Edd, known by his friends as Double Dee and Eddward by his parents, has always been a light sleeper. So when he felt his bed move he woke up and opens his eyes to see what was at the end of the bed. It took his eyes a minute to adjust to the dark, but when they do he sees someone sitting on his bed.

"Hello?" He says not knowing who it is at the end of his bed.

"Hey Double Dee." The person at the end of his bed says.

Edd knew who the voice belonged to, it was Marie Kanker sitting on his bed. "Marie?" He says as he starts to panic. "Wh-hat are you doing in my room?" Marie Kanker is one of three Kanker sisters that take pleasure in tormenting him and his two best friends, Ed and Eddy, and Edd was her main focus.

"I came to... to say goodbye Double Dee."

"Goodbye?" Edd asks confused.

Marie looks over at Edd, had there been more light than the stars shining in through his opened window Edd would have seen the tears in Marie's one eye not covered by her hair. "My mom got back together with May's dad."

"Ok..." He says still confused.

"He doesn't live here in Peach Creek, so... were moving away." She says wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

Even though Marie has chased, trapped and forced him to endure her kissing him and other form of aggressive affection, he still couldn't help but feel sorry for her. "I, I'm sorry Marie. When are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning, Mom and him are hooking the trailer up to Mom's truck and then were leaving for good."

"That is rather sudden." This has been the longest conversation Edd has ever had with Marie, and it also is turning out to be the saddest.

"That's why I came here, I wanted to see you one more time." She says moving closer to him.

Edd didn't move as Marie got closer, this was different than how he knows she acts and he doesn't know how to react. "Well then I guess... this is goodbye then Marie." Edd says as Marie gets right next to him.

Marie puts one hand gently on Edd's face. "Goodbye Muffin." She says before she brought their faces together for a kiss. This was not a kiss like Edd has ever gotten from Marie, it wasn't forced or rough, it was soft with feeling and kindness behind it.

When Marie pulls away from Edd he was at a loss for words, he just sits there in silence from shock as Marie gets up from his bed and starts to walk back to the open window she entered his room through. Marie stops for a second and turns to look at Edd and their eyes meet quickly. Edd didn't see Marie take something from his desk when they broke eye contact, he wouldn't even notice his cactus was missing till the next night, he just watches her climb out of his window in silence.

*Beep beep*

The alarm goes off by his head and twenty three year old Edd reaches over and turns off the alarm. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes as he sits up he thinks back on the dream he was having. 'It's been almost ten years since Marie left, so why would I dream about her?' He thinks stretching.

"Good morning Edd." A voice says from next to him.

Edd looks over and smiles. "Good morning Vicky." He says to his girlfriend of almost three years.

"So how was your first night in our new home?" She asks sitting up in the bed letting the covers fall off her.

Edd leans over and gives her a kiss on the cheek. "It was good, your parents apartment is very nice."

"It's so nice of them to let us live here for free."

"Well you have said they never use it, at least this way it is being used."

"Its Daddy's little tax shelter, they come here maybe a week out of every year just to pay for it and stuff." She says getting out of the bed.

Edd watches his girlfriend walk out of the bedroom. Vicky is two years older than Edd with long blond hair and an hourglass figure that he couldn't help but admire.

The apartment didn't have much to it. Two bedrooms with queen size beds, a full bathroom with a walk in shower and a full kitchen with a table attached to the wall. There is also a large flat screen TV and couch in the living room, but other than that the place is empty.

Later after showering and eating breakfast Edd is gathering his school things and putting them in his bag next to his new laptop. "Sorry I have to go to class on our first day in a new part of New York." He says zipping the bag closed.

"It's ok Edd, I can spend the day shopping. The last time I went on a shopping spree in NYC I was thirteen I think." Vicky says drying her hair with a towel.

Edd couldn't help but remember his dream at the mention of the age he was when the events of the dream took place. "Well have fun, and then after I get back we can maybe go out for some drinks." He says talking out the key Vicky gave him the night before trying to not think about Marie and the dream he had about her.

"Sounds like a date." Vicky says throwing the towel around Edd's neck and pulling him close to her. She kisses him and Edd couldn't help but notice how forceful she is being. The kiss felt as if it is for her enjoyment only, unlike Marie's, but he kisses her back as he places his hands on her hips.

