eddie likes to (riddlethem) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2013-03-28 02:34:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | harley quinn, riddler |
Who: Eddie and Harley
Where: coffee shop
When: Recently!
What: having coffee. catching up. i have an icon just for this lookatit.
Warnings: none~
Eddie Nigma didn’t have a clue what to expect when he heard Harley was back in town. As always, he hoped that any new face through the door was actually an old one. Someone who shared a history with the riddled man that he could remember and he was not so lucky with the last Harley. But, no matter where this Harley had dropped in from, he intended to buy her a cup of coffee and fill her in on Gotham gossip before the rest of it got to her. It was less of a need to protect her, but more of some kind of loyalty to old friends that was similar to how he looked out for meow face even though she wasn’t his Selina. Leave it to Riddler to try and preserve the magic of his own Gotham through the door. Nostalgia always hit older men the hardest.
He waited for her at a coffee shop just on the edge of Old Gotham and into a more hipster and artsy territory. With his arm in a sling, he didn’t bother with suits and instead opted for a t-shirt with a green jungle growing out of a book (Jungle Book. Get it?), jeans and a grey, soft coat hanging on the back of his chair. Perhaps to the rest of the world he didn’t look like the Riddler without his green suit, but anyone who knew him in Arkham could spot that hairline, those glowing violet glasses and smartass little smirk that he flashed once and awhile at the newspaper he was reading. Eddie had been there a little early, working on some business type things, but now he was content just scanning over the financial section of the paper while he listened for the door to chime.
Harley was in a good mood as she skipped down the sidewalk toward Old Gotham. The sun was shining. The birds were singing. The sky was blue. Yadda yadda. She had on a new spring dress, one that she'd only just torn the tags from - it was a light cotton thing, airy and done up in pink, cut just above the knees and with a sweetheart neckline. Basically, it was adorable, and her hair, done up in their usual pigtails, only added to the cutesy, if somewhat Lolita vibe she was giving off. Not that she seemed to notice, lollipop in hand and all.
She was excited. Excited to be back in Gotham, even if things were different than she remembered and even though she didn't remember leaving in the first place. Last she knew, she'd been staying with Red and Kitty at Kitty's place, but, apparently, it wasn't like that here. Oh, well. She was going to see Eddie and she was going to give him a big ol' hug and that would be just fine.
Harley sucked on her red sucker thoughtfully, eyes blue and wide on the signs of the shops she passed, looking for the one Eddie had mentioned. A smile, bright and exuberant, white around the lolli, broke out on her face as soon as she saw it - and dashed across the street, barely dodging several cars, to run inside the dim, little place with its "unique" charm.
She clattered in noisily, bringing a level of bubble-headed earnestness and enthusiasm the artsy types had never really learned to appreciate. Their loss. There was a squeal and then Harley was hurrying toward Eddie. He didn't have his suit on, and he looked a little different, but he had his glasses and he had the green, and the newspaper, and she just knew it was him. (Was his arm hurt?)
"Hiya, Eddie!" The girl held her arms out, sucker in one hand, impatient for her hug. "Boy, is it good to see ya!"
In a second, the otherwise arrogantly quiet coffee shop brightened with Harley’s squeal and Eddie bit back a grin at his paper before looking up. “Harleen.” Eddie said with fake sternness, eyebrows heavy like a librarian shushing a rowdy teenager. But, that act was thrown out of the window faster than Condiment King at a Bruce Wayne charity event. He grinned at her sweetly, sliding to his feet and holding his good arm out for a hug. “Easy, easy now. Watch the arm.” He winced, eyes squeezing shut as he gave her the best one-armed hug he could manage without injuring himself too badly. “You look great. Exactly how I remember. It’s remarkable.” He told her easily like an old friend would and then lowered himself back down in his chair carefully. Luckily for Eddie, he was in better shape than a couple weeks ago and his face had healed all but a couple cuts on the sides of his jaw that were from having trouble shaving. It’d be adorable, if it wasn’t so pathetic. Compared to the last time he saw each other, he was a little shorter, younger and there seemed to be much more energy pumping through him.
