A/N: This is my first Ed, Edd, n Eddy story, and I decided to start out in this fandom with a simple one-shot. This is an AU ending to the episode 'My Fair Ed', one of my favorite episodes due to Edd being so clever in it.

Disclaimer: Antonucci owns everything. I own nothing except my ideas.

~EEnE~EEnE~EEnE~EEnE~EEnE~

Band-Aids

Eddward absolutely hated having to hit others. He was a pacifist, after all. Even if it was a simple reprimand, he always preferred to solve problems in the most peaceful way possible.

This counted true for Ed and Eddy. They were major pranksters and big clowns, but they were his friends, his family.

His responsibility.

Which was why he wasn't surprised when the cul-de-sac kids came up to him and demanded that he teach Ed and Eddy social graces. Edd didn't blame them at all for thinking this, and so he wasted no time in getting to work.

After all, they were his responsibility.

Which, once again, was why he wasn't surprised when they kids came back and demand that he fix his friends' messes.

Sarah was really ticked off by what Eddy did to Jimmy. Edd was scared out of his wits. They were all so angry, at him and at Ed and Eddy.

But he didn't run away. He didn't back down. He took the verbal abuse courageously, firmly standing his ground yet inwardly shaking at the anger and violence in their words.

"Someone needs to pay, dork. It might as well be you," Kevin said.

"Hitting me won't fix the mess Ed and Eddy have made, I'm afraid," Edd quietly replied.

"Well, someone needs to pay!" Sarah yelled. "Need I remind you what they did to Jimmy?!"

Edd wrapped a clean, dry towel around Rolf's shoulders before helping Nazz untie Jimmy's limbs. How Eddy had managed to this kind of damage to Jimmy was way beyond him, but he wasn't worried about that. Not now.

"Of course not. I can see what damage they have done. I shall take full responsibility for making them like this, for trying to change who they already were. But, as proper gentlemen, they must learn to apologize and make up for the results of their own mayhem. How are you feeling Jimmy? Headaches, nausea, bruises?"

The younger boy blushed at Edd's kindness, a characteristic that, out of the three Eds, only he had.

"No, I'm fine, Double D, but thank you for caring," Jimmy replied, causing a gentle smile to break out on Edd's face.

"Good."

"Double D," Johnny piped up, and Edd turned to face him, "Plank wants to know why you hang out with those two clowns if you guys are nothing alike."

"He's right." Nazz agreed, and Jimmy and Rolf nodded. "I've overheard Eddy threaten you into obeying him by using what's under your hat quite a few times. He's a real jerk to you, Double D, and Ed's either too stupid to realize what Eddy's bribing you with or he just plain doesn't care."

Edd started at the mere mention of his hat, but he knew they were right.

Even without him telling them, the other kids could easily tell that Edd was highly self-conscious about his hat and what was under it. He was always wearing something on his head: his hat, a bucket, or even a pair of pantyhose.

He had shown Ed and Eddy once, when they were trashing his room, but it wasn't willingly.

'If you say one word to anyone, I-I'll never speak to you again!'

That was what Edd had told them, right after he put his hat back on after a mere two to three seconds of having it off. Despite Ed and Eddy's mission, the reason they were even trashing Edd's room in the first place, he meant it.

And he still meant it, even now.

And for Eddy, one of his best friends, to hold that against him...that wasn't being a nice friend at all.

And for Ed not to protest against the matter...that made him just as guilty as Eddy.

'Come on, kid! Wet's go get some jawbweakers!'

But...

'Wow, you are so smart, Doubew D! How do you spell so good?'

But...

'Sockhead!'

'Double D!'

They were his friends.

And Edd's reply was, "Have you ever had someone you absolutely adore because they feel like family to you, despite the lack of blood relations?"

Sarah and Jimmy...

Johnny and Plank...

Kevin and Nazz...

Rolf and his animals...

"Ed and Eddy are like that to me. They were my first friends here. They befriended me when no one else would. They...are my brothers." A small tear rolled down his cheek. The others gazed at him sadly, mildly surprised at the genius' words. "You know, you guys don't take them seriously enough. Sure, they're pranksters. Sure, they have a lack of self-control, but we're exiles, outcasts. Don't you understand what being under such a label feels like? It hurts, for a lack of a better word. We have emotions like you do."

It was his duty to fix the mess they were in.

The tears still falling, a plan was quickly forming in his head, with a Plan B coming together right after it.

He wiped the tears away from his eyes as he turned to the other kids.

"I have an idea, and I am going to need your help."

"Who?" Johnny asked.

"All of you."

~E~D~E~D~D~A~N~D~E~D~D~Y~F~R~I~E~N~D~S~

And that is how Eddward got here, sitting on his doorstep, sadly pondering over the day's events so far. Ed and Eddy had yet to arrive, but he loved the silence. He rarely ever got it, what with those two loudmouths always interrupting him, especially when he needed to think. He couldn't get his mind going with the entire ruckus they made. He never could.

But when they were older, he would look back upon those memories with a sincere smile, because they were his brothers, the two people he would hold close to his heart until the rest of his days.

"Double D?" Edd glanced up, his eyes laying their gaze upon the two he was just thinking about. Eddy continued, "You look sad. May we be of assistance?"

"Absolutely," Edd replied, trying really hard not to let his sarcasm show, not that they could ever really catch anyway.

"What can we do, Double D?" Ed asked, one eye blinking one split second before the other.

