Author's Note: So I got this crazy idea when I was at the early stages of Another Man's Treasure to do a fic where Kevin and Edd meet up in college, but because of Edd's busy life (with just the right amount of OH MY GAWD YOU DID NOT shenanigans for our resident smartass cutie), they just can't quite seal the deal on getting that precious first date. But I had NO IDEA on where or how to start because I was in the middle of life and AMT.

Once I finished AMT, I wanted to get to this, but was still clueless on starting ideas. After talking a few ideas over with Auntie_Shara (and maybe snagging some inspiration from Love's Fool, which is fucking fantastic and you had better be reading it, too!) and seeing a cute picture of Double Dee by arielagam on Instagram (she's here on fanfic as well and you better go read her stuff!) with a cute little headcanon in the caption to boot, I finally got this thing together.

First it was going to be a one shot.

Then things got crazy.

And now we're here.

Enjoy!

Love you!

"Wanna go see some queens tonight?"

Kevin looked from his desk over to his roommate and best homeboy as Nat laid sprawled out on his bed and made a face.

He didn't mind going to drag shows, it was Nat's overall behavior when they went that gave him pause.

Then he remembered something.

"Can't. Going to a rave with Nazz tonight."

"Oh, yeah!," Nat said brightly. "What are you wearing?"

Kevin made another face as he scratched his head.

"Jeans and a shirt, I guess," he shrugged and Nat rolled his eyes as he made his way to Kevin's closet in their small dorm room.

"You have absolutely nothing to wear," the fashion conscious young man sighed and Kevin snorted.

"I do, too!"

"Jeans and tshirt isn't exactly rave worthy," Nat sighed as he made a face at his friend before looking in his closet again.

Kevin crossed his arms and smirked as Nat dug through the space only to come up empty handed.

"Ok, just try not to look too much like a jock," Nat sighed as he got out of the closet and collapsed on his bed again.

Kevin shot him a bit of a glare as he said, "Takes one to know one."

"I only play support Mr QB, hot shot pitcher guy," Nat retorted and Kevin sighed because he knew he was right.

Being the school's starting QB and pitcher made him the head jock on campus, which brought him a higher profile.

Nat was a hell of a running back and shortstop, but he didn't have Kevin's Number One status, despite his own high profile because of his parent's money, his keen fashion sense, and pansexuality, the latter of which got him all sorts of play.

Which Kevin just knew he was going to put into play tonight at the drag show.

"Look, what I've got on is good, Dude," Kevin said tersely as he pointed at his Iron Man tshirt.

Nat gave him a quick once over and shrugged.

"I guess."

"Not everyone wants to look like they just stepped out of a Hello Kitty dungeon at a rave, you freak," Kevin snarked at him and Nat's offense was only a little feigned.

"I look adorable in that outfit and you know it," Nat snipped back as Kevin shuddered.

"Whatever you say, man," Kevin said as he shook his head, texted Nazz back, grabbed his red snapback and headed out the door.

Edd slammed his laptop shut and groaned as he thumped his head against the device.

"What's up, Sockhead?," Eddy asked as he quirked a concerned brow at his best friend.

"Ugh. Just…ugh," the ravenette sighed into his hands before sitting up and running a hand down his face.

"Another miss?"

"This wasn't a miss, this was a foul ball that struck out before I could even get a hit off," Edd whined.

Eddy gave a snicker at Edd's bad baseball analogy, but knew it held true.

Edd was one of their university's top scholars, so his social life was very limited to honor society meetings, general schmoozing with donors, and hours upon hours of being stuck in the biology research labs trying to come up with the next big cure that would help save the world and give the university a ton of money that they would throw at their sports teams.

But every once in a while, Edd actually wanted to go out to the big game, or to hear a new band at the coffee shop he worked at instead of just working while some hipster played their mandolin, or even dancing in a crowded club.

With his time limited as it was because of school, he would occasionally turn to his friends for ideas on how to get out and what to get into whenever he could spare the time.

That led him to meeting new people and doing new things, but sometimes he got lonely doing so.

Even a quick meeting over coffee to converse with someone about something other than the next alumni donor dinner or cramming for the next test was like water in the desert to the busy young man.

He had been out as gay since sophomore year of high school, so he knew how to date and a few places to go to get a date, but because of work and school lately, he's been dry.

He had started seeing a therapist after midterms the spring semester of their sophomore year because he had an anxiety attack in class when his history professor popped a pop quiz on them as soon as she walked in the door.

His therapist suggested getting off campus to get out of the mindset of doing all the things that comes with going to college.

He started with taking yoga at a local studio, which led to taking a ballroom dance class, where he met James Castellanos. The actor, who went by Rave, was taking the ballroom dance class to help him with expanding his audition resume and his overall stage presence in the theater and the drag shows he would work when there wasn't a show to do at the university.