“Guess how many people have beat the stuffing out of me since I got here and I’ll buy you coffee.” He was going to buy it for her anyway, but Riddler couldn’t help but turn it into some kind of game. “I’ll give you a hint, it’s a prime number.”
She watched the arm as carefully as she could while giving a heartfelt hug to the small man. It really was good to see him, despite the serious way he said her name and the way his eyebrows dipped like that when he did so. But Harley knew he was only joking and she flounced forward anyway, only taking the time to look down at herself and bat away his compliments with a wave of her hand when they'd finally pulled away from each other.
"Shucks. Ya always know just what to say," giggled the girl in pink as she popped the candy back in her mouth, returning the sweet smile. Two hands came up to smooth the pink fabric over her chest. Now it was her turn to look at him closely. Harley saw, of course, the arm, and the nicks along the length of his jaw, but even with 'em, he looked better than she remembered, like he was more alive - happier, brighter. Good. She gave him a fond little pat on the head, before turning to almost pull out a chair when she glanced over at him and his riddlely game.
A prime number. She knew a prime number. Harley grinned.
"Ah, gee, Eddie, I dunno - seven?" But her smiled flagged a little bit then as she realized just what she was guessing at. "You just can't stay outta trouble, can ya?"
“Close. Five. I’ll still pay for your coffee.” He assured her, making quick and precise work of the paper in front of him. Folded with one hand like he had to learn the hard way too many times, but Eddie had always been so resourceful. Living with only one working arm and stiff, sharp pain all over his body wasn’t a new development in his long life. At this point? He could write it off as a disease of death driving through Gotham at breakneck speeds. No, he couldn’t stay out of trouble. It was programmed in him down to his currently bruised and battered fingertips. It didn’t take an old friend to deduce that, but only someone like Harley really understood the extent of his meddling.
Eddie took his glasses off, big brown eyes easing without its numbers and internet memes flashing in front of them. He stopped a waitress dressed like she prefered to cream her coffee with organic dirt while she was busy combing her fingers through her white girl dreadlocks (Did they step into 1993 without him realizing it?) and ordered Harley what he remember she had the last time they had coffee. “I’ll tell you about the arm later. Give me some information first.” Eddie pushed the perfectly folded rectangle of newspaper to the side of the table and then took a sip from his coffee cup thoughtfully. “What was the last thing you remember?”
Harley watched with interest mingled closely with awe as Eddie turned his wide, flapping paper into a neat little rectangle. How did he do that? She didn't read newspapers often (though the paper was good for keeping the shape of riding boots!), but when she did, she sure couldn't do that. She mouthed 'wow,' red lips meeting in a brief perfect 'o,' before she turned her eyes back to the man behind the paper.
He looked much better with his glasses off, you know. Younger, and less like a professor who was about to tell you you got bad marks on your last final. And, you could see the color of those big eyes of his and Harley always thought that was nice. She liked eyes. They said a lot. She smiled at him, pleased he remembered her drink (though not surprised).
"Thanks, Eddie! - Let's see... The last thing I remember... Hmmm..." She thought about it, finger to her chin, lollipop skating around her teeth as she concentrated. Her memory, since coming back, had been more than a little foggy regarding the details of things. She didn't know why, but then again, she didn't really understand much of anything that had happened in recent weeks - why she'd gone in the first place, for example, or where, or why she was in some man's head in Las Vegas. Still, Harley couldn't let that bother her. What mattered was that she was here now. The girl squinted at a place on the wall just above Eddie's head for a moment or two, then her eyes went wide again and she grinned. "Oh, yeah! We got you to help us catch that no-good Dr. Aesop. Remember?"
She had this down.
