Cat Eyes || Tomtord

Hurt

Everything was okay for a few days. They were all their usual happy, joking selves that they were long ago. The only real change was a sheet of snow that covered the city and Edd's unnoticeable depression climbing its way back.

Until Matt went missing.

Matt had just gone out to get groceries one sunny evening. Nothing was wrong. But minutes turned into an hour and Matt still wasn't back.

Fine, fine, everyone thought. Matt was just looking at himself in some mirrors. Edd went out to get him, nonetheless. But Edd returned without his boyfriend, saying that he was nowhere to be found. Not the grocery store, not the mirror aisle, nowhere.

So they all went out on a little search party. Tom and Tord stuck together like glue as they searched the town. Alleyways, corner stores and anywhere Matt could be. Maybe some kid at the park told him to play hide and seek with them and Matt took it seriously. Maybe.

Tom didn't notice Tord stop abruptly until he spoke inaudibly to any normal person, "Matt?"

Tom turned to see a grotesque image that he would have happily lived without beforehand. Matt was lying unconscious in an alleyway, next to a dumpster. His eye was swollen shut and his chin looked broken to bits.

The two rushed over to their damaged friend. Tord checked for a pulse as Tom called Edd on his headset.

"Did you find him!?" Edd shouted, giving Tom a headache. He didn't care about his pain at the moment, though. He was too focussed on the pain Matt must have experienced.

"Yes. He's unconscious in an alleyway. Looks like he's been beaten up. We're bringing him home now so you need to head back." Tom hung up before Edd could say another word and helped his boyfriend lift the ginger.

Calling an ambulance was out of the question. Tord would probably end up being questioned as a witness and get recognized as red leader. He'd be sent to jail, or worse, in two seconds flat.

As they carried the limb body, it twitched. Matt opened his uninsured eye and groaned out, "Tim? What's happening?"

"Don't worry, Matt," the digital-eyed boy cooed. "Everything's gonna be okay."

"My face!" Matt coughed. "Is my face okay?"

"As beautiful as ever," Tord said unsurely, not wanting to the ginger to freak out.

As the apartments came back into sight, they could see Edd standing in the doorway. Tom called to him and his head snapped towards them, probably giving the boy a painful whiplash. He ignored the ache and ran to see his bloody, beaten up boyfriend.

"Oh, Matty, what happened?" Edd said in his motherly voice.

As they carried Matt into the apartments he explained, "Some people were following me. When I asked them if they needed anything, they said..." The ginger went into a small coughing fit. Tord held his breath, worried that his ex-soldiers were those people. "They wanted money."

Tord sighed a breath of relief. His men wouldn't steal money from people, they'd rob banks if they were desperate.

Matt was placed tenderly on the couch. "I told them I didn't have any, since it was all used for the groceries, and then one of them punched me. I don't remember anything else."

Edd held his boyfriend in his arms, "It's okay now, Matty. You're okay now."

As the days flew past them, Matt grew both better and worse. He went back to his naive, narcissistic self, even though the cuts on his chin looked gross and he couldn't open one of his eyes.

The bad side of things was that his scrapes, especially his chin, were getting infected. Although they tried to bandage it well and clean it regularly with rubbing alcohol, infection still crept in.

The pain in Matt was evident through his broken smile. He'd hold onto his chin, then when one of the guys walked in on him doing so, he'd be pretending to pose, even if he didn't have a mirror or camera. The three of the ginger's friends knew they had to do something, Tord being the one to do said thing.

Tord stayed at his desk, even sleeping there, designing a robotic chin and eye for his buddy. He was skilled in prosthetics and machinery; he built a giant robot after all, plus his robotic red leader attire.

He had snuck out of the house one night to get the materials needed for such prosthetics. A box television and a microwave were more than enough parts. He hadn't needed money at all, as he had gotten his parts from the dump.

After wiring and rewiring and designing Matt's new chin and eye, he only had one thing to worry about. How to get them onto the ginger? He could painfully scoop Matt's eye out and saw off his chin, which would have been done in the army, but sided not to. His other friends would have beaten him up.

Then he remembered Pat.

His old friend from the army. He was one of the best soldiers there was, and had a degree in medical school; the type of degree that allowed him to legally saw off a limb, or chin in this scenario. One unfortunate day, his plane crashed and he was paralyzed from the waist down. He refused to get mechanical parts, saying something about only being able to trust himself to perform the surgery, but that would have been impossible. Although his arms worked perfectly fine, he didn't want to do anymore surgeries. And although it's against the rules to quit the army, the red leader let Pat go.

Tord picked up his phone and dialled the familiar number.