Tom was pretty sure he could cut the tension in the room with a rusty spork, let alone a knife.
The moment they'd arrived back home with their unexpected – why, Edd – guests in tow, a deafening, stress laden silence had blanketed the living room. They seemed frozen in their places, not knowing what to do without making someone fly off the handle.
Finally, Edd decided to play the part of proper host, and good on him since it was his fault they'd ended up in this situation in the first place.
"Uh, do you want anything to drink, maybe?" he asked, awkwardness practically oozing from every pore. Still, it seemed to break the tension somewhat as the obvious hostility in Thomas' stance settled back under his skin.
"...water would be nice."
Edd nodded and looked at Matthew, who attempted a smile which ended up looking more like a grimace. "Water sounds great right now."
Again Edd nodded and finally turned his gaze to Edward, who'd been observing him carefully apparently. Remembering the apparent cause of this whole ordeal, he ventured a guess. "And I'm guessing you'd like some cola?"
Edward opened his mouth to say something before the words caught up with him and he went rigid, eyes widening before zeroing on Edd with a manic intensity. "Y-yes!" he practically snapped, before catching himself with a grimace and lowering his voice, "I-I, please..."
Edd, now very much unnerved, quickly fled into the kitchen, leaving his friends to deal with the time travelers.
Tom stared after him for a moment before sighing and settling down on the couch, flask already in hand and on its way to his lips. This definitely warranted a drink. Never mind that his friend's life had been in danger a few hours ago, or that Matt had somehow managed to take over the world and then had it pulled out from under him in less than thirty minutes. This, standing around awkwardly with a supposed future version of himself that he didn't particularly like, and versions of his friends that were just off in all the wrong ways.
This is why he had that emergency stash of smirnoff hidden away in Tord's old lab (the place he never really wanted to think about or step foot in, which is why it was for emergencies).
Out of the corner of his socket, he caught sight of his older self's mouth, turned downwards in mild disapproval. He turned to look directly at the man, taking another swig while holding eye(?) contact.
"What."
Thomas' flat, virtual gaze slipped off to the side, unwilling to look at him directly. "It's nothing."
This just seemed to irritate Tom further as he very deliberately took another swig, watching as the other's gaze followed the movement with a slowly deepening scowl.
"Oh no, it can't possibly the nothing. You have a look on your face." he growled out, "If it's the booze, you can't have it. Find your own fucking vodka."
The man greeted his teeth for a moment, jaw tense and shoulders hunched, before smoothing out his expression into a blank mask.
"I don't drink."
Tom nearly choked on whatever was in his flask at the moment, coughing and wiping his mouth. He looked back up to sneer, "See, you're trying to be funny but it's really not working."
Thomas simply stared back coolly, "I've been sober for four years now. You can ask Mat- Matthew, if you want." he responded, gesturing to the other man, who shrugged.
"Well, I haven't seen you with a bottle in a while, that's for sure."
Tom was beffuddled, letting his empty gaze spring back and forth between the two before going to Edward, who seemed just as shocked at this revelation.
"Four years?"
Thomas refused to look in the bearded man's direction, not acknowledging the astonished exclamation. Tom, on the other hand, was left reeling somewhat.
He'd always assumed his alcoholism would never go away. Hell, he'd embraced it, practically made it a part of who he was as a person. It was an ever present constant in his life, like Susan and Matt and Edd and-
To think that he could, would willingly put down the bottle at any point in time...
Thankfully, Tom was saved from delving fully into this new and exciting identity crisis by Edd, who was holding two glasses of water and two cans of cola in his arms in an attempt to move forward without letting them fall or spill. Fortunately, Matthew took pity on him and reached out to grab the glasses, giving one to Thomas.
Edd smiled gratefully and held out one of the cans to Edward, who was staring at it with something akin to adoration in his eyes. He reached out to grab it-
Or tried to at least, his arms still restrained behind his back.
