WHO Eddie and Steph [Pt. 1 o' 2]. WHAT Valentine's Day. WHEN V-Day. WHERE Gotham's Museum of Natural History WARNING it's these two. the usual. 2qt2care.
Stephanie Brown had to try really, really hard not to eat those goddamn caramels.
Even though she tucked them away at the bottom of a draw, the temptation was fully there as she brought them to her car to drive to the GPS location Eddie provided her. Eddie knew she had a sweet tooth to rival no other, and without him there to keep her in check, how did he expect her to have the strength to avoid sticky fingers? But, she did, blessedly, even if during the few days he was gone she’d gotten into a fight with Cass over she and Eddie moving in together without Cass. Steph felt a world of guilt before she spoke to her friend about the plans to move into Eddie’s apartment once it was renovated, and sure, the conversation they had only amplified that. But, it was lost in the anger, in the hurt that Cass wasn’t acting like she was happy for her. Stephanie understood that Cass didn’t get social cues, but shouldn’t she get that this was a good thing?
She stewed in her anger since the argument, wallowed in her hurt, and used patrols to get out the pent-up energy so she could rid herself of most of it before she and Eddie met up on Friday. And, by the time she climbed into her gray little sedan, she managed to push it away and focus on the fact that it was Valentine’s Day. Gotham’s sweethearts never really needed an excuse to shower each other with love and affection, but they could always use it. They were a couple grounded in symbolism, in a city of symbolism. People who dressed up in bats and question marks were bound to like what a day like this stood for. A day to remind them of how important they were to each other.
Plugging in the coordinates into her GPS, she smiled brightly and rolled her eyes. Clearly, he was trying to outdo the IKEA date from last year. Truthfully, they could have just tucked away in a bunker for the weekend, and she would have been content. But, as Stephanie drove across Gotham to the destination, she couldn’t help being a little giddy, and when she parked outside of Gotham’s Museum of Natural History, she stepped outside and up the steps with a smirk crawling up the side of her mouth. Waiting out front, however, wasn’t Eddie, but a sweet looking older woman bundled up against the cold just like Stephanie was. Her gray hair tumbled across her shoulders and a dark scarf was wrapped around her throat. Plump and with kind eyes behind sharp, slightly foggy glasses.
Steph smiled a little as she walked up the stone front steps. Click, click, click of her heels against them. “Hi?” she asked more than said, arms folded across her chest in a defensive sort of way. Tucked underneath one arm was the box of caramels and slung across the opposite shoulder was a bag with her things and Eddie’s presents. The woman eyed the box for a moment, then looked the blonde up and down before waving and turning around.
“Follow me, sweetheart.” After a second’s hesitation, Steph followed along, jogging to catch up.
It was well after closing time, around 10 PM, and though the lights were dimmed, they weren’t out completely. The blonde bat spotted a patrolling security guard round a corner in a lackadaisical sort of way. Maybe they weren’t really worried about people coming to break in anymore now that the Riddler was more into information brokering than breaking into museums.
“Do you know Eddie?” Steph asked, slowly unbuttoning her coat as she warmed up under the exhibition lights. The woman took a sharp right turn and led Stephanie down a long corridor. Over her shoulder, she smiled at the blonde bat and nodded.
“Yes, Eddie has been a great help around here.” There was a kind, adorable candor to the woman’s voice. The sort you’d imagine your grandmother to have when she was handing you cookies and milk. But, Steph knew there was more to that than her. Eleanor, as the younger girl learned, was in charge of the museum, something that had Stephanie intrigued and delighted. And, of course, rolling her eyes because of course Eddie finagled his way into an intelligent, lovely older woman’s heart. Of course he did.
Eleanor brought Stephanie past plenty of exhibits and right into the beginnings of the Dino Hall. She began prattling about triceratops skeleton propped up in front of them in that tour guide sort of way that might have had the younger girl bored in another circumstance, but fascinated her tonight.
Eddie was running a little late, but that was all part of the plan. He liked showing off how much work went into his plans for Stephanie and maybe he kind of loved proving how charming he could be. It didn’t take him long to go from being his church’s weird outsider to the guy who made pancakes for the after mass breakfast. Even though he didn’t ever drag Stephanie there, he spent a lot of time volunteering with teaching kids how to program, fixing up the church and of course, volunteering with the senior citizens. His people. This was how he cozied up to Eleanor and eventually talked her into letting him and Stephanie have the museum for the night (despite his poor reputation with the place in previous lives).
