As the stars moved across the sky as the night turned to day, the soon clear skies were filled with white puffy clouds that looked like they could have been made of cotton candy. The sun peaked high above Eddsworld and it was that nice temperature that was just between too hot and too cold, making it the perfect day to go for a walk. Or in Edd and Matt's case, playing video games in a dark room with junk food scattered in front of them.
They had just gotten the newest Gears of War and have been playing it for hours on end, not a single ray of sun peaking through the curtains or tinted windows. With loud sounds of machine guns and the gurgling of aliens radiating from the screen, the two barely blinked in paranoia that they would immediately die.
"Woah! Watch where you're shooting, Matt! You nearly killed me!" Edd yelled, tilting his body with his controller as if it'll change the direction his player was going.
"Sorry! We're surrounded though! Does it really matter at this point?"
"We're not restarting if that's what you mean. C'mon! We're almost to the checkpoint! Just keep shooting!"
"Are you two nearly done?" A dead voice chimed into their conversation from the back of the room on another couch.
Out of shock, Edd yelped out while whipping his head around, surprised to see Tom sitting there with his hands in his pocket and his pitch black eyes watching with boredom.
"How long have you been sitting there?!" He yelled out of surprise, pausing the game.
"You invited me to play with you and then proceeded to play without me."
"Oh! Uhm.. I'm sorry, Tom. Why don't you grab Matt's controller and take a shift?"
Matt gasped as if he had just been slapped in the face and held onto the small hand-held device. "Why me?"
"Because you're taking one for the team and we both like you very much for doing so. C'mon Tom! Let's keep going!"
He just looked at both of them with his normal bowling-ball-like face and got up, "I'm going on a beer run. Let's watch a movie or something when I get back.
On his way out to their car he noticed Tord hunched over at the couch, using a screwdriver to twist something into place on a small device. He walked over to the horn-haired man and watched from over his shoulder. What Tord was holding was a spherical machine that just fit in his hand that had a sensor on one side of it. There were two small holes on the bottom and two on the side and the front seemed to open up to something. Tom couldn't think of any good that could come out of this, so he nudged the other and nodded for him to get up.
"I'm getting beer, let's go."
"You.. You want me to come with you, Jehovah?" Tord asked cautiously, lowering the tool that he had gripped in his hand.
"I want beer. I don't want anything else. Come with or leave your damned inventions alone, your pick." Tom said, walking to the front door with keys in his hand. He noticed the other following behind at a safe pace, and kept an eye on him in his peripheral vision.
On their way to the store, the car was silent except for the radio music that was playing quietly in the background. For Tord it became uncomfortable since he had not grown accustomed to being around people that weren't Patryk or Paul, so he tried to spark a conversation.
"Thomas?"
"Don't call me that." He droned in an irritated voice, continuing to look at the road.
"Ah, I'm sorry.. Tom, could we-?"
"No."
"You didn't even hear what I had to say." Tord whined at him.
"The thing is, I don't care about what you have to say, did you ever take that into consideration, Commie?"
Tord flinched slightly at the nickname and grinned to himself, a comeback springing into his mind, "Well why did you bring me then?"
"Isn't it obvious? I don't want you destroying the house.. For a second time." Tom replied, smirking and pulling up to the drug store. "We're here. I'll be back.
Tom sat in the car quietly, looking around at the contents of the back seat (which was barely visible due to the amount of shit on top of it) and saw the classic blue hoodie that belonged to Tom. The cloth along it was worn down and obviously showed signs of mistreatment over the years, and by the stains on it it obviously has been through some crazy things. Tord reached for it and held the soft item between his hands, reminiscing on the old times the four of them would have together. But then, he had an urge.. Nothing too big, though it still threw him off: he wanted to smell it. Not in a creepy way or anything, but he was remembering so many fond memories of them all, he was caught in the moment. Shakily, he lifted it to his face and took a whiff in. All that was lifted into his lungs was a mixture of alcohol and tobacco that gathered on the cloth over its use. Tord did this a couple more times before he caught a glimpse of himself from the reflection of the store windows. He shook his head and tossed the hoodie into its home in the back seat, laughing to himself.
"I'm Red Leader, dammit. If only they saw me doing some pussy crap like that." He joked to himself, grinning in amusement. "Ahh, how times have changed."
