Who: Eddie and Steph (part two) Where: Diagon Alley When: Recently What: Checking out another door! Making trouble! Feelings! Warnings: Mostly swears and makin out
And, honestly, it was like walking into Mecca for Steph. Few things had her geeking out publicly, but the little blonde bat looked like a kid at Christmas. (Okay, that was a lie. She geeked out a lot, but not like this.) Diagon Alley was still in bits of disarray, and she figured it was either after Voldemort’s first or second fall. They hadn’t been given too many weird looks, so she guessed the latter. “End of the 90s?” she asked Eddie with a shrug before taking in more of the shopping strip. Some stores were still boarded up never to be opened again, and others were on the way to full recovery. They had to be, after all, and she was glad to see that some business was booming in the alley. At least the day wouldn’t be a bust. (Though, just being able to spend time with Eddie would make any day not a bust.)
Eventually, after a few moments of taking everything in wide-eyed excitement, she caught herself and mentally chided herself to play it cool. “Fine, you don’t have to get me an owl, but we’re looking at them.” She dragged him off with little ceremony away from the archway that lead to the Leaky Cauldron, past the apothecary and the cauldron shop, and towards the Owl Emporium. “What were those other things you weren’t supposed to get me?” She plopped herself in front of the window to look at the owls on the inside, then the ones hanging above their heads with a huge grin on her face. “C’mon, they’re beautiful. We can leave it in the Cave as long as Bruce doesn’t realize what’s happening,” she teased, pointing at a large barn owl that looked like it could eat Bandit for lunch.
“2000. Try not to think too hard about what we were doing back then.” Eddie corrected her, obviously having done his homework while he was out peddling jewelry. Being from Gotham made him just about as street wise as the weirdos down in Knockturn Alley and if Stephanie needed him to, he could have set up some kind of way to make money around here (semi-legitimately even) within a couple days. Until they found out they were two muggle goofballs, of course. He looked up and around at the recovering street of shops and decided that he liked it better this way than the idolized, wizarding goodness that it was when Harry first visited. Eddie liked seeing damage (because damage was something any Gothamite could relate to) and the hope that cautiously grew out of it.
He turned to look at Stephanie who was lost in her wide-eyed geek out and smiled when she wasn’t looking. Eddie had nearly forgot that they could be happy and when he was in Arkham City he wasn’t sure if he could ever make her happy again. But, here was this magical hotel proving him wrong again and again.
Eddie watched her press against the window to look at the owls and then shrugged casually when she asked what was banned. “Cursed jewelry, brooms, well no I don’t know if you can use brooms. But, I’d assume that cursed jewelry would still mess with you. Potions of any kind. Giant spiders. You know the usual stuff.” Eddie smirked. “But, sweets, joke items and mischievous toys are all fair game.” He moseyed over to the window and peaked through before being pulled inside. The owls were all patiently sleeping, cooing or eyeing customers from their old fashioned cages. There were all different kinds, some of them indeed looked pretty harmless, but others still had the danger of nature behind their giant eyes. “You can’t tame a wild animal.” Eddie said to one of the bright eyed screech owls who blinked in agreement.
Wandering away from her, Eddie headed towards a regal looking barn owl. “Hey, buddy.” Eddie greeted it and the owl slowly turned its head to look at him. “You want to deliver messages to Gotham for me?” The bird fluffed its feathers. “Didn’t think so. Fine, you wanna be that way? I’ll get a toad to do my dirty work. Toads get me.”
“Not even a love potion?” Stephanie asked with a wiggle of her eyebrows that rivaled many of his. “I might need it if I ever want you to let me take advantage of you ever again.” Which was another fear the little blonde bat had in regards to her question-marked man. What if, at the end of everything, he didn’t want her the way he did? There was their passionate, heart racing reunion in the bar just a short while before, but that could have been chalked up to separation. What if his therapies and medications and doctors made him want to drift away and find a girl who was older, more stable, less involved in Gotham’s darker tangoing? For all his declarations and loving devotion, Stephanie always feared she wasn’t good enough for him at times. At the end of the day, her insecurities liked to rear their ugly head when he wasn’t around to placate the dragon. Still, he was here with her now. If he didn’t want her later...well, they would deal with that later. With the most subtle shake of her head, she drifted away to look at the owls as well.
“Hi, handsome,” she said to a big, beautiful owl, inching her finger closer to the cage until the bird squawked loudly and fluffed up at her. She jumped, then glanced over to Eddie. “It’s not about taming them, it’s about nurturing them. Making them feel loved.” Before he could look, she turned back to the animals, moving towards the cats prowling in the cages above their heads. “Think Bandit would mind a magic-ish brother or sister?” she teased. “Matilda misses her dad, by the way. My good looks can only go so far, baby. Just like with Frankie.” She turned back to him and smiled again. Assuring him that there were still places for him when he returned to Gotham. Little slots he still needed to fill that no one else could even dream. Slowly, she walked over to Eddie and placed her head on his shoulder, grabbing one of his hands with hers. “No toads. You say no potions or brooms, and I say no toads.” Pressing a kiss to the corner of his jaw, she smiled against his skin.
“I wonder if we might run into anyone around here. What if we see Neville? Or Luna? Or Harry?” Her eyes lit up with excitement, even if it was surely practically impossible. Magical objects and pets and potions would have to do.
“I wonder if I can talk Leland into letting Matilda stay with me.” Eddie said thoughtfully. Matilda was practically a service dog at this point and it wouldn’t be difficult to take care of her from his cell. He could even take her on walks (with plenty of guards needlessly watching his every move). “Arkham is nearly empty. They have me off in the harmless wing with baby Crane and no one is willing to tell me who’s over in the bad, baaad wing.” He finally stuck his fingers into the cage to touch the owl. “Hey buddy. It’s okay. We’re okay.” Eddie said softly and the owl bristled at first, but then gave into his delicate touch. It closed its eyes, and rolled its head so the riddled man could pet it just right and then hooted softly. Eddie smiled something sad and he had an overwhelming urge to just buy the owl right then, but resisted.
“No, if something goes wrong I don’t want Matilda in the crossfire.” He said finally, squeezing Stephanie’s hand and smiling over at her. “You, though. That’s a different story. You know if we were both in Arkham City we would have done so much damage in such a small amount of time.” Eddie smirked, mind wandering towards the possibilities of them scavenging, hunting and generally kicking ass all over that hellhole of a prison. “I wouldn’t have needed gangs. Probably wouldn’t have taken care of the other ex-JLA as well, but we could have made it work.” And, there was something there that was wishful that they could have gone through everything together, however selfish that was. Eddie didn’t mind being on the run from the law, he just couldn’t ask Stephanie to do the same.
