A new beginning - Tommatt

Chapter 4: tapping

A/n: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 56 READS!!! 50 was my goal and I did not at all expect to get more than that! I'm so grateful for all of you! Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's a long one

Warning: this chapter contains very mild swearing. Like, super mild. There's only 1 swear word but I still thought I'd put a warning lol

  As Edd pulled into the driveway, Tom was relieved. He couldn't wait to drink away all his thoughts and feelings which is something he did often, no matter how unhealthy he knew it was. He was just more desperate this time, especially since he only had one swig from his flask all day.
  When they walked inside, Tom instantly went to the fridge and grabbed 2 bottles of Smirnoff, Matt noticed this and frowned.
  "You know, your drinking habits are concerning me." He said. Tom scowled.
  "Why do you care so much?" He snapped. He felt a little bad for raising his voice at Matt, but it ticked him off when people tried to tell him what to do, even if it's for the better. Matt was about to reply, but he didn't wanna aggravate Tom any further.
  "Well, I'm gonna go to bed a bit early, I'll see you guys in the morning." He yawned.
  "Alright, see ya." Edd replied. As Matt was going upstairs, he looked back.
  "And Tom," he said. "Try not to get another hangover, alright?"
  "Pff, whatever you say, dad." Tom joked. Matt wasn't very happy about how Tom was making a joke of his advice, but he continued upstairs.
  After Matt was upstairs and started up the shower, Tom sat down next to Edd on the couch, Ringo on the arm of it next to him.
  "Hey, Edd. Have you noticed that Matt's been acting a little.. off today?" He asked, opening one of his bottles. "He hasn't admired himself or made any comments about how good he looks all day, that's a new record."
  "Yeah, I have noticed that." Edd responded as Tom took a long, desperate sip of Smirnoff. "He might just be too distracted by the new house."
  "Yeah but that's not it," Tom added. "He's been weirdly caring towards me too, Like when he commented on my drinking and helped me get tickets at the arcade."
  "Well, he does like you-" Edd stopped and realized his mistake. He knew it would be rude to give out his friend's secret. "I mean, I think he does." He added to save himself.
  "Hope you're right.." Tom whispered. He paused.
  "What the hell, Tom?! You can't say that, you're straight and your stupid crush means nothing."
  Edd smirked. "Yeah, I know you do." Tom's face flashed red. He was hoping that Edd wouldn't hear his comment.
  "YOU HEARD NOTHING!" He yelled, causing Ringo to jump off the side of the couch where she was laying. Edd laughed.
  "Tom, you already told me you like him. There's no point in covering it up." He chuckled. Tom took another long sip from his first bottle.
  "Well, I decided it's just platonic." He said to convince both Edd and himself. Edd shrugged.
  "Whatever you say, buddy." He replied, not 100% convinced. Tom took a third long sip.
  "I'm gonna go up to my room to drink alone, I'll see you when I see you." He said, grabbing a third bottle of Smirnoff from the fridge.
  "Alright, don't do anything stupid." Edd said, half-jokingly.
  The hours flew by like seconds and the last 2 and a half bottles Tom brought up to his room practically disappeared, obviously leaving him tipsy. He stumbled half way down the stairs, Edd was in the kitchen opening a can of cat food for Ringo.
"Hey Edd! I'm gunna walk into Matt's bedroom and tell em how I feel right now!" The drunk yelled down the stairs.
  "Ok, good luck!" Edd said, too focused on getting Ringo's food to notice that Tom was drunk at first, but he soon realized.
  "Shit.. he must be drunk." He thought. He was gonna go upstairs and stop him before he makes a big mistake, but he knew that Tom is very easily aggravated when he's drunk. You could simply bump into him and you'd end up with a bruise. He wasn't in the mood to get into a fight with Tom, so he just let him go. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? Matt does like him back.
  Meanwhile, Tom stumbled through the hall and went into Matt's room. He was on his phone laying in his sleeping bag, his usually spiked hair down.
  "Hey, Matt! Guess what!" Tom called, approaching Matt and sitting next to him. Matt sat up, noticing that Tom was drunk. He never knew how to handle Tom when he's drunk besides from the basics like not pissing him off since Edd was always the one to take care of him, so he just treated him how he usually does.
  "Yes?" He said, praying he doesn't accidentally make him mad.
  "I..." Tom began to say before pushing his face into Matt's chest.
  "Mph hmm mmm.." Matt could feel his body relaxing, he assumed that he's either falling asleep or he passed out.
   The gesture made him blush. Yes, he was drunk and probably didn't chose to lay on his chest, but who else is able to say that their crush fell asleep on them? Those who could are very lucky. Matt took advantage of this and laid down in his sleeping bag, trying not to wake up Tom and running his fingers through his spiked hair with his hand on his back. His face was bright red but he wasn't flustered in a nervous or uncomfortable way, in fact, he was extremely happy. He's never felt this kind of embrace before, even if the man was drunk and passed out.
  After a long period of playing with his friend, or love interest's hair, Matt decided it was about time for him to get some shut eye. It was about 12:30 am which was very late considering the fact that he was planning on going to bed about 3 hours ago. Grinning from ear to ear, he slowly fell asleep with Tom on top of him.
  ~~~~Time skip to morning~~~~~
   Edd was in the kitchen cooking breakfast and getting food for Ringo.  As he was frying bacon, he heard a knock on the door. He answered it and saw a teenage boy, close behind him outside of their house was the moving van!
  "Um.. is this mr. Edward.. uh..." the teenage boy said, squinting at the clipboard he was holding.
