stephanie nashton does it all (forthem) wrote in rooms, @ 2014-05-22 19:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | !dc comics, *log, eddie nigma, stephanie brown |
log: eddie/steph (1/2)
WHO Eddie and Steph (Pt 1 of 2).
WHAT First hospital visit.
WHEN The morning after Selina is found and the grave is broken into.
WHERE VA Hospital.
WARNING Lots of cute talk of weddings and stuff.
Eddie arrived at the front counter of the psych ward at the VA hospital with a bouquet of gold and purple flowers in his hands, a stack of wedding magazines in his “Harry Houdini Magic Club” book bag and his best I’m not really tired and stressed out look he could manage. He thought about arriving in one of his nice suits since men in suits tended to get past boundaries a lot faster than tattooed guys in t-shirts and jeans, but this hospital wasn’t like other places in Gotham. There wasn’t many people who could be bought and sold here and no one was happy to see a man in a suit walk through the door. Instead, he went for the worried fiancee. Humble and geeky and too cute to say no to him.
The nurses took to him instantly as most older women did and he was told to wait in the sitting area for now until they could free up some time for her. Stephanie had therapy sessions, relaxation times and group talks. But, since he was the first to visit her after days and days, they could see the importance of it. Especially since Eddie was clearly such a big part of her life. The whole process of trying to find time for him took about an hour and Eddie immediately passed out on one of the waiting room chairs. The flowers set carefully next to him as he leaned his head back and dozed the whole hour away.
“Mr. Nashton?” A voice across from him tried. The name on anyone’s lips besides Stephanie’s was a new thing for him, so he opened one eye and stared at the woman. It was a nurse about his age and in her hands was a big cup filled with water and the flowers that Eddie had brought. “Your flowers looked thirsty.” She offered.
Eddie smiled. Ra’s was out there trying to kill everything that moved and here was this sweet nurse putting his flowers in water for him. He didn’t understand guys like Ra’s anymore. When Eddie was Riddler, it was all about showing how stupid people were. It was never about the goodness or if they were worth destroying some ozone. And, in that instant, he wanted to ship everyone out of Gotham. He wanted it gone. He wanted the good put somewhere safe.
“You’re too sweet, Jen.” Eddie committed her nametag to memory, smiled and wobbled to his feet.
“Oh, stop. You can’t bring a girl dead flowers at a hospital.” Jen the nurse grinned and then lead him back to Stephanie’s room, handing him the cup-turned-vase of flowers and then knocked on the door. “Stephanie, you have a visitor. Do you want to see someone now?” Jen asked carefully and then opened the door just enough for Eddie to give Stephanie an excited little wave.
Stephanie was trying her best to settle into the routine. Meal-times, dosages, discussions with the other patients on the floor, therapy sessions. She didn’t necessarily like the routine, but she saw the necessity of it. Sometimes, she let herself take a little comfort in it. It was easier to lose herself in the monotony of the ins and outs of the day when she was surrounded by the sharp smell of cleaner and stark fluorescent lights overhead. Easier to ignore the sharp ache of missing Eddie more than anything and the worry that something was going on beyond those sliding doors at the entrance of the hospital.
It was hard not to feel sad about being stuck in there while her fiancé was out in Gotham, hunting down Ra’s and cultists and everything else in between. It was even harder not to feel a little resentment for the rest of Gotham. Not Eddie. Never Eddie. She knew if she really asked, he would drop the entire world and come to her side. But, she didn’t want that. She wanted him to help out now that she couldn’t.
So, when he didn’t come the night before, yes she was sad, but she accepted it. She understood. Sure, the nurses might have had to ask for a little stronger dosage of the sedative she’d been on to help her sleep, but that was just what happened. Adjustment period, the sweet night shift nurse assured Stephanie, who had teary eyes and an aching heart and a desire for all of this to be over. Steph took to those nurses so easily, and clearly they were her favorite part of the floor. Women just graduated school, women who had four young kids at home, women studying their way through medical school as they tried not to sleep through their night shifts. She spoke to each and every one of them, warming up to all of them almost immediately.
Jen was one of her favorites, and when her voice rang out and the door knocked, she hadn’t stiffened the way she did when it was her psychiatrist. A lovely, middle aged man who looked like Dick a bit but had the reserved caring of Dr. Leslie Thompkins. It wasn’t that he wasn’t just what she needed -- quite the opposite. He knew exactly how to press the right buttons to get her speaking, even when she didn’t want to. Eddie had been the only one who had any chance of doing that for a long, long time, and to have a stranger be able to pick her apart? It didn’t sit well with her. She had just come back from a session a little while before, and it was clear in the tension of her shoulders.
