"What do you mean by that?"
But, as always, his question went ignored.
Instead, Tord shook his head, his face tight with a certain wariness that he hadn't personally witnessed before. Hair shielding the developing emotion in his eyes, he licked at his lips, hands bunched up in his hoodie pocket as he hunched over in a way in which was supposed to be inconspicuous. Staying silent, he motioned him to follow with a sharp quirk of his hand, nodding vaguely at the slightly sinister opening of the nearby alleyway before progressing towards it, soon being quickly swallowed within the dim gloom.
Somewhat intimated, Tom paused, fingers flexing by his side in thought.
Was he, a relatively small male dressed in feminine clothing going to stalk down a dingy, and quite frankly ominous side street because a cute boy told him to?
Yeah, probably.
Chewing at the inside of his cheek, Tom hesitated, fidgeting his feet as he glanced around the near-abandoned street. There were a few members of the public milling about; looking through shop windows, or ploughing through the pavement, music blaring out of their earbuds. Apparently, they remained undesturbied, or rather uncaring of the loud argument-come- violent face battle that had just commenced before their presumedly innocent eyes.
To be fair to them; they had probably seen a lot worse.
The number of zombie apocalypses that had broken out over the years was ridiculous.
Sighing quickly through his nose, Tom nodded to himself in self-reassurance, before following after the ever elusive form of his Norwegian sort of maybe date-mate.
Moving towards the entrance, he peered in between the two opposing buildings, seeing not much of anything, really. Shadows leaked out of cramped, indistinguishable corners, sluggishly growing from the many rough cracks in the cement. Dumpsters and various other disposal lined the walls; some tipped over, some not. Litter and other scraps of garbage laid scattered about, floating limply in puddles that were too dark to see the colour of.
Advancing forward of shuffled feet, he wrinkled his nose in distaste; not overly surprised by the overpowering scent of piss, but nonetheless disappointed.
Knowing that his first gay kiss was experienced just outside of this cesspool of human depravity was, by all standards, quite sad.
But then he reminded himself of the fact that his first gay sexual experience was inside the before mentioned cesspool of human depravity- and realised that, after all of this was said and done, Tord owed him so many ice cream dates.
And maybe a bed.
But that was far in the future.
Suddenly, a loud honking of a car horn erupted from deep within the alley- the sound echoing harshly off of the dirty, cramped space. It was accompanied by a rapid flickering of a bright headlight, ripping the blanketing darkness with clawed hands, long beams of yellow reaching out and tearing at his eyesight, blinding him briefly.
Blinking rapidly, he rubbed at his sockets, glaring weakly at the black forbidding van that sat close to the tall, chainlink fence at the back. Slowly gaining the use of his vision, Tom could vaguely make out the image of Tord stepping out of the driver's side, slamming the door shut with a quick, sassy bump of the hip.
Relaxing, Tom staddled up towards him, watching as the other man leaned against the hood leisurely, arms crossed loosely.
"This bad boy-" Tord patted the vehicle, causing a resounding loud, dull metallic noise to emit from the thin metal, "Is going to take us to a location- whatever location you choose, actually."
Tom opened his mouth to retort but was cut off immediately.
"And no, you can't choose a bar and/or liquor store."
Huffing, he rolled his eyes, muttering a quiet, "Lame." under his breath.
"You have two options here, Tom. If you really want to know everything, this is your chance- come with me, and I'll tell you-" He paused, eyes narrowed, expression vacant, "But you have to understand, that there is no undoing it. You'll have to stick by me and stay to help in dismantling their drug empire."
Tom stayed silent and allowed him to continue, brain whirling.
"If you don't want that- I'll take you home, make sure that you're safe-" A shift in features, glum, but hard in determination, "-and most likely never see you again."
Secret, intergalactic audience above- that was one hell of an ordeal to dump on a guy.
Considering everything, he looked away, a ball of emotion slowly swelling up in his throat, making it quite hard to breathe.
Settling on a neutral, "What about Edd and Matt? Can you ensure their safety either way? Ms Sinclair knows where we all live- I'd rather die before anything happens to them." Clicking his tongue, he added, "They have nothing to do with any of this."
Bobbing his head solemnly, Tord drawled, "I can. I installed a few safety protocols before I left- they just need to be switched on."
Relief flooded his senses, and he closed his eyes as the light rush that was sent spiralling through his system.
With his friends safely tucked away, and no other moral obligations to fulfil; he really had no other option but to take Tord up on his offer for clarity. Having been lost in a big, sweeping cloud of confused for so long, and having useful, potentially life-saving exposition constantly being dangled in front of his nose was becoming quite harrowing.
To put it bluntly, he was sick of everyone's secretive bullshit.
Of course, in another life; in another reality where circumstances had played out differently, Tom would no doubt would have stuck by his friends instead of running away with a very advantageous Tord. But the sweet, sirens call of properly laid out exposition weighed heavily against his decision.
Besides- his momma didn't raise no quitter.
With a hint of a smirk coiling around his features, he made his choice:
"Red pill me, daddy."
It was just about the best worst decision he had ever made.
—
A/N: Guess what daddy got today!
Yes. A baseball jacket with Trash on it
Yes. That is comic sans.
Praise me.
I feel like I'm cosplaying Edd every time I wear it. Imma iron on a few patches on it, make it extra gay.