He wanted Stephanie to take a moment to see what he’d do for her. To take a moment. Wasn’t that what this holiday was about? Besides long married husbands shuffling around the grocery store for overpriced flowers and candy. Wasn’t this supposed to be about taking a moment to appreciate what you had?
Ten minutes after Stephanie arrived, Eddie wandered in through a back entrance wearing a black suit, a light purple tie with a pin holding the gem of a ring his cupid gave him. Each one of his pins had a purpose and this one was definitely to signify how much Stephanie meant to him. A symbol that meant nothing to everyone except for him.
His shiny black shoes tap tapped across the marble floor and there he was on the other side of the dinosaur exhibit. “Ellie!” Eddie said in his loud, performer voice as if he were back in his carnie days calling over a young women to try and spin the wheel. “Thank you for staying up so late to let us in.” He made a beeline for the adorable old woman, leaning down to hug her and kiss her cheeks with a wayward wiggle of his eyebrows up at Stephanie.
“Oh, Eddie I was just boring this lovely young lady about dinosaur skeletons.” Eleanor bubbled with chipperness and smiled cutely at Eddie, her face bunching in on itself like a big fuzzy cat enjoying a warm sunbeam.
“Stephanie would never be bored of dinosaurs. She helps me read to the kids at the library once and a while. You should come down, we always need another adventurer.” Eddie smiled and then held his hand out to Stephanie, fingers wiggling at the box of candy. “This is for you, Eleanor. Happy Valentine’s Day.”
“You’re too much, Eddie!”
“I know I am.” Eddie replied, his voice dripping down deeply as if he had suddenly turned into Dean Martin. Eleanor’s cheeks turned into a rosy red and she waved her hand at him to get him to stop. After another set of goodbyes, Eleanor wobbled off towards her office to finish working on a project, leaving the two lovebirds alone. Eddie turned to Stephanie, grinning.
“Well?”
Stephanie hadn’t been bored at all by Eleanor’s little lecture on dino bones. It wasn’t so much that she forgot to be anticipatory of Eddie’s arrival, but she was enthralled, definitely. (She really was more of a dork than she liked to let on, after all.) The blonde bat listened intently to the older woman, asking questions now and then, and only realizing that Eddie arrived when she heard his call echoing through the otherwise empty hall. She smiled brightly as he sauntered over, that exaggerated swag in his gait and the way he addressed Eleanor. Steph pursed her lips to hide a smile when he wiggled his eyebrows, eyes narrowing in affection as she appraised what he was wearing. Stomach growing a little sick with butterflies and love when it clicked into place.
After saying goodbye to Eleanor (and promising to come by again anytime she wanted), the blonde bat looked at her riddled man with a tilt of her head and that barely hidden smile. With a roll of her eyes, she tilted her body away from him and took a couple steps towards the case with fossilized eggs. Click, clickclick of her black heels against the marble floors, and the sound echoed off the displays and corners of the tall room. “Remember what you said,” she said, affection clearly battling a teasing tone. She spun around to face him again, surprisingly graceful and with a twirl of green dress practically cut down to there (in Stephanie terms, at least), smirk crawling up her lips quicker than she could fight it. “You said that you wouldn’t show off. This is showing off.” There wasn’t anger or anything like that. She was impressed, and it showed in the way she couldn’t fight her smile anymore or the way her head tilted, spilling her curled blonde hair across her face for a second.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say we coordinated, baby.” She waved at him at large and then stepped forward again. Enough to be in reach, but not as close as either of them probably wanted. Her coat was slung across her arm, and her bag hung from her shoulder. After a moment, after wrapping her arms around him and kissing his warm lips, she looked up at the skeletons, biting away a smile because goddamn he was too good at this.
Eddie gave an appreciative rumble when she twirled to face him, eyes unabashedly trailing up from her toes, to her curves and eeveennttually her face. It wasn’t enough to make Stephanie feel loved, no to Eddie it was just important to make her feel wanted. An important quality to have in a place like Gotham. He put his hands in his pockets and trailed after her. “If I didn’t show off, you’d be disappointed.” Eddie teased, slowly looking up at the bones of a long necked monstrosity. “I can take it back, if you want. I’m sure there’s a dollar store still open selling half wilted carnations and those gross chocolates with candied cherries in the middle.” The truth was that if their relationship ever came down to that, they might as well end it. Eddie’s love was shown through spectacle. It always had.
