who Eddie and Steph what Info sharing. when Recently! where Bludhaven. warning nothing big!
Spring air reawakened Bludhaven in the way all inner-cities did as the ice melted and the buds blossomed on the municipal-planted trees. Children’s laughter echoed through the streets late into the afternoon. The faint jingle of ice cream trucks rattled through the nooks and crannies. Criminals shook the dust off their lockpicks and weapons, and they cracked their knuckles, ready to take advantage of the looseness vibrating through the smoggy air. They licked their lips in anticipation to wrap their fingers around the best and brightest opportunities for seedy transactions and dealings. The docks spilled over with illegal activities, the parks were somewhere you avoided at night, and men and women alike walked trying to dodge eye contact as best they could. Bludhaven, honestly, was what Gotham could be at its worst. Crime Alley stretched across an entire city and settling into every single inch. A city left completely unchecked by the people who could protect it most. But, those crowds, the ones that would be scared of such talk, whispered about sightings of shadowy silhouettes staking out the worst haunts. Of figures in black like those across the bay in Gotham.
Hunched in a corner of another dirty bar in a series of dirty bars, Stephanie Brown fought a smirk in as she overheard just a thug in a series of thugs recount what he’d seen a few nights before to the slightly panicked fellow thugs who inhabited places like those. Her warm, cheap beer in hand, she rolled her eyes and grumbled a few words to the girl next to her about “some stupid shit about an overgrown bat” the men were bitching about. Frankly, she found herself indulging into the morose side of being goth a little too often. She hated Bludhaven, and she hadn’t spoken to Eddie in some time, aside from a few Morse Code messages here and there to know they were alive. She was sick of warm beers that didn’t slide down her throat easily, and she was tired of the stale stench of alcohol and sadness these people and places exuded. Steph was known for being mostly upbeat and pretty chipper, but this girl couldn’t be any different. Eddie was right; she could be a grump.
When it all got to be too much, when she couldn’t hear another asshole brag about the haul he’d stolen or the kilos of drugs he sold, she had gone out as Batgirl. The only vestige of sanity left for her in this godforsaken, fleabag city. She hadn’t done anything flashy, anything to get truly noticed, but she did rough up a couple of idiots she swore knew about Arthur’s activities. It made her feel better when all she could feel was down and lonely. Even if she wasn’t alone here. But, that didn’t mean that she didn’t feel like parts of her were missing in this damn place.
The group she’d been spending time with, or rather, the one she’d latched onto once she arrived in Bludhaven, decided suddenly to bounce to the next bar. Something about one of them looking at the bartender the wrong way, but Steph didn’t care for the details. She mentally catalogued what seemed important from what she’d heard in that place and decided to come back again another day soon. The crowd seemed to know an awful lot about recent events in places of interest, and they could be helpful. She’d thought of buddying up to bartenders here and there because she figured that they knew more than anyone, but she bet goth girls wouldn’t do that. And, Eddie had warned against getting herself noticed.
They stumbled out into the oddly warm spring air and onto the street lined with dive after dive after seedy, dirty dive. Underneath them, the subway passing by rattled the grates they stood on. Simultaneously, they all pulled out their cigarettes, and Stephanie obligingly followed, fishing through her bag for the pack she’d gotten to go along with the whole gig. She remembered smoking with her friends when she was fifteen and when she didn’t care, when she hung around with crowds just like this because that was what she was exposed to, and she didn’t quite miss the stale taste it left in her mouth, but it was all part of the act. Lighting it up, she scooted a little further away from the crowd as they scattered around the sidewalk to think about her options. She had suspicions, and she had inklings, and she had a couple of bits of evidence that pointed to Arthur Brown and his whereabouts, but she wanted something solid.
So, she leaned against the brick-laid wall of the outside of the bar -- booted foot bracing her against the surface, fishnets slinking up her legs, short black skirt almost completely covered by the tattered, baggy black shirt she wore with that leather jacket, more chains and bracelets than she usually even owned hanging from her neck and wrists -- and the psuedo goth girl got a little lost in thought. Her pink hair, pinned back with bangs swooped up, could drag anyone’s attention to her, though that nose ring, the turn of her mouth, and the dark make-up around her eyes said she wanted the opposite as she mulled over what she knew.
The problem with Bludhaven, if you asked Eddie, was that it didn’t have anything interesting going on. The locals might disagree with their drug pushing, their gangs and their gun related violence. But, where was the art? Where were the criminals who were more interested in a game instead of money? Where were the bright colors, the prop comedy, the ancient gothic horror that crept up sewer grates and toppled the citizen’s concept of normality? Give this city to the green man in his prime and he wouldn’t know what to do with it after he made it into his own chess board. Give it to the clown and it’d be burnt in a couple hours. Give it to the bat and he’d start making up his own criminals to fight. Well, maybe not this Bat. This Dark Knight should have been raised in Bludhaven. He’d be in Paris with the kitty cat or someone like it within a year of cleaning up crime and scaring criminals.
So, Bludhaven boredom hit the riddled man hard. The time he spent digitally monitoring activities were hours at the most and it became very clear to Eddie that he needed to be out on the ground to get information from people who were smart enough not to document anything. So, he knew a guy (Eddie always knew a guy) who got him a job as a temp security guard near the traintracks so he could go through paper records, watch other security guards get bought like cattle by mobsters and listen for news of particularly strange shipments. He was making headway and in a week he’d be able to pinpoint exactly when Artie planned to move his big machine, but the lull between that was killing him. Eddie was a man of bright and buzzing energy with a mind that constantly needed to be tick tocking. It wasn’t suited for a town that he couldn’t even wear green in. A town that seemed to lack charm, intelligence or any such thing he’d be otherwise drawn to. This town made doing recon feel like work. And, Eddie hated working.
Tempted and without much to do, there were numerous occasions that he had to pry himself away from the comm he shared with Stephanie or the journals just to see what she was up to. He knew exactly what neighborhood she liked to haunt, what “friends” she had made in the process and what her haircolor was now. It would have been easy this entire time to break his own rule and go find her in some mook getup, but Eddie didn’t look the type and there was a good chance it’d break his cover if he was seen hanging out with any kind of shady people that weren’t in plastic badges. So, he was good, Stephanie would have been proud how good he was about this whole thing, until he really needed her information. And, he really needed to see her.
