"Hello, old friend."
To Oswald, it felt so good saying that to Gordon. The blonde woman didn't even exist as he locked eyes with his savior. Just staring at Gordon made Oswald want to just stand there and drool over him.
"Who are you exactly?" the blonde asked, which broke him out of his love-struck state.
"Oh! I'm just one of Gordon's friends. He helped me out of this scrape I got into with the mob…it's nothing special, really," he said. "What's your name?"
"It's Barbara. You DO realize that Jim here is my—" she began to say before Gordon excused himself and dragged the criminal out of the apartment with him.
The two stepped outside onto the street as Gordon glared at him.
We're finally alone together… Oswald thought in excitement.
Unfortunately, Gordon grabbed him by his shirt and asked, "Why did you come back? You shouldn't have done that! Falcone will have BOTH of our heads if he finds out that you didn't die!"
His companion had him let go, which confused the cop. What had gotten into him?
"I couldn't go anywhere else," Oswald said before he stared up at him and ran his hand up his chest, his voice lowering into a seductive tone. "I can be your informer on what my former…allies have been up to. You see, Fish and even Bullock have lied to you. I would NEVER do that."
Is he…seducing me? But I'm engaged! Gordon thought.
Now, the situation was really awkward: the man he was told to kill was flirting with him. How was he supposed to get out of this without hurting his feelings?
"A war is coming, Gordon. Something that even the GCPD wouldn't expect…"
"What's this war about?"
Oh, I can only imagine the things you and I could do together once I take over the criminal underworld… Oswald thought.
"All I know is that it's focused on Arkham." he said before leaving.
Even if the meeting didn't go as he expected, Oswald couldn't be any happier to see him again.
Edward moved a few boxes out of the way in his closet while clutching on a few pieces of paper and a small figure. Inside beyond the boxes were the picture of Oswald from that article, the missing poster, a small section of the article about him being confirmed missing, and several pieces of paper with poetry written on it scattered around.
He scattered the paper he had with the rest while staring at the figure in his hand: a small, golden penguin. Edward thought that it was only logical to put it with the rest since his favorite criminal looked like the bird.
Once he was finished, he smiled in satisfaction and sealed his ever-growing shrine with the boxes to cover it.
The next day, Oswald stared out the window of his apartment at the dreary skies outside while thinking about Gordon and their encounter yesterday. All that was on his mind was how close he was to him as he vowed to become his underworld informer.
"Mother, I need your advice," he said. "There's this…person that I like. He's one of the cops who had the Wayne Family's killer slain, but I'm afraid that he might not accept me for who I am."
He bit his lip to prevent the tears from rushing down his face when the memory of the person he used to love a long time ago came up. It was a quite a shame that his old crush didn't feel the same way…
His mother, Gertrude, immediately stopped what she was doing and went up to him as she stroked his hair to comfort him.
"Oh, Oswald…I believe you should give him a little time before you tell him how you feel." she said.
What if I don't have time with the war that'll happen? Oswald thought in fear.
"Of course, whatever you say, mother." he said.
He couldn't tell her that the killer was framed and that he was the one who snitched on his boss. There was no way she could know…
Edward dashed out of the copy room with various pictures in his arms as he had a confident smile on his face. After what felt like an eternity, he finally had them printed out, so he could add them to the shrine later.
Once he arrived at the lab, Edward shoved the photos, which consisted of security footage from Fish's nightclub, into a folder. Hacking into the cameras was a challenge, but he managed to get the footage of Oswald in different areas of the building with ease.
"So, he works at a nightclub run by a well-known mobster? Fascinating…" he said to himself.
Edward placed his folder down before returning to his work.
Oswald sat at the bar in Bamonte's as he drank from his champagne glass. Spying on Maroni and his men was surprisingly easy so far despite that he almost got caught. As he swished his glass around, a group of men walked by carrying money.
"Hmm?" he asked as he got up and limped after them.
He was about to follow them into the back room, but stopped when he saw Maroni nearby.
"So, you're back…" the Don said.
"Of course, I am. I'm a regular customer after all," Oswald said with a grin. "I also apologize that I left so suddenly the other day. It's not every day that you meet an infamous gangster…"
"It's alright, sir, but don't bother going into that backroom that my men just went in. Understood?"
"Cross my heart."
Maroni nodded as the two went their separate ways and Oswald took his seat back at the bar.
The next day, the GCPD were investigating a murder outside of Arkham Asylum while photographers rushed around and took pictures while cops and detectives examined the body, which Edward recently took notes on.
He ran up to Gordon and Bullock as he waved the notes in their faces, much to Bullock's annoyance.
"Don't be such a spaz, Nygma. Just tell us, WITHOUT any of your riddles." he said with a groan.
"Well, the two councilmen were hit by the same weapon, meaning that the killer took both of them out," Edward said. "What gets broken without being held?"
"DON'T." Bullock said to him.
"This doesn't make any sense though…the killer is going after two people who are on opposing sides of the Maroni-Falcone crime war." Gordon said.
"A promise! The answer is a promise." Edward said, rudely interrupting their conversation.
Ignoring him, Bullock laughed sarcastically and said, "Only in Gotham…"
They walked off, leaving Edward by himself to continue investigating the crime scene.
At Bamonte's, Oswald stared at his glass in boredom before he heard Maroni complain to the manager. The Don was talking about a robbery yesterday and how he was going to take revenge on Falcone for doing this.
Interesting, VERY interesting…how do I use this to my advantage? the criminal thought.
He listened in further and smirked at all the valuable information he was receiving. It was a perfect way to get Gordon's affections. By feeding him the details, his beloved detective was sure to fall for him…
Once he had control over everything, Oswald would be able to rule Gotham's crime with Gordon beside him. It was a dream worth chasing in his eyes since he saw a future with him the minute they met.
He was going to do everything in his power to make that fantasy come true…
"Alright, in you go…" Edward said as he scattered the security footage from the nightclub into the shrine.
He was so proud with how much it had been growing the past several days with all the poetry he wrote and the photos.
Is this too unhealthy? I should get my mind off of this and focus on Kristen instead. Edward thought.
The forensics scientist placed the boxes back in their right places to hide the shrine and grabbed some paper and a pen.
"Let's see…I rarely see Kristen Kringle clearly, so how would describing her go?" he asked himself while sitting at his desk.
This was going to be an interesting one for him…
Oswald limped into the abandoned apartment while carrying a pastry box. A group of criminals who were counting money immediately jumped up from their seats and pointed their guns at him.
"Now, now, gentlemen…I just wanted to give my thanks for doing that little robbery of Bamonte's for me." he said in a reassuring tone.
"What's in the box?" one of the criminals asked.
"I bought you three some cannoli," Oswald said, handing them the box. "Be sure to eat it, I got this from the best bakery in town."
The trio immediately began eating as another criminal asked while holding out his cannoli, "Hey, boss, want some?"
"No, I ate earlier…" he said.
Oswald smirked as the criminals finished eating. Almost immediately, they held onto their stomachs before collapsing onto the floor at the same time while groaning. Once they stopped moving, he gathered up the money and left.