Tord had begun trudging down the main hall to the entrance, which was also technically the exit, of red base. He wanted to go for another walk, but he didn't want the medic or anyone else to see him in such a state. He had already poured his, might as well be artificial, heart out to the medic, and that was already embarassing enough. He didn't need anyone important to see him this way. Tord managed to avoid just about everyone easily... A little too easily actually. Guess he wasn't the only one trying to recover from everything that just happened. Although, Tord was probably the only one recovering emotionally, not that he'd ever admit that to anyone. Okay, well no, he had admitted it to Paul, Patryck, and the medic, but no one else! Tord growled quietly to himself as he left red base, the large doors slamming shut behind him. His good eye wandered up, gazing at the dark clouds above him, why did it always seem to be raining? Huh... Rain... He never thought such a simple act of mother nature could make him feel nostalgic. Tord instinctively pulled his hood over his head. He may have been depressed over his all too late realization, but not depressed enough to lose all his common sense. He grabbed his black hoodie before deciding to go out. Never know when someone could be watching. Tord began walking towards town, where street lights could be seen glowing, contrasting themselves against the dark and gloomy sky. Tord wasn't an idiot, he knew that heading into town would probably make him feel worse about himself, but he was currently fighting against his own judgement. Nothing seemed rational to him anymore, not one single thing. Why not do something crazy? Although, walking down a street didn't necessarily classify as crazy... Whatever. Tord mentally shook his thoughts away and proceeded to walk. He hasn't felt this terrible since the giant robot incident, something that felt like it happened a decade ago, when in reality it was barely a few months ago. Tord had previously assumed this was all due to seeing Tom for an extended period of time, but the unfortunate reality was, it was quite the opposite. Tord felt terrible because he hasn't seen Tom for an extended period of time. He missed him, he lov- didn't hate him as much as he once did. The medic had helped in making that clear for Tord. Obviously the memory eraser gun plan was out the window, no way Tord could force himself to forget any of this, not like he really wanted to in the first place. Tord snapped himself out of his thoughts for a second. Wait a second... Where was he? Apparently he had become so lost in his own thoughts, that his feet had moved on their own, temporarily making themselves independent from the rest of Tord's manual functions. Let's see, there was a very "worn" looking motel, a closed convenience store, and an ice cream parlor. Crap! The ice cream parlor! Tord felt tears welling up slightly. Not enough to hinder his eyesight or anything like that, but he could still feel them nonetheless. Tord found himself walking into the parlor. Unlike before, there were actually some customers filling the small and incredibly cold space, still not very many though. Just some guy on his phone in the corner and some lovey dovey couple feeding each other ice cream by the large window up front. They were sitting in the same place Tom and Tord had sat.
"Can I help you sir?" A voice asked. Tord glanced over at the counter. That overly flirtatious employee had been replaced by a young kid. Tord could only assume it was some teenager that had gotten stuck with this as a summer job.
"No, sorry, I'm just... Waiting for someone," Tord lied.
"Alright, but know that if you don't buy anything in the next hour or two, I gotta kick you out, rules man," The teen sighed. Tord nodded and sat down at a table. Why was he even here? He only left red base to take a calming walk, not to sit in an ice cream parlor and mope. Tord began observing the couple sitting by the window. They were both young girls, one being much shorter than the other. They were staring intently into each other's eyes and giggling as they fed each other swirled ice cream. The shorter one was clearly missing the taller ones mouth, but the taller one didn't seem to have the heart to tell her girlfriend that. Maybe they weren't dating? Maybe Tord had just jumped to conclusions. He hated himself for having love on the brain. Oh, nevermind. The taller girl had leaned over and gave the smaller one a quick kiss, making the smaller one smile and awkwardly adjust her square thick rimmed glasses. Tord felt a small twinge of anger. Maybe watching a happy couple wasn't the best idea for his mental health. However, he found that he couldn't look away. It was as if he felt a sense of... Longing. He longed for something like that, with a certain somebody that had been constantly on his mind. He continued watching, trying his best to get a grip on what it was he really wanted. He noticed that the couple had matching necklaces, both with normal looking pebbles on the ends of them, and a... Oh... Both had matching rings clipped onto their necklaces, wedding rings to be exact. Okay, picturing himself and he who shall not be named in a cutesy relationship was one thing, but picturing them getting married? Tord turned bright red. He quickly jumped out of his chair, causing everyone to stare at him.
"You okay dude?" The teenager behind the counter asked. Tord quickly ran out of the parlor, too flustered to say a word. That was weird, very weird. He knew that he was trapped in an inescapable pit of human emotion at this time, but he had no idea how deep that pit really went. He continued running, speeding up slightly. Where exactly? Well he wasn't too sure at this point. Anywhere was better than that ice cream parlor in Tord's opinion. Oddly enough, as Tord's heart began pounding harder, so did the rain, splashing hard in very large drops onto the pavement. Great, now not only did he have to find a shelter from his own emotions, but now he had to find one from the weather as well, how symbolic. Or at least it would be if Tord wasn't too busy trying to seek refuge from the rain. The roof of a large brick building came into view, causing Tord to stop right in his tracks as he realized what the large building was. It was Tom's abandoned building.

