eddie likes to (riddlethem) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2013-05-18 17:37:00 |
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Entry tags: | door: dc comics, riddler, stephanie brown |
Who: Eddie and Steph
Where: Saint Agnes
When: Night of Arkham explosion after helping the church out
What: Talking, kissing, mostly making up
Warnings: kisses?
The church’s tower had been cleared out of its ancient bell a long time ago and replaced with a very modern kind of speaker system that blasted the chimes of a bell recorded somewhere in Missouri or another inconsequential place. Despite being a vintage super villain who liked to wrap himself in ancient things, Eddie loved the wonders of modern technology even more. He loved that a bell could be a bell without actually being a bell. Of course, nothing had chimed out of those speakers since Bane took over and wouldn’t until the brute was cleared out of Gotham and the streets were filled with people again, but tonight made that seem a daybreak closer. The retired cops and their families were so hardworking and willing to learn that even a former hermit like Riddler could feel buzzed off the energy of community. He remembered Father Michael saying that any non believer could feel god at a packed Sunday mass and Eddie didn’t believe it until tonight. There was something special about a room full of people feeling the same thing, looking towards the same horizon. Eddie had never seen anything like it before. Working with the rogue gallery meant working with selfish people. And, selfish people always had their own directions to look even when they were working together.
Wrapped up building, teaching and configuring, by the end of the night Eddie was still awake in the corner of the church at a worktable they set up for him. Checking the cameras a second time, writing up simple instructions for emergency notifications and making a spreadsheet of supplies that the families needed. He didn’t realize it was so late and everyone else had fallen asleep in their sleeping bags until Father Michael snored so loudly it snapped his attention up from his laptop. Eddie took a moment to look over the sea of trusting, slumbering families who probably hadn’t slept well in weeks and let himself have a private, content kind of sigh. This was all new. All brand new and Eddie couldn’t be more grateful for it. Leaning back with his hands behind his head, he noticed two packets of hot chocolate next to his desk with a note taped to it that simply had an oversized, purple crayon heart and Katie in a squiggly, child’s handwriting. Eddie smiled, glad no one was awake to see that either and quickly brewed himself and Stephanie some hot chocolate to carefully bring up to her.
She could hear him coming up the tower steps slowwwlly, sometimes making little noises with his mouth as he typically did when he was focusing especially hard. Eventually, he appeared at the last step, smiling at her with two mugs in his hand that were filled to the brim with tiny, colorful freeze-dried marshmallows. “Katie wanted you to have this.” Eddie set the mug down next to Stephanie and then handed her the little note that came with it. “I think her mom helped her with the e, but I’ll let it go this time.” Eddie’s smile was goofy from a lack of sleep, but happy. Stephanie was one of the few people who could see the difference between Eddie’s humor as a safeguard and actual happiness. The latter being something that didn’t naturally appear very easily.
After helping fortify the windows and ensuring any unstable nooks and crannies were secure, Stephanie had taken a few minutes to talk to a few more people, get to know their stories or little things about them. Give them a brief second of normalcy, or however normal talking to a young woman dressed as a bat could be. Anything that wasn't strategy or fearing for their lives for just a few moments. She listened to the little kids talk about the new game they'd thought up, and the wives chat about something simple like the reality shows they were watching, and those retired cops laud her and Eddie over their efforts again and again. It was nice, being with the people of Gotham, something she hadn't done in some time. It was plagues or forced vacations to Vegas or her father harassing her. Nothing so fundamentally Batgirl as this.
Eventually, she told Father Michael she'd head up to the gutted bell tower to keep watch in case those jackasses came back. (The curse earned a stern look from the priest and a sheepish smile from Steph.) And that what was how she spent the remaining hours until everyone fell asleep. Goggles on and swooping up and down the street to search for Bane's people. But, really, it was an excuse to give herself time away from everyone. After that crushing kiss shared in the graveyard, she wanted to slap herself upside the head for it. Why'd she allowed herself that momentary weakness? She couldn't help the glances toward Eddie while they finished up work, similar to how he kept glancing at her earlier. And it stung more than she let on to everyone else. So, getting away was good, even if she knew Eddie wouldn't let her stay by herself the entire night.
