"What are you two babbling about now?" Tord snarled.
   "Nothing sir! Come on Pau, we should get a move on," Pat chuckled nervously and quickly pushed Pau out the door with him, leaving Tom and Tord to their own devices.
   "Sorry, I hope those two didn't kill any of your brain cells while I was gone," Tord sighed.
   "Nah, they were actually kind of... Helpful?" Tom shrugged.
   "...It's official, you have a concussion, for sure, don't even need a medic for this one."
   "Cool, does that mean I can go home now?"
   "Now be honest Tom, is that really what you still want?" Tord asked, staring holes into the man in front of him. Dread passed over Tom's features.
    "So I uh... Guess that means we're going to talk about... It," Tom made air quotes with his fingers at the mention of "it."
    "I thought that was what you wanted?"
    "It is! It is... I just, I don't know man, this is just really awkward," Tom huffed. Tord gently sat down next to the other man, a surprisingly patient look on his face.
    "No, I get it, like I said, if you're not comfortable talking about it then you don't have-"
    "-I have felt weird," Tom interrupted.
    "What?"
    "Remember when you asked me if I felt weird after Edd and Matt rescued me? Well I did... It felt weird and for the longest time I couldn't pinpoint why," Tom clarified. Tord remained silent, waiting for the man to go on. "I felt guilty at first, because I thought the Seamstress had died because of me, and then that just made me plain pissed off at you, and then once I calmed down a bit I felt... Weird... Empty almost... As if I were missing something and I just couldn't comprehend what that something was, but after you uh... Did what you did a moment ago, I felt... Not so incomplete," Tom muttered the last half of his statement, refusing to look Tord in the eye out of mild embarrassment as a result of his own words. Tord, meanwhile, was astonished. Was Tom saying what he thought he was saying? "Don't get the wrong idea or anything! I'm not confessing anything but-" Tord burst out into a fit of laughter before Tom could finish his sentence. Tom sat there, bewildered by the norwegian man that had suddenly begun laughing hard enough for tears to run down his face.
    "Sorry, sorry, it's just... Oh wow," Tord stopped to take a deep breath, wiping the tears off his face with a wide grin. "I've watched alot of anime in my time Tom, and what you just said was the most cliché thing I have ever- OW!" Tord hissed as Tom elbowed him in the stomach.
    "Could you please not compare me to one of your stupid anime girls while I'm trying to be sincere over here?" Tom frowned. Evidently he found nothing amusing about the situation.
    "Right, sorry," Tord apologized as he tried catching his breath. Tom had one heck of an elbow on him, enough to knock the wind out of him anyway. "So, what you're saying is, I complete you?" Tord's smug smirk faltered a bit upon seeing Tom tense up.
    "I'd rather you didn't phrase it like that, but in a sense, yes... I guess," Tom begrudgingly admitted. Tom almost felt his heart stop as he glanced over at Tord and saw the ridiculous smitten expression on his face. What had he just gotten himself into? They stayed that way for an uncomfortable stretch of time, Tom unable to look away from Tord, who hadn't felt this blissful in years. "Uh... Earth to commie? Anyone in that thick skull of yours?" Tom awkwardly chuckled, hoping to break the uncomfortably quiet atmosphere. It seemed to have worked for a moment, Tord's visible eye going wide as if realizing how long he had been staring at the british man.
    "Sorry! Crap sorry, I didn't mean to stare!" Tord quickly apologized yet again. Tom had to admit, seeing Tord, who had once tried passing himself off as intimidating while Tom was kept prisoner, get flustered was quite the amusing sight.
    "You don't have to apologize, just wanted to make sure you hadn't died on the inside, not that I don't think you aren't already," Tom shrugged. Silence followed Tom's joke, and for a moment he was worried they'd commence yet another silent staring contest. Fortunately for Tom, it didn't last nearly as long as the last stretch of silence. Unfortunately for Tom, he was not prepared for what was used to end said stretch.
    "...Can I kiss you again?" Tord asked blatantly. Tom choked on his own spit, coughing up a storm. "That was a bit too sudden wasn't it?" Tord asked with a sheepish smile.
    "You think?!" Tom exclaimed while trying to regain his composure. He paused for a second after doing so, shifting a bit so as to fully face Tord. "...Sure, but only because I'm curious about whether or not that feeling was genuine or if it had just been adrenaline or-" Tord immediately leaned forward and connected their lips, the cold metal of his fingertips brushing against Tom's chin. Tom, having adjusted to the kiss surprisingly quickly given how impromptu it had been, nearly melted. His previous feelings had come back full force: The feeling of being whole, the feeling of finishing something he had no idea he had started, the feeling of... Tom pulled back before he could let himself get too deep into what he was feeling. He slowly opened his eyes, which he had no idea he had even closed during the kiss, and looked up at Tord. The man wore an expression Tom had never seen on him before. He had a small smile on his face, his shoulders were relaxed, and there was an unexpected gentleness that reflected back at him through Tord's visible eye. He must've looked just as awestruck if Tord's quiet chuckle was anything to go by.
    "Commie- no- Tord, what does this mean... What does this make us?" Tom asked. He hated how cliché those words made him sound, but he just wasn't sure of himself and he highly doubted the man in front of him was either. Tord seemed to ponder the question in his mind for a moment. What did this mean? What did this make them? Was there even a label for what they seemed to have? Everything was just too unclear for the time being, and Tord almost didn't trust himself to answer Tom. He was worried he'd give the "hopeless romantic" answer as opposed to the practical one. Finally he settled on answering as honestly as he could.
    "...I don't know." Tom seemed bizarrely content with that answer. Associating these sort of feelings with the man he once considered his mortal enemy? He was on foreign ground, and odds were Tord felt the same. He felt this would probably be something they'd have to take on one step at a time. Tom gently reached up and held Tord's robotic hand, intertwining his fingers with Tord's prosthetic ones. Tom almost wanted to deny the warmth he felt in his chest as they pressed their foreheads together in an odd but tender gesture. "I hate that I still have work to do today," Tord mumbled under his breath, eliciting an amused hum from Tom. Tord separated himself from Tom, much to the other man's dismay, and walked over to his desk, reaching into one of the drawers and pulling out a bulky looking cellphone.
    "What are you up to?" Tom asked, his curiosity winning over his disappointment over the loss of Tord's warmth.
    "I have to make some phone calls, with the medic out of commission, we'll have to call in his predecessor..." Tom wasn't blind to the uneasy look Tord had on his face when he mentioned this "predecessor."
    "I take it that's a bad thing?"
    "Let's just say I exiled him for good reason, he's dangerous, so much so I don't even feel comfortable using my own phone to call him, I'd prefer it if he wasn't the only one available to exam you... Look, if he gets out of hand, or you feel threatened by him, I'll throw him out immediately without a second thought, I'm sure he'll be aware of that as well, so we should hopefully have nothing to worry about," Tord nodded, not entirely believing his own words. Tom watched as the man typed in a number, when a thought suddenly occured to him.
    "Hey, what does min k-jar-light mean?" Tord raised an eyebrow at Tom and his horrible attempt at speaking norwegian.
    "Do you mean min kjærlighet?"
    "Yeah! That! You called me that before you went to check up on the medic, what does it mean?" Tom sighed. Tord smirked and purposely waiting for the phone to ring a bit. That way, Tom wouldn't be able to respond before the medic's predecessor picked up the phone.
    "My love," Tord winked.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I hate myself. I am so spectacularly sorry. Honestly I don't even deserve to apologize at this point, I am that awful. Anyhow, it's been a long several months. I've gone through lots of shiz. Lost love, gained love, cried tears, went through school troubles, had lots of existential crisissss (whatever the plural for that is), had multiple medical related issues, lost inspiration, gained inspiration, screeched at my phone due to storage space issues (in fact after I publish this chapter I'll probably be completely out of space), the whole nine yards basically. I refuse to use any of that as an excuse, just know I'm endlessly sorry. Without further ado, fan art: (Sorry if I miss some... Or repeat some for that matter because wow organizing these has gotten hard)

