eddie likes to (riddlethem) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2013-04-29 21:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | door: dc comics, riddler, stephanie brown |
Who: Eddie and Steph
Where: a Suburban park between Bludhaven and Gotham
When: Backdated to right after Steph stops her dad
What: Cuteness, recovery, picnic.
Warnings: adorables
Who knew there were pleasant places within driving distance of Gotham? In a small suburb smack-dab in the middle between Bludhaven and Gotham there were people who didn’t even know the Batman was real. People who walked their dogs every morning and went to potlucks in backyards on the weekends. Husbands who drove into the city for work and wives who loaded minivans full of tiny soccer players and ballerinas before feeding them apple slices and capri-suns. Churches, supermarkets, tiny union banks and pride for the hometown high school football team. It was perfect and people like Eddie and Stephanie could only visit long enough for a picnic before they started feeling that big city itch. The kind that screamed for skyscrapers and ethnic cuisine. Still, even the Riddler could admit this was a nice break.
And, while the normal people of this little suburb worked, went to school and watched their soaps while folding laundry, Eddie and Stephanie were at the park having lunch after a day of driving the longest way possible back home. In true Riddler form, he brought everything that was needed for a picnic like he had read The Essential Picnic Handbook on the way there. The (purple) checkered tablecloth, the wicker basket, the neatly wrapped sandwiches, the chips and dip and a huge cooler filled with side dishes and drinks. It was all to make Stephanie feel better. To take her mind off the night before in Bludhaven.
Parking the chrome beauty that was the Riddlermobile near a grassy section of the park, he let Matilda out (unleashed because screw the rules she was a good dog) and got to work setting everything up. But, Eddie? He was exhausted. And the second the basket, cooler and blanket were set out, he flopped down and took his Gotham Knights baseball cap off to look up at the cloudy, bright blue suburban sky.
“I’m imagining Batgirl patrolling here.” He said to Stephanie, looking over at Matilda as she pressed her cold nose on his arm and sat up to find her tennis ball. “Helping old women cross the street to Bingo Night. Fixing flat tires. Beating up teenagers who hang out behind the Target too late.” He grinned up to her, grabbing the tennis ball and throwing it down the grassy knoll as Matilda bounded after it.
Despite Eddie’s advice to catch some sleep, Stephanie spent the few hours between their comm conversation and when she heard the roar of the Riddlermobile ripping down her pothole ridden street in Bludhaven struggling to catch a wink here and doze off there. She rolled from side-to-side on the twin bed and willed her mind to wipe itself. Willed her head not to throb from crying or her eyes to well up with tears every five seconds. Talking with Eddie calmed her down, but not enough. Not enough to assuage the guilt ripping through her chest. Not enough to block the image of her father bloody and unconscious. She would doze off, only to awake with a jerk and a panic. Scrambling to scrub Arthur’s blood off her hands. Blood that hadn’t been there for hours, but she swore her hands were still stained with red.
So, she was just as exhausted as Eddie was, if not more. Her blue eyes, normally so bright and playful, looked worn, puffy, red, and she didn’t try to hide it. What was the point? He knew, they both knew, that she was going to be a wreck. It was inevitable, wasn’t it? Stephanie Brown always took things to heart, and beating the shit out of her father and throwing him in jail? Well, yeah, she was going to take that to heart. It had her quiet most of the ride, absorbed in the disturbingly picturesque suburban areas they whizzed past and the effort to block her father out of her mind for just a little, little bit. She offered Eddie a few words here and there and rubbed Matilda’s head whenever her cold nose pressed against her arm, but she focused on burying the urge to burrow away for the rest of her life.
She took an extra moment to let Eddie set up the picnic display, a second to quell her raging mind with a deep breath and a shake of her head. He promised they wouldn’t talk about anything that she didn’t want to, so she should let this get to her. At least for an hour or so. Surrounded by such normalcy for even a brief time would make it a little easier to bury away bat feelings and daddy feelings and everything in between weighing on her shoulders. One more deep breath, and she joined him on the checkered blanket (which, with a smile, she noticed was purple), bare legs stretched out. Without the pink hair, pulled back into a hair tie today, she looked as close to Stephanie as she had in weeks. Cut-off shorts, tennis sneakers, and a zip-up purple hoodie over a plain white shirt. A far, far cry from the black and chains she’d been bound to while in Bludhaven.
