Chapter Text
“C’mon!” Tom stuffs his bass into his hoodie, papers flying out onto the ground. He tries desperately to pick them all up, not caring about the messiness with which he shoves them back down his pockets. If that weren’t frustrating enough, he can’t even find his phone, and he spends a solid ten minutes searching. Once he’s got confirmation it’s nowhere in his room, he brings his search to the living room, tossing Edd’s work uniform off the couch to shuffle his arm between the cushions. As he’s sifting through, hoping not to touch anything wet, Edd’s voice calls out to him.
“Tom? Missing something?” Tom straightens up, watching as Edd buttons up an uncharacteristically fancy velvet green dress shirt with deeper green floral patterns all along it. He’s also wearing black dress shoes, the bright bulb above reflecting off them. Tom eyes the attire, noticing Edd’s still wearing his khakis, though his lesserly paint-stained ones.
“Thought you just got off work?” He questions. Edd takes a moment to eye his own wear, shaking his head.
“This isn’t for work. I’m going on a date.” He chuckles as he folds back the sleeves on his shirt. Tom quirks his head back in surprise.
“A date ?? With who?” He tries to sound less annoyed than he is, making himself look uninterested by pulling back the couch to keep looking for his phone underneath it.
“I don’t really have time to talk, I’m already late as hell. I’ll tell you all about it after.” With that, Edd takes off. Tom, for a moment, grumbles at the annoying nature of Edd not telling him of this. Even after finding his phone behind the back folds of the couch, he’s still quite grumpy. Yet, hearing the car start up jolts him out of his seat. He hurries for the door, but is already too late as Edd’s moved out of the driveway and furthering down the street. DAMN IT! Tom needed the car... He bangs his head on the doorway.
“Uh... Are you okay?” Matt asks, spreading some beans on a piece of toast.
“No! Edd just took me and Laurel’s ride to our venue!” Tom huffs, heading closer to Matt so he won’t have to yell.
“You have a venue?” Matt cocks his head, not actually looking at Tom while he asks it.
“Yeah, we’re gonna play in some old pub diner, they’re letting us write something original to play tonight so this is important!”
“Why didn’t one of you schedule around the other?”
“Because Edd never told me he was going on a date! And I.... uh... accidentally, maybe, might have forgotten to tell him I was playing someplace.” Tom shuffles on his feet, turning away from Matt despite that the other wasn’t even facing him himself. Matt takes a huge bite out of his bean-y bread.
“Souns like bof your faul’s.” Matt tries to say with his mouth stuffed full.
“Huh? Sorry, couldn’t hear you through your cow-like munching.” Tom brushes him off, scrolling through contacts on his phone. He gets to Laurel and hits call, heading away from a now quite annoyed Matt for more privacy.
A few seconds pass of a blasted ringtone beating Laurel over the head, telling her to get up from her daylong nap. She groans, every shuffle waking her slightly more until eventually she’s sat up on her bedside. She grabs her phone and answers.
“Whaa...” Her voice comes with a slight fry from her mouth’s dryness. Tom speaks on the other end.
“Laurel, change of plans, I can’t pick you up.” He says.
She quickly wakes up at that, “What? Why?”
“Edd took the car, we’ll need to find another way to get there.”
“Crap...” Laurel rubs her eyes, sitting up. “I’m pretty sure the bus will be running at this hour but I’ll need to get dressed quick.”
“Which stop?” Tom sounds impatient on the other end. Laurel stretches a second before responding.
“Closer to mine, you’ll need to run over here.”
Tom double checks to make sure he’s not forgetting anything, then makes his way out the door in a sprint. He tries to keep a pace that won’t wipe him out, and perhaps with the help of a bit of Tom-like teleporting capabilities, he’s at a bus stop in no time. He sees an old woman sitting at the bench.
“Hey, is this bus going to ‘The Truffletop’?” He asks her, she looks confused for a moment before shaking her head.
“No, I don’t think so...” She says. Tom groans.
“Damn it!!” He exclaims, then skirts out and directly to another bus stop, this time a man leans on the signpole.
“Does this stop at the ‘The Truffletop’ pub?”
The man shakes his head.
“DAMN IT!!!”
Laurel checks her hair, roots only slightly visible up top, which she enjoys. It’d be pretty hard to maintain a consistent dying routine with her monetary struggles. Besides, with how her fine motor skills are now, she’s better putting it off until later. She’d suffered a lot from her injuries working on the set of ‘Space Cats: The Movie’, or rather after the work on set. She still gets queasy with the idea of wearing shoes again. She slips on her flip flops and goes to make a sandwich. Realising only then that she never ate dinner last night, flies already swarming her meal. She quickly scoops and tosses the spaghetti.
What was she doing again? God, her head hurts. She can’t remember where her medication is, so she tosses her gaze around the room and sees a bright pink sticky note that reads ‘Pills In Bedroom Drawer - If Out Call Dr. Droofas - 0191-345-843’. Right, those sticky notes really were handy. She could thank Edd for the idea. She goes and swallows a pill and almost forgets to put them back in the drawer. Hopefully she’ll have regained herself enough by the time she has to leave. She doesn’t want to fall over in the harsh London streets she used to be so talented at beating. Just before she brings herself to that, however, she quickly remembers her instrument. She hurries back to her room to grab the trumpet shaped case before finally skirting out of her apartment complex.
