Well, here's another one-shot. Not as impressed with this one, but I really wanted to explore this idea of May and Ed's relationship a little. Yeah...

So enjoy:

May Kanker, blonde, bucktoothed and widely considered stupid, often thought about her Father.

They all did, all three Kanker sisters, but they didn't talk about them.

That, of course, is a lie. They did talk about them, but it wasn't what one might call beneficial. They bragged and fought over who had the better Father. Usually Lee would win, probably because Marie and May had never met him, so Lee was free to make up whatever she wanted about him and they had no way to prove her wrong. By the same token, Marie should be able to win at times, but she couldn't. All three of them had met Marie's father more often than they would have liked. He was perhaps the worst of all three.

The memory of his visits still made May cringe; Lee growl and Marie hang her head in shame. Of course, when the bi-monthly argument of who has the best father came around, Marie would be there, yelling as loud as she could for her own Father.

May did often think, but with her sister's around she had little room to do so. They were so loud, pushy and overall annoying. On a bad day Lee's scowl made her shudder and Marie's voice made her cringe.

There was a place, though, that May visited when everything just became too much. She would run along the forest path until she found the correct tree, and climbed to its peak.

It was a very old, very worn, and very much loved tree-house; although not quite like the tree-house the Kankers had stolen off the Ed's.

This was simply a few wooden planks nailed down to the top branches of a rather large tree. A few bent nails were useful as means of a ladder, and they were rusted brown with age. They blended perfectly with the dark trunk, and the wooden planks were far above, hidden by dense foliage.

It was at this place that May often went to think, to reflect and to be herself in the purest form.

She'd found it by accident a few weeks after they'd first moved in the caravan park, running away from something mean Marie (or was it Lee?) had said to her. She'd run in mindless circles throughout the forest, eventually collapsing against a tree in exhaustion. She soon became aware that something sharp was sticking into her side, and May moved back, her eyes searching. She eventually spotted the trails of orange-brown nails, appearing at random along the thick tree-trunk.

Forgetting the hurtful insult that was still leaving tears in her eyes, May bit down on her lip and began to climb the tree. The nails bit into her skin, and some snapped off altogether. May fell once, twice and then went to climb up for the third time, paying extra close attention to the position of her hands and feet. If this were Nazz, Sarah or perhaps even Double D, they would have turned back long ago. But May was a Kanker, and Kankers didn't give up on what they wanted.

Their effort on the three Ed's proved just that.

May twisted her arms around tree limbs, her worn shoes working to find grip, perching for rests in odd spots. Eventually, though, May reached the end of the nails and found the planks of wood, creaking and aged. May grinned to herself, very happy with what she had found. She pulled herself up onto the rickety platform and looked out over the canopy of tree-tops, watching the sunset in the distance. It was the perfect spot, and it made May's heart sing simply to be there.

The main trunk sat to her left, and to her delight, May found a roomy hollow at her eye level. It had obviously been used for storing items in the past, because soft wood shavings lined its base and thin, spidery letters were carved around the hollow's edges.

To hide my many secrets, it read. May sat there a while longer, before remembering herself, and climbing down the trunk again. She ran back through the forest, stumbling out into the caravan park once more. She had planned to tell her sisters her discovery, but when she saw them cooking at the small kitchen stove, the words stuck in her throat.

She never did tell them.

In a world where everything you owned was shared between three, regardless of personal space, it was nice to have something for yourself.

May often visited the tree-house, collecting her favourite books and comics and storing them in the hollow so Lee and Marie couldn't get their hands on them (they would use them for blackmail purposes rather than actually reading them; Marie and Lee didn't like comics and reading).

It was one day in early spring when Marie yelled for her sisters. May and Lee rushed to her side, their mouths splitting into grins when they saw what had caught their sister's attention.

Ed, Double D and Eddy were standing at the mouth of the forest path, partly covered by trees, yet still in clear view of the Kankers. Eddy and Double D were clearly arguing, and Ed seemed to be paying little attention as usual, staring off into space.

"I spy with my little eye," Marie snickered, dropping the laundry she had been folding, "something beginning with M."

"M?" May asked in confusion.

"Mine, stupid," Marie said, stretching like a cat ready to pounce.