The door was ajar, just enough, and when the door opened a little more, Steph was sitting on the hospital bed, cross-legged and hunched over a legal pad with a pencil marking delicate strokes across yellow paper. She looked up, and when she saw the pair at the door, her smile spread impossibly wide and tight shoulders melted away. “Baby,” she said softly, twisting on the bed and sliding off, barefoot feet across linoleum floor. Her blonde hair was piled on top of her head in a messy little twist, another pencil poking out as the anchor for her hair. She wore baggy sweatpants, a purple zip-up hoodie, and a black tanktop underneath. The fatigue still stood stark on her face, purple bags and slight thinness to her face marks of her time before the hospital as opposed to after. The scar that stretched from underjaw down her neck somehow looked a little more prominent. But, nothing mattered other than the bright, bright grin plastered across her face and how clearly happy she was to have him there as she stepped across the floor.
Stephanie was still bearing the marks of her time before the hospital, but Eddie saw improvement. He saw the small things, like how she grinned at him and whispered when she saw his face for the first time in days. “Hey,” Eddie could feel his heart beat a little faster, a rush of good adrenaline for once. His dark eyes, which had been hazy from lack of sleep and that tiny nap he just took, brightened and sharpened on her as if someone had turned off all the lights and put a spotlight on Stephanie Brown.
Jen moved out of the way and Eddie made a beeline for Stephanie, wrapping her up in his arms with the cup of flowers still in his hand. “Oh baby.” He whispered as he pulled her close and pressed a kiss to that scar on her neck. Something he had done countless times on Earth-3 when he went a day or two without seeing her. When a mission went bad and they almost lost each other. That scar was a reminder of what the universe gave back to him after being so careless.
He could hear the door slowly close behind them and the murmur of patients and nurses from the hallway went quiet. That was the biggest comfort to him. He closed his eyes, breathed in her now fresh, sterile scented skin as they mixed with the wild fragrance of the flowers and held her tighter. He imagined they were in their own little universe. No Ra’s, no other doors, no cat in trouble. Just them. “I’m sorry I didn’t come last night. I’m so sorry.” He pulled back to kiss her lips softly. “I brought you flowers to make up for it.”
Stephanie rumbled out a noise as his arms wrapped around her, first shivering at the lips on her neck and then burying her face in his chest with appreciation. She breathed in the scent of his cologne and the mingling flowers underneath, and her heart began to race a little. Whimpering, she held him closer, pulse quickening at the delight that he was there with her. Finally. “Oh, baby, my baby,” she mumbled into the fabric of his t-shirt, fingers digging into his back eagerly as if to make sure he was actually real.
She returned his kiss readily, eyes drifting shut and shaking her head. “It’s okay, Eddie. It’s not your fault.” Sure, she had been upset about it the night before, but it was out of his control, right? Greater good and all of that. Like she said, she wasn’t going anywhere. Her fingers curled into his shoulderblades, and clear blue eyes looked up at him. It was clear to someone who knew her as well as he did that she was in a haze of medications. A dosage of prozac, sedatives at night that took a while to wear off depending on the day, Xanax when a session triggered another bad attack. Her therapy session hadn’t been one of those, thankfully, but her head was a little under water clearly.
Steph pushed for another kiss, hungry for his love and affection after days of nothing but patients and nurses and doctors.
Eddie made a surprised little noise, an oh! when she pressed for more affection and he gracefully set the flowers down on a nearby table before wrapping her up in his arms and pulling her down on the bed with him. “I’m just going to assume this means you like the flowers.” He rumbled against her lips and then kissed her impatiently, as if someone had been holding him back from her. And, in a way, that wasn’t too far off. Eddie didn’t just miss her or the sound of her voice. He missed the way her lips tasted, how she held onto his shoulders and the way her bright blues looked up at him.
He could see the difference, of course he could, but Eddie was unique. He had been where she was. He had been so wrapped up in riddles that they put him on medication to make his mind focused and sharp. It wasn’t something permanent, but it was still him. Stephanie might have been calmer and a little under water, but it was still her. And, really, he felt like the woman he was losing every day before the hospital was slowly coming back to him. “I missed my future wife.” Eddie proclaimed softly between kisses. He reached to tug down the zipper of her hoodie and spread his hand over her belly and around her hip. A soft murmur at touching her body again.
