Chapter 18

The pair took a long shower, massaging shampoo into one another's scalps. Edd shivered with delight at the feeling of the redhead's nails combing through his hair. After rinsing off (Kevin conditioned the genius's locks twice to ensure that they wouldn't tangle,) the older male pushed him against the cool tiles and plunged his tongue into the ravenette's mouth. He pulled away with a "BLECH" and proceeded to spit soap suds out. Double Dee chuckled, putting a hand over his grin.

"What do you want?"

Kevin was staring into the fridge. Edd was perched on one of the island bar stools, clad in one of his looser pairs of jeans and a sweatshirt belonging to the redhead. "What do you have?"

"Uhhh…" Kevin leaned further in behind the stainless steel doors. "Carrots, celery, blueberries … you're lucky Mom keeps tons of healthy shit around."

"Well, then." The genius crossed his arms, feigning offense. "What would you recommend?"

"We have ice cream. And Doritos."

"Ice cream and Doritos? I'm sure those make for an unforgettable combination…"

"Shut up, dork." The redhead glared at the ravenette, receiving a smug smile in reply. "So do you want some ice cream or not?"

The pair sat side by side, Kevin scooting his stool until their shoulders brushed. He had prepared extremely appetizing bowls, much to Eddward's surprise, placing strawberries and blueberries in a ring around the ravenette's ice cream and dumping chocolate chips, peanut butter cereal, and whipped cream on his own before breaking a candy bar in half and sticking both pieces into the concoction. He considered commenting on the presentation, but decided against it for fear of insulting the athlete's masculinity. It was becoming readily apparent that Kevin was extremely self-conscious about anything that could compromise his image.

"Holy crap."

Looking up, the genius blinked quizzically at the redhead.

"You eat ice cream like Pac-Man eats the little dots."

"It's natural to be hungry after such rigorous activity," the smaller male retorted. "So yes, I am eating ice cream like - like what?"

Kevin opened his mouth to repeat himself before furrowing his brows in disbelief. "Wait. Are you serious?"

The genius blinked owlishly at him.

"You've never heard of Pac-Man."

"No. I haven't."

Double Dee's skin began to crawl beneath the jock's incredulous stare. Abruptly, Kevin got to his feet. "Get your ice cream."

Alarmed, Eddward did as he was asked, following the redhead back down into the basement. Kevin dragged a beanbag chair from against the wall to sit beside the black one already in front of the television, brushing the cobwebs off of it. "Sit."

Double Dee ate a blueberry off of his spoon and watched silently as the jock pulled a pale gray device out of a dusty box, hooking it up and plugging controllers into it. He scooted his own beanbag chair up against the smaller male's, turned on the TV, and plopped down.

"This is Pac-Man."

-x-

It was three hours later when the pair finally shut the television off. The premise and the mechanics eluded Double Dee at first, but after watching Kevin clear a few levels and struggling through several attempts of his own, he caught on quickly. The redhead offered pointers, scarfing down the remainder of his ice cream and the few bites the ravenette left.

Eyes bright with amusement, the brilliant boy watched the athlete put his console away, silently pleased to be able to stare without worrying about someone noticing. Kevin turned to find Double Dee's eyes at ass-level and raised an eyebrow. He grinned shamelessly, covering his mouth with both hands.

"Geez," Kevin uttered. "I can't believe you're the same person I grew up with."

Wordlessly, Edd extended his arms. The redhead took his hands and squeezed them firmly before pulling the genius to his feet. He pressed a quick kiss to the ravenette's temple, grinning at the surprised and delighted expression it earned him. "What now?" Edd asked through his smile.

"Hmmm." The redhead's confident smile faltered before he composed it once more. "I wanna show you something."

Double Dee allowed his hands to be released and watched as Kevin disappeared behind the folding partition dividing the jock's space from the rest of the basement. A few boxes were moved across the floor, and Kevin muttered "dammit" to himself as the sound of glass things rattling against each other rang out. He finally returned, a fragile cardboard box enshrouded in duct tape cradled in his muscular arms. He deposited it carefully on the rumpled bedspread, prying the flaps of the lid apart. "Com'ere, dorky."

Wincing at the lingering ache in his spine, the genius seated himself beside the box. Some ancient - looking tissue paper was tossed aside - the faded blobs on it were baseballs, Edd guessed. Kevin lifted a thick roll of newspapers out, its print weathered away where it was rubber-banded. Green eyes met his, and Kevin raised an eyebrow.

"Recognize them?"

When he shook his head, Kevin handed the paper to him.

"I was ridin' my bike one day when this newspaper came outta nowhere and hit me in the head. I knew immediately it had something to do with you dorks, so I grabbed it to pound Eddy with later. Rolf distracted me, though, and I still had it when I got home. I think it was Jonny who said somethin' about a newspaper launcher you built."

"I forgot about that," Edd murmured, turning the brittle newspaper in his hands. The date was visible on the edge of the front page. It was from five years before. "You kept it all this time?"

"I mean, I found it behind my bed about a year ago. It's not like I kept it on purpose or anything."

You did after that, Double Dee thought silently, smiling down at the roll of papers. Kevin began rifling through the box, discarding more tissue paper as he dug. The next object he extracted was a small white square. The redhead pinched one corner, and the swatch of white unfolded into a huge, thin piece of paper.

Edd blinked. "A blueprint?"

"You better remember this, dork."

