First of all, before I get into all this, I just want to let you guys know that you are the sweetest bunch of people I've ever had the pleasure of writing for, and seeing your words of encouragement literally brought TEARS to my eyes and made me sob like a premature baby.

I love you all so much!


That night after school, after Kevin had finished his homework, ate his dinner and spent his usual quality time in front of the TV with his mother he retired to his room. He'd never really noticed how cramped the space was, cluttered with tools and scrap parts for various projects he'd start and put off. Crumpled papers of discarded blue prints were scattered in all corners of the room. His bed was messy, blankets wrinkled in a heap like usual. Pillows were listless and worn, still sunken in with the indention from his head. Only the lamp from his desk illuminated his safe haven. As he looked over the room he mentally noted to tidy up over the weekend, something he'd obviously been putting off for too long and felt grateful for his mother. She never hassled him about things like that, believing it was a better lesson for him.

"If you want to live like a pig, then you go right ahead and stew around in your mess. But if you want to live like an adult, you make the time to clean your space."

Her words rang crystal clear in his ears to this day, and he remembered nodding as he took them to heart. Kevin would never dream of disappointing his mother, but the freedom to slack off every now and then was greatly appreciated as well.

"Kinda stuffy..." He finally muttered as he dragged his tired body to his bed. Moonlight spilled in a tiny sliver through the curtains onto the mattress. Kevin pulled the open the blue sheets of fabric and his entire room filled with the pale light from what he could now see was a full moon. The latch on his window made a small click as he reached down and pulled it open, sliding the framed glass up and inviting in the cool breeze of the night. He laid his arms on the windowsill and rested his chin against them, basking in the peaceful night until the sound of a door closing resounded through the otherwise silent neighborhood. His slightly tired eyes made their way to Eddward's house across the street, and he watched the tall boy slinking down his driveway, a small satchel gently thudding against his hip with every step he took.

Eddward made his way across the street before he felt the presence of another, moreso one fixated on him. His blue green eyes trailing along the yard and up to Kevin's window, and he locked his gaze with the awkward redhead.

Kevin jolted up quickly, shaking his head as if to chase off his sleepiness. He lightly slapped his cheeks and looked back over to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, but Edd really was standing at the corner of his yard. "...Double D?" He tested, quietly. Eddward somewhat gracefully made his way across the yard, closing the space between them faster than Kevin's tired mind could process.

"Good evening, Pumpkin." His usual, slightly cocky tone of voice was only offput by his slightly joyous demeanor.

"What are you doing out this late? It's a school night you know." Kevin responded, ignoring Eddward's nickname, which he'd finally seemed to have gotten used to.

"Research." Eddward replied.

"Research on what?" Kevin asked, raising one of his eyebrows slightly.

"The sleeping patterns of the average teenaged male." Edd answered without missing a beat.

Kevin's jaw dropped, and he shook his head again. "Where you going to spy on me?!" He exclaimed in shock and disbelief.

"Shhhh." Edd teased, raising one index finger to his lips. "You'll wake the neighbors."

Kevin huffed. "C'mon Eddward. Why are you really out?"

"Lampyridae." He responded this time.

"Lamp-a-what?" Kevin repeated.

"Fireflies."

"Fireflies? Aren't you a little old to be chasing around bugs? What, are you going to say you're scared of the dark next?"

Eddward chose to ignore Kevin's jab, playful as it was. "No, Pumpkin. It's for the Animalia reports due in Environmental Science. I was assigned phylum: Anthropoda, class: Insecta."

Kevin rolled his eyes. "There you go again, using completely unnecessary words."

Eddward cleared his throat. "Regardless, perhaps you would like to accompany me? Having a companion to assist me in their capturing would make this project considerably easier."

Kevin drummed his fingers against the window pane. "..I don't know Double D.. It's already kind of late.."

The sound of Edd clearing his throat cut off his protesting.

"I apologize, Pumpkin. I had phrased that as a question, but it was nothing short of a statement. Now allow me to assist you in departing from your quarters." He held his hand out as if it were completely natural to threaten people out at odd hours of the day.

Kevin couldn't think of may reasons to protest, and none would probably sit well with Eddward anyhow. He reached his hand out and gingerly laid his fingers into Eddward's palms, which were still warm from having been in his pockets. Eddward's hand closed around his, and Kevin propped his feet up onto the windowsill before hopping out. The grass crunched underneath his feet, leaving shallow imprints as he and Eddward made their way around the house and to the back lane. Their footsteps on the pavement sounded like crashing thunder in the quiet of the night, but Eddward had made no attempt to make conversation, or even so much as look in Kevin's direction after getting him out of his house. 'He's so strange...' Kevin decided to keep his mind from wandering by taking in the scenery around them instead. The neighborhood had a much different atmosphere at night, like the chaotic nature of the residents never happened during the day. Eddward turned off where the fence ended and headed towards the woods, and a rush of nostalgia washed over Kevin. 'Couldn't be...' But he followed the taller boy off the paved path and into the overgrown and leafy domain. They walked in silence for a while longer before Kevin became consumed by the awkward tension.

"Dou-" But he cut himself off. Eddward had stopped walking, and the familiar sound of rushing water filled the area. "Are we where I think we are?" He asked, looking up to see Edd's face.


First things first, I would like to clarify to you that despite this chapters title this is NOT the beginning to the end of my story. I still have a bit more I'd like to do with this, but I wanted to get something out to you guys, since you've been waiting so patiently all this time. So I decided to backtrack a little bit and cut this into a 2 part chapter, rather than having you guys wait another couple of weeks for me to get everything together.

Hopefully this is a little bit to your liking! And I plan to do something nice for part 2, so I hope you'll look forward to it!

~Chrono