I'm just as surprised as you. A lot has changed in my life. Drama, blah blah. I've got the plot pretty nailed out though for the rest of this so updates should come at about a monthly rate now.

When Eddy's mother knocked on his bedroom door, half an hour after he had shut himself away inside, he wished she would have been later. There could have been traffic on the short highway between their home and the hospital, or maybe a group of rowdy patients could have come in right at the end of her shift. He loved his mom. He didn't love the raise eyebrows and knowing glint in her eyes.

"So, want to tell me what happened today?" It was a trap, obviously. She knew something happened, so Dad had already told her. She came to sit on the edge of his bed.

He backed up against the wall, crossing his arms and stared at the peeling corner of the movie poster on the opposite wall. "No." It was for an action movie, but he couldn't remember which one and he couldn't drag his eyes away from the rolling corner. "Double-D just got pissy and pushed me into the picture frames."

"Mmhm. Why was he upset, then?"

"I don't know, he's always such a drama queen." That wasn't true. Since he'd moved in, Double-D had done practically everything he'd asked without question. It was starting to piss him off.

A lot of things about Double-D were starting to piss him off.

His mom turned sideways, tucking her feet criss-cross underneath her, leaning back on a hand to better see him. "And what were you guys doing before Eddward started being such a drama queen?"

"We had a fight about a TV show. He threw a fit because I didn't want to watch his stupid documentary. I just wanted to get him to calm down and watch something else and he pushed me."

"Really?" Her eyes commanded his and her frown was evident. "Because your dad was in the living room, and from the sound of it you've been trying to pick a fight with Eddward all afternoon. It sounds to me like maybe he's not the one being a drama queen. What's really going on here, Eddy?"

Well, shit. Of course she knew the whole story. Eddy didn't want to think about what was really going on. It wasn't Double-D's fault that the look of melancholy on his unaware face riled Eddy up so bad.

Eddy shrugged one shoulder and licked his lips. "It's just… He's pissing me off. He's just… always there, and it's weird."

His mom's eyebrows crinkled in the center, and she sounded hesitant when she said, "I know you've been sort of an only child for a while now, with your brother gone. Eddward's in a hard situation, though, and there's really nowhere else for him to go. I know it can be hard sharing space so suddenly, but you have to think about how he feels, Hun."

"I don't want to kick him out! It's not… really that." He knew he was contradicting himself, he just wasn't sure how else to explain it. "I just… feel bad. Like, I always knew that his parents weren't really there for him like how you and Dad are for me. I remember going to his house as a kid and there'd be these sticky notes everywhere because they weren't home all day, but like… I guess I never really realized how bad it must suck to not really have parents that care about you.

"We were fighting earlier because we were playing Street Fighter and he looked happy for once, and I got distracted, and I guess I kind of let him win." Eddy looked down at his hands, clasped in his lap. He could feel his mom's eyes staring holes into his scalp. He picked at his sleeve idly. "I keep doing it. Saying stupid shit– sorry, things, to try to make him laugh, but I don't mean to! He just looks so sad all the time when he doesn't think I'm looking."

His mom's mouth was slightly open, eyebrows to her hairline, but she was quick to recover. "That's not a bad thing, Eddy. It's really sweet of you to try to cheer up your–"

"I'm not sweet, though!" He interrupted, shoulders slumping. "As soon as I realized I was doing it, I accused him of cheating. I know he wasn't. He doesn't even know how to play the game. It's just… I felt so embarrassed and I didn't want him to know that I was letting him win, so I yelled at him and I couldn't even stop myself."

And then when he realized that the old Eddy never would have sat through a documentary just to see Double-D smile, if Double-D knew what he was doing… It wasn't just that he wanted to cheer up his buddy, it felt different than that. Weirder. So he had royally fucked that momentary happiness up as well. Since he had closed himself in his bedroom, all he could think about were the tears in Double-D's eyes when he had pushed him.

How he had ran away from him and probably hated him now.