Eddie raised his eyebrows curiously as if to ask if Stephanie wanted anything. The owl veto was slowly losing its power surrounded by such delightful creatures while he was so close to her.
She smiled softly as she watched him interact with the owl, resting her chin on his shoulder and holding his thin hand in hers. He could feel her heart capitulating between racing from the proximity of his body to hers and slowing down because of how calming his presence was for her. It was the first time in over a month that she could simply hold his hand, press her lips to his skin, feel how easily their puzzle pieces lined up. “You’ll have her back soon enough. You’ll have both of us back soon enough.” And, that was just as much assurance for herself as it was for him. They would be back together soon. They had to be, or else things were going to be a lot rougher in the next coming months. Stephanie was partially okay, she was able to function, but a lot of it was pushing through her worry, her hurt, her anger in order to continue living her life. She had to continue on, or what would he return to? “You’ll be home in time for the christening. Christmas. Our anniversary.” They all came out more like questions than she intended, but there was the inflection. The hope. The worry.
The blonde bat rumbled out a noise against him as he mulled over an imagined time in Arkham together. Yes, they would have kicked so much ass, and god, Steph would have been in there if she could have. If he would have let her. “I would have worn a makeshift crown and called myself Queen of the Goons,” she mumbled with a tease before pressing a kiss to his cheek. She knew that they could have gotten through it together, and she wished that she had been there for him. He wouldn’t have fallen off the deep end (probably). But, would they have been okay after? Neither of them would ever know, and hopefully they would never have the chance again to exercise all of that. This needed to be it.
She saw the raise of his eyebrow and cocked one up as well, gazing at him in silence for a second before burying her nose in the nook of his neck. She sighed happily, the pull away and push of her chest against his back reminding him she was still there. She still fit so easily against him. “Matilda and Bandit would be very jealous siblings if we brought home a bird,” she muttered against his skin, greedily taking another breath of his new, fresh scent. She could get used to it. “But a bludger, on the other hand.” Steph perked up again and grinned at him before slowly backing out of the shoppe, still facing him and still grasping his hand. As she walked backwards (very, very slowly so as not to stumble), she rolled that ring around his finger with her thumb, as if reminding them both that it was there. It was a second of pride, a flash of something sentimental in her eyes that told Eddie how much it meant to her that he was still wearing it.
Back on the cobblestone street and staring at the Quidditch supply store across the way, she turned to Eddie, still holding onto his hand. Stephanie couldn’t think of letting him go. She wanted to touch him every moment of every minute of every hour until she had to say goodbye to him again. “Tell me everything about New Arkham. Things that are different, things you remember. One thing you think I’d like about it.” What could you like about an asylum? Eddie always found something interesting and almost positive in the dark, just like she tried to.
Eddie might have briefly worried that his affectionate touches would have turned awkward over time apart, a month of living in hell and the therapy he practically volunteered for. It was an unnecessary worry, after all, since it was so easy to hold her hand, kiss her face and fit his body against hers just right. Nothing could have been a bigger relief. “I promise to be home in plenty of time for all of that.” He smiled softly as she touched the ring around his finger and lifted her hand up to kiss a few times like some kind of old fashioned gentleman who forgot what era he was in. “I don’t like where this is going.” He told her of the bludger, all smarmy. Eddie had always teased her as if he had a complete and utter distrust of her ability to not smash everything with a big smashy thing. That was one thing that hadn’t faded since he was full on super villain.
With a salute to one of the owls as Stephanie dragged him out of the shop, Eddie took a moment to drink in freedom on those cobblestone streets. It would be short-lived and before he knew it he’d be back in Arkham drinking up its lonely, quiet tranquility, so he tried to make each second last twice as long. “New Arkham.” Eddie repeated after her, slipping his hand around her waist as they crossed the street. “Imagine if someone actually took care of the Arkham we knew. Never let the doors get rusted over. Fixed the broken stone. There used to be a chill that passed through the walls, almost like a ghost. But, that’s gone, too.” He seemed a little in awe of how different it was now. “Everything smells like a spa. There’s a billion different ways to relax. But,” Eddie’s hand slowly slipped from her waist to let her explore the Quidditch shop as he looked over the different scarves. “You know I thought I hated work my whole life? Leland says it’s because work makes everything real. So, I don’t spend much time relaxing in Arkham. All I do is build. And, I love it. Plus, there’s the best view of Gotham in the whole area. Even if it does make a man homesick.” Eddie pulled a red and white scarf with the Chasers emblem on it and showed it to Stephanie before pulling out a green Irish team scarf.
“You love where this is going,” she challenged. When he kissed her hand, she laughed in a way she hadn’t since he wound up in the city. Light, airy, and with her nose crinkling up as if she couldn’t control her expression. She was just happy to be around him, even if in the back of her mind she knew how bittersweet this would all be in just a short while. But, they needed this, and she would take this instead of nothing at all. A few hours (or more than a few, depending) stolen away in a world that wasn’t theirs. It was very them in a strange sort of way, to adapt and find happiness in the strangest situations. Whether one of them was locked away in jail while the other waited on the outside, or just simply ending up in London where magic existed. If they had each other, Stephanie was sure they could deal with anything. In the brief moment when Eddie slipped his arm around her waist, she rested her head against his chest. Anything to get as much contact as possible.
She hadn’t spent as much time in Arkham as she had in Blackgate, truthfully. She’d heard the stories, and she’d seen Arkham, but Blackgate was her father’s home more often than not. She spent as much time with her hand pressed up to some glass as he blamed Batman as she did in her own home. But, she knew what Arkham was supposed to be like, and the changes had her pursing her lips a little. “It sounds like exactly what you need,” Stephanie said, stepping away to look at the memorabilia as well. She fingered a pair of fuzzy Chudley Cannons gloves before sliding an excitedly shaking hand across a glass display of a Firebolt. It wasn’t the same model as Harry Potter’s, obviously updated for the new millenium, and Steph’s blue eyes glinted with a geekish glee that Eddie saw only when they watched Jurassic Park or they were in the middle of a Disney movie marathon. After a moment of pure adoration for the broom, she turned to Eddie to see him with the scarves. “We should get matching ones,” she said with a grin, thinking of the gloves in her bag that he hand-knit himself.