“Guarding Girl Scouts as they went door to door to sell cookies.” She laughed. “It’d be a good vacation,” she said, leaning back on her elbows and rolling her head toward him. She watched Matilda bound down the grassy knoll to fetch the tennis ball with a soft smile. “I’d probably have to set up some crimes for me to solve myself eventually. ”
“I could do it for you. Most skilled hackers get their start in sleepy little suburbias like this.” He nodded solemnly as if this was their fate if they were ever dropped here permanently. “I kind of like the idea. Too small to do any real damage. Just mischief.” Gotham was already a playground for psychopaths, but it was easily the least safe place for people to live. Here? It would be fun and completely small time. “I could hack into the Target’s PA system and rattle off some riddles for the price scanners I’m keeping hostage.” Eddie said deviously, eyebrow arched like he was formulating some master plan. “And, then you could beat me up with folding chairs and lawn flamingos from the outdoors section. We could have store themed brawls.” He grinned out towards Matilda as she bounded back with the ball in her mouth.
But, then it occurred to Eddie that Steph didn’t actually want to joke about that kind of thing. She didn’t just look tired like he did, she looked worn out. Like whatever happened the night before hadn’t stopped bearing down on her and joking about being a super villain wasn’t exactly the best thing he could be doing right now. See? He could consider other people’s feelings. Or at least guess what she did and didn’t want to hear after the fact. “Sorry.” Eddie said, a little deflated and took the ball Matilda plopped down at his feet to throw again. “I made us lunch?” He asked, eyebrows up as he rolled over onto his knees to start unpacking.
He was right. She didn’t feel comfortable joking about that sort of thing so soon after what happened the night before. She blinked at him a couple times as he tumbled into the kind of joking that would normally get him a swat at his arm and a Look. Today, however, she just looked defeated. Like no amount of joking or prodding or whatever could wipe the image of how Arthur looked after she pummelled him from her mind. Why couldn’t she just shake this off? It was over, done with. Her dad was in Blackgate, and they could go back to the habitual normalcy that was Gotham. Eddie was okay, so why couldn’t she be okay?
She shook her head and offered him an apologetic smile. “It’s okay, Eddie.” She couldn’t begrudge him wanting to just go back to the way things were. Or, well, whatever way they wanted things to be. Had they been anything close to calm since they started? Maybe in December, but nothing close since they. Other than snippets, of course. She stretched her neck and leaned a little to the side to peer into the basket. “You’re adorable,” she said quietly, looking up and giving him a genuine, but small smile. Affection brimming there underneath all the fatigue. “I really, really hope there aren’t any Cheetos sandwiches in there.” Matilda bounded back, and Steph grabbed the tennis ball to toss it a little further than Eddie did. “I love you, but I might not be able to deal with them today.”
“Hardly.” He was trying to keep his spirits up, but he always had a bad poker face. The way his brow creased when he bowed his head down to look through the sandwiches or his flimsy smile that looked like it wasn’t sure which direction it wanted to wiggle. “I only make you eat those when-” Eddie’s eyes went a little wide as if his mind realized it needed to hastily put up some kind of filter. A filter he never used not even with some of the most dangerous in Gotham. Being pummeled was one thing. Making her day worse was something else entirely. “Wheeen I am at home.” He recovered, dark eyes still wide and uneasy, but shifted off to the side so she couldn’t see it. “Look.” Eddie handed her a roast beef sandwich from the cooler. And, just like everything else, it looked like something he learnt how to make from some home making magazine. Artisan bread, leafy lettuce, provolone cheese and the kind of roast beef that you have to get at a butcher. How he managed to get all of it at 6am wasn’t worth getting into.
