addy and steph are the (blondebat) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2013-02-19 03:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | door: dc comics, riddler, stephanie brown |
who stephanie and eddie.
what valentine's day at their favorite place.
when last thursday, before plot.
where IKEA.
warning too much presh.
This was the best Eddie had felt in a long time. Well, figuratively speaking. For someone who had lived for so many decades hatching plans, playing the same games and falling deeper into his own riddled obsessions, Eddie was starting to feel time pass differently. Days were significantly longer alone in his lair, nights were significantly shorter when he could convince Stephanie to wrap around him. Months were eras, weeks were trends. Some days were spent following around dull socialite mistresses and business partners, others were lost back in his computer lab researching missing mobster children and runaway wives. He kept busy, Riddler always kept busy, but nothing felt eternal anymore. That kept him on his toes. That kept him from taking anything, especially Stephanie, for granted. This newfound sense of simple time could make him miserable sometimes, but when things were good they were damned good. Taking simple joy in goofing off in the giant Ikea furniture store with Stephanie wasn’t something he could have done before this Gotham. There had to be mayhem, shouting and puzzles that threatened lives and set the police sirens on fire. But, all of that seemed so pointless when he knew what he’d lose for a simple, rookie egotrip. Besides, tonight had symbolism, not just in the cheesy hearts and flowers of Valentine’s Day, but in the simple fact that their relationship was built off of lighthearted jokes about Ikea and Swedish meatballs. Simple little bits of trivia and meaningless things to everyone else in the whole world besides them. That was something the Riddler could appreciate. And, when they walked into the nearly deserted Ikea, he looked around to see that no one was even remotely as happy as they were. Giddy, even. Most of the people left were single and hoping this would be the one place to avoid people like them or so severely unhappy couples that they seemed to be foregoing the holiday altogether in favor of shopping for furniture. Eddie would be lying if he said he didn’t get a kick out of that. Dressed completely normal in jeans, dark green chuck’s and a black shirt that had a d20 in white across the front, he looked as if this wasn’t a first date at all. But, that’s what made it special. Eddie was always in suits, ties and shiny shoes. Dressing down was his dressing up in that very few people he knew had the privilege of seeing him look just like everyone else. “Living room section first?” He asked, tugging at her hand as his hair swooped in a messy tilt to look at her. “I seem to recall you mentioning a need for a modern chic chandelier that looks vaguely like a sea creature.” Eddie said with a smile and then fought it away to look very serious. Because they obviously were not just here to play. The past few days had been the best Steph could remember in a long time. Definitely since before the plague, probably since just after Christmas. January was a trying month on everyone in Gotham, particularly the blonde bat and her green man, and February hadn’t looked to be much better. Bouncing out of Nick’s head and getting stuck in limbo for a couple weeks before landing in the head of some con artist? Yeah, she couldn’t say she was happy about that, and she had to bargain with the girl to get some time. (Namely, not busting her chops when she manipulated her way into some high roller’s pants and wallet.) The time that she did get in Gotham, though, was more than worth it. Her nightlife had picked back up again, slow slow slow but still happening, and it felt right to be back out as Batgirl. But, mostly, patching up things with Eddie gave her the motivation to fight for her time on her side of the door. It suddenly felt that this time around this could be normal, or, at least, as normal as things could be for someone in this city. On a day when couples in Gotham were spending exorbitant amounts of money on expensive gifts and dressing to the nines to go to the best five star restaurants the city can offer, Stephanie couldn’t think of a better way to spend it than at IKEA with her...well, her not-boyfriend. Yeah, maybe they still weren’t official, and she wouldn’t say they were until he actually asked, but she and Eddie sort of transcended any kind of label. They were more than people dating or partners. They were two people that were, against all odds, stupidly in love with each other. Goofily. It showed in the way they beamed at one another and tugged at each other’s hands and looked positively elated walking into the furniture store when every other person looked like pallbearers at a funeral. Miserable and mourning the day. The Riddler and Batgirl, in their civilian clothes, looked like nothing but children in a candy store though, and Stephanie liked that this was almost like their own little secret. A special inside joke that fundamentally started this relationship, that started the slow transformation from seething enemies to lovers. She glanced at him sideways, lacing her fingers with his, and a smile curled up her lips. “Yes, I do. That and some shelves. Oh, oh!” She snapped some fingers as if just remembering something else. “And I saw this coffee table with built-in bowls. I definitely need at least two of those.” She fell into step with him as they strolled over to the living room section. Dressed in skinny jeans, purple Converse sneakers, and her Union Jack shirt, she didn’t look