The poems in this chapter are The Torso by Robert Duncan and The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarell. I absolutely love both of these poems.

Here we go~!

Chapter 3

"So when are you gonna tell me what's up?"

"I haven't the slightest idea what you mean."

Frowning so hard that Double Dee felt it, Eddy leaned over and slowly closed the genius's book. Double Dee sighed softly, giving in and meeting the short boy's gaze. "Seriously. You're not as mysterious as you think."

"Would you mind terribly repeating the question, Eddy?"

"He's being a sassy pants, Eddy." Having made his contribution, Ed rolled back across the carpet towards the opposite side of the room.

"Why are you being so stubborn, Double Dee? Do you think you gotta hide something from us?"

Eddward attempted to open his book once more, and Eddy gently pushed the cover back down. In a futile attempt to close the subject, the genius glared at his charismatic companion. As if the pinnacle of maturity, Eddy crossed his arms and sighed, feigning offense.

"I'm working on something. It isn't particularly significant."

"If that was true, you'd've told us about it already."

The dark-haired boy stared across the room, where Ed had gently collided with the wall. "It isn't," he insisted softly.

"You're a serial killer," Eddy guessed, earning another unamused look from his brilliant friend. "You're a drag queen. Your parents are secretly spies for the Russian mafia."

The scholar considered outlining why the last option made utterly no sense, but thought better of it. "Go on, I'm sure you'll get it eventually."

"The government is using your brain to create a super weapon … an army of Double Dees with big, bulgy heads that shoot sparks and stuff."

"I have taught him well," Ed murmured, nodding sagely from his place on the floor. He had somehow collected a bottle of dish soap and was holding it gingerly to his chest. Eddy took a moment to stare at him with a matronly look of concern.

"Okay, okay. I get it. It's private, whatever it is. Just - don't be afraid to tell us anything, okay? Well, Lumpy's a special case," he backpedaled upon realizing the warmth he was showing. "If the government really is building an army of Sockheads, it might just overload his casserole of a brain for good."

The brilliant boy smiled a little, his attention shifting to the horizontal figure scooting in circles and chewing on the collar of his jacket. "I suppose that's a relevant point."

"If you really are struttin' around in lipstick and stilettos, though, ya better tell us soon. I gotta get some pictures of that."

"Oh, don't worry, Eddy. After all, what's life without the threat of blackmail weighing heavy on your shoulders?"

The shorter boy grinned, pointing at his genius with both hands. "Exactly."

-x-

Double Dee had prepared for his afternoon with Kevin by making a plateful of tiny tofu burgers and buying the fancy brand of tea at the store - Jasmine tea, in fact, which was so decadent and wonderful that he felt almost scandalous pulling it out of the cupboard. Its light, delicious smell had already drifted into the living room when Kevin knocked an unnamed beat onto his door.

"Greetings." Edd smiled brightly, his heart fluttering more with happiness than fright.

"Hey, man." The redhead blinked, mildly surprised at the calmness in the younger man's tone. A flicker of a smile crossed his face, and as the nerd turned back to face the room, Kevin rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously.

"I prepared refreshments - that wasn't too presumptuous of me, I'm sure."

"Ah- nah, dude. Not at all. Hey, uh, Double Dee."

Now standing primly in front of the snack-adorned coffee table, the boy blinked his wide, childlike eyes.

"Don't take this the wrong way or anything, but Eddy was…" Frustrated, his brows pulled together, his head dropping as if to hide a blush. "I dunno, man. I'm probably just seein' things, but he looked like he was staring at me today. I told him to mind his own business and eat his vegetables, since he's a shrimp and all, but - can we-"

The completely open look on the intelligent boy's face made it almost impossible to finish his sentence. He swore on a near-poetic scale in his head.

"Let's do this in your room so the little asshole doesn't look in the window and flip shit on us."

"Oh." If there was any discomfort in Double Dee's voice, Kevin couldn't hear it over the whoosh of blood through his ears. "Very well, then. Would you mind bringing my books?"

The genius's room was so clean it was disturbing. Tiny dots moved about in a glass case that Kevin assumed was an ant colony, and where he had posters of gorgeous women, Double Dee had put up posters on the far less titillating side of anatomy. It was pretty funny, honestly.