“I’d like it if you brought me a burger and fries, but they’ll do for now,” Stephanie replied, smirk against his lips at the surprised noise. She squeaked in surprise as he pulled her to the bed, but she didn’t stop it. She missed him, oh god she did, and even if her heart started to race a little more, it didn’t feel bad for the first time in a long time. There was an urgency to the embrace at first, like trying to regain breath after being held underwater. Stealing kisses again and again, hands sliding down his chest until she could hook her fingers in the belt loops of his jeans, soaking him in like he was an elixir. And he kind of was.
She could feel herself slowly regaining her sense of self. Sliding back on the bed, laying down and pulling him on top of her like they weren’t in the middle of a psych ward. Like she wasn’t wearing a hospital ID bracelet along with the engagement ring glittering on her left ring finger and the necklace of New Genesis moss hanging from her neck. “I missed my fiancé. My future husband,” she returned like a vow, one hand wrapping around to tangle in his hair and the other sneaking underneath his shirt. Rumbling a noise at his wandering hands, she tentatively deepened the kiss. Sweats and a hoodie wasn’t her best look by far, certainly nowhere near that slinky red number she had used to seduce him weeks before, but here he was. Making her feel wanted and love like she wasn’t crazy.
Eddie laughed gently when she pulled him on top of her and everything seemed to click into place. There was no awkward wondering if she wanted to be kissed and held and touched. There wasn’t any hesitation like there was that night of red lace and failure. This was more like the first time he saw her in that Harry Potter tavern. The time she kissed him in front of that statue in the snow. He let those memories unlock, ones he hadn’t accessed in a long time and lost everything else in that deepened kiss. One hand trailed up her body, remembering those soft curves and all the scars that came with them before resting on her jaw. He felt good, she could tell in the way he kissed her and goddamn it was about time.
“Lemme see the ring.” He pulled back just enough to speak, so their noses were touching and his dark eyes were huge in front of her blues. Another kiss and then a quick, ravenous almost bite to her neck before he pulled her left hand up to her chest. He leaned back a little more, resting his head on his hand as his elbow dug into the mattress. “You know, it really ought to bug me like hell that you look better in purple than me.” He admired the ring on her finger, kissed her and then kissed her hands, her fingers, her thumb.
Her heart was hammering against her chest, and she found it hard to breathe, but it didn’t scare her like it did before. She felt safe there, in his arms and in the hospital where if something went wrong, they would help. She just felt the overwhelming want for her man assuage any other problems at the moment. Any heartache, any tension, any loneliness. She rumbled quietly with appreciation of his weight on top of her, and for a moment she felt like they were home. Home like it was the first few days they were back from Earth-3 -- full of happiness, security, and love.
Everything on the bed, over the sheets, fell to the floor -- legal pad be damned, she had her man there. Whimpering as he pulled away, she pouted until that kiss and that near bite left her dizzy again. Her chest rose and fell in quick succession, and her blue eyes looked clear and sharp and desperate for all the affection he could give her. “But it doesn’t, does it?” she asked him, smirking and slightly out of breath as he inspected the ring on her finger. “You have green. Let me keep purple.” Her other hand slid out of his hair and ran down his jaw. Smirk softening to a smile that was so stupidly full of love it almost seemed impossible. “I missed you.”
“I can think of plenty shades of green you would look better in.” Eddie proclaimed with that smarmy, know-it-all tone that drove most people crazy in the worst way possible. “Hunter green.” He kissed her mouth, messy and open. “Shamrock green.” He kissed the place on her jaw right next to her ear. “Dartmouth green, oh that’s a good one.” Eddie whispered and then kissed her neck. “Lime- no. Lime is my color. You can’t have lime green.” Looking up he grinned at her, all waggling eyebrows and conman charm that didn’t fade away even if his rogue colors had dimmed over the years.
He kissed her again, deeply and wanting like he had pushed her up against a brick wall in the middle of some battle on Earth-3. When he pulled back, well maybe he was a little out of breath, too. “I missed you.” Eddie repeated after her and then dug his face into the crook of her neck. “Let’s run away together. You and me. We can take the whole hospital with us. Just transplant it somewhere else.” He murmured into her skin and exhaled messily.
Stephanie giggled into the kisses as he rattled off the different shades. Oh, she had missed this, too. The absolute easiness of everything between the two of them. It seemed like eons since that had happened, when they had been able to just joke and touch and love, and she could be grateful for her treatment just for that. Nothing was fixed yet, but there was something. She hoped that it was a good indication of what was to come. That maybe, someday soon, she would actually be well again. She wouldn’t be haunted, and she would be able to let him climb up her body. She would be able to love him more fully again.