Edd noticed this and gave Thomas a disapproving look, who tensed but relented with a harsh sigh, pressing his thumb to the, oh, those were handcuffs, which beeped before releasing Edward's wrists.
The man immediately lunged forward, startling Edd. But he only snatched the can and took a big gulp. He coughed a bit, having drunk too fast, before lowering his hand and seemingly savoring the fizzy goodness in his mouth.
Edward seemed to almost melt into the floor of he living room, once again on his knees, though this time willingly. He gave a breathy sigh, a small, genuine smile tugging at his lips.
"Ohhhhhh, it's better than I remember~"
Thomas and Matthew looked highly disturbed and, honestly, Tom wasn't that far behind. Matt regarded the whole ridiculous spectacle with a somewhat confused smile.
Edd chuckled, apparently finding this show of utter adoration completely relatable. Because of course he did. Tom rolled his eyes(?).
"Ah, you guys need somewhere to sleep!" Matt piped up suddenly, having just realized this.
Tom and Edd exchanged stunned looks. Right, that.. that was a thing. Oops.
Tom scratched the back of his head, remembering a little detail, "My old room is still vacant, isn't it?"
Matt huffed and crossed his arms, "Yeah, but only because you wouldn't let me use it as storage space!"
"That's what your own room is for, dumbass!"
Edd looked thoughtful, "Didn't we want to try and make that into a pool, though?"
"It doesn't work." the three time travelers interjected at the same time, immediately recoiling from this fact. They exchanged seething glares before turning their attention back to Edd, who seemed somewhere between amused and weirded out.
"Aaaalright then, we'll take your word for it. We don't have an extra bed though."
"Should've thought about that before you invited them to live here." Tom muttered and took another swig.
"We do have an extra mattress!" Matt exclaimed.
Edd looked apprehensive, "...is it in your room?"
"Yep!" he affirmed enthusiastically, as if proud of the fact.
Tom and Edd groaned, "It'll take forever to find it..."
It did not, in fact, take forever to find it. What did take forever was pulling it out from underneath one of Matt's many mountains of junk without having it fall right on top of them. Once they'd dragged the mattress over to Tom's old room, now bare of most furniture except an old closet nobody wanted and a table with a single chair they weren't entirely sure where they had gotten it from. It was a wide mattress, enough for two to sleep on comfortably.
Thomas took one look at it and walked out of the room, "I'll take the sofa."
Matthew rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, I get it. I messed up so I get prisoner duty. Fine."
Matt, Edd and Tom decided to just go to bed. Sure, it was mid-morning. But they'd spent the whole night running for their lives, preventing (or causing) the Mattocalypse, and negotiating with a trio of volatile future versions of themselves. Sleep's siren call wouldn't be easily ignored now that most of the adrenaline from previously had left their systems.
Inside the room, Edward decided that collapsing on the lumpy old mattress was the best course of action and proceeded to execute it, trench coat and all, clutching the empty cola can close to his chest.
Matthew raised an eyebrow, "I expected you to be more... alert, or something, while sharing a room with one of us."
Edward blearily opened one eye to look at him, "I don't really give any fucks right now. I'm not currently in prison, that's enough for me. Can you shut up now so I can finally sleep?"
Matthew snorted derisively but didn't say anything else, sitting down on the other side of the mattress, back against the wall, and looked out the window to his right. This would be a long day.
Out in the living room, Thomas sat on the sofa, visor showing trails of rapidly flowing data instead of his usual eyes. This was all he had on the machines, now to figure out how to use it in the dubious and rare calm of mid-morning.
AN:
oh wow, the fic continues to write itself. amazing.
me: come on Lunah, do some plot magic, its not that hard.
also me: i need a heartfelt reunion between edd and cola, let it be a thing
HEEEEEEEY btw if you see some american expressions and know the british equivalent please do tell so i can correct them. my english is an unholy amalgamation of all kinds of shit and retains absolutely no consistency.