anything like the symbol she purported at night. Those bags under her eyes were still there even with a healthy helping of foundation on them, and her cheekbones were still pronounced, and the sweater she wore covered up the smattering of pink across her arms (the ones up her neck were still noticeable). But, she looked happy at least. Being around Eddie could almost always make her happy. “Built in bowls sound unsanitary.” He said suspiciously, letting go of her hand as he walked into the tiny Ikea display room. It was one of those bright, stylish things that he could imagine middle, upper class Gothamites sitting around for their wine tasting parties or cheese platter arrangements that really spoke to the mediocrity that he felt about that particular part of the city. Old Gotham was filled with the jumbled, puzzled inconsistencies where every piece of furniture had some weird history and each room was just a little off. That said, he had an affection for cheap, strange little chairs and decorative bowls that were remnants of the more extravagant eras of modern furniture. Like a metal retro-style wall clock shaped like a star with sharp, deadly looking edges. Or a shelf painted in some chrome pastel of green seafoam technicolor blue. He could close his eyes and see himself sitting in his Gotham back in 1964 with his plans and riddles spread across the coffee table and walls while he sat happily with his very own genius. And, he wondered how he went so long being happy with just that. And, at what point did he start feeling lonely? All of that was so blurred with Stephanie around. He pointed to an end table. A very normal seeming end table and took a seat on a bright white couch that looked like only clean freaks could own. “I’m not letting you buy that. I know. I know we came here and you’ve been talking about buying that specific end table for weeks now, but I’m not letting you have it.” Eddie spoke like they had been some married couple for ages on the very verge of killing each other. “Honestly? I’m jealous of that damned thing. I just took you here so you can see it and want it before I make sure someone else takes it.” It sounded very malicious and petty, but the look he gave up to her was fighting back loving and affectionate. Eddie made himself comfortable, stretching his arm across the back of the couch with his leg crossed so his ankle sat on his knee. He looked very much like a middle aged man who had it up to here with women. Being a college student able to afford things of a certain bracket, most of her furniture was a hodgepodge of IKEA, Target, and whatever she scrounged from her mother’s house. She was quite familiar with the cheaper products, but all this looked very middle class, young married couple. When Eddie finally did get to see her apartment, which would be soon, she knew it would kind of really hammer down that collegiate, poor student feel. Damian there or not. Either way, she loved her space. It was perfectly Stephanie -- comfortable and lived in with splashes of her around the apartment. Purple walls in her bedroom and waffle-shaped throw pillows on the couch. But, he didn’t know about those yet, and she was keeping her space tucked away as a sort of last frontier for their relationship. For now, at least. Stephanie missed his hand in hers almost the second he pulled away, and she snatched for dead air for a moment before following him into the first display piece. Too bright, too modern, too unpersonal. She blinked once, then twice, and then realized what Eddie was doing. Crossing her arms and rolling her eyes, she sighed a heavy, irritated sigh. “We’re getting it,” she snapped, fighting the twitch of the corner of her lip. “You’re never home anyway, what does it matter what I get? You’re jealous because I’d spend more time with a goddamn coffee table than you. Why don’t you stop spending all your time at the office and come home for dinner?” See, she could play along too. Faux-glaring at him on the couch, she toed at his foot before walking past and picking up a decorative little owl. “I’m filling the apartment with owls, too, and you can’t do anything about it.” “Maybe if you were a better cook, there I said it.” He nearly shouted the last part, giving a daring look to a morose couple that seemed alarmed at this sudden outburst of domestic fighting. Eddie gave a sweet little raise of his brow when she brushed her foot against his, but then it was back to playing. “I would rather have bar peanuts for dinner for the rest of time, space and post-space than have your Chicken Cordon Bleu again. I mean who are you trying to impress with something like that?” A very old fashioned huff like he was recreating a typical masculine, white collared man from decades ago. The kind who could smoke a cigar and pour wine without ruining the integrity of either. The kind who listened to Sinatra the same way someone listened to a book on tape. No true emotion could leak out besides dominant coldness. “How dare you? How dare you bring owls into this?” He got to his feet, snatching the owl from her hand and giving it a look like it killed his mother. “After what you and Owlman did on my duvet! Owlman! That smug bastard with all his money and fancy high tech equipment.” Eddie turned away from her dramatically, all woe in his stance as he clutched the owl like a totem. “Just when I was going to buy you a lakehouse. Woman, I’m going to purchase all these owls out from under you and smash them in the parking lot. Then, we’ll see who is cheating on who with Owlman.” That raised eyebrow earned him a small smile, enough for him to see but not for the scattered people who were beginning to take in the show. Now, this was probably actually