Eddie sat back in his chair, holding up the cup to his lips and recognizing the small things that made the Harley he knew. The genuine friendly charm, the bop bop of her pigtails when she wagged her head while she talked and that smaaaalll lingering crazy only someone who spent a lot of time in Arkham could catch in her eyes. And, just as he had come to the hasty conclusion that this was a Harley he knew she confirmed it with something he remembered. A look of relief crossed his features like a wave, dark eyes turning into sideways half moons as he smiled at her, not realizing how weird it was that he was happy about her recounting some D-list villain after the girls. Well, not realizing it right away. A moment passed and then he sputtered, placing the coffee cup down on the table again and leaned forward.
“I only ask because there was a Harley here before you. Alternate dimensions colliding. That’s what this whole place is about. She didn’t remember me and treated the whole gallery like crap.” Eddie kept his voice down a little, but honestly no one looked twice at some nerd spouting crazy sci-fi talk. “I actually have memories that never existed in the Gotham we shared together. Like an Eddie made out of scrap metal. But, I’m glad it’s you. Ivy will be glad, too.” He didn’t much think about what Ivy would be glad about lately, but he knew it was important to Harley. There was no mention of the clown.
When the waitress delivered her drink - iced Mocha with extra whipped cream, thank you - Harley thanked the girl with a big smile, then set to sipping up the sweet mix of espresso, milk, and chocolate. Her sucker was set on a napkin and forgotten about as she hummed and worried with the whipped cream, only looking up again when Eddie choked on his own drink. Her eyebrows met with worry, but it was assuaged quickly enough, when she saw he wasn't actually drowning in his coffee.
Unthinkingly, she came forward as he did in that mirroring way people do when they're listening real hard. She settled bare elbows on sticky wood and cocked her head to the mention of alternate dimensions. She wasn't sure what that was about, but she was certain she didn't want to know or think about it too hard. All she needed to know was that she was back in the city. Her smile lit up again, full wattage aimed at Eddie, when he said he was glad it was her and that Red would be glad too.
"Scrap metal, huh? Like a real life tinman? Huh. I guess I've heard crazier," said the girl with a playful wrinkle of her nose and a shrug. "And I'm real glad it's you too, Eddie! Don't worry about me not remembering anything or treatin' anyone like crap. This Harl is the real deal."
After a proud tap, right on her exposed sternum, she sipped the drink for another quiet moment. Her eyes flicked up from the whipped cream to meet Eddie's.
"So, what happened to you?"
Tinman. He liked that. Eddie smirked and then paused, gears turning in that big head of his as he very lightly drummed his fingertips on the table. Really, he knew the absurdity of the entire story, but this Harley didn’t deserve the short version. He took a deep breath, eyes going a little wide, at the corner of table his fingers were drumming against and then he looked up at her, his black hair flopping forward a little bit. “I’m still trying to reform. This time with the riddles and the memories there. It’s tedious and I end up somewhere in the grey area most of the time, but I’m trying.” He was proud of that, like keeping himself in line was an improvement instead of something he secretly feared back in their Gotham. This hotel had shown him his crazy, shaken him with it until he understood a new path was required. And, Stephanie helped, too.
Eddie gave her a look like yes I know this is the long road hold your horses and took another sip of coffee. “I started...” He rolled his eyes up to the ceiling to try and find a good way to put it, “Dating a woman by the name of Stephanie Brown. As you might know, her father happens to be my old cohort in crime, Cluemaster. And, he both has not given up crime and does not approve of our relationship. So, he did what anyone in Gotham would do. Kidnapped me, beat me with my own cane and then strapped a bomb to my chest.” And, he was a little proud of that, too. Eddie was the best at getting into trouble.
Harley's eyes only grew wider the longer Eddie talked. She didn't interrupt and she didn't do anything beyond squeak at the mention of Cluemaster. She was a good girl, a good listener, just like she was for Mr. J. Until, finally, when Eddie'd finished, she gave the man across from her, in his silly shirt, a long looking over, as if trying to figure out if he was hurt worse than he looked.
"I wanna congratulate ya on the girl, Eddie, but, yeesh!" She shook her head, sending her pigtails flying. "That's some nutty stuff. And trust me, I know nutty."
