Normal disclaimers apply.
Title of this fic is taken from a Ramshackle Glory song of the same title. Give it a listen, it's rad.

Eddward despised parties.
They were normally held in small rooms with the smell of bodies permeating the air and more pheromones were in the air than he could handle.
But (and curse his loyalty to his friends) he had promised Eddy that he would play wingman tonight.
And Eddward did not break his promises.

"Come on, Double D! You can't play wingman if you're stuck against this wall the whole time."
"But Eddddyyy, there are so many people here. This entire situation is so unsanitary. Ed just stuck his head into the bowl of punch earlier and people cheered, Eddy. They cheered!"

Eddy glared at him.

Edd sighed. "Okay. Let's get you 'acquainted' with the ladies then."

They pushed through throngs of people to an eventual open space where a group of their friends and a few strangers had formed a circle.
And they were passing around a joint.
It was a weed circle.

"Good lord, what would mother think if she knew of these shenanigans," Edd thought as he looked around nervously at the red eyed and smiling faces.

'Hi losers!" Eddy exclaimed before forcing himself into the circle.
Before Double D could protest, Eddy's hand had come up to grab him by the wrist so that he could pull him into sitting position in the space next to him.

"Hi double dork." A breathy voice whispered in his ear.

"K-Kevin. Salutations, are you enjoying your night?" Eddward asked, trying to keep his voice steady as he stared at the floor, wringing his hands in an attempt to keep from pulling at his hat.

He doesn't know why he's surprised to see Kevin here. Kevin fits in with this party crowd more than he does.
Edd allows himself a quick glance up at Kevin. And he almost smiles at just how little Kevin has changed over these years. His red hair is still hidden under a red baseball cap and his vocabulary still consisted of outdated '80's phrases. And, although they were never close, Kevin would still send a friendly nod his way when they passed each other in the corridors of their high school and they had friendly conversation whenever they were attending the same party. Which was often, considering that they had mutual friends.

"I'm enjoying it a lot more now." Kevin said, his face broke into a dopey smile And Edd couldn't fight the light blush that coloured his cheeks. He was used to Kevin's nature, the effortless flirting that came to him as easily as breathing. He had seen Kevin flirt with Nazz, Sarah, and on one occurrence, even Lee Kanker.
He knew not to take it seriously but he couldn't help the way his body reacted. Especially since he was absolutely infatuated with the red head.

"I am always happy to help." Edd replied, shaking his head when the joint had made its way to him.

He didn't mind the fact that people were smoking around him, but he never really had ever wanted to try marijuana himself. He just knows that he'll be the person who has a bad trip and becomes paranoid.

His eyes scanned the circle of people and he recognised a few people from his grade and of course, Ed. If there was weed about, you'd definitely find Ed.
Ed sent him a lopsided smile and a little wave, before turning back to the conversation he was having with May Kanker.

"You don't smoke?" Kevin asked.

"Not really." Edd replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Do you drink?"

"Normally yes, but today I was forced out of my house to play 'wingman'. And I have a history essay due in a few days, so I'd like to go home sober to work on it."

"Nerd." Eddy fake coughed next to them.

Edd glared at Eddy. He wasn't allowed to make fun of him if he was the only reason he was out in the first place!

"Wanna go raid the kitchen cupboards for snacks?" Kevin said next to him, his voice so soft and so close that Eddward felt that those words were meant just for him; a secret between the two of them.

"Okay." He breathed out, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up at the feel of Kevin's warm breath ghosting across his ear.

Kevin grabbed his hand and pulled Edd out of the cramped room, his fingers entwining with Edd's own before he realized what was happening.

Edd's hormones were going insane.

"Kevin, may I enquire as to what sort of snacks you are looking for?", Double D said, tentatively making his way through the groups of people blocking their entry into the kitchen.

"Dunno. Snacky snacks."

"How descriptive."

Kevin merely sent a grin his way, his hand never relinquishing its hold on Edd's.
They eventually reached the kitchen and the hold on Eddward was released.

Edd tried to ignore the pang of loss that he inexplicably felt.

"Okay, so we have a bag of chips, half a package of chocolate chip cookies and… two slabs of chocolate." Kevin announced, his head emerging from the kitchen cupboard.

"That sounds like an adequate meal. Or 'Snacky snack' as you so eloquently stated."

"Keep being mean and you won't get to share in my spoils." Kevin retorted, a grin across his lips as he motioned for Double D to follow him out of the room.

And that was how Double D spent that night. Alone with Kevin in a stranger's room, sitting crossed legged on the floor as they shared stolen snacks. Both pretending not to notice when the other's gaze stayed on them just a little too long, or the electric feel of the other's fingers on their own as they shared snacks.

"DOUBLE D"

Eddward sighed, looking over in Kevin's direction and shooting him a look of apology.

"Yes?"

"Eddy said that you're driving him home and I don't wanna go home with Rolf because I'm still pretty sure he wants to kill me for setting his chicken's free last month, so can I pleeeeeeease get a ride from you?", the door opened a little and Ed's face poked its way through, a hopeful smile on his face.

"of course, Ed. You really do have to stop freeing Rolf's chickens however. Honestly, they're safer there than outside."

"But they're in such small cages Double D! I can see how unhappy they are and it makes me unhappy!", Edd cried.

Double D tended to forget how invested Ed was in his chicken break outs.

"Are you ready to leave now? Because I am feeling a little tired and would like to get home to begin my school work."

Ed nodded eagerly, "I'll just go get Eddy!"

"Hey, Double Dweeb. Do you mind if I catch a ride with you too? I'm pretty certain that my ride home is passed out somewhere or is erm… busy."

Edd had almost forgotten that Kevin was still in the room.

