Story prompt? I like the idea of the AU!Edd and AU!Kevin, but I feel that I could make them meet each other in a more… linear way? Not exactly explaining myself that well, but I want them both to exist in the same universe without timebending shenanigans.
Kevedd belongs to the mothership c2ndy2c1d, AU!Kevedd to kirakurryart and asphyxion, and I'm sure there are a lot more Kevedd fans out there with beautiful art and writings but I'm too lazy to list them
((this is my guilty pleasure of a fandom squeee))
The midnight air breezed past a set of thin bedroom curtains, rustling papers containing a list of exponents, crude angles, and numerous mathematical equations with circled estimates in bright red ink. They all fell to the floor, gently scattering across a gray carpet that had been vacuumed not half an hour ago. Despite the mess, the ground in which the papers fell upon looked perfect. It was cold, pristine.
Lonely.
A cry was heard outside of the house, choked abruptly by its owner. Quietly the hunched figure pulled tighter at his winter jacket sleeves, desperately trying to dry his remorse that watered his eyesight. Finding that it was futile, he let out another sob and ducked his head into his knees.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid…" he cried, shuddering. The fleece of his pajamas tugged with the cold night air.
Eddward had been unable to sleep for the past two days thanks to an incident involving a foolish prank, his crumbling relationship with his boyfriend, and the cold shoulder he had gotten from who the sock-headed boy believed to be his friend. Eddy made profit from every scandal he had ever dared to try and the ruining of those closest to him was no exception. Maybe he didn't realize, Eddward thought foolishly, how much he meant to me.
Thinking about that horrible day at school felt like ripping open a healing wound. He winced, sniffling.
The sock-headed teen was weighing the pros and cons of leaving his chilly solitude or returning to the warmth of his house when he heard a strange noise. Lifting his head slightly, Eddward looked out into the shadows of his backyard, finding nothing. Slightly confused but still choosing to ignore what could have been his imagination, the crying teen lifted his small frame from the cold concrete of his patio and turned to go inside.
Then he heard it again.
The sound was almost… electronical. Like wires sparking or some sort of machinery ripping itself apart. Mutilation, in a sense, but still carefully coded together. Sleep deprived and slightly woozy from the effort put into explaining the strange sound in his mind, Double D's legs locked in fear.
Good heavens, he thought, what in the world could that be?
Hand on the slider door, Eddward prepared to quickly thrust himself inside the safety of his home. Tears still trailing down the cold expanse of his pale face, watery blue eyes watched in fearful anticipation of what danger was to come.
Deep down where a pessimistic part of himself he didn't have the courage to acknowledge existed, Double D wondered as to how much shit he would have to deal with in a day. Apparently losing your boyfriend wasn't enough—you had to go and get murdered too. Lovely.
To his absolute horror a figure emerged from the midnight shadows like something straight out of one of Ed's supernatural comic books. Hands seemed to grip the fabric of reality and wrench it apart, ripping threads that kept both sanity and science in its place. The sudden display of what he could only assume was demonic energy left poor Double D breathless and his hand, slippery with sweat, fell from the door handle. His pulse raced wildly as a sob caught in his throat.
Finally, as the dark limbs broke from the void in his backyard, a tall, looming figure stood before Double D.
He looked terribly normal for someone who just destroyed every inkling of scientific theory.
Shaking noticeably, the terrified teen could do nothing but stare as silence continued throughout the night. The strange noise was gone, but the effects were still there.
"Ah…" Double D gasped, lips trembling. Only a sliver of moonlight allowed him to see the icy blue eyes that stared back, cruel and bright in their intensity. Long, thin legs were wrapped in tight jeans that had a silver chain hanging off one hip, which was cocked out a bit to the side. The figure wore a leather jacket layered with a simple gray hoodie, somehow accenting the scratched dogtags with indecipherable letters hanging from his pale exposed neck.
Double D was speechless, while the figure eyed him critically. Finally, he spoke.
"Jesus fucking Christ," the figure spat, tongue clicking between the now noticeable gap in his two front teeth. "Still crying like a goddamn baby."
