"Ahem."

Kevin peeked his head on the other side of his locker door to see who had interrupted his "get in, get out," routine for Valentine's Day. He hated being caught by his league of admirers.

Eddward

"Hey, Baby Boy," Kevin sighed softly.

"What's going on, Daddy?," Eddward whispered.

A quick blush crossed Kevin's cheeks and he wanted to punch the smart ass swimmer, but the nickname did feel good.

"Just the usual. Want some chocolate?"

"Nah, gotta watch my girlish figure. You know the girls will be game come lunch," Eddward said as he leaned on one of the neighboring lockers and pulled out his phone for a quick game of Solitaire.

"There's some in here from them," Kevin said tersely.

Eddward scoffed out a laugh.

"Anything you like?"

"No."

"Then bring it with you to lunch."

"They set me up, didn't they?," Kevin huffed as he slammed the locker door and started walking towards their shared Computer Programming Basics class. Kevin was a student, Eddward was the lead teacher's assistant.

"Something like that. I got French chocolate mints and a cookies and cream heart. I think I'll offer the heart back to her over dinner."

"Why do they do that?!," Kevin asked exasperatedly.

"The patriarchy."

Kevin stopped walking.

"The what?!"

"Society says that they can't eat chocolate like they want to. Especially when there's loads of it around. So they give it to us, in the hopes that we'll share and they can indulge guilt free," Eddward shrugged as he drug Kevin down the hall so they wouldn't be late to class.

"I'm sharing everything," Kevin sighed as he fell back into step with Eddward.

"Wise move, my man," Eddward nodded. "I hear that May is in a bit of a mood and I'm sure she could use the boost."

"And you?"

Eddward recognized that tone.

"I'll be free Saturday morning and afternoon. What did you have in mind?"

"Nothing really. Heard the modern art museum in the city has a new exhibit and I was thinking you'd like to check it out."

It was Eddward's turn to stop walking.

"Um, yeah. I would," he said softly and Kevin felt a bit of karmic revenge as a rosy blush flashed across Eddward's cheeks.

"Choice. I was thinking we could grab some food or something while we were there," Kevin said as he rocked back and forth on his heels.

"I swear to God if you take me to Cherie's...," Eddward hissed at him.

"What?! Dude, oh my god. No," Kevin snickered.

"Ok, ok," Eddward sighed. "What did you have in mind?"

"There's this awesome Irish place I know about."

"Make it happen, Daddy," Eddward said as he walked down the hall and into their classroom.

Eddward took Marie to Lil Mama's, they shared her cookies and cream heart over Netflix and chill and Kevin took Eddward to O'Malley's.

The Irish restaurant had been in Peach City for over 50 years and the fare was classically Irish and most of all, delicious.

"Better than your mother's?," Eddward asked with a smirk as Kevin devoured his corned beef and hash.

"Don't you ever tell her that!"

Eddward just grinned.

"Your secret is safe with me."

The art exhibit was a new permanent installation celebrating local minority artists. Even their art teacher, Ms Livingstone, who's traditional Conoy art was displayed all over the art classroom, had a few pieces on display.

"You gonna bring her up for it?," Kevin asked as they headed back to Kevin's dad's truck.

"Definitely. She'd love to see Ms Livingstone's pieces and I think I saw a few pieces from some other artists she's told me about. I know I saw a few of her cousin Tony's pieces were in there."

"He didn't tell her?," Kevin asked as he opened the passenger door on the truck.

"I dunno," Eddward shrugged before leaning in for one of Kevin's sweet smooches before getting in the truck. "But I know she'd love to see it all."

"Think she'll have a few pieces in there some day?," Kevin asked as he started the truck and headed back to Peach Creek.

"God, I hope so."

Kevin was jealous over Eddward's relationship with Marie, but to see him so proud of her and the work she had done and to be so supportive of her for the work she could do made him feel good.

If only he could have it for himself.

For now, he'd settle for holding his hand the whole way home.

And he did.

But they didn't head straight home. Kevin wasn't quite ready to let him go yet. And he was avoiding Marcie. He knew she'd be at his house as Bridget was out on a date with Mike Taylor, the state's top point guard. Rolf said it was his Valentine's Day gift to Kevin. Too bad he didn't consider Marcie as another thorn in Kevin's side. But being out with Eddward was a viable excuse. Eddward's girlfriend was out working and the genius himself was a friend and free for guy time. It wasn't like she was dating the redhead. Kevin could do as he pleased.

And what pleased him was taking Eddward to the lookout point.

"What are we doing here?," Eddward asked once Kevin pulled the truck into the small parking lot near the lookout point.

"Just wanted to take a walk," Kevin shrugged.

Eddward took a glance at the redhead and saw a need in his eyes. He didn't quite know what it was, but if he could help Kevin fulfill it, he would.

And he did.

They took a bit of a hike into the hills and then up the trail to the lookout point that let them look out over their entire metro area and as far as the capital, Charleston.

"I wish I had my binoculars," Eddward sighed as he looked out over their hometown and then some.

Kevin rolled his eyes and pulled out a small set of binoculars he got when he was in middle school. He had gotten them to spy on the Ed's when they were kids. He handed them to Edd and said, "Tell me what you see."

Edd grinned as he snatched the eye enhancers away.

"I wonder..."

Kevin looked at him and watching his face light up as he looked out over their viewpoint and adjusted the binoculars to get a clearer picture of things was quite possibly the cutest thing Kevin had ever seen.

"There it is!"

"There what is?"

"There," Eddward said as he handed the binoculars to Kevin and guided the redhead to the spot he was standing in.

Once Kevin put the binoculars to his eyes, Eddward put his hands on his cheeks and guided his face to look in the direction he had been looking in. The only thing Kevin saw was what looked like three radio towers. And a technician happened to be tethered to one of them.

"Oookay," Kevin drawled. And then he shrugged as he turned to an exasperated Eddward. "I don't get it."

"Those towers are helping to wire the area, Kevin. Once those are up, more will come. We'll all be wired to super high speed internet soon. The competition will be fierce," Eddward said firmly, his icy blue eyes ablaze with ambition and oh, so many dreams as he looked in the direction of the capital.

"So you gonna get in on that?," Kevin asked as he tucked the binoculars back into the inside pocket of his leather jacket.

"I hope so," the raven said softly, the fire in his eyes fading, but the sparks were still there.

"You will," Kevin said as he came to stand behind him and rested his chin on shoulder.

"Your confidence in my abilities is enthralling, Kevin," Eddward sassed as he turned in the other teen's arms. But as he wrapped his arms around around the taller's shoulders, he whispered, "Thank you for that."

"Don't go thanking me, yet," Kevin grinned as he kissed his ear.

When Eddward pulled back to look at him curiously, he fished a small, black USB drive from his jacket pocket and handed it to the very confused swimmer.

"What's this?," Eddward asked.

"I found a few PDF files of those computer programming books you were talking about in class the other day. Figured you'd need them someday or something," the redhead shrugged as he scratched the back of his neck nervously.

Eddward stared at him, completely dumbfounded, but oh, so enthralled.

Not caring that they were precariously close to the edge of the cliff, Eddward grabbed Kevin's jacket collar and pulled his strong body against his own, but Kevin still had a few of his wit's still left about him and held onto the tall, leggy swimmer who was practically climbing him like a tree and kissing the life out of him.

When they came up for air, Kevin grinned and said, "I should put books on flash drives for you more often."

Smoldering blue eyes met his own playful green and Eddward flashed him a smirk that did things to him.

"Yes, you should."

"Happy Valentine's Day, Edd," Kevin said as he give him a gentle smooch.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Kevin."

And their fire grew.