Returning the wanting easily, she moaned quietly and desperately for him. “Let’s do it,” she encouraged, hand with that beautiful purple ring tangling into his hair. Her eyes drifted shut, and she just imagined how perfect it would be to run away. Get the hell out of here, even for just a little bit. Her skin grew goosebumps at the contact of his lips. “Let’s just leave. Or you stay here. You can hide under my bed when visitor’s hours are up. We can eat shitty hospital food and plan our wedding and not worry about anything else.” Steph turned, pressed a kiss into his hair, and then rested her cheek on top. “Just stay here. Don’t leave. Don’t ever leave me again please.” She knew it sounded selfish and desperate and so bad, but she just didn’t give a fuck right then and there.
The tiny moan made him smile secretly into her neck and to him it sounded like validation. Eddie knew the ins and outs of her anxiety and she had convinced him that this all wasn’t leading to her leaving him. But, he liked to be reminded that he was wanted. That he wasn’t just some very attractive brain with a good heart. Every man wanted that. It made him believe there was a finish line somewhere. That when they did get married, their wedding night wouldn’t be a complete bust.
“Okay, I’ll stay. I’m limber and small. I can hide anywhere.” He played along, glancing around the room as if he were categorizing hiding spots. That plea for him to never leave again tugged at his heart, made it beat messy against his ribcage and he gave her a soft, comforting kiss. “I’ll stay.” And, they both knew it was a lie. Like moving the hospital to some other location was a fairytale. They both knew they were bound to Gotham. For all his insistence that he was no hero, Eddie was happy to help save Selina. And, god did it feel good to somehow pull together all those egos to make a team. It was a puzzle, a riddle that Eddie could never solve before his life with Stephanie.
“Speaking of wedding planning.” Eddie grabbed her left hand and pressed his mouth to it, dark eyes looking up at her for a moment. “I got you some presents.” His voice muffled by the press of fingers against his lips. He wiggled his eyebrows at her again, reached to kiss her lips and then crawled off her juuusst enough to reach his book bag. Eddie scooted so he was laying on his side, leg still wrapped between hers and hand around her waist as he flipped open the top of the messenger bag to reveal a lot of wedding magazines.
Steph tugged his hair, an appreciative noise rumbling out of her throat even if she knew it was a complete bullfaced lie that he could even stay. He’d stay as long as he could, of course. He’d stay until the nurses pried him away, but he couldn’t stay in the hospital. But, she appreciated the lie, and it showed in the way her blue eyes glistened and how she tugged on his hair again. “Stay,” she implored again, believing the lie for the briefest of seconds. “We can pretend this is a hotel, and we’re away from all the craziness.”
She glanced up to the room, and knew it was impossible to even pretend that. The room was bare, small, and painted with boring beiges and hospital whites. A TV hung overhead on the opposite side of the room, and a chair sat on the side of her bed for visitors who hadn’t come yet. (And, besides Eddie, maybe never would.) Instead a stack of legal pads pilfered by Jen when she’d heard about Stephanie’s interest in art and drawing, took home in that slightly uncomfortable piece of furniture. The flowers provided the only burst of color in the entire room, and it just didn’t feel homey. “A hotel,” she repeated, weaker before looking down at him.
The magazines earned a bright grin, and she curved to the side to kiss him a couple of times before taking one out of the bunch and holding it over her head. “You are perfect,” she murmured, grin spreading across her face as she flipped through the pages before glancing back to him. “You really are.”
When she held the magazines up, he reached to blow a raspberry into her side and then sat up in the bed. “You’re right, baby. I am kind of perfect.” Eddie said with that Gotham rogue pride. He edged and prodded at her until she climbed into his arms so his back was to the wall and she was up against his chest. Eddie pressed a kiss to her shoulder and looked down at the magazines as she flipped through them. “I want something small. And, not just because I don’t anticipate anyone going.” He joked, but really it was the truth. He had a hard time imagining any of the Bat family there. Maybe Bruce? Bruce had to, Eddie wouldn’t give him a choice.
“Would you mind getting married in the church?” He asked, giving her a wary look because he knew she wasn’t really into all that Jesus stuff. “I’ll make sure the ceremony is short? No weird praying? I just want it to be there. That church means a lot to me, not just because I go there, but because of what happened between me and you. I remember you looking so hot and angry in the rain and mud.” Eddie teased, voice low.