brewing underneath the surface between many of the couples browsing the furniture store, but here were Eddie and Stephanie playing out the entire thing in a twisted sort of tableau in their IKEA display. It almost seemed ludicrous if anyone overheard what they were actually saying, but then again stranger things had happened in Gotham before. A middle aged man and a young, college-aged woman fighting over owl statuettes couldn’t have been the strangest they’d seen. “Yes, owls!” Steph flailed, and her voice sounded heavy with tears. Though, if he sneaked a glance, he’d see her blues were all alight with playfulness. But, no. They had to be serious right now. She snatched at the owl when he took it from her hand, an exasperated sigh filling the quiet space around them, but she didn’t take the porcelain owl from his hand. Instead, she tugged at his shirt, fingers curling and twisting into the fabric, and she tugged. “The counselor said we needed to stop ignoring all of it. It happened. I slept with Owlman, and now I’m obsessed. You need to help me.” Tug, tug, and the twitch of her lips. “Help me.” “You probably slept with our counselor, too.” He murmured down at her, looking at her fingers rubbing against the fabric of his shirt and then the owl. Eddie made a move like he was going to walk away from her, but then decided their relationship was just too important for some owl to get in the way of it. “Is that the kind of man you want?” He set the owl down on a nearby shelf, wrapping his arms around her to tilt a smiling kiss on her jaw that was for them and not any of the poor customers that were watching. “You want me to start wearing goggles? I’ll do it. I’ll go to the snowboarding store and buy some of those bright yellow ones.” The act started to break, his smile turning into a goofy little grin that he had to bite his lip to keep from turning into a full on laugh. “And, those idiotic metal wings that constrict his arms so even the Joker could get a punch in. I could make those out of those shelves.” Eddie actually could make a stupid Owlman costume, but that was beside the point. “Yeah. I can tell. You like that.” He pulled her closer, a little too close for a public place where they were supposed to be dramatically fighting and pressed his lips against hers. He could practically hear the internal groaning from couples who had thought for just a second there was someone in this furniture store that had it worse than them. If Eddie was guilty of one thing, it was enjoying giving false hope. Her eyes fluttered shut momentarily when he pressed his lips to her jaw, and the sigh almost gave away the entire act all together. Fingers twisted, twisty twist, into the fabric of his shirt for a moment longer until she let go in a dramatic flair. “I just want a man that will be there, okay? No more secretaries and hookers from Old Gotham or that pretty blonde student you keep going back to.” She smiled mischievously then, especially when she caught him trying to hide away his grin and laugh. Oh, she could go on doing this for ages and ages, and if he kept looking like that, she could go on for ages longer. And she would have gone on forever, but he wrapped his arms around her, and her brain stuttered to a stop. “Oh, baby,” she said against his lips. “Forgive me? I promise I’ll never sleep with another person behind a mask.” Looking over his shoulder, she spotted a grumpy, thirty-ish man scowling in their direction. She beamed over at him before nipping at her favorite spot, that little expanse of skin between Eddie’s ear and jaw. She stole another lingering kiss, something far too inappropriate for such a public place, but she couldn’t help it. Her arms settled around his neck, and she looked up at him. “Will we get past all this? Owlman, and your little secretaries. We’re better than all this, right? What will our friends say to us if we break up?” But before he could respond, she kissed him again, fingers tangling into the dark curls of his hair as if she completely forgot they were in the middle of some furniture. They couldn’t control themselves, after all. The other day on her campus told them that. Public or not, they didn’t care. Once they were in close proximity, all bets were off. Symbols and hidden meanings still bloomed and strung together in everything around him. So, he saw the Owlman and their imaginary friends as something else, something real as he constructed a pattern out of a harmless game of pretend. Now this was about holding her in his arms despite the cowl, despite her family and despite the nefarious people he called friends. She never expected him to act like one of her crime fighters, just stay with her when things got bad. And, he always did stay. He dipped his head down, dark hair pulling a little against the hold of her fingers because he liked the feeling of it and smiled to himself when she kissed the one little secret spot she told him was her favorite. A tiny little hint to their puzzle. “I don’t give a damn about our friends.” He told her simply in that old fashioned way that was more him than the man he was just pretending to be and with a bluntness that seemed like the sort of thing that needed to be gently encouraged out of him. She had been (perhaps unintentionally) encouraging a lot of that out of him, lately. Sure, he always tried to be honest with her, but never strayed from his ability to talk about one thing when he was really talking about something else. He had only been this blunt with himself when no one was paying enough attention to the little green man in his suit get introspective. He turned his face to catch her lips again and pulled her down messily on the couch with arms and legs strewn everywhere in