Rave told him that he should come to a show as one of his biggest problems with socializing was finding other gay people to socialize with. Rave was sure that he'd find other like-minded people at a show as they drew in all types, because everyone likes to have fun and enjoy a good show.

Edd was enthralled at the show when he went and the free shots Rave got for him as his guest got him to loosen up a bit, so that when the karaoke challenge was brought up, Edd killed it.

He became a favorite audience participant for weeks before finals took over and then summer break sent him back to Peachbury.

When school started back up again the following fall, Rave and Edd ran into each other in a shared yoga class and Rave introduced him to the idea of becoming a queen.

"You'll only have to come in when you're free or want to blow off some steam. The pay is $150 per show for newcomers, free drinks, and you keep your tips," Rave told him when he suggested he join their house.

Considering that his grants and scholarships only barely covered his expenses, a job was something that Edd needed, but didn't have the time for.

He worked at a coffee shop just off campus for a few hours twice a week to get some supplemental income, but the pay was minimal, the tips were bare, and had to be shared with everyone on shift.

The free coffee had only piqued his anxiety, but he refused to give it up because free.

With shows only going on during the weekends when he wasn't stuck with an early morning class the next day, he was more inclined to take a position.

And all his tips were his.

"Just come watch a rehearsal and a show," Rave suggested. "I'll buy you dinner and you can talk to Mickey about how it all really works out because I'm not too sure how things work out for newcomers anymore."

Edd attended one rehearsal and was hooked.

He only did the Saturday show on the third weekend of the month because that was the only time he was free to make rehearsal and a show. And it gave him Sunday to recover from any inevitable hangovers and do his homework for the week.

But it also introduced him to so many new people.

He started to get dates and when Big Lisa, their Queen Mother, introduced him to Grindr, he was very pleased to know that were even more eligible people to go out with in their small college town than those who came to the bar on the weekend.

Lately, however, he's gotten more misses than hits.

Guys would either be on the down low, openly dating other people, but trying to sneak in one night stands when they felt they could get away with it, or just not his type.

"Look, Nazz told me about this guy she thinks you'll hit it off with," Eddy told him as he passed him the piece of paper that he had pulled out of his pocket. "Name's Josh Marcos. He seems pretty cool. A bit nerdy," he shrugged and Edd gave him a hard side eye as he snatched the paper from his hands.

He looked the number over and decided that he didn't have anything to lose as they were going out tonight and he wasn't in the mood to hunt at a rave of all places. Then he had to work tomorrow. He only had a brunch with the deans of the science and math departments Sunday to celebrate the Mathletes latest win in conference competition before throwing himself into his books until he went to the research lab for the evening to check on a few projects with his team.

He figured that a quick study break date would be a nice way to end the weekend and dialed the number in question, made a date for Sunday afternoon, then hopped in the shower so he could get ready to go rave the week away.

The music was loud, the smoke thick, but Edd doesn't care because he's about two shots away from being done for the night and he doesn't mind because he is done with this week.

Pop quizzes before scheduled exams made his anxiety twist up, his coffee shop job had over booked him and he couldn't get out of it, thus missing a couple of group meetings that he knew he didn't need, but also knew it wasn't a good look to his classmates.

And then his favorite makeup counter at the mall was out of his shade of foundation, and his favorite cobbler was on vacation, thus making his drag wardrobe have all kinds of malfunctions because he was down to only three pairs of shoes.

Big Lisa and Rave helped him sort things out so he still could do his dance routine at the show on Saturday and host with Rave as planned.

But tonight, he's going to blow all of the steam this week's shenanigans have built up in him off.

As he made his way to the bar for another cocktail, he walked into a human wall.

"Oof!"

"Oh, my bad, man," the wall said as it turned around and Edd just stared at him.

"You're Kevin Barr!," he squeaked once he found his voice again and Kevin gave him a smirk and shrug.

"That's what they call me. You ok?"

"I'm fine!," Edd giggled as he waved him off. "You're a soft wall."

Kevin quirked a brow and as a spotlight ran across the room, he caught the haze in Edd's blue eyes.

"I'm hard where it counts," the redhead whispered in his ear before stepping away from the bar and Edd's jaw dropped as he walked away.

"Max! I'll have what he's having!," he told the blond and purple highlighted bartender who cocked his own brow at the drunken genius before saying, "It's your funeral!"

"Then let me go out on a ride with him!," Edd laughed and Max chuckled, too, as he mixed a lot of Jack with a little Coke, and waved off his $5 bill.

"Go get that ride," the man winked at him and Edd took off in search of his soft wall.