Tom, after many, many other tries, hops somewhere else, frantically turning to someone. “This? The Truffletop?? Go???” He’s sweating.
“Nope.” The blue-haired woman says with a poorly hidden smile.
“ DAMN ITT!!!! ” Tom bolts again, but quickly comes back from the same direction he entered, falling back on the bench unamused. “Hey, Laurel.”
“Heya,” she chuckles, checking the time on her phone. “Shouldn’t be long before it comes by.” As she predicted, it was a short while before the bus came to their spot. They both get on without much fuss, though Tom is still ticked at the day in general. He nearly bites someone who stands a bit too close to him. Laurel catches on to this attitude.
“Nervous?”
“No. Just boiling mad.”
“About the venue? I’m sure we’ll get better ones once we play your cool music.”
“No, it’s- I mean uh... thanks, but no, it’s still Edd. Can’t believe he would just take the car like that.” Tom looks away from her.
“It’s not a big deal, Edd’s not a planner, he probably didn’t think of it.”
“Yea, but he should know how much I love that car!” He huffs. “I want to know when it’s coming or going, leaving or staying. I want to make sure that it’s safe and not doing something stupid that could get us all in trouble, that it’s happy where it is, that it isn’t hiding things from me or lying to me, and most importantly that I don’t have to be around a bunch of smelly pervs on a bus.” Tom takes cautious glances at a greasy sat man scratching his own crotch. Laurel, a bit lost, answers to Tom with confusion.
“What is with you and objects?” Laurel bemuses, while giving him a strange look.
“What? Nothing. Shut up.” He deflects quickly, facing away from her. Tom decides instead to look out the window. The view is obscured by the people sandwiched together in front of it, though he makes out a street sign or two. Despite some elbowing and a few people using him and Laurel as armrests, they get out of the bus ok. Laurel exits first, swinging along her trumpet case and accidentally hitting someone’s hip with it. She apologises and follows Tom as he leaves. They walk side by side the rest of the way to The Truffletop.
“So, Tom,” Laurel starts.
“Hm?” Tom hums grumpily.
“How’s the new house?”
“Same as the old house.” Tom says, with contempt. “Literally exactly the same.” He can’t really bear to think of the place, and how much he feels he’s regressing from being there.
“Yea... how’s that going? I figured it’d be a bit traumatic going back there after it got blown up...” She plays with a button on her jacket, looking at Tom while noticing he’s avoiding her gaze. A small amount of worry grazes her expression, yet Tom is discomforted by it. He scrunches his face a moment, an attempt to hide his inner thoughts from Laurel.
“Nope. It’s fine.” He responds.
“Cool. I should come over some time. My place is still a crappy apartment.” She answers, not really noticing Tom’s lack of enthusiasm.
“Would love to have you.” Tom says absentmindedly, finally seeing the title of the pub from the corner of his view. He feels a breath push out from his chest, slightly speeding up. Through the silence of the walk up the parking lot, Laurel points out a red car, and it makes Tom pause a moment.
“Hey, that looks kinda like your car!” She chuckles. Tom takes a look at it and, sure enough, it’s the exact same model in the exact same colour. That car doesn’t come in that shade of red, he knows because he remembers when they sprayed it and a certain someone got red paint all over his clothes and hands. Tom scowls, but they don’t think of the memories too long before they read the license plate. Wait... That IS their car! Which means... Tom hurries inside, scanning the tables for, sure enough, Edd... Sat laughing and talking with...
The mechanic they met on Wrong Way Lane? Tom’s shock leaves their sockets wide. Laurel glances at him before following his gaze to Edd’s table.
“Oh! That’s what Edd needed the car for!” She examines, smiling wide. “Awww, he’s got a date!”
“Yeah, a date with a guy who tried to KILL us!” Tom huffs, crossing his arms. Laurel is barely surprised by the news.
“Well, you guys nearly killed me and I’m still hanging around you.” She shrugs.
“That was Shoe!!” defends Tom, though Laurel simply goes to Edd to strike up a chat.
“Heyyy!” She waves at him, leaning in on their table. Tom begrudgingly follows her, hiding behind her figure. Edd turns to her and gasps.
“Laurel?? What are you doing here?” Edd smiles, craning his neck to see Tom grumpily standing behind her. “Tom! Hey! Are you two playing here ?? Tonight ??” Laurel nods, and Edd seems a little hurt. “Tom never told me!”
“Sorry, who’s this?” Edd’s date interjects.
“Oh, you met Tom,” Edd points to his mentioned friend, “they’re the person I was with when you-”
“I mean the one with the dyed hair.”
Edd looks at both Tom and Laurel, Laurel’s hair dyed blue with obvious roots, and Tom’s bleached into a light brown, only clear by his deep brown-black brows. He, again, looks to his date, this time with confusion. The man sighs.