The squeal probably piqued some interest outside the door of her room, but Stephanie could only focus on Eddie. How much she loved him, how happy she was that he was there, how amused she was by the pile of magazines. “Why don’t you just marry yourself if you’re so perfect?” she teased, climbing up messily into his arms and settling between his legs. She reached to wrap his arms around her, lacing her left hand with his right as she slowly started to turn the pages to consider them a little more. “I want something small, too.” She tilted her head back and pressed a kiss underneath his chin. “And, I don’t care who’s there. I really, really don’t. As long as it’s you and me, I don’t care.” It was a far cry from what a younger Stephanie would say. She would have wanted a big party with lavish things to make sure everyone celebrated. Now? It was all about the man who had his arms wrapped around her. Nothing else.
She hummed thoughtfully, then turned up to look at him. “That seems like decades ago.” Another one of their reunions, after an ugly fight and an ugly toxin. After so many things happened, but the two of them had gotten together to save that church and the people in it. “You just really like it when I’m angry at you, I think. That shouldn’t be something we think about on our wedding day,” she teased, nipping at whatever skin she could reach. “I’ll get married wherever you want. I don’t mind that at all.” At this point? She just wanted to be Mrs. Nashton more than anything in the world. Her hangups on religion didn’t mean a thing.
“I’ve tried to marry myself, they said it’s illegal. Even people in Arkham wouldn’t go along with it.” He rubbed her arms and then linked his hands around her middle, watching colorful pages of different flowers, centerpieces and bridesmaids dresses go by. “I’m going to ask some people to go and expect only a few to actually show up.” He mused, thinking back to his less than stellar conversation with the birds about Stephanie’s recovery. Each one of them talked to him like they knew her better than he did, so why would they come to the wedding? Harley, on the other hand, was nothing but supportive. And, oh he should probably tell Bruce sometime, too.
“I can’t remember the last time we had angry sex.” Eddie squinted as if he was trying to see over the past six years. “Maybe the time I almost let a bomb blow up in my face? That sounds like a thing I’d do and you’d get mad at.” Sure, Eddie and Steph could scream at each other sometimes, but they lost most of that on Earth-3. And, angry sex wasn’t really their bag. “I like sweet lovin a lot better.” He murmured into her shoulder and then turned back the page to point at a purple flower arch at a garden entrance. “I brought pens so we can circle stuff we like.” He gestured towards his Houdini Magic Club bag. Inside were a purple and green pen.
“Well, I’m glad they didn’t because then I’d have to make you divorce yourself, and it would just get really, really messy. Or it’d have to be a polygamist marriage. Does it count as polygamy if you’re married to yourself and someone else?” Stephanie smirked up at him, then turned back to the magazine. “I really don’t care,” she said, god’s honest truth. “I’d love for my family to be there, for them all to be there, but it doesn’t matter at the end of the day. It doesn’t. As long as I have you? That’s all that matters that day.” Steph could have seen the post he’d sent to the bats and birds, but she hadn’t gone searching back. She didn’t want to know. There was no word from any of them yet, and Harley had been the only one to actually reach out to speak with her. It hurt, but she reminded herself -- greater good. Maybe she’d get a chance to hear from them yet.
“There were plenty of times you almost let a bomb blow up in your face, Eddie. I got mad at you every single time,” she teased, tugging on their entwined fingers. “I’ll say only about half of them resulted in you getting laid. Maybe 25%.” She squeezed his hand again, then pulled his hand up to her mouth to nip on his fingers. She rumbled agreement. “Hopefully you’ll get a lot more of that soon. I hope so.” Her voice went soft as she looked at the page he pointed out. “It’s all going to be purple, the whole ceremony and party.” She leaned back into his chest, fishing in the bag for the pens and holding out the green one for him. Lips curling up into a happy little smile. “You sure you’re okay with that?”
Eddie twirled the green pen between his fingers and then sat back, resting his head on the wall behind him. “No green? That really makes it sound like you’re marrying yourself, Stephanie Brown.” He teased and sighed like that last little bit of stress lodged out of his chest. Sure, there was a lot going on, there would always be a lot going on. All that stuff didn’t stress him out like Stephanie did. He could go Ra’s hunting and cat saving every night of the week if Stephanie was there with him. Her being here put a wrench in all of that. “I missed this.” He murmured, eyes closed as he pretended they were back home in their bed.
“I’m imagining the wedding now. Lots of color. Your dress shows off enough tattoos to make a nun blush. The ceremony is quick, but the vows ramble on and everyone will have to sit there and listen to how much we love each other.” He brushed his thumb over her ring and then trailed his hands back up her arms. “The party after has music and fun finger foods and we dance and talk most of the night away while people come and go until the only-” He opened his eyes. “Oh, shit we need to think about a honeymoon.”
