Runaways - Eddsworld AU

Chapter 5

     A/n:  Guess who's finally back to work on this story?  Yeah, my apologies for taking such a long break without giving notice first.  School took much more of a toll on me than I expected & I overall haven't been doing my best lately.  I've got some more motivation now, though!  I can't promise you the next chapter will be coming too soon, but it shouldn't take as long as this one did since I'd like to think I'm back on track now.  Despite how long it took me to get it all together, this chapter isn't very long or eventful.  Sorry if that's a bit of a letdown, I'll try to make up for it later on.  Hope you enjoy :)

   It was the next day and Edd was back at the park just like he told Matt and Tom he would be.  The three were hanging out and talking about unrelated things for a while until Matt remembered what he was planning on announcing.
     "Oh!  Did I tell you that Tom and I decided on the whole moving in thing?" he asked.  He couldn't wait to tell him.  Despite not knowing each other for very long, both of them really liked Edd and wanted to spend more time with him.
     "Ooh, I don't think you did," he said, his eyes lighting up.  "What's your decision?"  He was just as excited as the others were.
     "Well..  Tom and I have done lots of long and hard thinking about this.." Matt explained, trying to make the announcement as suspenseful as possible.  "..and we have made the decision that we will accept your offer!  We'd love to move in with you!"  Edd's face lit up with a radiant smile the second he processed the news.
   "Oh, my!  That's great to hear!" He cheered.  "Thank you so much for letting me know.  I plan on buying the house when I get my next payment, I'll handle all the hard stuff and you two can just come right in whenever you'd like."
     "All of the hard stuff?" Matt questioned in disbelief.  "Are you sure we don't have to do anything?"
     "Yup," he assured with a confident nod.  "I'm not even entirely sure if you'd have to do anything to officially move in since neither of you are entirely human.  Considering the fact that nobody really understands what you are, maybe you could even be considered.. pets of some sort?  If you don't mind that."
     "Yeah!  I don't mind at all," Matt told him. "It would be worth it to get a place to live.  What do you think, Tom?"  Tom stood in silence, trying to comprehend what he just heard.  It sounded like they were speaking a different language to him.
     "Uh.. yeah, that's good," he said with a not-so-confident nod.  He was hoping he didn't just agree to something he would regret.  It was coming from his friends, how bad could it be?
     "Are you sure?  You don't sound very certain," Matt asked.
     "I mean, I think so," Tom answered.  "It's just that I don't really understand this kind of stuff.  Y'know, since I was locked up most of my life."  Edd gave him a look of understanding, putting a hand on his shoulder.
     "That's alright," he assured him.  "There's not really much to it.  You see, there's lots of steps to entering a new home.  It can be a very long, tiring process, but you don't have to worry about any of it.  All I need is your patience.  Sounds good?"  The monster was still a bit confused, but he understood a lot more now.
     "Yeah, that sounds good to me," he answered- with confidence this time.
     "Awesome!" said Edd, letting go of him.  "Alrighty then.  Now that we've got that all figured out, I was wondering if you guys would like to come over to my current place?" he asked.  "It's nothing more than a small, cheap apartment, but just if you'd like to get an idea of what it's like living all together.
     "Oh.. sure!" Tom settled with a slight smile.  It was the first time within this conversation that he was able to instantly agree to something with full confidence.  After thinking a lot about it, he slowly became excited to explore other residences.  He got a taste of what they were like from the television shows he would watch, but he always wanted to experience one in person.  Now was the time he could finally fulfill his childhood dreams and do that.  It used to be intimidating for him, but he's learned through his recent adventure and chats with his new friend that new experiences are nothing to fear. 
      "Yeah, that would be amazing!"  agreed Matt.  As the two around him seemed full of excitement, Tom was suddenly hit with a surge of painful memories; memories that were temporarily drowned out by his optimistic friends, but were suddenly back with a vengeance.  He remembered the way his parents would warn him whenever he would ask to go outside.
     "Mommy, Daddy, can I go there?" young Tom would ask, pointing at the happy kids that were pictured on the television.  They were running around outside, playing tag and laughing together.  His parents quickly became defensive.
     "Honey, you can NEVER leave the walls of this house," his mom snapped.  "It's for your own safety.  If the wrong person sees you, you'll be scooped up and murdered!  Do you understand?"  Tom looked down at his patchy, partially scaled arms, remembering how different he was from the human kids he wished he could be.
     Holding back tears, he'd respond, "yeah.. I understand..".  Even before he completely understood his species, he knew that humans didn't like him.  He thought that all of them wanted to hunt him down, which was partially true.  Edd's acceptance and positive interest in his species temporarily blocked out this idea from his head, but it just came back so suddenly and nearly erased everything he just learned.  He pulled Matt to the side, whispering to him.
     "Hey.. Matt? I don't know if I'm as sure about this as I seem," he confessed.  "How do we know we can trust this guy?"
     The vampire raised an eyebrow.  "Huh..?  What do you mean?" he questioned.
     "You know what I mean.  What if this is a set up for him to do something to us?  He might exploit, torture, or even kill us!"  Matt looked over at Edd.  He was nothing more than a chubby, brightly-dressed fellow that was hardly even an adult yet, patiently waiting for the two to finish their conversation.  You could tell by his looks alone that he didn't mean any harm.
     "You're talking about him?" Matt asked with a quiet laugh.  "Tom, you've gotta understand that not all humans are bad.  I mean, I love humans!  We-"
     Tom cut him off.  "And you've gotta understand that you can't trust just anyone.  If there's one important thing my parents taught me, it's that humans are dangerous.  They're out to get us, they want us dead.  I mean, even my own parents tried to kill me!  How are we supposed to trust Edd just because he's our
'friend'?  We've only known him for, like, a week."
    "Well.. your experiences are different from everybody else's," Matt sighed, not wanting to fight with his friend.  "I, personally, was raised by two vampires that have hardly ever been hurt by a human in any way, shape, or form.  I haven't been hurt by any humans, either."  Tom went silent for a bit.  During his moments of silence, Matt added,  "Plus, Edd literally has a television show where he explores beings like us to help people understand where they're coming from.  Why would he want to hurt us when he's promoting the exact opposite?"  Tom continued to stay silent, trying to think of a rebuttal before he eventually realized there wasn't one.
     "I guess you have a point," he admitted with a sigh.  "Fine, we'll go."