“The girl.” He points to Laurel, “that one.”
“I’m Tom’s bandmate, Laurel!” She holds a hand out for him to shake, “I play trumpet. I also have memory issues. I also have issues with oversharing. Nice to meet you!” She says all while smiling. The man looks down at her hand with slight contempt, shaking it quickly before retreating to his seat again. “And you’re Edd’s date? Name isss...?” After a beat of silence from Edd’s date and the unknown man looking over to him with displeasure, Edd chuckles.
“He’s shy,” Edd states, rolling his eyes playfully. Though his date seems less than pleased with that descriptor. “This is Caleb. I met him when Tom and I were looking for a tire to fix our flat.” Edd turns back to Caleb with his arms on the table, resting his head in his palms with a smile. “He tried to feed us to a plant monster and...” Edd sighs romantically, “...the rest is history.”
“Well, you killed that bastard, and I’m pretty indebted to you for that,” Caleb leans in, a slight smirk on his face. He gives Edd an up and down with his eyes. “Besides, who could pass up such a persistent charmer?” He and Edd both giggle, Laurel clasps her hands together smiling. Tom does a fake gag, with his finger pointed down his throat, but nobody notices.
“That’s such an interesting way to meet, so glad it worked out well!” Laurel gushes. Edd nods.
“Aaand, what’s with the venue choice for you guys? You two planning to play the only love song Tom will ever sing?” Edd teasingly asks. Tom stands shocked and confused.
“What???” He yelps, hoping to have misinterpreted his friend.
“They’ve got a discount going on for two person seating,” Caleb gestures to all the tables with two people sitting, most looking lovingly at one another, “lots of couples here tonight. Seems that’d be why they're finding bands to play music.” Tom also notices the band playing currently, doing a slow, jazzy song clearly soaked in romantic tension.
“Yeah!” Edd excitedly agrees. “So what’re you playing? Something new?” Tom grips their hoodie strings tightly.
“I... I guess I just accepted without really reading up on the finer details...” He mutters, to Laurel mostly. Edd shrugs.
“Eh, it’s fine! You can just cover some romance stuff and get that paycheck, well and good!”
Tom stays silent, looking at Laurel. She seems to realise his concern and quickly decides to wrap up the conversation.
“Well, we should go set up, see you lovebirds later!” She says, grabbing Tom’s wrist and moving with them to the staff only door. An employee is sitting on a chair beside it with a clipboard. Seeing them, he looks at the list.
“Are you a band? Give your band name.” The man announces, bouncing his foot on the ground.
“Checkerbored.” Tom answers.
“Spelt?”
“C-H-E-K-R-B-O-R-E-D. All caps.”
“Okay,” he takes a key from the lanyard around his neck and unlocks the door, “Come in, set up. You’re on in half an hour.” Tom’s anxiety jumps at the time frame, but that’s what they get for being late. It’s Edd’s fault, Tom thinks. Him and his stupid date. Despite it, Tom and Laurel hurry in and Tom takes his bass out of his pocket to place it on the nearby folding table.
Laurel sighs, “I wish I could do that...” but Tom is too frantic to listen, looking over a few stapled together papers with more and more worry. He begins organising notes from his pockets with lyrics scratched onto them, pleadingly scanning through and stacking them next to his bass. Laurel slowly comes to his side, giving him an empathetic frown.
“You okay, Tom?” She inquires, resting a hand on his shoulder. Tom immediately whips around, shaken and frustrated.
“N-nothing! Yeesh, I- I knew I should’ve read the contract...” He grips fistfuls of his own hair. Laurel tries to look at the notes herself, yet the pattern Tom seems worried by is lost on her.
“What?”
“We need a LOVE song, Laurel! I don’t WRITE those!! I don’t have any on hand, I don’t even know where to start with writing one! I- I....” He sinks more and more with every word. The first real gig he’s ever had, and he’s blown it. And not only that, Edd’s going to know he blew it. Edd’s going to wonder why he didn’t come on stage and play and he’ll just have to tell his best friend what an idiotic failure he is. All because he can’t imagine what it’s like to have a person to go on a date with, all because he can’t just love someone and be normal in one aspect. He squeezes his eyes shut.
“Tom, c’mon. We can think of something.” Laurel squats down beside him, a few notes in hand. She slips through each of them, then grabs a pen from a cup on the same table, and clicks the end. “What if we edit a song you already made?”
“Isn’t that just a cover again?”
“Well, nobody’s heard the original, have they? They’ll still see your musical talents, that’s what’s important, right?” Laurel smiles hopefully.
Tom sighs, still hanging his head, though more relaxed now. “I still wouldn’t know where to even start with lyric ideas...”
“We can work together on that. I’ve listened to plenty of love songs, I know the general gist...”
Tom chuckles. “Ah, yeah. Two aromantics writing a romance song, it’ll be a breeze.” Sarcasm thick in his voice. Regardless, he just rests with a smile. “Don’t really have a choice though, huh?”
