Chapter 3. Roses are Red

When Edd got home that night he was still extremely confused. He had no idea what he wanted or what he should do about this. Let it happen and see where it took him? Or stop it before it got out of hand?

He guessed that one of the downfalls of kissing your only friend is having no one to talk to about it afterward.

Maybe...no, there was no way Kevin would talk to him about it. He remembered Kevin's third rule then, and couldn't help the chuckle that bubbled from his lips. Kevin's 'gay vibe' just mightn't be faulty after all.

"Is there something funny, Edward?" Blake asked innocently, taking Edd's jacket off for him before hanging it up.

"No, no, nothing. I'm uh, going to bed, Blake. Good night." He smiled before heading for the stairs.

"But we haven't had dinner yet," Blake protested, taking a step after him.

But Edd just shook his head as he ascended the stairs. "No, thank you, Blake. I'm not hungry, but I'll see you at breakfast."

He gave the blond another smile before he reached the top of the staircase, leaving Blake below to eat a dinner for one. Kevin hardly ate with them any more, so Edd had little doubt that the redhead was already in his room.

Even after his earlier dismissal, Edd was only a little surprise to find himself in front of Kevin's door, fist raised to knock politely. With a light shrug, he rapped against the wood of the door.

"Come in, Double D," Kevin called a moment later.

Frowning at Kevin's assumption, Edd opened the door and walked inside to find Kevin lying on his stomach on of his bed, books scattered about. "How did you know it was me?"

Kevin smirked lightly. "You hesitated before knocking," he said simply before looking back down at his books. "What can I do for you?"

"W-well I was wondering if you wouldn't mind a chat?" Edd asked, feeling utterly stupid. But he needed someone to talk to.

"What about?" Kevin asked as he raised an eyebrow, leaning up on his elbows.

Edd fidgeted and shifted from foot to foot, completely at a loss. I should have just gone to bed like I said I was going to... he thought to himself with a mental sigh.

"You're not here to confess your undying love for me, are you?" Kevin asked with a smirk.

"No! Nothing like that!" Edd waved his hands in front of himself to emphasise his words before he finally seemed to get over his nerves and he just walked in and plopped down onto Kevin's bed. His mixed and confused emotions getting the better of him.

Kevin blinked as some of his books fell off his bed when Edd sat down so carelessly.

"Kevin, what is your sexual orientation?" Edd asked in a saddened voice.

"My sexual orientation? You sure you're not here to-" Kevin was cut off my Edd's words.

"No, no, I don't have a confession of love for you, Kevin," he almost sighed. "But could you just answer the question please?"

Kevin sat up, brushing more of his books aside with a confused frown. "I'm straight, why?"

Groaning in frustration, Edd brought his knees up to wrap his arms around them. "I thought as much...that's no help at all."

"No help? Sorry, but I wasn't aware that my sexuality was there to aid you," Kevin said sarcastically, crossing his arms.

Edd shook his head. "Sorry," he murmured. "I'm just...confused."

Looking even more confused than before, Kevin gazed at Edd. "Okay, so, one, why are you coming to me with your problems? And two, why don't you go to Blake with this; you two are all 'buddy buddy' aren't you?"

"Because Blake is the source of my uncertainty," Edd sighed, glancing up at Kevin in time to see his expression change dramatically.

"You're confused about liking him and are second guessing your sexual orientation because of it," Kevin stated blankly.

Edd nodded weakly. "I guess you could put it that way..." Even though it was more the other way around...

Kevin shook his head and scooted back away from Edd a bit. "Sorry but I'm not a guidance counselor. If you're confused about your sexual orientation, go talk to someone who knows about that kind of stuff, not your room-mate."

"But I thought-" Edd started.

"No," Kevin said more firmly, glaring at Edd slightly. "Now get out of my room so I can get my homework done."

With even more confusion coursing through him than before he'd entered the room, Edd left, closing the door behind him before walking to his own room. Did the thought of Edd being gay make Kevin disgusted in him? How horrid, and not to mention rude.

His room was dark and quiet- silent, even. It was funny, really, because Edd had assumed that his biggest problem with boarding in a dorm would be finding peace and quiet. But now he had more of that than he had in a long time. He sat on his bed and gazed at the framed photograph that sat on his night-stand, showing the friends he'd left behind when he'd moved for school. Things were so much simpler back then.

Edd let out one last weary sigh before getting ready for bed and slipping down under the covers to at least try and find some sleep for the night.