"I'll see you tonight then Love." He says when Vicky finally let's go of him.

"Ugh, you know I hate pet names Edd." She says frowning.

"Sorry Vicky, I guess I can't help it. Love makes us do funny things you know." Edd was never one for pet names when he was younger, but when he met Vicky, and then starting dating her, he kept wanting to give her one. Which she scolded him for every time.

"I love you too Edd, but it doesn't make me do funny things."

Edd shrugs. "I guess I'm just different."

"You are, but it makes you sexy." Vicky says running her finger up and down his chest.

Edd looks down at his wrist to his watch. "I hate to, but I need to go now or I'll miss my train." He says seeing that he needs to leave for school.

"By Edd." Vicky says as Edd opens the front door of the apartment.

"By Vicky." He says walking out the door.

As Edd rides the elevator down from the fifth floor where his new home is he looks at himself in the reflection of the steel doors. He stands a few inches short of six feet tall, has short black messy hair that he doesn't do anything with, he just lets it lay where it falls. Eddy once described it as "mad scientist's hair" and he liked it thinking it fit his scientific mind and has stuck with the hair style after he retired his old black Ski hat.

He's always been a proper child growing up and that affected his dressing habits as an adult, he dresses in a long sleeve dress shirt, of black, white or dark blue, and well kept denim jeans on top of black tennis shoes.

When the elevator hits the bottom floor he steps out and walks to the door of the building passing a security guard sitting at a desk by the door.

Once outside he digs out his smartphone along with his ear buds from his pocket and laptop bag and sticks them into his ears before turning on his music to drown out the noise of living in a big city.

Listening to music was one of the first things he learned about living in New York, the others are it is best to just stand in the subway and to always keep small bills with you for cabs cause the drivers never have change.

The move across the country was a challenge for Edd, having to say goodbye to his friends and family was the hardest things he's ever done. Ed cried for, according to Eddy, a week after he left and for the first year living in New York his mother would call him every Sunday and write to him every other week. But as he's approaching the third year mark Edd has adapted to life in the city that never sleeps.

Walking down into the subway station Edd is bumped into by a short woman with blond hair.

"Hey watch it." The woman says not stopping to look back.

The voice sounded very familiar to Edd and he had to stop and look back. 'That sounded like May, but it couldn't be.' He thinks looking behind himself for the person he bumped into. but he couldn't find the woman and figures he just misheard due to his music playing and shrugs before turning back around to continue down into the station.

Edd and Vicky didn't live too far from the NYU campus so the train ride to and from didn't take very long, so after his classes for the day were done he was back at his girlfriend's parents apartment with several hours still left in the night.

"Hey Edd." Vicky says as he walks into the apartment.

"Hello Vicky, and friends of Vicky I assume?" Edd says seeing two other women sitting at the table with his girlfriend.

"These are my new friends, Jessica." Vicky says gesturing to her left to a red headed girl. "And this is Robin." Vicky says gesturing to the brunette to her right.

"Hello Jessica and Robin." Edd says nodding to Vicky's new friends.

"Hey." The two women say in sync.

Vicky gets up from the table and runs over to Edd. "You like my new dress?" She asks pulling the edge of her pink dress out showing it off to her boyfriend.

Edd looks his girlfriend over. The pink dress she is wearing is held in place around her neck by a thin strip of fabric, leaving not much to the imagination, and ends halfway between her knees and hips. "Very pretty Vicky." He says with a smile.

Vicky smiles and jumps to hug him. "I had a feeling you'd like it." She says before kissing him. "And I'm sure you'll like what else I got today, but you're going to have to wait for that." She whispers into his ear.

Edd feels his cheeks turn red. "Oh my." He says as Vicky pulls away from him.

"Come on girls, Edd promised to take us out for drinks when he got home. He's here now so let's go get our drink on." Vicky says running back over to the table and grabbing her pursue.

Jessica and Robin cheer and stand up and Edd sees they are wearing dresses of the same design as Vicky's, Jessica's being blue and Robin's is green.

Hearing her say this sent a wave of annoyances through Edd. "I'd assumed it would be just us Vicky, it being a date an all." He says walking over to Vicky.