He looked down when she wrapped her arms around him and he kissed her back like it had become second nature. In his arms, she could feel how tired he was, how much weight he had lost over the past month and the way his fingers pressed into her back said something about what he was constantly afraid of losing. All of the signs that he wasn’t aware of. Eddie smiled when she pulled back. Smiling was what they did when things were bad and all they got were a couple hours for a simple breather. “So we are. You look beautiful, by the by. I’m sort of regretting making this a solitary Valentine’s, I always want to show you off.” He looked down at his tie and then her dress. Eddie pointed to the yellowish gold gem on his tie pin. “I made this a day ago. My cupid gave me a ring and I was so overwhelmed with how kind she had been that I made it into a reminder.” Eddie didn’t usually explain his tie pins, but Stephanie always got the inside scoop.
Her cheeks pinkened just a touch in that way they always did when Eddie looked at her like that, and she had took look away for a moment as the color deepened. She would never completely get used to him looking at her like that, and that? Frankly, it was a good thing. It was the best feeling to be wanted, to know he could press her against one of the walls in this exhibit and have his way with her if he really wanted. She would never grow tired of that feeling he gave her, of how sexy he made her feel. She rumbled a noise that was something between appreciative and uncomfortable, biting away her smirk of almost embarrassment. But, she didn’t tell him to stop the way she usually might have. A couple of days of missing him could make her forgive him for anything that offensive.
“No, I’ve already gotten candy taken away from me and two days without my man,” she murmured, one hand trailing down to twist in that bright purple tie. “I’ll forgive you this time. Just don’t be surprised every single time that I don’t exceed all your showmanship.” Stephanie felt the thinness of his frame, something she’d felt gradually over the last few weeks, but more starkly now that it’d been a few days since she’d touched him. She felt the desperation in his grip, too, and that had her kissing him again to suppress the worried noise threatening to rumble out. Lingering for a second before pulling back once again with a smile and raised eyebrows. “She gave you a ring?” she asked incredulously, fingers crawling up his chest like a little spider to brush against the tie pin. “I’d be jealous, but I think I might have a reputation for scaring away other women now.” The blonde bat looked up with affection, with lingering worry in her blue eyes, and with a sort of pride she only had for him.
“I love that.” Repurposing things. She loved when he did that. She ran her hand down his chest again, appreciating the feel of him underneath her palm, and smiled softly. “A ring is a lot better than plastic dinosaurs,” she whispered, as if that would offend the monsters around them. “Even if that is really, really girly.”
“I’m impressed you didn’t eat any of them.” He said as if he expected her to steal one or two little candies in protest. It was good she didn’t, after all, since Stephanie was the kind of girl to feel bad about stealing a couple extra sweets from a nice old lady. Eddie smiled and watched her hand trail and crawl across his chest and he remembered how it felt to wake up with her hand pressed on his heart or to fall asleep with her curled up next to him. He wondered if being gone through the door for a couple days was enough for her to reach across the empty bed for him, run her hand along the sheets and wish he was there.
Eddie shifted his weight, edging closer to her as his fingers ran through her curled hair. His voice dropped down to a soft, almost whisper as if they were telling secrets in a crowded room. “I think you should be jealous if she gave me something like this,” He flashed the ring she gave him a year ago that he never took off and smirked. “You got the worst cupid ever. And, I don’t think she was giving me the ring so much as expecting me to give it to you.” Eddie didn’t like other people telling him how to do things, especially when it came to his relationship with Stephanie and it shined a little in his voice. Sure, he wanted a forever eventually, something that took their love to the next step, but a ring given by some anon wasn’t going to make him hurry that process along.
“Can you imagine how awkward that’d be? Here, Steph. Here’s a ring some anon gave me to symbolize my love for you.” He teased, taking her hand and swinging it between them as they walked into the next room that was humid and thick like a jungle. It opened up into a huge, brand new exhibit in a hall made to look like a giant, ancient forest. Lights lined the pathways and hung between trees, illuminating at least a dozen different kinds of dinosaur animatronics. Some of them towering and impossible to see without leaning back a little, others smaller and friendly looking. Steam hissed from a fake tar pit, a recording of jungle sounds started to play and some of the dinosaurs even moved. “They usually rely on natural light from the skylight.” He explained, though he couldn’t be seen hidden behind a mess of green ferns and jungle foliage. “But, this room is so popular they had to put in a proper light system for galas and rich people parties.”