She stayed in her spot, but crossed her arms across her chest with a gentle smile. “Even with the homesickness, it’s helping,” she said, stating the obvious. The blonde bat stepped away again and towards the display for equipment, and she picked up a Quaffle. “It seems like it’s helping. And I’m glad you’re there, and not at some busted up version. Or, worse, the city.” Because, oh god, did she hate thinking about him fighting for his life in Arkham City. Tossing the Quaffle up and catching it with a surprising amount of grace for the blonde bat, she wandered closer to Eddie again. “Crane shouldn’t even be considered in the same ward as you. Yeah, he’s not himself yet, but who knows what he’s playing at?” There was a flash of fire in her eyes reserved for the bastard strawman who had nearly destroyed everything she loved. Sure, she was the biggest proponent of reformation, but Crane had stepped too far, too often. She gently threw the Quaffle his way for a grin. “And I’m sure he doesn’t look as handsome as you do in scrubs.”
“Matching, hmm?” He gave her a look like they simply didn’t have a color that could rest between them and this was an impossible task. Eddie slumped his shoulders, giving a heavy sigh like a reluctant house elf and ceremoniously hung the scarves back up. He started sorting through the different scarves, judging the teams along with the colors with a Slytherin upturn of the nose. “One more day in Arkham City and I’d be either a dead man or a really crazy one.” He nodded solemnly, though the threat of it was gone so there wasn’t very much emotion behind his voice. More matter-of-fact and knowledgeable of his own limits. “Leland took one look at me and knew she couldn’t participate in the farce of a government we have through this door. Who knew?”
Eddie didn’t know a US government to intervene much in matters of super heroes and their villains. And, there was a time when he believed that he could do something good with the JLA, but Beardo ruined that for everybody. “Have you heard anything from Green Arrow? Started a goddamned manhunt? He screwed all of us over. He screwed Gotham over and for that, I almost want to put my bad boy pants back on. And, Crane? Crane isn’t even a rogue yet. He’s a child afraid of who he’ll become and hurdling towards it as fast as he can on accident.” Eddie told the scarves, glancing over at Stephanie during part of his revenge wish to flash her a look that was darker than anything he showed all day before it flickered out.
He held up Caerphilly Catapults scarves of scarlet and light green stripes and made at face at her. “Look what you’ve done. Look at this abomination.” Eddie smiled and walked over to her, looping one of the scarves around her shoulders and pulling her closer. “It fits, however, considering the Christmas theme of our first intimate moment. Wouldn’t you say?”
Stephanie had yet to meet Leland, but she was one of the few people she somehow inherently trusted with Eddie. She didn’t trust too many people in Gotham anymore, especially when it came to her riddled man, but his therapist seemed to have the right intentions. “There are a lot of good people in this Gotham,” she said, knowing that he would get what she meant. Not only Leland, but Frank and his family, the men and women at Eddie’s church, Kara, Selina, Bruce. “I want to meet one day. Leland. She...well, she helped save your life, baby, and I can’t begin to thank her for that.” Her blues flashed earnestly, and she smiled gently before placing the Quaffle down on a nearby shelf. Of course, there were bad people in Gotham, too. People like Muerte, who she hadn’t heard from since the blonde bat punched her in the face, and like Oliver Queen, who fucked over the JLA again and again. “Not a goddamn peep from him, and that’s fucking smart of him. Because if I ever see a flicker of that green again, I’m punching him in the face, too.”
She rolled her eyes and sighed. “Don’t worry about Queen. Don’t worry about Crane, either. Eddie, I need you to focus on you, okay?” She was being hypocritical, she knew, but there was a sense of urgency in her words. Stephanie needed him to come out of there soon and well, and focusing on Crane or Queen or any of the other broken assholes that surrounded him would not be conducive to that. She caught the dark look, one that had her heart hammering against her chest for a second, before he smiled and looped that scarf around her shoulders. Stumbling forward, she rolled her eyes. “I haven’t done a damn thing. Those are official colors,” she teased with a grin as she looped her arms around his neck. She smirked then, tilting her head slightly to the side and trying to feign innocence. “I guess so, though I’m not exactly sure which moment you’re talking about. I think I need you to jog my memory.”
Eddie rolled his eyes defiantly, a mirror of each time Stephanie did it to him combined into one big exaggeration. He didn’t know how to only worry about himself. He knew how to only care about himself (though that instinct was long gone since Stephanie came around), but worrying about every piece on the board was what he did. “Arrow’s just going to recruit another group of poor bastards and it’ll be JLA vs the real Justice League all over again. Only this time I won’t have to betray you and the Dark Knight.” Which felt strange to say, though the difference between the door and their old Gotham didn’t surprise him much anymore. Selina was the one stuck in the past. Eddie always had his eyes forward. “Promise me if he tries to recruit you, you’ll pick the smart choice. Not the right one.” He pulled her close and ran his fingers through her hair. Strangely enough, Eddie really did feel like a Slytherin trying to reason with his Gryffindor girlfriend. Sly intelligence made a strange mixed concoction with brave morality.
He touched the side of her face, big brown eyes narrowed just a twinge as he looked into her blues to tell her that he was serious and wanted her to actually promise him like they were little kids making a pinky swear. The look passed quickly, however, when he realized that even if she did promise, Stephanie was going to do what she thought was right regardless. And, he’d never try to take that from her.
She was right, he needed to forget about Gotham for a little while. It was so damned hard, though. So damned hard when she was there without him. “Which moment?” He echoed after her and took a step forward, pushing her against a nearby shelf until her back bumped into it. “Christmas eve? No, we don’t try and dig up those memories. We have to preserve them in their innocence.” Eddie nodded solemnly, tilting his head to kiss under her jawline and any exposed neck he could find. “Christmas? Well, it’s no wonder you don’t remember. You were so drunk, I should have sent you home.” He pressed a little closer, making a couple brightly colored quaffles roll and bounce to the floor. “You remember some of it though, right?” Eddie looked up at her, all mischievous and without a damn care for anyone in the store that might be watching. “This?” He kissed the side of her mouth lightly. “How about this?” Tilting her face lightly so that their lips matched up, Eddie kissed her again fully and without any kind of teasing hesitation. More like if they were alone in his apartment pressed up against his door than in a Harry Potter store.
