eddie likes to (riddlethem) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2014-03-18 22:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | door: dc comics, riddler, stephanie brown |
Who: Eddie, Stephanie (Part 2)
When: Five years in the future, but then Tuesday, the morning after the blow out with the sirens and bats
Where: Eddie's Apartment
What: Eddie and Steph were zapped somewhere else for five years and stumbled back a minute later
Warnings: Swearing, violence, cute
Eddie couldn’t muster a look of indifference at the cat like he used to; always insisting on playing not interested to the kitties until no one was watching. Instead he gave a sweet, “Hey kitty, kitty meow face.” He reached down to pet her and smiled when Bandit purred in response. It alarmed him, a little, how easy it was to fall back into old habits. To accept this was their home. But, he figured if this was a trick or some kind of test to get into heaven, acting normal would activate it a lot faster. Right?
“Hey, you’re the one who asked me to make you pancakes back on 3 out of cornmeal. That’s your bad.” He took another bite, dipped the rest of his waffle in a little cup of maple syrup and finished it off with a smile. “Jesus christ, can you imagine going back to worrying about breakfast? Or remember when I wanted you to take dance lessons with me?” Eddie laughed, a loud sort that seemed to come straight from his belly. The whole thing was actually really funny, especially if it was someone playing an elaborate prank on them. But, as the laughter faded, he had to hide a small look of fear in his eyes because he knew this next to normal life was exactly what he wanted for so long. What he wanted with her.
When she pointed out the two pieces of tech waiting for them on the table he inhaled and held his breath for what seemed like forever. This was it. This was where the trick started. He knew the second he picked that tablet up, it’d say something snarky and sinister and they’d be pulled back to a life of war and loss. He walked towards them, making a detour near Stephanie so he could press a kiss against her cheek and scratch Isis between the ears and then meandered over to the pieces of tech.
He stood over them, tattooed arms crossed as he stared down at the table. “You know what? I never took you to a baseball game. Not even once. I mean, made you watch a bunch, sure. But, I never took you to the stadium, did I?” Eddie looked up at her and she could see the fear ticking down in his eyes. “I’m taking you to a goddamned baseball game.” He said seriously, as if it were the most important thing in the world and then picked up one of the small tablets.
A moment passed as he scrolled, eyes fixed on the screen.
“It looks legit.”
An eyebrow raised when he crouched to greet Bandit, who purred happily at her human dad, pacing back and forth on his fingers, and if she wasn’t still freaking out, she would have snapped a photo as proof. Instead, she watched him with the sort of delight a woman would watch her man interact with pets (and maybe babies), a man who had nothing but warfare as a child for years and years. Stephanie couldn’t help the smile that curved up her lips as he laughed at the ludicrousness of this all. Even thinking of a world where they could indulge in frivolities like dance lessons and good breakfast made her a little dizzy at the prospect. It hurt her heart in a way that only longing for something so good and wonderful could.
Her mouth fell as he walked over, though. It seemed more like a dream than anything, each affirming puzzle piece conveniently falling into place right when they needed it. The familiar smells, the pets, the journals. Still through the nerves and the fear that mirrored his, she couldn’t help another smile at something so simple as a baseball game. “Do you think I’ll still look really, really cute in a uniform shirt though? That’s the only reason I even wanted to go in the first place.” But, the idea of a baseball game? It was her turn to bubble out an incredulous laugh, something that lingered in the air as he scrolled through the tablet.
Stephanie let Isis down gently near Bandit, and all the pets seemed to watch their parents in a weird sort of awareness that something was off. Slowly, she began to unclip the utility belts wrapped around her, dropping them unceremoniously on the floor one by one until she was nothing but kevlar suit zippered up the neck and over the knee boots. She started to approach Eddie with the caution of a zookeeper and a caged animal, the question lingering on her lips, is it real. He responded to her without her even asking. Stopping at the spot, a couple feet away, she stared at him unabashedly.