Laurel helpfully nods, so they pick up what they have, and grab a nearby whiteboard to brainstorm ideas. They write a few basic ideas and words, whatever they can come up with that speaks “romance”. Laurel constantly has to erase Tom just putting a bunch of random objects on the board like “coconut” and “tree” and “wood chipper”. She swears she sees him drool a little while he squeaks the marker writing that last one. Still, she writes a few obvious things. “Holding”, “happy”, “together”, “I love you”. She rubs her temple trying to imagine scenarios to take that in. Tom crosses out “I love you”.
“What? That’s a pretty romantic term.” Laurel says.
“I’m not comfortable telling a bunch of strangers I love them.” Tom turns up his nose. He squints at the whiteboard. “I’m also not comfortable with the whiteboard telling me he loves me.”
“Tom...” Laurel sighs. “I get it, but this will be a song about loving the person the song is “for”, not the audience. Or the whiteboard.” Tom nervously looks away from her. “It’s about being generic enough that all the couples can project their own relationship on it, but with just enough detail to feel genuine.”
“Look, I don’t wanna edit it too much. This song...” Tom looks down at the paper he’s holding, clenching it, “...it means a lot to me...”
“I understand. Lets just do what you’re comfortable with.” She answers, yet Tom purses his lips.
“But... I want people to like us, too. So maybe one L word will do...”
“Really?”
Tom nods, shrugging, “Whatever gets us the money.”
“Yeahhh, that’s the spirit! Capitalism!” Laurel declares, before they high five and stuff.
Edd taps his foot, not out of nerves, but just because he feels a great need to. Despite this, his date holds his hand, rubbing it with his thumb. Though he doesn’t need it, it’s still a nice touch. Edd smiles as people around them applaud the finished performance on stage. Caleb eyes it for a moment.
“Are your friends on next?” He asks. Edd tilts his head in thought.
“Not sure... Tom didn’t even tell me they’d be playing a gig today...”
“Weird... They couldn’t have forgotten, could they?”
“I dunno... He’s definitely not the brightest bulb, but he’s a pretty sharp tool.” Edd answers, resting his arm on the back of his chair. Caleb squints at the puzzling answer, yet soon Edd’s friend’s band comes up on the stage.
Tom plugs his laptop into an amp with his bass and adjusts the microphone. Laurel readies her trumpet, wrapping her lips around the mouthpiece. Edd sits up, on the edge of his seat to watch the performance. His date is more nonchalant, though when Tom looks at the two of them, they both wave. Edd quite enthusiastically. Laurel meets him with a wave of similar energy, but Tom just continues setting up.
He clicks a key on the laptop, and then adjusts to put his fingers on the strings of his guitar. He nods through the simple jazzy beat, being brought out by one amp, then starts strumming, sending music to the second amp. Laurel also joins when her beats come in, and they perfectly play the notes. Edd nods along to the music, knowing he’s heard this specific beat being practiced in Tom’s room before. Still, he hasn’t exactly paid attention to it enough to know its lyrics.
“What genre is this?” Caleb asks, clearly trying to find amusement in the sound that just isn’t coming. Edd grins widely.
“Ska, it’s Tom’s favourite.” And to be quite honest, Tom got Edd into it, too. Though, Tom’s music was a large portion of the ska music he listened to.
“With youuu, just another day in peril with you.” Tom’s voice comes to the mic, just a little slow, yet upbeat. “Dating you’s a ride I won’t get off soon,” Tom tastes soured milk on his tongue at those noises coming out of his voice, quickly glancing at Edd but quick to turn away. He keeps it going. “I’ll get so drunk you’ll have to drag me to my bed again...”
He’s getting antsy, wishing this song weren’t so slow. He notices all the eyes staring at him, only making him more nervous. He doesn’t want to see Edd’s reaction, he doesn’t want to know if Edd recognises the lyrics, if he can put the pieces together.
“Oh, my lover,
You’ll fight while I defend,
Because what’s one more,
One more adventure with you!”
Tom tries to just focus on the beat, and hope he doesn’t mess this up.
“My loverrrrr,
One more adventure, one that never ends,
You crack a joke,
It seems we’re having fun.
So just one more adventure,
Just one more...
But we’re never done...”
Edd focuses intently on the song, feeling strange humour in seeing how Tom tries to tackle “real” romance.
“Oh, we only have ourselves to blame,
I’ll take a flight on down to hell just to get maimed,
To see you laughing at it all,
Ohhhh, I’ll take the fall.”
He’s pondering what kind of object Tom must’ve been thinking of while writing this, almost forgetting he has company until his date nudges his hand.
“A bit of a strange love song, no? Is the adventure and torment stuff all metaphorical or what?”
Edd quirks his head, he honestly wasn’t even paying much attention to the lyrics, he never does. He likes the beats more. He starts to take them in.
“Because what’s oneee more adventure,
When I’m spending it with you.”
“Sounds like it could be about you.” Caleb sourly mumbles, just loud enough for Edd to hear. Edd laughs.
“Maybe! Guess Tom’s only idea of a “love song” is a rearranged best friend song.” He giggles at the thought, though his date seems to find this much less silly.
