Work Text:
It was just another morning at 27 Dirdum Lane. Tord woke to the smell of bacon being cooked. Hopefully there will be enough for everyone this time. Tord made his way to the kitchen and took a seat at the dining table (as far away from Tom as possible, of course). Tom was hunched over the table, likely hungover and waiting for the aspirin to kick in. Matt was admiring himself in a hand mirror. Yep, just another normal day.
“Good morning,” Edd chirped as he served everyone breakfast. “How’d everyone sleep last night?”
“I slept fine,” Tord shrugged.
“I slept the same way I do everything: beautifully!” Matt preened. Tom just gave a noncommittal grunt.
“Well, okay, then!” Edd stated as he took his own seat at the table. Tord wasted no time digging into his bacon. He was so wrapped up in the warm, crispy, savory flavor that he almost didn’t hear Edd’s gasp of alarm. “Tord!” Tord’s head shot up at the sound of his friend crying his name, and was now being confronted with the horrified stares of Edd, Matt, and even Tom.
“What?” he asked in confusion. Why were they all staring at him like that? Wordlessly, Matt turned his mirror to face Tord. Looking at his reflection, Tord noticed trickles of blood dripping from his eyes.
Well, that was concerning.
Going to the doctor was not Tord’s favorite thing in the world. First you have to sit in the waiting room while the doctor takes their sweet time in calling you back, and then, when they finally do, you have to sit on the exam table enduring a bunch of poking and prodding. Tord had better things to do with his time, like tinkering with his inventions or looking at hentai.
But even he had to admit that blood spontaneously dripping from one’s eyes was cause for concern. So here he was, sitting in the waiting room between his two nervously-fidgeting friends (and Tom, who seemed to want to be here even less than Tord did).
“Tord?” the nurse called. Finally. Tord stood up and followed her back to the exam room, his friends following close behind.
“Hello, Tord. I’m Dr. Names,” the doctor introduced himself as Tord took a seat. “What brings you in today?”
“He just started bleeding from his eyes out of nowhere this morning!” Edd spoke on his behalf. Not that Tord really minded. He was often so caught up in his own head that he rarely spoke, so Edd would sometimes have to do it for him.
“You were bleeding from your eyes?” Dr. Names repeated.
“Yes,” Tord answered with a nod.
“Did you have any other symptoms? Any pain or nausea or anything like that?” Dr. Names asked.
“No. I didn’t even notice until Matt showed me my reflection,” Tord answered, gesturing to the tall, square-chinned ginger. Dr. Names began to examine him, mostly checking his eyes for any abnormalities.
“Well, I can’t seem to find anything wrong,” Dr. Names finally reported with a grunt. “And it seems you’ve stopped bleeding before you even got here.”
“So does that mean I can go?” Tord deadpanned.
“Well, I suppose it does,” Dr. Names conceded, not sounding particularly happy. “But if it happens again, come in immediately. I’ll tell my nurse to make you a priority case.”
“Well, that was a waste of time,” Tom scoffed as they exited the clinic. For once, Tord had to agree with him (not that he’d give him the satisfaction of saying so).
“We just need to keep a close eye on Tord,” Edd stated, still sounding a bit nervous. Tord resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He couldn’t be upset with Edd for being worried. That’s what friends were for, after all. Still, he wasn’t really a fan of being mollycoddled.
“Yeah, don’t worry, Tord,” Matt said, putting a hand on Tord’s shoulder. “We’ll figure out what’s wrong with you and make it better.” Tord just nodded his head with a small hum. Hopefully, however, there was nothing wrong with him and the whole “blood from the eyes” thing was a one time thing.
It wasn’t a one time thing. It didn’t happen frequently; only once every few weeks. (Tom once made the crack that he was on his period. Tord made sure to give him a good sock to the jaw for that one.) And it was always brief, always stopping or having nearly stopped by the time they even got to hospital.
None of the doctors or nurses knew what to make of it. At least one even suggested that he was faking it, only for his friends (Tom included, surprisingly enough) to immediately shut them down, pointing out that he couldn’t have been faking it since they actually saw him start bleeding.
