A New Leaf (Eddsworld Tom x Reader)

Chapter 1: New Neighbors

It had only been two hours after moving into my new house that my next-door-neighbors began bothering me. Crashes, bangs, and even screams echoed throughout the neighborhood. And the source of all of it was my neighbors. Now, I've never lived alone until now, but I'm pretty sure this could be classified as 'disruptive'. At first, it didn't bother me all that much until I tried to actually focus on organizing my room. It was impossible to concentrate, and the noise was only becoming increasingly annoying.

I've always considered myself a shy person, so I decided to wait a few hours and see if one of my other neighbors would deal with it. Unfortunately, no one else seemed to be disturbed. They seemed rather used to it, surprisingly. But by this point, I had had enough. Putting down one of my picture frames, I let out an exasperated sigh as I left the house. Confrontation was definitely not something I enjoyed, but in this case it had to be done. Marching over to the next-door house, I began losing confidence as I approached the door. Would they be annoyed? Am I the one being unreasonable here? Nevertheless, I pressed my finger to the doorbell as I tried to calm the storm of fear raging in my stomach. There was no answer. After waiting for a few moments, I knocked on the door to no avail. The fear in my body slowly began being replaced with annoyance once again, and I resulted to practically banging on the door. I waited once again for a few minutes before turning back to my house. I wasn't just going to wait out here forever; I had work to do.

"Hello?" a voice said from behind me. I froze, turning around to see a young man about my age dressed in a simple green hoodie with dark brown hair.

"Oh- uh, hi," I stammered, surprised. I was never really good at talking to people I didn't know. The young man stared at me quizzically as he raised an eyebrow; clearly waiting for an explanation to explain my presence on his porch.

All of my previous annoyance and confidence drained from my body as I met his eyes, turning me into a pool of awkwardness. My mind scrambled for something to say. "I just stopped by to say hello," I lied.

"Oh, well, I'm Edd!" he said, smiling wide, "Nice to meet you!"

"Y/n," I replied. His mere friendliness purged some of the awkwardness I felt, and I relaxed a little.

Edd opened his mouth as if to say something, but was quickly interrupted. "Edd! Is there someone here to see me?" a shrill voice from behind him called. A young man with spiky, orange hair pushed his way in front of Edd. Similarly, he was dressed in a simple purple hoodie with a green overcoat.

"No Matt," Edd rolled his eyes, " Just our new neighbor coming to say 'hello'."

"What?!" Matt exclaimed, holding his hand to his heart and widening his eyes in surprise. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was an actor.

But this guy has to be joking... Surely he doesn't actually act this grandiose... right?

"People only ever visit to see me!" Matt declared. As he continued his monologue, I was seriously starting to believe this might actually be his real personality, not just an elaborate act. I'm not sure which was worse.

After introducing myself to Matt, I began to hear footsteps from deeper inside their house. Curious, I stood on my toes, straining my eyes to catch a glimpse of who else was here. Edd -after noticing my sudden change in behavior- swiveled his head back towards the inside of the house.

"Oh- Tom, do you want to come meet our new neighbor?" Edd asked some unseen figure behind him.

"Fine," a monotone voice said from behind him. Another man appeared in the doorway. I was about to greet him, until I was caught off guard by his face. More precisely, his eyes. They were gaping black holes. Literally. That's certainly something you don't see every day. Apart from a narrowing of his 'eyes', he didn't give any reaction to my shock. He must get this regularly. Other than that, he had on a blue hoodie accompanied with spiky, light brown hair.

"I- I'm Y/n.." I stuttered, still a bit shocked by his appearance. But I quickly looked away, realizing I was staring. I could feel my face becoming red, and I internally scolded myself for being so rude.

"Cool," he mumbled, deadpan. Ignoring his bluntness, I was shocked at the smell emanating off of him. His breath has the overwhelming odor of.... Smirnoff? I shuddered as the familiar scent reached my nose. It was the same kind of vodka my ex boyfriend drank. I blinked hard as I rid my mind of the memories.

Not now.

Despite his rudeness, Tom didn't seem all that bad. I've certainly had to deal with grumpy people before, so I was sure he didn't mean to be rude on purpose. Trying to salvage my first impression, I held out my hand to him for a handshake. He didn't take it, staring at me, confused. My arm drooped to my side, filling my body with embarrassment as my face reddened.

Why am I like this... I mentally scolded myself.

Tom stepped back inside, turning his back and heading off to somewhere else in the house. Matt had wandered off at some point too, so now it was just Edd and I. I looked away, trying to come up with an excuse to leave.

"We should hang out sometime!" Edd smiled, to my surprise. We had just met, and he was already making plans to get together? Despite this unexpected request, I was excited at the opportunity to become friends.

"Yeah, sure. When?" I asked, agreeing. Although I tend to avoided social events like this, a part of me wanted to get to know my strange neighbors better. They generally seemed like nice people, other than Tom. Besides, I hadn't met anyone at university other than my roommate, who mostly just kept to herself.

"Why not now?" Edd asked. I contemplated, mentally running through the list of things I still needed to take care of. I still had a LOT of things to unpack...

But what the hell, why not? It's not like sitting at home organizing mounds of furniture is my definition of a fun Friday. I probably wouldn't get much accomplished with their noise anyways.

"Sure!" I said, "That sounds like fun."

"But I should warn you," Edd said with a tinge of seriousness in his voice, "there is another one of us..."

"The more the merrier, right?" I laughed nervously. Why did Edd seem so.. reluctant to mention his other roommate until now? Before I could inquire further, Edd forced out a laugh and smiled.

"Well come on inside!" Edd said, jovially stepping aside.