The girl's expression grew a little more serious then, as if she'd been reminded of something particularly unpleasant, and her red lips turned into something of a confused frown. Harley leaned forward with a sigh, elbow on the tabletop, and fit her chin in her palm.
"Maybe you just need to talk to him." She tried to smile.
Now, Eddie liked to think that his relationship with Stephanie was about as healthy as it could get in Gotham. It wasn’t emotionally cut off like Selina and her Bat, or one sided crazy town USA like Harley and Joker. Sure, they had worked through plagues and Lazarus Pits, a jealous Robin and most of their own past, but those were the kind of things Gotham threw at everyone. However, the way Harley’s expression faltered made him think twice. Or at least wonder if anything could ever be healthy in a town like this. He lifted an eyebrow, smile almost hitting something close to reassuring that looked like he had been taught it by Stephanie because he certainly wouldn’t have come up with it on his own.
“It’ll be okay.” He nodded, sitting back in his chair and sighing. “When has talking ever changed anything in this town?” Eddie didn’t seemed frightened. He was too crazy for that. But, he was hurt. Not just in the stiff movements he made to avoid the shooting pain through his body, but having to face down his history as it intertwined with Stephanie’s was getting to him whether he wanted to admit it or not. “You know the difference between me then and now? In our Gotham I couldn’t remember most of the stuff I did as Riddler. Now it’s all there. And, when someone points their finger at me and drums up something I did to hurt them, I remember. I don’t regret it. I can’t regret most things. But, I know they’re right to be upset. So, where am I supposed to go from there?”
The reassuring smile wasn't something Harley had ever seen take shape on Eddie's face before, and for a second there, she'd struggled to ascertain just what its intent was, what it meant, before recognizing it for what it was. Oh, he was comforting her. She smiled again, this time earnestly, though her eyes never lost their touch of concern and never so much as moved from his face. She saw something there that she didn't quite like.
"Gee, Eddie, I dunno. That's terrible. Were you real bad?" The girl frowned again, lifting off the table to stir at the milky remnants in her plastic cup. Her eyes fell to her hand, drawing down to her pink-tipped nails as they curled around the straw. She sighed. "Alls I can think of is that - maybe there's nowhere you're supposed to go. Maybe there ain't nothin' you can do about it. Maybe you just gotta let 'em be upset and you just gotta remember. I know that doesn't help much or anything."
Girlish shoulders rose in a shrug and Harley lifted her eyes to meet Eddie's again.
“So, what you’re telling me, essentially, is that there’s no real solution.” He said flatly, a little humor seeping in through the tips of his mouth. And, it sounded like he was getting a lot of that lately, though whether or not he really believed it was true was still up for debate. Eddie could always find ways to solve his own problems, but it was at the expense of others. Most of the time that didn’t matter. Most of the time it was actually kind of amusing that way. Stephanie rearranged that part of him, though and he was certain that another disappointment from his side of the relationship could crumble things. All of this stormed in the riddled man’s head and if Harley looked closely, she could actually see the temperamental clouds moving.
“Ask me some questions. About the new Gotham. Ask me what you want to know.” Eddie said after finishing his coffee and staring at the tiny black specks of grind at the bottom. He looked up to her, mind clearing and rested his chin on the palm of his good hand, tapping a single finger on his cheekbone thoughtfully. A very old fashioned thinking stance that looked more apt in a Kennedy cabinet meeting.
Harley did see something moving - she couldn't identify it, but even still, she chose to ignore it for the time being. She blew a little glob of whipped cream off the tip of her straw toward Eddie by way of response to 'so, you're telling me nothing new,' and then she smiled around the little plastic tube, dipping it back into the bottom of her cup. Idly, she stirred it there, her own mind suddenly bursting with questions and thoughts and wonderings as to what all had happened since she'd vanished, and what was different, if Eddie was different and all. Alternate dimensions colliding, he'd said.
