Blue as Bruises, Red as Blood (TomTord)

•5•

Months passed before Tord was fluently speaking English. It was December now, and Christmas was slowly but surely on its way. Everyone seemed so happy over the passed few months, going on adventures and having fun with their new roommate. This was also the first time Tom was happy on Christmas.

Matt, Edd, and Tord helped set up the Christmas decorations around the living room. Edd helped Matt hang up the Christmas lights along the edges of the ceiling while Tord was setting up a fire for the fireplace. Tord usually didn't celebrate Christmas, but he thought he might as well help his roommates out with the special occasion.

He placed the dusty firelogs in the fireplace, the logs pushing around the ashes. Tord coughed because of the scattered ashes, but he continued. He adjusted the logs to the perfect position. He backed away and kneeled in front of the fireplace, feeling accomplished. Well, he did until realized he didn't have a lighter to light the logs.

"Hey Edd," Tord called him, his accent thick.

"Yeah?" Edd asked as the stood on his tippy toes on the ladder, Matt holding his legs in place for balance. His arms stretched as he managed to put the Christmas lights where they needed to go.

"I am gonna go look for a lighter, I will be right back."

"That's fine."

Tord got up and walked to his mess of a room. He dug around in his room for a while until he finally found a lighter hiding in his night stand, which the night stand was full of hentai magazines. As he made his way down the hallway, he couldn't help but think, where is Tom? He decided to go and see how his mentor was doing. He turned around and walked deeper into the hallway until he saw Tom's door, the door having a checkerboard pattern duck tape covering it.

Tord knocked. No response. He knocked again. No response. This time, he banged on the door, making the door shake a bit. "What?!" There he is. "It is Tord, open up." It was silent for a few moments. Tord stood at the door, feeling defeated for a second, until Tom swung the door open. "What do you want?" Tom slurred. Tom's light hair was messy, and he had a stain on his blue hoodie. Tord's nose wrinkled as he realized how much Tom smelled of alcohol.  "Jeez Tom, have you been drinking again?"

"Maybe." Tord couldn't help but sigh. For Tom being drunk, he acted pretty sober, except for the slurring when he talked. "Tom, please listen," Tord pleaded. "You have my attention." The eyeless drunk stated, leaning against the doorframe. "Please... I know Christmas isn't your favorite day, but please don't get wasted on the holidays. I just want to spend time with my friend... And it's hard to when you're always drunk..." Tom's eyes widened as the Norwegian wiped away tears with his sleeve. Tord was crying.

"A-and... I-" Tord was cut off as Tom hugged him, his face up to his chest. After a few seconds, he felt Tord hug back, crying into his shoulder. Tom leaned down, his mouth next to his friends ear. "I'm sorry..." Tom whispered. The Norwegian felt a shiver fly down his spine as he felt the warm breath so close to his face.

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Hello! Sorry for almost canceling the book, as said in the last update, a lot of stuff has been going on in my life and I just got super stressed out and over dramatic lol. I'm better now, and I promise to update whenever I get the chance! Thank you for reading this book, and I promise some stuff will happen in the next chapter *insert Lenny face here* Thank you all!