Through the Cat Flap

Oh, the life of a cat. So sweet. So relaxed. What was it like, Edd wondered as he watched his little grey feline slink around the corner, treading lightly on his little kitty paws. Ringo didn't know this was running through his mind, however.

He leapt up into the air, landing on one of the cardboard boxes by the wall, and what a tense air it was. Electric. He could feel it in the long whiskers on his face, nearly taste it on the roof of his mouth. He flicked his long tail and continued to climb until he reached the topmost box, staring down at the scene below him with a bright emerald eye.

There were eight people this time. Two in blue. Two in purple. Two in green. And two in red. The two in red sat tensely away from the two in blue; one in purple sat near one in blue, and the two in green sat closer to the two in red than the rest.

A different, smaller silver-grey tabby cat landed next to Ringo, making him shift to the side of the box as she sniffed him. The collar around her neck was adorned with a little silver bell, red ribbon, and license that read "Regina".

She mewled a little, and he meowed in return, making Edd and Ell glance up at their pets before returning their attention to their situation.

Tord was sitting on the couch opposite them, hands clasped together, elbows on his knees, and leaning forward, avoiding looking at anyone. Tori had her knees pulled up to her chest, arms wrapped around her legs as she stared avidly at the lamp on the floor. Matt stared also at the floor. Matilda gazed into space, blue eyes flicking occasionally to Tom, who sat beside her. He and Tamara sat tensely a foot apart, blank eyes boring identical holes in places just to the sides of the heads of the two clad in red.

"So… Why'd you leave?" Edd asked softly, avoiding Tord's eyes. "How come you didn't get arrested?"

"We made a trade," Tord answered, equally quietly. "I didn't like what I was doing. Made some mistakes."

"That's an understatement." Tom spat. Tord winced a little before continuing.

"Red General wanted us to do something we didn't agree with. I only started realizing… I thought I knew what I wanted. I thought… I was ready. I wouldn't have any regrets. And then… I tried to kill you all and…"

"Red General was a liar," Tori continued for him. "Red General would say that all I wanted was possible if I just completed the mission. He lied, he lied to me. He lied to him." She gestured at Tord, who nodded his own head in agreement.

"Killing… Is a lot easier to the innocent than to the guilty," he finished. Ringo mewled again.

"So how come you're here?" Matilda asked.

"Lying low," Tori answered. "We gave the government a lot of information. Plenty of people want us dead because of who we are, and because we defected from the Red Army as higher-ups." She paused looking at Tord. "That is so weird saying "we". I thought I was the only person who ever did this sort of thing."

"Same," Tord smiled weakly before licking his lips and looking back down.

Regina's collar gave a merry chime that did not belong with this heavy conversation as she jumped down onto the couch below. She rubbed up against Tori's shoulders, gave Tord an appraising look, and then rubbed herself against his arm, completely at her ease with the two look-alikes. Edd watched as his own cat settled himself on the top box, continuing his relaxed surveyance of the room.

Silence.

For almost five minutes that felt like an eternity… An eternity and a half.

They stared at their shoes, at each other's shoes, at the lamp in the corner, at something that wasn't there on the ceiling, at the blank wall, at their hands, nobody making any form of eye contact. Ringo watched Matilda as she shot covert glances at Tom, each time turning a faint pink before looking back at her knees or the wall opposite him, where sat Tord and Tori, rocking back and forth with nervousness.

It was a silence thicker and harder than the Christmas pudding Edd's grandmother made last year, which had to be cut with a chainsaw before it could be served.

"Well…" Edd said at last, a little nervously, a little hoarsely. "I guess we can't sit here doing nothing for the rest of the day." He stood, looking Tord in the face, his expression unreadable. That was something about Edd, and shared by Ell as she stood as well; no matter how much of a jokester he was, no matter how enthusiastic, no matter how kindly, no matter naive he could be, Edd was by no means an idiot. And he could hide, if he wanted.

"Tord… I'm… I don't know. You… You hurt us a lot when you left. There's no repayment you can give us for that pain that you caused. You killed Jon. You almost killed Tom and Matt and I… I thought we were friends. I don't trust you anymore."

Tord nodded, but looked at Edd full in the face for the first time as he continued speaking.

"But… Trust can be earned. Are you willing to work for it?"

"Yes…"

Ringo stretched and yawned widely as down below, a group of humans sobbed into one another's shoulders, holding each other tightly as though reunited after an age apart, and a silver-grey she-cat left the house through the cat flap, out into a new world.

A/N Lol. Welp. Yep. It happened. I hope I've cleared up any big questions about how everyone met each other, and how Tord and Tori came back! Now everything should be pretty non-linear, sometimes not even have anything to do with the originally non-existent story, which is sort of an underlying plot now. Hope you enjoy my trash :P

This was a request from the lovely 100meredith! Thanks. Go comment , people. Send me some requests and prompts! :D Boi!