The little blonde bat sighed as he rolled his eyes in a way that was too familiar, and she pulled a little face at the end of it. “Seriously, Eddie,” she said tiredly, even if she knew the entire point was moot. At the end of the day she was red and gold -- stupid bravery, brash decisions, brusque demeanor. Eddie was green and silver -- calculated, sly reservation, mover of the board pieces. They were different sides of the Quidditch field, opposite sides of the Entrance Hall, separate Houses, and they both had their ways of going about things. She met his measured glance and serious eyes with stormy blues of her own, and her lips pursed into a tight line. “He would never have the goddamn balls to ask me to join, Eddie,” was what she said after a moment. Void of a promise so she wouldn’t have to break it, and thankfully, her teasing distracted him from continuing the conversation. It wasn’t something she even wanted to consider at the moment. The JLA could blow up Gotham, and she wouldn’t care right then because she was somewhere else with Eddie.
After the exchange of looks, she feigned that innocence again, lips pursed to bury the smirk crawling up her lips instead of the worry that boiled her stomach a moment or so before. Steph simply shrugged as he tried to remind her at first. Nope, no idea at all, the twitching smirk said before a giggle burst out as he pushed her against the shelf. “I wasn’t that drunk,” she said in offense, looking down at him with bright, playful eyes. “You should have, but you didn’t because you couldn’t resist me. Can’t resist me,” she corrected herself. Biting down a pleased little noise as he pushed closer, she couldn’t help the tiny whine that slipped out when their lips met. Stephanie returned the kiss in full measure, hands sliding into his hair without ceremony and caring little about what the concerned shoppers would say when they stumbled in on them.
With a smirk into the kiss, she bit down on his lip and tugged him closer with her arms around his neck and hands idly wandering through his hair. For a moment she was lost in the embrace, deepening the kiss as if the whole world couldn’t be watching. As if she didn’t keep knocking down equipment onto the floor with every second he pressed her up against that shelf.
“I can resist you, Stephanie Brown.” He murmured between kisses, hands wandering down to hold her hips. “I simply choose not to.” And, that was a full-blown, out of control lie that Eddie couldn’t even make sound convincing. Still, he pressed on, making a sound in the back of his throat as if he were barely interested in what she had to offer that slowly turned into something more rumbly and familiar. “Give me a couple more seconds and I won’t ever touch you again.” He promised, lips against her mouth as one of his hands slipped under her shirt to gently touch her warm skin. Eddie leaned back to give her a look that was a mix of want that was easily recognized even during their time through the reality warp and curiosity if she felt the same way.
A moment passed and Eddie thought about crawling his fingers farther up her shirt when a loud AHEM stung the air behind them. Eddie grinned at Stephanie and turned to see an old shop clerk witch eyeing them (along with a couple disturbed customers). “Oh, we’re uh.” He looked down at all the stuff they had knocked over and laughed brightly. “We’re just looking. Right, baby?” He made a motion like he was going to pick up the discarded balls and then looked up at Stephanie. “Hey, it’s safe down here if you want to make out. Alternatively,” he raised a single finger and then pointed it into the distance. “I see a coat rack yonder with ample coverage.” He was kidding, of course. Well, half kidding.
Stephanie simply hummed a disbelieving sound, an all encompassing rumble at the bottom of her throat that said, as if you could resist me. They played this game too often, and too often they broke sooner rather than later. Even when they were angry with each other, they could barely resist wandering hands, tasting their lips, roaming their body. She knew he was lying, just like every time she said it he knew she was fibbing, too. But, she would give him his few more seconds and maybe challenge him to try to employ some sense of decency and perseverance. She shivered when his thieving fingers snuck underneath her shirt, and she met his eyes with a bite against her lip. Meeting the desire in his eyes with a storm of her own. Then, of course, when the sound interrupted them, she lost it all in a moment. Blushing furiously, she bubbled out an embarrassed laugh as Eddie prattled on to the clerk. “I, uh, yeah,” she stuttered out, fixing her shirt and tugging at the bottom of her skirt nervously. Her hair stood on end, and her lips were swollen from Eddie’s attacks. So, she just laughed again as the clerk side-eyed them suspiciously, and then stooped down to pick up a couple of the balls before deciding fuck it.
“We’re taking these,” she said of the scarf around her neck, stepping around to grab another scarf, and then cocked an eyebrow to tell Eddie to toss the guy a couple of galleons before dragging Eddie out of the store with a smirk. When they were finally free of the prying, judgemental eyes of that shop, Stephanie yanked him forward until he practically collided with her. “You’re going to get us banned from the wizarding world, you filthy pervert,” she muttered against his lips before crushing her mouth against his and throwing her arms around his neck. Matching scarves still in hand. “Always causing me trouble, Edward Nashton,” she said with a laugh, pulling away to loop the scarf around his neck, then do the same to herself with hers. “Your turn now.” She looked around the street to try to find another store they could find some trouble in. “And I’ll make sure that we don’t get kicked out of this place. Or maybe I’ll make sure that we do.” The little blonde bat wiggled her eyebrows with a smirk, as if she could ever cause as much trouble as Eddie Nashton could.
Eddie couldn’t stop grinning. The shocked looks from witches and wizards was something he fed off of and hadn’t seen since he was thrown in Arkham City. It didn’t feel as good as he remembered, it didn’t push him into craving to do a little worse for attention, and Eddie decided that was probably for the best. He looked up at Stephanie’s sudden and embarrassed reaction with a silent, smirking tease when she caught his glance and then got to his feet and waltzed out of the store with her all victorious. “I thought for sure they’d find our public displays of affection enlightening.” Eddie managed before she kissed him and then returned the affection eagerly. He wrapped his arms around her tightly and refused to let her go even when she wrapped his matching scarf around his neck.
His first idea for where to go next (predictably) involved a room at the nearest Inn, but he had learnt the delicate art of courting a lady such as Stephanie Brown. In other words, he had to butter her up first. This took skill and (most of all) a great deal of practice. “Well, let’s see. We saw owls we can’t buy. Quidditch equipment we can’t use. Unless we join one of those lame teams back in Gotham.” He stepped away from her and counted on his fingers walking up the street without waiting for her to tag along. “We could go see what inhumane things they do to rats and spiders down Knockturn Alley. Or you could spare me a couple moments in Flourish and Blotts?” Eddie turned to look at her, eyes wide and a little sad. And, if she looked up, Stephanie would find that he had already lead her over to the store. “You really don’t expect me to come all the way to the wizarding world and not buy a couple books, do you?”
