#ew angst | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

eunchancorner · 1 year

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Just the bois seeing Eduardo being angsty, no big deal (not the angst I promised yesterday lol)

Warning: mentions of character death, depression, and a lottttttttt of angst

Word count: 1756

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“Edd, what are we doing in the cemetery?” Tom questioned his friend, gripping his coat tightly as the wind started picking up.

“Looking for ghosts, of course!” the taller replied enthusiastically, holding some device he’d ordered off of some sketchy website, with blinking lights and fancy dials that Tom doubted worked for actually detecting ghosts and more for wasting all of their batteries with how fast it went through them.

“I don’t mean to be the party pooper here, but, why, exactly are we doing this?” Matt chimed in.

“That’s what I want to know…” Tom mumbled.

“So we can learn! That’s- that’s a reason people go ghost hunting, yeah..”

Tom sighed as he pulled a flask out of his pocket, chugging some of whatever alcohol he’d brought with him. “Learning? About what?”

“About the past! What is was like to live back then!” Edd seemed to be falling into a daydream about learning about 1860 or something, so Tom decided to snap him out of it.

“And if we find someone around our age who died recently? That’s about half of these graves, you know, since there have been dozens of casualties around here.”

“Then we’ll ask them how they died and move on!”

“And what’s your plan for when this inevitably kills us?”

“Uhh, come back and try again. Sometimes I worry about you Tom, you seem to keep forgetting we can just do that.”

“I’m just making sure, here.”

“Hey guys, what’s that?” Matt suddenly chimed into their conversation, pointing at a bright blue cluster in the distance.

“Ohhh, I bet it’s something ghostly! Come on, let’s go see!” Edd chirped as he darted over, followed closely by his two friends. As they approached, they saw that it was just another grave, but surrounded by beautiful light blue flowers. They all circled it, looking for anything else that might indicate paranormal activity, but they came up empty handed. Edd even tried using his device. Nothing (as expected).

“Nothing, dammit…” Edd muttered as he shut the device off, before reading the name on the grave. “Uhh, did either of you know a Laurel?”

“Not really,” Matt said without hesitation.

“Doesn’t ring a bell,” Tom said after a bit of thought.

“What the hell are you three doing here?” a voice sounded behind them, all of them looking back to see who had spoken.

“Eduardooooooo…” Edd drawled on instinct, seeing his rival’s face. Although, there was something different today. The air of superiority he usually had about him, it was gone. He looked more annoyed with them than like he meant to bully them.

“We’re here on a very important mission to find ghosts, so, shoo! Off with you!” Matt insisted, waving his hands in a ushering gesture at him.

“I’m not leaving. I’m here to see my girlfriend, which I’d argue is more important,” Eduardo refuted.

“What kind of date takes place in the middle of a cemetery, is she hardcore goth or something?” Tom asked, an eyebrow raised.

“She’s not alive, dumbass,” the angry brunette responded.

“Whatever. We’re busy investigating this grave and why all these flowers are here. I think it might be paranormal activity!” Edd insisted, but his rival refused to budge.

“That’s my girlfriend’s grave. I planted those flowers. Now fucking move,” he ordered, and, this time, the three backed off, watching as the man knelt down to the grave and gently pulled out a blue flower, just like the ones surrounding the grave, and a similarly shaped green one, placing them on the grave.

“Hey, Laurel…” he began to mumble, as though he could speak to her. “These guys giving you trouble again?... I’d tell them off if I could, but I know you wouldn’t like that… I miss you… so does Mark… and, well… you probably know about what happened to Jon… I think it’s why I fell back into it… you know how it is… Mark’s getting me to eat and leave the house again, so that’s a start… and…” his breath began to shudder. He looked back at his three witnesses, tears freshly ready to fall. “You should go… I don’t want anyone… especially you… seeing me like this.”

Edd couldn’t help but remember the time Eduardo had saved him from the huge monster, when they had powers, and felt the need to stay and help him, even if only to repay that debt.

Matt also felt like they should stay. Eduardo was clearly in pain, clearly hurting. He wanted to help, even if he did kind of hate him. He hated Mark more, anyways.

Tom acted like he literally could not care less. “Fine by me,” he said as he started to walk off, Edd and Matt slowly following, looking back at the man who was about to collapse into a full-on mental breakdown. But, before they left earshot, Tom pulled them behind a tree and motioned for them to stay quiet, before peeking out. Confused, the two peeked as well.