"Hmmm." The genius took the fragile thing, draping the bottom folds over his lap. "This does seem familiar…" He took in the faded lines of ink and squinted at what appeared to be double yellow lines penned with highlighter. "It this … Kevin, is this Edtropolis?!"

"Yeah." The redhead grinned. "That whole day was crazy. Then your whole city collapsed on itself … it was awesome." Double Dee made a face. "This thing came flutterin' down. The whole idea was kinda dorky, but this blueprint you made was so cool. You put the traffic lights and everything on it. Every little detail. It was under a bunch of stuff in my nightstand for years before I found it again." Kevin was digging through the box once more. A fond smile spread across the younger male's face, his eyes darting over makeshift department stores and barber shops.

"It might be … hmmm. I hope Mom didn't put it in the attic…"

"Kevin." The brilliant boy set the blueprint on his lap, frowning in thought. "When Ed was running the tattoo parlor … didn't he draw you an ear of corn?"

"Huh?" Immersed comically in a pile of un-crumpled tissue paper, the older male blinked at him. "I don't remember. Rad! I found it."

Kevin leaned over and pulled something around the back of the ravenette's neck too quickly for him to see, causing the slender male to jump and make a sound of alarm. There were a series of soft noises, fabric on fabric, and just as the genius was becoming mesmerized by the closeness of the athlete's rugged features, he pulled away, the item fastened securely around Edd's slender neck. The younger male's hands flew up to inspect the thing, and he traced the edges with his fingers and raised a brow. "A bowtie?"

"You're probably worn tons of 'em, but this one is special." He tapped the tip of Double Dee's nose. "Remember Sarah and Jimmy's 'rich club'?"

Still holding onto the bowtie with both hands, Edd's jaw dropped. "That was … wasn't Eddy in a toga? I think I do remember that."

"God, thanks for reminding me," Kevin uttered through a grimace. "You guys just wouldn't give up. That club wasn't even that cool."

"If I recall, you weren't even dressed appropriately." Edd crossed his arms.

"Hey. That was my rich outfit back then." The redhead shrugged, looking away. "Dad was the one with all the lawyer buddies, though. So that was the end of that."

The ravenette gave the athlete's shoulder a gentle squeeze in an attempt to distract him from his thoughts. "As long as you don't expect me to cater to your every whim, I'll gratefully accept this attire." Kevin didn't turn to face him, but sniffed in amusement.

"Oh! One more thing. Hang on, dorky."

Double Dee opened his mouth to ask if such a nickname was absolutely necessary, but the older male had sprung up and moved back to the far side of the basement before he could. There was the shuffling of boxes and more muttering. "It might still be upstairs," the jock uttered when he reappeared, stepping out of the room and thumping up the steps.

"Oh," said Eddward owlishly. He was still fiddling with the bowtie when Kevin returned. He held up a pale object that was impossible not to recognize: a dunce cap. Kevin offered it to him, and he recognized his own, neat writing on the thick paper.

The redhead reclaimed his seat on the other side of the box of artifacts. "Do you remember the day when you set up a scavenger hunt for us? You gave out these lists and told us we needed to find all the things on 'em. This was on my porch that night. Found out later Nazz put it there 'cause she thought it was hilarious. I don't know what pissed you off so much that day, but you thought we were a bunch of idiots."

"Thought?" Double Dee leaned over the mountains of tissue paper and placed the dunce cap squarely on the jock's head. "There! Perfect fit."

"Awww, nooo." Grinning, the elder reached up to better situate the cap. "So not my style."

"I shouldn't have had to bribe anyone with a jawbreaker to participate. Knowledge is its own reward."

"Laaame," drawled the redhead, grinning lopsidedly at his lover. When he realized that Double Dee's expression had begun to fade to a blank, he blinked. "You okay, babe?"

The genius nodded distractedly. "I … yes. It's just a lot to comprehend, I suppose. To think that someone like yourself would become fond of such an uncouth and uncoordinated individual is still surprising to me."

"Eh." Kevin gave a half-shrug. "You're sellin' yourself short. …what?"

Double Dee pressed a hand to his lips to cover his grin. "While the compliment is appreciated, your … attire is making it difficult to take your seriously."

"What - oh, come on." The redhead tore off the dunce cap, scowling and tackling the ravenette as Edd burst into laughter.

Hello again!

I apologize for the length of this chapter. It's shorter than most recent ones, but the next one is about halfway finished already and will be uploaded soon.

Spring break of last year was when I first "got into" Kevedd, and I'd hoped to post a chapter on March 31st as a birthday gift/celebration of this fic. Things have been extremely hectic, though, and I didn't want to force it when I knew inspiration would eventually come. I didn't get anything at all accomplished over spring break this year, and I'm still frustrated about it. Rrrrrgh.

Thank you guys SO much for your ideas and encouragement. If I can make one person's day a little bit better, then I'm succeeding at my life's goal. Letting me know that you enjoy this story makes all of my real-life issues worth overcoming.

For reference, here's the list of episodes from which the mementos are drawn.

Season 1, Episode 9: Read All About Ed The Eds invent a newspaper launcher to earn paper route money.

Season 2, Episode 15: Urban Ed The Eds build Ed-tropolis out of cardboard boxes so the cul-de-sac kids can experience a taste of city life.

Season 3, Episode 8: Dim-Lit Ed Exasperated by how ignorant the other kids are, Double Dee orchestrates a scavenger hunt to force them to think.

Season 4, Episode 11: Stiff Upper Ed Sarah and Jimmy start a "rich club," and the Eds attempt repeatedly to get in.