Stephanie liked this little oasis away from the rest of Gotham. Where it didn’t feel like the city was collapsing underneath its own weight every second, where cats weren’t in trouble and immortal men didn’t haunt the city just because he wanted it to be cleansed. Here, in this stark bright hospital room that smelled of antiseptic and fresh laundry, even if they couldn’t pretend this was just some hotel room, they had their momentary escape. “Isn’t the day supposed to be about the bride?” she teased, and he could feel more of the tension in her shoulders melt away into nothingness. He was here with her, and that was all that mattered. “I missed this, too. I missed you.” Neck arching back, she rested the back of her head on his shoulder and sighed deeply. Eyes drifting shut and pretending they were at home, too.
She had never really been one of those girls who planned their weddings to the tee from the age of four. No, Steph Brown was too busy pretending to be superheroes and getting locked up in closets by her father. Marriage didn’t really interest her when she was younger -- scared her, in fact. When she and Eddie had gotten more serious, of course, she knew she would be spending the rest of her life with him, and then she wanted some lavish party that showed off their love and made sure everyone that came had the best time. Now? She didn’t give a shit about the details really. She just wanted to be Mrs. Stephanie Nashton more than anything else. She just wanted to start their life together.
Still, she knew they both deserved a day that celebrated each other. After everything they deserved it. “Outdoors. Somewhere outdoors for the party,” she offered, losing herself in the picture he was painting with his words. Her hands slid to rest on his thighs, thumb rubbing against the rough denim of his jeans. “You in a tux, you know how much I love you in suits.” Smirking, she bubbled out a laugh and picked her head up off his shoulder, twisting just enough to look at him. “Oh, a honeymoon, I completely forgot about the honeymoon. What are we gonna do about that?”
“I don’t know, baby.” Eddie had given zero thought to a honeymoon even though it was likely exactly what they needed to get a break from Gotham. “I’m imagining us going somewhere really romantic and special. Vowing to keep our phones and journals off. Then, something terrible happens in Gotham, we sneak a peek at what’s going on and bam take the first flight home without even thinking twice about it.” He sounded more amused by that than upset. “I still think we should try to get out, anyway. Maybe go to a different door or back to Hawaii. We’ll both want to recharge before jumping back into the thick of things.”
He delicately took away the book on her lap with his thieving fingers, setting it on the nightstand. “Come ‘ere.” He tugged at her so she’d turn around to face him and sit in his lap. Not exactly an appropriate position for a hospital bed, but Eddie didn’t give a damn. When she obliged, he wrapped his arms around her waist and looked up at her like he was trying to imprint how she looked to his memory. He pressed his tongue between his lips in thought and then tilted his head up for a kiss. “Honestly, everyone in Gotham needs a vacation. I wonder if we can talk the rogues to taking a month off so the rest of us can go on a cruise or something.”
Stephanie smiled. “Oh, no. We’re going on one. I don’t know where or how, but we’re getting out of here. For a week, for a few days, for something, I don’t care. We need it, we deserve it.” She knew that something would happen while they were away. They would be goddamn lucky if their wedding day wasn’t ruined somehow, but they deserved to give it a chance. “Somewhere different,” she insisted, continuing her plea for a damn moment away from Gotham. “Somewhere we haven’t been before. How about that? How does that sound?”
In one surprisingly fluid motion, she twisted around and sat just where he wanted, knees near his hips and settling to sit on his thighs. Her hand slid up his chest torturously slow, blue eyes locked on his puppy dog browns and soaking in the feeling of him so close. At that moment, she couldn’t give two shits if a nurse or a doctor or an orderly walked in on them. “I missed you,” she murmured again, up against his lips before smiling. “Cruises have group discounts. We could buy out one and all of us can bond over margaritas, third-rate productions of musicals, and gossiping over which crew member is sleeping with who. Everyone would love it, rogues included.”
He rumbled out a noise at that slow climb of her hands and tugged at the open hoodie to pull off her shoulders. Yeah, maybe she could see that familiar static buzz in his eyes from having her so close. Who could blame him? All this talk of getting married and honeymoons while he could touch her overheated his circuits. “Margaritas would be the only thing that keeps everyone acting nice.” He murmured and then tossed her sweatshirt to the side, his hands rounding over her exposed shoulders and arms thoughtfully. “Actually, that’s not true. Want to hear something scandalous?”