Along with the sandwiches were potato chips, macaroni salad, fruit, vegetables, crackers with organic fancy cheese and a couple of those frosted handpies that were shelved next to twinkies at the supermarket and could probably last the apocalypse. Eddie popped everything open, got her a plate, utensils and then gave her a frantic look. “Did I forget something?” He grabbed a capri sun and stabbed the top of it with the straw, eyes still on her like he’d run to the store right now if he had.
She didn’t catch that moment of hesitation, far too wrapped up in her own mind to recognize what Eddie could possibly be struggling with. Yeah, okay, it was kind of selfish, but he got to play high seas escapades last night. She? She had to take down her screwed up father and then beat him to unconsciousness. On the scale of fucked up things, it was tipped a little more in her favor. So, when he amended the end of his sentence, she just rolled her eyes a little and smiled over at him again. “Oh, so I only suffer when you’re too busy on a raid or something,” she teased, a little hollowly, but warmer than she’d sounded since he’d picked her up earlier that morning. Being out of that hellhole Bludhaven helped her a lot. At least she could fake it a little easier when the dirty streets and crime weren’t staring her in the face.
Steph watched as he unloaded the spread, eyebrows raising higher and higher and an affectionate smile crawling up the side of her face. She sat up fully, crossing her legs Indian style, so she could enjoy the entire display better. Taking the plate and utensils in her hand, she laughed. “No, baby. I don’t think you forgot a thing.” She dropped the stuff in her lap and reached over to brush her fingers against his jaw. A quick, soft gesture to let him know that despite everything that had happened, she was still his. Her hand dove into the basket to grab her own juice before beginning to open up the containers. She stopped suddenly though, finally too amused with how perfect this all was. “Is this your first time having a picnic with a girl?” she asked, not looking up as she finished organizing things, but he could recognize that tease in her voice.
Eddie seemed content just drinking his capri sun, watching her carefully and only really relaxing his expression when she touched the side of his face. He tried to think of something he enjoyed that stressed him out like this. He loved making her happy, but the process was a little like disarming a bomb or solving a puzzled before the ceiling crushed down on him. It was tricky, he decided and he wondered if she felt the same way when he was upset. No, she was probably just exhausted by him. Most people were when he got into one of his moods. Eventually he unwrapped his own sandwich, only to hear Matilda lightly begging behind him for her own lunch. And, then he was up again, getting her bag of dog food, bowls and a bottle of water for her.
“I’ve eaten outdoors with a lady.” He said to her question, eyes rolling under heaving eyelids with a goofy smirk. “But, that was a long time ago at the carnival. And, I don’t think she was eating with me so much as reluctantly next to me.” Eddie took a moment to pet Matilda behind her ears as she ate. “But, a real picnic? No. I guess not. Why?” He gave her an alarmed look. “I read all about it on the internet. And, I even confirmed with a couple picnicking experts that this is the kind of spread people normally have at a traditional picnic. Have you picnicked with a gentleman before? Was it different? Oh, god.” Eddie feigned picnic panic, the smile never really leaving his face as he crawled back over to her, wetnapped his hands clean and went back to his sandwich.
“Of course you did,” she said, bubbling out a laugh. Of course he’d consulted and researched and made every little thing measured perfection. That was the man she fell in love with, after all. “Don’t even know how you got all this stuff at the crack of dawn.” She sounded impressed as she stabbed the Capri Sun with her straw. She took a sip before placing it down again to help herself with a little bit of this and that. Plopping down some macaroni salad on her plate, unwrapping her own sandwich and picking at the cheese, then the lettuce, then the roast beef before taking a big bite of the entire thing. She always tended to pick at her food little by little before digging in fully, as if testing to make sure it fit her standards. And, maybe with Eddie, it was also testing to make sure he didn’t sneak anything gross or super unhealthy in there.