The girl giggled at the exaggerated, stereotypical position of thinking that Eddie took up, then pressed her lips together and looked at the ceiling as she attempted to put to words some of the things she wanted to know.
"Ya said there was another Harley before me?" Harley frowned, as she vainly attempted to wrap her head around that concept. But, she couldn't. Strange things happened in Gotham all the time, so much so that 'strange' wasn't really a word anyone tossed around anymore, but... multiple versions of the same person? That, she could safely say, was strange. "I don't get it. How did another me get here? What did she do? What about Mr. J and Red and everyone - they have twins walkin' around too? I guess I don't really get what's even happenin'."
“We’re both creative people, so the concept of alternate realities doesn’t phase us, right?” Riddler smiled easily, like this wasn’t some confusing clusterfuck of different Gotham residents. “Imagine this Gotham as a dollhouse that’s constructed of different, similar but not identical dollhouses. There’s still Arkham, Blackgate, the Narrows, Old Gotham and Slaughter Swamp, but not all of them are exactly the same way you remember. And, there’s places you’ve never been, like Wonder City because that’s not your dollhouse set.” He paused, giving her a look from beneath his brow to see if she was following and looked down to see his was subconsciously building Gotham with sugar, sweet ‘n low and splenda packets. Sugar to represent parts that weren’t familiar to either of them, sweet ‘n low for the small pieces that were like their Gotham and splenda for Wonder City, which was basically just his so far.
“So, going along with my analogy, it makes sense that not all of us are from the same dollset. You, Ivy and I are. Batman and the Joker are not. And, there can’t be two of the same doll, so there’s only one version of us walking around at a time. Before you, the Harley was from somewhere I’m not familiar with. And, it seemed like she had just fallen for Joker, who wasn’t anything like this one either.” Eddie took out a pen and labeled some packets with ?, J, H, I and B and color coded them appropriately.
The packets of sugar and sweetener drew Harley's attention effectively. Her eyes were focused, intensely so, on the little worlds they built, placed here and there by Eddie's long fingers. She bit down on the pad of her thumb and really listened, the colors helping immensely. She looked between the different realities, the dollhouses, for a long minute, before blue eyes flicked back up to meet Eddie's.
She watched him write little initials on some of the packets.
"So, you, me, 'n' Red all remember the same things and everything, but the B-Man and Mr. J don't even know anything about it? They only know about their stuff? An' the B-Man we woulda known isn't here?" She thought she was beginning to understand, even if it was crazy talk. So sometimes people came from other places, that were kind of the same as their own places, but different. But, there couldn't be more than one of the same person. She tried not to think about what 'Wonder City' was or if she should even know about it. Okay. Harley squinted across the table. "What about -" She almost asked after her puddin', but she stopped herself. "- your sweetie?"
Eddie’s eyes widened a little with a goofy smile, proud of her for catching on and a little surprised it actually worked. Had to be the diagram. Diagrams always worked. They were the powerpoints of tables. “Right, exactly. The cat’s different too, and might be a little unfriendly at first, but that’s just residual from the last Harley.” He gave her a look like she was going to navigate those waters on her own. Sure he could help, but they’d be here all night if he went into detail about how different everyone seemed to be. Still, he labeled each packet the best he could for her, giving the cat her own color (sugar in the raw) until it came down to Stephanie. He hesitated and then picked the packet that matched his and Harley’s.
“She’s from our Gotham.” He said, puzzles ringing in his ears. “It’s been difficult, but I never would have ended up with her if it hadn’t been that way.” Eddie’s fingertips rested on Stephanie’s initials before he leaned back and looked up at Harley. “I love her. And, she makes me a better person. Reformation never worked for me before because I didn’t have anyone to help me through it. But, she tries hard even though she knows what I am and that’s good enough for me.” He smiled softly, eyes a little distant and affectionate before he snapped back to reality with a clearing of his throat.
Joker. They had to talk about Joker. He didn’t want to and he could tell she was restraining herself the best she could, but the subject needed to be addressed before Joker got to her first. “Do you want information on him, or do you want to find out for yourself?” Eddie asked, giving her a serious, very grown up look.
