Kevin almost fell off his bike, which would have been unfortunate. Not because he was speeding down the road rapidly enough for it to be dangerous, but because he had already stopped in the school parking lot and was in the process of getting off. Faceplanting on the asphalt when the bike was parked, the kickstand was down, and he was halfway through dismounting would have been a pretty poor start to a Saturday. No one would have witnessed it, no one would have known, but he would have known.

He was distracted, and it was frustrating to be distracted when he had no idea why. Thank God for the weekend Quiz Bowl meeting, because it gave him something else to think about and –

It would have been difficult enough to miss the car parked in the middle of the lot simply because it was one of the few that was actually present. When it just so happened to be the car that Kevin saw almost every time he stepped out of the house and his line of vision passed over the driveway on the other side of the street… well. It certainly caught his attention, enough that he spent almost a full minute simply staring at it, as if it would sit up and take questions if he waited long enough.

What was Eddward's car doing in the school parking lot on the Saturday after a swim meet, on the side of the campus farthest from the pool, no less?

Despite his attempts to set the question aside, he still burned with persistent curiosity as he made his way to the day's Quiz Bowl practice. As he approached the front entrance to the main building, the events of the previous evening returned to him. The only reason why he ended up ignoring the urge to smack his own forward was that his hand was already occupied with opening the door.

Eddward didn't have his dogtags. Of course he would know about the Quiz Bowl meeting (and the fact that it meant unlocked doors and open hallways) because Mr. Genius Swim Captain knew everything. From what Kevin had seen, it was no surprise whatsoever that he would treasure the things enough to take time out of his weekend to look for them.

The doors shut noisily behind him, and he paused warily. He dreaded running into Eddward on the best of days, but now, when he was probably Nancy-Drewing his way around the hallways looking for those tags? Kevin had seen him slam a guy into the locker once for calling them gay; if he had any inkling that they were stolen and not just misplaced, then he was probably on a warpath by now. And he probably did know that, because Eddward was sufficiently obsessive about them for it to be impossible to lose them any other way, and because Mr. Genius Swim Captain knew everything.

And he might just figure out that Kevin knew something about them, too.

Well, crap. Kevin checked his watch; he had arrived with fifteen minutes to spare. Switching his bag to his other shoulder, he started off down the hallway. The Quiz Bowl team would be meeting in the computer lab classroom not far from where he was, and he could probably make it early enough to beat most of the others, but late enough to avoid having to wait for other people to arrive. In other words, he wouldn't have to hang around in the hallway by himself.

Sure enough, footsteps up ahead alerted him to the presence of another student. There was someone around the corner, either a fellow Quiz Bowl member or someone attending the Saturday morning tutoring session, or–

Wasn't that the hallway where Eddward's locker was?

He paused at the corner, and cautiously peeked out to see.

His heart sank. Eddward was indeed there, rummaging through his open locker. At least, he was as close to rummaging as he would ever come, Kevin thought. Everything Eddward did was freakishly neat and methodical, even when he was searching for something he valued. It was like watching a real-life Vulcan.

Or it would be, if it weren't for the look on Eddward's face as he was going about it.

Kevin had expected anger, or the subtle signs of restrained rage. At the very least, he expected the grim, sullen expression that seemed to be Eddward's standard. So the utter lack of surliness came as a genuine surprise to Kevin, who had never before seen his classmate look so honestly upset.

"Distressed" was not normally a word he associated with Eddward, but there was no other way to describe what he looked like at the moment. That and…

Sad? Lost? …Afraid?

That was just weird and if he didn't get a move on he would be late. On an impulse, he stepped out from hiding, intending to pass by the hallway intersection with the pretense of failing to notice Eddward's presence. He had only taken a few steps when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Eddward look up. He froze, almost involuntarily, and looked back.

There was a split second in which he made eye contact before the troubled look had left Eddward's face. Once it did so, and was replaced by the familiar surliness, Kevin was galvanized into action once more. He turned his head away again and all but fled at a run.

As he made his way to the sanctuary of his Quiz Bowl meeting, he glanced over his shoulder several times to make sure that Eddward was not following him. He had to wonder if he would have reacted that way with a clear conscience, without the knowledge of where Eddward's tags had gone. If not, he had to wonder, then, if Eddward had noticed as well.

