As soon as Tord got home, he ran to Pau's studio. Without even knocking, he pushed the door open, wincing slightly as the hinges creaked a bit too loudly.

"What the hel- Oh, Tord, it's you." Pau looked up from his drawing tablet, spinning around in his chair, the slightest hint of irritation on his face," I thought I told you to knock before coming in here.."

He trailed off, noticing the look on Tord's face, and more importantly, the tears on his cheeks. His expression softened, and he set his tablet down on the table. He could also see what was the beginning of some form of rage starting to brew in the Norwegian boy's colorless eyes. That was worrying.

"Did something happen......?"

Tord glanced away for a noticeably long enough moment to answer the question. His gaze flickered across the room over to a couple of racks on the wall, most of which were holding various art supplies. But he knew what was behind them. And suddenly, he really wanted to use those very things.

"When's Pat gonna be back from the army...?"

Pau's face paled slightly. Neither him nor Pat had told the boy where Pat was going when he left a week ago, for "business purposes". But Tord knew all about the army. What did they expect, with the amount he was home alone. Plus, he vaguely remembered them talking about it when they had first found him. 

"Tord..."

"Don't act like I don't know what's going on there. I know about the army."

"Oh he's gonna kill me..." Pau muttered, trying to decide how to deal with the current situation.

"You should have known I'd find out eventually."

"Yes... we both knew... But what's always scared Pat the most about tell you... was that he, well, I am too... We're worried about you... the army is dangerous... and you're still a kid. I promised Pat I wouldn't tell you about it until you were at least 17. But considering that you've probably known about it for a while... I guess that's out of the question...."

"I want to train." The Norski's words were simple, but his intentions clear.

"Tord, you're only 15. Pat will kill me if I even let you near the base."

"I never said that. I meant the other stuff." Tord said, motioning to the art supply rack. Pau could tell by the boy's expression that he knew the other side of it contained ... several guns.... to put it simply.

"What exactly prompted your sudden interest in this....?"

"A gun won't lie to you or crush your heart or try to make your life miserable."

"Tell me what happened first, then we'll talk about guns, okay?"

-time skip-

Tom lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling.  He softly ran his fingers back and forth across his arm, feeling the texture of the cloth bandages now covering them. The cuts still hurt, but his biggest pain was in his head. Emotionally. Maybe it was for the best that Tord wasn't with him. He couldn't even keep from hurting himself, and now all it had led to was hurting Tord. Yet, odd as it felt, he couldn't cry over it. He wouldn't. It wasn't even as if he wanted to but physically couldn't. There were no tears waiting to fall, not now. Maybe this was why he his all of his emotions from everyone else, so he wouldn't hurt them. No one else could solve any of his problems, why try to force them upon others?

It was a lonely way to go.

But at least he had Edd, and maybe, just maybe, Matt.

But who knew about the devil horned boy he had let himself love....

-time skip-

"You WHAT?!?" Pat's voice rose in pitch, his panic obvious. The brunette had called that morning, and now Pau was listening to him rant. Tord had just left for school for the day, so he wasn't around to listen to the conversation.

"He's 15, Pat. Two more years isn't that long, anyway. At least let him do something he enjoys. Kid's already damaged enough as it is, emotionally and all...."

"I guess you're right. But you had to do it while I was gone?!"

"Not my fault he asked when he did. The whole thing with Tom must have hurt him pretty badly. And I think it's better that he asked about learning instead of doing something stupid like stealing one of the guns to go shoot someone."

"True.... just... please make sure he's careful..."

"I know, I know. Now, don't you have something you should be doing...?"

"Yeah, I probably should get back to work. Love you."

"Love you too."

- 3 years later -

"...and so I thought it'd be cool if the four of us lived together..!" Edd said excitedly. He and Tom were sitting and talking about Edd's "genius plan" he had come up with a few days before. Since the four of them had all graduated just a few months before, Edd had been planning left and right about what to do.

"Are you crazy? I can't deal with all three of you every day. Dealing with you is hard enough." Tom actually had no problem dealing with Edd. Or even Matt, to some extent. The problem was Tord. The two boys hadn't gone back to arguing with each other all the time, instead doing the opposite and avoiding each other. But Tom honestly didn't know what exactly it was about it, but he knew he'd go crazy having to live with Tord. He couldn't stand it. Even thinking about it made him want to lash out at the Norski, but he really wasn't sure why.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny. Come on, Matt and Tord already agreed. And you already live with me, like you said, so what's the big deal?"

The two of them had also never explained what had happened between them to Edd and Matt. Both boys knew they had broken up, but when asked about it, both had given the same answer.

Circumstances.

It just wasn't working out.

They had never explained it.

Tord had started blaming his absences from the group while Tom was around on all sorts of things, even on a couple of girls, but Tom knew he never loved them, the stupid commie was gay for fucks sake. Tom had also been drifting in and out of contact with them, usually spending much more time practicing on his bass, Susan. 

Maybe he could deal with it. 

For Edd and Matt's sake.

"Fine. Let's do it."