-~X~-

As the sun peeked around the corners of Edd's heavy curtains, the young sock-hat-wearing youth silently awoke. His mind was battling between ignoring the beams of sun and returning to the sweet blissfulness of sleep, or forcing himself to wake up fully. But, as usual, the logical part of his brain won in the end and Edd slowly opened his weary eyes...to immediately spot a red rose lying delicately upon his pillow.

"Eh?"

Edd blinked a few times, and when that didn't succeed in dispelling away the illusion he used his weak fist to rub at his eye before looking again. Nope, still there. Double D sat up now, frowning lightly as he picked up the long-stemmed rose and inspected it.

"A...rose?"

Shaking his head as he flushed lightly, he put the rose back down and swung his legs out of bed.

"Anyone would think I'm a girl..." he muttered softly to himself as he grabbed some fresh clothes and headed for the shower connected to his room. He was immensely glad that he'd slept with his hat on last night.

After showering and dressing, Edd snatched the rose up from the pillow, intending to thank Blake for the...erm...gesture. It was definitely thoughtful and sweet, Edd would give him that, but kissing a guy didn't automatically make him a girl. The thought of Blake sneaking into his room in the middle of the night to plant a rose on his pillow made Edd shudder, and he wasn't sure whether it was a good shudder or a bad one. All he knew for sure was that it made him uncomfortable.

-~X~-

Although they used to take it in turns when it came to cooking and generally preparing the meals in the dorm house, now everyone just got their own food, unless someone actually wanted to do it themselves, which wasn't very often.

But it was still a very rare occurrence to find Kevin down in the kitchen, eating a meal, and Edd was so surprised at seeing Kevin downstairs that he stopped and stared for a moment.

"Good morning, Eddward," Blake greeted friendlily, waving a spatula at him. "Pancakes?"

Oh so that's why Kevin was eating with them this morning; Kevin loved pancakes, and apparently he was willing to endure a morning of Blake and Edd to get his share of the food. Edd smiled in response.

"Good morning, Blake, Kevin. Sure, I'd love some." He sat down, placing the rose down in front of himself.

Kevin's eyes instantly slid down to the flawless, romantic flower, and Edd didn't miss the slight rise of an eyebrow.

"I had no idea it was valentines already," Kevin said, sarcasm never far from his tone.

"Oh the rose." Blake smiled and served up the pancakes onto Edd's plate, then Kevin's, and then his own. "Do you like it, Eddward?"

Edd paused in the process of carving his pancakes to look up at Blake's perfectly composed, smiling face, feeling his own heat up slightly. His gaze shot to Kevin for a brief second, seeing nothing but his mop of dark-red hair, before he looked back at Blake again and smiled shyly and nodded.

"It was the nicest I could find among the vicinity of shops," Blake said. He smeared his pancakes with maple syrup, glancing up at Edd every now and then. "I hope you don't mind? I just thought you might like it."

"Oh no, not at all, it was a very sweet gesture indeed." Edd flushed deeply and averted his gaze down to his food, his fork now playing with the plate's contents. This was so embarrassing! Why did Blake have to talk about it right in front of Kevin?! I guess it's my own fault for bringing the rose down... Blake doesn't know that Kevin's homophobic, he thought to himself.

But Blake must have noticed Edd's uneasiness and uncertainty with the situation, for he dropped the subject with a simple smile. He glanced at Kevin, his smile never faltering, and made a show of looking down at the redhead's plate.

"Don't tell me, lost your appetite again?" Blake asked.

Kevin didn't take his eyes off the rose for a couple more seconds before he looked up at Blake, his expression one of distaste. "No, I actually feel like I'm going to be sick," he replied sharply, standing up so quickly that the chair squealed along the polished floor behind him. His glare was directed at Blake but for a split second it wavered to Edd before he swept from the room.

Edd frowned, partly because of Kevin's rudeness and partly because of the fact that he couldn't seem to find an ounce of anger within himself, even though he should be livid with the stubborn, arrogant, solitary redhead. But he could only find sorrow. The three of them couldn't get alone for five minutes without something like this happening.

"Don't worry about him, Eddward," Blake said, walking up beside Edd and placing a hand on the shorter guy's shoulder. "I'm sure he's just jealous…" he trailed off to press a kiss to the top of Edd's head.

Jealous…? He isn't jealous, that's just ridiculous… Edd thought before he suddenly stiffened. "J-jealous of what?" he asked, shrinking in on himself to get away from Blake's lips.

Blake pulled away a little. "Of…us," he said falteringly. "I really hope there's an 'us' Eddward…"

Part of Edd wanted to say yes, another wanted to say no. But what he wanted most of all was to run after Kevin and demand he explain himself, explain why he hated homosexuals so much, explain why he had to be moody twenty-four-seven. He also wanted to tell Blake to stop calling him Eddward, but at the same time he liked the fact that Kevin was the only one to call him Double D, which was strange, in a way, but he supposed he wanted Kevin to be his friend.