Tom had been secretly thinking, Maybe I could catch him doing something fucked up, maybe even ruin his political career if he ever decides to have one. So, yes, his intentions were entirely malicious.

As soon as he thought they were gone, Eduardo collapsed completely onto his knees, sobs wracking his frame, tears flowing freely and falling onto the grave below. He let out a few mumbles that were inaudible to the three before, finally, his voice started to pick up volume.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry… I should have protected you… it was all their fault… all his fault… it’s his fault you and Jon are gone… his fault that I only have Mark left… it’s all his fault…” he reached out and gently brushed the dust away from her name with his thumb. “I’ll see you both again… one day…”

Edd, Matt, and, yes, even Tom, thought they were going to cry. Suddenly, her name clicked in their minds. When they had made their flop of a movie, Space Cats, the actress they had hired, who was so excited and enthusiastic to work with them, who was killed by shoe before they got to watch the film for the first time, was named Laurel. They remembered Mark showing up to their door asking for a copy of the movie (to which they shoved the original in his hands and sent him on his way). They realized it was probably because Eduardo couldn’t bring himself to do it. He blamed them for her death. He blamed Edd.

Shock overtook them, however, as the real weight of Eduardo’s words sank in.

It’s his fault you and Jon are gone… his fault that I only have Mark left…

He not only blamed Edd for Laurel’s death, and apparently Jon’s, but for his lack of friends. And the sad part was, it made complete sense. Edd was responsible for getting Eduardo bullied, possibly all throughout school. Edd and his friends had made a movie that resulted in Laurel’s death. Edd had let a murderous psycho into the house who killed Jon.

It really was all Edd’s fault.

“Oh my god, I’m a terrible person…” Edd mumbled finally, watching his poor rival slowly calm down from his sobbing as a purple car pulled into the nearby parking lot, a blonde getting out of the driver’s side. As he approached, they all saw it was Mark, who started fussing over Eduardo the moment he was close enough.

“Eduardo, there you are! Your car’s still at home, did you walk here? You must be freezing! And you’ve been crying, no, my friend… I brought your jacket and some heat packs. I have some hot cocoa in the center console for you and the heat and seat warmers are on, please, get your coat on and go get in the car. I have to say some things to her, too, and I’m sure she doesn’t want you joining her early because you decided to go out on a cold autumn night without anything to stay warm!” he bustled around him with small packets and a large black coat like most of them had, wiping the tears away from Eduardo’s face (with much resistance on the smaller man’s behalf) with a little pack of tissues.

As Eduardo walked away, Mark turned back to the grave. He didn’t say anything, providing ample opportunity for the boys to walk up to him, to try to talk with him.

“Hey, Mark,” Edd started, noticing how Mark’s soft stare hardened into a glare as he saw them, as was expected.

“You. What are you doing here?” he demanded immediately, turning to face them with his arms crossed.

“We were looking for ghosts and… saw Eduardo crying over Laurel. He said something about you being the only one he had left, and well…” Edd glanced back at his friends before continuing, “We’re just hoping you’re taking good care of him. After all, who’s Power Edd without his Numero Uno, his rival, y’know…? Point is, we just hope you’re taking good care of him. I know we’re just as guilty of being jerks, and that it’s… kind of our fault-” “Edd…”

“Ok, ok… My fault that what happened… happened.”

Mark’s gaze softened at the three before him. So they finally started caring, huh?

“I am, I promise, and I’m sure Eduardo would be glad to hear his rival cares so much about him,” Mark told them.

“Oh, no, we can’t let him know we saw that… please?” Edd asked so politely, and dammit, how could Mark say no?

“Ah, alright. This’ll be our little secret, then. But, if you really do care that much, feel free to invite me over for tea. But I’d advise not coming to my house for it, considering who exactly would be there.”

“We understand. Thank you,” Edd smiled a bit, Mark nodding as returned to his car. Edd turned to the other two.

“He’s actually really nice. For a cocky jerk,” Matt finally said, turning to Tom to see how he’d respond.

“Let’s go home. I feel like discovering our neighbor has depression and the other has turned into his dad is enough for one night,” was the shortest’s words, and, for once, the taller two agreed, all three of them walking back to the car.

“You know, we never did find any ghosts,” Edd mumbled quietly, turning on his little device, a few moments before it promptly died in his hands.

They were not replacing the batteries on it again.

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How did this little one-off thing get so long holy hell-