She smiled sweetly up at him. “I hid them away from myself. I was good.” Humming for a second, she pressed a kiss to the corner of his jaw. She had missed him the past few days, especially after her fight with Cass over moving out. That night, she desperately wished he was there with her, wearing one of the countless t-shirts she had commandeered from him and wondering if sleeping alone was ever going to be the same after living together for this long. She had been spoiled, truthfully, and she was appreciative in that moment, laying in bed and fingers curling into his pillow, that they were going to actually live together. Unless things went horribly wrong again (they usually did), Stephanie wouldn’t have to think about sleeping alone for more than a few days at most anymore.
Smiling as he ran his fingers through her hair, she nipped at his hand as he brought it up between them. “Yeah, well, obviously.” Her hand unconsciously rose to brush against the pendant that she also never took off. Despite everything that had happened between them, despite all the times he’d hurt her, she had never taken it off. “No one can compete with that. I dare someone.” She smirked mischievously, which dropped down into a surprised, dumbfounded sort of expression. Oh, Steph hated when people encroached on their relationship, too. Wasn’t that part of the problem with Muerte, after all? Sure, she’d told Cass and Kara separately that she wanted to share every single thing with Eddie, but who was some weirdo cupid to give him a ring.
“What?” she spluttered, tugging his arm a little as their hands swung back and forth between them. “What is it with people trying to get into our relationship?” Stephanie asked, partially amused and partially really curious. Was it that no one had something like this? Was everyone truly vested in their happiness? She smirked and she rolled her eyes. “I swear, baby, there’s gotta be someone writing fanfic somewhere if it’s like this.” Sure, it was sweet that everyone loved to make sure their relationship was okay, but Steph and Eddie could handle it. No one really understood them except them.
Steph’s finger tugged against one of the leaves of the fern before wandering towards one of the moving dinosaurs. “I can see why,” she said, eyes flickering around with curiosity. Stepping closer triggered something, and the dinosaur roaarrreeddd in greeting, causing the blonde bat to jump in surprise and fall into a bout of giggles.
“Everyone likes to pretend they have the answers.” Eddie rarely came off as wise (unless there was an ass attached to that word), but it happened sometimes. “And, wouldn’t be exciting if they gave the perfect advice to fix all of our problems? So we’d live happily ever after?” His romantic platitudes rose up towards the robot dinosaurs that rrrrrrrraaaawwwrrred and bbbbbaaaaaaaaaaarrrrgggooooooooohhhed at them. “What they don’t know is that we’re already happy and there’s no such thing as an ever after.” That was the most important lesson to learn about love. There was never going to a point where they were a hundred percent okay with no more bad days or bad things happening to them. That’s what an ever after implied. That one day they’d reach a point of constant happiness and smooth sailing. Life didn’t work that way. Eddie didn’t even really want it to.
He turned to see her wander towards one of the dinosaurs and then laughed loudly when it scared her, practically bending over in one of those exaggerated fits that eccentric men like himself tended to have. “Oh, it likes you.” He crept closer and reached to touch the bumpy skin of the dinosaur. Then, with a mischievous look back at her, he climbed over the protecting rail and started trekking through the grass and trees towards a pond surrounded by grass eaters. “Do you think they gave these guys such bright colors or is it just because we’re in Gotham?” He asked over his shoulder, smiling up at a duckbill with a cranial crest kind of shaped like his hair.
Stephanie nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. There’s no one fix-all, either, because it isn’t just one source of problems.” She shrugged slightly, not hurt by the idea that there was no ever after either. Sure, it scared the shit out of her that there couldn’t be a sort of permanence or guarantee to her relationship and her love for Eddie, but that made her appreciate him all the more. Treasure all of the waking moments together that amounted to a sort of bliss she had never known before this Gotham with her Eddie. She knew he wanted forever, just like she did. Hell, they’d promised it to each other multiple times since Eddie was locked away about six months prior. They would have as long as they would have, and didn’t that make all of this so much sweeter and precious?
