When Edward had started his criminal career as The Riddler, he had never intended to do it for the riches, he did it for the status; the knowledge that he was better than the police, than the idiotic man that ran over the roofs of Gotham dressed as a bat. However, suddenly he started to find himself reaching for little expensive rings and paintings. Items he would never have intended to take for himself because they would not help him in any way with his new set of riddler trophies, or with the next trap he was sure would crush the bat this time. Yet here he was with a pile of useless junk in his current hideout, pondering why he had bothered to drag all these back to his den.
The TV flashed up Gotham's most popular news channel that was currently playing out his latest burglary. He smirked as he watched himself complete the crime flawlessly, twirling his cane as he stood centre stage among ape-faced thugs and cowering bank employees. Then his smirk fell as the words 'BREAKING NEWS' flashed across the screen to show a live broadcast outside the Ace Chemicals Plant.
Ah, that was why.
The reason for grabbing these pointless items was the man that was currently in the Chemical Plant that seemed to have caught Edward's eye. Jonathan Crane aka the Scarecrow.
Edward couldn't think why he would ever choose someone like Jonathan as someone worthy of his thoughts and his precious time, perhaps it was because the man was almost as intelligent as he was, or maybe it was because he seemed to have a similar sense of humour to Edward. Sometimes he thought it was his blue eyes that always shined out from behind his glasses or through the gaps of the ridiculous burlap sack he always wears, but always scoffed at the idea that he, the Riddler, would reduce himself to a hopeless romantic.
And yet, seemingly without reason, the man continued to invade his thoughts, causing him to side track on his grand schemes to grab that watch he thought would look wonderful on Jonathan's wrist or a pair of shoes he guessed were around Jonathan's size.
He had known Jonathan from their moments in Arkham together of course; those days when a group of the Rogues were forced to talk about their feelings in front of each other, or when the seats in the cafeteria had caused them to sit across from each other to enjoy the culinary miracle that was the Asylums cooking. But in all that time they shared in Arkham together, Edward had never once considered Jonathan as anything more than the crazy psychologist with a kink for scaring people.
No, his fascination with this tall, scrawny man had started only a few weeks ago after Edward's most recent escape from Arkham, when he was getting ready to announce his early release to the people of Gotham with a well-planned theft from Wayne tech, only to find he had been beaten to it by the very same man that was now robbing the Ace Chemicals.