As she heard his approach -- and she knew it was him -- she didn't move from her perch at the edge, one leg propped up and the other dangling inside the tower. She looked just as exhausted as he felt, even hidden beneath all that black. Her blonde hair was still damp at the ends from the torrential downpour earlier, and it stuck messily stuck out of the back of her cowl. And winding down had also brought back some of those symptoms of withdrawal she'd been able to bury away: the ache in her bones, the numbness in her fingers, the absolute fatigue. But, she managed to flash him a smile as he walked over, quick and small and barely there, before slipping off her gloves to let the mug warm her fingers directly. "The kid's pretty smart for three. Really perceptive." She brightened at the note, and looked back up at Eddie with a little wibble to her lips that she tried to bite away. A happy one, to mirror the stupid happy in his voice and expression. Normally, she'd appreciate something like this from a little girl a lot, but somehow this meant more than those other times. Like it was exactly what she needed.
Eddie brushed the edge of one of his fingers along her bare knuckles, hitting each and every groove between them as if he were pushing a code against her skin and then retreated over to one of the other windows. He nodded with a humming noise, flipping out his glasses so he could read heat signatures, check his email and make sure Arkham didn’t fall while he was gone. Eddie played warden for a while until Crane came back, but he didn’t like it very much over there anymore. Even with the good company, the familiar kind of crazy he could bury himself in, Eddie was a lot happier over here in a part of Gotham that wasn’t going to bring out the worst in him. “Lot of smart kids down there.” Eddie said finally, letting her have a moment with the little note and pretending he didn’t notice the wibble of her lips and the way her eyes lit up at the simple note. He liked that small things could mean the world to her. He was the same way. From pieces of trivia to the way Matilda slept on his feet to keep him safe. Little things were what made the world beautiful to him.
“Rain’s about to clear up. When morning hits I’m going to put their fence up, I think.” Eddie took a couple bites of marshmallows soaked in hot chocolate. “I wish I didn’t have to think about the rest of Gotham. I wish a giant wall went up around this block and we’d only be responsible for these people instead of the entire scope of things.” He said distantly through blinking notifications. Typically he was a man who liked big, complicated mazes. Typically he’d get bored with such a small assignment. Something about this place was different though. He didn’t know if it was the people or the things he was trying to do to help. He didn’t know if it was a simple as forcing Stephanie to spend time with him instead of letting her run off to another corner of the city. If he had to guess, he’d think it was a mess of all those things. Strings of different motivations wadded up in a big, colorful ball that he’d rather keep tangled than pull apart.
The mug burned her fingers a little, the sting a reaffirmation that the numbness wasn't permanent, but the tingle his touch left made sure that didn't even matter. She stared down at her knuckles for a couple of beats with a confused sort of frown, but it might have looked like she was just focusing on the steam billowing from the warm drink. How did he still make her feel so warm and fuzzy and stupid when she wanted to hate him with all her might? Where was the switch in her brain to just turn that off? There had to be one, right? It wasn't fair, it wasn't fair at all that he still had her heartstrings tangled around his fingertips to twist and pluck as he pleased. She knew, or at least she hoped that she had the same effect on him, but that didn't make her feel any better in that moment. So, she buried that frown in the hot chocolate, sipping away as he spoke, and she just offered some noises from the back of her throat as responses. And, she didn't look back at him at first. Down to the letter resting on her lap or to the chipped mug hugged in her hands or the rain out the window. Anything to avoid looking at his deep, dark eyes and being sucked right back in to his riddled puzzle.
Eventually, though, she sighed and looked toward him, but not at his face. "Gotham needs us," she said simply to his shoes. "We're the only ones who can help. And this is our home. We can't let him take it." She sounded angry then, offended that Bane even thought he could take over their city without people soon pushing him back to his rightful place. Out of Gotham and locked away for good. (Even if no one was locked away for good in Gotham.) She fell quiet again, staring at his sneakers for a long moment before her gaze traveled up sloooowly until blues met browns. "I'm proud of you, too, Eddie. Of everything you did tonight. The way you worked with those people down there? I'm so proud." There was earnest pride bleeding through her words, and she offered him a gentle smile. "I told you you could."