Still, maybe she wasn’t ready for that kind of conversation, even if she should tell him exactly what she’d said to Cass a few nights prior. Deflection. She was good at deflection. “Don’t get jealous of animatronics, Eddie,” she teased, quipping right back with a wicked sort of smirk until he climbed over the partition. A strangled sort of sound echoed through the room as he was off. “Eddie,” she snapped, whispering and not at the same time. “Get back here!” But, she knew it was a losing battle before it had started, and after a glance around, she climbed over as well, careful of her shoes and balance. There was a wobble in her steps, and her pace was slow at best. “Gotham, definitely,” she said. “Though I’m not sure that this Gotham was really about its bright, bright colors at first. It’s all cool and clean and smart, innovative designs.” In other words, a Gotham that wasn’t originally theirs, but one they made for themselves. Carefully, slowly she climbed towards the pond area, and when she reached there, her hands were on her hips. “Do you really wanna piss off the lovely woman who let us stay here?” Her lips were tight, but clearly willing to start the betrayal.
Eddie put his hands on his hips and took a minute to admire the scene before him. A family of leaf-eating duckbills enjoying clean water and munching on greens. Under his shoes, soft grass grew and above him real trees towered. “Sssh. Sssh. Let’s just pretend we’re actually in a Jurassic Park door.” He pushed his hands down in the air to get her to give up playing miss goodie-two shoes. Playing because even though Stephanie possessed a remarkable moral compass, she broke the rules almost as much as he did. The hotel had already proven that deep down they were just two troublemaking kids from the bad part of Gotham. “Come here,” He reached back and held his hand out for her, the black ink of his tattoo sneaking out from under his sleeve.
“Your cupid couldn’t give you real dinosaurs and I can’t either, but I figure this is a lot better than some little toys.” He smiled, wiggling his fingers. Yes, they did bring all the color into this Gotham that was once overpowered by blues and browns. Now there was a green neon on every street corner, purple bats flying through the sky and all the circus-flavored danger that came with such vibrancy. He turned to the dinosaur next to him, a baby Hadrosaurid and gently pet its neck. “Hey, buddy. I’m not going to hurt you. Is this your pond?” The baby Hadrosaurid animatronic made a snorting noise. “The raptors tried to take it last weekend? Those bastards.”
Stephanie pulled a face, mocking him for a moment before letting her hands fall to the side and wobbling closer. Heels probably weren’t the best decision for this adventure, but she wanted to look good for Eddie. If there were a couple of clumsy moments, so be it, right? And yeah, he was right. Steph was as big a troublemaker as the rest of them. What kid from Old Gotham wasn’t? She liked to bend the rules; after all, wasn’t dressing up as a bat every night bending the rules? And, Eddie couldn’t spend time with a girl that didn’t want to stick her toes on the other side of the line. “Fine, if I have to,” she acquiesced in a voice that made it sound like there was so much effort to going along with Eddie’s plan. Even if that was completely the opposite.
Her lips twitched into a smile, and she sighed. “Oh, you’re good,” she said with a smile she was trying to tuck away and failing. He was always good. Slowly stepping over the fake rocks and uneven terrain, she grabbed his hand and stumbled a little into his reach with an oof. She grabbed the sleeve of his suit to steady herself and not fall face-first into the faux-pond. Holding Eddie’s hand, she reached out to run gentle fingers over the bill, then up that strange little swoop that topped its head. “We’ll protect you.” Then, her fingers ran down its fake neck. “Does Mac let you talk to dinosaurs, too?” Then after a second, she turned to Eddie. “Could she bring us to dino times?” Stephanie grinned brightly, nose wrinkling and blue eyes bright.
Eddie gave the dinosaur a sympathetic frown, tut-tutting as he shook his head at the inevitability of raptor bullies. “Stephanie will teach you how to curbstomp. They won’t know what hit them.” He assured the animatronic, who kept on munching on a giant fake leaf. The riddled man made sure Stephanie had stable footing before rounding the pond and looking at all the other members of this dinosaur family. He turned to look at her when she asked about Mac and shrugged. “I’m guessing she could take us anywhere if she felt like it.” Eddie held his arm out and showed her what looked like a square watch, but was actually Machina resting safely on his wrist. “One day I’m going to put her on my belt and hope she know how to turn me into a Power Ranger.” He trailed off, mind ticking out how vaguely dirty that sounded and then shook his head.