It wasn't until he had reached the classroom that he realized that, for the first time, Eddward had simply watched him pass by – practically flee – without saying a word.

It ended up being a shorter practice than anticipated, especially when two members failed to appear and Nazz had to leave early for a violin lesson. The former fact was especially laughable since Nat, who wasn't even a member, showed up nonetheless. ("Not like I have anything better to do, bro. Besides, do you know how many crosswords I've finished since I started watching you guys?") Kevin walked with his two friends as they headed to the parking lot, where his bike was parked and Nazz's mother was supposed to pick her up.

"Well, at least we know for sure that you're our guy when it comes to math and physics," Nazz remarked with a slight grin.

"Nice to know I'm needed."

She blinked at him, tilting her head thoughtfully. "You look like you've been distracted, though. You were pretty quiet on the history questions. Something wrong?"

"I just suck at history."

Nat gave him an elbow nudge that sent him sidestepping for balance. "Kevin, come on. Is something on your mind?"

He heaved a sigh. "It's not that important, it's just… did you guys see Eddward wandering around when you got here?"

Nazz stood up a bit straighter. "Uh, yeah, actually, I saw him going around testing some of the classroom doors. I dunno what the hell he's doing here on a Saturday. Is that what's bugging you? Because if it is, just ignore him and let him do whatever the hell." She paused, as if something had occurred to her. "Unless he talked to you or – did he give you any trouble before the meeting?" It was quite amazing to see her switch from casual conversation to ire, like watching a half-grown owlet puff up to twice its size at the sight of danger. "Oh my God, if he was bugging you, I swear to God I'll–"

"He wasn't, he wasn't," Kevin assured her, with a quick glance around to make sure no one else was around. "He didn't say anything to me, he just sort of… I dunno, looked at me and then I left."

"Oh." She deflated slightly. "Okay, good. Wait, he just let you pass by without even a snide remark?"

"Pretty much."

"Then what's got you worried?" Nat demanded. "You really don't have to let him get to you like that, you know."

"I know what he's doing here," Kevin told them bluntly. He stopped speaking, wondering if his friends would let him leave it at that, but he could feel their eyes on him.

"The suspense is killing me," Nat said at length, his tone dry. "Care to share with the class?"

Feeling reluctant, Kevin nonetheless related to them what he had seen the previous day. "And anyway, I'm hoping to God he doesn't find out I know where they are because he's gonna wonder why I know and might come to the conclusion that I took them, and on top of that he's acting weird about it and it's starting to freak me out," he finished.

"Jesus, Kevin," Nat muttered. "Way to stay out of the way of the knuckle-dragging idiots."

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, okay?"

"You just had to go to the swim meet."

"Be careful, Kevin," Nazz advised. She looked almost as worried as he felt. "Just keep out of it, and I'm sure they'll work it out on their own."

"It takes a special kind of crazy to steal something from Eddward, though," Nat remarked. "Or a special kind of stupid. You sure they weren't freshmen? 'Cause that's the only reason I can think of."

"Think it'd matter?" Kevin pointed out. "I mean, you've seen how he is with those things." He pushed open the door of the main entrance and darted forward to hold it for the other two.

"He's… paranoid," Nat said. "And that's putting it kindl – oh crap, shut up, guys."

Kevin followed his friend's gaze down the sidewalk past the entrance, and nearly swore out loud when he saw the very subject of their discussion heading in their direction. Instinctively he stepped closer to his friends, and all three moved on and very pointedly avoided looking at Eddward while making token attempts to resume conversation – with a different topic, of course. This was a common tactic of theirs; it helped to ignore the inevitable snide comment that he would impart, as he always did.

Eddward overtook them and walked on into the parking lot, with barely a cursory glance in their direction.

As he passed, Kevin's eyes flickered upward to his classmate's face. Eddward's head was turned away, so he only caught a quick glimpse, but it was there. It was subtle, a biting of the lip, a furrow of the brow that was not angry but troubled, but it was there. He had not imagined it.

Something stirred within him, a strange and unwelcome ache somewhere in the general area of his chest. He glanced down at himself, as if he could find the cause just by looking. Confused, and just a bit uncomfortable, he returned his attention to Eddward.