Eddie wiggled his eyebrows and kissed the poem on her chest, the one they shared over their hearts. “After we got Bruce really, really drunk with our taco party, he went to see Selina.” He said it like they both knew it was the worst idea in the history of ideas. “Which, you know, if it was for the purpose of a booty call, I don’t think he’d be in any condition to go through that process.” Eddie’s sense of humor was always just on the edge of being inappropriate. Blame the carnie years. Or the homeless ones. A mix of both. “I don’t know the details, but it went so poorly she vanished the second he was in the same cave as her.”
She could see that static take over his dark eyes, and her blues couldn’t help but return the expression. The dark want and need for him in every single sense of the word. She knew they were testing boundaries at the moment. Not only the hospitals, but her own. Neither of them knew if she could spill into a panic attack right then and there, but for the moment she felt fine. More than fine. Scooting a little closer, just a little, her delicate fingers skated across the collar of his t-shirt, barely brushing against the skin there. “We’ll just have to infuse the water supply with Jose Cuervo and limes.”
Smirk crawling up her face, she cocked an eyebrow as he pulled the sweatshirt off her. Not stopping him, but telling him, hey buddy, you’re pushing it. Not that she wanted him to stop. Her hands twisted into the fabric of his shirt, greedy and needling. “Wait, what?” Stephanie asked, spluttering out a tiny laugh of surprise. She was woefully (or blessedly, depending on how you looked at it) uninformed about the lovelife of the Bat and Cat lately, but that? Oh that sounded fucking bad. Her nose wrinkled, and she swatted at Eddie’s chest, chastising him for making jokes like that about a man who was practically her father. “Jeeeeesus. Was this before or after the new boyfriend?” Steph came from a world where the Bat and Cat were together for ages. But, she could concede that it wasn’t supposed to be like that here. After all, Spoiler wasn’t supposed to get involved with the Riddler, but here they were.
Eddie gave her a look that he had been using for decades. Innocent, unassuming and completely playing by all the rules. Tourists, bank tellers, Arkham shrinks, bats, birds, Hush, practically every shade of Gotham had seen that look and no one ever fell for it. Not even Croc. There was this undeniable underlining of mischievousness to his bad poker face. And, well, everyone knew the Riddler was always up to no good. He carefully plucked one of her tank top straps and lowered it off her shoulder with a look up at her like he knew he was being bad. He kissed the bare skin there as if the strap had blocked all of her shoulder instead of just a tiny line of it and then carefully put her strap back on her shoulder with a tap, tap to keep it in place.
He looked back up at her and shrugged. Truthfully, Eddie would have been a lot happier of the Bat and Cat were in love and doing things their own way, but oh god did he love gossip. He made money off secrets. “I think it was during?” He squinted, trying to figure out the timeline. “And, her boyfriend knows all about Batman. He said Everyone knows he’s in love with her but her and even my stone cold heart melted a little for the poor bastard.” Eddie was one of those guys who wasn’t jealous to a point and then he snapped. Green demon Bruce seemed like the type with low self esteem, so jealousy was probably an ever present thing.
Stephanie knew that look. Oh, she was way too familiar with that look, the Edward Nigma innocence-gone-bad. They both knew he was being bad, but she didn’t stop his thieving fingers from tugging at her tanktop, steady blue eyes watching his every move. She missed this, too, so goddamn much. Her heart thump, thumped in her chest, and hands began to wander back down to tug at the hem of t-shirt before wandering underneath to touch skin she hadn’t in forever. Goosebumps spread across her skin at the touch of his lips, but she kept her gaze on him, kept her hands resting on his chest and on that poem, and inched closer to him. She could be bad, too.
She whistled, impressed by someone with such low self-esteem being with the Cat. “That’s actually really, really sad,” Steph admitted, hands sliding around his middle to rest on his back. “What’s he like? The boyfriend. You’ve talked to him?” She scrutinized him for a second, blue eyes narrowed like she was digging through his brain, and then she sighed. “We all think that Bruce and Selina should be together. I think they love each other, but they’re not ready for it. They’re both too broken.” It had never really been a problem at home, but this was a different place with different people. Things were bound to be difficult. “Sometimes, things don’t end up the way they’re supposed to. Look at us,” she continued, fingers digging into his shoulderblades, all the way into muscle like she was trying to make her mark. “No one in their right mind would’ve said we’d be getting married six years ago.”
