Tiny - Tomatt

Emergence

Tom inquisitively approached Edd, who was standing in the kitchen, on the phone with someone. Edd's brow was furrowed as he nodded intermittently, exchanging words with whomever it was that he was talking to.

"Who are you talking to?" Tom mouthed, ducking into of Edd's line of sight and tilting his head questioningly. Tom normally wouldn't intrude like that, but Edd seemed overly serious on the phone, with a thoughtful expression on his face.

Usually, when Edd would speak on the phone, he would be smiling brightly with an upward tilted chin. If not that, he would seem indifferent, but at that moment Edd's new expression concerned him.

Edd briefly glanced at him while letting the person on the other line speak, but he then stuck his index finger up, telling Tom to wait a moment. He turned the other way and began to pace around the room as he spoke.

Tom listened in to Edd's words. "Yeah," Edd said, "about..." He checked his watch. "Six hours ago...? Yeah. They seem okay, if not a bit bruised up."

Maybe he's talking about Matt and I, Tom assumed. We're bruised, and we got back here about six hours ago. Tom nodded to himself. But his brow furrowed. Why would he be calling someone about us, though?

"Hey, Tom," Edd asked, covering the phone and now looking him in the eyes, "would you and Matt be willing to do an interview on whatever it was that happened to you with the news?"

Tom's heart sank. The news...? Why are they interested in us? Tom looked down at his shoes and, after a moment of silence, slowly shook his head. "I... don't think so. I probably couldn't talk about it without... Uh... Yeah." He wasn't about to admit he'd been crying, though he still wasn't sure if Edd had heard him bawling in the shower.

Edd frowned sympathetically, nodding solemnly. He lowered the phone from his ear and went to his good friend, arms outstretched. Tom looked down once again as Edd wrapped him in a warm and tight embrace. He wrapped his arms around Edd as well, suddenly fighting the urge to tell him everything.

Edd let go, leaving Tom feeling strangely empty. He lifted the phone to his ear again and resumed pacing around the kitchen and talking to the news, or the police, whoever it was.

Tom retreated from the kitchen back into the living room, where the small form of his ginger friend was sitting and watching The Children. He chuckled as the kids on the show made another stupid slapstick joke.

Tom looked out the window when he remembered The Children only comes on in the evening. Sure enough, the sky above the bustling city was a dark blanket, the light from the neighborhood making it difficult to see the stars.

He remembered when they'd been in the forest, far from civilization. He'd been too tired to appreciate the beauty of the stars, but he remembered the galaxy he'd seen above, a rare sight for a city-goer like himself. It had been fantastic. The kind of stuff you only see in movies or space documentaries.

Edd went back out into the living room to Tom and Matt, finished with his phone call. "It's getting late, guys. Do you wanna stay the night here or go back to your apartments?" He looked between the two.

"I think I'll go back to mine," Tom said without hesitation. Though he'd missed Edd horribly, he wanted some time alone in the quiet so he could think, reflect upon recent events. He also wanted to play his bass... Actually, on second thought, it might hurt his hands more. He looked at his healing palms. 'I should really bandage these up again,' he noted.

Edd nodded with understanding and looked toward his other friend. "And Matt? What about you?" As Matt opened his mouth to reply, Edd furrowed his brow and put his thumb and forefinger to his chin. "Ah, you can't very well live on your own, then, can you? So it's either me or Tom." He knelt down next to the couch and looked Matt in the eye. "So? Who'll it be?"