Eddie slowly opened the door as if he were testing the water, gently stepping one foot inside the store while he waited for Stephanie to give him the go ahead. Because, once she did he was going straight to the section that showed the mechanics of making magical items. And, maybe some history books.
Stephanie laughed, but her eyes lit up, resting her hands on his shoulders for a brief moment before he stepped away from her. The geeky grin that spread across her face gave away how much she would be down for something as silly as joining one of those fake Quidditch teams. “We should do it, baby,” she said as he strolled away. “I could run around in skimpy shorts and toss the Quaffle around. You could be Seeker!” She beamed over at him, knowing full well that he was not going to go for it. “What if I join the Gotham U team, and you can watch? Brag and point me out to other people when I’m on the field?” As if she had time for any other activities after school, patrolling, and spending time with him. But, when he shot her his puppy dog brown eyes, she stopped her blathering and rolled her eyes with a sigh as if this was the most difficult thing in the entire world to stroll into a bookstore. As he edged closer, she smiled. “You’re lucky I love you,” she said with an airiness that told him she was joking. What she meant to say was that duh, she could read, too, and who said she didn’t want a book of spells that she could pour over on a quiet night?
Adjusting her scarf, wrapping it around just so, she nodded, then shoved at Eddie’s back to push him into the shop. Again, she took the store in all its glory with wide-eyed glee, strolling immediately over to a display of school books required for Hogwarts students. She dragged her fingers across the smooth leather jackets, tracing the letterings with a sort of delicacy she didn’t have as naturally as she wanted. Picking up a copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Steph leafed through and pulled a face. “My copy has Ron and Harry’s notes in it,” she said, as if that was somehow unique in Gotham, as if that wasn’t the standard in their world. It was a bizarre moment that hit home how this place was supposed to be fictional, and just reminded her that their world, their city, they were apparently not real either. She’d been good lately about not thinking about it, and the whole idea made her spin enough to want to find distractions in the shelves lining the walls.
Grinning, she picked up a copy of Gilderoy Lockhart’s biography and held it up to Eddie. “If only we could all lie about fighting werewolves, huh?” She placed the book back and flashed innocent eyes at her riddled man. “If I pick out something, will you read it to me? Make a voice memo that I can listen to at night before I go to sleep?” That was one of the things she missed most now that he was tucked away in Arkham: falling asleep to the sound of his voice or the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest as he dozed off, too. Bandit and Matilda curling up with her helped a little, but it wasn’t the same thing. “I miss your voice,” she mumbled, before turning to another shelf, cheeks burning red with embarrassment at confessions she found almost pathetic.
Eddie pressed a kiss against her lips and then jetted off like a kid in a toy store. Unlike Stephanie, he had come to terms a long time ago that he was fictional. At first it was difficult and resulted in a few unsent letters to various writers and editors. Now, he sort of enjoyed it. And, truthfully he felt just as alive as Atwood, especially now that his apparently fictional world didn’t have someone pulling the strings. Probably. “I’d be the best damned cheerleader that team has ever seen.” Eddie said with conviction and maybe even a fist pump to prove it. “Or I could work my way into coaching a rival team. Yes, I think I like that better. An evil, cheating team like every sports movie.” He pulled out a couple books on Sneakoscopes, the Hogwarts Express and weird dark objects.
He wandered over to her, hands already filled with books and grinned at Gilderoy’s stupid book. “I’ll read you anything you like. Let’s see if they have any witch poetry, hmm?” He leaned closer to look over the different books and slowly made his way over to the fiction. And, then he wondered if fiction living in fiction could have its own door. An endless row of doors like mirrors reflecting in on themselves. “I miss your voice, too.” Eddie admitted warmly, as if her own confession was less embarrassing than telling him her favorite color. “I miss that,” He pointed to her. “That look you get when you see something you love. That geek out you do.” Eddie put his pile of books on a nearby chair and tried to find her something that they’d like. Stephanie and Eddie liked poetry that was a bit strange and a bit romantic. Something sad and hopeful and a little funny. He wondered if there was anything here like that.
“Hmph.” Eddie grumbled after a moment, finding most of the books to be too old fashioned for his taste (surprise, surprise) and then pointed to his books. “Watch those.” As if anyone would sneak in and take them. He slipped off towards the history books, picking up a black leather bound book of legends. “Here, look. They’ve got all sorts of interesting stories in here. Uric the Oddball. Oh, I love Uric.” Eddie handed the book off to her and then picked up his stack, took a seat on the nearby chair and started flipping through them. Not at that manic, breakneck speed he could before. But, fast, thoroughly and with plenty of hmmms.
“No, we aren’t turning our lives into a cliche sports movie,” the blonde bat chastised, lip turning up in a smile she couldn’t fight. “We’ve already got enough tropes floating between us to last twenty lifetimes.” She watched his eagerness with a soft smile pulling against her lips, looking over her shoulder to find him between sweeping glances at the shelves. These stolen moments where Eddie exuded giddy excitement for something like a storeful of magical books clenched Steph’s chest up in the best way. Affection thumping her heart and spreading warmth from her fingers to her toes. She had slept with or dated plenty of tough, cool guys, and in moments like this, she couldn’t understand why it’d taken her so long to find someone like Eddie. Sharp, sarcastic, thoughtful, caring. Someone who could piss her off to no end and make her immensely happy all within the same breath. She had degrees of that in other relationships, but nothing like what she had with him. But, then again, there was no one else like Eddie, was there? Not in Gotham, certainly not in this world.
Stephanie pursed her lips to hide a pleased little smile. She could wax poetic for hours about every single thing that she missed about Eddie, and hearing some of the things he had missed about her squashed some of the fears whispering in the back of her mind. Concern that Leland might just heal him out of loving her. “I’m gonna need you to have a nice, long list of things you miss about me that we can go through later,” Steph teased with a knowing smile before he ducked away to find some reading materials for them. In the interim, she picked up some of his books to flip them around in her hands and see if she’d have him read those to her as well. The Hogwarts Express stuff maybe not, but the Sneakoscopes probably, and she’d definitely keep an eye on that dark objects one. Not that he could do anything with it in Gotham, and she of course trusted him implicitly. She just knew how he liked the darkness.