“I’m just saying. You seem nervous.” Not that she minded his jittery need to make her happy. She loved it, actually, and she knew it wasn’t a quality very many other people (if any at all) got to see. And, sure, it was like tiptoeing around sometimes to make her happy, especially when she was this upset, but that was the danger of falling in love with someone who used to beat you up for a living, who was ingrained to work against everything you stood for. Making him happy was just as difficult for her at times, and while she did get frustrated, she never felt exhausted. Not in the way that others tended to be of Edward Nigma when he fell into one of his moods. More worried or upset too, or clawing to make sure he was okay. “I am so glad I didn’t know you as a carney. No offense. I don’t think I could deal with the stripes. Did you wear stripes?” She beamed over at him, biting down on her lip to drive away a big teasing grin, before scooping up some salad.
“Of course I’m nervous.” He said flatly, lounging back on the blanket and looking up to her with an easy smile. Eddie had been dragged out of a bar by the Batman and he never jittered and rambled like this. Even back when she had solved his riddle house and broke his jaw, he didn’t even flinch. But, all of that was routine. It was as explored and navigated as the beautifully manicured and simple park they were sitting in now. No surprises, nothing really at risk. “If this went poorly, I’d never get you to take a picnic with me again. Think of dear Matilda. She’d be heartbroken. Look, she already loves picnics.” He tilted his head back at the dog who was wagging her tail and lapping up water like it was the best day of her little doggie life. And, after being rescued from a puppy farm? Maybe it was.
He took another thoughtful bite of his sandwich and ate a sporkful of macaroni straight from the container because they were way past worrying about sharing germs. “You would have loved me as a carnie. And, you would have hated every second you felt it.” Eddie grabbed his baseball cap and put it back on, leaning on his elbows like he did when they were in fake Wayne Manor. “The outfit you’re thinking of? The old fashioned one with the red stripes and straw hat? Yes. I had that whole getup.” He gestured down his stomach and torso as if the thing would magically appear for her. Then, his voice changed, making him sound like a Mid-Atlantic hustler. “Three pennies to spin the wheel, ma’am! Step right up and spin the wheel. I can see you’re feeling a little apprehensive yes a five dollar word from a carnie. Bet you didn’t see that coming. Apprehensive. I can see it, but there’s no need to be worried. Only men fail at the wheel.” He pointed to the invisible wheel, his voice going back to normal. “And, then you’d spin it. And, I’d tell you to try two more times because three is a lucky number. A good prime number. And, if there was a big enough crowd I’d let you win. And, if it was just you.” He looked up to her and there was a hint of that young Eddie Nigma in his dark eyes. Arrogant, cunning and alone in his little carnie booth. “You’d lose. Because girls like you keep spinning the wheel until you either run out of pennies or figure out that the whole damned thing is rigged. Back then I was arrogant enough to take my chances.”
“Well, there aren’t a lot of places to have nice picnics in Gotham,” Stephanie replied, smiling as she tilted her head to catch a glimpse of Matilda. Oh, she loved that dog, even in spite of exactly who gave it to Eddie, and she thought the puppy’s presence in both their lives, especially Eddie’s, was a good thing. It gave him something to consciously worry about and care for constantly. Stephanie was that, too, sure, but not in the same way that Matilda was. And, see how affectionate and loving and patient he was with the dog hit a special chord with her. Because people like Edward Nigma weren’t supposed to be able to be affectionate for anything, at least not that way. Maybe to gain something or to boost their own ego, but not in the way Eddie was with the things he loved most. It gave her whispers of hope that maybe, just maybe the same kind of growth could be possible for her dad. It was all she had when it came to Arthur Brown: hope and guilt, too.
“Oh, god,” she mumbled, eyes rolling up to high heaven, as a silly grin spread across her face. Steph munched and drank as he painted a picture of a carnie Eddie Nigma, tilting her head as strands of that bright pink hair fell into her eyes. And, for the first time in what seemed like weeks but was just mere hours, she let herself give up on dwelling on what happened the night before. It’d be back a second later, but he could give her that sort of reprieve. Eddie was always good at that. “Girls like me?” she asked as she blew at the strands without much success. “What kind of girls are those? Good girls? Girls who fall stupid head over heels for green geeks in question marks?” That grin was still there, and she leaned forward a little. “I think you’d be too charmed by me to even want to try to dupe me.” It wasn’t exactly true, she knew that, especially an Eddie around her age, but nowadays, Steph knew she had him around her finger, just as he had her wrapped around his.