He nodded along with her, not angry that Bane had decided to take over Gotham, but knowing full-well that it wasn’t his to have. Eddie didn’t do the right thing because he loved justice or he was particularly interested in punishing the evil. He simply liked things a certain way and didn’t enjoy seeing other people get hurt. If pressed, he might have even admitted that he was protective over certain people. Though, that wasn’t some big mystery to anyone that knew him well enough. The way he kept the Cat’s secrets, the way he forgave Muerte, the way he followed Stephanie around like a puppy. All clear clues into how that riddled heart worked.
He tilted his head on the window, taking his glasses off to simply enjoy the quiet moment of light rain, hot chocolate and her company. When he felt his eyes on her, Eddie turned slowly just as her blues met his dark browns and his eyes crinkled a little in focus at what she was telling him. Suddenly, he was very aware of his breathing, of his mouth hanging open just a little almost in shock and he swung his legs off the window sill so he could face her. “Thank you.” He said finally, eyes ticking with thoughts she couldn’t read as he watched a couple marshmallows melt into the hot chocolate. “I don’t think- I know I couldn’t have managed without you around.” Eddie made a noise like he knew she hated him for saying things like that, but it was the truth. And, he was trying to be truthful. Eddie exhaled through his nose slowly and looked back up to her. “I love you. I love you a lot. I don’t think I can leave you alone anymore.”
Unlike Eddie, Steph stayed in her spot, that one leg propped up while the other swung to and fro, while they lapsed into a momentary silence. She didn't regret saying what she did; it was the truth, even if she wanted him to believe otherwise sometimes. She was unequivocally proud of how he handled the whole situation, how he empathized with those people as closely as he could, how he willingly helped without much of a reward other than a lauding thanks from the people now sleeping downstairs. It was a newer side of him. She'd seen it, of course, time and time again, but she appreciated that he was letting others see it as well.
That didn't save him from a sharp shake of her head with a soft no accompanying it. No, she didn't think that he needed her to do all that. She hated the pressure of it, honestly. Any other time before, she'd indulge in the idea of him needing her, but now it left a bad taste in her mouth. Because if he needed her, why didn't he realize how much he'd wronged her with the entire Muerte situation? Her shoulders stiffened, and she buried her cowled face in her hands with a whine after a second. Why did he have to say things like that? "I'm so mad at you," she snapped finally, hands acting like shields on the sides of her face, and her voice sounded so heavy with emotions. "I'm so fucking mad, and you don't get it." There was a shake in her words that threatened to crack underneath the pressure, and she had to look out that window while gnawing on her bottom lip.
Eddie expected a backlash, he knew her well enough to see one coming a mile away (especially if he was the one causing it), so by the time she was burying her head in her hands he was setting his hot chocolate down and walking over to sit on the floor under her. “I know you’re mad. I know.” He had been mad, too. Cold, even and the fear of her ultimately rejecting him occasionally made Eddie want to hurt her before she could do the same to him. But, the whole night changed something. Made it easy to focus on what was important. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m still the same person I was before. Nothing’s changed. You’ve just haven’t had to see that part of me in a long time.” He tried to reason out. Eddie thought she was upset because he was crazy and sometimes crazy people do things that don’t make sense to people like her, but it wasn’t like she didn’t know. Stephanie more than anyone else in this Gotham should have known.
He leaned against the wall right under her windowsill, sitting up enough to prop his arm up against her body. The right thing to do would be to give her space, to not even show up tonight, but Eddie had seen how well that methodology worked with other relationships from different sides of the tracks. Pride didn’t goddamned matter when it came to her. And, he was so sure that even if she did break his heart and send him away, he’d never snap enough to really hurt people again. “Maybe you’re right.” Eddie said after a moment, fingers lightly brushing against her padded body armor. “Maybe I don’t need you anymore to keep things right. Batman proved that, didn’t he? But, I-” He looked up at her. “But, you can’t expect me to change everything about myself for you.”
