by Ghost Helwig
They’d never really fit anywhere, before. Ed was too brainless, Eddy was too difficult, Eddward was too shy. No others had ever accepted them, and all three thought that no one ever would.
But Eddy found Ed, and they found Eddward, who was quickly relabeled, to make him fit even better. And so they were the Eds, and life was good. Ed once said to the others when some small thing had went wrong, “it is alright. We have been found.” And it was true.
And things changed, they got older, supposedly wiser. And Eddy got taller, the renamed Double D got even smarter, and only the clueless Ed remained outwardly the same. But still, they were alone.
It bothered Eddy the most and Ed the least, placing Double D in the middle in yet another way. But while Ed was content with his lot in life and Double D was resigned, everything about being an outcast grated on Eddy’s nerves. He hated the teasing, the looks, the treatment. Like he was lesser because he was different, because he and his friends were sprung from a strange, unwelcome mold...
Kevin was the worst tormentor of course, but he was always far from the only. And then one day someone, no one ever knew who (though Eddy had his suspicions), went too far. A trick designed for the big, blundering Ed to fall into instead trapped a helpless Double D, who was far too slender and frail to survive the ‘prank’ intact. A broken arm, a concussion, and four scary, touch-and-go hours later, the Eds were bruised but not bowed. They would soldier on.
And they did, quickly forgetting the fear they’d felt when the bookcase had toppled onto Double D. And their blithe indifference to the torment they were receiving, the fact that they still walked proud, did not go unnoticed. But for a while all was quiet.
Then one day their strangeness took a new turn. Ed was the one to force its acknowledgement, to kiss Double D under a maple tree and turn to kiss Eddy before either boy could react. He was always the one who pushed to be honest, in all ways, while Eddy, the most world-weary of the three, demanded silence. Double D, yet again in the middle, chose not to choose. And in this way they were unhappily happy.
But the secret came out, as secrets are apt to do. And there was more derision, more scorn, more hate for them to sift through. It nearly broke Ed, that simple, unfiltered, unearned hatred, but Eddy would hold him and Double D would whisper, “it is alright. We have been found.” And it was true.
But the hate wore on their nerves, made Ed cry easily, made Eddy yell at Double D for no reason (which made him cry easily, too), made Double D draw farther and farther into himself and away from them. Without even trying the hate spread inside them like a poison, siphoning off their confidence, their hope.
And then the push came.
Kevin and his friends from school saw Eddy and Double D sharing a chaste kiss outside the candy store. And there, in the street, as an unaware Ed finished buying their jawbreakers inside the store, Kevin and the others ripped Double D away from Eddy and began to shove, hit, and kick both boys until they were lying on the ground. Even then, they reached for each other, and it was this small gesture of love that made Kevin’s eyes go black with murderous rage and hate. If Ed had not come out of the store then and scared everyone off with a presence that could only be menacing at such a dark, violent time, Eddy and Double D might have died there, inches from each other on a dirty street in broad daylight, with bystanders all around who watched and did nothing.
But they lived. Broken, violated, yet they lived. And the hate was suddenly seen for what it was – a pointless burden they had no need to carry. So when they left the town they’d lived in for so long, they left it behind as well.
And so it was that three young men came to live together in a small, modest house in the suburbs, far from their childhood homes but still on a quiet and open enough street to provide a suitable substitute for the children two of them were busy convincing the third they just had to adopt. Eddy would break, and he knew it, and they knew it, and the day he did was a good day indeed.
And when the baby was brought to them, Eddy cradled the child in his arms, watching Double D and Ed wrap their own arms around each other as they stood before him. He smiled. In this way, they were happy.
“It is alright,” he said. “We have been found.”
And it was true.
I do not own or profit from Ed, Edd N Eddy. Rated PG-13 for slash, violence, and general adult themes. A definite one-shot, unless something in my head changes a lot.
Darthelwig doesn't own or profit from the Eds, either, though she drew the icons.
Author’s Note – I started this one day, got about two paragraphs in, then quit. I finished it today having no real idea of what I had originally intended. I believe it was along these lines, but... This is a new form of story-telling for me. I hope you liked it.
Anyway, enjoy. Peace, all.
Tales Of Woe
Haunted House