While patrolling during his security guard shift, he made time to circle the area of seedy bars to look for her. Eddie decided that if she were around he’d call it a coincidence and if she wasn’t he’d go find her later after he was done working. It was more fun to surprise her, but at the end of the night he would write out a formal request to see her if that’s what it took. He was in luck though, because during his second mosey around the block he caught sight of the blonde turned pink bat. He smiled at her outfit, the unfriendly stance and he wondered if it’d melt off once she’d get back to Gotham. As much as he loved goth girls, he didn’t want Stephanie acting like this forever like some kid who kept making a funny face until it got stuck that way. Eddie walked past her, all cop stroll like he had some kind of authority and stopped a couple feet from her.
“Nine letter word for lingering aimlessly.” His voice was his, but without the geeky levels that tended to accompany his green personality. And, when she looked up she’d see him in full security guard gear. A crisp black buttonup shirt with a radio on the shoulder and a badge in the front like it meant anything. Black pants, shoes that were shined but still good for running, and one of those belts with mace, handcuffs, a baton and a gun. All of which he knew how to use a lot better than an average security guard, but that was just from Gotham survival 101. The best part though? Besides the five o’clock shadow and quirky fire still raging behind his dark eyes, was the officer cap that hid his trademark hairline. The whole ensemble made him really look like he had been a guard for years instead of days. Even if he was a little small for it.
Stephanie recognized the voice immediately, and she felt a jolt of familiarity shake through her body, and she had to bite down hard on her lip to fight a joyous grin threatening to blossom. It still missed that geeky lilt she savored, but she had missed the goddamn sound of his voice. She missed everything about him, frankly. The know-it-all way he waggled his finger in her face, the wide and adorable puppy dog eyes that he busted out when she was upset at him. Dinosaur story times, the way his lips felt against hers, his touch, his taste. Even the snippy little arguments they fell into with the wrong word or expression. Every damn thing. Time away from each other made everything sharper, easier to see and feel, made her appreciate him all the more. She couldn’t count the times when she wanted to press the comm in her ear and ask him to come over to her shitty apartment.
As she looked up, however, the surprise registered in the raise of her blonde eyebrows. A security guard? She wouldn’t have guessed a security guard. She rolled her tongue inside her mouth as a smirk stretched up the corner of her mouth, and bright blue eyes painted slate met his dark ones. She couldn’t even see the tell-tale curl of his dark hair on top of his head, but there he was. A little too thin for the picture-perfect idea of a security guard. Cocking one eyebrow up, she took a drag from her cigarette. “Got a problem?” she asked as the smoke billowed from her mouth, dark and gritty and with a dangerous tilt of her head. She wanted nothing more than to crush herself against him, but she had an act to keep up, and there were people hanging close enough that would not approve of a fellow goth fraternizing with some security guard.
He raised his eyebrows so far they went under the brim of his hat, mouth making a sarcastic and silent oooh shape as she brushed him off. Stephanie had to keep in character. That? He could do that. She had to keep up her cover, of course, but Eddie was so selfish that part of him didn’t give a damn about it anymore. He gave her a momentary glance that was all him before letting it fall way to a bored, suspicious security guard. “Loitering.” Voice harder than it had ever been to her. Eddie knew a lot about cops, whether he liked that or not. Cops loved talking like they had some kind of golden pass to let them treat everyone else like lesser beings. They loved using force when they couldn’t be smart. And, they hated running. Eddie put his hands on his belt, taking another step closer with just a trace of a smirk.
“Hanging around the train tracks this late at night is suspicious. You ought to go home or find a hole to drink in, ma’am.” Eddie glanced over her get up. The leather jacket, the chains, the bracelets, the fishnets and skirt all seemingly catalogued and appreciated. And, his expression changed a little, like he was feeling antsy or maybe nervous. He hadn’t really hit on a goth chick in a long time and while he knew it was his girlfriend under all of that, she was doing a really good job at playing the part of indifferent and dark. Confidence with someone like Stephanie was easy, just like it was easy for her with him, but goth chicks were the worst. Nothing, not even a cunning crossword or a riddle about flowers made them smile. Once again, Eddie Nigma had written himself into a problem.
Stephanie was glad he didn’t break character, and she suspected it took just as much self-control for him to keep himself together as it took her. The entire act felt draining at first, being someone so gruff and miserable, but the longer she was away from home and away from him let that sort of strange loneliness all of these people liked to suffer consume her just enough. People the first few days were wary, even a little suspicious, of the pink-haired girl that had suddenly appeared on the scene. Once she let the irritation of being alone twist up inside of her head, however, she settled into that dark, hardcore scene a little easier. And, in the time they’d both been in Bludhaven, she had wormed her way into some influential crowds of the city’s dark side. Filled with drug dealers, would-be assaulters, wannabe thugs, and men who knew the ins and outs of crime in the city. Invaluable connections she couldn’t lose until they were sure of the gameplan.
A gruff laugh, more grunt than her usual girlish gigglesnort, escaped her chest. “Oh, really? And, what if I don’t want to move?” she asked, voice as deadpan as the thin line of her red lips conveyed. She slumped further on the wall but kept that leg propped up, and her barely-there black skirt rode up just a smidgen more. Dressing like this wasn’t usually comfortable for Stephanie, but it injected her with a sort of self-confidence that someone wearing these clothes should carry. And, sure, being able to dangle herself in front of Eddie without him being allowed to touch her was a plus, too. A little game woven into their natural cat-and-mouse flirtation. “So,” she continued, taking another drag and blowing the smoke in his face, “what are you gonna do ‘bout it? Arrest me?” Eyebrows raised in a challenge, blue eyes almost as dark and stormy as that night in Wonder Tower, but almost all for show and mostly because of the dark, heavy make-up that lidded them. “I don’t think dweebs like you are allowed to.” Did goth chicks use dweeb? Steph almost screwed up her face, embarrassed and amused, but she started at him, jaw set and pink hair shaking a little in the wind. Maybe the quickest wink to let him know she was still, underneath it all, his little blonde bat.