Tom continues to play his bass while he waits for his next lyrics. He’s surprised he didn’t slip up on the “lover” parts, he knows he didn’t change the lyrics much besides that. Hell, some stuff doesn’t even rhyme anymore. This song is hot garbage. When his doubt sinks him low enough, his first thought is how Edd is feeling. How is Edd? Tom wants to know his thoughts on his music, just not this one... Yet, curious, Tom decides again to look at Edd while singing his next part.
“ I don’t care how much it beats me down. We’ll stick together, just like glue.” The words slip out of his mouth with a slight shake. The first thing he sees from Edd is his date saying something with an odd expression, and then Edd laughing. He’s rolling his eyes as he calms his laughter, and Tom can’t hear what he says back, but he sees Edd shake his head and look Tom up and down with humour...
Mocking . That’s Tom’s first thought. Edd’s mocking him. Again.
His heart starts pounding in his chest, he can’t do this... Edd thinks he’s so stupid because he is . What the hell is this song?? Why is Tom singing it?? Why would he want other people to think he’s into someone??? Why would he want Edd to think...
Suddenly, he remembers he’s meant to be singing the song as Laurel shoots him a quick, nervous look. She’s trying to improvise an extended instrumental with her own trumpet, as Tom has just been strumming the same few notes on his. He shakes off his worries, what were the lyrics again? He looks at the sheet of paper with the lyrics scribbled on. The original ones are scratched out, and the new ones...
God, why did he think this was a good idea?
“Because no matter what you do,” Tom shuts his eyes, head light and limbs weak. Edd must be laughing at him like crazy right now, Edd must think he’s such a loser right now. Why even stay friends after this? Tom’s gut squirms, his eyes are glued shut, his body feels like it’s shifting and shaking and it hurts. “I-I’ll alwaayyyyyysss...” He grips the mic tightly. “L-Love...”
He tosses away the microphone, tears his bass off his torso wildly and drops it at random. The sound makes him clench his head and he rushes backstage.
Edd also stands out of his chair.
“What happened?” Caleb seems more annoyed at the shift.
“I- I dunno... I’ll talk to them...” Edd rushes to do so, meeting with Laurel upstage. “Hey, is Tom okay?” Laurel is left still quite frazzled, though turns to Edd when he speaks.
“Uhm... I don’t know. He was worried about the song...”
“Why??”
Laurel shrugs, “I’ll try seeing if he’s alright. You shouldn’t come with, he seems overwhelmed right now.” She grabs Tom’s bass while speaking, making sure it’s not broken. Well, more broken. She’s not even sure how this thing still plays with all these bandages wrapped around it.
“Ah... I guess I’ll just... get back to my date.”
“Mhm, have fun.” Laurel takes after Tom. Quickly, she finds a storage closet with the door wide open. She slowly peaks inside. She sees his blue hoodie, huddled in the corner. He’s got his hands gripping his hair, yanking at it, unmoving. She’s slow to approach.
“Tom?” She cautiously calls out. Tom writhes around on his knees, whole body clenched like a clam. He’s shaking as if holding something back, until he hears her voice and he turns his head around. Laurel stumbles at the sight of him. His face is shifted, clearly. His eyes are replaced by, or perhaps melded into, one long line, larger than average tears pouring out of it. His mouth looks from the front like it’s gone, though it’s open now under his chin. It’s agape, drooling on the floor with sharp teeth not trapping the saliva inside. His hands are starting to grow claws out of the skin, clearly stained by his blood as they rip out. Every part of him seems to shudder in pain, and he roars. Seemingly in pain though his expression is hard to read. He was strange before, but this is completely alien .
He continues growing and growing. The new, large line on his face opens up into a black hole, taking up a large portion of his head. His body grows thick musculature and scale-like skin to cover itself, almost like a featherless bird or a dinosaur. His jaw protrudes, like a snout. Horns pop from his head, a thousand rows of teeth bare at her. His now blocky shape bares over her, and he roars again as the room becomes too small for his body.
His friend steps back, still unsure what to make of the transformation. Again, Tom was weird but not THIS weird! He was still human, wasn’t he? Suddenly, Tom’s clawed hand swings for her, but she’s quick to dodge and run out. She runs to the stage, and recollects without even noticing the people staring at her. When she finally looks up, she’s embarrassed to find the audience, about to explain herself before Tom crashes into the room from behind her. She jumps off just before his foot smashes right through the stage right where she’d been. Laurel tries to get up after the clumsy fall, almost forgetting about Tom as she attempts to take in breaths. Suddenly, a shadow falls over her. She looks up to see Edd.
“What the hell is that thing doing here?!” Edd gestures to the monster with a frustrated expression. The new Tom turns to him, growling, yet seems to... slink away as he sees Edd’s face.
“Oh great, ANOTHER monster! These things are FOLLOWING me at this point!” Caleb sneers from behind a knocked over table, watching as Tom breaks down a wall.
“Did you know about this??” Laurel asks Edd in a panic.