He was startled when his mom placed her hand on his knee, and quickly brushed away the alarming wetness gathering in the corners of his eyes. "You're a teenage boy. I get that it's not cool to be caring, but you and Eddward have been friends for a really long time, so it's okay to want to cheer him up, alright? It's normal to fight sometimes, too, but this is a bit excessive." She chuckled, patting him on the knee. "Eddward's probably freaking out by now, so I should probably go talk him down. You guys both need your space. What do you think about letting him have your brother's old room while he's here?" Eddy just nodded, nose feeling stuffy and afraid if he spoke his voice would break. His mother got up, heading to the door. "You should apologize to him. He's a nice kid, he'll forgive you."

He nodded again and watched his mother leave. He knew Double-D would forgive him, he just wasn't sure if he could forgive himself.

The weekend was spent mostly avoiding each other. Double-D had wanted to forgive and forget, but Eddy had kept a full mouth during meals to avoid conversation, leaving immediately after the dish was emptied to Ed's house. Double-D had tried not to feel betrayed at not being invited. He didn't really have any other friends, though, so when faced with an empty day in Eddy's home, it hadn't taken long for him to slip a loose button-up over his cast and head to the school science lab. The instructor hadn't been around, but the man had given him a key at the beginning of the semester with the understanding that Eddward wasn't to do any potentially dangerous experiments without a faculty advisor's supervision. He told himself that his liquid nitrogen substitute wasn't really dangerous as long as he was careful, and most of the weekend had involved experimenting on whether various objects could shatter with cold, such as random notes from not very good friends.

Come Monday, most of his frustration with Eddy had burnt off with the cold, but he was still quick to sit in the center most seat of the front row in each class. Typically he compromised with his friends to all sit in the middle of the classroom, but if they already weren't talking… He saw Eddy pause at the doorway of their first shared class, and focused on writing the date at the top of his notes in his most perfect penmanship. By last period English, Eddy slid smoothly into his normal seat without saying a word.

His teacher did, though, stopping him on his way out the door at the end of the school day.

"Mr. Blake, a moment if you would."

Double-D watched the last of the students leave, Eddy among them, before approaching the desk at the front of the room. "Yes, Mrs. Baron?"

She leaned forward in her chair, both feet flat on the floor despite wearing a skirt, and looked him straight in the eye. "I wanted to know if you've given any more thought to skipping forward into Sophomore English. You've got about one-thirty percent in this class with extra credit. You know it only goes up to a four-point-oh, right?"

Eddy already was apparently fine with just ignoring him. Maybe it couldn't hurt to skip forward, be with people on a more comparable intelligence scale...

"I understand," he said instead, knowing that even if he was frustrated with Eddy, he wouldn't be the one to break it off for good. Already he was thinking of how he'd apologize for pushing the other boy once he returned to Eddy's home. He'd had enough time to wallow in self-pity. "School is an important time in a young person's life to mingle with their cohort. I still don't want to leave my friends, I'm sorry."

Mrs. Baron cocked her head to the side, leaning a blazer-clad elbow on her desk. "You'll forgive me for saying so, but you don't seem to talk a whole lot with your classmates as you are now. Just Vargas and Sullivan, the scoundrels. But it didn't look like you guys were talking. Have a falling out?"

Not that it was any of her business, but, "Just a miscommunication, ma'am. And I don't need a large group of friends, just a close one."

"Fair enough, thought I'd try one last time." She heaved out a sigh and a softer look came over her features. "That wasn't really what I stopped you for, though. I wanted to know how you were doing?"

"How I was doing… apparently very well if I've achieved above a perfect score?" He shifted from one foot to the other and adjusted his grip on his backpack strap. What did she want now?

"Eddward, you've been out for a while and have come back with your arm in a cast. Plus your living situation…"

Double-D froze and stared back at her with wide eyes and slack mouth, blood turning to ice in his veins. Living situation? How did she know...

"Any time there is a case involving a student and CPS, the school is informed. The students' safety is a teacher's biggest concern, and we have to be aware if there's anything we should be on the lookout for," she explained quickly, but the words were like molasses sticking in his brain. "Eddward, how did you hurt your arm?"

