"...Tom?"

No, that's impossible. Tom is MIA, probably long dead in a ditch somewhere. There is absolutely no way.

Except.

Except, standing in front of him is indeed Thomas Ridge.

Edd can feel his throat closing up a tears gather at the corners of his eyes. "Tom? Is that really you? I... We thought you were dead! Where have you been? And what happened to your-?"

"Edward Gold." his voice is cold and dispassionate, almost robotic.

Edd trips over his words, a niggling alarm going off at the back of his head, "Wh-wha- Tom, why are you-?"

"I have been tasked to apprehend you, neutralize if necessary. Red Leader wants a word with you." he continues in the same cold voice, raising the gun Edd didn't notice before and pointing it directly at his chest.

The nervous, tremulous smile on Edd's face slides right off and if it weren't so unnervingly still around them, even with the suddenly distant, incessant noise of troops in disarray, he'd think he's already been shot.

"What are you saying?" he whispers, and of course Tom doesn't hear him, it's not really as still as Edd currently perceives it to be. He struggles to speak louder, struggles to breathe. "T-Tom, come on, let's go home, yeah?"

Tom remains silent, the grip on his gun tightening the slightest bit.

Something in Edd snaps.

"What is this, Tom?!" he screams, uncaring of the tears on his face or the chaos around them, "You come back from the dead and suddenly you're with Red? How does that make sense?! WHAT DID HE DO TO YOU?"

"If you refuse to come peacefully I've been ordered to use force." that monotone voice grates on his ears and he can't take the steely look on those alien, virtual eyes anymore. Edd can feel his eyes heat up, energy building along with his anger.

A shot rings out and a stinging pain makes itself known on Edd's cheek. His hand slowly comes up to touch it and comes away stained red. All of sudden his anger rushes out of him and he's left feeling hollow and lost.

"I will not repeat myself, Gold."

Edd stares down the barrel of a gun, held by one of his closest friends, and grief hits him like a freight train.

"Tom... please don't do this..." Tom says nothing, enveloping himself in stone cold silence, and Edd takes a step forward, pleading with his eyes, "Please..."

For just a moment there's an air of hesitation around Tom, but before Edd can even begin to react there's a hand on his arm hurriedly dragging him away.

Edd can feel panic rise in his chest and struggles to stop their momentum, to turn back to Tom, "N-no, wait! I need to- let me go! I need to stop hi-" He suddenly finds himself on the ground, the cheek that isn't bleeding now throbbing with sharp spikes of pain.

"Are you a fucking idiot?!" A hand grabs the lapel of his coat and he's suddenly face to face with a very angry and terribly afraid Eduardo. "Do you want to get yourself killed? Is that it?!"

Edd stares up at him in stunned silence and Eduardo grits his teeth. "Get up! We need to retreat! I didn't follow you all these years just so you could die here like an absolute moron!"

Edd flinches but reaches out to grab the hand offered to him.

Agonizing pain suddenly blooms in his shoulder and he screams. With a hand on the wound to stem the bleeding, he looks back at Tom, gun still aimed straight at him. Tom seems frozen for a moment before he starts moving towards them.

"Shit!" Eduardo curses, forcefully hoisting Edd onto his feet by his uninjured arm and running with his idiotic leader's arm still in his grasp.

The world passes Edd by in a haze of agony, both physical and emotional, and he loses sight of any blue in the chaos of his retreating forces.

He loses sight of him...

Edward snapped back to reality through the spiking pain of his jaw, clenched so forcefully as he lost himself in bad memories that he could feel his teeth creaking. He very slowly released the tension in his jaw until the pain lowered to a dull throb.

He dragged a hand down his face, releasing an explosive sigh. He really shouldn't be going on trips down memory lane, the place was a fucking shithole. What he needed was a distraction (answers would've been nice too but he'd long ago accepted that you couldn't always get what you wanted).

The sound of steps caught his attention and he raised his torso so he could see over the back of the couch. A few seconds later Edd entered the living room and paused when he saw Edward, smiling sheepishly.

"Ah, sorry, did I wake you?"

Edward blinked and realized there was pale light filtering through the windows. It was already morning.

"Uh, no, couldn't sleep." Edward responded after a moment.

Edd shot him a mildly concerned look, "Are you alright?"

Edward sighed, "Yeah, just... thinking... What are you doing up this early anyway?" he quirked an inquiring eyebrow and Edd cringed, raising a hand to rub at his eye. Apparently he wasn't fully awake yet.

"Ringo was sitting on my chest and I woke up because I couldn't breathe."

Edward looked down at the mention of Ringo but shook himself out his depressive spiral before it could even start properly, helped by Edd suddenly piping up, "I thought I might as well do the groceries since we're running out of food. Want to come?"