When he leaned his arm against her body, she jerked away instinctively, body tense and burning underneath that kevlar. It stung to have him so close, but she didn't nudge him away, even her frame still stiffened considerably. "It's not just that," she muttered, or whined, or breathed out. It was barely a whisper over the din of the rain going pitter-patter on the roof above them, and it was just weak. It wasn't just the fact that his brain worked differently, was it? There was some fundamental feeling of hurt that went with everything that had happened. She placed the mug behind her on the sill and then drew both her legs up to hug them to her chest. Head shaking back and forth against her knees.
"It's not just that," she repeated a little louder, but the sound was muffled in her body armor. "It-it feels like--god, Eddie." A whine of sadness and frustration rumbled in her throat before she snapped her head up again, watery, bloodshot blue eyes storming. "I love you so much, do you understand that? So much that it scares me sometimes. I don't want to feel vulnerable, not after every other time I've been with a guy, but that's what you make me feel so often. I'm goddamn scared of it. And, after everything we've been through, I thought I'd be okay. That I could be brave enough. But, it feels like you chose her over me. She violated me and I've nearly lost control of my body like that but in a different way before, you know that." Her voice shook, and she had to swallow hard to suppress a sudden sob. "She hung my life and your life and our relationship over my head just because I called her out on something that any girl would. And, it's not fair that you forgave her for that." And maybe that showed her youth that she couldn't even fathom how someone could be forgiven for something so egregious and awful.
He sat up a little straighter, turning so he could kneel at the windowsill and reach a hand to hold to the top of her bare one. “That wasn’t her. The toxin and the stress of so many people practically dancing to their own graves scrambled her mind. If something like that happened to me, I’d want someone to forgive me, too. She’s my friend.” Eddie’s voice strained like someone who didn’t have a lot of friends to begin with. Back in Gotham, his Gotham, he couldn’t exactly trust any of the people he called friends and there were plenty of other who thought he was their friend when he’d just as easily backstab them. Here, he was trying to make that right. Muerte was always one of those friends that Eddie would go pretty great lengths to help if she needed him. And, he was just now understanding how that could hurt the person closest to him.
Eddie took a moment to mull over that and exactly how to fix it without ruining either relationship. She could practically hear the gears spinning in his head, mouth screwed up in a thoughtful sort of look before he reached to move her hot chocolate over to the other windowsill and scooted to sit next to her. “Look,” He said after a moment, tugging at her hands to get her to curl up with him. “I can’t get mad at something that wasn’t her fault. But, I should have kept her at a distance. In anticipation of your feelings. In respect. You’re right about that. And, that’s something I can do. Once this is all over and things go back to normal, I can keep her at a distance for you. I’d happily make that sacrifice if it means I don’t lose you.”
In theory, Stephanie understood what he was saying. After all, she'd nearly thrown herself off a roof, then propositioned Eddie with sex on that same rooftop on the same toxin Death was suffering from. And, if it'd had happened to anyone else, maybe she would have understood better. (But, probably not.) But it had happened to her, it had happened to her, and she could not think of it rationally. She was simply incapable of it at the moment. At a time in her life where she was so wrecked a weaker person might not have been able to function. It was an avalanche of shit after shit, and she hadn't gotten a chance to piece herself back together.
Snatching off the mask and cowl (because who cared if someone stumbled onto her secret identity anymore), she ran a shaky hand through her mussed blonde hair. Without the cowl, he could see how bad shape she was really in. Her eyes bruised purple underneath, marks finally healing on her face, and she looked thinner. Like she'd simply fallen apart over the last few weeks. She whined again as he nudged next to her, and at first shook her head at his offer. As much as she hated Death right now, she didn't want Eddie to be alone. And, she tried to tug her hands out of his grip, a quick, fruitless jerk of her arms that had no effect, and after a brief moment, she threw her arms around his neck with a sob, burying her nose in the crook there. Her fingers curled hard into the skin at the back of his neck, like she was clawing at him.
"I can't forgive her," she choked out finally as she soaked his t-shirt with her tears, letting out months worth of emotions all at once. Her body wracked with sobs, and she crowed out ugly, sad sounds. She was aware that maybe she shouldn't break down like this when she was still so furious, but once the floodgates opened, there was no hope shutting them down until it was ready.
