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"Hey guys!"
The three of them were lazily watching whatever is on the TV when they heard Edd from behind.
"Wanna watch Insane Zombie Pirates from Hell 4?" Edd beamed.
"Oh! That's a Classic! Sure!" Tord immediately agreed, whatever they're watching is something boring anyway.
"Yeah sure." Tom doesn't seem to mind either.
They all have watched the series together multiple times. It's the fun movie nights that bonds them together. No fighting, just relaxing movie nights with friends, watching their favourite movie.
"Matt?" Edd asks if Matt is down to watch.
"Oh uh sure!" Matt agreed as well although he doesn't remember anything about it.
It's been a while since Matt got his memory erased.
That time when he was freshly memory erased, his friends handled the situation quite better than expected. Everyone tried what they could to make him remember anything.
They showed him around the house and explained anything that is significant to his past, cooked his favourite dishes, and tried to reverse the memory gun's effect.
He was shot with the memory gun again but this time, with a belief that it would reverse the memory erasure after Tord made some adjustments.
It only made worse than good. Matt became bad at remembering things like dates, time, where he puts his stuff when he was just holding it a second ago, and most saddening to his friends, their names.
Now after that second memory gun shot, the first Matt remembers in all of this is them inside this house and Tord saying that shooting him more than twice might further damage his brain so they had to find other ways or to accept that this is how it is going to be now.
Now Matt finds himself here, they're all hanging out again like nothing happened. It all happened so fast. It's not like it's a bad thing. They all have been so nice, occasionally mean but never personal.
He didn't trust them at first but he got proof that he's actually friends with them, thanks to Edd keeping a scrapbook of Matt and Edd with the others together. And apparently, they all have been friends since grade school!
Matt watches the scenes in the television play without paying attention.
His mind wandered, his train of thoughts going from "how are zombie pirates from hell?" to "I remember the story Edd told me about us during the zombie apocalypse" and then to "I feel bad for forgetting the old times of my friends together."
Matt always feels the guilt coming back to him that he shoved on the back of his head. The guilt of Matt not remembering a thing. He tries to shake it off most of the time because everytime he thinks about it he gets sad. It doesn't help how his memories are only months old and his memories aren't old enough to think of something else.
Matt thinks his friends lost something dear to them.
Where are the memories and bonds they shared together? Gone
The person who he was before, the one who is their actual friend? All gone
Even if he's not the person he is from the past, he can't help but wonder if they still consider him as a friend or just pity him and just let him live in this house because he simply doesn't know where to go.
"Alright!"
Matt was snapped out of his trance by Tom standing up from the couch. The movie was over already.
"I'm gonna hit the hay." Tom stretched. "Night."
"Can you clean the living room, Tord? I'm lazy hehe. I'll sleep as well, g'night." Edd followed behind Tom to the hallway.
"Goodnight." Matt responds absent-mindly, still not moving from where he is sat.
"No." Tord joked, He was already picking up the couch pillows, arranging them and then he puts the DVD back to its casing.
Tord notices Matt still sitting on the couch in daze. "You're not sleeping?"
"Oh, I will be going too." Matt stands up from where he sits in a weird way that definitely didn't go unnoticed to Tord.
"Is something wrong? You didn't say anything during the entire movie."
Matt sits back down. Tord puts the DVD case he's holding down and he sits next to the ginger, shortly after.
Tord didn't say anything, he sat there waiting for Matt to speak first.
"Do you… Do you miss the old Matt?" Matt started.
"Why do you ask..?"
"I have been thinking… you guys are nice people and you tried everything to bring my memories back but to no avail…" The ginger paused.
Tord waits patiently for him to talk again.
Matt sighs "The old Matt was your friend. He was the one who holds and shares the memories with you guys since young. I don't. So why? Why do you guys still keep me here? I'm like a stranger now."
"Matt, Old memories back or not, you're still Matt."
"B-but don't you miss him?" Matt stammers.