Eddie broke out in a dorky coughing fit at the smoke blown in his face, flopping his hand to get it away from him. Just like everything he did, each cough was over the top and dramatic as if she had gassed him with Crane toxin. He held his finger up as if to ask for a moment, hacked into his other fist and then regained composure. Wheezing with a dorky squeek to his voice he teetered back to a regular posture and gave her a very serious look. “I could arrest you.” He couldn’t. She’d have him on the ground crying for an adult in a matter of seconds. “I could even chase you down if you start running.” Who was faster was still debatable in his head. Especially since she had been forced to take up smoking this week. Plus, wearing her out was more his style anyway. That thought alone gave him an inch of confidence back.
He smiled easily at the tiny little wink, not even bothering to hide it in this light and took a deep breath with his head cocked to the side. “So, what’s it going to be? We can do this the hard way or the-” Eddie’s voice rose a little, amused by the cliche he was about to spit out and unwilling to let it go without putting some kind of twist on it. God, he was the worst at pretending to be someone else. And, what’s more? He was definitely starting to shake a little with nervous energy that wanted to touch her, but couldn’t. Who wanted to slip back into that smarmy Riddler green he was so good at, but couldn’t afford to. His kingdom for a cane and a bowler hat. “...Go find a dark alley and make out, way.” Eddie whispered, his eyebrow wiggle hidden by the cap, but Stephanie knew it so well that she could tell it was there.
“Oh, baby,” escaped her lips in the quietest mumble before she could bite it back, and the fingers holding that cigarette twitched in betrayal. The quickest flicker of concern dawned across her face as he tumbled into that rough coughing fit, and she wanted to stop the whole act right then and there. Take him up and pepper kisses on his face and apologize for taking the goth chick thing so seriously, but they couldn’t let it all fall apart now. Not when the “friends” she had made in the past couple of days leered in the background, as if egging her goth-like attitude on, as if willing her to show the real her underneath all that black and chains. She scoffed at that look, stretching her neck and exposing her jaw in that almost teen-like way that challenged any sort of authority. As if begging him to come at her. And, yeah, she was a little angry that they’d cut off communication almost entirely, but that could be remedied. Especially when he smiled like that at her.
“I’d like to see you try, old man,” Stephanie snapped louder, only raising her eyebrows at the latter half of his suggested solution, hoping that would be enough to tell him to follow her wherever she went off to. Not like he wouldn’t anyway. Her free hand wrapped around her bag, and she nodded in the direction of the people in the distance before turning back to Eddie. Taking a daring step forward, she huffed a little more smoke up in her lungs, felt the burn long enough to make them ache, and then blew it in his face again. “Sorry,” she whispered quietly, but before he could respond, she was off running. Down the block, around the corner, and then as fast and far as she could go. She knew he’d probably catch up before she found an alley to duck into, but that was only because she wasn’t in tip-top shape. God, how she was bat-ing around the city like this, she’ll never know.
“Old man!” He shouted, incredulous and fake-angry as all hell. Loud enough for her loser friends to hear and laugh at this new girl giving some rent-a-cop trouble. That was as convincing as he was going to get. And, before he understood what the sorry was for, she blew another cloud of smoke against his face and into his eyes, nose and mouth to send him into a second coughing fit. Oh game on, Stephanie Brown. He coughed his lungs free of smoke, hands on his knees as he watched her take off and then sprinted after her a lot faster than any security guard should. Eddie wasn’t interested in building muscle or becoming a better fighter, but like any good thief he was aware he needed certain survival skills to last in Old Gotham. For the cat it might have been stealth and strength. For him, it was speed and accuracy. Speed, for escaping and wielding his cane. Accuracy for being able to mow down three thugs in a swamp before they could lay a hand on him. Here? He just needed to be fast enough to be on her heels.
And, in moments there he was. She could hear his light footsteps scratching against the pavement, but Eddie was never great at someone else taking the lead. As they got closer to the train yard and the people around them thinned to nothing, he ran a little faster so they were jusstt neck and neck. “Over there.” He nodded towards a narrow alley between two large warehouses and then veered off in its direction. Eddie slowed to a walk, taking his hat off the farther he got down the dark alley and turned to look at her. “I have to get back to my post soon.” All the gruffness dropped for that calculating nerdiness she knew him for. “I need your information. And, your love and affection. You can decide what I get first.” He grinned at her brightly, dark messy hair curling above his forehead like it was pushing to get out since he started dressing up like a security guard.
As she ran and ran, she thought, for a moment, that she would outrun him even with a mess of a smoker’s lung going on, and there was a smugness in the grin that spread across his face. Maybe she shouldn’t look so pleased to be chased by some two-bit guard, but who gave a fuck when she was little more than a blur of black and pink bolting down the street? The heavy thud, thud, thud, thud of her boots echoed through the streets, drowning out any sort of advances until Eddie closed in on her with his quick snap steps. She felt a stitch in her side, but she kept going, sharp tightness in her lungs or not, and a dizziness in her head that hadn’t been there before. Oh, this habit had to be kicked. Maybe it was the thrill of being chased by him, too, after not even seeing the tiniest breath of him for over a week. Yeah, definitely that, too. She liked the idea of him chasing her, like that night in his apartment where she made him chase her down those stairs. It wasn’t as physical that night, but the thrill and satisfaction still tasted the same.
She nearly jumped as he caught up with her, and could only nod at his direction, sharp breaths slipping through her nose even as she slowed down to a jog and skidded down the alleyway. When he turned around, she was doubled over on her knees, trying to catch her breath. “Jesus Christ,” she huffed out, “how do people do this?” Yeah, that habit was getting cut out really quick. All of the dark gruffness that bled through her was gone, and sarcastic, bright Stephanie Brown snuck through the dark clothes and silly hair color. She stood up straight after a moment, though her chest was still heaving, and she grinned brightly at him as well. Oh, god, had she missed him and that silly little curl of his hair. “Information,” she wheezed, pressing a hand to her chest as her breath finally regulated. “I’m quitting the second this is over, by the way. Sandra Dee or not.”
Stepping closer to him with her heavy boots, thud, thud echoing down the dirty alley, it felt like eons since she’d last seen him. “You were right about the area, I think,” she said after a hard swallow. “I’ve been hearing about weird, out of the ordinary activity, when these people aren’t moping about their lives or drinking shitty PBR.”