Edd quickly assures both, “That big monster came up that time Eduardo and I had superpowers,” He sighs, looking down, “It might... It might be after me...” He balls his hands into fists, stepping forward as if heroic. Caleb shimmies back a few steps, while Laurel steps with Edd.
She couldn’t have thought of it, but now that Edd’s reminded her, Eduardo did mention it while she and him were still dating. It must have been a while ago that he said it though, because the memory is fuzzy. Based on how Edd responded, with such contempt at best, she assumes he doesn’t know his origins.
Tom starts stomping toward them, but thankfully, Tom’s distracted by an alarm going off from the speakers on the other corner of the room. Edd and Laurel look at Caleb just as he finishes flipping the zombie outbreak emergency switch. Tom scrambles toward the horrible noise while wrecking anything in his path, and Edd and Laurel meet Caleb behind a farther and larger table. Laurel sees Edd hitting his palm into his fist and looking at Tom fiercely, and realises she should talk before she forgets.
“E-Edd, it’s-!” Laurel attempts to explain, only for Edd to grab her and drag her away from a large clawed hand coming down to crush her. She realises it’s probably not the time for revelations, Tom can explain once he’s back, so instead she opts to ask a question.
“How’d you get rid of them last time??” Laurel asks, preferring not to use “it”, despite that Tom would likely be fine with it. Edd seems to ponder this for a minute, but shrugs.
“Dunno, Eduardo was the one who stopped it... I uh... I passed out.” Edd recalls, rather ashamed.
Oh, right. He did say that when talking about it. Laurel had supposed at the time it was just to make himself sound cooler. That was when she was still getting her brain scans at the hospital, she didn’t even notice the two superpowered men flying around London at the time because of it. She really doesn’t look at the news either. Eduardo was her main source of information for everything up until they broke up and he stopped speaking to her as much. She knew him as a bit of an unreliable narrator, but still. Talking with him might be her best shot.
She pulls out her phone and quickly types out the message.
She’s about to type something else when Tom smacks the zombie siren speakers onto the ground. He quickly looks around, so she ducks back under. She decides four texts is enough and impatiently bounces her foot waiting for a reply. Edd stares at the destructive monster with increasing worry.
“Well?!?” He whisper-shouts.
“He won’t answer! He must be busy!” stammers Laurel. Edd’s date beside them grumbles a bit.
“Screw this! Edd, let’s just get out of here!” He yanks on Edd’s shirt, yet Edd stands unbudging.
“I’m not leaving!” Edd shouts above the chaos, looking around, “We still don’t know if Tom’s okay! He’s not around at all...”
“I- I’m sure he’s fine!” Laurel stammers, nervous to reveal the truth just yet. Edd still comes closer to the middle of the room to get a better vantage.
“I want to make sure. I mean, I’m the only one with super powers!”
“You have super powers ?!” Caleb asks, shocked and almost annoyed this is coming up now.
“Yeah. Well... sometimes. It depends.” Edd admits with a shrug.
“Well, I don’t,” Caleb interjects, “so have fun, but I’m not dealing with another giant evil maneater ruining my life!” He quickly storms out through the front door, the bell dinging behind him. Edd runs after.
“Hey, wait! Caleb!” Edd runs for his date, arms falling when he’s out the door. He turns to Laurel, then back. “I- I’ve...” He attempts to explain, Laurel nods.
“You go, try to have a good rest of your date. I’ll find Tom and we can beat this monster together.” She smiles, through her lie. Edd quickly takes the offer, and exits. Laurel turns back to deal with a threat far beyond her capabilities, sweat forming on her face and palms. Tom is staring straight at the door, then grows more angry, wrecking almost childishly. He swings an arm to the bar, a leg to the stage, and a chomp on a chair. The floor below them shakes as he stomps on the ground. Laurel tries to keep her feet grounded, though the shaking is giving her a disorienting headache. Tom tosses a large table from his mouth and it crashes through the wall behind Laurel. Suddenly, her phone buzzes in her pocket, so she takes the opportunity to hide just outside and look at the text from Eduardo.
Laurel audibly groans.
Laurel hangs her head, stuffing the phone back in her pocket. Beat him up... Somehow, maybe, she can do that. She peeks her head back indoors, spying the amp fallen off the stage. She might be able to throw it at Tom, if she had the strength to. Aside from that, there were some torn exposed wires nearby. If she can get Tom to the kitchen, she might be able to use the wires and some water to electrocute him. It’s the best shot she has, so she hopes Tom can take that much voltage. She readies herself, then sprints back inside.
She runs in close to the stage, only for Tom to spot her. Laurel tries to keep him away, putting the nearby amp up on its wheels, then presses her back on the stage. She kicks the amp as hard as she can toward his feet. His foot lands on it, and he slips and falls on his face. Laurel takes this time while he’s down to grab the wires and head to the kitchen. She swings the door to the kitchen open, running past all the ovens and counters to find a mop bucket filled with soapy water. She can hear Tom’s enraged steps as he bounds toward the kitchen, the door still swinging. He catches it with a careful claw, then smashes through the wall.
