React and Interact

Pair: Ed/Kevin (friendship)

Requested by TrapEds

-/-/-

English was boring.

Like, really boring.

Kevin got math, and science was interactive enough to keep his attention, and at least history was straight-forward dates and facts, but English was just. Really. Boring.

As he sat in the back of the class with his chin propped on his fist while doing his best impression of someone who was paying at least a little bit of attention, Kevin let his mind wander to lunch time, when he could see his friends again. The only person he had more than a passing familiarity with in this class was Ed and… well, Ed at least seemed to share Kevin's opinion on the class.

Ed wasn't even making a token attempt to pay attention. Instead, he was scribbling furiously in a notebook that had seen better lifetimes. Kevin glanced at the board, decided Gatsby hadn't done anything interesting or really all that great, and leaned over a bit more to get a look at whatever Ed was doodling. Normally anything any of the Eds were doing was of no interest to Kevin, unless it was dangerous or good for a laugh, but god he was so bored.

Discretely slouched over enough that he could finally see over Ed's arm, Kevin got a good look at whatever was keeping the other boy's attention and… was actually impressed. He'd some of the drawings Ed had done for any of the various scams Eddy had come up with in their middle school days, but this was on another level.

A man wearing what could only be a zombie survival getup riding a flaming motorcycle was rendered lovingly with graphite on lined paper, the shadow and detail making it seem as though it had been taken from the very pages of a comic book. "Sick, dude." Kevin muttered, despite himself.

Ed finally glanced up, his tongue still poking out of the corner of his mouth as was his habit in his rare moments of concentration. "Thanks!" He replied, too quickly for Kevin to shush him.

The teacher glanced back in their direction and cleared his throat, but continued his lecture while Kevin waved his hand at Ed in signal to keep it down. Ed ducked his head, still smiling. "Sorry." He mumbled.

Kevin shrugged. "Who's that?" He whispered, gesturing to the drawing.

Grin increasing, Ed tapped his pencil on the lettering at the top of the page that had previously escaped Kevin's notice. Zegor – Zombie Hunter! "He fights the hordes of the undead!" Ed explained with hushed excitement.

"No kidding." Kevin smirked, "What's he from?"

"From?" Ed looked over at Kevin.

"Yeah, like, is he from a comic?"

"Oh. Nope, made him up myself." Ed nodded.

"Seriously? That's actually pretty cool." Kevin conceded.

"Thanks!" Finally back at his original volume, Ed spoke almost in conjunction with the instructor.

"Mr. Burke, Mr. Hayes," Both boys jumped to find the man had walked right up to them without their notice, "What, may I ask, is so much more interesting than my lesson?"

Kevin wisely bit back the "everything" that was ready to roll off his tongue, but Ed had no such common sense. "It's Zegor, the Zombie Hunter!" The taller boy held up his notebook with the same enthusiasm he treated most things to before adding, "He kills zombies."

The instructor glanced at Ed's drawing and frowned. "Yes, well. Perhaps he would be good enough to wait to kill zombies until after class." He sniffed, the threat of retribution for further conversation hanging in the air.

Dropping the notebook on the desk, Ed nodded mutely. Thereafter, he and Kevin were still and silent for another 10 minutes or so, before Kevin leaned over asked quietly, "So you draw anything else?"

-/-/-

Words: 622

Note: Mr. Burke and Mr. Hayes are Kevin and Ed respectively, as per the surnames I assigned them for no particular reason