"I uh- I apologise, Blake, but I…really need a shower! I'll see you later, okay?!" He stumbled as he stood and dashed off towards the stairs and eventually his bathroom. The thought of being with Blake was both petrifying and intriguing, but he wasn't ready to make a decision on the matter yet. He was far from it.

-~X~-

As he showered, Edd was ransacked with questions. Was he really gay? Did he just want Blake as a friend? Would it be wise to date your room-mate? What would he do once they were dating if he actually agreed to it? He didn't know how to date a girl let alone another boy.

Equipped in fresh clothes and bearing freshly brushed teeth, Edd decided to give the redhead a visit before he made his way to school, knowing that he'll not be able to get the young man off his mind until he talked to him.

It took Edd three rounds of knocking before the door swung open to reveal a messy Kevin still wearing his sleeping sweats and sporting bed-hair.

Edd immediately frowned worriedly. "Aren't you going to school today?" he asked, trying to peer around the redhead into his room so as to spot his schoolbag.

It wasn't an overreaction to say that Kevin looked like a zombie, in fact he closely resembled one. Even his eyes were half-lidded with sleep. Which prompted Edd to wonder if the redhead had gone back to bed after breakfast.

"What do you want?" Kevin asked blandly.

Remembering what he'd come for, Edd straightened up again. "Well I just wanted to see if you were okay…see if you wanted to talk?"

"I'm perfectly fine, Double Dork, and no I don't want to talk." Kevin's face remained as blank and expressionless as always, and it was really starting to irritate Edd.

"If you're so fine then why were you so rude at breakfast?!" Edd suddenly exclaimed, the longing he had to not have this awkwardness between him and Kevin was so overwhelming it made him explode.

A brief look of shock passed over Kevin's face before his expression settled back into one of absolute uncaring.

"You're forgetting rule one and two, Dweeb." He reached out a slender hand and plopped it down onto the shorter boy's head before retreating back into his room. "I'll see you at school, Double D."

Edd stood outside the closed door, staring at the spot where Kevin had been just seconds ago and only just realising that he'd let that obnoxious redhead touch his hat!

"Eddward?" Blake's melodious voice (so different from Kevin's) drifted up the stairs. "Are you coming? We've got school in ten minutes."

"Yes, I'll be down in a minute," Edd called before he rushed back into his room to get his heavy schoolbag, loaded up with his textbooks, folders and such. He needed quite a few books for his lecture today.

As he bolted down the stairs his schoolbag got snagged on one of the railings, making Edd twist mid-step and ultimately tumble down the last couple of steps.

After the world stopped spinning, Edd heard Kevin speaking to him.

"Double D, are you alright?" Kevin's face loomed above Edd among all the other fuzzy objects. "I can't believe you just did that."

"Ugh…Kevin?" Edd sat up and massaged his pounding head, squinting up at the mop of blurry red hair. "I…fell down the stairs, didn't I? –Am I bleeding?! Is- is something broken?!" Edd's mind went into overdrive as he frantically searched himself for injuries.

"You're fine…calm down," Kevin said, getting slightly irritated when the boy didn't listen to him. He gripped the shorter boy to restrain his flailing limbs and forced his face directly in front of Edd's so the boy would have to listen to him properly. "It was only a couple of steps, you're perfectly fine."

Immediately, Edd stopped his struggling and gazed up at Kevin's fresh face, his red hair looked messy yet also like that's how it was supposed to be, all tucked under a darker-red hat. Edd's head went blank as he merely stared at Kevin's features, not a single word coming to mind, so he just sat there.

Quirking an eyebrow, Kevin leaned back a bit to get a clearer look at his room-mate. "Double Dweeb? Did you hit your head or something?" he asked.

"I don't believe so…"

"Well then get up already and stop being weird." Kevin stood from his crouching position and held out a hand to Edd. "We've got less than five minutes to get to class."

Eyes wide, Edd accepted Kevin's hand and allowed the taller boy to hoist him up to his feet. "I can't be late!" he squeaked before grabbing his dropped bag and darting towards the door, yelling a thank you over his shoulder.

Kevin merely walked after Edd, shaking his head and sighing lightly, a ghost of a smile gracing his features.

The next chapter is called, Party People.

Teaser: "Kevin?" Edd knew his face must look the picture of shock, but he didn't even care; his stubborn room-mate was actually in his room, looking for him. This was a first. "Is something wrong?"