the tiny exhibit. They looked like two drunks who crashed some posh party for the sole purpose of making out on someone else’s couch. He kept his arms wrapped around her, even at the strangle angle the had fallen backwards onto the couch and nearly assaulted her with affection like he had been holding it back since they walked into the store. It took great restraint to keep it all very made for television, but getting kicked out of their date so soon was not part of the plan. “Stephanie.” He pulled back to look at her, eyes still a little heavy and dazed from being so close to her. “Wouuullld youuuu-” Eddie loved a good question and it looked like he was about to ask her the one he promised her, before a smile lept across his face in betrayal. “Accompany me to the kitchen section.” He said with curt politeness. Steph was a little startled the sudden frankness in his words and suspected greatly that this wasn’t all just part of the act. She had realized since they’d gotten back together that he tended to be more honest with her. Or, rather, he forwent the riddles and puzzles and throwing her through loops to figure out what he was thinking. Now, of course, he didn’t lose the riddles completely, but the blonde bat knew she could needle him into working through it for her eventually. Maybe it was an after-effect of betraying her trust so much following the Lazarus Pit mess, or maybe she’d wormed her way into the chaotic maelstrom known as his brain and could pull the strings as she pleased. The idea scared her a little, those implications, but not enough to ever even actually want to do anything about it. Not that Riddler wasn’t coiled around her brain as well, of course. Oh, he knew he twisted her around his thin, thieving fingers; she was like putty in his hands. Raising an eyebrow, she opened her mouth to reply with something in character, but deceptively underlined with Stephanie as well, but he hushed her up very quickly. She hummed as he caught her lips with his and giggled in surprise when he pulled her down to that white couch. “Oh, sweetheart,” she said, in between kisses and still in character, but the affection was all the same. Scorned, cheating housewife or not. “Forget about our friends. Forget Owlman. You’re the most important thing to me in the entire world. Let’s get run away to Las Vegas and get married. Again.” She smirked against his lips, arms tugging at his neck to draw him closer as she crushed another kiss against his lips, and she had to fight the overwhelming urge to trace kisses and bites down his neck. When he pulled back, she brushed her fingers against his sharp cheekbone and gazed up at him with expectant eyes. And, she should have known he was pulling at her leg, but there was that small whisper of hope that had her stomach warm, but when he smiled? Oh, she did, too, even if there was an edge to it that said if we weren’t in public. “I think we’ve thoroughly tested this couch. I don’t think it’ll do. And that coffee table will clash with the walls and our armchairs. No, yeah, let’s go to the kitchen section. Maybe we can find a spice caddy in that specific shade of green.” She nudged him until he gave her enough room to slip out from underneath him. Adjusting herself dramatically and fluffing her hair, she shot a grin towards the couple staring at them from the next display over. She held out her hand to Eddie and wiggled her fingers and smiled brightly towards him when she turned back. He happily slid to his feet after her, hopping a little in her wake before curling his fingers between hers and holding on tightly. Yes, his illness was frightening for anyone who thought about it too long. Even though it’d never fall back to what it was before or mutate into something worse while she still held her hand out for him, that didn’t mean he wasn’t capable of being a little off. A little too eccentric. And, maybe one day that’d get them in trouble. But, for now he just wanted to enjoy Valentine’s Day the way lovers were supposed to. Not with all the reluctant buying of flowers or awkward expensive dates, but this kind of closeness that he’d never have with anyone else. “Oh, you know how much I love Chartreuse. Or the dramatic Dartmouth.” He said them like they were his favorite foods. Like they were memories he hadn’t recounted in a long time. The truth was, Eddie was convinced he could look good in any green. Including the bright lime or Ivy’s forest. It didn’t matter. It was his color. The kitchen area was all but quiet with hushed, lonely looking people turning faucets and running their hands over fake sinks. He leaned up against a dramatic black counter that looked like it belonged in some bachelor pad. “Tell me what your kitchen looks like.” Eddie asked, or rather demanded with a look over at her like he was actually interested. And, he did want to know what her place looked like. Sure, it was simple enough to guess what a college girl lived like, but she always had little quirks that surprised him. He moved like he was going to touch her, to pull her close, but instead reached for a basket of fake lemons behind her, taking three and started juggling them with the ease of a man who worked at carnival for much too long. She squeezed his fingers when he entwined them with hers, and she looked up at him with an edgy smirk. “Do you know every single shade of green ever to exist?” She wouldn’t be surprised if he did. His mind was an expanse of information, an encyclopedia of factoids and knowledge, and Stephanie couldn’t fathom cramming even a quarter of what Eddie knew into her head. He would always be the brains of their operation, there was no doubt in her mind, and that didn’t really bother her at all. He filled in