"Okay, you were right, the silence thing is pretty weird," he heard Nat mutter, once Eddward was beyond hearing range. "It's something I'd like to get used to, though." Kevin was barely listening, just watching as Eddward dropped his keys twice before managing to unlock his car.

Eddward arrived to school early Monday morning, before the start of zero period, just barely beating the students that came for morning chemistry tutoring. The school was open when he pulled into the parking lot, but if anyone of consequence had arrived, they were either in classrooms or too sleepy to notice him.

Perfect.

Not that he ever had to worry about traversing the hallways on his own. Still, it would be nice to revisit the areas that he had already searched a second time – it never hurt to be thorough – before the crowds of dull-eyed, slack-jawed students arrived. And whats-his-name. Pumpkin. The name escaped him sometimes.

If he could sort all this out without running into the little cretin again, then that would be ideal. Eddward was loathe to allow anyone whose name wasn't Marie or Jimmy to see him rattled, and the possibility that he of all people might have seen it had hung persistently over his head since Saturday. The possibility that (Kevin, that was his name) might mention it to someone was beyond dreadful. Especially if that someone was Rolf. Or the teal-haired imbecile, which did not bear thinking about.

Besides, any time spent thinking about Kevin for any reason, worry or otherwise, was utterly wasted, especially when he could spend it checking to see if his advanced placement calculus class unlocked yet.

Kevin had often noticed his own heightened nervousness during the school's morning hours between his arrival and his first chance to touch bases with his friends. Walking alone in the crowded hallways of Peach Creek High often felt too much like wandering through a zombie apocalypse without one's crew of survivors; one wrong move and he'd get eaten alive.

"Hey, loser! Think your mom'll knit me a sweater like that?" That was Jimmy's voice, and to his embarrassment he started visibly before glancing over his shoulder.

Luck was with him twofold; Jimmy was moving on, turning his attention to his phone (and probably a text message from Sarah), and he was alone. Namely, Eddward was absent from his side. Kevin hadn't forgotten the previous Friday, or Saturday for that matter, though not for a lack of trying. He fervently hoped that the jocks would sort out the whole dogtag mess, and quickly, because surviving high school was hard enough without his nerves fraying at the edges over something that should not have concerned him at all. Maybe he was being paranoid, but he dreaded the thought of so much as looking at Eddward, because hell if the swimmer wasn't unfairly skilled at reading people.

Also, Eddward's behavior had yet to stop unsettling him.

Speak of the devil and the devil will appear; up ahead, the man himself rounded the corner and made his way toward Kevin at a hurried pace. Kevin nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden appearance, and something close to panic momentarily took over his actions. He purposely turned his face away from Eddward, dodged to the side to give the swim captain a wide and generous berth, and turned down the first hallway he could. Better to waste a few moments on the way to his locker than to risk confrontation and possible discovery.

He should not have felt this guilty, he told himself, to no avail; it wasn't like he had been dumb enough to touch Eddward's things. He was neutral. He was uninvolved. Like Switzerland.

He was relieved when Eddward ignored him and continued on his way, and Kevin chanced one more quick glance at him as he hurried past. Eddward barely turned his head – that was a relief, but it still felt wrong, because Eddward almost always took any chance he could to give Kevin a hard time, and he never seemed to miss a single thing around him – but Kevin could see the remnants of that strange look from Saturday.

Well. Strange on Eddward, anyway. And even when Kevin lowered his eyes, he caught the briefest glimpse of clenched fists and stark-white knuckles.

There was one more thing, too, Kevin thought absently as he returned to a more-or-less straight route to his locker. Eddward's jacket had been zipped up to his throat.

The ache was back, throbbing painfully in his chest, and still he stubbornly refused to identify it. Identifying it would mean acknowledging it, and acknowledging it bore the hazard of acting upon it. And he would not act on it, he informed himself. It was not worth the risk – it would never be worth the risk.

Still… maybe he could just…

No.

If he did not know better, Eddward thought absently, he could have sworn that the little cretin seemed more eager than usual to avoid him. This could either be a boon or… something more suspicious.

And, of course, he had just spent ten seconds of his life that he would never get back, thinking about what's-his-name.

Drat it all.

It mattered little. What mattered was that he had checked and double-checked most of the possible places that he may have left them, and come break period, he would be turning the swim team's locker room inside out, and hoping against hope that he would find them there.

Quite simply, there was no other place that they could be.