To ninjapoke, your review was very kind. Yes, Eddie is a freak. A loveable, egocentric freak. I just want to climb him and ride on his back like a koala or some form of sloth. Too much information? Probably.
~*St. Patrick's Day*~
It had been a girl's night out for Selina, Ivy and Harley.
They decided the night was for drinking and dancing, mostly the former and the latter only very badly (and after plying themselves with a multitude of the former).
At the Iceberg most of the villains (the ones who weren't up to something), had congregated to drink and celebrate (at least the more social ones).
Despite it being a girl's night, Selina was scanning the crowds for a conquest. She had an itch that needed scratching and hadn't had it scratched since late January.
The crowd was a good mix, the sort usually found at the Iceberg.
She had just manoeuvred a fine young university boy into a back booth alone as a prelude to a night of wild, drunken sex. Pressed against his young, firm body, purring seductively in his ear all the things she'd do to him if they had the time alone when a gangly form slumped into the booth opposite them, setting their green bowler onto the table.
"Hello, kitten." Eddie greeted, ignoring the boy with her. "I'm sorry the alimony was late this month. How are the children?"
Like most college boys, the young man at her side made a hasty exit at the word 'children', not even giving her time to protest.
When she realized what happened, she quirked her brow at the green clad imp across from her. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't maim you, Eddie."
"What? The boy? Please, Lina, he's a little young for you, don't you think?" Eddie smirked, tilting his chin down, looking at her insolently.
Sighing, she glanced out over the club, to where Ivy was currently putting the chill on a couple of eager men. "I wasn't planning on keeping him, just playing with him."
"Ah, kitty needs a petting." He chuckled.
"Why me, Ed? There's over five hundred thousand women in Gotham you could be pestering tonight."
Adjusting his gloves, the Riddler nodded. "True, but none of them would be half as fun."
Selina looked over at him, resting her chin in the palm of her hand.
"Or half as interesting." He added.
Selina continued to remain silent, passively staring at him while bouncing the foot of the leg she had crossed demurely over the other.
A wicked look fluttered across Eddie's puckish features, before he smiled. "Not playing tonight, are we? Shame…I do so enjoy our little chats."
She tilted her head.
Blue eyes danced across the club, before coming back to her. "Well, I'm just going to have to sit here all night with you, chasing away the toms, then."
A waitress came over with Selina's martini and set it down.
Taking hold of the skewered olive, not taking her eyes from the Riddler's, Selina popped the salty green thing into her mouth and chewed it politely. The skewer wound up imbedded in the back of Eddie's hand.
"Ow!" He yelped, pulling his hands off the table, plucking the skewer from the wounded one. "Bad kitty!" Shaking his hand, he paused to look at it, sucking air in through his teeth. "Ah, it's deep!"
Selina took a calm sip of her martini and quirked a brow. "Let that be a lesson, Ed. I hate having my night ruined for someone else's entertainment."
Peeling off his glove, Eddie pulled a small plastic first aid kit from his inner jacket pocket and began tending to his wound sullenly.
"What? Not playing tonight?" She taunted.
"I told Ozzie he really needs to keep the riff-raff out of the club," Ivy purred from the tableside where she stood with Harley, both girls on opposite ends of the spectrum when it came to seeing Eddie. Ivy looked hostile, Harley looked happy.
Pulling a small bandage over his sixteenth-of-an-inch sized wound, Eddie furrowed his brow. "Ivy, you really know how to kick a man when's he down."
"I would love nothing more," she returned. "But you can leave at anytime."
"Pammie, he's not botherin' anyone," Harley objected, beaming happily at him. "Hiya, Mistah E!"
Replacing his glove, Eddie tilted his head ever so. "Harley, it's good to see that some of us can be civilized human beings."
While Ivy and Eddie had it out in their cutting, dry way, Selina studied the Riddler, her hand moving to toy with the pendant at her throat. No one had asked about it, so she didn't have to tell any lies about how she came in possession of it. She was beginning to hesitate over whether she would lie about it or not. After all, it wasn't like she liked Eddie in any romantic way, at the very least it could be called a gift between two old…friends? They had to be friends. Not that she would put any real trust in him. Well, she might give him a little trust now that he was trying to walk the straight and narrow. Before, however, she knew him to have very flexible loyalties. Loyalties that he would break in an instant for whatever he wanted.
