Baby Grands

Gotham

Nygmakins

1 - Letter

Author's Note: If you aren't familiar with the little Japanese statues of the frog sitting on the koi-fish, you have yet another riddle! Don't worry, I'm nice and I'll give you the answer at the end!

Lee cracked her eyes open when the alarm on her cell phone went off, wishing she could press the button for five more minutes. She turned over and reached instinctively to the other side of the bed but found nothing but an unoccupied human-sized cool spot, just like every other morning recently. When she flopped back on her pillow, annoyed with the general business of being awake, she heard something under her pillow make a papery crackling noise. Turning again, this time on her side, the good Doc reached under said pillow and grinned at what she withdrew.

"What is yours but you can't actually hold?" said the green ink inside the tri-folded piece of deliberately-aged paper. "To find out, meet me tonight. I'll be at the newest place of decadence at 9."

The paper joined several others in the drawer of her bedside table, tucked safely with her most personal mementos. Grinning the entire time, Lee went about her morning routine from there. She visited her lingerie drawer and picked out something to which she had treated herself last Christmas. Hadn't even worn this set yet – she didn't typically go for black lace as everyday wear. A blush crept across her face as she found another note tucked on top of her favorite bra. She dressed, put on her makeup, and grabbed a cup of coffee all the while still smiling. Nine tonight couldn't get here soon enough, she decided.

She practically cruised through the rest of her day.

"Decadence," Lee read off the front of the building. Oh, yes – she'd had him figured out in moments, and she had been looking forward to trying this place since the front window changed. Gotham had needed a brand-new dessert place for a while. She approached the front door, trying her best to stop smiling like an actual loon. When she reached for the door knob, her hand shook in a way it hadn't since… probably high school.

"The very thing you were born with pleases us all," announced the first voice she heard when she stepped in the door, and she smiled in spite of herself. Lee turned around to see Ed Nygma, already at a table with two miniature chocolate bundt cakes in front of him. "It's even capable of making men fall – while experienced by few, it's treasured by all."

Lee joined him at the table, making sure her knee brushed his as she took her seat.

"I'm not sure I know that one," she told him, but she had a good idea of the answer.

"Your beauty," Ed answered.

For once in her life of being on top, in control of things, Lee's hand jerked and she managed to smear the white marshmallow cream from the middle of the cake across her mouth. Covering her mouth with her free hand, she blushed and tried to discreetly clean herself up. Ed, possibly the Riddler, watched her over his glasses, smiling genuinely. This place was brand-new – nobody knew either one of them there. As far as the teenagers behind the counter were concerned, they were just two people of unusual fabulousness out on a date.

"Though I'm not royalty, I am often a queen or a king," the deeper voice of the Riddler started. "And when it gets dark…"

Lee, almost halfway through with her miniature cake already, cut him off with a chocolate-smeared smile.

"Is that an offer?" she purred under her breath.

The teenage girl behind the counter leaned on the counter, listening intently, and it made Lee giggle internally.

"An invitation would be more correct," the Riddler informed her, visibly savoring his dessert. "Care to join me for seconds on dessert?"

With her cake mostly gone, Lee nodded and hummed a sensual "mm-hm." A matter of moments and she had polished off her dessert. This time, Ed's knee made deliberate contact with hers. She watched him finish his cake, set his fork down, and pull his leather gloves back on. He rose, reset his bowler on his head, and offered her his hand. Lee smiled, paused – she rather liked having him standing over her that way, just for a moment – and took it. She allowed him to lead her to the door, past the starry-eyed teenager, and out to the sidewalk to wait for the car.

"I've been looking forward to this all day," Lee whispered in his ear, resting her hand on his shoulder as she leaned up. "But… I have to know – how in the world did you get that letter under my pillow? I didn't hear a thing… never woke up… What did you do?"

Ed's grin spread over his face like oil over water.

"Oh, that is a riddle, isn't it?" he teased her, leaning into the contact of her lips on his ear then turning to face her. He tilted her chin up as if to kiss her. "You really want to know?"

Lee cocked a manicured eyebrow at him.

"Is that a riddle or just a stupid question?" she goaded. "You were in my apartment – of course I want to know!"

He let his lips make fleeting contact with hers but pulled back when she tried to return the kiss. Lee pouted briefly at him, refusing to let him succeed in his attempt to distract her. She tugged on the lapel of his beloved green jacket and cocked her head to one side expectantly. Ed took her hand, kissed the back of it, and grinned the Riddler's grin at her. It took everything Lee had to tell her insides to stop the freaking Cirque du Soleil acrobatics routine in there.

"It was the easiest thing in the world," he assured her with that air of I know everything. "Your little sculpture of the fish and the frog showed me that you always want love to return!"

This time he captured her in a bruising kiss, both arms tight around her.

"And…" he added. "You keep a spare key under it."

The kanji for "frog" is "kaeru", which is also the kanji for "return". The kanji for "koi" is also a way to read the kanji for "love" – the same kanji can have several different readings.