"Of course, Kevin.", Double D answered without a moment of hesitation, "I'd rather drive you home than have you driven home by an intoxicated individual."

"Choice. Thanks, dude."

After about ten minutes of gathering jackets and friends, everyone is in Double D's old, but sturdy, car.
The car wasn't much, a small electric-blue car that had problems going up a hill if the air con was on as well and sure, it sometimes felt like it was about to fall apart, but it was his and he loved it.

"Right. Everyone buckle up and for the love of God, no one throw up in my car." Double D instructed, trying to sound as stern as possible.

"DOUBLE D," Edd shouted, his excitement barely contained as he bounced in his seat, "can we stop at KFC on the way home? Please!"

Edd groaned. This happened every time he was designated driver (which was almost always), Ed would get drunk or high and guilt trip him into driving by the KFC that was on the other side of town.

"Ed, it's almost 15 minutes out of the way! And you do realize that the gravy isn't vegetarian, right?"

"I still don't understand why you're vegetarian, Ed. We're supposed to eat animals, food chain and all of that jazz." Eddy said, making himself comfortable in the back seat. He had been in a bad mood earlier at the lack of female attention he had received, but the familiar feel of Ed's broad shoulders against his, and the warm sensation of being in a car with his best friends (excluding Kevin, of course) had quickly changed that.

"The animals Eddy! The great, cuddly animals!" Ed replied dramatically, leaning forward on the center console so that he could give Double D a good look at his signature puppy dog eyes, thrown in with a little lip tremble for added affect.

"FINE." Double D grumbled out, starting his car and noticing the grin on Kevin's face.

"What?" He asked, shifting into reverse as he watched out for drunk young adults. He had an essay to work on, he didn't have time to run someone over and deal with the mess.

"You're basically Mama Edd." Kevin said, grinning as he looked at Eddward.

"Oh shush. You saw those puppy dog eyes; how could I have said no to that?"

At this, Kevin lets out a laugh and the sound is so pure and unguarded that Eddward is sure that he has just forgotten how to breathe.

By the time that they had gone past the drive through, and then driven to McDonald's as well because Eddy HAD to have a McFlurry right then or he was going to die, it was already well past 1am and Eddward was ready to crawl into bed. History essay be damned.

He parked on his driveway and turned to look at his guests.

"I've played the part of chauffer, you can now all get out of my car. Goodnight."

"Rude." Eddy said, his lips curling into a smirk as he unbuckled his seat belt, "you act as though we aren't the best part of your life."
Eddward, despite his tiredness, smirked back. "that's because you aren't. Now get the hell out of car."

He watched his friends drunkenly stumble out of his car, and begin to walk towards their respective houses, calling out their goodbyes as they walked. Kevin, however, remained on Double D's driveway.

"Is something the matter, Kevin?" He asked, locking his car and checking that his lights were not left on.

"I… uh, just want to walk you to your door?" Kevin said, his cheeks lighting up with a light blush which Eddward thankfully could not see due to the low lighting in the driveway.

"oh, okay?" Eddward said, confusion clearly evident on his features.

They walked to Edd's door in silence and turned to look at each other awkwardly.

"I guess I should say thank you?" Eddward said, the situation confusing him. Why did it feel like he was a teenage girl being walked to her door after a date?

"tonight was nice. I liked hanging out with you. We should… we should do that more often." Kevin said, refusing to meet Eddward's eyes with his own.

"I agree. Although I fail to see how spending a night with me, eating junk food, is more enjoyable than being with your friends." Eddward stated, laughing lightly as he searched for his house keys in his pockets.

Kevin looked at him, his mouth turned down in a frown and his eyebrows knitted together as he finally looked up to search Eddward's face.

"You mean you don't know?"

Eddward tilted his head slightly, not really making sense of the conversation they were having.

"Know what, Kevin?"

Instead of answering him, however, Kevin stepped closer. His hand cupped the back of Double D's neck and before he could process the closeness of Kevin's face to his and how he had a light sprinkling of freckles across his nose and cheeks that used to be darker when they were kids, Kevin's lips were on his and he felt himself gasp.

Kevin's lips were soft, unlike Double D's own chapped ones, and he tasted like the chocolate chip cookies they had shared earlier. A tongue tentatively licked at his lips and Double D opened his mouth wider, letting his own tongue lick against Kevin's. Kevin made a strangled noise at the back of his throat before grabbing Double D's hips in his hands and pushing him up against the door to his house. Double D pushed his own hands into Kevin's hair, knocking the baseball cap off and onto the ground. Kevin broke the kiss and licked his way down Double D's jaw line, sucking softly at the pulse behind his neck. This caused Eddward to almost black out with need as he pulled Kevin closer to him and bucked his hips into Kevin's. The groan that escaped Kevin's throat brought Double D back to reality. He pushed Kevin away and wiped at his mouth.

"W-why?" He stuttered, looking at Kevin, and trying to not sound like he had just run up five flights of stairs.

Kevin looks at him with a slightly sheepish grin and before he speaks Eddward feels anger rise up in his throat so fast that he might just vomit all over his floral welcome mat.

"Is this some kind of sick joke? Are you messing with me? Did you somehow find out that I like you and that's why you're doing this? Is this a fucking prank set up between you and your stupid jock friends?"

Kevin flinches at the sound of the profanity being spat out by Double D. It sounded so wrong, so angry and so completely hurt.

"Double D, it's not like that…"

But before he could complete his sentence Double D had opened the door to his house and had slammed the door in his face without so much as a second glance.

Kevin stared at the chipped wood of Eddward's front door, his heart beating in his ears as he tried to remember how to breathe normally.

"Fuck."