the missing pieces of her, and she did the same for him. It was just how they worked. Her finger traced invisible patterns on the black marble countertop next to his hip until he reached forward to grab the lemons behind her. She quirked an eyebrow up high and bit down on her bottom lip to fight an impressed little smile. He could surprise her in the smallest ways, in the simplest way, and Steph liked it that way. Sure, he was bombastic plenty of the time, but she liked the quiet moments. The soft smiles, the hungry eyes, the juggling fake fruit. Simple, silly little things that she only saw. “My kitchen,” she started off, humming thoughtfully, and she snatch at a lemon to see if he would fumble before slowly wheeling around on her heels and pacing around the countertops. “It’s tiny. My apartment in general isn’t that big. I’m lucky I have two bedrooms. But yeah, it’s small. Fridge, stove, all that junk. Typical stuff. It used to be a boring beige.” She drummed her fingers against a countertop that looked close to hers. Beige and boring and very unlike Stephanie Brown. “But I got really bored and frustrated one day and started to work on painting it. The walls are--well. When I’m finished the whole kitchen is going to be painted.” She pulled out her phone and skimmed through the pictures to pull up one of the kitchen.The picture showed a bright, almost sky blue paintjob with fluffy white clouds painted on the walls. The cabinets matched the blue, and in one corner, warm yellows hinted at the beginning of a sun. “My landlord won’t be happy, but I will be.” If anyone else had tried to take one of those flying lemons out of his juggling circle, he would have easily evaded them. A small turn of direction, a harder toss to snatch it right of her reach. And, he wished she knew that, though suspected a large part of her did. But, instead of the vaudeville grace everyone got to see, he fumbled as she reached for a lemon, dropping down on a knee so he could catch it just in time so it wouldn’t hit the floor. “Not nice, Stephanie Brown.” He looked up at her with a grin, slowly raising back up to his feet as the circle of lemons continued. “Throw a fourth one in there.” So, maybe he was showing off. A bat could leap from tall buildings, but an ex-super villain could juggle four lemons. Still, he listened closely to her describe the kitchen, letting it weave like a story or a math problem through his mind. Eddie even leaned in to look at the pictures on her phone, fighting back a sweet, charmed smile that felt unexpected and a little awkward across his lips. He knew she’d put her own flair on the thing like she did with just about everything else, but he wasn’t quite expecting that. He took a moment longer to look at the pictures than he usually did to process anything and glanced up at her with an open mouth like he was going to say something, but one of the lemons flopped messily in the air. Then another went too high and bounced off the counter he was leaning on. Eddie made a grab for the third and fourth, but accepted that he lost once they slipped through his fingers. They didn’t have a whole lot in common, but that streak to take something and improve it ran pretty deeply in both of them. One of the rooms she hadn’t seen yet was his study that was decorated with old computer parts and brass gizmos that he spent careful time arranging like a puzzle he could only see. It was a different kind of expression than the dawn she painted in her kitchen, but the feeling behind it was the same. He smiled and moved to pick up the lemons that hadn’t already bounced clear out of the kitchen area before carefully placing the two he could get his hands on back in the basket, pulling a face like nothing had been changed. “Most people would have put the sun already in the sky somewhere.” He said finally, turning back to look at her. “Dawn indicates change. For the better, of course. I like that.” Riddler didn’t know which way the sun was facing, but he knew Stephanie well enough that she wouldn’t put dusk on her wall. That wasn’t the kind of person she was. “I like it when you say my name like that,” she said, beaming down at him as he caught the plastic fruit she had tried to snatch from him. The blonde bat knew she had him wrapped around her finger, knew how important she was to him, and she knew that she got underneath his skin. And, she loved that, but she mostly loved how she got to see a side of him that no one in Gotham really laid eyes on. Clumsy, stammering, and with soft affection no one in the cowl would ever believe him capable of. The way he stumbled over words or gazed down at her when he pressed her body against hers or that soft little smile, all of that let her know how much he was hers. Steph jumped when Eddie stumbled with the lemons, even if that was what exactly she had been aiming for beforehand, but she didn’t scramble to help him pick them up, instead opening and closing cabinets and running her fingers on the wood panelling inside. “Collects too much dust,” she said as if she was the world’s greatest cabinet inspector. When he turned around and filled the basket again, she tucked her hands behind her back and whistled as she strolled away from the destruction they left in their wake. Onto the next one. “It’s kind of lame,” Steph said with a shrug, glancing over her shoulder with a small smile. “But, I like it. It makes happy when I can’t turn to...other things to make me happier.” Namely, him, but she didn’t want to feed into that ego of his. He followed after her, swinging his arm around her shoulders. “It’s not lame.” Eddie told her simply, but really what did he know? He thought dressing up in green suits, bowler hats and domino masks was