The two blinked when Double D snapped in front of their faces. "You can snap out of it! That's what you can do!"

"Pardon us if we may sound rude, but we don't know what you're talking about, Double D," Eddy replied. Edd inwardly groaned. "We feel exactly like ourselves. We've turned over a new leaf, remember?"

"Yes, but causing your usual trouble all over town as well as your newfound politeness is not what I had in mind, Eddy!"

"You change us, Double D, and now you want to change us back? Naughty, naughty," Ed scolded.

"He's right. We're hurt because of that statement," Eddy added. "Show some self control, Double D – OUCH!"

Edd had ripped a band-aid off the back of his head.

"YOU SHOW SOME SELF-CONTROL!" Edd suddenly blurted out. "YOU TWO ARE THE ONES MAKING A MESS OUT OF EVERYONE'S LIVES!"

"We're so sorry, Double D. We didn't mean it," Ed softly spoke aloud.

"It's not me you should be apologizing to! It's the other kids!"

There was a long, heavily awkward silence, which was broken by a snicker, and then a full-blown laugh not only from Eddy, but also from Ed.

Edd was infuriated, to say the least, and now that they were laughing, at him no less, it made him even angrier.

"W-We tricked you all along, Double D!" Ed said, doubling over on the ground, clutching his stomach as he and Eddy laughed.

"Man, what a sap!"

Edd allowed a low, menacing growl to inch forward from the back of his throat. He was fully aware that the other kids were in the window, listening to the entire thing, unknowingly to Ed and Eddy (such was his plan, as he had hoped it would get a sincere apology from Ed and Eddy for their actions), but he couldn't allow Plan B to initiate.

Not yet.

He still had to get his own revenge.

Edd cleared his throat and grabbed the edge of Ed and Eddy's last band-aids. They both stopped laughing immediately, remembering the pain from earlier. "It is not polite to laugh at others' misfortunes."

"We're sorry, Double D," Eddy replied, beginning to laugh again, "but you're too easy–!"

Edd had clutched the band-aids tighter.

"It is not polite to mess with others' emotions."

"But, Double D–!"

Ed was silenced right away by Edd's grip getting tighter on the band-aids that rested on the back of their heads. The middle Ed allowed his hat to drop over his eyes.

"It is not polite to play practical jokes on innocent people."

The other two Eds dare not say anything, should they not want to have pain reverberate through their heads.

"It is not nice to use a friend's insecurity against them." Now it was getting personal. The other kids in the window could see that. "And it is definitely not nice turning a blind eye to that friend who is hurting deeply."

"OUCH!"

Edd had finally ripped that last two band-aids off, trying to make it as painful as possible.

Ed and Eddy looked into their friend's eyes, and the two of them were surprised to see tears in his eyes.

Double D hardly ever cried, and it was then that they realized Edd was actually referring to himself just now.

"As proper gentlemen, you must learn to take responsibility for your own actions and, thus, must take whatever punishment the victims decide to bestow on you."

That was the cue to begin Plan B.

The other kids came out of Double D's house, cracking their knuckles, Jimmy staying behind to comfort Edd.

He alone had realized that the victim who had suffered the most out of this ordeal was Edd himself.

~E~D~E~D~D~A~N~D~E~D~D~Y~F~R~I~E~N~D~S~

Three hours had passed, and Plan B had finally ceased. Edd had taken his two friends into his living room, along with the first aid kit, to treat his friends' injuries.

"Geez loueez, Double D," Eddy mumbled, "You didn't have to yell at us." He reached us to rub the bruise on his forehead, but Edd slapped his hand away. "Ow!"

"Don't touch."

The command was short and stern, something that didn't fit his personality at all. It was highly evident that he was still mad at them, and it was then the other two Eds realized Edd had really meant what he said.

"Double D," Ed said, his bandaged finger poking Edd in the shoulder, "I really am sorry. It will not happen again. Will making you buttered toast make you feel better?"

Edd glanced at Ed as the latter sent him his signature goofy smile.

"Me too, Sockhead," Eddy quietly added. "We're both really sorry."

Edd paused in his first-aid treatment. How could he stay mad at them? He really meant what he told them, but could he really hold a grudge against his brothers?

He nodded and continued treating his friends' injuries.

Eddy smiled, knowing they would be alright now.

They had taken a tumble, but they got back up, and now they were on the road again.

Pause.

"Ed! Get your dirty mitts off my magazines! And get my shirt off of your head!"

Edd was powerless to stop Eddy from chasing Ed to hell and back, Ed laughing dumbly, not having a single clue what was going on, much less why Eddy was even chasing him in the first place. He sighed in exasperation, but he allowed himself a smile, his first, real smile all day.

Ed would be Ed, and Eddy would be Eddy.

Always.

There was nothing he could do about that.

But this was his parents' living room. And he had to do something before Ed and Eddy made a big mess out of everything.

Edd grabbed a band-aid on Eddy's forehead and one on the back of Ed's neck. He didn't have to pull on them. Them running past him did the job instead.

Very nicely, he may add.

"OUCH!"

"Dang it, Sockhead! Would you stop doing that?!"

Edd giggled, holding up the two band-aids.

It appeared he had found a new method of reprimanding the two clowns he called his friends.

The End

~EEnE~EEnE~EEnE~EEnE~EEnE~

A/N: How was it? Review, please, and tell me!