"Hey," growled Lee, giving Marie a shove, "you watch yourself missy. You keep your hands off my boyfriend. You stick to your nerdy guy."

"Don't call Double D a nerd," Marie hissed, her eyes flashing, "at least he's not as short as Eddy."

May ignored her sister's arguing over who had the more hunky guy. They had become a lot more protective over their chosen Ed in the past few months. It was strange to May, who did like Ed quite a bit, but not enough to join in their long and constant screaming matches. May was aware that Ed didn't like her, and although this made her sad, she didn't burst into tears as Lee had done one night. Marie had told her that Lee was suffering from "teenagey hormones", and she must have been, because that was the most vulnerable May had ever seen her sister; and all because of some stupid boys. This had hardened May's opinion on Eddy in particular. Lee, the oldest (now nearing fifteen), was not meant to be so stupidly love-struck. Yet, unfortunately, she had grown this way inclined, even more-so than Marie.

It occurred to May just how much could change in as little as two years.

May looked up and realised that the Ed's were running. They had heard both Lee and Marie's shouting, and scattered in opposite directions. May, unsure of what she was doing, ran towards the forest track, the direction Ed had run in.

For some reason, May felt increasingly nervous.

Although the boys must wander this track at least once a week, and would have walked past her hidden tree-house many times, May felt scared.

What if Eddy doubled back and saw it? Even Double D would make her uncomfortable being there. And Ed would probably break the moulding pieces of wood... if he even managed to find it in the first place, which seemed unlikely.

May hurried down the forest track, her feet slapping the gravel extremely loudly. She looked around for any of the Ed's, but the boys seemed to have disappeared.

They've probably gone home, back to the Cul-de-sak, a voice told her, to hide. You know what cowards they are.

The voice wasn't completely reassuring.

May reached the tree, her breath coming ragged from her mouth. She listened, but no noise came trailing down from the top. May glanced around to check that no one was watching her, like she always did. When she was satisfied, she started the awkward and familiar climb. Even though she was sure no one was there, her throat choked over and she tensed as she made it to the top and peered over the edge of the floor.

She almost gave out a cry, but managed to stop herself. It was perhaps the strangest and oddly cutest things she'd ever seen.

Ed was lying stomach down across the planks of wood, kicking one of his legs up and down absent-mindedly. He had one of May's comic books open before him, and his eyes were staring widely at it, as though he were hypnotized by it. May clambered noisily onto the clumsy wooden platform, and Ed didn't even look up. He had clearly rummaged through the tree hollow and found the comic. It was one of May's favourite, about a warrior named Lenista the great.

"Ed?"

Nothing. No reply. Perhaps Ed was hypnotized in the book.

"Ed! E-e-ed!" May repeated, louder this time. With a jolt, Ed dropped the comic and sat up. He stared at May with a mixture of shock and fear. His mouth seemed to be trying to form words, but nothing escaped his lips. It bothered May that he was so terrified.

"Ed, what are you doing up here? This is my tree house. And that was my comic..." Ed shut his gaping mouth and looked a little confused instead.

"That is your comic?" he asked, as though it was incredibly difficult to comprehend.

"Yes," May nodded, holding the comic out to Ed and displaying the bold letters clearly printed on the inside cover, "see, it has my name on it. It's my favourite comic."

Ed reached out his hand and took the comic from her, staring intently at her name written in black ink. At last, May seemed to hear something click in his head.

"You like Lenista the Great? Have you read Episode twenty-three, dawn of the mutant-zombie-rats from the sewers of Seattle?"

"Yes," May answered, "I liked that one. But I liked Volume forty-two, the day the earth sprung killer drool babies from its inner core. That one was great. It had such a great twist."

Ed's face lit up and he started talking quickly, describing his favourite scenes from his favourite comics. May could hardly keep up with the conversation, but she somehow managed, smiling as wildly as Ed. The two of them sat cross-legged on the tree-platform for quite a long time. Although May found the conversation very interesting, she was even more interested in how easy it was to simply talk to Ed. She wondered perhaps if he was actually absorbing her words, or rather just blurting out what he thought because he finally had an outlet to share the information with. Either way, they were within ten feet of each other and he was still smiling. This had to be some sort of a record.