cool. While the rest of Gotham could express themselves in darkness and violence, he prefered snappy little games. And, he knew that was just fine with her. If she was looking for mumbling macho aggression, Stephanie would not find it here with the slight man strolling through Ikea like he could steal everything in it without breaking a sweat. That was the man the rest of Gotham knew. But, here in his street clothes and his arm draped around her shoulder with a goofy smile on his face, he was something a little more normal. Eddie raised a brow like he was going to needle her about other things, but with her just giving a knowing look seemed to be enough to get a subtle reaction. Like when she pursed her lips to hold back a smile or her cheeks flushed as her eyes darted away. “I should get you something here. No. I want to get you something.” Because the distinction between should and want was important with a man like him. He believed in memorabilia as most geeky men did and liked the thought of her having one thing in her apartment to remind her of him. Like the necklace and ring neither of them seemed to part with. “But, we have to set some ground rules. It has to be something you’ll use or put on display. I’m not buying you a gift to hide in a box to be forgotten. Nothing disposable like a candle or a plant you aren’t going to water. And, you can’t smash it. No matter how mad you get at me. I’ll know.” She settled easily into his arms, slipping her own arm around his waist to tug him closer. Fingers twisted into the fabric of his shirt by his hip and dug in there as if clawing for what was underneath. Greedy and desperate and wanting nothing more than to sneak away and find a little alcove or corner or something to claim him as hers once again. But, that could be for later. For now, Steph was content with wrapping her arm around him and he wrapping his around her. She did blush at that knowing look, and her eyes gave away everything for a moment before looking ahead. Still, she glanced back up to him and smiled a bright little smile when he suggested he would get her something. "How would you know? Is this your way of putting a camera in my place without me knowing?" The raised eyebrow and blossoming smirk told him she was joking, of course. She tugged against that fabric at his hip again. "Okay." The blonde bat beamed up at her green man. "You choose." “The thought didn’t even cross my mind.” He assured her about the camera, but with a grin like they both knew that wasn’t even a little bit true. His expression wobbled at her tugging at his shirt, indulging a little on the small signs of affection she offered. That she couldn’t help. Since she had returned, all they seemed to be doing was grasp at each other and he could probably calculate the time he could stand being just out of her reach. Maybe they’d never get back to the way it was before the plague, but tonight it didn’t seem so bad. All those stolen moments on rooftops and the time she hunted him down in some old couple’s apartment seemed so far away. For now, anyway. “I have to pick?” He scanned the floor with a thoughtful look, reaching down to capture her in a kiss before strolling off in a different direction. “I’m not getting you a rug, that’ll give you ideas. An obnoxious light will give you a headache.” Eddie zagged towards a wall of clocks and crossed his arms. In the day of phones and computers, wall clocks were nearly outdated. Especially ones that weren’t even remotely digital. But, he liked that. A clock would be as useful as it was decorative and would tick tock when her apartment went quiet. Eddie reached for one with green trim (naturally) and flipped it around to see if it had any other function besides telling time. “Ahah.” He murmured, holding it up as he pushed a button to make it glow. Tugging against Eddie’s clothing, pulling him closer, digging her fingers into him, it was all almost subconscious, a second nature sort of desperation to keep him so close that neither of them could breathe. It felt like a millenium had passed since Christmas, like they had lived multiple lifetimes and were just now crawling out from underneath the dust. And, she was still angry, she was. That edginess wouldn’t go away anytime soon; the whisperings of the remnants of the Lazarus Pit made sure of that. She couldn’t let him go though. Wouldn’t let him go. Did that say something of her? Maybe. Maybe she should have shoved him away again, severed ties completely, and make a clean cut when she came back in Siobhan’s brain. But, Stephanie didn’t think that could conceivably ever happen, which showed in the way she pressed herself into the kiss and snatched at air when he strolled away. Oh, no, despite her best effort, and despite the logic, she couldn’t wriggle herself out of the mental, emotional, and aching grip he had on her. She followed a couple of paces behind and swung her arms back and forth casually. Her hand brushed against little things here and there, and she only knocked over one stand-up lamp, which she quickly pushed back into place, and stammered an apology to the closest employee. She was all embarrassed blush when she finally caught up to Eddie, and she rolled her eyes when she saw what he picked. “Of course you did,” she said, laughing loudly as the glow came on. Green and glowing and constantly ticking. Of course. She held her hand out for the clock, then began inspecting the almost obsolete piece of technology. “Of course,” she repeated softly, bright grin softening to an affectionate smile. “I guess it won’t clash with my decor. We can’t have my feng shui out of whack.” Blues glanced up, and they glittered with playful teasing. He grinned proudly at his choice, not