With a laugh, she took the book he held out for her and leaned against the shelf as she paged through it. For a couple of minutes, she fell quiet as she skimmed through the more interesting myths, from famous medieval wizards to Wendelin the Witch, who continuously let herself burn at the stake for the fun of it. She followed along with the words on the page with her finger, mouthing words now and then. It was the same way she studied intently for some of her subjects at school, especially ones she found interesting. Completely engrossed and trying to retain every little bit she could. After a moment, though, she glanced over the top of the heavy book cradled in both of her arms to watch Eddie pour over his own reading with his chorus of mumbling and hums. The usual buzz was absent, replaced by a sharp focus that she could only attribute to the therapies. There, there she could tell a difference between her old Eddie and this one forging out of the fire like a phoenix reborn. She didn’t know the long-term effects of it, or whether he would be a wholly different person when he finally got out of Arkham, but there weren’t too many changes to the things that were important. Or so it seemed. Regardless, Stephanie couldn’t help but stare at him as he mulled over the text.
“You look really peaceful, baby,” she offered with a wariness in her voice that said how unsure she was if he would think that it was a good thing. She thought it was a good thing. Those were some of the times she loved him most -- when his buzzing quieted and there was only Eddie and his puppydog brown eyes focusing on something he loved or found profoundly interesting. Not that she didn’t love him the other times, of course. There was just something rare and unique about those times that Stephanie was sure he let few people see.
Eddie found himself pouring over the designs of all these strange objects. Where magic met metal interested him the most and he made a mental note to pick up a book on the intricate mechanics of how buildings like the Ministry of Magic worked. The train book wasn’t interesting enough (Oh look! A train sparkled with pixie dust!) and he moved onto Sneakoscopes as she told him he looked peaceful. He looked up at her, catching the wariness and wondered if she was telling him it was a bad thing. Eddie rubbed the back of his neck and then shrugged. “Is it okay?” He asked her, childishly and a little hopeful she meant it to be. “I can focus a lot easier. My mind doesn’t wander and get twisted.” Eddie seemed almost apologetic and his eyes widened a little with a tiny fear she missed the bouncing, unpredictable energy he had before. He looked down at his book, flipping open to a chapter on how a Sneakoscope detects magic and silently scanned through the book. His wandering fears about how Stephanie saw him now, how he still wasn’t sure if she’d really want to spend the night with him, started to fall away pixel by pixel in favor of what was on the page. A couple long moments of flipping through pages studiously and then he looked up.
“I could totally build one of these.” He said with certainty, in that Eddie Nigma confidence that had him rebuilding parts of Wonder City just for the hell of it. Still, completely void of any lurking mad scientist highs that could get her worried. It was more theorizing. “And, look I bet I could figure out why their magic is a little off. The wonkiness in detecting dark magic could be fixed with a little computer programming ingenuity. They simply don’t have algorithms precise enough.” Eddie looked up to Stephanie as if he was dumbfounded by the lack of mathematics used in the magical world. “I mean, it’s like they’ve never discovered automated reasoning here, am I right?” He laughed dryly as if the wizards who made these didn’t know how to put on their pants in the morning. “I’m writing this author a letter before I leave. A simple flow chart would help him immensely. I mean good lord.”
He got to his feet, leaving the train book behind in favor of grabbing a Ministry of Magic architecture one and leaned next to her near the bookshelf. Eddie ran his fingertips across the spines of the books nearby, seemingly very interested in the names of each author. “You’d tell me, right? Of course you would.” Eddie didn’t look at her. “If something was wrong, you’d tell me. The Cat promised to check in on me every couple weeks. Make sure they haven’t cooked my brain. She’d break me out if they even came close.”
Stephanie smiled with encouragement. “I’m sure you can,” she said, knowing for him that logic too often trumped anything else, and what kind of logic was there in a world where people could magick away problems or blow up their aunts by accident? She hummed a thoughtful little sound at the back of her throat, drumming her fingers against the book and looking down at the text splayed out across the page. “I don’t think they’re too concerned with math or science, Eddie,” she teased with amusement, still not looking up. A quiet laugh rumbled from her chest. “It’s a lot of spitting in the face of everything we know here. That’s why we’re in Gotham, and they’ve got their Sneakoscopes and wands here. We could never make it with these savages without their logic,” she teased, finally glancing at him with light eyes. They could make it anywhere, she and Eddie, but Gotham was always home. They were the products of their upbringing, and they wouldn’t have been anywhere near how they were if they had grown up in this sort of environment. “I don’t know if we’re cut out to be a wizard and witch, baby.”
As he browsed the shelf near her, she looked down at the book again, pretending to be engrossed in the blurb she’d been trying to read the entire time. “What?” she asked in surprise, eyes darting up to look at him as he stared away. The concern drew his face away from her in a way she never really wanted to see again. He looked older then, as if Steph suddenly remembered their age gap and how he could be so serious sometimes. It seemed like now, after the therapy, it was easier for him to be like that. Mature, thoughtful, tender. God, she definitely needed a new manual, didn’t she? What if she could never figure out the right things to say anymore?
Slowly, she closed the book and leaned to place it down on the floor before standing back up and stepping forward to him. Catching his chin in her fingers and tugging until he looked at her. “It’s okay, baby,” Stephanie assured him. “As long as you think it’s okay. Okay?” Her voice cracked a little at the end, and she bit down hard on her lip to assuage the little bit of panicked fear that began to burn her throat. “Of course I would tell you if something’s wrong. I don’t--the last time I saw you, Eddie, you have to remember. You have to remember that I haven’t seen you--I haven’t seen you sick. Not in a long while. It’s different, okay? I know it’s still you, and that this is you better.” Her free hand slid down one of his arms until she reached his own hand to tangle her fingers with his. She tugged against it to make him stay there with her, and the hand clasping his chin moved to cup his cheek, then rest on his neck. “I just need a new Eddie manual.” She laughed sadly and looked down, rolling her lips until it turned into a nervous chew. “Baby, what if I can’t say or do the--after everything what if you don’t--.” She sighed and moved her hands to idly play with his hair. “I need to realize that this is okay. There isn’t anything wrong at all. I just need to figure out how to say the right things again, do the right things again.” Because that was the crux of the whole worry, right? He needed to let her know how she fit into his life now that he was well. Or, at least, getting there.