"Edd." She says pulling him away from Jessica and Robin. "Don't be a jerk in front of my new friends."

"I don't mean to be a jerk, I just thought we'd be having a nice night out together, alone." He says pushing the point of what he meant.

Vicky furrows her brow. "Well you are."

Not wanting to fight with her Edd choose to admit that he was wrong. "You're right." He says putting on a smile. "I was being a jerk. I'm sorry, I will be happy if Jessica and Robin joined us."

Vicky smiles and gives him a quick kiss. "Thank you Edd." She says before running back over to her friends. "Come on girls!"

As luck would have it, there happened to be a small bar just a block away from the apartment building. "This place is kind of cozy." Edd says as he, his girlfriend and her two friends walk into the bar.

"It's not a well know place, but they have this bartender that has a short fuse and it's funny watching her." Robin says looking around the bar.

"You girls find a table and we'll get some drinks." Vicky says pulling Edd away towards the bar.

The bartender, a woman with dark brown almost black hair pulled into a ponytail dressed in a black T-shirt and black pants with an apron around her waist, has her back to them when they reach the counter. "Excuse me." Vicky says tapping the counter with her finger.

The bartender turns around. "What can I get ya?" She asks. "Wait, Double Dee?" She says her eyes growing wide.

"Yes... and you are?" Edd says not recognizing the bartender

"Oh my gosh, ok think of blue hair." The bartender says covering her right eye with her hand grinning.

Edd's eyes grow wide. "Marie?" He asks shocked as he recognizes the bartender for who she is.

"Yep." Marie says pulling her hand away from her eye. "Long time no see."

"It has." Edd says as Vicky clears her throat. "Oh, Vicky this is Marie Kanker, she's..."He says trailing off not sure how to describe his former stocker to his girlfriend.

"An old friend from Peach Creek." Marie says giving an answer for him.

"Marie this is Vicky, my girlfriend." Edd says introducing his girlfriend to Marie.

"Fiancé actually." Vicky says holding her hand out to Marie with a smug look on her face.

"Damn Double Dee, grats man." Marie says shaking Vicky's hand.

"Well, not officially yet." Edd says correcting Vicky.

"Edd is going to propose on our fifth anniversary." Vicky says her smug look growing.

"Ok..., so how you've been Double Dee? It's been what? Ten years?" Marie asks looking away from Vicky.

"Good good, I'm going to NYU for engineering and we just moved in to an apartment building a block away. What about you Marie?" He asks not seeing the look of annoyance Vicky has on her face.

"Kicking ass and not caring about names, been working here for a couple year now and I love it." Marie says also not seeing Vicky's face.

"Huh, you know I thought I bumped into May at the subway this morning." Edd says recalling the small collision he had earlier in the day.

"You probably did, she's going to this culinary school and lives with me in the apartment above the bar." Marie says pointing at the ceiling.

"Culinary school? Good for her."

"She has some talent. She cooks and I mix drinks, couldn't asks for a better roommates."

"So what about Lee? Is she living with you as well?" Edd asks wondering if the three sisters are still together.

"Na, Lee took off when she hit eighteen, she never got along with our step dad. She's living in Jersey with this guy she met down there, he reminds me of a docile Eddy by the way."

"Oh my." Edd says before laughing.

Vicky clears her throat again. "Could we get some drinks?" She asks getting annoyed that she is being ignored.

"Sure, how about a couple of tap beers? On the house for old friends and your eventual engagement?" Marie asks pulling a pair of glass mugs out from under the counter.

"WE only drink red wine thank you." Vicky says looking at the mugs with discus.

"Ok, I'll get ya a bottle then." Mare says putting the mugs back under the counter.

Seeing Marie made Edd feel a little nostalgic, not for the way she treated him, but how life was like for him ten years ago. Ed, Eddy and him being the social outcasts that they were, Eddy always trying to scam their now friends out of money somehow, and of the terror Marie and her sisters use to in stow into Edd and his friends.

But as he sits there pretending to listen to Vicky go on about the clothes she bought lost in his thoughts he looks over at Marie behind the bar pouring drinks. He was able to tell that she's not the same as she was when they were kids, she's a grown woman now, and an attractive looking one at that. She looks up from her work and their eyes lock and she smiles at him and he smiles back. Marie then sticks her tongue out at him before she went back to work causing Edd to let a laugh escape.