Trembling, the young teen flinched when long, tapered fingers reached out to touch his cheek. They gripped his face firmly to the point where it almost hurt, bringing Double D's eyes back up to the face of the stranger. He started a bit at how similar the figure's features were to his own. Despite the disgusted scowl and the height difference, this stranger could have been an older relation of some sort.
"W-who are you?"
The stranger's scowled dropped so quickly that Double D couldn't help but flinch again. It transformed into a leering smile, dripping dark intent and honest amusement. He couldn't help but marvel at how expressive the stranger was, the ability to clearly show another person every emotion he was feeling with only a few select muscle movements astounded the frightened teen.
The fear was almost forgotten until a sharp tug at his chin brought his attention elsewhere.
"What, you haven't figured it out already?" there was a bark of ugly laughter, hot breath fanning into Double D's face. Continuing to shake, he tried to extract himself from the sudden invasion of his personal space. It failed, causing the stranger to pull the young teen closer. Heart hammering wildly, Double D could feel the strong contours of the tall figure's chest against his face, dogtags digging into his soft pale cheeks. The feeling was so awkward and so sudden that the frightened Edd could barely hold himself up, allowing the stranger to hoist him up over his shoulder without a second thought.
"W-wait!" Double D stammered, finally finding his bearings and struggled to return to the ground. The stranger took no heed to his request, and instead opened the slider doors that connected to the kitchen and dining area of the young teen's house. Double D found himself slightly irritated that the stranger just slouched across the tiled floor without even taking off his shoes, counting every particle of dirt that trailed behind them.
Setting him down rather roughly on one of the barstools at the center of the kitchen, the tall intruder sneered at his surroundings. He put his hands on his hips, looking displeased.
"Fuckin' perfect, as usual. Christ, you're just like him."
"I'm sorry?" Double D replied shakily, staring in confusion at his displeased doppelganger. Or, at least, he was assuming that was what he was at this point. Really, their similarities were staggering.
The stranger turned to him again. "Your house, princess. All pristine and mysophobic and shit." He scuffed a dirty heel against the clean tile of the kitchen floor. Double D winced. "Too fuckin' clean for my tastes. Needs a little more style."
At a loss for words for possibly the third time in his life, the young teen bit his lip and struggled to find something to say. The look the intruder gave him choked him up further.
"Whatcha lookin' at, kid?" he sneered, making the gap in his teeth more noticeable. Shaking slightly and fascinated at his rather startling situation, Double D wondered if the space in his teeth was just as prominent. It made him momentarily self-conscious, though he quickly came to his senses and began to rationalize his current situation. For one, he could not explain the ripping of the shadows in his backyard nor the noise it made. He decided to skip that, in favor of exploring something more in the norm. Er, well, as normal as the situation itself it could be, Double D corrected himself mentally. There was always the possibility that this… adult, stranger, whoever he was, could be a runaway cousin of his. Maybe his parents had siblings they failed to mention to him. Maybe this look-alike was searching for a place to stay.
The chances of these being possible were falling under 10%. The chances of his continued safety was in the negatives.
Oh dear.
There was a sudden poke at Double D's forehead, startling him from his inner musings. Blinking, he glanced up and yelped when the stranger's face came close to his.
"Hello? Anybody there?" he called mockingly, an amused sneer stretched smugly across his face. Renewed terror filled the young teen, and he couldn't help but shake in his seat.
"P-please refrain from touching m-me," Double D managed to respond, lips mildly trembling. He scooted back slightly in his seat, clutching at the edges tightly.
"Why? What's wrong with a little physical affection?"
"I-I do not like to be touched b-by people whom I do not know." Double D stammered, barely holding his composure. He could smell the nicotine on the stranger's breath, fanning quietly in his face. His teeth weren't yellow yet, at least, although he most certainly did not smell desirable.
"Hmmm…" his doppelganger hummed, still amused but slightly irritated. He leaned back, thankfully out of the young teen's face, and shoved his hands roughly in his jean pockets. Double D honestly didn't know how they fit in there.
