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Blood in the Water	By : AeoAthura Category: +1 through F > Ed, Edd, and Eddy Views: 10402 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Ed, Edd and Eddy - I make no money from this work.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
Chapter Three:
Kevin sat back, resting against the headboard of his bed as he stared at the scattering of books and papers. His head hurt and he had yet to really begin, his muscles ached from practice and the sun was setting in the distance - the last thing he wanted to do was study.
His room was a wasteland of dirty t-shirts, baseball and band posters, a television settled on a dresser with all of the drawers unable to close properly. For Kevin, it was a perfect teenager's den of comfort and familiarity.
Off in the corner a tan and white figure shifted. Molly stood from her lavish dog bed and stretched before she padded over to Kevin, sensing his discomfort and shoving her nose into his hand as she sat beside his bed. He smiled and happily petted the border collie, scratching behind her velvety ears. "Good girl," he cooed, lavishing her with praise for no other reason than being his best friend.
She was a well trained dog, as intelligent as any human Kevin knew, with four times the emotional capability. Yes, a good dog indeed.
He stared down at the books and papers, the blank notepad and the pen that had gone untouched. He had no motivation or desire. His eyes moved to his window, watched the cul-de-sac outside as if waiting for some divine intervention to grant him the desire to dive into his math books.
A black car turned onto the street and slowly slid down the lane until pulling into the driveway of the Vincent residence. Kevin frowned as he watched the door open, Edd's figure was barely visible in the long shadows cast across the road.
It had been over a week since they were forced to work together. Though working together had only meant that Kevin was to find himself a tutor so that he and Edd could move on with their lives. However tutors were hard to come by, and schedules conflicted consistently, he had little time to devote.
A knot of worry was lodged in Kevin's stomach. He had a math test that next day and little confidence in his ability to pass. He could only hope for multiple choice, and yet even still he had a strong feeling that he would be better off trying to read braille.
He knew he had more to worry about than his own future - he remembered the look on Eddward's face as he read the rejection letter, saw how he tried to hide the dread but his face paled so swiftly and his eyes had widened in shock. He was not used to seeing fear in the swimmer's face, it was always annoyance or cockiness. Though the two got along like kerosene and a lit match there was still a long history behind them, a childhood of pranks and teasing and though they had never been friends they always stuck up for one another when it counted.
They always helped each other when it was absolutely necessary.
He remembered the blood…
Kevin sat up sharply and gathered his books and papers, throwing them into his bag. "Stay Molly," He instructed, giving the collie a gentle pat on the head. She gave a little whuff and jumped onto Kevin's bed to keep his spot warm as the man walked to the door.
Kevin thought about combustion as he made his way across the street. Whenever the two teenagers were around one another it inevitably erupted into a brilliant explosion of testosterone - though Kevin was aggravated by everything the swimmer did he could not deny a sense of thrill when he locked horns with the brainiac.
He knocked on Edd's door and stood back. He was prepared for a fight, prepared to have to shove his way in and demand help.
Silence…
He knocked again, louder.
Silence.
He rang the doorbell.
Suddenly the door swung open swiftly and Edd stood on the other side, soaked from a shower and donning little more than a towel around his waist and his black beanie. Those azure eyes locked onto Kevin and showed annoyance, then he opened his mouth and a slew of what Kevin thought was French spilled from his lips before he finally ended with, "Now what is it you need so urgently?"
The man paused, unsure of what to say or do. Finally he regathered his scattered thoughts, "I need you to tutor me for my math test tomorrow." He said firmly, giving Eddward no room to argue.
Edd said nothing.
"Look, you don't want your letters put in danger right? All I need is a bit of help with Chemistry."
Suddenly the swimmer's aura changed from annoyance to bemusement, that sly and predatory smirk pulling at the left side of his lips. "Repeat that?" He asked though he very clearly had heard Kevin the first time.
"I said I need help with math!"
The smirk turned to a lopsided grin, "You need what now?"
Kevin finally saw what the swimmer was pushing at. He grit his teeth and challenged Edd's stare with his own.
Kerosene and a lit match.
"Listen sockhead! If I don't pass, you don't get your fucking letters."
"Do you really think threats to be wise in your position, Kevin?" Edd shot swiftly, his eyes narrowing. He had a way of lowering the temperature of someone's body with that cold glare of his. Even completely naked this man could pose a rather intimidating threat.
They were silent for a long moment.
Edd sighed and stepped aside, opening the door and Kevin stepped into the house, "Shoes off," he commanded before he closed and locked the door, making his way to the stairs, "Living room, I am going to change."
Kevin frowned as he watched the other move up the stairs before he went to find the living room. The whole of the house was immaculate, however depressingly dark. It looked like a normal home by all appearances, but the lights were out everywhere, the air was thick with the scent of Glade plug-ins and there was not a speck of dirt or dust anywhere. The place felt hollow, haunted even. Kevin often wondered where Edd's parents were, but he never spoke of them and there were never any cars in the driveway. There were no pets or plants either.