"What's so funny Edd?" Vicky asks bringing his attention back to his girlfriend and her friends.

"Oh I just remembered something that happened at school today. Eddy sent me a message asking me if I would want to go in on his latest business endeavor. It was this plan to fix up an ice cream truck and over price ice cream to kids. I turned him down of course." Edd says coming up with a lie not wanting to tell Vicky that Marie was the cause of his laugh.

"Oh." Vicky says accepting his reason. "So anyways as I was saying..." Vicky goes back to talking and Edd only hears white noise from his girlfriend as he quickly went back to looking off into space. For the rest of the night Edd would find himself randomly looking over at Marie while she worked and found watching her work to be more enjoyable than listening to Vicky.


Though his first day in the apartment was full of surprises, the next few weeks were very uneventful for him. He'd wake up, have breakfast with Vicky, ride the train to class, come home they'd eat dinner while she went on about everything she did for the day. Not being enrolled in college anymore Vicky didn't seem to do anything productive in Edd's eyes. She'd tell him about the shops she'd went to, the clothes she bought and all the places she's been too. Some nights Edd would suggest they go down to the bar Marie works at for drinks, it was a little bit of wanting to do something with his girlfriend, and a little bit wanting to see Marie too.

Some nights she wouldn't be working and Edd would feel a little sad, and on the nights she was there he would have a smile on his face the whole night.

One night Edd got to see the short fuse Robin mentioned. Edd and Vicky were sitting at a table enjoying each other's company, or at least they were trying too. Edd was trying to talk about his classes from that day and Vicky was fake listening to him.

"So after the professor spent most of the class explaining what the project was to be about, he realized that it wasn't even for our class." Edd says with a laugh finding his story to be funny.

"Hum." Vicky says looking at him with a blank expansion on her face.

"Is everything ok Vic-" He started to asks her but was cut off by a commotion at the bar.

"Look when I say you've had enough, YOU'VE HAD ENOUGH." He sees Marie say to a rather large man at the bar.

"Wh-what do you know? I'm a payings customer, so I can have as much as I want." The obviously drunk man says.

"I don't care, you're drunk and I'm cutting you off." Marie says crossing her arms.

The man ignores Marie and tries to reach under the bar for anything that might contain alcohol.

But Marie stops him before his wrist makes it under the counter by grabbing his arm. "No one reaches behind my bar." She says pulling the man's arm up.

"Hey, let me go." The man says trying to fight against Marie's grip.

Marie throws his arm back at him. "Get the heck out of my bar before I knock your ass to the ground."

"Fuck you, you little bitch." The man says taking a swing at Marie.

She grabs his hand again and this time slams it down onto to counter with one hand and swings at him with her free hand. Her fist makes contact with the side of his head and the man falls to the ground. "I told you to get out." Marie says looking down at the man on the floor. "Barry, I need ya to drag this prick out." She says to a well built gentlemen that was standing at the door.

"Damn it Marie, you're suppose to let me deal with the drunk ass holes." Barry says walking over to pick the man up.

"Can't help it if I'm better at it then you." She says grinning as she wipes her hands clean with a towel.

"Which one of us is taking him outside?"

"You are. Thanks by the way, I'll have May make ya a thank you sandwich when she gets home." Marie says as Barry starts to drag the guy towards the door.

"Why don't you let me take her to dinner instead?" Barry asks.

Marie lets out a short laugh. "If I did that, then I'd have to do to you what I did to him."

"That's just cold Marie."

"That's a protective sister for ya." She says with a grin.


Edd was starting to think that Vicky is treating them living together as a vacation, and not them starting their lives together. He would find himself doing all the chores needed to be done in the apartment, where Vicky wouldn't even do the simplest of tasks needed to be done.

"Edd, can you take out the trash?"Vicky asks dumping her half eaten dinner into the trash can.

Edd was sitting at the table working on his school work and eating his own dinner. Setting his pencil down he sighs as he gets up from the table to take care of the trash for her.

"What's with the sigh?" Vicky asks placing her hands on her hips.