Eddie’s fingers didn’t immediately squeeze hers and she was right to tug him into staying in one place because that feeling of distance, of not knowing each other scared the living daylights out of him. They weren’t supposed to be apart, it never worked that way and the realization that now they had little choice in the matter made his heart race. His eyes rolled up towards the ceiling, avoiding her blues even when she touched his face. He couldn’t tell her the obvious. He couldn’t say this was all to make sure that they could be happy, really happy with something like a normal life outside of their nighttime activities. That kind of long term thinking didn’t work on Stephanie. In fact, he didn’t even want her to acknowledge that he had the future, their future in mind.
“I’m sorry.” Was all he could manage and he finally looked down at her and shook his head. “I’m so sorry it had to come to this. I could have- I could have made it to this point naturally. I was going to therapy with Leland regularly before Arkham City. But, that hellhole made me choose. I could either let my mind get worse and live my life on the run or try and make it okay. I had to choose.” Eddie didn’t realize that his tone was pleading. Begging her to stick with him just a little longer while he got his riddles sorted out. He pushed his books on an empty part of the shelf and then wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her against him. “I was really worried coming here. I almost didn’t want to. If you see too many things you don’t like or can’t understand, then I’ve ruined it, right?” He sighed and knew that just like the wizarding world he couldn’t logic or math away the problems. She could make him lists and graphs and notes of things she didn’t want to change and maybe he wouldn’t be able to help it. Maybe this was just the beginning of a road towards becoming such a different man the spark between them would go out.
But, Eddie didn’t really believe that. He was doing this for her. For them. And, truthfully, there wasn’t a lot left to fix inside of his riddled brain. “It’d take a lot. A lot to ruin how I feel about you. It’s a possibility so far-fetched I can barely wrap my brain around it.” Eddie managed and then pulled her into a hug, dipping his head down to rest on her shoulder. “Tell me you love me? Even like this?”
“Eddie, you don’t have to apologize,” Stephanie chided. She shook her head, too, as her eyes finally met his, the avoidance of earlier stabbing her chest and making her feel so much discomfort she almost couldn’t stand it. Her lips pursed into a tight line, and she tried so hard not to seem upset. She shushed him to no avail, and her thumb brushed against his pronounced cheek as if to say I’m here still. “I know you had to. I know, Eddie, I know. It’s just...it’s hard, okay? It’s really hard to think of you getting so unwell, and me not being able to help you fix it. It’s so selfish, but it’s true. I want to be able to just make you feel better, I don’t want you gone anymore.” Her voice twinged with that mix of desperation and begging that flashed in her blue eyes. “But, I spoke to Selina, too, and I know everyone’s right. You get a clean slate, and you deserve that.” Steph smiled tentatively at him, blues glassy with buried concern and a month’s worth of hurt swimming to the surface. “You deserve that more than anyone here, baby. I want it for you.”
She sighed deeply as he pulled her into a hug and immediately wrapped her arms around his neck tightly. Buried her face in that crook of his neck. “Of course,” was all that he could hear from her muffled voice at first, until she pulled back again and nudged him to look at her. “Eddie, baby, please look at me.” When he finally obliged, she caught his face between both of her hands and bore her blue eyes into his dark browns. “Of course I love you. I love you with every ounce of my being, baby, and nothing, even a couple of months away from me, is going to fucking change that. Gotham can’t take you away from me. That jail wasn’t going to take you away from me. The fucking hotel isn’t going to take you away from me. Nothing is going to change that.” She smirked softly. “Unless, of course, you start to hate all of this.” She waved around the bookstore. “I can’t love someone who doesn’t like Harry Potter.”
Leaning her head forward until their foreheads touched, she took him in with a tender gaze and an affection in her eyes that pleaded him to realize that just because little things were different doesn’t mean that she was giving up on him. He was right: it would take a lot to ruin what they had. “Let’s go get these books and find somewhere to be alone. Okay?” Stephanie could sense the apprehension that she didn’t want to be around him, and that just wasn’t true at all. Mostly, she was scared of having to let him go again. “But, you’ve gotta get me a chocolate frog first.” She grinned at him then, pulling back just enough to prevent a repeat of the scene in the Quidditch store. No dirty looks from witches and wizards here.
Eddie smiled stupidly halfway through her declarations. He felt lovesick for her when they were apart and to have her force him to see how much she loved him in return made his heart burst and his ears burn. And, he felt a little silly at the end of it for asking her to put it all out on the line like that for him, but sometimes he needed it. He knew she needed it, too. “Well, if Harry Potter acknowledged the useful applications of science and math in the Wizarding World, we wouldn’t have a problem.” Eddie said, each word hinting to a dozen I love you’s storming around his dark eyes. He smiled, closing his eyes as their foreheads touched and she could feel the tension in his body start to untangle itself. “I love you. I love you so damned much.” He told her softly and then looked up when she moved away like he was coming up for air.
Quickly grabbing the books he wanted, Eddie slid past her to get the final book he wanted and then joined her at the counter, trying to erase any evidence of their discussion from his face and smiled politely at the store clerk. He paid, slipped the books in his messenger bag and took Stephanie’s hand, kissed the back of it and then lead her outside. “Alright. We grab as many weird pieces of candy we can from Sugarplum’s and then find somewhere-” He let his sentence trail off, not immediately familiar with the different kinds of inns they had around here and had to resist the modern, muggle urge to look it up on his phone. See? Technology was a lot more convenient than magic. Sometimes.
Eddie let go of her hand as they walked into Sugarplum’s and grabbed a basket to start tossing candy into. “Don’t forget to get enough for the birds. Even if this stuff doesn’t do magic things in our world, I’m sure they’ll still taste good.” Eddie picked up some Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum for himself since there wasn’t a better way to bribe people in Arkham than with sticks of gum.
Stephanie practically melted when he kissed the back of her hand, the simple and sweet gesture something she had missed so desperately over the past month that he could simply do that for hours and she would probably be satisfied. Maybe. God, she had missed the easy sort of affection they had, and while she feared Arkham could try to quash that, clearly the evidence was stacking up against all that. And though there were so many things still weighing them down, the tiniest things felt like a big old relief. Like a bit of the weight was lifted off their shoulders. She smiled brightly, basically beaming at him, and squeezed his hand again before he had the chance to let go. “Birds, shmirds,” she said with a roll of her eyes as if she didn’t care about the birds at all, when that was just a lie. “Think we should bring some back for the kitty cat, too? Harley?”
