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Tom and Edd have mostly gotten used to their friend's metaphorical death. It gets hard to mourn someone when they're still alive and living with you.
It was hard at first. Getting names wrong, just not getting things he should. He's a raging narcissistic idiot.
The old Matt is dead, to put it anything but lightly.
Sometimes Tom just wants to make him mad,even though it's stupid, it's unhealthy, it isn't Matt's fault. He just wants Matt to be mad back, to stop whining when he's upset, to fucking do something back. He would take Matt trying to kill him to this, some days.
But he copes. He mourns a living man,but he copes.
Edd deals with it better. He's always rolled with the punches, just pushed the past behind him because that's where the past is supposed to be. He dealt with Tord leaving,he dealt with Tord coming back, he can deal with everything Tord fucked up.
He ruined their lives in many ways, why not one of his friend's memories?
He's another reminder he never should've let Tord back into the house. He'd almost wonder if Tord regretted giving the dumbass a memory-erasing gun if he didn't know Tord was a heartless asshole.
Matt knows something's off. They expect him to laugh when there's no joke he can pick out. He can't quite get why they're still surprised at his mirrors and portraits and photos of himself when that's all he's ever known. He isn't so stupid as to not realize something's wrong. He isn't stupid, he knows he isn't. Just because he forgets things doesn't mean he's stupid, and he hopes his friends know that too.
It's been about a year since Tord had fucked up everything again, and to take some tension off, Edd thinks it would be a good idea to watch some movies they hadn't in a while.
Tom storms off after some comment Matt makes about someone who gets bitten in a zombie movie and not telling his friends being selfish. It's nothing, it's dumb, and Tom knows thats nothing he should get mad about, especially when he chose the movie and the people in it are stupid anyways. There was no way Matt had any idea he was pressing a nerve. But whatever, like Matt wouldn't have gotten them all killed on purpose if it weren't for Tord literally being refused from the afterlife and getting that magic book again. What the hell kind of world is he in, he thinks, where he's more mad at Matt than Tord?
Matt waits until Tom is for sure in his flat, far away from the couch in Edd's. He hears the door slam.
"What are you two not telling me?"
"Huh?" Edd flicks through the channels, keeping his eyes on the TV.
"You two are hiding something, I know you are!" He sounds more whiny than angry.
"I have no clue what you're talking about. Tom's just mad you think the movie he chose is dumb. He's drunk."
"I just want to know what I'm doing wrong to make him hate me."
"Tom hates everyone."
"I'm going to bed."
Matt grabs his coat, not waiting for a response.
He'll probably forget why he was angry by the morning,anyways.
The situation doesn't sit right with Edd. He convinced Tom this was for the best. He had to convince himself it was for the best, honestly. There was no use in Matt feeling like he needed to be someone he wasn't,especially after more than a decade of hiding it.
Edd knocks on Tom's door. Not hard enough that it'd wake him if he was asleep. He's pretty sure Matt is dead asleep by now. He hopes at least Matt can get some sleep.
Tom opens the door, looking more sober than Edd thought he'd be. He's sober enough to walk without stumbling and keep his eyes fully open, so it's better than a lot of saturday nights.
Tom doesn't ask what's wrong. He turns on the TV, grabs a bottle, flops on the couch and waits for Edd to start talking.
"Do you think we should've told him?"
"...Do you think we should?"
"It's too late to do that now. I think. It's been years. I don't think he'd trust us for the rest of his life, if he even remembers it."
Tom takes a long sip out of the bottle.
"You can't just storm out like that. I told him it was because you called his movie dumb, but eventually he's not gonna believe me. I don't think he even believed me then."
"I know, that was stupid. I'm stupid." He takes another swig. "I'll apologize in the morning."
"...Wait to see if he remembers first. I don't- I don't think he will. I hope he doesn't. Or- ...I don't know. I want things to go back to normal." Edd shoves his face in his hands.
Tom taps Edd on the shoulder with the bottle then passes it over. "You need this more than me,buddy." They sit there, not quite paying attention to whatever stupid sitcom is on until they hear the door creak.
"...Are you two watching something in here?" It's Matt, because of course it is. Edd passes the bottle back to Tom before he can step in all the way.
"Uhhhhh. Yes." Tom scoots over to the middle, leaving a side of the couch open.
"I've been, uh, in my room all night,I think, and I thought I'd see what you two were doing." Edd breathes a guilty sigh of relief.
"Just watching some stupid show. I don't really even know what it is. I am way too drunk to be paying attention to a soap opera." Tom scratches his face for a second,looking for what else to say. "Sorry for being a dick, all the time."
"Huh?"
"Just, like, in general."
"You aren't worse than Edd. He chased me out of the room the other day because he said I stole the remote. It was in his pocket." He snickers. Edd flings a couch pillow at him.
"Hey! If I can't fight people while I'm drunk, you two can't fight when I'm drunk."
Matt shrugs. He ignores the space Tom cleared off for him and instead leans on the arm of the couch and stretches his legs over Tom and halfway over Edd.
It'll be okay for now, Edd thinks a few minutes later. Matt's asleep,halfway falling off the couch, and Tom's close enough to sleep.
He can work things out.