His eyebrows went up in concern at her coughing, an expression that practically mirrored the one she gave him before and he stepped forward just as she did. “Good. Although, a chain smoking Batgirl sounds like the best thing to hit Gotham.” He smirked and reached to touch the side of her face, searching for the real Stephanie Brown under all the makeup and the goofy hair. Glad that he could find it easily now that they were alone. Eddie had been remarkably immature thinking that he’d somehow find her more attractive gothed out. She looked good and hit all the right notes for him, but she wasn’t his blonde bat that he’d been missing. And, he didn’t want to be here anymore. He wanted to be back at his apartment with his arms around her as they kissed and chatted like there wasn’t always something wrong happening in their world.
Eddie’s hand lingered on her cheek for a second, smiling warmly at her before he took a step back and pulled out his glasses. Suddenly, the alley lit up with a faint violet glow and he paced in a small circle. “This place is more depressing than Soviet Russia.” He said harshly, hating the city more and more by the minute. “The streets, the people. The crime. It’s the worst.” Eddie glanced over at her, but she couldn’t see his eyes through the light his glasses were giving off. He looked like a possessed cop or some futuristic security guard. “So, you’re overhearing people getting picked up for jobs. Likely transportation of arms now and the bigger, more talented ones will be used for the actual heist.” He put one hand behind his back, the other finger pointing up in the air as he went back to pacing. “My data concludes that there might be a very large, expensive shipment from Gotham in the next couple of days. If he’s putting a thuggery force together now, that means he’s going to hit his mark that night or the next day.”
He stopped, putting together information on his glasses and humming a little in thought. “I’ve also figured out how to disable that Japanese beauty, but it has to be done when its in the process of being activated. Here, I’ll show you.” Eddie pulled out a very tiny metal box from his belt, turned it on and tossed it to her. It had a little interface like a smartphone and it was about the weight of a solid block of metal. “This is a miniature version I made myself with the information the Japanese gave me. It takes a solid minute to turn on.” Eddie pulled a tiny green tablet from another part of his belt and walked over to her, close enough that he was barely touching her side. The machine in her hand started to make a series of beeping noises at higher and higher frequencies before it distorted, crashed and then its screen turned black with a green question mark in the middle. “Out here was the only place I could practice. That thing could brick your cellphone and those streetlamps. What Artie has? Will probably accidentally black out an entire neighborhood.”
She easily leaned into his fingers, drinking up the tender touch and closing her eyes for the split second. She reached up to brush her fingers across his jaw before he snuck away again to begin rattling off his opinion on Bludhaven. Nodding, she said, “I hate this city.” And, she did. She did with all her heart. The completely dirty, dark, awful version of Gotham just a ferry ride away. “I hate it so much. And, it’s taking Damian and Dick away from Gotham.” There was a bitterness in her voice, a dip of her lips, and a downward look that Damian himself didn’t experience when he met her earlier that week. No, she couldn’t say how upset she was to his face because that wouldn’t be supportive, but she could tell Eddie how much it hurt. But, there were other matters to consider than how this depressing place was swallowing up the only other person she could really rely on here. “He’ll want to move quick,” she agreed. “They seem to think it’s a real temporary sort of thing.” She had more footsoldier type of information -- times, jobs, and personal experiences.
Steph caught the little tech thing with deft hands only a bat (or their rogues) would have, and she turned it over as he spoke, fairly marveled by the entire thing. If her father had something like this, of the size and magnitude that Eddie suspected, Bludhaven could be in a total technological blackout before they could get it. If they weren’t quick enough, that was. “This is incredible,” she said as the machines buzzed louder and louder and louder before fizzing out. “He can’t have this. This is bad.” She looked at him with wide eyes, hand still gripping the miniature version of the Japanese machine holed up somewhere in Gotham, waiting to come to Bludhaven. “This is really bad.” Her hand gripped the machine even harder. “If this one takes a minute, how long do you think the other will take?” Because he couldn’t be sure until they were there, right? “We have to take that thing down as quickly as possible. A tiny blackout? Could implode this messed up place.”
“My estimation is that it’ll take the machine at least an hour to be functional and five minutes or so for me to shut it down.” He said and after a couple more taps on his tablet the machine in her hand seemed functional again. Eddie had the power to completely destroy the whole thing or just disable it. Part of him wanted to temporarily shut it down so he could haul it away for himself, but what would the little green man even use it for? And, since when did he use other people’s toys to get his own work done? His love for technology did not outweigh his love for Stephanie or his quest to be reformed. But, grey area people like him didn’t bother making that incredibly clear. “If he’s shipping it from the Gotham docks, he’ll likely turn the thing on while it’s being transported and then use it the second it hits Bludhaven shores. Which means I get to sneak aboard and play with it.” Eddie sounded excited, too excited, but that was the curse of living in Bludhaven for more than a day. Nautical capers sounded thrilling.
He put his tablet away and then the bright glasses before holding his hand out for the tiny version of his Japanese true love. A nonverbal sign that he was done talking business if she was. Eddie was aware that Stephanie was hurting from whatever was happening with the Batfamily and in the small amount of time he could afford her, he wanted to let her vent at him. He missed being someone she could trust with anything just as much as he missed her and he knew she needed that. Even if she wouldn’t say it out loud.
“So, it’s my gig to keep him distracted while you’re shutting it down.” Obviously. It wasn’t a question, and she knew that she needed to do this. Not Eddie, certainly not any of the bats. No, she had to clean her dirty laundry with her father, and no one would solve that but herself. “Even if I can’t--if something goes wrong, at least you can stop that.” It was the first lick of doubt she’d had about the entire thing since her birthday. She understood completely that Arthur needed to be taken down, but would she be able to? Without Eddie pressing her and with everything that was happening with the Batfamily, could she throw her father’s ass in prison just like that. She sighed, then twitched out a tiny, amused smile. Only he could be practically giddy about breaking onto a boat, especially after a week in Bludhaven.
Steph eyed the piece of tech in her hand for a moment. She was astounded that he’d built a handheld, tiny version of the machine built to freeze technology, in the way she was astounded by so much about him more often than she cared to admit. Eddie was a genius and a wiz, and everyone knew that, but it was different to see it in these sort of ways. And, if they were in a different place in their relationship, if this was six months before, she wouldn’t drop the machine in his hand and completely trust that he wouldn’t wield this information and intelligence for his own personal gain. But, she did drop it in the palm of his hand; she trusted him. She reached up to rub her eyes, completely forgetting about the dark make-up for a moment until she brought her hand back down. Fingers smudged with slate-gray eye shadow and smatterings of her once-thin cat eyes. “I saw Damian,” she started quietly, tiredly, and it was obvious she had been itching to talk to someone about it. “A day or two after I got here. I was at some other divey bar, and he spotted me. He’s here for good.”