  "Gould? That's me!" Edd told him. The boy looked back at the clipboard. "Yeah, your moving van is here, sir." He said.
  "Alright, give me a second." Edd said as he went upstairs to wake up Matt and Tom. He went up to check Tom's room first but he wasn't there. As he thought of where he could be, he remembered what he told him last night.
  "I'm gunna go into Matt's room and tell em how I feel right now!"
  He must be in there with him. He went over to Matt's room and saw them. Tom was cuddled up against Matt's chest, both of them fast asleep.  The sight warmed his heart, but he was a bit worried at the same time. He never really thought of it this way, but what if they start ignoring him? They couldn't ignore him though, they live in the same house. They'll never leave him out, or at least he hoped so.
  He put these thoughts aside and woke up his friends.
   "Rise and shine, lovebirds." He called. "The moving van came early."
   "Lovebirds?" Tom thought. He slowly opened his eyes. He blinked a few times, his vision getting clearer with each blink. He had an awful headache from drinking too much. As he opened his dark eyes, he realized he was on a different surface then usual. It was warm and soft, but a little firmer than his pillow. As he sat up, he realized..
  He fell asleep on Matt's chest. His face went beet red.
  "Ah!" He yelped out of pure surprise, waking Matt up. Though he was startled and embarrassed, he felt weirdly safe laying on top of Matt. It's normal to feel that way though.. right?
  "Oh god.. I'm so sorry, Matt. What did I do last night when I was driunk?" He asked frantically.
  "No need to apologize!" Matt yawned. "You did nothing big, really. All you did was come in my room." He knew Tom would be embarrassed if he knew what he did. Tom could tell he was lying, but he didn't know if he wanted to know what he really did.

   Time skip because I'm lazy: all the stuff from the moving van is set up yada yada all that junk now all of them are just relaxing.

   As he practiced his made up song on his Bass, Tom heard something coming from outside his room. He stopped playing to listen closer. It was a tapping noise to the beat of his song, it sounded like someone was drumming their fingers on the wall. A few moments after he stopped playing, the tapping stopped and he heard running.
  "What is all that noise?" He thought. He opened his door to check. Nothing was there.
  "Hmm.. strange.."
  As he looked up and down the hall, he heard heavy breathing coming from Matt's room.
  "Was that tapping him? Does he really like my music?" He puzzled. The image in his head of Matt tapping his fingers along to his music made him smile and blush a bit. As he felt his face warm up, he quickly tried to stop himself.
  "No, no, I'm straight. I've always been straight and I always will be straight."
  He went over to the bathroom to give himself a pep talk. As he looked in the mirror at his red-faced reflection, he couldn't help but laugh.
  "What am I saying?" he said between laughs "I'm totally smitten, I'm anything BUT straight. Denying it is just gonna make things worse." He didn't think he was entirely in love with Matt just yet, however, he was most definitely crushing on him.
  He splashed his face with some cold water from the sink before going downstairs. He was planning to ask about the tapping noises. Though he was 99% sure it was Matt, he was still curious.
  "Did anyone else hear a weird tapping sound coming from the hall? I heard a bit of running too." He asked.
  "Yeah.. I think I heard that too." Edd said. Tom expected Matt to get nervous since he was almost sure it was him, but he was calm.
  "That's weird, I don't know if I heard it." He said. Matt was a terrible liar, he would always trip over his words and stutter whenever he tried to, so he knew he wasn't lying.
  Now Tom was confused. If it wasn't Edd or Matt then who or what was it? He thought he'd go upstairs and look around. Considering all of the crazy things that they've been though, it could be anything. He looked in Matt's room where he heard the most recent noise from and it was in there.
  The same exact spirit from when they were adding a second story to their house. Tom screamed.
  "Holy hamster on helium, is this thing gonna come back every time we do any kind of building on our house?" He yelled quietly. Matt and Edd ran upstairs.
  "Is everything oka-" Edd began to ask before he noticed the demon. Him and Matt froze.
  "HA! FINALLY I GOT THE RIGHT ADRESS!" The demon boomed with pride. "NOW, PREPARE TO DIE!" It targeted Tom first, but Matt grabbed him and pulled him away. Tom was in shock in the best way possible.
  "Are you sure you have the right address?" Matt asked the giant creature, squinting.
  "Yeah, Edd, Matt, and Tom right?" the spirit asked.
  "No, this is the house of.. Chris, Greg, and Jack!" Matt lied. This was the most confident he'd ever been while lying.
  "DAMN IT, MESSED UP AGAIN." The demon yelled. The three watched it as it flew away.
  "Oh wow.. you saved our lives, Matt... thank you." Tom said, still in shock. This entire situation lead him to realize he truly was in love with Matt. The way he grabbed him, the pride in his voice when misleading the demon, the look in his eyes as he stared it down with bravery, All of it was so charming.
  "Uh.. Tom?" Matt said, gently tapping him on his shoulder. He broke out of his rosey daze.
  "Oh, I'm sorry, did you say something?" He asked.
  "Yeah, I was just saying it's no problem! What was I supposed to do in a situation like this?" Matt said.
  Matt felt the same about Tom. It made his day or even week every time he even showed the slightest bit of kindness or affection. Though he thought very highly of himself, he wasn't often complimented directly by others, especially not Tom who he loved almost more than himself. He never cared about other people's thoughts on him since as he'd always say, "My self image is all I need to worry about", but with Tom it was different. He would give his last dime just for him to see him highly.