He checks both sides, the sight of bright blue hair running away from him causing anger. He heads for Laurel with a furious roar, and she dumps the bucket’s contents on the floor below. Tom slips on the surface, and as he’s catching his balance so he doesn’t fall again, Laurel throws the wire down on the exposed part. Tom screeches at the electrocution, and Laurel runs out of the kitchen from another door which leads to the back room. Without thinking of the strange layout of this pub, she carefully makes sure the door doesn’t swing this time. She also decides it’s a good time to check on Tom. He’s knocking everything away, dragging himself on all fours around the room. He’s still completely monstrous, perhaps more so than before. He’s sniffing around like a dog, not able to get any hints from the soap all over the floor and his body. His desperate attempts to look for someone starts to look almost saddened. He howls out in what feels to be a cry for help. Still, Laurel steps back, seeing desks, chairs, and the whiteboard they used earlier. There’s some scattered supplies around as well.
With all this Laurel thinks of a plan.
Slowly, Tom crawls into the back room, the walls crumbling to fit him even as he’s walking carefully. He searches like a beast for prey, every sniff taking a step forward that shakes a hiding Laurel to her core. She stays behind her fort of the items from around the room, hoping her shaky breathing isn’t too loud. She tries to concentrate on gripping the rope attached to the whiteboard which hangs above Tom’s available sights. With him on all fours at least, he seems mostly focused on the ground. He checks the large pile of items, sniffing around it. Laurel feels his hot breath on her back from the gaps in her fort and peaks between them to find his snarling mouth, just as he recognises her. She opens her hands, allowing the whiteboard to fall right onto him. In a flurry of pain and panic, he spins around, and his tail smacks through the pile and straight into Laurel. She hits the wall, a splitting headache rippling her body and leaving her momentarily immobile. After her, a table, which pins her down. She yelps in pain now, only attracting Tom to her.
He closes in on her, and by now her headache is driving her wild. She might have passed out from the physical weight if not for the heavy emotional weight of allowing Tom to be stuck like this.
“Tom! C’mon!” She attempts to push the table off of her chest, finding it hard to breathe. “I just want you back to normal! I’m sorry about the song!” She says anything, maybe she can get through. He’s still stepping closer, almost circling her as if taking in the sight of a meal. “I bet if Edd were here, he’d be able to help you. God, I’m so bad at everything!” She talks with no expectation Tom can understand her, strained. Tom steps back a second with a whimper and a cock of his head, then forward while sniffing the table. He gets up on his hind legs and carefully wraps his claws around it, then pulls it off Laurel. She sucks in a fast and heavy breath, finally. As she pumps air back in her lungs, she stares up at Tom. He starts chewing on the plastic board of the table. She chuckles. “Man, yeah... You’re still Tom in there.” She slowly approaches as Tom gets comfortable playing with the item with razor sharp... teeth? Lips? Lips made of teeth?
She examines him, more relaxed.
“Still a funny little goober...” She mutters, putting a hand on him. His skin feels almost like a featherless chicken, and he doesn’t seem to mind when she pets it slightly. He even leans in a bit. She hugs him, head still full of confusion and wondering what comes next. Yet, she feels the scaly texture pulling back, and his body starting to shrink. She still holds him, even as she hears bones cracking and every loud groan of pain slowly gets more and more human. Finally, she’s hugging a body shorter than her own, and he’s hugging her back. Tom slowly pulls away from her grip, and she smiles seeing him mostly back to normal, aside from his eye still being one conjoined line.
“Aww, friendship saves the day!” She joyfully says. Tom grumbles, his breathing is heavy and strained. He drags himself to the door he and Laurel first entered the back room from, and Laurel follows him as he observes his own chaos in the main dining area. Shame coats his expression. For Laurel, it’s hard to tell because his eye is still a line, and his mouth still hidden below his chin. Still, he stumbles to the large hole he broke to the outside world and walks out. Laurel meets him to see he’s resting on the wall, body dragging downward as he loses control of his own weight. She goes and plops down across the gap from him, sitting cross-legged and examining him carefully.
“Why are you following me?” Tom finally speaks, not a hint of bellow left in his voice.
“You don’t want me around?” She asks back. Tom looks defeated.
“Why would you want to be around after I nearly killed you? First the movie project, now you’re getting dragged into my other crap.”
“What? You think I’m scared because you’re a giant monster sometimes? I knew you were strange from the beginning, this doesn’t change that much, honestly.” Laurel dryly chuckles, “I mean, I’ll probably just forget about it anyway...” She adds.
Tom is silent for a moment, putting his head into his knee.
“You must hate it being around me... you were nearly killed twice because of my stupid hijinks and-” Tom stops talking a moment to disguise the fact that he’s tearing up. “...why didn’t you leave like Edd did?”
“I... care about you? Why wouldn’t I stay?” But Laurel’s question is met with silence.
“...You’re not bad at everything...” Tom finally says. Laurel grows a bit embarrassed.
“Oh what... Did I say that??” Laurel questions. When Tom nods, she hides her head in her knees. For a moment, she’s ashamed that she turned Tom’s monsterness into being about her, but then she’s got a better question. “How do you remember?”