It was a short bit before Tom climbed back into the car holding two 6-packs. As he settled back in his seat, he tossed something small to Tord, which landed in his lap. It was a small brown bundle that fit perfectly in his hand: A cigar.
"Jehovah, you-"
"Don't say a word. You just look like you need a smoke, that's all. I expect you to pay me back later." Tom said, setting the alcohol in the backseat on top of everything else.
Tord silently nodded and inspected the small gift. It wasn't anything too expensive compared to what he would have preferred, maybe 7$ or 8$ at the most. Still, he figured that he would wait until later to use it. He knew that more stressful times were ahead and he was sure he would appreciate it more later. He shoved the small item into his pocket and slid out the tiny sphere he was working on earlier, continuing to tinker with it as Tom drove home.
"Dammit, why're you working on it now of all times?" Tom groaned with irritation.
"I have nothing else better to do."
"What the hell are you even going to do with that?"
Tord held it up to his eye and showed that it was just the right size for his socket.
"Ah, so you're deciding to become a full robot, huh? Smart." He sarcastically said, going back to focusing on the road.
"No, you idiot. I'm going to improve my vision. My eye was hurt from the explosion, along with my arm. I never got the time to make one, so why not now?"
"Yes, yes. Why not now? Edd is really going to like that."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Tord questioned, his eyes leveling with Tom's.
"Don't you see how uncomfortable you make him? You're not the Tord who left for the city, you're not even the Tord that came back. You're the Tord who went crazy and abandoned his friends. He sees you as nothing else but an old friend who's grown further from us over the years."
"Yeah? Well don't you think I had a good reason for leaving?!" Tord snapped, gripping the small eyeball tighter in his robotic hand, "You think I left just for fun?!"
"I don't know why you left! You had three best friends who would've gone to the end of the world for you, and you just left it all behind! You had no reason to leave, you had everything you needed right where you were!" Tom yelled back, pulling over to the side of the road before he would crash, "You never needed to go to Norway, you never needed to build an army, you never needed to betray us!" As he continued to yell, his voice turned from anger to pain, his dark sockets growing deeper with each accusation.
"You don't know what you're talking about, Thomas."
The name caused Tom to growl in anger, swinging his fist straight to Tord's jaw, "Don't. Call. Me. Thomas!"
Almost reflexively, Tord's robotic arm flew up and gripped Tom's wrist just before it could hit him. Tord turned to look at the hand he was gripping and then at the man who threw it. As Tom watched him, his angry eyes not changing, his fist slowly fell limp. Tord let go of it and watched as Tom held back onto the steering wheel, his expression never changing.
"I'm sorry."
"No." Tord said, "I am sorry. But don't you ever talk like you know what I've been through. I had a reason to leave, and it's above all of us."
The two drove to their house in silence the rest of the way.
Tom and Tord walked inside and was greeted by a Nerf pellet to the face. Tom was in front and as soon as he got hit, a sly grin spread across his face, sprinting to his room quickly to retrieve his 'special' gun. Tord stood at the door and didn't know what to do, should he join in? Or should he just stay out of it? He thought the former would help him bond more with his comrades so he too, went off to find some sort of Nerf weapon.
"Ha! Go run home to your mommy, Tom!" Edd yelled from behind a chair teasingly, holding his gun securely while keeping an eye out for Matt.
"What? Tom's mom is here?! I love her cookies!" Matt yelled back naively, standing straight up from his hiding spot and looking around in curiosity.
"Well, no. But you're going to be begging for yours!" Said the final member of the Trio calmly, cocking his gun and pelting Matt in the back of the head with at least twenty bullets.
They all kept going, yelling insults and threats to each other while running around the house. The playful bonding seemed to distract them as Tord decided to join in on the fun, occasionally spewing playful banter and pelting them with his own soft bullets. For a moment, if you walked into the household, you wouldn't even believe that they weren't best friends. The four of them seemed to be lost in the fantasy of whatever fake war they were fighting in now. This fighting went on for hours on end, sometimes stopping to reload or grab a can of beer/cola from the fridge. It wasn't until the fight ended and they were all sitting on the deck outside that Edd looked around at the three sitting beside him, looking up at the night sky, that he started to feel like things were normal. Nobody knew how desperately Edd wanted things to go back to how they were.
Maybe… He thought, maybe it could be back like old times.
Author's Note:
And here's chapter 2! Slowly starting to become less emotional, but I'm still having fun with it! Thank you for reading!
:)
-K