“It’s legit,” she repeated after him, dropping that seems because maybe she wanted to indulge a little longer. “It’s real? We’re home?” she asked again, mouth wibbling and eyes going watery with happy sort of tears. Tears pricking in the corners until they started to slide down her face, and before she could let herself doubt it, before the logic that’d grown inside of her over the last five years could take over, she ran the rest of the way towards him, launching herself into his arms whether he was ready or not. Legs wrapped around his waist, arms clinging around his shoulders and smile buried into his neck as if she was trying to hide it away from the universe to delay the inevitable. The inevitable of this fantasy crumbling around them both.
Eddie gave a shrug that said you know what? why the fuck not in one simple raise of his shoulders and grinned at her. Even if this wasn’t home. Even if the dogs and the waffles and the safe feeling he felt in his own apartment were all lies, they could still enjoy it while they had the chance. Right? He made an oof sound when she leapt into his arms, teetering back a little with a laugh before steadying himself and holding her as she wrapped around him. “We’re home.” He whispered into her shoulder, burying his face into her hair and trying to fight back that smile.
Nothing crumbled, the floor didn’t give out under them and the screech of a metal owl from above never sounded. He exhaled with something that sounded like a rough mix of a laugh and a sob and held onto her tighter. Five years of losing hope and struggling to regain it. Five years of believing that he’d never give Stephanie what she wanted. Five years and now they were home. “Hey,” he whispered pulling back enough to look at her. Eddie was grinning like an idiot, a messy funny smile that spelt out his love for her. He licked his lips and kissed her, his mouth tasting like syrup and sweetness. “What do you want to do on our first day back home, Stephanie? Love of my life? Center of my now waffle and taco filled world?”
Steph bubbled out another laughing sob, something flipping between happy and just completely overwhelmed. She never really thought that this could be a possibility, and to have it all crashing back into her reality at once? Her body shook in his arms in anticipation of all this good being real and permanent and for them. They were home, and suddenly, for that moment, all the heaviness that war beleaguered her with melted away for something light, happy, joyous. She squeezed him tighter as if she was waiting for him to blow away like ash, but he didn’t. He was there, the apartment was there, the girls were there, their lives were there. Waiting for both of them with opened arms.
She returned his grin with one of her own, blues brimming over with happiness and tears and so much goddamn love for him she could barely stand it. Here was her anchor, Eddie Nashton, holding her in the place they didn’t think existed anymore. A safe haven where bombs didn’t shake their underground bunkers, where friends were lost every single day, where every kiss and declaration of love could be their last. No, here, they had all of the safety the world could give them. The kiss lingered, greedily tasting the sweetness and freedom of the embrace. “Still the center of your world?” she teased, knowing full-well that they both felt the same way about that. “Everything? Is that possible?” She pressed a kiss to his jaw, then peppered his cheek with a few more.
“Well, I don’t know. Let me eat at Los Tacos first and we’ll see if you can keep the center of my universe title.” He teased back and grinned as she covered his face with kisses. Eddie could barely believe they were given this back and he took a moment to look over her shoulder at the peaceful apartment. He told himself it still could be a trick and he felt a green question mark in the back of his head respond I don’t care. This felt good and after years of pain, he deserved a moment of peace.
Eddie gently let her go, kissed her cheek and then went to pick up his grenades and weapons before the animals could play with them. “Let’s get in our civilian clothes and go explore. See what we remember about this old place.” He said brightly, hands full of battle gear. “Try to hit our favorite shops before they close. And, then come back and figure out what’s going on with the hotel. It’ll be just like old times, baby.”
“I still don’t taste like salsa, so I’m scared I’ll lose.” His grin warmed her from her head all the way down to her toes, tingling underneath her skin like a drug she hadn’t taken in years or an old song that whose lyrics she was just starting to remember. A grin like that, with such brightness and easy, was so rare on Earth-3 that she wanted to soak up every single second she could. She traced the curve that grin before kissing the corner of his mouth like she was trying to taste his happiness through the smile. Even if this wasn’t real, she’d let herself pretend for a few moments.
She slid down slowly to the floor when he let her go, taking a second to find her feet and feel the floor underneath her. The world was spinning, but in a bad way. In a sweet way, like she was getting high off of him and home and the possibility of this actually being permanent. “Exploring!” Stephanie sounded ridiculously giddy. Like a child on Christmas morning. Her bright grin softened. “Just like old times,” she repeated after him, then fell into a thoughtful moment. A considering noise rumbled in her throat. “You think people will get freaked if they see us?” Weird things happened in Gotham all the time, and he was right about it before -- Selina had jumped as well. Wasn’t this an accepting city?