Just when Tord was starting to resign himself to this new “normal”, another symptom appeared. Tord would start to get headaches. He felt as if something was growing out of his skull and trying to pierce through his scalp.
When he brought it up the next time he was dragged to the doctor, they’d determined that the headaches combined with the spontaneous bleeding from his eyes were indicative of migraines. His friends seemed relieved to finally have an answer (though Tom acted rather indifferent to it), but Tord wasn’t certain that that was exactly the case. He didn’t bring it up, however. He was done with constantly being dragged to the doctor.
It had been another normal day. The four housemates had decided to marathon the Insane Zombie Pirates From Hell franchise when Tord had gotten another “migraine” and Edd, ever the mom-friend, banished him to his room to recover. So there Tord sat, scowling (not pouting!) in his dark room.
He groaned and massaged his temple as he felt another sharp pain emerge from it. He felt like something was pushing against the skin from the inside. He was also feeling a similar sensation from his back. Tord flopped onto his back, rubbing it against the mattress to make the sensation go away. It didn’t. If anything, it just got worse.
Tord arched his back as the uncomfortable sensation reached its zenith. It felt like something was ripping through his skin! Tord ripped off his hoodie and shirt as he felt something growing out of his back. Tord was distracted from this new information as whatever was growing from his skull finally pierced through his scalp. Whatever was growing out of his tailbone had erupted through his skin as well.
As Tord was catching his breath, whatever had grown out of his back folded over and entered his field of view. Were those…wings? Tord decided that he needed to see himself. Ignoring his aching body, Tord pushed himself to his feet and made his way to the bathroom. Once there, he looked at his reflection in the mirror. To say he was stunned would be an understatement.
From his back emerged two black-feathered wings. A pair of red horns adorned his head, and he now had a pointy, red tail to match. What appeared to be a broken halo floated over his head, and his once-green eyes now glowed an ethereal blue.
“H-Hva faen…?” Tord whispered as he took in his new appearance. He reached toward the mirror and jerked back as his fingertips brushed the cold surface. Yep, this was real. He touched his new horns. They were sharp and had no give. He brushed his fingers over his wings. Soft and feathery, and reflexively jerked when touched.
“Tord?!” Tord’s head whipped around when he heard Edd gasping his name in shock. His bleeding, glowing eyes met Edd’s wide, shocked ones. It was then that Tord realized that, in his haste, he had forgotten to close the door.
Tord grimaced as Matt continued to fiddle with his wings, holding them firmly in his hands against Tord’s natural reflex to pull away.
“So, you wanna tell us how this happened, commie?” Tom asked, his pitch-black eyes narrowed.
“How the hell should I know, Jehovah’s Witness?” Tord snapped back.
“Alright, alright,” Edd cut in, attempting to defuse another argument between the primary-colour-clad males before it could start. “Tord, can you think of anything that might have caused…this?”
“You look like a fallen angel,” Matt stated, as casually as if he were simply commenting on the weather. The rest of the group turned to stare at him.
“What?” Tord questioned. “Yeah, see, because you’ve got the wings and the halo, but they look corrupted,” Matt pointed out. “And you also have the horns and the tail.”
“But how would I even–- Ohhhhh…” Now Tord remembered. When he’d become a zombie and used a spell to break the curse on his corpse, his soul had ascended to Heaven-–only to get kicked out soon after.
“Figures you’d get your ass kicked out of Heaven, commie,” Tom smirked when Tord told his friends this information.
“Whatever,” Tord shrugged. “Heaven was lame anyway.”
“So…what do we do now?” Edd questioned.
“I guess we just…learn to live with this,” Tord responded. “I mean, I don’t really see any other options besides that.”
“Surprised you can see anything at all through all that blood in your eyes,” Tom quipped.
“At least I have eyes,” Tord shot back.
“So, Tord,” Edd smirked with his trademark catlike smile, “did it hurt when you fell from Heaven?” Tord, unamused, slapped Edd with his tail.