Harley caught the smile and her own broke out over her face, as white as a toothpaste ad, before she could stop herself. If he was pleased, she was pleased. That meant she’d done something right. The girl twisted a finger in the loopy curl at the bottom of a pigtail, her expression growing more serious as he spoke of Catwoman. Her eyebrows peaked with worry - in a question that read, unfriendly? That she didn’t understand. Whatever her other self had done, -- well, that wasn’t her. Surely Kitty knew that. Yeah - Harley could change her mind.
The same smile returned, and she listened to him talk about his girl. Her eyes may have gotten a little dewy, a little dreamily distant, at the proclamation of love (Harley was a big appreciator of romance), but she held it together.
“I like seein’ you all loveydovey, Eddie. It’s real cute, and it makes you seem less like that tinman you mentioned,” stated the girl matter-of-factly with a small nod that sent her hair bouncing. Her smile was in the process of unfurling itself again when it froze. She didn’t need to a name to know who they were talking about now. It almost felt like her stomach dropped, taking the mocha with it. “Gee... I dunno... Is it bad?”
Eddie placed the sweetener packets where they belonged on his larger Gotham diagram. Ivy and the Kitty at the Greenhouse. Him off in Old Gotham. Crane in Arkham. A waitress walked by to see the mess he made and sniffed disapprovingly at Eddie, which brightened his puppy dog eyes mischievously. Just like that time he broke into the batcave with Selina, he nearly got a bigger thrill from stealing the question mark key off the bat computer than stealing the goddamned tumbler. He was a man of small, needling annoyances. His expression tightened a little when she asked if it was bad and he rolled his head to the side with a “Weeeeellll.” And, that was never a good sign.
He looked up at her and half shrugged. “He’s not the Joker we know. Not even close. He’s more of a mangy street dog than a clown prince of crime.” Eddie and Joker were the definitions of frienemies back in their Gotham. The Riddler kind of hated the clown most days, but they still called each other to chat and teamed up when they really wanted to mess with Batman. When Joker was going to take over Arkham, who did he tell first? Riddler of course. “He can’t even make his own venom without the help of scientists.” That was the part that really drove the nail in the coffin for him. A Joker who couldn’t develop his own laughing gas? What was even the point? “But, for the record, I don’t condone you running around with any incarnation of the Joker. I shouldn’t even have to say it.”
Big eyes followed Eddie’s hands as they zipped here and there, shifting the sugars and substitutes. She was glad to see Red and Kitty together, but that happiness did little to dampen the confusion that was rapidly filling Harley, pink-tipped fingertips to pink-tipped toes. Whatever clarity had been snapping in her light eyes moments before was gone, replaced by a not-so-uncommon haze. She chewed on her bottom lip, slowly moving her gaze to Eddie’s face.
She almost said it aloud. She almost told Eddie that maybe Mr. J just needed her back and then he would be himself again. He probably missed her... Right? - But, she knew better than to voice such opinions and her teeth bit down harder on the red of her lip, and Harley sat like that for a long moment, letting the quiet of the coffee shop recoup itself.
“Nah. You don’t gotta worry about me,” she said finally, sitting back in her chair. “I ain’t gonna go lookin’ for him or nothin’. We called it quits, remember? This Harl is a girl on the prowl.”
She smiled.
Maybe that worried look would get past the dimwit shrinks at Arkham, but Eddie knew Harley. And, he knew how dangerous it was just to get her thinking about that stupid clown. He shot her a look that was half concerned, half warning that said all he needed to without giving a lecture. She’d get plenty from Ivy and no one liked getting a talk like that from a reformed criminal. The expression lifted, but the gears were still turning. “I know, Harley.” He nodded, accepting her claim with only a little question mark hanging over his head. “If you need anything, you let me know. Most people in this town run on an IOU system with me, but you’re one of the few exceptions.”