"You still don't get it, do you?" he laughed, sharp and full of such darkness that the young Edd couldn't fathom how any organism could handle such negativity. He felt his body drain of life from just hearing it. "You never questioned how all of this happened? Seriously?"
"I-I would appreciate it if you were not s-so vague in your questions." Double D sat up straighter in his seat, trying and failing to summon any form of confidence. "Maybe then I could begin to fathom what it is you are begging me to u-understand."
"The project." The stranger stated, and suddenly all amusement was gone. A chill filled the air, accenting the sudden shift in tone and bringing with it the same sound that had ripped apart every form of comprehensibility in Double D's backyard. It was a quiet buzz filled with energy that threatened to grow.
The young teen could see himself pale in the reflection of the stranger's eyes.
"T-The what?"
Frustrated, the stranger balled his fists and slammed them down on the kitchen island. The young Edd jumped.
"The project, princess. What do you think your parents have been up to all these years, hmm?" he growled, fist still situated angrily on the counter. He hissed annoyance out his nose, but only managed to confuse Double D further. There was a quiet pang of loneliness in the young teen as he suddenly remembered his guardian's absence.
They had stopped visiting the house altogether about a year ago, and then further along the months went they stopped calling as well. Eventually, the money they sent for basic necessities dwindled down to nothing, and Double D had to call their secretary almost every week to have her remind them to send at least a check before he starved. Even with his part time job at the bookstore, he could only afford to buy a certain amount of groceries each month.
What really tipped him off that his parents might have officially left him was when the electricity bill arrived in the mail several weeks ago. They never were sent to the house, but rather forwarded to his parent's office for them to pay later through telephone. When it arrived and showed a couple hundred that Double D could barely fathom of paying, he tried calling the secretary for help.
She didn't answer.
In fact, all the emergency numbers his parents had for him didn't work. There was one, but it only managed to contact a sleazy lawyer his mother had an affair with at some point. Double D only knew this because of an incident when he was ten where he answered the phone while his parents were gone and said sleaze tried to have phone sex with him, thinking it was his mother. He was horribly inebriated, and Double D was terrified out of his wits. Sadly, he was probably the first out of anyone in the Cul-De-Sac to discover what a dildo is.
Double D sighed shakily, trying to quench the feeling of hopelessness clenching at his heart. He didn't know which felt worse: his parent's abandonment, or the possibility of losing his boyfriend. Either way, he felt his fears dwindle and a dark depression sink in.
"I do not know what they do, nor do I have any inclination or ways of finding out." The stranger furrowed his brows at the sudden shift in attitude in the young teen, fist unclenching. Double D glanced sadly at a letter he had received in the mail this morning, the final piece to the crumbling in his heart. "As you can probably see, I am alone, and they have left me."
The stranger followed Double D's heavy gaze to the folded paper on the counter beside the fridge. Without a word, he sauntered toward the questionable object and picked the letter up before reading it. He scoffed after he finished.
"Should've known." His doppelganger laughed darkly, less amused and almost allowing a twinge of pity to squeeze into his voice. He shook the papers out in front of him. "Last straw, ain't it? They left you their mortgage bill."
Double D looked down, quietly folding his hands. "It would appear so."
It was silent for several seconds, neither knowing exactly what to do.
"So how're you gonna pay for it?"
Blinking, lost in his thoughts, the young Edd looked up. "Pardon?"
Irritation once again returning to his shadowed features, the stranger repeated his question. "How will you pay for this?"
Baffled, and rather exhausted at all the confrontation, Double D stared. "I-I haven't the faintest idea, quite frankly. My part time employment barely covers eating expenses. There's really nothing I can do except… leave."
Unimpressed, the stranger put a hand on his hip. He waved the papers around again, stressing its importance, all the while glaring. "You can't run away from this."
"W-Well, my parents certainly did!" Tired and beginning to get rather impatient with his lookalike, Double D rubbed his forehead as a migraine slowly started to set in. It had already been throbbing earlier thanks to his crying, but now he just felt used and wasted to the point of not caring anymore. The pessimist inside him saw his chance to shine. "Look, I do not know who you are or where you came from, but I'd appreciate it if you left me alone. This is still my house, my parents, and my rather dreadful situation. I do not need anyone making anything more difficult and emotionally bearing than it already is, since as of now I am single, friendless, parentless, as well as having the strong possibility of being homeless."