Eddie slowly wrapped his arms around her back gently, pulling her close so that his nose rested on her shoulder as she sobbed into him. His eyes stayed open at first, looking through the short, blonde veil of hair that was crimped and messy from the cowl. He knew she had been through a lot, not just this month but since even before all this started between them. He also knew some of it was his fault and he had made some substantial mistakes along the way, but could she really have made it through without him? Probably, but he was going to afford himself that little lie. “It’s okay.” He said quietly, closing his eyes and turning his head to kiss her neck. Then, he didn’t say anything for a long time. Letting her cry as he held onto her like there wasn’t a way to untangle them and he wouldn’t even if he could find the solution to the puzzle.
“You don’t have to forgive her. She hurt you. You don’t have to.” He ran his hand over her hair a couple times, trailing a few more kisses up her neck and across her face. Noting how her body smelt synthetic from being in wet kevlar all night, how much smaller she was in his arms than he remembered and how her whole body seemed to be covered with tender, sore spots. Eddie leaned back to look at her, hands on either side of her face, thumbs rubbing away runaway tears. “Once Bane gets thrown out of the city and things feel normal, we should take a break. You and me. Together. From all of this. I want to take you somewhere like I promised.” He whispered, trying not to pay much attention to the rings around her eyes or the hurt she had been holding back until now. It was a fine line between not wanting to make her feel weak, but wanting to let her know he saw she was in pain and he wanted so badly to help.
It was a sickeningly sweet sort of release to just let it all go. To sob until she couldn't breathe and she could do nothing but choke on the little air she was getting in the nook of Eddie's neck. When he murmured his comfort, she shook her head, but didn't say a word. In fact, Steph didn't say anything during that long stretch where he just held her, only shivered in his arms and clutched harder, as hard as possible. Even if she caught her breath, no words came to her mind. How could she explain everything she felt when she barely understood the maelstrom herself. She wished she could let him just pick her brain apart so he could see and understand and feel what she felt.
Her cheeks were beet red when he pulled back, and she whined as he held her there, trying her best to twist her face away from his grip. She just wanted to hide and wallow in her pain for a moment. Squeezing her eyes shut, she shuddered. "Normal?" she croaked, all the faith and hope in Gotham suddenly sucked dry from her being. "When do things ever get back to normal? If it's not--if we get Bane away--when we get Bane out of this city, it's going to be something else. It's Dad, or it's Joker, or it's Ra's, or it's something, and we'll never get a break. Because this is Gotham, our personal hell, and we're being punished all the time." Her bloodshot blue eyes cracked open, and she looked at him with such broken defeat. "All the time."
Eddie looked at her for a couple beats longer than he should have, still holding onto the sides of her face as if he were afraid she’d slip away. It was difficult for him, difficult to navigate what she said and how she felt with what he knew to be true about her. Stephanie really didn’t see Gotham as some kind of personal hell. She loved it, almost as much as he did, even if it kept breaking her heart over and over again. There was something about Gotham that felt like it was theirs. That made the city unique and imprinted on them in a way that a thousand vacations away couldn’t erase. “No, no.” He whispered after her, finally letting her face go and leaning back against the windowsill, fingers stretching around her shoulders to pull her closer to him.
“I’m going to tell you the same thing I told those reporters. A long time ago. When things started getting bad. Something I tell myself all the time.” Eddie waited until she settled against him, running one hand through her messy hair, his body warm and calm after a night’s worth of working for something he believed in along side someone he really did love. “Gotham used to be a playground and citizens started to notice when things changed. When Joker started murdering people. When I started building death traps. So, these reporters hunted me down and asked me questions about the past. About how things changed. And, I told them that Gotham is our home. I said, we’re trying to survive in this city. It’s huge and contradictory and dark and funny and threatening. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s bad. But, it’s ours, Stephanie. You and me.” When he spoke he sounded like that perfect mix of the question marked man and Eddie. Sentimental, a little dangerous, untrustworthy, loyal, loving, harsh. Just as contradictory as his city. Their city.