"Not gonna lie to you, dude. It hurted when you couldn't remember the times when we went to the ruins, me and you together or any of our adventures for that matter but even so, you're still our friend." Tord explains.
Tord sighs "It… It was my fault you had your memory erased anyway." He looks away, head turned back from Matt.
Matt tries to peek but Tord stood up from the couch and went to the front door. He turned his head slightly to look at and gestured to Matt to follow him.
Tord opened the door and went outside.
Matt followed and went outside and the cold night breeze brushed against Matt's skin as he closed the door behind him.
Matt stood in their front lawn. It was dark outside. It was very quiet and the neighborhood was already asleep.
He looks up to see bright stars twinkling and shining beautifully in the night sky. These sparkling stars gave him a little bit of comfort.
Matt gets his eyes off the sky and looks around to see where Tord could have gone but to his surprise he's nowhere to be found.
"Todd?" Matt calls out softly so he wouldn't make a noise and wake the neighborhood but also loud enough for Tord to hear if he's near.
He heard a voice from above.
"Up here!"
The ginger saw Tord standing on top of the house's roof. A ladder was placed just below him.
Matt made an O shape with his mouth as he saw his friend.
He quickly and clumsily followed him up the ladder, almost slippin but thanks to Tord he got his hand. He got up nice and safely.
Tord motioned Matt to sit next to him on the roof.
"I needed some fresh air."
Matt just nods. He likes it here, it's nice and cold under the night sky.
"I'm…sorry Matt." Tord struggles to apologize.
The ginger looked at Tord and stayed quiet.
"I-I know that sounds ingenuine but I really am, I just left that gun lying around and you unfortunately-'' Tord mimics a gun shooting at his head with his hands.
"I don't know if you accidentally did it or if it's on purpose but it's still my fault for putting it somewhere you can access."
"I forgive you." Matt said as he smiled at Tord.
Tord looked at Matt and then looked down as he sadly smiled. It shouldn't have been that easy...
A brief pause between the two before Matt speaks again.
"Will it be okay if I pick up new hobbies?" Matt asks nervously.
"Why are you asking?" Tord at Matt questionably.
"Will it be weird?"
"Elaborate?"
"Is it going to be weird? Cuz…you know.. I'm different from what you're used to?"
'Used to?' Tord thinks. He didn't speak yet, he wants Matt to explain further.
"I- I'm not the Matt who I was before and I'm scared of what you guys might think of me doing completely different from my normal. Would you be uncomfortable with it?" Matt fidget with his fingers.
"Go for it. I don't mind it. I don't know about the others tho."
"You wouldn't feel weird or upset?"
"I don't mind, I told you. Plus it would be interesting to see what you will pick up, you're not the person you were from before." Tord confirms. "Not that it's a bad thing!" he reassured the ginger.
Matt felt relieved and a little confident.
"What hobbies are you going to pick up?"
"Cooking seems really interesting to me and maybe beauty products? I've been seeing people do skin care routines and make-up tutorials, they seem really fun!" Matt beamed.
"Heh, we're complete opposites." Tord chuckled.
"How?"
"I like tinkering with junk and creating something with it so I'm always dirty, I think beauty products would just be a waste if used on myself."
"Oh! Speaking of which I do see you often holding tools and carrying some sort of sci-fi stuff. Looks cool tho!"
"Hehe." Tord smiled.
"I would like to try nail polish on someone though." Matt is clearly wanted to do it on Tord.
"Ah, but it'll just chip it off during times I handle some stuff."
"Then we'll give you a recoating!" Matt beams that it was like he was blinding Tord's eyes.
Tord laughs at his endearing demeanor.
"Would like to paint Edd's and Tom's nails as well!"
"I'm sure you do." Tord replies, smile not leaving his face.
They stared at the sky for a bit in silence with the night breeze kissing their skins, feeling the chilly night.
"I admit, you're really easier to talk to than I thought, Tord." Matt gave Tord another blinding smile.
'He finally got it right' Tord smiles and shrugs at his comment.