Stranger yet were the little yellow things everywhere. It took Kevin squinting at one with the intensity of a lightning strike to realize that it actually said "SOCKS" and that he wasn't just losing it. The drawer beneath had one, too - "PANTS" - and, as a matter of fact, the glass tank across the room was slapped with one reading "ANTS." Some of them were sillier than others, and it made it seem like Double Dee was poking fun at his own obsessive-compulsiveness in a bizarre way.

"Well then, shall we resume our reading?"

Kevin looked at the books in his hands. One was a copy of the same book he'd smacked out of Double Dee's hands a couple weeks ago. One was the thick book full of short stories he'd begun to earn a grudging respect for.

"What's this one?" He slid the top two books onto his other arm, holding up the bottom one.

"That's an anthology of poetry. The thirteenth edition, to be exact." Met with the redhead's trademark unreadable look, Eddward asked, "Would you rather focus on poems today?"

"It can't be any worse than the Cask of Mike's Hard Lemonade or whatever."

Sighing, the smaller male pulled his computer chair over so they'd each have a place to sit. "Fair enough, I suppose. Would you like a tofu burger?"

-x-

To Kevin's disbelief, mini tofu burgers were delicious. He accumulated a small pile of toothpicks with little pieces of colorful paper on the top ends as the sun's rays turned pink and climbed the walls. Double Dee picked out a wide variety of poems, some about love and joy, others about death. The scholar's face lit up every time he cleared his throat and began to read lines, his voice rising and falling with emotion as his eyes darted across the pages. He read Kevin the famous Shakespeare sonnet ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.") The redhead had heard that one before.

"The last six lines are fascinating." Eddward scooted the book a little more toward the athlete, and Kevin, head rested in his palm, looked up to watch the genius read them. "But thy eternal summer shall not fade, nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, when in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; so long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

"At least it rhymes," Kevin muttered.

"Please, Kevin." Double Dee turned to meet his gaze, expression sincere and eyes bright and earnest. "What do you think he's saying?"

"He's saying that the chick he's writing to isn't going to die." He shrugged as he said it. Easy enough.

"And why would the speaker be telling her this when the rest of the poem is more or less realistic?"

"What're the last couple lines again?" He tugged the book closer to him, the scholar's stare on him as he skimmed. "As long as men can breathe and eyes can see, so long lives this…"

"'This' being the poem, one would imagine." Kevin looked up at Double Dee, his face twisting. The smaller boy blinked at him. "Yes…?"

"What a stuck-up little shit!" As the redhead barked out a laugh, his tutor stared at him in confusion. "He knew he was so good that his stupid poem would be around forever, and he told her that."

"My, my." Edd chuckled, hiding his grin behind his hand. "Not quite the reaction I had, but you do have a point…"

The moment following was one unlike any of those before: pleasant and comfortable. Double Dee looked at Kevin with bright, amused eyes, and Kevin looked back, his grin feral.

When the sweater-clad male spoke, the athlete found himself listening without having to feign interest. "The thing that very few members of our generation realize is that literature isn't some stuffy nonsense. It's all about very real subjects. For Shakespeare, it was love or advice."

"Or his ego," Kevin supplied. Double Dee looked pleased just to have him participating.

"There are a few lovely ones we've covered in class on war as well. They're quite interesting… shall we analyze a few of those, perhaps?"

He looked up to find Kevin shaking his head, looking at something over his shoulder.

"Um, Kevin?"

"I just can't get over your room, man." His eyes were resting on the windowsill - not the windowsill itself, Edd realized, but a small yellow rectangle pressed into the grain of the wood. Kevin's eyes then flicked to the pencil holder next to his elbow labeled "PENCILS." Then to the ceiling, conveniently adorned with a label reading "CEILING."

"I apologize if it's any distraction," the scholar found himself saying, not particularly sorry.

"What the hell are they all for?"

"I enjoy having everything labeled," Eddward answered simply. "It's calming."

Kevin turned his gaze to his tutor. "Where's your label maker?"