Eddie smiled faintly when she dropped the device into his hand, understanding the sentiment and carefully placed it back in his belt. Indeed, these utility belts were useful. He usually stuck to having all of his suit pockets full of crap, but these neat little compartments made being a super genius easy. He wondered idly if he could get away with using a Riddler belt in the future, but decided that no, it’d make him look like a hybrid business-handy man. He looked up and gave a bubbled laugh at her raccoon eyes, and immediately reached to rub some of the smoky greys away from her cheekbones with his thumb. He smudged at it for a little while thoughtfully and then sighed. “I’m sorry to hear that.” And, that was genuine. Eddie liked to have Stephanie’s full attention, but if he was afforded friends, so should she. He himself couldn’t imagine leaving Gotham for long periods of time. Even after living in the city for so long.
“The bat family is a lot harder to understand than it was back home.” Eddie considered himself an outside expert on the subject considering what he had planned with Hush. It all revolved around Batman being a natural leader after years and years of being the best at what he did. But, this Bat was new. He was sensitive. He was even a little selfish. And, while Eddie personally preferred those qualities, it didn’t make up what everyone else wanted from the Dark Knight. “Are you mad at him for leaving?” Eddie asked, the distance of someone who never got mad at a friend for leaving before in his voice. Though, if Muerte vanished he’d be hurt more than he liked to admit.
The utility belt around his waist and how deftly he used it amused Steph greatly. They obviously featured dominantly in Batfamily costumes, and she especially had an affinity towards them. Hello, yellow thigh belt for her Batgirl costume. She lost herself in that amusement for a moment until he started to smudge the make-up off her cheek. She laughed a little sheepishly, eyes darting down to look away from him and toward the damp, filthy concrete beneath their feet, and she wished in that moment that it was at least a familiar dirty concrete. She missed Gotham so much, and she wished they could rewind back to a time where everything was calmer, where everyone was together. Or, at least, the family was stitched together in some sort of strange Frankenstein-knit group that actually worked.
“Really hard,” she agreed, nodding before finally looking up to meet his eyes. Sure, this Bat wasn’t their Bat. She didn’t just think that Bruce was the breaking point of the family, though. It was a number of different factors. It was a lot of them bunched up into one place with not enough threats. It was a shared trait of stubbornness they all had, and which would destroy everything if they let it. She bit the inside of her cheek, and her blues reflected a sort of guilt she’d buried away most of the week. “It’s selfish of me to be mad, right?” Was she angry? Yeah, but she would never voice it to Damian or to any of the others, not as honestly as she would with Eddie. “I’m mad, but I don’t want to be. I don’t have the right to be. He needs this time away, he really does, because Gotham’s been destroying him. But, I--I don’t want to lose him.”
He exhaled through his nose, gears spinning behind those dark eyes as he wrapped his arms around her middle and pulled her closer to him in a hug that felt overdue at this point. “So what if it’s selfish?” Eddie wasn’t the best person to ask about this kind of thing, but rogues had a different view of Gotham. Of friends. Of family. And, a lot of the time it came down to what the other person could do for him even if that wasn’t always the case. He once took a couple coins from Harley for an investigation just so he could run around town with her. He once aided the Bat without wanting freedom in return. And, here he was in Bludhaven doing everything he could to help Stephanie face her father again and hopefully stop him. But, his devotion to Stephanie was leagues above anything he felt for anyone else.
“If I wasn’t selfish, I wouldn’t be here with you. Sometimes it’s a good quality to have.” He took his officer’s cap off and put it over her pink-blonde hair. “So, keep being angry. Don’t let him think he can hide here. And, if he is a bird, then he’ll come flocking back when you need him.” For a moment there, Eddie almost sounded wise. He would have been proud of himself if he could hear it in his own voice. “Going for a week without each other was hard for me, but I imagine it was harder for you with this bird predicament.” Eddie acknowledged. “I know you think it was unfair, but if we talked every day I’d never get anything done and you wouldn’t have been a convincing mole.”
Stephanie settled so easily into his arms that he felt almost like an extension of herself, and she sighed, wrapping her forearms around his neck as she released a breath built up over the past week. Her raccooned blue eyes flickered across his face and drank every single detail she’d missed in their time apart. The deep, dark brown of his eyes, the swoop of his hair, the lines sneakily forming around his eyes, and the curve of his lips. She had gone over those little details, things a picture did no justice, over and over in her mind, but to have him here now couldn’t compare. Her mouth twitched into a slow smile. She almost liked the idea of being a little selfish. Indulgent in a greediness and need that didn’t care as much as she usually would, but Stephanie had been around people like that her entire life. She could only be really selfish with Eddie, and even then she knew it wasn’t right.
So, she wouldn’t begrudge the baby bird because she knew he needed the space, but she nodded all the same. Then, she worried her bottom lip roughly. “He asked me to come with him. To live here.” She shook her head as her face turned down again, pink-blonde threatening to fall into her face had it not been for that cap. She felt a little silly in the hat, like a kid playing dress-up in her dad’s clothes, but she looked up at Eddie, deadpanned. “Yeah, you won’t believe how much of a mopey, miserable goth bitch I’ve been this week. They totally believed I’m hardcore. Do I look the part?” She pulled back, making sure to catch his eye with the ghost of a smirk. Because the only really positive thing of all this is acting was his reaction to her.
He pulled her closer as she settled in his arms, his body warm with energy and the impromptu run. His first reaction was to laugh at the idea of her moving here for one of the bats, but there was an uneasiness at the end of it he wasn’t going to address on his own. What would keep her from moving out here if he really pissed her off? The distance, as short as it was comparatively, would likely kill their relationships and then what would he have left? A good excuse to get into a lot of trouble. Eddie visibly pushed the worry out of his eyes, always impossible at hiding his feelings, and told himself that he knew it was ridiculous. Stephanie wasn’t allowed to keep making him irrationally worry about things that hadn’t or may never happen.