just because it was a perfect representation of him, but from the way she turned it over in her hands and agreed with a of course. “I don’t think that thing feng shui’s with anything.” Still proud. Riddler’s style was never to pretty up Gotham with his neon green and bright lights. He liked a little clashing. Taking the clock from her hands, he wrapped his arms around her and tilted his face close to hers, but not enough to steal a kiss or two. “Now, promise me I can trust you to actually hang that thing somewhere in your apartment. I might actually get my feelings hurt if you don’t and no one wants to see me when I get moody.” Because everyone in Gotham knew he could be a pain in the ass, but he was ten times worse if he was in a rotten mood. Of course, standing there in Ikea beaming down at her like some kind of buffoon, his threat seemed a little empty. Finally, he tilted his chin just enough to kiss her. First that kind of playful innocent nip that new couples were guilty of, but then he wanted another. Without hesitation, he pressed his lips against hers again sweetly and longer than any kind of public affection should be allowed. His arms wrapped to hold onto her back and waist so that he could press up against her and he deepened the kiss without the usual nonverbal beg. Eddie had been good so far at suppressing the kind of want he had for her and he had planned on behaving himself through the rest of the night. But she liked his funny little clock. She understood why it belonged in her apartment. So, his gentleness was quickly replaced by a familiar electric desire that seemed completely unconcerned with anything except for her. She laughed. Yeah, that damn clock wouldn’t fit into any sort of style and clash with every little thing around it, but Stephanie didn’t think twice about whether or not she would hang it up in her apartment. Of course, she would. She wanted to. Her relationship with Eddie drummed up no feelings of shame or otherwise, and she wanted to show it off like her fellow college students did. PDA, cute phone backgrounds, Facebook statuses. And, while she knew their relationship was different than anything else the girls her age could even fathom, there was also always a sense of normalcy between the two of them that made Stephanie think they could have that one day, or at the very least, their own definition of whatever all of that was. Differences, age gaps, and alter egos aside. In any case, she would display any trinket he gave her. The necklace hung from her neck every waking moment, didn’t it? She opened her mouth to retort with just that, but he caught his lips with hers, and she settled into that first kiss with a sigh. Then, he claimed her lips again, and she pushed back roughly, fingers twisting in the front of his shirt and tugging hard. Greedily, she pressed into him, too, arms eventually wrapping tightly around his neck, and she stumbled back far enough to lean against some display. His desire fed into hers, and when he captured her like this, she was uncontrollable. Incredibly so. Her fingers itched, and her body ached, and her lips pressed and parted. “Where do you want it?” Stephanie asked breathlessly between more stolen kisses. “Kitchen? Living room? Bedroom?” He hummed against her lips, moving to kiss her neck and run his hands through her blonde curls. “Bedroom.” Eddie confirmed, harking back to the first night they spent together with a dorky little smirk and nearly dropped the damned clock trying to hold onto her. “Let’s go find a good replica of your room and figure out where you want to hang it.” Which was a not so sly way of asking her to roll around on a couple beds with him, but hell wasn’t that the main reason why they were there? Besides possible the Swedish meatballs? Eddie kissed her again, then again against her cheek right under that dark circles he could see through her foundation and tug, tugged her towards the bedroom displays. There were a couple different set ups, none of them quite what he imagined for her, but he settled on a lightly colored room that looked fit for a college student. The bed was small, at least a size smaller than his, with pastel colored sheets and a hanging lamp shaped like some kind of nebulous. He gestured towards the bed for her to sit or lay down and then held the clock against the right wall. “The important thing is putting it where it can’t be overshadowed by other items.” He propped it up on a shelf and took off a picture of some fake friends and a stuffed octopus. “Like that. You don’t need this other pesky stuff.” He tossed them on another shelf haphazardly and then crawled onto the bed next to her. Truthfully, Eddie looked pretty silly laying on a bed like this, but he didn’t seem to even notice. A man who walked around in green suits all day naturally had a very small understanding of what looked strange. Oh, she knew exactly what he wanted, and she raised an eyebrow in challenge. Did he really want them to get kicked out so quickly? That cocked eyebrow wasn’t refusal, however, and it showed in the way she pressed into the kiss and let him tug her along with a burst of giggles. “Is this what you imagine my bedroom looks like?” Steph asked with a bright, mischievous smile as they reached his proffered display, and she followed him in. “Do you stay up all night wonder about what it’s like?” After a quick, amused glance around the space, she leaned against the bed, arms bracing herself as her eyes trailed his progress. Eddie looked ridiculous stalking around the fake-room, and Steph briefly wondered what the scattered people passing by thought of the two. If they thought he was her big brother, or an uncle, or if people could sense the chemistry and