Spare Changes

5 - Sleepover

Summary: Edd related Insomnia

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One lock... two...

They clattered to the floor.

Why did this idiot need so many padlocks on his damn door?

Red cursed to himself as he broke another picking tool. He was not used to doing dirty work like this himself, that was the job for the grunts. Maybe he shouldn't have let himself get so rusty.

He had to get this done before anyone got back. He had called ahead, just in case... so his appearance wasn't a surprise, suspicious to no one. But it would be better to be in and out inconspicuously. He just needed to do one more lock—

"Who goes there?!"

Crap.

A voice that was familiar, but not really. Red turned a nervous gaze behind him. There was a gasp and a clatter of metal, and Tom was standing there.

He played it cool as much as possible. Edd was touchy, which was annoying. His heart almost stopped when the redhead asked who he was. Was he found out? No, it had been completely forgotten. Matt was an idiot. A charming one, but still.

It was tough to get his bearings here, in a house he had set foot in only for a few minutes before. But when he had remembered that there was something here— something important and vital to his mission... he had to return. No matter the risk.

Red just needed to get to a moment of quiet where he could slip away again. Just a tiny moment.

It was in the room that belonged to Tom. Stolen by Tom. He wonders what Tord would think of that. Probably nothing. The inferior was unambitious, passive. A loser. And a murderer of his innocent clone brethren. Almost including him! Could you imagine?

But no. He was here, he was alive, and he needed that robot.

He got Tom peeved off. Frustrated him to a point where he stormed off. Red remembered enough about his 'old friends' to know how to get under their skin. Tom especially. Tord seemed to have an agenda against him, from what Red can tell.

He wasn't expecting Tom to be angry enough that he threw a couch through the wall. Through the panic he felt at Tom's rage pointed towards him, Red suddenly pulled forth a memory.  A little special something that Tord knew about his eyeless compatriot. Something that hopefully wouldn't be unleashed.

He was more than a little scared of Tom to be sure. Rightfully so, it turned out.

Unluckily, everything went to shit pretty fast. Red swore he had the robot for good, but in the end it was damned Tom who ruined everything. At least the horrified look on Matt's face and the tinge of betrayal and despair in Edd's tone were satisfying. Sweet revenge for what these bastards tried to do to him.

Whatever. He would take over the world, giant robot or not.

What's a few more battle scars? Physical, mostly. He's angry that they'll need to be taken care of, but in the end they make him look more intimidating.

Maybe there's a twinge of something else, a little bit of regret for how poorly that all shaked out. Again, he had planned to be in and out without a trace. He didn't want to see those three again. It went a lot messier than intended. Red's taste for vengeance got the best of him.

When he sat on that cliff alone, bandaged up, the wind hit his freshly exposed wounds and made them sting harshly. He saw the three little dots of his 'friends' walking away together. They had each other, and it made him... angry. It had to be anger he was feeling. Not guilt. Not sadness. Not longing.