To say Kevin was relieved that Double D accepted his odd proposal was an understatement. His college fund covered his books and the tuition that his scholarship didn't. He had one grant that he knew would cover rent and food, but that was it. A couple of extra $100 a month would keep his head above water. Barely, but it beat drowning.

His dad thought the whole idea was hilarious, especially after their ring shopping trip. Edd played up the gay fiancée bit as much as possible. No one would be able to deny that he was in it for anything but love if he had anything to say about it. And he did!

From a business standpoint, it was a damn good idea. But pulling it off was going to be a comedy of errors. His mother was damn near heartbroken. His being bi was killing her give me grandchildren vibe. His being 20 years old was killing the idea of having kids period. He didn't want to drop out and come back in 4 years and deal with this all over again, either. Marriage was his only other option. Most girls would balk at the idea of a marriage of convenience. And Nazz was dating Eddy. He knew she loved him, but not enough to break up with the shrimpy Ed and marry him for two years. Or at least carry on an affair with the guy while he finished school. And she wasn't going to school at the moment and he needed way more money than being the only one in school would give him.

Edd was gay, a pretty good friend and he understood. He would need the money for his own schooling as Kevin knew that he didn't want to dip into the funds his grandmother left him now when he would need them more later. This benefited them both. Their schools were two hours apart, so they wouldn't be there to annoy each other with real marriage stuff. But real married or fake married, Kevin knew that he wouldn't have to deal with any kind of drama being married and apart could bring as Edd was too busy with his own schooling to really date and Kevin didn't like his prospects enough to consider them viable options. And if they visited each other regularly, no one would be the wiser to their game. The fall semester was easy. They both had fall break at the same time, and would spend Thanksgiving and Christmas together. He could go see Edd for Valentine's Day and then Edd could come up for one baseball game a month. The cul-de-sac got together over the summer a couple of weekends a month, so seeing each other outside of their regular school schedule wouldn't be a problem.

He knew he had a home run with this idea and the kiss at the altar sealed it for him. It was a real kiss. A really good one. If they needed photographic evidence about whether or not this marriage was real, they got it in that kiss. Jesus. Kevin doesn't remember Edd kissing anyone other than Marie and Eddy and all those kisses were by force. So they couldn't have taught him how to kiss like he did. Whoever did was getting flowers and then a punch to the face so they knew not to kiss his husband again.

Their honeymoon was taken in the city. They got a two bedroom hotel suite courtesy of Kevin's parents, tickets to the zoo from Marie and Jonny and tickets to the museum from Nazz and Eddy. May and Ed bought them each a toaster. Rolf loaded them up with fresh veggies that Edd took home and did so many things to that it's going to take Kevin a lifetime to figure it all out. Jimmy and Sarah treated Edd to a spa day in preparation for the day and got Kevin a gift card to GameStop from the close twosome. Edd helped him pick out some games that they could play together and they headed back to their respective schools, FASFA applications in hand.

Edd came to see him play a couple of times before summer school started and it was…nice. Kevin was kind of used to having people come watch him play, but they were usually the same people or type of people; his parents and friends or some guy or girl who had caught his eye or was trying to catch his. Edd was different. Edd never came out to baseball games regularly when they were in high school, unless it was a big deal like a championship. The cul-de-sac as a whole would go to the football games to watch Ed play and Nazz cheer, but Kevin knew that Double D hated it. It was cold and the crowd was loud. But he loved his friends so he'd deal with a game or two for their sakes. Kevin was glad that he kept up the effort after his emancipation because he probably should have been studying or working instead. And his friends loved him for it so it all evened out.

But while baseball was quieter, it was still outside and therefore hot or chilly or cold or rainy or some twisted combination of the four. So despite the fact they were married, to see the ravenette in the stands was a thrill Kevin didn't know he needed. Edd would get a hotel for these trips as Kevin still had a roommate and neither wanted to deal with having to face their charade head on. They'd hang out, catch up, have dinner and he'd get a very purposeful kiss goodbye when Edd dropped him off at his apartment.

Over their first summer together, they started to ease into a pretty easy going friendship. Spending as much time together as they could to keep up their fake front made it easy for them to start to really get along and learn about each other as friends would do. After school started, Kevin invited Edd to the last hooray he and a few of his fraternity brothers would have on the coast before throwing themselves into school. Being a good husband, Edd made the trip and surprised himself and Kevin and actually had fun. He thought he wouldn't be comfortable around a bunch of drunken frat boys but they welcomed him with open arms, a sweetheart's pin and tequila shots. Kevin was surprised that the dork could hold his own against guys who'd need livers in 20 years, Edd was surprised that the hot tempered pitcher didn't rail on anyone flirting with him.

Kevin just shrugged.

"They respect me enough not to really go there," he said as they sat side by side on the couch nursing sodas and water to stave off their inevitable hangovers.

"That's a lot of damn respect, Kev."

Kevin looked at Edd with wide eyes and the snarky scholar giggled. Then he blushed at what he could of sworn was a spark of affection in the hazel of Kevin's green eyes.

"You swore, Eddward!"

"I'm an adult! I'm entitled to swear when the occasion calls for it!"

"Uh huh. You do that, Captain Pottymouth."

"This is your fault, Kevin. I wouldn't be this way if I wasn't kissing your potty mouth for appearances."

Kevin snickered. Edd was always getting on him for "using such foul language!," even though the blush on his cheeks meant that he wasn't as turned off by it as he wanted to appear to be.

"Keep telling yourself that."