Distracted, he looked surprised at her pulling away and then eased into a smirk. “Well, it has hints of riot grrrrrrl, but overall I find it acceptable.” He took a step back to get a better look, hands resting on his belt and his smile slipped for a moment, just a second before piecing back together. It was dawning on him that he was a lot more mature than he wanted to admit. A younger him would have ignored talking about feelings or information and jumped right into finding a somewhat clean wall to push her up against, but the thought barely occurred to him. No, here now that he had really trouble brewing, here in Bludhaven it was one of the last things on his mind. “You look good.” He confirmed, eyes resting on the fishnets before darting back up to her face. Gaze so busy with other thoughts beyond black nail polish and pink hair that it reflected like those glasses he liked to hide behind.
Stephanie popped her lip out in an exaggerated pout, kicking her heavy boots at some imaginary gravel underneath her toes. “Only good?” she asked, kind of taken back that he wasn’t clawing affection all over her. “I didn’t chop off my hair and dye it pink for an only good, honey.” Shouldn’t he be peppering her face with kisses, tugging at her leather jacket with sloppy hands, and eagerly begging her to return his desperation? Shouldn’t over a week of being apart translate to him raccooning for her love? Wasn’t she his walking, talking fantasy right then and there? Her eyebrows furrowed at him for a second, that pout still there, when it clicked, or at least she thought it did.
“I’m not moving to this hellhole, Eddie,” Stephanie assured him, rocking forward on her toes but not necessarily moving to drag him back to her. She couldn’t--no, there was never any chance in hell that she could make a permanent move to this place. Just over a week, and she was ready to claw her face off. (And, of course, that was partially the isolation, too. Being in Bludhaven alone left her even more bitter.) “I love Damian, I do, but I couldn’t leave Gotham. Not permanently.” Tilting her head to the side, her dark-painted eyes seemed to ask, Really? Did he really think after her declaration of her devotion and love, after she’d lain everything on the line, that she would up and leave him without any sort of consideration? “I’ll visit, of course. But, I couldn’t move here.” She licked her red lips, worried roughly with her teeth, and she kicked at that invisible gravel again.
He sighed and his shoulders moved back and forth like he was trying to make himself comfortable in an outfit and a town that wasn’t his. “It’s that. It’s not just that.” Eddie stuttered after her. And, here would be the benefit of being the type of man who could keep things guarded. To his credit he hadn’t grilled her about Arthur. He hadn’t even talked very much about how hard it was to let her make the calls when he was just as pissed at the man for trying to kill him. Humiliate him. From the safety of Gotham he could pretend they were going to Bludhaven to play a spy game. But, that was a joke, wasn’t? They were in it now and it was clear to him this was the furthest from a game he could get. Even when he was shutting that machine down, his thoughts were going to be with her. How was that fair?
“I’m-” Eddie looked towards the alley’s opening like it was an escape before snapping a look back at her. “Homesick.” He hoped that word could umbrella all of it. His trepidations about Artie, how much he missed Gotham, how he wanted his girlfriend back and not this fantasy he dreamt up for her. Now his mind was filled with questions he wanted to ask her about the end of this. Questions he wasn’t going to ask because there couldn’t be a point. So, he just looked at her, silent and distant until he bubbled up an apologetic sound. “I’m being unfair. Tell me you love me and come here because I’ve got to leave soon. If I’m gone too long they’ll think I’ve fallen asleep in one of the traincars again and fire me.”
She sensed there was more underneath the surface of his homesickness, and she flashed him a sad little smile. It wasn’t just missing Gotham because he’d voiced that before. There was more buried in the roll of his shoulders and the sigh slipping out of his lungs, and she really, really wished they didn’t have to do this. That they could be back in Gotham and fooling around there, tucked away in his server room or chatting on opposite sides of the city about dinosaurs and their various little ticks and problems. She was homesick, too, but she suspected in a different way than he was. And, she suspected there was more he wanted to say, more she needed to push him to talk about, but she didn’t want to ruin this precious little time they had together by needling him to talk.
Instead, Stephanie stepped forward until they were toe-to-toe and she had to look up to see him and his big brown eyes. “Again?” she asked, eyebrows raised and that teasing lilt in her voice. No detection of goth mirth at all. “Your work ethic is atrocious. Thank god you’re your own boss.” A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, and her fingers picked at his jacket, pulling at it to drag him closer. “I love you so much, baby,” she assured him. On her tiptoes, she stretched until their noses brushed against each other. “I’m homesick, too. I just want all of this to be over already. I just want to be able to crawl into bed with you and wear your dorky little math shirts instead of this.” She plucked at the ratty shirt she wore before reaching to cup his jaw. Thumb with chipped black nailpolish rubbing his pronounced cheekbone. “I miss you every second of every day. Tell me you like all this,” she implored, eyes flickering down to the toes of her boots, then the fishnets before gazing back up at him. She didn’t really care anymore, but she wanted that mild satisfaction of knowing she twisted and turned him as much as she could.
He smiled down at her, sometimes breaking out into a grin as she pulled close to him and said everything he needed to hear. Not just the I love you which was like a hymn that kept him believing and hoping things were going to turn out okay. No, he needed to hear she was missing the same things he was. So he nodded along and let some of the worry roll off his back. Just for now. “I love you, too. No more going this long without telling me. Without me telling you.” He pointed between them, his thumb hitting his heart and then hers like they were thick as thieves. Nevermind he constructed this whole scenario, but she had to know that Riddler was prone to putting a couple holes in his own plan. Death drive bent on teaching himself a lesson and all that.
Eddie leaned in for a light kiss, but stopped short when she looked down at her goth getup. For a moment he seemed flustered, jerking back a little with a lopsided grin as he tilted his head back in forth in judgement. “I do, of course I do. Look at you. Those boots? I’m a boots kind of man.” Eddie let his hands wander under the leather jacket, across the ratty t-shirt and around the hem of her skirt, fingers locking into her fishnets like a chainlink fence. He pulled at one of the strings a little too hard, letting it snap in his hands with a tiny growling noise.