Edward considered for a moment. "Yeah, sure. I could use some fresh air anyway." he said and got up as Edd nodded. "Let me just get my coat."

Edd looked him over and smiled in amusement, "You're going out in a T-shirt, sweatpants and a leather trench coat?"

Edward shrugged, "What can I say, I have an amazing sense of fashion." he said as he put on the coat.

Edd snorted, keys in hand, and went out the door, "Amazing alright." he muttered.

Edward hurriedly finished putting on his shoes and went after him, closing the front door as he did. They walked to the store in comfortable silence.

"Soooooo," Edward started as he glanced sideways at the younger man, content smile becoming cat-like, "You and the Matts, huh?"

Edd sputtered in shock at the sudden inquiry and almost tripped over his own two feet, ears red. He glared up accusingly at a gleefully smirking Edward, "There's nothing going on there and you know it."

Edward hummed in mocking thoughtfulness, "True." he admitted, "There's nothing there. Yet."

Edd rolled his eyes and threw his hands up in exasperation. "Whatever. I don't have to listen to this."

Edward chuckled, "Take it from your future self, Edd. You're a sucker for big blue eyes and freckles."

Edd hid his probably burning face in his hands and released an over-dramatic groan as they finally reached the store. "Shut uuuuuuup!" They went in and walked directly to the drinks aisle, they had priorities after all. Edd squinted up at Edward awkwardly, "And anyway, if that's our- your type, why Eduardo of all people?"

The older man barked out a startled laugh and almost dropped the large bottle of cola he was holding, "Hah, going directly for the heart of the issue, I see." he said with a small smirk and snickered a bit more as Edd sputtered, "Well, the thing with Eduardo is a bit different. For one, we didn't...we didn't really have an actual relationship. It was an on and off thing..." he trailed off with a wistful look on his face.

Edd cringed as he grabbed a pack of spaghetti but his curiosity won over, "Yeah, okay, but why him?"

Edward hummed in thought, "You know, all that arrogance and hostility and bravado, it's mostly just a front. But it's pretty hard to see past all of that. After Jo- after he joined up with us... we were all a bit broken, in one way or another, and we were forced to spend a lot of time together. You get to know a lot about a person when you live in close quarters with them for a while. Eduardo..." he thought for a moment, "... he's a good listener, if you let him. He comforted anyone who needed it, he was practically the base's therapist, as weird as that sounds." he chuckled in remembrance. "If he wants to help you, he'll do it even at a cost to himself. He doesn't take shit from anyone. He's a brilliant strategist but his first priority was always getting everyone back safely. He can be very gentle, he just doesn't like to 'show weakness' or some bullshit. And he can't deal well with loss, even less with rejection. I think I hurt him a lot when I went for Matthew, but I didn't get to talk to him about it before he..." he trailed off mournfully.

Edd looked both fascinated and positively uncomfortable at this point as he fiddled with a pack of tomatoes so Edward sighed and decided to leave it at that.

"...so you're saying you just have dig really, really, really, really, really deep?"

Edward chuckled, "Pretty much."

They'd gathered everything they needed so Edd stood in line to pay while Edward trailed behind him, "Sounds like too much effort for a total prat." he remarked lightly.

"True." Edward shrugged, but didn't elaborate. Instead shot Edd a wry smile and ruffled his hair just to annoy him. "Am I making you uncomfortable?"

Edd yelped and punched his arm, then turned around to the bemused cashier to pay for their groceries. Edward just laughed, the bastard.

The walk back home was spent mostly in contemplative but not uncomfortable silence, both of them lost in thought. When they reached the house, Edd absently pulled out his keys and opened the front door to the sounds of someone panicking. They both frowned and entered the house.

Matt was in standing in the middle of the living room, too panicked to string together a coherent sentence, and Tom was trying to calm him down.

"Guys, what's going on?" Edd asked.

Tom looked up and seemed relieved at their arrival. "I don't know! He started running around the house and yelling something!"

Edd's frown deepened and he dropped the groceries on the floor in favor of walking up to Matt and grabbing him by a shoulder, his other hand going to his chin and forcing Matt to look at him.

"Matt, calm down. What's going on?"

The redhead seemed on the verge of an absolute freakout, eyes wide and alarmed, "I don't- Edd, oh my god! It's Thomas and Matthew, I don't-!"

"Breathe, Matt."

"I- I- Thomas just barged into my room, he looked really freaked out and he had his gun out and he was yelling something about a prison and then Matthew was freaking and pulled a gun out of nowhere and then they left, Edd! They left, they're gone, I have no idea where they went!"

Edd's grip slackened.

Oh.

AN:

ITS TIME

(psst! tell me what you think in the comments! and talk to me on tumblr)

and to Fire, my very first (guest) reviewer on this site: thanks for the suggestion! but ive already got something planned for those two ;)