Eddie walked into their bedroom and dropped all the stuff on the bed before flopping down on the mattress with a whimpering, satisfied sound. “Oh, baby. I missed your lumbar support. I missed your soft cushiony-” The rest of his speech was lost, muffled into the sheets as he made snow angels with his arms and legs. When he heard Stephanie, he popped up with an innocent look on his face before bouncing off to his closet. His suits. The closet door opened and there they were in all their glory. Suits and suits and suits. More than he remembered owning. He stood there, mouth a little agape.
“Why did you let me buy all of these?” He turned to look at her and then walked into the gold mine, trying one jacket on and making a disgruntled face as the arms were a little too tight for him now. Then, looking up, he answered her question. “I think they’re going to freak. I think it’s going to be a lot of awkward explaining who Owlman is.” Eddie flexed his arms and felt the seams in his jacket pop just a little bit. “And, honestly? I didn’t want to admit this to you a couple months ago when we were in the thick of it, but I’m tired baby. I don’t want to chase Crane because he’s an asshat or worry about how the Bat and Cat love life is going. I don’t care. I want a breather.” He flexed again and there was a loud riiiiipp in his sleeve that made him laugh happily.
The apartment still had boxes scattered around corners, Stephanie and Eddie’s belongings still not moved in from what was in reality a month since the renovations finished and she moved in with Eddie. She expected dust collected over the cardboard, a decrepit sort of feeling on their apartment from years of neglect, but no time had passed at lal. It was like they had blinked for a second between getting out of the shower and eating breakfast that last morning, and then blinked again. Not more than a small collection of moments separated themselves from what they once were to what they had become now. Two war-weary people so ready for a second of what they had been fighting for the entire time.
She scooped up the utility belts, slinging them over her forearm, then put her bow, quiver and bostaff on top of the kitchen table. As if that was normal. She followed Eddie into their bedroom, animals trailing in varying differences in curiosity over the odd behavior their human parents were exhibiting. The girls all sensed something was off, of course, and Stephanie looked down on them with affection as they each strolled into the room after her. Matilda started sniffing at Eddie’s feet as he walked over to the closet, Bandit jumped up on the bed like she owned the place, and Isis curled into the corner, taking the whole scene in with big yellow eyes.
Steph tossed the belts onto a box waiting to be unpacked and sat on the edge of the bed while Eddie roamed through his closet. “I thought you looked good in them, and I could never say no to you,” she teased, leaning forward to unzip her boots and toss them away before flopping back on the bed with something that sounded between a grunt and a groan. “Oh my god, this feels like heaven,” she murmured, eyes closing and arms and legs spreading until she looked like a little kevlared starfish in the middle of their bed. Sleep alone was a luxury on Earth-3, let alone a nice, comfy bed.
Head up slightly, she smirked a little at his discomfort in the suit before taking him in with thoughtful blue eyes reflecting the fatigue in his voice. “They’ll get over it,” she said, not as concerned with the family as she might have been five years ago. The desperation she had for family and acknowledgement and support fell on the wayside in the middle of a war zone. Stephanie had not desire to isolate them from her, of course, but she was so fed up with being the one to mend bridges, or to make bridges at all. “They’re so self-absorbed most of the time anyway that they probably won’t even realize it.” She shrugged, head falling back onto the bed.
She rolled to her side and spotted a framed picture on the bedside table, and she didn’t hesitate to snatch it up. Fingers rubbing together to feel dust that wasn’t there. “I’m tired too, Eddie,” she admitted, rolling again to lay on her back and hold the frame up to look. It was a picture of them what seemed like eons ago for Stephanie and Eddie, but was barely less than a year in this world. An exhausted, but smiling Eddie and Stephanie in ballcaps and sunshine beaming down on them. She touched the smiles for a second before holding it out to Eddie. “You remember when we thought that everything before this would be our biggest problem?” She sounded sad and nostalgic for a time like that. A time she knew they would never have again.