Up so close to him after what felt like an eternity was a little overwhelming, and she felt a little like a giddy teenage girl next to her crush. His grin made her grin; she leaned in when he leaned in; when she felt him relax, she settled as well, as if the weight slipped off her shoulders for a little while. As if his mere presence could help her make sense of the world, even if his proximity made her go stupid. She grinned up at him widely, though she did roll her eye at his command. “You suggested it, doofus,” she teased, grin still spread across her mouth. “I promise, however, to declare my love for you every other day, if I can, but only if you do once a day, at least. Twice, if you’re feeling extra mushy. But, I promise.” She raised three fingers in that Girl Scouts gesture, then saluted him with a playful tilt of her head. “Scout’s honor.”
An amused eyeroll. “I catch your drift. Note to self: wear Batgirl boots more often.” Stephanie smiled, beaming at him for a moment before recovering and trying to play cool. Heavy-lidded eyes, a flirty smirk, and her fingers twisting into the fabric of his jacket more. Her bright eyes met his for a moment before flickering down to gaze at his lips, but she fell into a quiet, breathy laugh when she felt that pop against her skin. “I’m a poor street rat, I can’t afford more fishnets. I need to pay for my crappy booze.” But the way her body reacted, the way she rocked forward, told him she didn’t mind at all.
With a devious smirk that broke vaults and charmed bank tellers, he pop pop popped a couple more pieces of her netting until it flayed open and fell like a torn curtain. “I refuse to believe you pay for your own booze in a bar.” He whispered, lips tilted just under hers as he reached to snap a couple more strings before moving his hands back up her body. “If I saw you like this? I’d be a clamoring, stuttering, stupefied mess. You wouldn’t know what to do with me.” Eddie had buzzed with nervous energy before, but it wasn’t his default mode. No, he was confident and pleased with himself to a egotastic degree. Confident, like when he brushed shoulders with her the first time they met as Eddie and Stephanie or tackled her in their first victory kiss. Because he knew he had her. Even here with all the chains and leather, he had her.
Eddie caught her lips in a sudden kiss that wasn’t light or playful. Wanting, crushing. His arms wrapped around her and pulled her close again, so close that they fit into that familiar puzzle piece. Even through the cigarette smoke, he could taste her again which sent a noise of recognition through his throat that buzzed across his lips. Like oh this is what I missed, this is what I’ve been working for. And, he knew in roughly five minutes he’d have to leave and go back to his crummy day job. Eddie knew he’d have to slip out of her arms again and again if they wanted to get anything done. But, it didn’t feel like he was going to anytime soon.
The kiss knocked the breath right out of Steph’s lungs, what little breath she had recovered from the run, and she tugged hard against the fabric of that stupid jacket he was wearing. Something she’d never see again outside this goddamn city. Her fingers twisted and pulled as he dragged her closer, like if she tugged him close enough, they would both be glued together, and he wouldn’t be able to leave her again. She was ready to just forgo the entire damn thing just to keep herself so close to him that their hearts beat in tandem. Thump, thump, thump against each other’s chests to remind both of them what they were fighting for, why they were here, what this time apart was worth. She whimpered against his mouth as her tongue teased, something small and pathetic and usually more Eddie than Stephanie, and her arms slid up his chest to wrap around his neck so she could pull him flush up against her.
She tried to talk between the crush of his lips against her. “Th-there going to--to think I’m a la-lady of the night with ripped up fis-fishnets.” Her fingers tangled into his hair as she captured his mouth with her open one. A long, pleased sigh slipped through her nose before she broke the kiss to run her lips down his jawline. Between kisses, she murmured little things. How much she loved him. How much she missed him. “Let’s just go,” she said stupidly, desperately, knowing full-well they couldn’t but fully wishing they could. “Let’s leave this fucked-up place and just come back la-later. I can’t--.” She stretched on tiptoes to crush her lips again, barely threading her fingers through his dark curls.
Eddie bit back a smirk at her stuttering, eyebrows up between kisses telling her that yes he noticed and he liked it so much he wasn’t even going to verbally mock her for it. Just more breathy bites at her neck and his hand running through her now much shorter but still impossibly messy hair. He smiled, laughed even between kisses and repeated certain words after her in slow, quiet whispers. No, he knew now that how much he wanted Artie to feel payback didn’t compare to this, so he could let it go. Not completely, that wouldn’t be until they were back in Gotham and wrapped around each other, but he could let it go enough. Wasn’t that what reforming was about? Doing things enough to make it right. Taking out just enough to make her happy. And, Stephanie never asked him to take out anything really important.
“Let’s.” He agreed, hands reaching under her ratty t-shirt for the bare skin of her back and hips. “We could catch the last ferry back now. Be in bed by 2. Tomorrow we could wake up at noon and I could take you to any museum you wanted. And, I wouldn’t even make us go on tours. We could just play forlorn lovers in front of paintings like a French movie, then hide and seek around the Roman sculptures.” Eddie painted a perfect Gotham day for her. Beautiful, silly, filled with so much ancient history that it felt more like a playground than a collection of museums. And, if he only pretended that’s what they were going to do, maybe that would make the sting of pulling himself away from her not so bad. Eddie was really good at fooling himself.
The way she reacted was almost like the beginning of their relationship, where Eddie could simply hear the blush burning her cheeks through her voice on the comm. When she would stutter out silly, stupid things and word vomit would betray her for something vulnerable and telling. She hadn’t really noticed her own stuttering or struggle for breath, too lost in her eagerness and the embrace to even notice how much of a consumed mess she became in his presence. That was, of course, until she caught his eyebrows. Her cheeks reddened, but she returned the kisses and timed quiet, breathy moans as he nipped at her skin. “Baby,” she muttered, barely a noise out of her throat. More of a breath, or maybe a prayer. “Oh, baby.” Her hands ran back and forth through his hair, threading black strands through her pale fingers.
When his hands snuck underneath her shirt and she felt the warmth of his skin against hers, her body quivered and breath shuddered in the most needy way. Like she would die right then and there if he pulled away from her, if he stopped touching her, if he left her in that dirty alleyway. She anticipated it, she knew it had to happen, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. “That sounds perfect.” And it did. It really, really did. What she wouldn’t give to just be able to do that. “And, after all that, we can go to that Gotham Knight’s game tomorrow night. And then watch the sun set on top of some skyscraper that’d be way higher than anything in here.” She twisted her fingers into his collar and nipped at the edge of his jaw before nudging her nose against his cheek to urge him into another hard embrace. “Don’t go,” she murmured against his lips, grip on his collar tightening and voice weak, quiet, cloying. “Stay with me. Come to my place.” All stupid propositions, she knew, but she couldn’t resist it any longer. She didn’t want to have Eddie just stroll away from her again.