“Charmed?” He asked like Stephanie Brown and the word charmed didn’t belong together in the same sentence. “What, by your ability to put me in a headlock? Oh, or how you’d roll your eyes at every corny carnie thing I shouted at people passing by?” Eddie snuck a little closer, tilting his chin up to sneak a small, messy kiss the side of her mouth. To be fair, he did love the way she rolled her eyes at him. Plenty of women had done it before, but she was the only one who did it with a kind of affection he couldn’t quantify. “You’re right. I’d be stunned. There weren’t a lot of pretty girls who worked at the carnival and I could never compete with the guys who ran the Test Your Strength booth. I’d let you win a thousand times over, lose my job and then where would I be?”
Eddie’s expression stayed bright and for the first time that day his smile didn’t falter an inch. His doctors always said he could have been great. He could have helped people. But, being alone most of his life didn’t give him a good reason for it. And, despite all the times he tried to change or reform, Stephanie was the best motivator to keep at it. Even when it felt unnatural or unfair. Back before he was Riddler, she could have done something to him. Changed him like she had now. It was that middle, riddled ground that made him untouchable. “Everyone else at the carnival spent nights drinking or going out to dance. And, even though I hated working, I still hate it, I stayed behind and taught myself how to fix the carousel or make the ferris wheel go backwards.” He crumpled his empty capri sun and went for another one. “Sometimes I didn’t want to be so different, but if the price was to give up my mind or what I could do with it? I couldn’t make that kind of sacrifice. I don’t think I ever could.”
Steph rolled her eyes again for good measure, knowing he didn’t really, really mind her sarcastic approach to her affection for him. She could never be one of those doting, doe-eyed, cutesy girlfriends who fawned constantly over their lovers. That just wasn’t her, not anymore (nor was it really ever), and she was glad Eddie wasn’t searching for someone like that either. He didn’t need someone like that. They both required someone who would test their boundaries, push them to the brink but drag them back when they needed, someone playful and sharp and needling. Someone who would still curl around them at the end of the day, but maybe with a little edge to it. (Nothing, of course, like the Cat and the Bat, but enough playful edge that they weren’t boring.)
She spluttered out a laugh as he pressed a sloppy kiss to her lips, eyes closing and face scrunching up as she curved her body away just a little. “You’d have a pretty blonde with a lot of carnival prizes?” she offered, eyes still closed and grin in place. Her body rocked forward again, and she scooted even closer until her knees brushed up against him. Ripping off a piece of the sandwich, she popped it in her mouth before reaching to tug the first piece of fabric she could find. “You shouldn’t have to compromise your mind ever, Eddie,” she said, mouth full of food. She swallowed and tugged again before continuing. “You’re too smart for that.” She looked at him for a second, head tilting thoughtfully. “Do you--do you feel like you’re compromising now?”
Eddie took a couple more bites, washing it down with his second capri sun and scooted just a little closer as she did. He leaned his head on her arm when she tugged at him and rubbed his cheek on her forearm. A thoughtful hum vibrated and he pulled back to look up at her from under his baseball cap. “No, that’s why we can be together.” Eddie said it with such simplicity. “You’ve never tried to take away my question marks. And, I’d never try to take away your cowl.” He had such a complete idea of what love was. It wasn’t possible to just take the parts he liked or she liked and ignore the rest of it. He didn’t fall in love with Stephanie without knowing about the cowl and she knew first hand what riddled his past. Eddie knew he was more than a super genius, especially out here picnicking and trying his best to make her happy, but to lose that part of him would change so much. Too much.
“I’ve told you before. You make me better.” His voice turned softer and his eyes brighter. “I mean think of alllll the trouble you get me into. And, most of the time I either have to use my prowess at deduction or engineering creativity. Both of which were vastly underused as a supervillain. You think I spend too much time at Los Tacos now you should have seen me before.” Eddie smirked and sat up as if to ask for another kiss.