“What I saw you do down there tonight. I wouldn’t trade a thousand Metropolises for it. And, I know you love it, too.” Eddie leaned his head back, rolling his face towards the cool, rain splattered window. “But, we need a break. A small one. Something for us.”
As he finally let go of her face, she rolled her neck away with a tiny little groan, chin jutting out and face toward the cool air blowing against her warm cheeks. Similar to that teenaged tilt of defiance earlier, but with none of the harsh anger. Only sadness and defeat and exhaustion. Her shoulders stiffened again when she felt the pressure of his fingers tug her toward him, but she didn’t fight his advances this time. Instead, she crawled into his lap, little blonde bat curled in his embrace and digging her nose into his chest, and though she was still crying, the sobs abated slightly, enough that she could at least catch her breath. She was confused by how small she felt in his arms, how weak and broken when she was they both knew she was usually at least the physically strong one.
And, Steph knew he was completely right about Gotham. She didn’t protest his words at all, instead nodding along as he went. He was right. Completely right. As much as she hated Gotham sometimes -- and the ire she felt for that city was great at times -- she loved it, too. It was home. It was their home, and as much as she could loathe it sometimes, she wouldn’t even dream of trading it in for a Bludhaven or a Star City or a Metropolis. At the end of the day, she always felt awkward in other places. Out of place. She was a Gotham girl, through-and-through, and they both knew that.
She shuddered in his arms, fingers twisting into the fabric of his shirt and pulling against it. “Why couldn’t everything just stay the same after Vegas? Or before the plague?” she asked into the fabric of his shirt. She just wanted things to go back to the way they were. When they could curl around each other and their biggest worry was over how the Batfamily would react to their courtship. “It’s different in this Gotham. It feels like it’s one thing after another after another without a chance to breathe.” But, she understood that they would need to remove themselves from the disease for a little while.
Eddie didn’t realize how tense he was until she crawled into his lap and each of his muscles loosened one right after the other. First his arms, then his shoulders, neck, and then back. All in a smooth movement like curling up under a blanket. He exhaled with an affectionate noise in the back of his throat and hummed a kiss against her forehead. “We both naturally attract so much trouble on our own, with our forces combined we’re ultra-trouble.” He said with nerd sage certainty and rested his chin on top of her head. “Look at the evidence. The second we got together everything got crazy. Crazier than it had ever been even when we were at each other’s throats.” She could hear the smile in his voice. It wasn’t the usual smartass smirk, but the goofy, almost sweet upturn of his lips. Yes, she was trouble, but he had never been this happy. Never in his long riddled, life. Even when things got bad, he was still given these small moments of pure seventh heaven in between that he wasn’t about to trade for anything. He kept thinking about what Kara said to them. How she could tell how happy they made each other. And, that was something worth holding onto. Fighting for, even.
“Look, I think for the next month we should outright refuse trouble unless it looks fun.” He leaned back a little and tried to look down at her. “We can both pick three things that are on the list of trouble we absolutely have to get into. I pick mysteries, cryptology and pun-related crime solving.”
Eventually, Steph felt the tension in his body melt away, and she slowly allowed herself to break her wall, too. Settle into his hold the way she was supposed to. The blonde bat was still furious about everything, but she knew that her love for Eddie trumped how angry she could be, how complicated things had become, how ugly things could actually be. Her mouth twitched as he rained down on her with nerdy, sage wisdom, and she gently wrapped her arms around his midsection, fingers twisting into his back now. Digging in there like she never wanted to let go of him again. There was a laugh, quiet and barely there, but it was there in the shake of her shoulders and the way she smiled into his chest. “Trouble squared, that’s us,” she said into his chest, smile just as evident in her voice as it was in his.
When he pulled back, she finally pried her face off his chest, looking up at him with big bloodshot blues and resting her chin on him with the ghost of a smile on her face. “So predictable, Eddie,” she teased, her voice raw in a way he hadn’t heard in a long time. Raw with emotion, raw with affection, just stripped down and unguarded. She hummed that thoughtful, teasing little hum that drove him crazy, and closed her eyes. “I say beaches and sun, drunken karaoke, annnnd trying to get ourselves banned from IKEA for disorderly conduct.” Her eyes opened slowly, and she smirked up at him.
