Harvey/Two-Face X Riddler

Edward is always staggering a dangerous line when it comes to adoring Harvey Dent. Some days it's messier than others.

The aftermath of a particularly bad Two-Face episode.

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Tightrope

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Edward ignored the fuzz of a forming headache, and then noticed the drops of red on the floor, very close to him.

Waking up was always the worst. Like some crazy hangover.

It wasn't that he didn't enjoy the attention, it was just such a mess cleaning up again.

Harvey had never warned him about that.

"Why don't you leave?"

Harvey had asked him this a few times now. Not too often, but usually when things got really messy.

Edward wiped his mouth, finding bright crimson on his hand. He smiled a bit.

"Now why would I do that, Harv?"

Harvey always looked at him as if he might punch him again, but he never did.

"You're supposed to have a brain in that skull of yours, though we'd hardly know it,"

Edward winced, mostly with the painful ache that met him when he touched his eye. A panda ring to accompany the other. And the last one had only just healed too.

Edward couldn't even remember getting the last one. That had been a Really Really Messy.

He shook his head. "Sticks and stones, Harvey,"

Harvey's face was debatable. Well, it always was.

Edward thought he was getting better at reading when Harvey was there, but there were still slip-ups sometimes. There were little gestures which gave it away, stuff Edward wouldn't have figured if he hadn't spent as much time with the criminal as he had.

One time Edward had thought he'd gotten it sussed, only to wake up a few hours later with a pain in his ribs, and Harvey yelling at him, between strings of curse words, holding a phone in shaky hands.

Edward waited impatiently in a small hospital for the doctor to tell him he'd broke a rib and cracked a few others. Edward told them he'd fallen down a well, and then he'd told Harvey he had quite a punch.

Harvey hadn't apologized, but had pulled him into some intense hold, and for a few seconds Edward considered if his ribs might have been broken again.

Of course he'd learnt everything the hard way; but that didn't matter. Edward loved a good challenge, and he thought he was getting to know Harvey pretty well.

But it was never a guarantee.

Crawling over to Harvey and waiting for something resembling affection, his heart jumped in his chest, tension frantic all over his body.

Maybe it was one of the endless reasons he could justify it. Harvey Two-Face was exciting, and different, and nothing like Edward had ever known before. Sure, he could obsess over Bruce Wayne, even lust after him, but this was something else.

Harvey reached out a hand, tilting Edward's chin up.

"You should leave," he said, like he was trying to be forceful, but his voice was uneven. "We're telling you to,"

Edward shook his head, smiling some more. Harvey was talking, and he could handle this conflict better.

He curved his head against Harvey's hand, closing his eyes. "Sorry, I don't want to,"

A sound of frustration escaped Harvey's mouth, but his actions were more prominent. His hand moved gently across Edward's jaw, cupping his face. Then he knelt the rest of the way down, next to Edward.

"You are a fool,"

Edward laughed; "and you're such a charmer," he dared to edge a bit closer; because really, his guts were the only thing he had going for him.

"If anyone else, we would have killed you long ago," Harvey muttered. "And everyday I'm surprised we still don't,"

"You are?" Edward was caught in a moment of curiosity. "As in...you, Harvey?"

"Who else?" Harvey growled, "you believe we'd kill you without a fair argument about it first?"

"I didn't think it was up for debate. I thought it was fate and all that,"

Harvey stared at him as if he'd been outwitted.

"Isn't it easier? Just to flip the coin?" Edward wondered. It was like walking a terrible tightrope, wondering just how well he could balance on it, before everything crashed down. "Woudn't it save all this...mess?"

"Every day I flip the coin," Harvey told him. "You're just a lucky bastard, that's all."

"I like to think so," Edward moved closer, but Harvey's hand curled against his chest, keeping him a few inches at bay.

"Don't," even as he spoke, Harvey's voice was cracking.

"Can't I kiss you?" Edward pouted like a sullen child.

"You're on a suicide mission, aren't you?"

"I just want to kiss you,"

Harvey's grip on Edward's chest tightened, and he yanked him closer. His eyes were intense and nothing like affection.

"You won't always be so lucky," Harvey said in low voice.

For a moment Edward thought he'd gone too far on the tightrope.

Silly. Another slip-up, and he should've known better really. His breath caught in his chest, constricting, and bracing himself for something he'd probably been asking for.

"Please look at me," Harvey's voice said.

Edward wasn't even aware he'd closed his eyes.

He found Harvey looking at him in a way he wasn't especially used to, but he thought he could get used to it.

"I am sorry, Edward,"

And words which were not very familiar either, but again, something Edward could learn to enjoy.

He let Harvey's hand move delicately over his face, tracing his tender eye, and the warm coppery taste on his mouth.

"This is...I'll clean it up this time," Harvey told him.

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