“I thought you weren’t interested in boom tubes, though. And, as far as I can tell, that’s the only way she can teleport.” Eddie slung his arm around one of the adult duckbills and looked at it. Machina could very well animate these dinosaurs if she wanted to. Really, Eddie was convinced there wasn’t a limit to what she could do. It really boiled down to what space magic she was willing to cast. “What’s the matter, buddy?” He asked the dinosaur. “Wife and kids bringing you down? Whadda say you and me hit the Apatosaurus Casino later? I’ll throw you some money to check out the Tricera-toppless bar. Me? No. No that’s not my thing.”
She didn’t move as Eddie rounded the pond, comfortable and secure enough in her footing to not want to wander any further just yet. Her fingers still stayed wrapped around the leaf-eater’s neck, grazing glances of finger tips now and then to feel the synthetic skin of the dinosaur. Eddie was right; this was much better than some plastic dinosaurs her cranky cupid had given her. Gazing up at the baby dino, Stephanie couldn’t help the look of unadulterated delight. “It was just a hypothetical question,” the blonde bat replied, tilting to look around the neck and at her riddled man somewhere in the back. “No boom tubes, not even for dinosaurs’ sake.” She wrinkled her nose again, this time more in curiosity and fear than affection. She turned to the dinosaur again, still speaking to Eddie. “How do you know a Tricera-toppless bar isn’t your thing unless you’ve tried it?” she teased, tongue sticking out between her teeth.
It seemed for a second that she deliberated over something, and then suddenly, she kicked off her shoes and began tiptoeing around the display, careful not to disturb the “wildlife.” As if it were real wildlife. “Do you ever wonder what the limits are?” she asked, edging towards the plants to peer over at the next section, shoes hanging in one hand and coat in the other. “Like, what Mac’s can do and what Mac’s willing to do. I’m sure you think about it all the time.”
“Who says I haven’t tried it.” Eddie answered slyly and then seriously considered climbing on top of the dinosaur robot. She could see it in his eyes, the way his hands felt around the top to see how sturdy it was. Eddie wasn’t all that big, he could certainly make it up there if he wanted, right? “I wonder all the time about Mac, yeah.” He got up on his toes, gave a look back at her like he was really going to jump on the dino’s back and then it suddenly stood up on its hindlegs and pushed Eddie back into the grass with an oooof. Eddie sprawled out dramatically, raising a fist up to the dinosaur as he shook it and yelled old man obscenities at the duckbill and his family.
He slowly lowered his arm and spread out on the grass, tilting his head to look at her bare feet. Eddie paused for a long time and then sighed. “I talked with the Dark Knight. We’re going to run experiments on her the next time we both have free time. It doesn’t matter, though. Machina is the one in charge, not either of us. Mac’s made it clear that she’s here to protect me and you by extension, but I don’t know what else she’s capable of.” He tried to snag her ankle even though there was some distance between them and then crawled to his feet and followed after her into the next section.
Stephanie mouthed a warning to him, threatening that she’d break all his bones if he even tried to mount the dinosaur’s back. She mouthed it again and again as he waggled that look at her until he got knocked down. There was a splutter, then downright laughter as Eddie splayed across the fake grass. Doubled over, echoing off the corners of the walls giggles that brightened Stephanie’s cheek’s and erased the faintness of anything else but happiness in her face, if only for a moment. Long enough for Eddie to remember what that looked like on his blonde bat’s face.
As she pushed through the ferns into the next section, she looked over her shoulder with a wiggle of her eyebrows before disappearing. The next section had towering long necks like those from The Land Before Time towering over her at more than twenty feet (though that obviously wasn’t as accurate as could be). Ones with their necks curved up, others with their necks stretched allllll the way across the display. In the corner, creeping in on the Apatosauruses, stood something that looked very much like a T. Rex but wasn’t quite exactly like it. Steph wobbled around the marsh-like lands. “They should have star trees here,” she said, closing in on a baby dinosaur that looked Little Foot.
She wheeled around to face him, but plopped down on her knees as soon as she did, heels, bag, and coat all falling into a sloppy pile next to her. “You think he’s worried?” About Mac, about the Watchtower, about everything. Bruce had so much on his plate; didn’t he always? “What else did you guys talk about?”
Eddie took a moment to admire the giants in front of them, letting out a low whistle that bounced through the trees. “Star trees would make me think about the movie and thinking about the movie makes me sad.” He said simply, slowly unbuttoning his jacket and taking it off before loosening his tie and unbuttoning his sleeves. Eddie didn’t watch the movie until he was an adult, but the whole loss of a mother thing and a quest for a perfect world made him practically weepy. “A good kind of sad, though?” Eddie smiled up at the dinosaurs and then navigated through the marsh, plopping down next to her without an ounce of the grace he was blessed with. He rolled up his sleeves, found a comfortable spot and then laid back with his fingers folded behind his head.