Well this chapter is complete garbage. I am so sorry it's bad. I pulled an all nighter on this one too! Ugh. Whateves. Anyhow, this is the third chapter I've uploaded today! There are two new chapters that are right before this one! That's right! 3/3! Meaning this will be the last chapter for about a week or two. Why? Well in case you neglected the author's notes in the last two chapters, my birthday is on September 26th, and since it's coming up, I realized I didn't want my anxiety to bother me with things like "Oh no, did I update? How long has it been? Oh I bet everyone hates me now." I should probably get on with some important announcements. In fact they're so important, I really need you to pay attention. MUCH IMPORTANT. So as you know, this is the current cover of Childish:

sanasarq made it for me, and I am incredibly grateful. They're talented and underappreciated as an artist in my opinion. I love it and adore it, however, a very close friend of mine ( princeoffluff ) who is also an underappreciated artist made this cover:

I promised then I'd put the option up here, and here it is. I of course won't do anything until I get feedback from everyone. Just say whether you want me to keep the old one or not. I'm okay either way. I appreciate both of these spectacular artists and I request only one thing. If there is a cover you like better, please do not hate on the other. Just simply say you prefer one over the other, don't diss the other one in any way just because it's not what you would choose. Thank you. Now two more announcements before I move onto the fan art segment. princeoffluff also created an amino for Childish, of which I'm a leader now. I barely know how amino works, so it's pretty much bare, however it is there in case anyone would like to view it. Finally, I now have a tumblr by the same username I have here full of random stuff, however if you would like to ask an oc within this story something, like an ask blog, you are welcome to go on there and do so. Alright, enough with the weird announcements, onto the fan art!

First up is this strangely adorable art from LovesRoss I think I've mentioned before how much I love the idea of this fic in Ellsworld form, and this just overall makes me enjoy that thought even more. Also am I a monster for looking at sad little baby Tam and thinking it's cute? Crap... I am aren't I?

Next is some incredibly recent art sent to me by IHateChoosingName who wasn't all that confident in themselves and their drawing ability when they posted it. That's just how art works though. Even if others like it, which I seriously do, the artist will always have their own apprehensions. That's the beauty of it though. The artist works to perfect their art so that they themselves love it, and that is something truly glorious to witness.

Next, some more adorableness created by the talented CandyBossHere can I just say, I love the art style used for this one. It's adorable and slightly cartoonish, an art style I've always been a big fan of. I just... Words are physically leaving me at how much I love this. It was actually my phone wallpaper for a few weeks before my brother changed it without my permission. Just.... Gaaaaaah so cuuuuuuute. My heart can't take it!

This art was posted to deviantart by AJX10theOtaku and then sent to me via wattpad. I've always liked looking at art pages that were a few miscellaneous drawings made into a sort of collage of sketches. That sentence probably didn't make much sense to anyone else, but that's perfectly fine. The point is, I love each of the sketches in general, and their placements please me for whatever reason. I dunno. I'm a weird Tv child.

Finally we have some more art done by my friend princeoffluff this is actually a redraw of some art they sent me quite a few chapters ago. Initiating the nickname "Jackaroni." Aka our favorite hot psycho. Oh and for those who keep Pm'ing me about whether or not Jack's last name starts with a D, I'm not answering that, so my apologies, I've probably ruined your Heathers Javid AU fantasy. Lol. Anyways, I also wanted to thank you all for more than 160k reads on this story. I haven't updated in quite a bit, and your patience never ceases to amaze me you beautiful, beautiful people you. Thank you all for reading!