“Yeah... Thanks, Eddie.” The excited edge to Harley’s voice had given way to something a little softer - to something that fit better within the walls of the too-cool coffee shop. She blew a lock of blond hair out of her face, watching it fly up and then flutter back down and stick in her eye. The girl made a sound of annoyance and brushed it away. There was another pause. She was going to regret asking, but she didn’t seem able to stop herself. “Ya don’t think he’d remember me, do ya?”
With care, he started dismantling the sweetener Gotham and its residents. He sorted out the colors and stacked them like cards with his thin fingers. He imagined the next person who used one of the packets with a random letter on it and smiled at his own riddle. Which made the next question catch him off guard. “Wh-” Eddie looked up at her, puzzled and then scowled at her playfully. “Harl.” He said like she just knocked over a lamp or got her fingers stuck in one of those Chinese finger traps. A tiny part of his brain told him he’d be doing the same damn thing if he got dropped into a new world with a new Stephanie, but that was completely different.
“I assume he remembers the last Harley. She shot him, but then they stole a baby together?” Eddie raised his brow suspiciously like he was reciting the gossip column from Crazy People, but didn’t really understand it. “It won’t take him long to realize you’re a little more-” Eddie’s eyes widened and his mouth thinned to keep himself from word vomiting anymore. He shook his head. “Nope. No.” He snapped his fingers at her. “No. I’m not enabling. Stop it.”
That wasn’t fair. That wasn’t fair at all! Harley’s mouth opened into a small, upset ‘o’ as she waited for whatever word Eddie had been about to say to make itself known. As his own lips pressed together, refusing, she sat forward, indignation clear on her face. The girl pressed the flat of a palm to the table and wagged a finger in the man’s face.
“You can’t do that! Tell me what you were gonna say!” She didn’t care about this... baby or the fact that her other self had shot him. (He’d survived, right?) -- Well, she cared, but more than that, she wanted to know what she was a little more of.
Eddie frowned deeply at her, almost to the point where it looked like he was doing an impression of the Dark Knight. He tried to cross his arms, but the sling made it look awkward and uncomfortable. “No. You’ll take whatever I’m going to say and use it against me. I can hear it now, Oh Ivy did you hear what Eddie said? Mista J will definitely take me out on a romantic date now,” Eddie mocked her with what was easily the worst Brooklyn accent impersonation anyone had ever heard, ever before snapping back to his usual, geeky know-it-all tone. “Then Ivy is going to feed me to her plants. You’re going to have daisies spouting riddles for weeks.”
But, the fact was, he couldn’t deny her a hint. He couldn’t keep himself from making it a game. Giving an frustrated hmph or two, he snatched a napkin from under his coffee cup and picked up his pen again. “Fine.” He started scribbling out words on the napkin in clear, slanted blocked letters. ICVUOVASI. He slapped the napkin down in front of her and stood up. “You figure it out.” He smirked at her, bent down to kiss her cheek goodbye and then left the coffee shop before she could solve it in front of him. Riddler never liked that part.
The mocking imitation earned Eddie a frown in return, but Harley didn’t have a chance to get a word in edgewise. Before she could so much as scoff at his poor impression, he was scratching out something on a napkin, then standing to say goodbye. It all happened too fast. Had she been a little more on top of her game, perhaps she would have been able to ring the little green man by the collar of his silly t-shirt before he scampered away. As it was, she sat there, blinking, unsure.
“But -” He was gone. Harley looked at the napkin. At the letters indenting it. ICVUOCVASI. Now what could that possibly mean? The girl sighed and stood. The napkin was stuffed unceremoniously into her large handbag for later. She ripped her sucker from where she’d left it by her empty cup, brushed off the fibers of paper, and popped it back in her mouth. Riddles were fine. But, leaving like that? No, no. The girl muttered to herself as she straightened her skirt, smoothing it irritatedly, and stood. “Ooh. That man.”
Harley shook her pigtails and left the dank coffee shop, bursting into the warmth of the sun. She squinted up the street. She’d find Eddie again, and she’d make him tell her.