Any other day, any other normal day (or as normal as it could get in Gotham), her teasing would earn a phony shocked look or some kind of sharp comeback. Something that mirrored the actual shocked sting from earlier that night when he mouthed a wow at a line she decided to cross. Now, he just grinned at her. Sloppy, with his eyes almost closed and nowhere near the cunning, charmer smile he gave when he wanted something. Hell, if he had a tail, she could have heard it wagging. He liked the rawness, even if it meant she had been stretched a little thin and couldn’t take much more pressure from Gotham or Bane. He liked that even when Stephanie was feeling like hell, she could still smile up at him like that.
“Oh, I like your ideas much, much better. Screw my list.” He gave a flippant shrug of his shoulders as if he already forgot the puzzles and puns, leaning in for a quick kiss, followed by a smattering of more as if he just realized how much he liked them. “The second we can fly out of this city again, I’ll take you somewhere tropical.” Eddie lifted his hand out, panning it across an imaginary scene for them. “I’ll take you to a beach where fanny packs and pale nerds in cargo shorts can roam free.”
A pleased little noise slipped out of the back of her throat when he kissed her, like she finally had found what she was missing all this time, and then leaning into every press of his lips. “I thought you were the brains of this outfit, but maybe we’ll need to do a new scientific survey.” She said, warmer and warmer by the second as she twisted her fingers into the fabric of his shirt until the cotton was taut in her grip. Lifting her chin off his chest, she looked up at him with that usual affectionate candor in her eyes and across her mouth that had been absent for what seemed like too long. Just like the warmth that he boiled under her skin and in her stomach just by the way he looked at her.
“I’ll make sure just to pack my bikini.” Even if the scars from her bout with the plague and clashes over the past few months made her wary of showing off any skin around people other than Eddie. He didn’t care, she knew that, but she still felt self-conscious now and then. He could see that in the quick twitch of her lips downward. “No fanny packs,” she said, faux-exasperation burying away that insecurity for a moment, and she stretched until her nose was inches from his. “I don’t care how useful they are. You’re killin’ me, Smalls.” Her arms slipped out from his waist and settled around his neck, one hand cupping his jaw as she leaned in to claim his mouth for hers. Open and crushing, but nothing like the rough, angry embrace in that muddy graveyard earlier in the night. Her hands, surprisingly warm, slipped up his jaw and tangled in his hair, and she teased his tongue with hers.
Not completely appropriate when you’re sitting in a church’s belltower, but she’d done worse things.
“Yes, you in a bikini, matching fanny packs, long arduous scientific tests and benchmark polls down at the be-” His voice rose geekily, near-shouting that was intercepted by her kiss and easily muted with a rumbling, pleased hum. He rested his hands on that utility belt hanging from her hips, fingers reaching under it and smoothing against the padded kevlar. The Batgirl costume always frustrated him because no amount of thieving could get his hands against her skin without stripping the damned costume off. Tonight, he was just happy he could feel her shape under all of it. Have her in his arms returning a kiss so warm and more familiar than anything he had tasted this month.
“I missed you.” Eddie whispered, pressing his mouth against hers with a tiny whine. He repeated it a couple times before his words lost their syllables and melted under a deep, tangled kind of a kiss that returned a very familiar static to his brain. Something only she could do for him, something he needed to keep that tick-tocking brain of his from overheating. And, more than any other break or hiatus they had been on, this one felt closer to the first time he begged her to come over before her batfamily Christmas. When they were just happy rolling around his apartment with kisses and wayward hands until she had to go be with her family and he had to go explore with the cat. Buzzed, happy and craving each other the rest of the night.
She almost hated herself for how right this felt, but it was true. Being in his arms, pressing herself against him, having his hands wander, it felt right. Like this was where she was meant to be in her life and nothing, not even a conniving concept could change that. She was his, and he was hers. Each of them had their fingers all tangled up with each other’s heartstrings and minds. It was easy to settle back into him, whether she wanted it or not. It was too easy. He felt like an extension of herself that she’d been missing until that moment on the windowsill in his lap. And, she knew that it wasn’t completely repaired, them, but this was the first step. She would try.