Eddie unlaced his boots, kicking them out into the bedroom like a ghost throwing things from the closet. He took the coat off, admired the new holes he made in the shoulders and arms before reaching for a gold tie. “I’m just going to donate most of these.” Said to no one in particular as he strung the tie around his neck and watched himself slowly make a perfect knot. A wonder how his fingers still remembered how after all these years. He glanced over at one of his green bowler hats, smiled sadly and picked it up, rolling it along his arm, popping it up in the air and catching it between his fingers. Old dogs never forget old tricks.
He stepped out of the closet, tie around his neck over his t-shirt and green bowler hat on his head (looking completely ridiculous) and walked over to her. “When Selina came back, it made her feel like scar tissue. I think we’re different. I think we want different things. We’ll take it slow, okay?” Eddie didn’t know the first thing about dealing with the bat family and Earth-3 didn’t help him with that. But, the resentment he felt towards the birds was gone. In fact, most of the bad feelings he had all around were washed over, smoothed like driftglass.
Eddie sat next to her on the bed and took the picture, a fond smile crossing his face. He suddenly felt old, like a kick in the gut. Even though he hadn’t changed much, Stephanie had and he wondered how the transition flew past him. “If you look closely, you can see deep, festering worry in both of our eyes.” He teased, still holding the picture between his hands. “Every little word meant something. Every tiny thing. I’d read and twist into the things you said to me even though I knew how you felt. We had the luxury of worry back then.” He turned to look at her, taking one of her hands with his and pressing it against his face. “Tell me we didn’t fail Earth-3. Tell me that if this is real, we deserve it.”
Stephanie bit her lip to suppress a spluttering laugh. “You look like Frankie that time he tried to dress up as you, baby,” she teased, heart suddenly aching at the thought of Eddie’s right hand man and his family. Could they be here, too? She looked up at Eddie with hopeful eyes that told him exactly what she was thinking about in that moment. They had both seen their share of couples and families on Earth-3, but no one was ever like Frank and his family. No one symbolized something that Gotham’s sweethearts wanted more than that family. In that brief moment, she allowed herself the hope for things they didn’t even dare to dream about back in the middle of a war. Hope for friends and family and a life that wasn’t surrounded by bombs and bullets.
“Yeah, slow,” she agreed. She didn’t need the approval the way she did back five years ago, and while she would love to repair relationships with bats and birds, she couldn’t rely on that to happen here. She didn’t want to. Stephanie learned within the last five years that while she wanted their support and love and friendship, she was strong enough to not need it anymore the way she did years ago. “We’ll take it slow.” Her hand slid across the the mussy sheets and rested on his knee.
But, that picture brought a smile to her face as well, something longing and nostalgic and still settled in who they were now. “We were different people back then,” she offered. The sum of the whole stayed the same, but the pieces changed. Pieces reshaped to fit a new puzzle. Stephanie knew that the change might have been slow for both of them, but in this old Gotham it would be easier to see the new them. “Not bad people,” she amended quickly. “Just different.” She sat up as he tugged her hand towards his face and trained her blue eyes on his puppy dog browns. “Baby,” she said softly, thumb caressing his cheekbone before her other hand brushed against that streak of gray. “Of course we earned this. Of course we did.” Her hands stopped their soothing gestures and cupped his face between them, and she leaned foward to catch his lips with a reassuring kiss. “We almost lost our lives for that place. We almost lost each other.”
Another couple of kisses and then she dropped her hands to catch both of his. Tugging. “We’ve more than earned this. We sacrificed so much there.” And with her look, he knew exactly what she meant by that. How they had almost lost everything in the mess of a war that was inherited.
His eyes searched her face for a sign that something was off. He was looking for that little green dot that told him the world behaved in a different way, that things would unravel and throw him away like a ragdoll the second he got comfortable. It might have been a thing he learnt from the unsafe Earth-3, but truthfully it was a Gotham kid thing. You grew up in a bad neighborhood, you had parents that died or hurt you and there wasn’t an adult alive that could be trusted. That was true ninety years ago and in a lot of neighborhoods, it was still true now.
His fingers clung to hers desperately and he wished he was the kind of man to remove himself from the things he wanted most.