“Uh... I think hearing you be so hard on yourself made me feel bad for you or something, so I came out again. Stopped being so in my own head, and tamed my beast a little bit.”
Laurel turns her head, “...Why do you turn into that thing? The beast?”
“Hm.. I still don’t know why it happens...” Tom says, exasperated, “I think it’s some kind of instinct, when I’m in danger. Though, it doesn’t seem to know the difference between mortal peril and anxiety...” He’s turned away from her, looking at the patches of grass sticking out of the concrete. “I’m a danger to be around...”
“So you turned into it because you were anxious about our show, it’s not a problem. I was the one that pushed for the more uncomfortable stuff in that love song, I shouldn’t have.”
“...Maybe... Well... no, no... It wasn’t you...” Tom sighs, head falling as he takes a breath, “I saw Edd’s date say something to him, I think he was mocking me... Edd laughed and... it just... hurt...”
“Who cares? From what I saw, that guy’s just a jerk.” Laurel waves it off, but Tom becomes more upset.
“But Edd does this to me! He’s done it before! I-it’s just like when he had those stupid college friends! Always making fun of me, calling me a freak, a-and Edd would join in!” Tom grips his hair, pulling it back to reveal horns starting to grow again. “He’d rather be popular, liked by everyone, willing to leave me behind when I’ve been with him longer than anyone...”
Laurel backs away, noticing the scaliness of his skin coming back, yet Tom calms before it grows worse. He falls back onto the wall.
“Have you ever... told him?” She asks.
“No... he stopped eventually so... it doesn’t really matter.” Tom admits with exhaustion.
“But you think he started again?”
“...i-it’s that old house! It’s bringing back that... shitty smug attitude! He’s acting like an ass and it’s all that red hooded bastard’s fault!”
“Tom... Edd’s always been smug. And an ass. That’s what you like about him.” Laurel reminds. Tom ponders this, and eventually finds that he agrees. Edd’s a fun loving guy, he probably doesn’t even know how he makes Tom feel when he does this. He and Tom are constantly making fun of Matt, yet when Edd does it to him, he feels attacked. Only sometimes. This strange shift in emotions Tom experiences with Edd, loving his company then scrutinising every bit of their relationship, it isn’t new. It caused falling outs when they were teenagers. It made him move out for a while quite a few years ago. Yet he never really sat down to have a conversation with Edd about it because that wasn’t how things were with them.
“Just talk to him. His date’s making you uncomfortable and upset and Edd’s your best friend, he’s not gonna drop you for some guy he barely knows.” Laurel says, and Tom nods. The fog of his emotional distress starts to dissipate.
“Yeah... I will.” He concedes, now looking at his friend with both eyes, or eyeholes. Laurel smiles at him. Suddenly, they hear a loud bell ring from inside, a door slamming open. They both poke their heads through to find a frantic Edd.
“TOM?! LAUREL!?” He shouts into the empty pub. Everyone else escaped, it seems, thankfully no (visible) dead bodies. Tom gets up and runs to Edd.
“Edd! Hey!” He’s quick to turn awkward as he sees his friend up close, slowing to a standstill. Edd hugs him.
“You’re alright! Nice...” He pats Tom’s shoulder as he parts from the hug. Laurel also walks up. “And you, too! Plus no monster, you two must have worked together to beat that thing outta here!”
Tom and Laurel look between each other, Tom sighs.
“Yup... Totally..” He mutters, trying to ignore Laurel’s stare. He hopes she keeps her mouth shut, and thankfully she does. “So... about your date. That... mechanic guy...”
“Caleb?” Edd wonders. Tom nods.
“That guy is... well, he sucks! I don’t think you two do well together, he doesn’t get your sense of humour and he’s just such a wooden board. He and Matt might get along, maybe, but with you it’s just... He can’t be your type! You’re too fun!” Tom spills out, surprising even himself with his ramblings. A bit embarrassed, he zips his mouth before he can speak anymore mushy crap. Despite this, Edd looks relieved.
“Yeah! You’re right.” He agrees, to Tom’s surprise. “He completely ditched us, he’s a coward.” Edd rolls his eyes. “And I didn’t imagine it working out with the guy who tried to feed us to a monster anyway. You’re right, not my type. I’d rather date someone fun, like my best friend here.” He pulls Tom into a side hug and gives him a playful noogie. Tom laughs, even though it puts his hair into his face, just happy to have his friend back. “Man.. I wish you guys could have played your songs... I loved that first one.”
Tom can feel a twinge of nervousness hearing that, but he smiles.
“We can still play!” Laurel says coming back from seemingly running off to grab her and Tom’s instruments as she displays them in each of her hands. Quickly, Tom and Edd help to set back up, being mindful of the monster foot shaped hole in the stage. After a minute, Edd finds a chair to sit on, and lays back as Tom plays a tune, and Laurel follows his lead. The same song from before, but the original version. He’d rather Edd hear that one, it was made for him after all.
And Edd loves it. Because despite Tom’s doubts, they’re best friends forever.