"It was just a sigh as I got up." He says walking over to the trash can.

"It didn't seem like just a sigh. Sorry if I'm interrupting your school work time to do a simple chore. I thought a genus would have that done already." Vicky says walking away from him.

"I don't mind doing it, why are you getting mad at me?" He asks pulling the bag out of the can.

"I cannot handle this, I'm going to bed. Alone." Vicky says before slamming bedroom door shut.

Edd sighs a second time as he walks out of the apartment.

He takes the bag down a floor to the trash shoot. As he listens to the bag slide down the shoot he looks at the elevator. 'I don't want to go up stairs yet.' He thinks walking into the elevator and pushes the ground floor button.

Edd walks around the block and finds himself in front of Marie's bar. "Why not." He says opening the door. "It's not like the night could get any worse."

Walking into the bar Edd sees Marie behind the bar and smiles.

Marie looks up and sees Edd. "Hey Double Dee, flying solo tonight?" She asks opening a bottle of beer and handing it to a guy with his hand out.

Edd sits down on a stool at the bar. "Yeah." He says resting his elbows on the bar.

"What's wrong Double Dee?" Mare asks walking over to him.

"It's Vicky, she-"

"Hold on." Marie says cutting him off. She ducks down under the bar and comes back up with a glass mug and a rag. " Got to do the whole bartender therapist thing right." She says as she starts wiping the inside of the glass with the rag.

Edd lets out a short laugh. "She's just so... different, it's all fun and games for her now. When she was still working on her degree she had this great focus that I loved." Edd says opening up to Marie.

"And now?" She asks pushing him to open up more to her.

Edd sighs. "I'm not as happy as I once was, she over reacts more and more lately and I find myself getting annoyed more and more." He says admitting to Marie the truth.

Marie sets the mug down and reaches under the bar. "You need a stiff one buddy." She says setting a small glass down and then pours a brown liquid into the glass from a bottle she took from below the counter as well.

"What is it?" He asks picking up the glass.

"A shot of whisky." She says setting the bottle down on the counter.

Edd looks into the glass, he's never had hard liquor before, but it's been a hard night and he doesn't care enough to turn it down. "Cheers." He says before downing the shot.

"Wow, that's... strong." He says wincing as he set the glass down.

"It is." She says pouring another shot into his glass. "Anything else ya need to get off your chest? Bartender therapist sessions are rare."

Edd downs the second shot with a little more ease. "Well, she is a bit of a control freak."

"You were kind of one when were kids you know. If Ed and Eddy didn't follow your directions when Eddy had you building one of his get rich scam machines you would lose your metaphorical shit."

"Not like this, she has to control everything we do, she even decides when we, you know." Edd says hinting that Vicky chooses when they are intimate.

"Jesus Double Dee. That is hard core."

Edd and Marie talk more as the night went on, Marie told him about bartender school and growing up in New York. It was a lot different than the small town that Peach Creek is. "No one cared that my sisters and I were bad girls, it kind of killed our mojo."

"So did you give up your evil ways?" Edd asks as Marie pores him his fourth shot of whisky.

"Kind of. We didn't go around striking fear into the hearts of everyone in our school, but we were known to not be messed with."

"Did you have your own little gang going? I could see you and your sisters turning freshmen into flunky."

"We didn't have a gang, we had our "Way of life"." Marie says adding air quotes to the last part.

Edd downs the shot. "Way of life?" He asks feeling a little light headed.

"Yeah, we even got these done. " She says pulling up the sleeve of her right arm to show him an obviously cheaply done tattoo that says; "Kanker Life".

"It was meant as a play on that whole thug life thing. Oh man was Mom pissed when she saw them." Marie says pulling her sleeve back down.

"That's a little funny Marie."

"It was kind of a bad idea looking back on the whole think, we could have gotten hurt or really sick from the cheap ink. But I like to think of them as our marks of sisterhood. We might not be together now or forever, but we will always be bonded by fifty bucks and a guy that can't write with a tattoo machine."

Marie was enjoying talking to Edd in between the other people at the bar. She never had a normal conversation with him when she lived in Peach Creek, and when it came for her shift to be over she didn't want to stop. "So Double Dee my shifts ending, ya wanna come up to my place so we can keep hanging out?" She asks untying the apron she has around her waists.