But, then he’d never have Stephanie. He’d never have this. Eddie leaned into the kiss, letting his mind calculate how real it was and ease back into accepting what was right in front of him. “All those years I was fighting so other people wouldn’t have to. Deep down? I just wanted this back.” Eddie whispered and kissed the palm of her hand. Stephanie knew how he felt and this soft confession wasn’t anything new. It did, however, punctuate just how important this world was to him.
He set the picture down on the table and scooted closer to her, his fingers running across her body in thought as if he were carefully solving a puzzle. “We’ll make it to Isabella’s baptism.” Eddie said with a soft smile. Frank, his right hand man and once personal body guard, was the only goon that wanted to do right when Eddie reformed. They still did plenty of missions before Earth-3, but eventually Eddie just gave Frank enough money to open a deli shop in a nice area and be a family man. Something that used to seem so far in the future for Edward Nashton. So, when Frank had his second kid, he decided to make Eddie the godfather, which meant more to him than he could even riddle into words.
Eddie’s gaze went off and away from Stephanie as he thought about the prospect of settling down and if that was even possible anymore before snapping his attention back at her. “I mean, if you still want to go. Church services are booorring, I know.” He teased. Nice save, Nigma.
“You’ve got this back,” she whispered back, lip curling up slightly as he kissed her palm. She and Eddie snatched tender moments left and right on Earth-3, especially in the middle of combat, but it felt less desperate than that. More warm and reassuring and safe. Eddie always made her feel safe, of course, but there was a quiet sort of comfort in sitting on their bed, in their home, in their Gotham that made this all the sweeter. “You’ve got it back.” Her fingers squeezed again, grounding him and here there.
She smiled back softly, eyes trailing his fingers as he traced down her body like he had countless times before. In this Gotham, and in a Gotham torn apart by war. Leaning her body into his, she curled her fingers around that golden tie, something she hadn’t had the chance to do in years, and tugged him closer to her. “Isabella,” she repeated quietly with fond smile. “We didn’t miss them grow up, baby. We get to see them grow up.” And there was a wonder in her voice that something so beautiful and normal could find its way back into their lives. Stephanie and Eddie hadn’t had beautiful and normal around them in a lifetime.
“I don’t know,” she teased, sliding up against him, kevlar-covered leg draping over both of his. Peppering his jaw with affectionate kisses before sliding off his lap to stand, waiting for him to unzip the back of her kevlar suit. “Do you want to expose all those nice churchgoers to your bad-ass, warworn tattooed girlfriend? I thought I’d embarrass you before, but now?” She shot a smirk over her shoulder at him. She thought briefly about the life they hadn’t been allowed to have back on Earth-3. The life of marriages and life-long commitment and yes, maybe some day, geeky babies. He could see a flash of that in her eyes before she muffled it with a teasing narrowing. “I might just burn the fuck up when I walk in the door.”
Eddie made a pleased rumble when she pulled on his tie, a sensation he had missed over the years. He resisted a little, making the pull around his neck tighter just a bit and closed his eyes with that smarmy smirk that needled her into loving him. His eyes slowly opened and he returned her smile. “Missing them grow up was one of the worst things about that planet.” Eddie said softly. There were other worse things, one of which involved never finding a safe way to start a family of their own, but that went unsaid as it always did.
His eyebrows lifted as she stood, reaching up to pull that zipper in the back and peel her kevlar off. He marveled at the tattoos and scars that decorated her body, one hand gently moving down her spine as he thought about how far they had come. That young Stephanie who shivered under his touch when he accidentally brushed a finger across a plague scar was gone. The Stephanie he was in love with now, the Stephanie he loved more every day despite himself, knew that he loved every curve, every streak of ink, every scar she had.
Eddie looked up to catch that look of hope in her eyes for a future, for that next step and he was glad she wasn’t close enough to feel his heart try to leap out of his chest. The kevlar suit was stripped away and Eddie let his hand wander to brush around her hip to touch her belly. His palm pressed lightly and he thought about having a kid of his own, a wife of his own and asked himself a riddle if that was too ridiculous of a dream. He stood, arms wrapping around her middle as he pressed kisses along the line of her shoulders. “If I keep leaving my demon lover at home, they’re going to think I’m making her up.” He whispered into her blonde hair. “I’ll tell them you really want to be there, but you don’t want to be smited by God’s wrath.”