Suddenly he felt as if he were taking a look inside of Eddward himself. Immaculate yet empty and lonely.
At least Kevin knew his father would come home every weekend…
"I have a light switch you know." Edd's voice yanked Kevin from his thoughts and made the man jump. He spun around to see the swimmer in a red tank top and sweats, shockingly casual. And no beanie. "Have you eaten yet, or must I make dinner for you as well as teach you fundamental mathematics."
Kevin snorted, annoyed by the comment as he often was by anything that came out of Edd's mouth, "I ate, don't worry about it."
Edd shrugged and moved into the living room, flipping on a light that suddenly felt blinding. With the swimmer's back turned, Kevin took a moment to look at the scar on his head, remembering the day he got it…
"Pull out your books then, I am going to get myself something to eat and we can begin." Then the taller man was gone and the room, though illuminated, still felt empty and dark.
He went to the coffee table and set his bag down, then looked around the room, "Yo, where's your TV?" He called.
"I have no need for one." Came the response, "If there is something I desire watching I have my computer or can go to Marie's house…"
Kevin snorted as he started pulling out his books, "That sounds boring. Tell me you at least watch Game of Thrones."
Eddward came walking into the room with a sandwich on a plate and a glass of milk. "Quite avidly actually. It is a tradition for Marie and I to watch the new episodes when they come on - but again, it is what I have a computer for." He set his plate and glass quietly on the coffee table with a coaster before settling down on the plush white carpet.
"So how do you entertain guests?"
The swimmer rose a brow, as if that was a preposterous question.
"What about when your team comes over?"
"We go to Franklin's home, he has a pool." Came the automatic answer.
Kevin decided to stop pressing. He turned his book, "Alright, so we're on chapter twelve."
Edd was taking a bite of his sandwich as he looked over the page, then reached out with his free hand to turn it. He was silent as he looked the chapter over, making Kevin fidget nervously. Finally he took the last bite of his food, being meticulous not to get a single crumb on the carpet, then drank the glass of milk swiftly. "Wait here." He directed before he stood with plate and glass and left the room.
Kevin heard him a moment later and saw him moving up the stairs, and he returned with a yellow spiral bound notebook in hand. When he sat down this time it was directly beside the red head who suddenly got a nose full of sweet soap scents and flowery shampoo with a touch of chlorine absorbed eternally into his skin. He smelled like a woman — yet there was the slightest hint of something entirely masculine.
"Now tell me exactly where you are having problems…" Edd asked, pulling the textbook closer.
"Well, all of it." Kevin said honestly.
"…When is your test?"
"Tomorrow…"
"…fantastic." He ran his fingers through his short black hair and took up the yellow notebook, "We will begin with addition. Adding one and one makes two."
"Ha-ha smart ass…"
Edd snorted, "You were the one who said all of it."
"Yeah yeah. You know what I meant."
#
It was still dark out that morning when Kevin stepped out of his house and began his run. During the summer it was often too hot to take a long run during the day, however the morning air was crisp and burned his lungs in a pleasant way.
He was far from a morning person by any means, however if he wanted to get onto the Freshman baseball team he had to work hard and push his body. Kevin was not a slacker, he had no desire to just be a member of the team, he was going to be the star. He wanted fans to cheer his name, he wanted his teammates to look to him in difficult situations, he wanted to be the one everyone thought of when the baseball team was brought up.
He knew he had what it took.
With his ear buds nestled in his ears and his iPod blaring rock and speed metal he took off down the lane, up the street and to the park where he could use the jogging lane set aside for those wanting to push their bodies.
He felt the dirt crunch beneath his shoes, he felt his heart racing in his chest and it felt incredible. His body was a testament to his efforts, he did not need to have anyone swoon or tell him they were proud because when he looked in the mirror he saw the fruits of his own labors. This was nobody else's work but his own.
The path was eerily empty that morning, normally there were at least a few other joggers along the path but he was out earlier than normal. The stars were still out even.
He passed the skater's bowl, watching the fence flash by on his way towards the road by the creek. His eyes landed on the locker unit just outside of the fence, drifted down and saw a figure huddled on the ground. At first Kevin thought it to be a dog, but in the minimal light he caught sight of color, red… He slowed down.
There were very few hobos' in Peach Creek, and even they often slept on benches under news papers or with a bag of cans. Something was not right with that scene.
He jogged closer, saw the figure twitching, trying to curl in on itself. He yanked the buds from his ears and his eyes widened when he heard whimpered sobs…recognized the pools of blood on the ground and finally as he got close enough…
"Double-D!?" He burst into a sprint and dropped down onto his knees so hard that he felt the asphalt scrape the flesh, but he hardly felt it as he reached out to take a trembling shoulder in his hand, "Double-D, Edd," His eyes were closed and he shook with sobs.