The blonde bat whined a little and pressed up against him, kevlar against cotton and jeans, and she kind of wished she could just rid herself of the damn costume at that moment. Feel every inch of him against her. She tugged against his hair, too, when he caught her lips with a deep kiss as if he couldn’t get close enough. And, he couldn’t. “I missed you, too, baby,” she panted, jagged across his lips, and pressed a few quick kisses across his jawline before finding his lips again with a searing, probing kiss that spoke of how much she actually did miss him better than her words ever could.
She could feel him smirk against her skin as she tugged on his hair, leaning away from her fingers just enough that the pressure felt good, familiar. It was a strange little quirk between the two of them that reminded him of their pushy brand of affection. She’d pull his hair, he’d nip a little at her neck and it felt like a combination that only belonged to them. He easily lost himself in it and the intensifying and almost desperate way he kissed her, spending a long time simply getting lost in the dizzy rush she could pull out of him that felt like getting chased and running someone down at the same time.
“Stephanie Brown.” He managed, eyes heavy and mouth sore from pressing his lips against hers. “Typically I’d be pulling your suit off by now, but if the Father catches up here he’ll literally crucify me. And, then neither of us will be invited to the next fish fry. It’ll be a mess.” Eddie offered a small, cheesy smile and took a rumbling bite out of her kevlared arm. “Although if we’re qui-” He started to curl his fingers under her suit when his violet glasses started beeping frantically. “Sorry that’s- that’s Arkham SOS.” Eddie sighed and pulled the glasses from the collar of his shirt and slipped them on, expecting a false alarm or Harley misusing the alert system. But, then she could feel his chest tighten and his usual vibrating energy come to a complete standstill.
“Arkham’s-” She could see his dark eyes go large, blinking with panic before his shades turned dark violet with windows and diagnosis information. “No. I have to- I have to go, baby.” If she wasn’t wearing body armor, she could feel his fingers shaking against her. For another long moment he was lost in his glasses, head tilted back as he mouthed noiseless words to himself in a panic.
A pleased little noise rumbled in the back of her throat as she lost herself in that kiss, pushing all of herself into the embrace like she was offering her entire being to him. Even if he had so much of her already, after feeling like she was separated from him for so long, he didn’t even have to ask her right then and there. She felt a little brain dead, suddenly, but alive in a way she hadn’t in a while at the same time. Everything about that night reawakened parts of the blonde bat that had been slumbering within her for too, too long. They weren’t fully there, that would take time, but she felt more like herself than she had in months, honestly. More like the girl Eddie first invited over to play Oregon Trail instead of the pissed off bat she’d become since her father arrived on the scene.
“Eddie,” Stephanie chided quietly, breathlessly, with a smirk as he began to suggest they carry on further, and she was thinking of ways to tease him about suddenly becoming a churchgoing man when his glasses beeped and he froze. She groaned dramatically, turning away to the drizzle outside and guzzling up air the cool air, hands falling from his hair to twist into his shirt again. “Arkham’s what?” she asked, head snapping back to look at him. She knew it was bad by the way he tensed up against her and the panic bleeding in his voice. Tugging against his shirt to grab his attention, she asked the question again, a little more forcefully. Something was wrong, and the violet glasses’ beeping irritated her. “No, what happened, tell me what happened.” Even as she demanded he explain, she scooted out of his lap, then swung her legs off the windowsill to give him space.
He didn’t hear her at first, too lost in all the terrible possibilities his glasses laid out for him. “All my equipment went out. At once. That’s very bad.” Eddie sighed, frustration and worry all wrapped up in the same exhale. “I need to go check it out.” Another couple seconds spent staring at his glasses and then he snatched them off (because he knew they irritated her) and scooted forward to close the gap between them. “The moment I sort all this out I’ll come find you.” Eddie touched the side of her face, looking just long enough to see a shadow of the affection she showed him just moments before and smiled softly before downing his hot chocolate and bolting for the door.