to answer me?"

Silence.

"Giving you 30 seconds."

More silence.

"Fine. Won't move? I'll stay here then."

For ten minutes, the two refused to stand down, leading both Tom and Tord to grow angrier. About ready to explode, Tom readied his next jab, but the phone rang, knocking the two out of their silent rivalry. From the kitchen, they could hear Edd, somewhat confused at the voice from the other line, but as soon as the name 'Paul' was mentioned, Tord jumped up and sprinted to Edd's side, demanding the line.

Tom couldn't have cared less and took the couch for himself, smirking as he changed the channel to the news. From the kitchen, he heard Edd and Tord arguing, obviously about the mysterious man on the phone and how Tord didn't have the privilege to continue his 'personal' calls, and soon after, the Norwegian returned to the living room to his anger at seeing his spot taken.

"Get off."

"What?" Tom replied nonchalantly, raising the volume, "You moved. It's my spot now." He almost reveled in Tord's furious glare, but what he didn't expect was a tired sigh and a shrug.

"Whatever…"

The sudden change in voice surprised Tom, and from the corner of his eye, he watched as Tord disappeared upstairs without another word.

Curiously, Tom went to the kitchen and joined Edd in cleaning the dishes, and as they fixed everything up he asked "So who was that on the phone?"

"Some guy asking for Tord," Edd explained, "he seemed really nervous and wasn't happy when I said they couldn't talk. Must've been super important though…"

"Why?"

"Well...have you ever seen Tord look so desperate?"

Tom had to admit, Tord wasn't really one to show emotion, and when he did it was between two specific ones: contempt and anger. Him worrying didn't seem like a normal 'Tord' reaction. But, at least to Tom, it wasn't any of their business, though Edd seemed to be concerned.

"Look," Tom began explaining, "whatever it's about, we shouldn't have to deal with his crap. It was his crap that almost got us killed...remember?"

Edd shrugged, his head more into what he'd heard on the phone "If Tord's upset about it, it must be important."

The conversation ended as soon as the dishes were washed, and the two went along their way, though Tom wasn't very interested in the television anymore. He glanced up the stairs for a minute before giving in and slowly walked up, dreading his own curiosity; Tord was either up to something dangerous, or worried about something dangerous, the latter scared Tom. If Tord was worried about something, it was a sure sign that the threat was very dangerous.

His head had been wrapped up in his thoughts so much that Tom didn't notice that he now stood right in front of Tord's door, most likely locked, but it didn't stop him from placing his hand on the knob and giving it an experimental turn.

Yup, definitely locked.

He sighed and continued on to his room, though he ultimately decided to stop by Matt's; Tom desperately needed some vanity filled ignorance.

"Hey Matt, you free?"

"Nah, I'm good, just rearranging some stuff. Come in!"

At first, the mention of rearrangement made Tom nervous, had their redheaded friend been possessed by another clean freak demon? Thankfully in Matt Land, 'rearranging' meant organizing seflies, from 'most handsome' to 'beautifully-ridiculous-make-God-cry handsome', and Tom could finally breathe. "Have you heard anything about Tord?"

"Well," Matt pondered as he wiped a picture, "I know he's living here!"

Tom held in a slap before adding "No, I mean...did you see anything weird with him?"

This time, Matt eyed him closely, put the picture down and asked "Why do you care?"

"Edd just got a call from one of Tord's friends," Tom explained, "it kind of made him nervous, so I'm just wondering if you knew."

From Matt's shrug, Tom realized that he should've been smarter than to ask him for advice, but the redhead suddenly brought up a very good point, "Why don't you just call the number? We have caller ID."

Tom nearly kissed his roommate, and cursed himself for not thinking about that idea earlier, before rushing down to the nearest phone and finding the number.

He waited impatiently before an automated voice came up "Please state password."

Shoot...

Tom wasn't sure what password would work for this, but he knew something was up now. Turning the phone off, he went back to the television and watched the news carefully, his eyes widening at the small details he'd missed so many times; 'The Red Leader' kept popping up in every news channel, though the mention of them seemed to be very quick, as if the reporters had more important things to dwindle on. But Tom knew better than to push it aside, because he knew who the Red Leader was, and he also knew why Tord had gotten so on edge with the phone call.

Before he realized it, Tom was up calling friends, acquaintances, and even people he hated, asking for details about the elusive vigilante group. For the most part, all he got was a mix of annoyance and confusion, but he was lucky to get a few tidbits.

The organization was apparently very hard to find, and mentioning it usually left people stunned since few people knew about it. The Red Leader was different, people didn't know the identity, but they knew of him; calculating, cold, and incredibly clever, the Red Leader was infamous for gathering hundreds of loyal soldiers with the intent of controlling the world, but the purpose was unknown. But with the little information he was given, Tom was sure that he knew the Red Leader.

So, with a mix of determination and trepidation, Tom gathered his thoughts to confront Tord...only to realize (after checking his watch) that it was two in the morning, there was no way anyone was up now. He sighed, unsure if this bravery would last him until tomorrow, but sudden footsteps coming down the stairs shook him into reality. From the stairs came, a very tired looking Tord, who seemed surprised to see that he wasn't the only one up.

After some silence, Tom decided to speak up. "...Hey."

"Hey."

They both stared at each other awkwardly, Tom fully aware of his roommate's secret, and Tord unsure of what Tom was thinking. He finally cleared his throat and nodded towards the kitchen, "I was just gonna get some water. I'll leave you to it…" With that, the Norwegian disappeared into the kitchen, and Tom listened carefully as the other rummaged through the fridge.

Less than a minute later, Tord reappeared, water in hand and eyes glued to the news channel Tom was currently on. "What're you watching?"

"Nothing, just some news."

"Oh, okay."

At this point, Tom was sure Tord realized it, because his usually collected demeanor changed into a nervous one. Seeing as he wanted to leave immediately, Tom finally spit it out. "What have you been doing...Red Leader?"

The mention of the title stunned Tord, as Tom had expected, but instead of leaving the red-hoodied roommate stood his ground and finally muttered "So...you know…"

"Yup."

"You gonna tell Edd and Matt?"

"Not sure yet."

"...Okay."

Tom looked at his former friend curiously, he half expected Tord to blow up or hide the accusation with some sort of laugh or joke, but he was very calm, as if he knew that this was going to happen. Tom could also see how tired Tord looked, it was the first time he'd seen anyone so sleep deprived; being the head of a semi-possible-terrorist/vigilante group (seriously, Tom was going to need to do more research) would take a lot out of someone.

"Is Paul a solider?"

"Classified."

"Is he with you?"

"It's classified Tom."

"Do you know him?"

"It's-"

"I'm not asking anything about your thing, I'm just asking if you know Paul."

"...Yes."

Tom nodded, sure that this conversation was making Tord incredibly uncomfortable. At any other time, he would've relished in seeing the Norwegian look so awkward and upset, but this was different. This was Tom seeing one of his oldest friends, not as a trigger happy hentai obsessed annoyance, but as a very tired and very stressed commander.

After a long period of silence, Tom finally grabbed the remote and changed it to a zombie movie, catching Tord's attention; Tom could see him shuffle uncertainly, but the testosterone-filled movie won, and the two sat together on the couch, watching the bloody action flick in silence.

Tom looked at Tord after some time and asked "Wanna talk about it?"

"No."

"You sure?"

"...It's a long story."

"I've got time."

"...Okay…"