Panic rose in his chest, then dropped heavily into his gut. His hand lifted from where it rested on the ground and to his horror it was drenched in blood. Bile rose in his throat and there were tears in his eyes.
He and Edd were never friends, but to see the kid actually dying right in front of him. At least, it looked like it.
He fumbled for his phone, the phone his father had given him for his birthday. His hands shook so hard that he smeared the keypad and screen with blood as he tried four times to correctly dial 911. He was in hysterics on the phone, and the operator assured him that emergency vehicles were on the way and that he was not to move or touch the victim until then in case there was spinal damage.
How could he not though? He was torn between a desire to flee the scene and grab Edd and make him wake up. He prayed it was all a bad dream but the stinging pain from his scraped knees told him otherwise. He sat there, frozen in panic as he screamed Edd's name over and over, just wanting him to open his eyes. The only thing that told him that Edd was alive was the trembling - the whimpers died down after a time.
When the ambulance and police arrived, Kevin was pulled away so that the paramedics could assess the damage. He watched but could not see, they were blocking his view. He heard but could not understand, there was so much sound, people talking to him and talking into radios. He screamed, but was not heard, because Edd was still unconscious.
He heard someone say that he had stopped breathing.
Someone said he was choking on his blood.
That day was a blur. Though more than once he was called a hero, told that he was brave, he kept looking at his hands as if he could still see the blood on them. His father had raced home and it was one of the few times in Kevin's life that the man actually hugged him.
Kevin begged everyone that they not tell Edd who had helped him. He was unsure if he could handle the other feeling indebted to his childhood bully, he was unsure if he could separate the little dork from the huddling mass of blood and broken bones on the ground.
The next day his father took him to the pet store and they got a dog.
The day after that Kevin started therapy.
Three days later he got word that Edd finally woke up. Kevin released a breath that he was not aware that he had been holding.
Life moved on.
Kevin rarely saw Mr. Or Mrs. Vincent, however when they finally returned home and brought home their son it was a relief. He saw them more that summer than he ever had in his life. He saw Edd in a wheelchair from his bedroom window, saw how frail he looked.
Life moved on.
Eventually one day as Kevin took Molly for a walk he watched the Vincents' car pull out of the driveway. They did not return.
Neither Ed nor Eddy went to Edd's house, he watched from his bedroom window and debated every day if he wanted to brave going to knock on the dork's door. Once he even started to cross the street. But he looked down at the hand holding Molly's leash and saw the blood, turned and fled back into his house.
He was accepted onto the baseball team with ease.
He was their fastest runner and their strongest pitcher.
Life moved on.
That next summer he finally saw Edd consistently again. He was often around a girl who had died her hair blue - almost always at the local pool. He swam as if he had discovered he had gills, and Kevin finally relaxed muscles that had been tense for almost a year. Edd was recovering, and he was no longer alone it seemed.
He saw Edd's body becoming lean and fit. No longer the gangly little child, the egg-headed nerd of their youth. He was growing into himself, however he was also growing to be quite a jerk. He took no bullshit from anyone, his sense of humor was that of a rock's and he had shut the world out save for the blue haired girl Kevin later learned was Marie Kanker.
Life moved on.
Edd joined the swim team, he seemed to be making a name for himself. He heard girls talking about him in class, heard that the Peach Creek swim team finally got its name on the metaphorical map thanks to Edd's contribution.
Kevin finally moved on.
Once he stopped feeling bad about Edd's incident, Kevin found himself more annoyed by the teen's attitude. Whenever they were around one another Kevin felt the need to lash out, sometimes quite intentionally argumentative with Edd just for a reason to get his aggression out. In turn, Edd would consistently return the favor and it often came to blows.
More than once he had been surprised by the swimmer's newfound strength.
As it always seemed to do, life moved on…
#
"I know that it is difficult but I implore you to please pay at least a little attention." Edd's voice cut through Kevin's thoughts. He had once more drifted off while trying to understand the damned equations placed before him.
Kevin huffed, "It isn't like I use any of this shit."
Edd frowned, flipped to a new page and drew a rough diamond shape. He then drew a square at each of the corners, "A baseball diamond." He stated, then scribbled a square off center, "Pitcher's mound." He then drew a line between the mound and home base, "The distance between the pitcher and the batter," he went on, "While the distance between the mound and home plate are relatively set as the same distance on most fields, the speed of the ball, the speed of the bat, the reaction time and the angle of the ball are all variables. However if you can understand basic physics, it is possible to calculate a pitcher's throws to hit the ball most efficiently." He was drawing a complicated looking equation at the bottom of the page, "Whether or not you realize it, Kevin, you use this equation each time you step up to the plate or the pitcher's mound."
