The Exception

"So one more time, it's Ell, Matilda, and Tamara, right?"

The girl with the short brown hair nodded with a wide smile, as did her red-headed friend. "Yep. And you're Edd, Matt, and Tom, right?"

"Uh-huh." Tom took a swig from his flask before making a face like he had drunk something bitter. "My gosh, this is way too weird. I swear I'm drunk of something and this is just a weird dream."

"Same," agreed Tamara, shoving her hands in her pockets and leaning heavily against the back of the sofa.

They were all sitting in Edd, Matt, and Tom's living room, which was strewn with half empty boxes and old sweets wrappers that had probably been there since the day they had first started moving in. Matt and Matilda were sitting close together, comparing selfies and taking new ones together. Tom had stretched himself out on the couch that Tamara was leaning up against. And Edd and Ell were both standing in the midst of it all, obviously feeding off the wonder of it all, with eyes wide and shining.

"So… What now?" Tom asked in the awkward silence that had followed. "Do they, like, go back to their own dimension thingy, or… What?"

"I think we should get to know eachother better!" Ell said excitedly, pulling a card game out of nowhere and smiling more brightly than before.

"Ell, where did you even get that?" Tamara asked with an annoyed air, raising a hand to her face in exasperation.

"I have no idea," she answered, her expression hardly faltering as she spoke through clenched teeth.

"Well, I think that's a fun idea!" Matilda said from where she sat by Matt, taking her phone out of his hands and jumping into the air. "What game is it, Ellie?"

"Exploding Kittens!" Ell said grandly, swiping everything off the coffee table with a huge clatter, and slamming the small cardboard box on it instead. "Tamara, Tom, come here. We're playing a game."

Grumbling and groaning, Tom rolled off the couch and onto the floor. Tamara came more nervously forward before planting herself in between Matilda and Ell. Edd sat between Matt, who was by Matilda, and Tom, who had dragged himself to to table, and took another deep drink of whatever concoction he had hidden in his metal flask.

The game was as intense as it was idiotic and random. Tacocat palindromes, unicorn burritos, lasers, fortune telling goats, the silly card game was something like Nyan Cat met whatever was under Tom's bed. But it was fun, they had to admit. They continued to play until Matt, Ell, Matilda, and Tom were out, leaving only Tamara and Edd locked in a game of Russian Roulette featuring cats eating time-bombs. There were two cards left.

Edd stared intensely at Tamara's empty eyes. How similar they were to Tom's in that they were heavy with tiredness or intoxication. The blue shadows underneath were barely hidden by the thin layer of makeup, and framed with black mascara. It was frightening how Edd could certainly see Tom wearing chain ear cuff earrings and not caring if a black strap was revealed by the blue jacket falling off a shoulder if her were a girl. Edd glanced once again at the strap before his eyes snapped back to her face, slightly horrified at what he had done.

"Wow Edd, you're turning red," Matt said unhelpfully. Edd glared at him.

"Fifty-fifty chance of dying, huh nerd?" Tamara said, grinning wickedly. "Nervous?"

"What? No, why would I-, I mean, why the heck should I-I," Edd spluttered, waving an airy hand at her. She laughed. He liked her laugh. It was like Tom's, and yet, it wasn't. It was different. Nicer.

He reached forward for the card, and promptly exploded.

Tom and Matt both started rolling on the floor with laughter as Edd slammed his head on the table with a groan. Ell and Matilda cheered and joined them laughing. Edd's shoulders shook with laughter at finally having lost the game, and looked at Tamara.

She was smiling.

And that made him happy.

It was an unexplainable happiness. A senseless pleasure. A light that filled him to the brim for no reason and with no logic whatsoever.

He wasn't the one who really believed in love at first sight.

But he supposed… Well, maybe, just maybe, this could be the exception.

A/N sorry to you all who hate these ships already. This is happening. And there ain't nothing you can do about it, either OwO ALL of these chapters are probably gonna be silly and ridiculously short, so... Yeah. One-shots and fluff.

This was also a request by MissMouskateer (sorry, I didn't moderate your review in time QAQ). Just a first reactions chapter. Honestly, this has become less of a one-shot series, more of a story, lawlz Maybe it'l be a bunch of one-shots with an underlying plot *WINK WONK* IF YA CATCH MAH DRIFT COUGH COUGH

ANYWAYS, please, send me some requests, I'll credit you in the annotation of course. Coz I AM TAKING REQUESTS AND PROMPTS! the ships I am taking are: Edd x Tamara (as shown above), Tom x Matilda, Matt x Tori, and Tord x Ell. Go nuts, and thanks!