longing desire oozing between the two of them. Slowly, she shifted herself back from the edge of the bed, mischievous smile curving into a smirk meant only for him. Now, she knew that others were milling around nearby, but whenever Eddie was around her, it never seemed like other people encroached. Like when he came to visit on her campus, once they met up, nothing else mattered but Eddie and Stephanie together. She laughed, a loud, joyful thing, when he shoved the other items off the shelf. “I’ll be sure to let my stuffed octopus know that I don’t need it when I get home,” she teased, and she thought this might be his subtle way of asking her to focus only on him. Which they both knew she couldn’t do. She frowned quickly, but shook the thought away when he slithered next to her. Turning on her side, she grabbed at his hand and laced their fingers together. “I’ll hang it right over my bed,” she murmured before stealing a quick kiss. Eddie couldn’t help being a little greedy about her attention and she wasn’t wrong about the subconscious sweep of other items that were neither familiar or wanted by him. In truth, he didn’t really want all of her focused on him because that wasn’t healthy for either of them, but he did want his own shelf. Why was that so much to ask? “At least keep that cephalopod out of the bedroom.” He smiled down at their entwined fingers and leaned his head down on the pillow to look up at her. “That clock would drive you crazy if Gotham wasn’t so noisy all the time.” And, maybe that was true for him, too. But, the Ikea was quiet enough and here she was still fitting herself against him like the perfect puzzle piece. He gazed up at her for a little while and then shook his head gently. Closing his eyes. “Stephanie.” And, there was some nervousness in his voice that he knew was unfounded, but this was a big question. Eddie opened his eyes, a dark, wide gaze up at her with a tiny little smirk despite trying to be oh so serious. “Would you be my girlfriend?” He said softly, resisting the urge to wiggle his eyebrows or grin at her. No. He’d be good about this. She chuckled quietly. “I’ll let the cele--cela--I’ll give the octopus the bad news.” Eddie certainly had his own shelf in her life and then some, and maybe that bothered other people in her life, but she wasn’t ashamed of it. Sure, he irked her incessantly sometimes, and the anger over what happened during the plague bubbled under her skin, but she loved him. That didn’t mean that she would become some obsessive, cloying teenaged girl over him, spending every moment of every day with Eddie. She hadn’t started that before, and Steph was too stubborn and independent to focus all her time on one thing. Still, he made it hard to think of much else when he was around. With a smile, she glanced up at the neon clock. “No, I’d like it anyway. I don’t mind a little noise and light.” She caught his eyes and gave him an affectionate glance. She met his gaze without hesitation, smile settling easily across her lips, and her blues narrowed a little as he began to speak. Worried about what he might be about to say, even if she suspected this was exactly what she wanted to happen. She bit back a smile, cheeks turning pink, and she knew that the smirk should make her roll her eyes, but it didn’t. No, she still bit away that smile, and then leaned in to press her lips lightly against his. “Yeah, I guess,” she mumbled against his lips, smirk curving high, and she stole another kiss. “Yes, yes, yes.” Her hand cupped his cheek, thumb brushing against his cheekbone, and caught his mouth with a greedy, yet strangely soft and affectionate crush. He made a tiny whining noise at the first response, deciding quickly in his high-speed mind that he deserved more than a I guess, but it easily dissipated at her kiss. Eddie grinned brightly, enjoying how silly and even juvenile the whole thing was despite himself. He had always been too proud to partake in something so simple or bend to the whims of some girl, but this wasn’t a compromise or a burden. It wasn’t anything like how he was sure these kinds of things went. Reaching his arms around her and pulling Stephanie against him, he deepened the kiss unapologetically. Hands sneaking around her body like they really were alone in her bedroom. And, he almost forgot about the bright lights of Ikea. The discarded octopus and the unhappy couples circling like dying sharks until he heard a very loud, sharp AHEM from the foot of the bed. He jerked his head up past her tumbling blonde hair to see an older and slightly perturbed employee giving him a look. “Right.” Eddie laughed and dropped his head back on the pillow, big dark eyes shifting to look at Stephanie. “Swedish meatballs time?” Stephanie took great pleasure needling Eddie into actually asking her to be his girlfriend, a sort of calm normalcy that she craved for the two of them. She knew it was kind of childish and spoke of her age, but she appreciated his effort. It made her stomach flip, her cheeks redden, and her eyes bright with affection. She easily lost herself in the kiss, groaning into his mouth and digging her fingers into his cheek as if she could draw him into her right then and there if she tried hard enough. But, the employee interrupted their embrace, and she laughed breathlessly while rolling her eyes. They were just testing the bed, of course. That would her excuse. Still, the older employee looked pissed, and her cheeks burned even more. “Swedish meatballs,” Stephanie stammered in agreement, rolling over him and off the bed, and when she stood, she took his hand immediately and tugged. “We can’t get ourselves on the Wall of Shame in IKEA, honey. Think about what Gotham would say.” |