She stepped away as he began piling the basket with various things to scoop up an armful of chocolate frogs. Dumping them all in the basket, she grinned. “Yeah, they’re all for me,” she teased before drifting away again. Throwing a couple Fizzing Whizbees here, a few blood-flavored lollipops there. “Have you talked to anyone besides the kitty lately?” she asked thoughtfully. Truthfully, she’d wanted to force everyone to ask Eddie how he was doing because it was the right thing to do, and part of her wondered if Muerte had finally backed off. But, she got distracted before she could mull on it more, spying shelves of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavored Beans and gleefully opening up a box. She shook out two beans into the palm of her hand, dropped one into Eddie’s, and then popped her own into her mouth. And, immediately, her face twisted into a comical expression of disgust.
“Of course I’d get vomit, ew ew, ew.” She wiped her tongue with the back of her mouth in panic, trying to wash the awful taste out of her mouth and failing miserably. She took another one out, praying that the flavor would at least wash away the weird burning on her tongue, and lucked out with a coffee-flavored one. Strong enough to wash the taste out of her mouth. Steph looked up at Eddie with a snarl curling up her lip that was covering up a gag before dropping a couple boxes in the basket all the same.
Eddie chuckled as she claimed the candy for her own and picked a few colorful things out that looked like they were pure, uncut, delicious sugar. “Give these to Harley for me? I owe her like two months worth of donuts.” Then, something silky smooth for the kitty (though Eddie wondered if Selina enjoyed anything beyond sleeping with the Bat and jewelry). “Mmhm. I’ve only spoken to Selina. She’s the only one who’s checked in on me.” Eddie said with no surprise in his voice. Gotham didn’t hold your hand and truly the riddled man never expected it to. Still, he knew the question was a roundabout way to ask about Muerte and he easily obliged. “After you told me what happened with Muerte I informed her that she needed to stay out of my business.” He dropped another chocolate frog in his basket. “And, I haven’t heard from her since. Frankly, I think she needs to find something outside of you and me to like about humanity.” Months ago during the toxin, writing Muerte off even after what she had done would have been extremely difficult on the riddled man. But, these days he had priorities. Goals. And, Death kept getting in the way of them.
He looked down at the bean she dropped in his hand, immediately identified it as earthworm and shook his head. “Ah noooo. No, no. No, sir.” Eddie tossed the bean off behind a barrel of candy floss and took the box from her hand as she suffered the cruel fate of vomit-flavor, checking the back for some kind of guide and then guessing what the different colors. “Hmm, let’s see. We need a darkish blue black.” Eddie scrutinized the beans until he found one that fit the billing and then popped it in his mouth. “Huzzah. The sweet taste of ink.” He said victoriously and terribly dorky. Eddie’s forehead crinkled, deeply serious about his favorite, oddball flavor. “It’s the flavor of hard work without all the mess.”
Eddie digged in for one more, nodded appreciatively and then stuck the open box in his basket. “I think that does it.” He motioned for her to pile in anything else she could think of and then paid before following her out of the store. Hands holding bags of stuff now and feeling a little better than he did in the bookstore, Eddie smiled down at Stephanie as they stood in the bustling street. “So, look. I know our better halves have work or whatever.” He shrugged like Tom and Addy’s professional lives didn’t hold a candle to Harry Potter world. “But, how you would feel about spending the night with me here? We could find a place now, fool around and then go to dinner.” Eddie’s dark eyes widened hopefully, so wide that he became aware of it and squinted to counteract the expression. “And, then more fooling around? Does that sound good?”
The little blonde bat with a sweet tooth to rival anyone in Gotham could have spent hours upon hours in the magical candy land, and so she was kind of glad that Eddie declared an end to all of it. With basket piled high, she didn’t really need more things to tempt cavities anyway. As Eddie checked out, she wandered around one last time, looking at the witches and wizards more carefully as if trying to burn them as living, breathing beings into her memories. Touching the displays to make them feel more real. Enviously looking at wands as if she wanted to stroll into Ollivander’s (which actually didn’t exist anymore) and hijack him into giving her one to keep. Just for fun, of course, and to brag to every single person who would actually care. But, she had the candies, and the books, and her time here with Eddie. That? That was more than enough for her.
Her eyes followed the bustling crowd as they pushed to and fro into shops and restaurants and inns, adjusting her bag on her shoulder and twisting the scarf just so. With a smile, Stephanie turned to look up at Eddie. Mischievous glint clouding her blue eyes. “Are you seducing me, Mr. Nashton?” she inquired with a wicked sort of grin before slowly circling around to stand in front of him. Hands resting on her hips, she narrowed her eyes to scrutinize his wide-eyed hope as if she was really considering it. The answer was clear, of course, it had been clear since she jumped on him back in the Leaky Cauldron, but she always liked to make him squirm just enough. “Addy and Tom aren’t going to be happy with us. What if they hold us hostage after this?” Though Steph suspected the two would be a lot more lenient than usual given the circumstances. As much as both were logical, work-driven beasts, she didn’t think they could resist giving their other halves this.
Throwing her arms around his neck, she arched her head so that her lips were only inches away from his, and she smiled curiously. “Do you think we can make it a whole night without getting thrown out of here?” she teased before pressing a gentle kiss to his lips. “Yes,” she murmured against them, dipping down to kiss the tip of his chin before drifting back up. “I want to spend the night with you. Of course I do. You aren’t getting away from me that easily, baby.”
Eddie put his hands on his hips, mirroring her stance and flashed her a devious look. “Bartering is one of my many methods of seduction, Miss Brown.” He said as if he were James Bond saying something very charming instead of a silly dork in a nice suit. “Besides, I know Tom’s weakness. When he doesn’t let me through the door I sing the Presidents Song, the States Song and then, finally and only if I’m feeling particularly cruel, The Countries Song.” At that, Tom practically sighed loud enough to send air out Eddie’s ears, which made the green man smile brightly. “Besides, what are they going to talk about on their radio show tonight? How the government is still shut down? Oh-teh-noes! Think of the park rangers!” Eddie’s eyes went wide in mock horror and burst into a grin when she threw her arms around his neck.
Wrapping his arms around her and swaying a little in the middle of the street, he tilted his head to the side at her question. “Oh, I think we can manage a night of seemingly good behavior for once.” He whispered, returning the kiss while still being completely unable to erase his smile. “You mean it?” Eddie asked, idiotically, because of course she did. He didn’t wait for an answer and instead smattered her face with kisses and then dragged her down the street to look for a place to stay.