“He’s not so much worried about Mac as he is about Selina and her brain situation.” Eddie never sounded upset at Selina before (because cats would be cats). Now there was a hint of frustration. “It’s the only real uncertainty, I think. This space magic thing would drive him nuts in the hands of any other rogue, but I like to think I’ve worked hard enough gaining some trust I won’t completely fuck it up.” Eddie rolled his head to the side slowly to look at her and then suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, reached to grab her hand. Thieving fingers sliding between hers as the warmth of his palm bounced off her skin. “Everytime I talk to either of them, I’m just glad I have you. That you let me tell you how I feel. That we spend a lot of time together. God knows it never works out that way with them. And, you know, I think it should. Why not? Why are so many things destined to happen the same way?”
Stephanie flashed him a knowing, sad sort of smile because she understood that it could be a soft spot for him. She hadn’t had her mom in almost two years after arriving in this Gotham, and she missed her every single day, but at least the blonde bat got to know her mother. She had fresh memories of her mom sitting at the table with her in the morning with bags under her eyes matching her daughters. Eddie was so much like Little Foot, with only little things to remember his mother by. Only the romanticized fuzziness a child could give a mom he’d lost at such a young age. “A good kind of sad,” she agreed quietly, fingers running across the hard surface of the exhibit painted to look soft.
When he plopped down, she offered him another smile, something small and simple, and she leaned back on her elbows to look up at the dinosaurs looming over their heads. She caught the frustration, but didn’t say anything about it aside from a sideways glance. “It’s only fair of him to be worried about her. You’d be worried about me if I got a damn bomb implanted in my brain.” She suspected the frustration came from a combination of things, and she couldn’t point to just one. But, she knew that Bruce did trust Eddie a lot more than most people in Gotham, and she nodded along with him. “You have. You know that,” Steph assured him, tangling her fingers readily into his and shifting her weight to kind of lounge on her hip, midsection taking the brunt of her balance. Her other hand reached out to trace along the fingers holding hers, one by one, until she followed a gentle line down the center of his palm, down until she began tracing her fingernail over the dark ink stained on his skin.
“They’ve both got a lot of hurt,” she started, concentrating on her path along his tattoo, but shook her head almost immediately after. That wasn’t a good excuse. Stephanie and Eddie shared a world of hurt between them. “They’re different than we are, baby. You know that. And I think it’s easier for people to be stuck then actually admit to something as scary and vulnerable as caring about someone. We all know they do. They’re too stubborn to see sometimes.” Her hand suddenly stopped its path along its arm and reach to trace a delicate glance of a touch along his jaw. “We’re lucky that we’re both brave enough and dumb enough to not care about being hurt about admitting our feelings.”
Eddie shook his head and made a noise when she said it was the hurt that got in the way, recognizing it wasn’t a good excuse almost exactly the same time she did. “Don’t they ever get tired of being scared?” Eddie asked innocently and closed his eyes when she touched his jaw, enjoying the delicateness of it. He thought about how scared he was, especially recently with the Watchtower. Sometimes it kept him up at night thinking about how things between him and Stephanie could go so very, very wrong. But, it never really stopped him, did it? He always gave Stephanie everything he had. Even if he hated doing it, even if he had to wait for her to give him something back. Maybe he was just as scared as the Bat or the Cat, but he wasn’t afraid of failing.
“Oh, yeah?” Eddie slowly opened his eyes, a dark gaze up at her with some mischievousness and teasing brewing. “When was the last time you admitted something to me? If this were a game, I think asking you to move in with me would put a point in my box for dumb bravery.” Did you hear that, dinosaurs? Eddie not only allowed someone to call him dumb, but agreed. He was either exhausted from working so hard or charmed by Stephanie that he didn’t mind. That he let himself see the obvious meaning to what she was saying.
He scooted closer to her, as close as he could get and leaned back on his elbows, chin up as he smirked at her. All smarmy victory in being the bravest out of the two of them. “Though, I have to admit I was surprised you said yes so quickly. It took a month for you to tell me you loved me. Which really set the bar for my expectations.”