Eventually, though, May broke out of her happy spell, realising that the sun was setting in the distance. Ed seemed to realise that she was no longer listening and stopped talking, staring at her blankly.

"We should probably go back down to the ground. Your friends and my sisters are probably looking for us... erm... also Ed, this place is a secret. You can't tell anyone about it."

May wasn't sure how Ed would feel about a secret, since he didn't seem to be the most inconspicuous person she had ever met. Still, he seemed to get it. Ed smiled and nodded rapidly.

"Like a secret base for secret spies," he proclaimed happily, and May smiled, but felt like he was two years younger than her rather than almost two years older. May let Ed climb down first, wincing as he made a large amount of noise. She followed soon after, noticing that he'd broken off several branches that she used as foot and arm holds. This would have normally have annoyed her, but May was soon distracted when she reached the bottom.

A yell tore through the woods, followed by high-pitched giggling, no doubt coming from Marie. The yell however, had been unmistakably Double D's terrified scream as he was pursued by May's older sister. If she listened even harder, she may have heard the sounds of Eddy's annoyed yelling in another part of the woods. However, she was more distracted by the fact that Double D and Marie were coming rapidly closer. Before she could even consider the numerous problems this might cause, Marie and Double D ran round the bend and almost slammed into them.

Double D and Marie stopped short, however, by a good three feet, probably because they were just as surprised as May and Ed were.

"Ummm..." said Double D slowly, taking in the fact that Ed and May were standing comfortably beside each other.

"Watch you doin' here May?" Marie asked, eyeing the comic that Ed was still holding. "Ain't that your comic? What's big Ed doing with it?"

"He's reading it," May answered for Ed, as he was once again absorbed in its pages. Double D cleared his throat and edged towards his friend.

"While it's delightful that Ed and May are clearly getting along for once, we really must get going. It's getting late. Mother and Father might be worrying."

"But Double D," Ed whined, distracted now that his chances of continuing to read the comic seemed nil, "I want to finish reading this! I still have to discover who Lenista's real father is! And who is the mysterious figure who continues sending her secret clues?"

"That's nice Ed," Double D said, "but we really ought to be-"

"Ed can borrow it," May said quickly, spitting in her hurry. She blushed and shut her mouth before starting again, "I wasn't reading it anyway."

"Thank you," Double D said quickly, smiling half-heartedly at May before quickly pulling Ed away and running for his life. May turned round to see Marie, a wide smirk on her face.

"Sneaky, sneaky, May," she snickered, "now he has to return it! Him borrowing your stupid comic is basically an excuse for you to see him again, without scaring the heck out of him."

"No it isn't," May protested, but now that the idea was placed before her, it suddenly became appealing. That was a good idea. May just hadn't intended it. She had simply wanted to do something nice to Ed, to make him like her a little more. "But it worked, didn't it? Why don't you be nice to Double D instead of chasing him? I mean..." May faltered at her sister's intense glare. Then she changed the subject, "I wonder where Lee is?"

Marie's anger faded. That was the good thing about Marie; while she could get very angry at times, it was never for long.

"Probably supplying Eddy with some much needed loving. Or forcing him to do chores... maybe we can get the little runt to do our washing!" Marie seemed excited over the prospect, and took off down the forest path towards the sound of Eddy's vicious insults (he wasn't as compliant to Lee's bullying as he had been just a few years beforehand) and Lee's low threats and cackles.

May followed her absent-mindedly, her eyes shining over the prospect of seeing Ed soon, even if it were just as friends... or perhaps acquaintances even... It was a start, wasn't it?

And, as Eddy's loud, grating voice filled the clearing they were entering, and Lee's bushy red hair and deep chuckle became evident, May reflected that once again, the tree house had been a source of optimism, perhaps even more so than usual.

Mmyep, so that's that for now. Tell me what you thought, any suggestions in particular. I'm going to try and write something about Eddy next, he's always fun to write about.

Also, I reckon that Ed and May could get along very well if they tried, but May loves to follow whatever her sister's are doing (which usually involves terrorizing the Ed's) and Ed is terrified of the Kanker's in general.

Review and all that jazz :) and thanks to anyone who has reviewed and favourited so far. It means a lot! XD