"She's wired, electric, and screams until you slap her. Who is she?"
"No more riddles, Ed... go to sleep."
"You didn't set your alarm for tomorrow." Ed states simply in reply, "You're always late to the precinct, if you set an alarm-"
"I show up once I've had my full eight hours of beauty sleep, okay? I don't need a damn alarm screamin-" Harvey cuts himself off and pauses, lifting his head out of the pillow long enough to squint at Edward and grumble, "The answer's an alarm clock."
"Well, obviously." Ed scoffs, "It doesn't count if I already gave you the answer."
Bullock grunts and rolls back onto his side, this time facing away from Ed, "If you don't go to sleep I'm gonna make you sleep on the floor after all. And these apartments are shit. You'll wake up with bugs in your hair."
Ed shuts his mouth after that, but the gears grinding in his head are almost just as loud. Harvey can hear him thinking and it's such a chore not to just push him off the bed and call it a day. Why'd he have to take Nygma? No pretty blonde babes, fine, but Valeska would have at least been quiet. Though, Jeremiah intimidated him. A lot. The creepy eyes and the constant silence were really unnerving, especially for an extended period of time. He liked peace and quiet fine enough, but too long like that probably would have driven him crazy.
The sound of twitchy fingers scratching the comforter pull him from his thoughts.
Nygma was going to drive him crazy anyway...
No Barbara, okay, not Valeska, fine. Penguin... Nah. Harvey would have beaten the crap out of Penguin the moment they were alone. There's no denying it, this was indeed the best option. Least amount of damage. Harvey was stuck with it.
He sighed and turned his body to face Ed's. Nygma was lying on his back with his eyes to the ceiling, fingers laced together over his stomach as he stared absently. Harvey snorted, "Ed."
Edward craned his head to look at Harvey with a smile, "Yes, detective?"
"Go. To. Sleep."
Edward's smile drops and he huffs, flipping onto his side and away from Bullock, a mockery of Harvey's earlier body language.
Ah well. Not like it matters. Just one year. Then Bullock gets a raise, and Edward's out of his hair. He can do that.
"Goodnight Bullock." Edward says quietly.
Harvey blinks.
"Uh, G'night."
Edward hums approvingly, and no other noises come out of him the rest of the night.
Over the years, Harvey's had a lot of one night stands. He's very used to the feeling of waking up in strange places feeling uncomfortable or having a stranger in his bed. He'd sort of expected it to be similar, sleeping in the same bed as Nygma.
But that little guy was always full of surprises, wasn't he?
"The hell..." Harvey says, groggy, as he lifts himself upright to the smell of grilled meat.
Ed isn't in the bed next to him either.
He trudges out of the bedroom, still in his boxers and the wife-beater that's maybe a little too tight around the stomach area.
Nygma is crouched in front of the open refrigerator, frowning into it like Harvey's got something dead lying around in there.
"Do I smell bacon?"
Edward lifts his head to peer over at him, then returns to glaring at the fridge before standing, "Hardly. You don't have any. In fact, you barely have anything in here at all." Edward says, tone irritable, "And most of what you do have has gone bad."
Harvey shrugs, "Yeah, well, I eat out a lot."
Edward starts to pull some condiments out of the door, gestures his head towards the coffee table (Harvey doesn't have a dining room table), but doesn't look up, "I made you a list of things to buy before you come home tonight. It's next to your breakfast."
Harvey perks up, craning his neck to look over at the table curiously, "You made breakfast?"
"A lackluster one. I didn't have much to work with." he says.
Harvey takes a seat on the couch, looking down at his plate and salivating, "Smells good either way."
"Steak and egg breakfast burrito."
Harvey looks over at him, "You used my steak?"
"It was the only meat you had that hadn't expired, and that was a miracle in itself." Edward says with a huff, "You didn't have cheese, but I mixed some chili sauce with mayonnaise to make an aioli that should make it moist enough."
Harvey takes a big bite of his burrito.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph this was actually really good!
He shoves another huge mouthful past his lips before furrowing his eyebrows, "I thought my tortillas were stale." he says, messily, around his bite.
Edward smirks and trots over with a paper bag, setting it down on the other side of Harvey's plate before sitting down himself to eat his own share.
"Paper towels, a little bit of water, and a microwave will do wonders for stale tortillas. Moistens them up again." he takes a cautious bite of his own breakfast while Harvey is processing that before adding, "You knew they were stale but you didn't throw them out?"
Harvey shrugs again, "I was gonna try to make chips."
Edward shakes his head, "You would have burned this place down."
Harvey's polished off his food in record time, grinning widely, "Good thing you can cook then." his smile is surprisingly bright, "Dunno the last time I had something home cooked."
Edward frowns at that, setting his food down and wiping his hands on a napkin instead of his pants... like Harvey had.
"If you don't mind then, I'd like to keep cooking. It's always sort... of calmed me down. It's a hobby of mine, you see." he shares cooly, "And since I'll have nothing else to do with my days, it'll be a good way to pass the time while you're out doing whatever you do."
Harvey snorts, "What I do is detective work, and because I know you know that, you said that just to be and ass. What's in the bag?"
Edward gestures nonchalantly towards it, "Lunch. Again, you didn't have much, but I salvaged what I could, and this will be both cheaper and healthier than you picking up street cart food on your break every day."
Harvey is kind of impressed that Edward remembers this much about his work habits, considering it had been a while since they actually worked together. But, lucky him really. Free cook, tasty meals, and he doesn't even have to worry about remembering Ed's birthday, or their anniversary. Jackpot. Some home cooked meals would be a great improvement to beer and pizza every day, he'll admit. Regardless of how much he tried to convince Jim he loves it.
Harvey plucks the piece of paper up from the table, "This the list? It's long."
"I like to cook things that require complex ingredients."
"Like parmesan cheese?"
Edward looks affronted, "That's a pretty simple food, detective. I can't believe you..." he sighed, "Nevermind. It's for chicken parmesan."
"Oh shit! No kidding? I love chicken parmesan. My mom used to make it all the time. It was one of my favorites."
Edward blinks at him for a moment before half-smiling down at his half-eaten burrito, "Well. We could have that one tomorrow then, I suppose. It requires some time to cook correctly, so I couldn't tonight. Just bring me back my ingredients."
Harvey grins and stands, "Will do. I gotta get dressed." he looks down at Ed's burrito, "You gonna finish that?"
Ed laughs, leaning back into the crappy cushions and gesturing to his plate, "All yours, detective."
He snatches it up quickly and stuffs it into his mouth with a wink before heading back to his room to change. It's looking to be a good day for Harvey, unexpectedly.
There's a startled blush on Edward's face that he doesn't see as he retreats.