"In the bottom drawer in front of you. Wait, Kevin, I implore you, everything has been organized meticulously-"

Ignoring the frantic genius entirely, Kevin squeezed one eye shut, punching the lever that printed letters onto the old-fashioned labeling tape. He ripped off the yellow strip (Edd wanted to tell him that there was a button you pushed to snip the label, but it was too late) and pushed it to Double Dee's shoulder. Startled, he stared at it. The word "DORK" wasn't hard to decipher.

"Why, thank you, Kevin. How thoughtful."

"No problem." The redhead chuckled. "Hey-"

"It's my label-maker." Kevin watched as the black-capped boy turned the wheel to each desired letter, far more swiftly than he had. Pulling the label off, Double Dee leaned forward. Freezing when he hit the back of his chair, the athlete's eyes went wide. Small hands pressed gingerly against the redhead's hat, smoothing the label carefully before pulling back. Kevin glared at him suspiciously - he only smiled behind his hands - and when he pulled his snapback off to look at it, it was labelled "IMBECILE."

"Wow. Thanks a lot, dweeb."

"I told you I like to have everything labeled." The look in his eyes was almost playful. "If you're willing to stick with this, you might be able to trade that for a slightly more complimentary one."

Kevin crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Slightly?"

"I am nothing if not honest," came Eddward's harmless reply. The redhead rolled his eyes and rested his arms on the table, setting his chin on them and sighing. Double Dee chuckled softly and began leafing through the book's pages.

Sonnets, haikus … the diamonds and long columns of print all had names, he knew. Some of them just rambled on and on in long, uneven lines, looking quite a bit like the ants marching through the little glass tank across the room. A bunch of white spaces caught the athlete's eye. "Hey. What was that one?"

Flipping back to it, Eddward replied, "I'm not sure. It isn't one we discussed in class."

"The Torso." Kevin read the title aloud, wondering if it was about someone mangled. After Shakespeare, it would be a welcome change of pace. Squaring the book before his small figure, Double Dee began to read.

"Most beautiful! The red-flowering eucalyptus

the madrone, the yew

Is he...

So thou wouldst smile, and take me in thine arms

the sight of London to my exiled eyes

Is as Elysium to a new-come soul

If he be Truth

I would dwell in the illusion of him

His hands unlocking from chambers of my male body

such an idea in man's image

rising tides that sweep me towards him

...homosexual?"

Without looking up, the jock could tell that the genius's face was beet-red. His slender fingers trembled on the desk, the sudden heat radiating off of him enough for Kevin to feel.

Unless that was the heat rising to Kevin's own face, of course.

Eddward swallowed thickly. He pulled in a shaky breath and continued, his voice cracking.

"And at the treasure of his mouth

pour forth my soul

his love commingling

I thought a Being more than vast, His body leading

into Paradise, his eyes

quickening a fir in me, a trembling

hieroglyph: At the root of the neck

the clavicle, for the neck is the stem of the great artery

upward into his head that is beautiful

At the rise of the pectoral muscles

the nipples, for the breasts are like sleeping fountains

of feeling in man, waiting above the heat of his heart,

shielding the rise and fall of his breath, to be

awakened

At the axis of his midriff

the navel, for in the pit of his stomach the chord from

which first he was fed has its temple

At the root of the groin

the pubic hair, for the torso is the stem in which the man

flowers forth and leads to the stamen of flesh in which

his seed rises

a wave of need and desire over taking me

cried out my name

(This was long ago. It was another life)

and said,

What do you want of me?

I do not know, I said. I have fallen in love. He

has brought me into heights and depths my heart

would fear without him. His look

pierces my side. fire eyes.

I have been waiting for you, he said:

I know what you desire

you do not yet know but through me.

And I am with you everywhere. In your falling

I have fallen from a high place. I have raised myself

from darkness in your rising

wherever you are

my hand in your hand seeking the locks, the keys

I am there. Gathering me, you gather

your Self.

For my Other is not a woman but a man

the King upon whose bosom let me lie."

The ensuing silence went on for a good thirty seconds. Double Dee had gone from red to a peculiar shade of purple.