Stephanie rumbled an affectionate sound as his hand slid down her spine and she stepped out of the kevlar to reveal her underwear and bra. Gone were the days of embarrassment over the way she looked, over the scars that riddled her body. There wasn’t time for indulgent things like self-esteem issues when there was a war to fight, and she was actually kind of proud of the pink marks that marred her pale skin. Aside, of course, for the one that curved along her jaw and slithered down her neck. That brought back painful memories for both of them of the time she’d almost lost her life. But, otherwise, she was proud. They were lines to a poem that only Eddie would be able to interpret and understand the same way she did. Black ink stained her skin, too, spinning tales in symbols and words of love, of loss, of longing.
Her hand rested gently atop of his as he pressed his warm palm into her belly, not worried that he might be able to feel her increased heart rate pulsing at her wrist and leaning into the gentle pressure of his hand. She hadn’t allowed herself to consider anything like that in years, but the moment was lost (thankfully) when he stood, and she fell back to lean into his body. Not the slender, weedy riddled man of before, but one that had been carved and curated by a war that wasn’t ever really theirs. “Demon lover?” she asked, voice warm and amused. “They probably already do think you’re making me up, Nashton. Who could blame them?” She walked fingers across his forearms, lingering here and there to trace stray tattooed circuits.
After a second, she turned in his arms, pressing herself against him. Black ink bats scattered across her clavicle and wrapped around the curve of her bra-covered breast and towards her ribcage. That was one of the first she had gotten on Earth-3. A commemoration of a family and the honor she was defending for her own sake. “I’ll go. I want to go. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Her arms slid around his waist, and she nipped at his chin. Tugging at his shirt in affection before stepping out of his arms to dig around that closet for clothes that might still fit. She grabbed a light blue Jurassic Park t-shirt with Mr. DNA staring at them with heavy-lidded eyes and pulled it on. “Honestly, I can’t trust you on your own here. What if you get lost?”
Eddie couldn’t breathe when she pressed her hand against his while he held her belly. It felt like the first time she returned his affection and he thought about holding hands, rolling around in the snow and kissing her on that Wayne manor floor. His brain buzzed with what ifs and love for her he couldn’t calculate. It was good the moment didn’t last long. Eddie didn’t want to have that conversation yet, he wasn't even sure he’d want to have that conversation at all. Especially if this world really did turn out to be a lie.
She could see his big brown eyes full of love for her when she turned around despite his best to hide it with silly conversations about church and demons. He exhaled slowly, finally and smiled at her. “I really want you to go.” He said honestly in a way he wouldn’t have before Earth-3. War didn’t leave room for beating around the bush or alluding to the things he wanted. Well, for the most part. “You’re my partner.” Eddie whispered and kissed the side of her mouth. “I need you there.” That need said with a little more desperation than he intended and he blamed it on residual last-minute confessions of the battle they had been zapped out of.
His hands held onto her for as long as they could as she walked away, slowly falling to his side once she was out of reach. “What if I find my old S&M club?” He recovered, wiggling his eyebrows and tipping his bowler hat at her with a smirk. “Once I find the old Pandora’s Box, I’ll never leave!” He exclaimed, tossing the hat off into the distance as Matilda took off in a run to catch it.
Her eyes reflected that same sort of love glistening in his without holding back, no shame in the need and affection and adoration she had for her riddled man. She didn’t hide the bright smile that spread across her lips at those soft confessions; they’d both grown so much more honest over the past few years, all for the better. Well, mostly. Body still buzzing from his palm against her stomach, Stephanie tried her best to push away all of that hypotheticals in her brain for something here and present and guaranteed. They were partners, and they always would be. Earth-3 hadn’t cheapened that; in fact, it only strengthened that all the more. They wouldn’t have survived without one another.
“Well, if you need me,” she needled with a smirk over her shoulder, digging through the piles for a pair of jeans. It felt good to be out of the kevlar, something she wore more often than not in the other Gotham. She spluttered, turning around to face him with a pair of pants in her hands, horrified at the prospect. “I don’t even want to know what you got up to there, but I bet it’s got to do with goths or biker sluts or something, and I’m suppoooosedly a less jealous woman these days.” She tossed the jeans at his face, tongue sticking out between her teeth. “I’m going to need to get a homing device in you. In case you deviate.”