Each kiss was a little longer than the last, his hands gripping her before his arms completely wrapped around her back to keep her close. Close enough that he could shut his eyes and guess where her mouth and nose were by how they inched across his skin in hot breaths. “Don’t-” He mumbled a warning between another few desperate, deep kisses that were better suited for his bedroom. “Don’t leave it up to me.” Because at the end of the day? He was the cheat. The thief who took a little more than he should and made loud, flashy, lousy exits to each one of his capers. The kind that always got caught because he was too busy having fun and playing games. His mind buzzed with ways he could get away with dropping his identity so quickly. He could go back to Gotham in the morning and she could get ready for Arthur, who was probably already in the city. And, she could- no. There was no way she could be seen dragging an older security guard home. Her cover would be blown too and then Artie might try to make a move somewhere farther.
But, that didn’t really concern him right now in this Bludhaven alleyway. “I’ll go.” He finally pulled away to look at her, licking his lips like they were missing something. “Ask me to go with you and I will.” Eddie’s dark, clouded eyes sharpened for a second. Dangerous, selfish, Gotham in every way. “I’ll go back with you right now. Ask me to.”
Oh, and she was so tempted to drag him by the collar back to her shitty little apartment and push him up against every wall and surface she could. Show him the kind of desperation she suffered through during the last couple of days, and indulge in the kind of clawing affection she needed, especially with her bird, bat, and daddy problems. This was even worse than not seeing him at all. A little taste, a tease, and nothing more. She couldn’t even wrap herself around him like she wanted to. It was a stark reminder of how her loved ones were being twisted out of her grip, one by one by one. Of course, she and Eddie would be reunited in Gotham, and Damian would only be a ferry-ride away, and if she really needed, her father would be (theoretically) in Blackgate. But, getting out of Bludhaven and returning to normal and being able to shower Eddie with love seemed like a lifetime away. So, she soaked up every second she could with him, a bundle of tiny breathy moans, quiet whimpers, and desperate sighs.
When he pulled back, she looked at him for a long time, quiet and sad and willing herself to be selfish enough to say yes, please, let’s forget about this damn town, let’s get lost in us. It would have been nice to be that selfish, to throw away all their hard work on a whim, but Stephanie couldn’t do that without hearing that buzzing, nagging guilt in the back of her brain. Ugh. “I want to,” she started, throat tight and voice thick with need. “I want to so badly, honey.” She let go of his collar, chipped black nails skimming the skin of his neck, and he could feel the shake of her regret already. “Unless you wanna go goth, too,” she teased hollowly. “Then it won’t matter.”
His dark, wide eyes watched her carefully and he saw that desperate fall from want to what had to be done. Eddie had laid in bed with her, listening to her talk about the city they loved and the people she protected. He loved it even if he didn’t understand helping strangers who were capable of so much disappointment. Even if he barely understood the first thing about being a responsible adult in the first place. So, he didn’t throw a fit or plead with her like he would when she took away his tacos or told him that his engineering documentaries were too boring to watch. Eddie just smiled at her. A knowing smile. A that’s the girl I’m in love with smile. “If I’m too old for spandex, I’m too old to go goth again.” He said finally, voice rough from practically losing himself in her. Another kiss, hands both tangled in her short pink-blonde hair before he stood up straight and took the officer’s cap from the top of her head.
Eddie took a couple backwards steps away from her, back to the open alley like he was being pulled away by some unseen force. “I’m not going to see you until we’re back in Gotham. I’ll comm you, no doubt about that, but we won’t see each other until this is over.” He sighed, smoothing his hands over his shirt and collar. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be. The Dark Knight going after Ra’s alone. You confronting your father alone. That’s how these things play out.” He lifted a single finger with a couple more backwards steps. “But, it’s funny, because whatever you or the Dark Knight chooses, it’s an illusion. Ra’s will always be resurrected. Artie will escape Blackgate, he will.” Even in the dark alley in his guard outfit, Eddie sounded so much like the Riddler. The puzzles, the questions. All of them leading to something else, all of them connected and patterned over each other. “So, don’t think of it in binaries, Stephanie. Do you think I changed on binaries? No. Find a flicker of what you know is human and pull it out. The rest doesn’t matter. He’s already lost this fight.”
He was far now. Far enough away that she could barely see his face and his eyes were hidden by the darkness. But, she could still hear the smile in his voice. The geeky dreaminess. “I love you, Stephanie Brown.” He whispered her name dramatically. “I’ll see you soon.” And, he waited at the end of the alley for her to say it back before returning to his post.
Stephanie watched his retreat and fought the overwhelming urge to snatch him back and tell him forget it. She knew what need to be done, knew that nothing would settle until she put Arthur away for good (or, at the very least, confronted him on her own), but that didn’t make any of this any easier. The loneliness already felt sharp in her chest, though she told herself it was from the new dirty habit she’d been forced to pick up. Regardless, she didn’t look happy as he backed away from her and down that dirty alleyway, as his words echoed and bounced off the brick walls enclosing them. She didn’t respond to his reassurances or his analyses of the situation with anything more than a couple of nods. It didn’t help matters, knowing the futility of everything she was doing. Of everything every single costumed vigilante did. Even if he was right. Even she could figure out how all of this played out -- her battered and bruised and throwing her father in jail, only for him to bounce right out as soon as he could. She’d seen it played over a thousand times, like a bad movie repeated continuously. The good guys didn’t always win, did they? Just put the pain and destruction on pause long enough to recover for the next attack.
But, she didn’t say any of that to him. Instead, she fixed her blue eyes on him, squinting as he stepped further and further back away from her. She whined, quietly and perhaps not loud enough for him to hear, but she did. A little quiver of the lip and an overwhelming sense of loneliness consuming her. “I love you, too, Eddie Nashton,” she repeated back and using his real last name, just as dramatically though the shake could be heard in her voice. As far as goodbyes went, this had her wanting to just chase after him down the street, but the pain would be worth it in the end, right? Just like their separation had been the last time. Only, this wasn’t just about them. This was about making sure they taught Arthur Brown a real lesson. One he wouldn’t forget right away.