Alex nervously fumbled around with the plastic back in his hands while trying to encourage himself to follow through with his plan. In his mind, it had sounded so much easier. Ring the bell, give mister Schneider the cat food, and hope he accepts it as a peace offering.  

But now that he was actually standing in front of the older man's door, he was terrified. The man was probably still angry at him for what he had done a few days ago. With a heavy sigh, Alex gathered all his courage up and rang the bell.

Nothing happened for a few minutes, making him slightly anxious. 

But having learned from his previous experience that mister Schneider seemed to take a while before answering the door, he decided to wait instead of ringing again.

When a few more minutes passed, Alex was about to accept that the man either wasn't home or didn't feel like opening the door. But then he heard shuffling noises and, shortly after, the door was opened. 

"You." The older man grumbled, his deep, raspy voice sending shivers down Alex's spine. 

"Me!" He called out in an overly cheerful manner and nearly facepalmed himself for the dorky response. 

But what he saw then almost gave him a heart attack. Mister Schneider was actually smiling at him. Well it wasn't really a smile, it was more like one corner of the mouth was a tiny bit higher than the other one.  But, that was more than enough to turn Alex's brain into mush for some reason.

"Uhm... you wanna come in or are you planning on growing rudes?" Ed asked after a few minutes but the boy just continued to stare at him. The way he did it made the older man very confused. It wasn't like he never had gotten those kinds of looks before. But that was long ago, when he was still in shape and had his shit together. 

After not receiving an answer, Ed sighed and just walked away towards his kitchen, leaving the door open so the boy could come in whenever his brain decided to work again. 

When Alex finally realized that mister Schneider was gone he hesitated for a moment because he wasn't sure if the open door was meant as an invitation but then decided that it was worth the risk, even if he would get kicked out again. He took off his shoes and walked towards the living room, expecting the guy to be there but when he didn't find him there he got confused. 

Thankfully he heard the older man call out to him, telling him to come to the kitchen. 

"Are you hungry?" Mister Schneider asked, his voice unusually soft, while crouching down with a bowl of cat food in one hand and the other hand petting the little, black kitten, that was rubbing against his leg. 

"YES!" Alex eagerly replied, feeling happy that the man would offer him anything because at least in his mind that meant mister he had no problem with him staying for at least a little while. 

The older man put down the bowl and with a grunt stood up again. With a slightly amused look, he looked Alex up and down and then said "I actually meant Lilly."

Alex's heart dropped. He felt stupid for thinking mister Schneider had actually meant him. It almost seemed like every time they crossed paths, he somehow managedto make a complete fool of himself.

Why was it that, whenever he tried to seem cool and collected, the less he managed to pull it off? 

_______

Seeing how disappointed the kid was, made Ed want to ask if he also wanted something  to eat, but then he remembered that actually he had nothing to offer. 

Ed scratched his stubbly chin, unsure about what else he could do to turn that frown upside down. But, as the awkward moment stretched out, nothing came to him.  He pointed at one of the folding chairs next to the kitchen table and told Alex to sit down, instead, hoping that not standing around awkwardly in the middle of the kitchen would make this less embarrassing for the both of them. 

Ed grabbed his pack of cigarettes from the counter and lit one. He could almost immediately feel how the nicotine calmed his nerves and helped him to think more clearly. He blew it out in the direction of the open window, not wanting to bother the kid with the fumes. While deep in thought, he turned the old radio on the window sill on. For a moment, it gave off a static sound but then the signal became clearer and the sounds of Ed's favorite station filled the room.

"You uhm... seem to be in a better mood today." Alex commented after a few minutes, making Ed realize that he had been humming the melody of the song that was currently playing.

Feeling caught, Ed bit his lower lip to keep himself from letting out another embarrassing tune. 

After clearing his throat and getting his composure back together, he quickly glanced over his shoulder. The kid grinned from ear to ear and was once again giving him an annoying love-stricken, puppy dog gaze.

"Don't get used to it. " Ed grumbled, hoping it would drop the teen’s cheerfulness down but not completely crush it, because for some god forsaken reason he actually started to somewhat enjoy seeing the kid in high spirits. With a sigh he then added, "Do you want some coffee?"

The boy hesitated for a moment. Coffee wasn’t his cup of tea. But, if he turned Ed down on the first thing offered to him, Alex felt he would be ushered right out of the door. So, he merely nodded. 

"Oh uhm… by the way I brought some food for… Lilly?" Alex said as he held out the plastic bag he had been fumbling around with.

Ed mumbled a 'thank you' and took the bag from the boy. 

When Ed took out the cans, he was surprised to see that it was an expensive brand and not only that, the food was also specially made for young cats. 

This is way better than the shit I could afford. Hopefully getting this won't spoil her rotten. 

And put the fancy stuff next to the cheap crap he had bought at the supermarket.

________

Alex leaned back in the chair and took in his surroundings. The older man’s kitchen was not exactly what he had expected. Sure it was old and the wallpaper had turned yellow from all the cigarette smoke but it was actually pretty tidy. 

While taking a closer look, he noticed some potted herbs that were barely hanging onto life on the windowsill.

What made him raise his eyebrows were the little animal porcelain figures here and there. For some reason,  he doubted that the grumpy bear had bought them himself. 

Maybe they had been a present from someone? But who would give a guy like mister Schneider this kind of stuff?

When Aex noticed some mail laying on the table, he leaned closer to it to take a closer look at it.Seeing mister Schneider's full name written on one of them made him feel a bit excited. 

"Ed-gar… Edgar Schneider. " He mumbled to himself, every letter dripping off his tongue like honey. It wasn't the most unique or coolest name but it still sounded to him like he’d just come across a top secret, confidential government file that he had no clearance to so much as even look at.

"I prefer Ed." The older man said, startling Alex as he sat down across from him and pushed a cup of lukewarm coffee to him.

Alex eyed the dark brown liquid for a moment and then bravely took a sip. He almost spit it right out again. He hadn't drunk a lot of coffees in his life, but he was fairly certain that this was, hands down, the worst cup of coffee he’d ever had the misfortune to taste.

"Yeah I get that. I don't really like my actual first name, either." He mumbled as he  whipped the sorry excuse of a coffee from his lips.

Ed raised an eyebrow and took a big gulp from his mug, making Alex question the man's taste buds. "So Alex isn't your actual name?"

"Uhm, no. It's Alexei... but most people don't know how to pronounce it properly so yeah…sometimes they even make fun of it." Alex explained, mumbled the last part and shrugged with his shoulders. 

Ed just nodded knowingly and took another sip from his coffee. 

After a few minutes of silence, they started talking about generally meaningless subjects such as the weather, how school was going for the teen and their favorite tv shows. 

They continued talking like that for about three hours, the time flying by way too quickly for both of them, before Alex had to go home for dinner.

"So uhm... can I come visit again?" Alex asked while putting on his shoes. 

Ed thought about it for a moment but then said, "Yes, but not too often. I'm not really a people person." 

Hearing that, Alex happily jumped up and saluted. "Yes sir!" 

He had meant it as a joke. But, seeing Ed's soft smile, which had slowly begun to make its appearance over the last few hours, turn suddenly into a deep frown made him immediately regret what he had done, even though he had no clue where he’d gone wrong.

"Uhm well I better get going." Alex awkwardly stammered.

Ed just nodded, his face still grim.

When Alex opened the door and stepped out into the corridor he called out to the grumpy bear one last time in hopes to end the evening on a better note. "Good night, Eddy!"

Ed's expression made a sudden shift to one of pure shock and embarrassment before he slammed the door shut.