By: MegaWerido on the Childish Amino

By: 2.: EddsworldLover:.2 On the Childish Amino

By: Tom_Luvs_Harpoons on the Childish Amino

By: Illmakeitsoundweirdtq_ on the Childish Amino

By: Sis on the Childish Amino

By: TheNotOkaySquad

By: @blue_the_insane (Tag will not work, odds are the user has been changed since this was sent)

By: SpamiltonDabs

By: (Requested to remain anonymous)

By: SmolEddHeadCassidy

By: Horizon on the Childish Amino

By: SugarCane_Tom

I think these are all by: @TrollArtistBoi (Tag won't work on this one either and I may be wrong about all three being theirs... If I am, you are given permission to despise me, I wouldn't blame you :) )

By: KittlynStar

By: MitsukoMsp
Aaaaand I believe I've hit the limit with how many photos I'm allowed to include, so again, my apologies if something was left out. I'll try my best to remedy the problem. Oh and uh... Pardon spelling errors... I'll fix those later. I'd like to say, I truly do appreciate those who have stuck with the series regardless of the unnecessary suffering I've probably put people through. I mean... 700k reads? The heck?! Some people even sent me really kind messages that honestly helped my mental state quite a bit. I'd like to thank each and every reader for putting up with me thus far. Thank you for reading.