Eddie pressed his hand on top of hers as it rested on his chest. She could feel his heartbeat echo through her hand, steady and strong. He looked up at her and his heart drummed a little faster, so he smiled like they were sharing a secret. It had been more than a month since they had any sweet loving and the last time was so lifeless that it barely counted in his mind. Eddie knew it’d be another month until she was ready, maybe even more than that. And, yes, it was getting to him, but he had faith in the process, in her medication and therapy. He demanded a kiss from her, slow and wanting. He rolled his lips together after, tasting what was left after she pulled away.
After a moment of tracing over her tattoos he gave another shrug. “He’s uh. Well, he’s kinda nuts, honestly.” Eddie grinned at that. Being called crazy by Riddler was something special. “Harley told him about Selina right in the middle of a real nice, civil conversation I was having with him about old man jazz and he started saying stuff like, get me in a room with Ra’s and he’ll be afraid of me. Which is hilarious cause he’s this dumpy, disheveled doctor guy who looks older than me and couldn’t trip himself out of a wet paper bag. And, so I asked him, are you a demon? I know a guy who turns into a demon, I know a couple guys who’ve got the same thing going for them in one way or another and it ain’t pretty. So, he sends me this video of him as a big green demon monster destroying some other city. I said, that’s nice but ninjas are going to be sneaking between your toes, big guy.” The whole story brought out Eddie’s old Gotham accent in spades. He sounded a little like Frank when he told a story, mostly because both men made a living on the wrong side of the tracks for way too long.
Eddie gave an encouraging hiss through his teeth when she dug her fingers into him and he wrapped his arms around her to pull her even closer. One hand snuck under her tanktop to run fingers over the bare skin there. “I knew five years ago we were gunna get married one day. Does that count?” He grinned.
Steph smiled back, obliging that kiss readily with one slow roll of her hips into his. A hungry noise rumbled out of her. She knew she was playing with fire, but the quickening heartbeat felt better than any drug they’d given her so far. And as he traced her tattoos, she savored the feeling of his fingers exploring her body. Relished in the grounding ability he had on her, on the fact that he was there with her, in spite of all the consequences. In spite of the hospital ID bracelet pressing against his back. She loved him wholly and absolutely, especially in that moment. He could tell in the way she smiled, in that look in her blues as she pulled away. She loved him, and if that was the only emotion she could feel for the rest of her life, she wouldn’t even need this goddamn treatment.
But, the real world didn’t work like that. Love didn’t fix everything. It fixed a lot, but Stephanie knew better than almost anyone that just because you loved someone and were loved by someone didn’t mean the world was okay. Selina was perfect proof of that. The blonde former bat frowned a little. “Selina knows how to pick ‘em, doesn’t she? Which isn’t to say that I should be judging, but y’know. I don’t know if she’s as equipped to handle crazy as I am. Or you are. Especially green demon monsters that can rip cities to shreds. You think he’s good for her though? That’s all that matters, I guess. If he is good for her.” Eddie’s accent brought out Steph’s own, more modern Gotham accent in spades, which was a strange mix between Chicago and New York. Rough and a little uncouth and definitely lacking the class that say, Bruce Wayne carried in his speech.
Her eyebrows wiggled, and she dug a little further into his muscles, feeling the tightness in his shoulders. “That’s because I told you so. You remember that? When we went to the museum and I told you that I was going to marry you and have your babies? Maaann, do I regret that now.” She slid closer, until she was up against him, and pressed a kiss to his jaw.
“I think he makes her happy and he’s good to her, so that’s something.” Eddie shrugged. “Honestly, I couldn’t be with someone who was so different. He asked me if I’d be clamoring to help if you’d get captured in your own door. I said you and I,” Eddie squeezed her tighter with a kiss. “We’re from the same world. We grew up the same way, we know the same people and we love the same city. This demon guy? He doesn’t know any of us. He damn near called me incompetent. Made it sound like he thought all of us were.” A little eyebrow raise at that.
Eddie gave her a barely surprised look when she dug into him and she could tell he was using conversation to combat her turning him on. A little kissing was innocent enough, right? Even if she grinded against him a few more times, that wouldn’t be going too far. Real logic didn’t apply here. It was more like trying to make deals with an alarm clock that should have woke his riddled ass up minutes ago. “I knew before you told me.” He said proudly. “And, why would you regret it now? It’s not like I was going to propose to you there. You have to give me credit, I didn’t try to go for it much longer than any sane man would.” Eddie ran his hands over her hips and baarreelly pushed at them, asking her to rock into his lap again. He looked up, moving closer like he was going to kiss her and then turned his head away the second she took the bait. “I respected your freebird lifestyle. Didn’t I? I let you do all the talking about forevers. It amused me.”