She didn’t expect him to move closer, and the cheek rubbed against her arm woke up some goosebumps across her skin. She missed the easy affection they had, that this was normal and right and them, but Arthur had tried to rob them of it, and Bludhaven succeeded. It felt like eons since they could just be Stephanie and Eddie, and it was nice. It was simple and wonderful and nice. And, Steph wondered why could it always be like this? Why did they have to sacrifice themselves every moment of every day? Why couldn’t they just stay here for eternity? She nodded her head to agree with his sentiment. And that was why they couldn’t just be Eddie and Steph. Because he was a super genius and she was a bat, and they needed to fill their roles in society and in Gotham and in whatever other place they were needed. “I would never,” she murmured in agreement. That was a part of him, and if he lost parts of himself, how could he be the man she fell in love with?
Steph leaned a little closer, lips hovering over his, but she didn’t oblige him with his kiss just yet. “You’re so full of yourself, and I’m glad you’re cutting back on the Los Tacos,” she teased, eyes flickering down to his lips before meeting his deep, dark eyes with her bright gaze. “You make me better, too. Not always in a way I like, but you do. I love you,” she continued, because she hadn’t said it all day yet. “I love youloveyouloveyou.” She pressed a quick kiss to the side of his mouth before pulling back and busying herself with her food. Smile crawling up her lips.
Eddie grinned sweetly up at Stephanie, ready to interject with something terribly smarmy, but the sincerity threw him off. He was happy to make proclamations and tell her exactly how he felt about her because he was too old and eccentric to keep that sort of thing to himself. But, Stephanie was younger. She was a little rougher as bats tended to be. And, any time she told him something that didn’t come hand in hand with an eyeroll or a sarcastic tone, he took seriously. He even stored it away for later when he was lonely or he thought she wasn’t appreciating his efforts enough. “Stephanie.” He murmured and left a quick trail of kisses across her jaw and down her neck, his mouth stopping on her shoulder. “I love you, too.”
He turned away from her, finishing his food and capri sun so quickly it seemed ungodly and got to his feet as Matilda started whining to have her ball thrown again. “So, I was thinking about a conversation we had the other day.” Eddie tossed the green ball in his hand a couple times, making Matilda hop a little in the air along with it. “About dancing? Now, I think foxtrot will always be a little too advanced for you, but there are simpler styles. Lindy hop, waltz, two step, tango, my personal favorite the quickstep or even jive.” He gave Matilda a very serious look to which she barked and took off running before he even threw the ball. “All of which I could find us classes for. It’d be good for you. Not just because it’d force us to see each other once a week, but for obvious crime fighting reasons.”
The little blonde bat sighed happily when Eddie peppered her skin with his kisses, reaching out subconsciously to twist her fingers into his shirt. “Eddie,” she breathed, soothed just enough by the affection to let herself actually enjoy being near him. She wondered briefly what the soccer moms and conservative grandparents milling around in the park with the children thought of a young woman and her somewhat significantly older boyfriend being blatantly affectionate in their public space. She found herself thinking about that a lot when they were out in public, but then she realized she didn’t care. If they frowned or gossiped, whatever. They had worse things to worry about than some judgemental suburbians. Their age gap was the least of their problems, and, in the end, it worked out better for them.
When he finally tossed the ball away, Steph twisted until she could lay her head down in his lap, legs stretched out into the grass and dropping the remnants of her own sandwich on her nearby plate. She sipped thoughtfully on the Capri Sun, and her bright blue eyes took in the view from below. His sharp jaw, the tip of his nose, the little protruding curve of his lip. She reached up to delicately run her fingers up his neck to cup his jaw. “You just want to see me fight some thugs with a good waltz,” she teased quietly, hand dropping down to rest on her chest. “Aren’t you scared I’ll crush your toes when I step on them all the time?”
