Endsworld

3: >Insert Chapter Title Here<

{AN: Yes, the title is supposed to be that, it's a reference to a DEADMAU5 album and I am not creative b y e}

The food court is surprisingly crowded, at least beyond their expectations, and the conflicting food smells are a mixture of repellant and appetizing. Tile floors apparently make for decent fire-pits when you pile bags of dirt and sand around the flames, and all around at various 'stalls' are vendors plying their wares to anyone who will listen. Tord keeps a tight grip on the overexcited Matt's arm to keep him from dashing off and making a scene, but he still bounces up and down like an excited child. People clad in various different attires watch the odd pair as they shuffle through the little clusters of humans, reactions ranging from amused to apathetic to irritated. Tord keeps one hand jammed firmly in his hoodie pocket, wrapped tightly around the money he carries, knowing pickpockets love these sorts of events. Before they had entered the throng of people, he had demanded Matt let him keep hold of their cash, not trusting the air-headed ginger to have a tight enough grip on it; of course, Matt readily agreed, not really caring much about who was holding the money since the two would be sticking together. Tord's death grip on his arm was enough proof of that, in Matt's mind.

"Oh! Oh! Can we get one of those?" Matt eagerly points at a banana, slit in half, overflowing with melted chocolate and coconut shavings, sitting amongst many other bananas on top of a grate covered in tin foil. The grate seems to be a piece of chain-link fence, cut out from some other place in the mall probably, balancing above the fire on some bags of sand.

"No, Matt," Tord answers patiently, tugging the tall man away from that fire pit. "We have to get enough food for all of us—and something a bit healthier than that." The last thing they need is to fuel up on sugar and empty carbs, only to be hungry again a few hours later. Instinctively, Tord tries to steer them towards the scent of burnt meat, hoping to find something more substantial; Matt, however, keeps hampering their progress by trying to pull his Norwegian friend this way and that.

"Ooh! What's that?" He points at a group of strangers' tin-foil 'bowl' filled with melted cheese, but before Tord can even begin to answer him his focus is elsewhere. "Hey! What about those? Those look great." He starts dragging Tord in a completely different direction, eyes fixed on some pancakes being cooked in a skillet—a rare sight!—by an older man, hunched over his fire. "Oh-Em-Gee, what's that!" Turning away yet again, he hauls the now-dizzy man in the red hoodie along with him, heading for some peculiar foil-wrapped spheres. Upon closer inspection, they appear to be oranges, at least until Matt watches a customer pull the orange cleanly in half to reveal a half-cooked muffin. He gasps, eyes widening like a small child watching a magician for the first time.

"Matt, please," Tord says, in a begging tone now, "can you just hold still for a second?"

"We should buy those!" Matt chirps in response.

"We can't just buy everything we see," his friend tries to talk some sense into him. "We need to get only what we need, and we need to get something healthy."

"Well, we're not gonna find that here," Matt retorts, a bit wounded. Why wasn't Tord going to let him have any fun? They're at the mall, they should be having fun! If Edd were here, he'd let Matt buy something fun, and Tom would side with him out of sheer spite, simply to disagree with Tord.

"Well, yeah, it isn't exactly Whole Foods, but we need to not have chocolate for lunch." Tord sighs, rubbing at his tired eyes. "Just trust me, okay? Let me choose, and—" he regrets the words before they're even out of his mouth, but he knows it's the only way Matt will shut up, "—and next time, you can choose."