There was a scoff, and it came to no surprise that the stranger was in his face again. Double D had dealt with short, hot tempered people all his life, so it did not startle him as much as it did before when suddenly his personal space was being invaded. He looked up, tired and barely shaking.
"Your parents left for a reason." The doppelganger stated, a dark shadow edging the corners of his face. Now, more than ever, he looked threatening. Double D could sense hidden knowledge buried in the stranger's icy blue eyes with all the intent of sharing it as harshly and as nerve wrecking as possible.
Unimpressed, he replied. "I would assume so. Thank you for stating the obvious and continuing to remain vague."
The stranger slapped him, hard, across the face.
The shock of the impact knocked Double D straight out of his chair and tumbling onto the cold tiled floor, the air rushing out of his lungs as he cried out. He barely had time to adjust himself before his arms were gripped tightly and his back was slammed against the fridge. The young Edd panted, terror filling in his gut again, as he was pinned by the stranger.
"Oh ho ho," his doppelganger laughed, face close. "You think you got everything figured out, don't you? Well, then, do share as to why your parents abandoned their child!"
"I-I don't know! Please! Release me!"
Another growl, and the young Edd was pushed harder into the cool metal of the fridge. "You know, Eddward, now tell me!"
"H-how do you—"
Slap
The stranger returned his hold on Double D's arm.
"Answer me!"
Terrified, Edd bit his tongue as another plead threatened to escape. He felt humiliated and scared and exhausted, his body almost giving out on him and his face stinging. One more blow and his lip would split. Gasping, he forced his answer out.
"I'm a failure," he paused, trying to ignore how his heart broke a little at the confession. "...that's why they left me."
The stranger, a deep sort of frenzy in his eyes, smiled. Double D couldn't tell who was shaking harder, but there was definitely a quiver in his doppelganger's arms as he spoke.
"Yes," he laughed. "Yes, you are a failure, aren't you?"
The young teen felt a stinging in his eyes, and when wetness slid across the defeated expanse of his skin he couldn't help but feel slightly surprised that he had any more tears to give. At this point, Double D felt he had nothing left in him to stay alive.
The tears did not go unnoticed by the stranger. He lowered the young teen from the fridge to the ground, lifting a bruised hand to brush away almost gently the evidence of Double D's misery. Chuckling, icy eyes narrowed.
"You were never meant to succeed. You were brought into this world as a disappointment, carefully handled because of how weak you are. A test-tube child. You were created because they wanted to make the ideal offspring, one with all the perfect particles and proteins lined up according to their calculations. You were meant to be the new human race. Their dreams, brought to life." He hissed, the gap in his teeth making it more profound. "Yet it failed. You failed. Everything went to shit because something went wrong! You were small and broken the day you came into this world, and as you grew they all knew nothing good would come out of their creation of science born and bred into a disappointing, weak sack of skin. So sensitive and bright, yet would never hold up to the standards they placed upon you… fascinating, so weak and troubled…"
As the statement wore off, Double D brought wide eyes up to his assailant.
"Why are you telling me this?" he barely whispered, lips shaking.
"Because," the stranger answered, smile deepening. His hand left the younger Edd's face and went to his hat, identical to the one his doppelganger was wearing and just as mysterious. Slowly, he tugged it off, the dogtags hanging around his neck clinking slightly. The room was buzzing with that sound again, and Double D felt his breath come short.
Thin, feathery hair was revealed, ink black and wispy in its shortness. But what really caught the young Edd's attention—made his heart stop, pulse rattle like thunder, bladder clench, stomach drop—was the scar etched deep into the side of his head, disrupting the natural flow of hair and crudely mimicking a certain numeral.
"Because," he repeated, leaning in close to Double D's ear. His nicotine breath fanned against his cheek, causing a chill to go down his already frozen spine.
"I am number one."