Kevin stared at the formula, it appeared to be a heap of gibberish, "I can honestly say I have never used that equation in my life."
"Have you ever hit a ball with a bat?"
"Well of course I have."
"Then you have used this equation whether you come to realize it or not." Edd nodded confidently, "You just don't understand it, you make rough and generalized calculations. It accounts for foul balls and pop flys."
Kevin blinked and looked up at Edd's face, seeing the man's blue eyes staring back at him with mixture of boredom and dispassion, "Wait, you know baseball?"
"Of course I do. I am a quiet fan of the Dodgers."
Kevin laughed, sitting back against the couch behind them.
"I fail to see what is so amusing."
"You!" He shot quickly, "You are damn impossible to figure out, I always pegged you as this huge nerd but here you're talking baseball with me."
Edd sighed, "I hardly count this as 'talking baseball.' I am trying to get across a point to you, and expressed that I am a fan of the Dodgers. If you wished to speak baseball I would be more expectant of rattling off statistics or discussing player trades in a fantasy league."
"You're in a fantasy baseball league?"
Another deep sigh, "Perhaps I am. It is a good exercise for practicing statistics."
This was a side of Edd that Kevin never knew existed. He had figured that outside of swimming the man was a nerd, with his nose buried in a book, not mapping out fantasy baseball statistics and calculating batting probabilities.
"How come you never went out for the baseball team?" Kevin asked honestly.
"Because you were its captain." Came the droll response.
"Yo, ouch. That's a low blow."
Edd rolled his eyes, closing the notebook and pulling the text book back to the edge of the coffee table, "For as much as I may enjoy the cerebral aspect of certain sports, they are often far too messy for my tastes and require more social contact than I desire to give."
"That's a shame, you'd have been killer on the team."
Edd snorted, "Are we going to focus on this work or not?"
Kevin stared at the notebook and felt his eyes going cross, "There's no way I'm going to learn this all tonight."
Suddenly the wind was knocked out of Kevin and he found himself being slammed flat on his back with Edd straddling his hips, looming over him with a fistful of shirt in each hand, holding him down in place, "You simpleton, you are in rudimentary mathematics, can I not even expect you to be able to learn this? Perhaps if you paid attention during your classes as you are expected to do!"
"Get off of me!" Kevin barked, squirming under the hold.
"You will learn this material if I have to shove this damned book down your throat!"
Well this escalated quickly.
Kevin grabbed Edd's wrists, shoved himself forward with all of his strength and struggled with the swimmer for a moment. Something was not right about this fight. It was true that often one of them would eventually start it, but it was always to get a rise out of one another.
Edd was genuinely scared.
Kevin was not to be pushed around however. He shoved forward once more and their foreheads bashed together. Edd reeled back with a surprised yelp and in an instant Kevin had their positions reversed, however Edd was not trapped between the coffee table and couch as Kevin had been, the swimmer twisted to the side and threw Kevin off easily.
Kevin's had fell off, his hair got in his face. Adrenaline was flowing, he jumped up and lunged at Edd, not to be outdone. No. He had something to prove, something, though he did not know what.
There was a thud as his back hit the coffee table. Eddward was quite skilled at redirecting his attacks, but Kevin got an idea.
He lunged again, however this time his attack was centered. Edd brought his hands up but Kevin crashed into his sternum full force. The swimmer landed with a sturdy thud and Kevin grabbed his shoulders and held him down.
Lips crashed together suddenly, Kevin had leaned down and was unsure how or why. Only that it felt right. An act of dominance perhaps, a feral show of who was in charge.
The scent of soaps and chlorine filled his nose, but the taste of Eddward was overpowering. Kevin rolled his jaw, forced the swimmer's lips apart and deepened their kiss.
Suddenly he barked in pain as Edd bit down on his lower lip with force. During Kevin's brief incapacitation their positions were once more flipped and suddenly his mouth was being filled by a very forceful tongue.
They were struggling for dominance. It was so much unlike anything he had ever experienced. He was fighting and being kissed within an inch of his life at the same time.
Fingers slid into his hair and fisted at the scalp, pulling at the roots as he was pulled in deeper. Edd had let his guard down and Kevin took the opportunity, hooking his legs around the swimmer's thighs and jerking them up and back. Edd's back landed on the edge of the ottoman and when Kevin opened his eyes he was being glared at as they continued to fight for dominance.
It was a thrilling sensation running up and down his spine. Finally they broke and gasped for air, half staring and half glaring at one another in the heat of the moment.
Edd's grip in Kevin's hair slackened some, "Well?" he asked.
"W-Well what?"
Edd shook his head, "Nothing. Shall we resume your studies?"
Kevin got a B on his math test that next day.
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Blood in the Water