He grinned at her reaction. Yes, it had been five years, but even when they were old farts he’d get a laugh out of surprising her. “Tell you what, we can walk past where it’s supposed to be and if I stray, if I let go of your hand for even a moment, you can put all the tracking devices you want on me.” Eddie unbuckled his bullet proof pants and wiggled out of them until he was just down to dark green briefs. “You’re going to be so bored tracking me, Spoiler. Morning making breakfast and working in the server room. Afternoon at Los Tacos. Late afternoon trading information. Later afternoon begging you to take a walk with me and nights...” A wistful sigh. “Doing whatever the hell we want.”
Eddie let out a muffled laugh when the pants hit his face. He held them up to check if they were his and then stood up, hopping into them. “Oh,” He said, finger raised in the air as he got an idea and he dropped to his knees, reaching under the bed. “Look!” Eddie pulled out her purple chucks and his matching green ones. He wiggled them in the air for her. “Remember how on Earth-3 Chuck Taylor didn’t make cool sneakers, but he actually made terrible cowboy boots? We’ve been saved.”
Stephanie rolled her eyes, smirking even though she should be mad that he still liked to tease reactions out of her. But, that was his brand of love, and she couldn’t deny that she liked it, but she still pouted nonetheless. Exaggerated puff of her lip and a sigh like she actually worried about things like biker sluts. “We’ll go during our exploring. If I even see a flicker of thought, you’re done for, Nashton.” She wagged her finger at him as if chatising a dog before winking and going back to finding a pair of her own pants. It was all nothing but a tease, of course. Over the last five years, she morphed into a stronger, more confident woman who knew that her riddled man only had eyes for her now. Years and years melted away insecurities like that. Doubt about former lady goons and god who paraded as a wronged woman fell to the wayside for something so much more than that.
Pulling a pair of black skinny jeans -- skinny jeans -- out of the pile, she tried her best to wiggle into the pants, oofing as she slid into them. “Looks like you’re going domestic on me, baby. I can’t say I hate that at all.” In a perfect world, Stephanie had pictured all of that for them. Quiet days of work and the neighborhood and then them at night.
One more hop and she fastened the button with a pleased sound and then turned around with a curtsy. A grin blossomed across her lips and she shuffled over to Eddie and made a snatch for the sneakers. “Oh my god, we’ll have normal clothes here.” Then, she looked at him in delight. “Oh my god, baby, Harry Potter isn’t like the Twilight of this world!” The grin turned goofy, something he hadn’t seen in years among the muck and dirt of war. Something as light and lovely as fangirling. She snatched at the sneakers again before she gave up and slid her hands up his chest to grab fistfuls of his shirt. Tugging lightly and looking up at him with a fond sort of smile.
“Domestic doesn’t sound so bad right now.” He said simply, holding the sneakers out of her reach for a second before lowering them so she could grab them. “We’ll see how long we can stand it.” Eddie teased, though really he suspected they could find themselves enjoying it and then what? He grinned when she grabbed onto his shirt, pressing against her as he returned that fond smile. “I wish I brought some of it with me, reading to you about Harry crushing on Dumbledore- wait what am I saying? Fan fiction is a thing!” Eddie exclaimed happily and then reached down to kiss her softly, almost teasing her into wanting more from him.
He pulled away, though and bounced back on the bed to put his sneakers on before rolling off. “Riddle me this! What doggie here wants to go for walkies?” Eddie called brightly and Matilda barked and bounced around the apartment. “Hhhhmmm who could it be?” More happy barking as Eddie moved into the kitchen, put away the leftover waffles. “Is it Bandit?” Matilda whined and scurried around the apartment for her now lost ball.
He leaned over the bar. “You want to stay here or go, Mac?”
“I’ll stay here and chat with the cats, sugar dumpling.” Her voice chimed happily.
“Tomorrow we’ll go explore Wonder Tower, okay?”
“Lovely~” Machina smiled warmly and Eddie tapped the counter twice in affirmation and then grabbed coats for himself and Stephanie, the leash and waited for his former blonde bat at the door. When she followed him into the hallway he leashed up Matilda, opened the front door and held his hand out for Stephanie.
“Ready?”