Edd being the feather weight that he is, is buzzed from the few shots he's done over the night. "Sure." He says not thinking it might be a bad idea to go to another woman's apartment.

Marie's apartment is rather small. There are two doors on the wall across from the entrance and a third on the next wall to the right and a small open kitchen with a small round table in one corner of the apartment by the door and a couch and TV in the one opposite of it. The apartment is also walled in pale green wallpaper that looks as if it was applied fifty years ago.

"Welcome to the lair of the Kanker sisters." Marie says as she shuts the door behind them.

"Nice place, very cozy." Edd says looking around.

"You mean small."

"That is another word for it."

"Eh, it's small but fits our needs." Marie says walking over to the window by the kitchen to crack it open to let in the night air.

"Wait a minute." Edd says seeing a large cactus sitting by the window. "Is... is that my old cactus Jim?"

"What, oh... yeah it is..." Marie says looking from the cactus to Edd.

"I always thought it was you that took him."

"I did, sorry about that. I guess I needed something to remember you by back then. Do, do you want him back?"

Edd looks at Marie and sees that the thought of giving Jim back saddened her. "No, he's yours now, and you've clearly taken good care of him."

"That I have, the prickly little bastard." Marie says flicking Jim's pot. She then walks over to the couch and jumps over it and lands on the cushion in a sitting position. "Come over and have a seat Double Dee." She says waving him over to her.

When Edd gets around to the front of the couch he sees Marie take a drink from the same bottle of whisky she was pouring from at the bar. "Did you steal that from your work?" He asks sitting down next to her.

"It's cool, I'll just take it out of my tips tomorrow, I'm still a Kanker remember. Doing bad is what we do" She says offering the bottle to Edd.

Edd looks at the bottle. "So long as you don't get in trouble." He says taking the bottle and takes a short drink from it.

They sit on Marie's couch talking as they passed the bottle back and forth.

"And then he started begging to me on his hands and knees to help him tell Nazz how he felt, I just couldn't say no to Kevin after that. Now I guess they live in California expecting their first kid." Edd says finishing the tale of how Kevin and Nazz became a couple.

"Wow, so Mr. suave needed help from you to seal that deal." Marie says taking the last drink from the bottle.

"Well when your head is full of nothing but car facts, that sometimes leaves out room for how to talk to girls."

"Right cause YOU know how to talk to girls." Marie says dropping the empty bottle onto the floor.

"I'm talking to you right now am I not?" Edd says as a grin comes to his face and Marie lets out a little laugh.

By this point in the night they are both drunk, Edd a lot more then Marie, and her primal instincts start to kick in. "You know, you were my first kiss Double Dee." She says leaning her elbow against the couch and resting her head against her hand.

"You were mine too Marie." Edd says, the alcohol taking effect on him so he doesn't think about what he's saying.

"So... did you like your first kiss?" She asks pulling the tie out of her hair letting it fall around her head.

A clump of her hair fell onto her face just like she wore her hair as a kid. Watching her hair fall made Edd's cheeks turn red. "I didn't understand it at the time, but it was memorable." He says feeling his admiration for her grow.

Marie leans in close to him. "You know, I really did like you a lot back then. You were really cute back then, and you still are." She says putting her free hand on Edd's cheek.

Edd not fully knowing what he's doing doesn't stop her from touching him face. "Looking back, you too were rather cute, in your bad girl ways." He says leaning into her hand.

Marie leans even closer to him till their faces are just a few inches apart. "I need to know something Double Dee." She says before she kisses him.

"Have I improved?" She asks breaking the kiss and throwing all caution and reason out the window.

The kiss was unlike Vicky's forceful kissing, it was soft and gentle, just like he remembers their first. "That... was nice Marie. You have improved." He says not realizing what is going on.

"You want some more?" She asks pushing the boundaries more and moving closer to Edd on the couch.

Edd doesn't even think, he just reaches over with his hand and pulls Marie to him for a second kiss.


AN: A quick note readers, any parts that are in italics are dreams. Also you might find a few similarities between this story and my previous stories about Edd and Marie, but they are two completely different stories, I just like some of the things I came up with from the last tale.