"It was an accident," he mumbled on autopilot. School was his safe net, his last defense against the uncertainty that had taken over his life. Did all his teachers know now? He mentally reviewed every interaction with a teacher that had taken place that day. Nothing stuck out at him, but now that he knew, would every word from their mouths drip of pity? Realizing that didn't quite explain it, he clarified, "I was dared to partake in Kevin's skateboard. I fell."

His teacher gave him a half-smile and shook her head slightly. "That seems a bit out of character for you, hm? "

"Not you, too," he thought aloud, miserably. He had Eddy as a witness and still somehow all the adults in his life wanted to blame his parents for his broken wrist. He took a step back from the desk. "If that's all, I've got to go home."

Except he couldn't go home. His parents weren't home and suddenly everyone cared that he'd been taking care of himself for years. He spun around and practically sprinted out of the door before she could call him back in for more interrogation. Suddenly the idea of going back to Eddy's perfect loving family and apologizing away the terrible way Eddy had been treating him seemed intolerable.

Eyes welling up with hot tears, Eddward ran to the only place he knew where no one would care that he was the kid whose parents abandoned him.

Eddy had been in the hallway talking to Ed and Rolf (about anything and everything that kept Double-D's apparent ending of their friendship from his mind), when the shorter boy ran past. He only caught a glimpse of his face, but Edd's eyes had looked dangerously shiny and his cheeks were red. Ed and Rolf were distracted with making some kind of farm animal noises.

It only took him a few minutes to find Double-D in the back corner of the school library. He was surrounded by empty aisles and crying with his head resting on his knees. From the wear-pattern around the bottom hem, Eddy could see that Edd was wearing one of his pairs of jeans, something he hadn't noticed while trying to ignore the way Edd was ignoring him all day. Maybe Double-D wasn't that mad at him.

Eddy sat down next to the other boy quietly, bumping his shoulder ever so lightly. He relaxed with his legs stretched out before him and tilted his head up to the ceiling. White square tiles. He exhaled heavily.

After a few minutes, the tears calmed enough for Double-D to sigh wearily, rubbing the back of his hand across his eyes. "She knew," he mumbled, as though Eddy was supposed to know what that meant. "They all knew. All day and no one said anything."

Eddy wished he would have thought to grab the box of Kleenex off the library's front counter on his way in. He tilted his head slightly, eyes skimming the titles of the books across the aisle to try not to notice the way tears still clung like diamonds to Double-D's eyelashes. "I've got no idea what you're talking about, Sockhead. What'd they know, huh?"

"CPS called the school, Eddy. All day my teachers have known that my parents essentially abandoned me, but only Mrs. Baron actually asked me about it. I almost wish she hadn't told me." Eddy looked down at him. He had his head turned to look at him, though it was still resting on his knees. "Now I have to come back tomorrow wondering what they're thinking and seeing the pity in their eyes." Double-D slowly uncurled his legs, stretching them out to lean back side-by-side with Eddy. A few tears dripped down, but he did nothing to stop them trail down his cheeks one at a time. "Everyone keeps asking about my arm, too, as if it were somehow my parents' fault. They might not have always been… but they never…"

Eddy sighed and reached across Double-D's shoulders, pulling the other boy to rest his head on his shoulder. Double-D went willingly and his hitching breaths eventually faded out into a few hiccups as his body rebelled the stress. Eddy ran his fingers through the strands of incredibly soft white-blonde hair that had fallen out of the beanie.

"Why'd they even adopt me if they didn't want me?"

Edd had practically whispered it, and even if he had wanted some kind of reply, Eddy didn't know what kind of one to give him. Before he could say anything, though, Double-D chuckled, scrubbing his face with both hands. "Ahhh, I'm such a mess. I must look quite a state. Oh my..."

He flashed a self-deprecating smile Eddy's way, but Eddy didn't see a mess. The shorter boy's cheeks were a soft pink and eyes were glistening, long strands of seldom-seen blonde hair falling around to frame his face.

If anything, Eddward Blake looked even prettier when he cried.

Eddy demanded his side of most of everything for this chapter, so I figured as long as it was coming easily, Eddy's POV it would be.