When Kevin didn't think he could keep his heart from smashing a hole through his chest if he kept quiet for a moment longer, he let out a hoarse laugh. "God damn. That's a heck of a poem."

"Indeed," squeaked Edd. He sounded as if he was about to faint.

"It seems like your kinda poem," the jock mumbled. Immediately he wanted to punch himself.

"What?!" Double Dee turned toward him, eyes as wide as saucers.

"No! No, I mean - the body parts and stuff! It's like, medical." Kevin had his hands up and was waving them, and Eddward continued to gawk at him, blushing and horrified. "It's like he's being technical about it."

"Nipples, Kevin? Nipples?"

"You know what I mean!" The redhead's hands were still up as if to shield himself from the scholar. He knew his fucking face was red now. "It's not like it's that big of a deal anyway."

Kevin turned back to the desk, resting his head on his hand, hiding his expression with his long fingers. When Double Dee's stare burned into the side of his head, he glared at him defensively. "What's it matter who a guy likes anyway? It's nobody's business but your own."

"F-forgive me for my skepticism."

The boy in the sweater had his hands on his knees and was looking down at them. "What do you mean by that?"

"You honestly wouldn't bully someone for being - homosexual?"

"No, I wouldn't. How long has it been since you've seen me pick on somebody?"

Having peeked up at him, Double Dee blinked his long eyelashes and looked back down. "That's a valid point."

"Double Dee, I don't have a problem with somebody unless they give me a reason to. And yes, I'm talkin' about your loudmouthed little friend."

The smaller boy didn't say anything. Kevin reached across the gap between them, and Eddward recoiled like he'd been shocked when the redhead lightly touched his shoulder.

"You okay?"

"I-" He gulped audibly. "Yes. Yes, I'm all right. Um … should we look at a few more?"

"Sure. Just - maybe some not-romantic ones, yeah?"

Nodding, Double Dee flipped a few pages. "From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose."

"Uh, wow. What's that about?"

And as quickly as the mood had become one of horrified embarrassment, it began to shift to one of lighthearted conversation. Double Dee explained that ball turrets were attached to the bottoms of aircraft in World War II and that the gunners were suspended, attempting to shoot enemies before the enemies could shoot them. Kevin thought that was "pretty rad," and while the scholar's face still reddened a bit from time to time, the humiliating moment seemed to have pushed him outside of his comfort zone enough to relax and smile freely. They poured over a few more poems about the horrors of war, the redhead watching his tutor more openly. A weight seemed to have lifted from his shoulders. His words were filled with less politeness and more direct analysis of the print on the pages, and his legs, which had been tensely glued together at the knees, actually relaxed until his feet touched the floor.

The sun was nearly setting when the sweater-clad boy stuck a planet-covered bookmark between the pages and closed the book. "I don't want to overload you with information, so we can stop here for now."

"Oh," said Kevin, as if coming out of a daze.

He walked behind the little genius as he proceeded down the perfectly-clean hall, content to occupy himself with his thoughts. Double Dee walked so carefully, so deliberately. It was … well.

Funny in kind of a charming way.

"Um, thank you again for coming over. I enjoy having someone to discuss literature with. Eddy and Ed aren't interested in the slightest." He stopped before the front door, his socks whispering softly on the carpet, and turned to face his guest. "If you like, I can send a plate of my mini tofu burgers home with-"

The breath left his lungs when he hit the wall, Kevin's broad hands on his shoulders.

When he opened his eyes, the redhead was inches away, his green eyes half-lidded and unreadable. He smelled of musk and shampoo and something horridly appealing. The terror in Double Dee's gut twisted into something sweeter at the realization. He swallowed hard.

When he spoke, the athlete's voice was thick and low. "I just can't figure you out."

The genius's lips parted, but he had no strength to force words through. Kevin's stare flickered down to his mouth and stayed there for what felt like an eternity.

The jock pulled away suddenly, leaving a vacuum where he had stood. Eddward stared straight ahead as the athlete closed the door behind himself. His vision darkened and he made a conscious effort to breathe.

It was approximately four more seconds until his knees gave out.

WHOOOAOAOEGHAGH.

If you write me a review, I'll love you forever.

:3