Eddie, for all his self aware meta commentary on Gotham, didn’t even realize that his public affection for Stephanie could turn heads. That wasn’t to say he wasn’t proud to be in the arms of some pretty blonde girl, but it wasn’t the same as busting into a bank with two fishnetted ex-dancers wrapped around him. That was purely for show and ego, this was something else entirely. Besides, the fact she wasn’t pushing him away or making annoyed little noises at his affection meant whatever happened last night didn’t change her mind about him. Seeing how The Riddler helped mold her father into a serious criminal could have made her think twice. Stephanie could have even insisted that Eddie pay for everything he had done before trying to reform. If she weren’t in love, Stephanie could have.
So, when she settled her head in his lap and looked up at him with those bright blues that were just starting to clear from the Bludhaven clouds, he gave her a relieved smile. And, he relaxed into a sigh, pressing his mouth into her hand for a quick kiss. “You’ve broken worse things before.” He assured her with a goofy smirk, reaching to tangle his fingers with hers. “It’ll be challenging at first. And, I’ll have to use every ounce of restraint in my body not to show off for the rest of the class, but I think you’d like it. I think you’d even be good at it after some practice.”
Since the entire thing with Arthur started more than a month beforehand, Steph had been trying to keep her father and Eddie separated in her head. Sure, she knew objectively that Edward Nigma was at fault for a lot of what her father had done, could do, would do. This entire charade had been an act of revenge toward the question-marked man, after all, and look at the collateral damage it caused all three of them. Both men bitter and Stephanie trying her best not to be the broken little bat she could be. And, she knew that when she was alone in her apartment, with Damian gone, Eddie not around, and Bandit the only thing to keep her company, she would probably cry herself to sleep. Break a few things. Let herself be upset. She wouldn’t do it in front of him, as much as she could help, even if she knew how unhappy he might be about that.
She squeezed his fingers as they rested with hers and rolled her eyes when he smirked down at her. “That was payback,” she said, eyes darting away from a second before looking back up. They tended to avoid those touchy subjects, and maybe it wasn’t wise to start joking about them now when they were in a rocky place as it was. “I’ll make sure you keep your ego in check. A couple of strategic toe-steps when you’re getting show-offy because we can’t have you embarrass me.” She beamed up at him sweetly and brought his hand up to brush her lips against his fingers. “I’m game,” she muttered against his skin. “No spandex or leotards though, baby. Sorry. No one’s ready to see you in that.”
Eddie hadn’t come to terms with the fact that he couldn’t help her through everything. He still had a naive and romantic belief that if she only talked to him about her problems and took it all out of him, then she’d be okay. And, sometimes that method worked brilliantly. Other times? It turned into her nearly breaking his gimp arm in some misadventurous sex injury. And, he wasn’t the type of man to learn lessons very quickly. Especially ones that he was sure he knew the answer to. So, he’d keep pressing her. Pushing affection her way. All in some occasionally vain attempt to solve her puzzle. Today it worked for the most part. She was smiling and agreeing to dance lessons, so that had to mean something.
“Only suits.” He raised a finger in the air. A little Riddler like promise. “You’ll be fighting the ladies off me, I promise.” Eddie smiled down at her, more excited than any grown man should be about taking dance lessons. “Did you enjoy lunch? Do you want to go home now or spend a little more time in this lovely suburban heaven?”
"I think they'll realize how tough I am very, very quickly," Stephanie assured him. She rolled her eyes again at his eager joy over taking dance lessons with her, but couldn't fight the smile threatening to spread across her face when he looked down at her. She knew he'd keep pushing her, needling her until she gave up something because that was the way he was. Pushing and prodding at her with his special brand of affection until she caved. As much as she might want to, Eddie wouldn't let her burrow away, even if he didn't quite understand what she was going through. It worked for now, though she had no idea what returning to Gotham might do.
Which had her answering his question quickly. "For Matilda's sake? A little longer, maybe." There wasn't a second's hesitation. Sure, she missed Gotham, but what was she returning to right at that moment? All she needed was there with her. She turned her head to the side, nose burrowing into his stomach, and she sighed. Thumb rubbing the back of his hand as it rested on her chest again, she relaxed as if letting go of all that weight just for a moment.