Still, he was trying very hard to behave and that alone gave her some hope. After all, someone needed redemption in Gotham and she had to admit she didn't know much about Eddie, but she would rather it be a man like him, than someone like the Joker who did it mostly for the fun of watching someone die.
In a battle of words, Eddie was in his element and it wasn't long until Ivy resorted to force, wrapping a slender hand around his wrist and bending it.
Selina stepped in. "Ivy, not tonight." She warned, pushing to her feet, moving the two woman with her away from the table. "See you around, Eddie." She called over her shoulder.
"Beware of willing Trojans, Lina." He returned.
She paused, glancing over her shoulder curiously at him.
Eddie smirked and pulled his bowler low over his eyes, before wandering off towards the far end of the bar to drink alone.
Sitting at the bar between Harley and Ivy, Selina ordered another martini.
For a moment all three women were silent.
"You know, Lina," Ivy began slyly. "I can't help but notice Eddie's been sniffing around you a lot lately. Harley said he even spent most of Valentine's night with you."
"I was sick." Selina objected. "He kept me company. Besides, did Harley mention she wasn't alone on Valentine's Day either?"
At the red head's sharp glare, the blonde beamed. "It wasn't a date or anythin'. It was business."
"Knowing him it was probably a social experiment." Selina replied.
Flushing a little, Harley pointed a finger at Selina. "Her 'n Mistah E were alone in her bedroom with the door closed," Harley added. "I heard zoo noises."
"You heard nothing of the sort," Selina stated. "Besides, I was mucus-y and full of phlegm." She went on firmly. "Hardly sexy times."
"I have to say, Lina," Ivy began slowly. "Edward Nygma in your bedroom at night while you're sick…seems awfully suspicious."
"Meaning?" She demanded.
"Meanin', either he's gettin' somethin' from ya or yer bein' courted." Harley pointed out with a giggle.
"Courted, Har? This isn't the wild west and I'm not an old school marm. And has it ever occurred to the two of you, that he's just bored and looking for someone to annoy?"
The two women blinked back at her as though she just announced she was Batman.
"You're right," Ivy said turning to Harley. "She's sleeping with the geek."
Deciding to play their game, Selina raised a shoulder to Pam, posing like a classic pin-up girl. "Yes, Pam, I'm sleeping with the Riddler. And it's good."
Scowling into her drink, Pam sighed. "Let's not get carried away, Lina."
Wanting to push the limits to make Ivy uncomfortable, she went on. "Oh, I have all kinds of orgasms."
They stopped short when Selina noticed Ozzie standing behind the bar before them. He puffed once, twice on his cigarette, before plucking it out of his lips. "Go on." He urged.
"How about another round, Ozzie?" Ivy asked.
The Penguin beamed at them, before waddling off.
Laughing boisterously, Harley broke in, "I think Mistah E's sexy."
Both Selina and Ivy turned from their game to look at the blonde.
"What? He's tall, lean, well dressed and well groomed. Plus I got it on good authority that he's a good kissa."
An image, the ghost of a memory from Rome wafted into Selina's mind. Of course she had to kick his ass afterwards, but was it really his fault? She was the one who woke up with her lips against his…
"Who said that?" Ivy demanded.
Harley smirked. "I can't reveal my sources."
"Bullshit." The red head returned coolly.
"Bull true!" The blonde defended her gossip.
"Eddie is good at crosswords and puzzles, that's pretty much all he's good at."
"I betcha a hundred dollas, my sources are right!" Harley challenged.
Ivy smirked, her eyes searching the club for the Riddler. As they landed on him, nursing a drink at the far end of the bar, they sparked green fire. "I'm sorry, I just don't see it. Besides how do you go about proving it?"
Harley giggled. "Well, Selina's impartial, have her kiss Eddie and tell us what she thinks."
"I'm not kissing the Riddler," Selina snarled. "It's demeaning to the both of us. Especially me."
Pushing off her stool, Pam straightened her dress primly. "Be right back."
After watching the red head move off through the crowds, Selina turned back to Harley. "You kissed Eddie, didn't you?"
"Little bit."
"How'd you manage that?"
She shrugged. "He was drunk and I was willing."
It was one o'clock when the crowd began to thin.
Harley had gone home and Ivy was chasing every man who came near Selina off into the arms of other women, but had eventually got distracted by an arrogant, off-handed comment by Harvey Dent (what he was doing at the Iceberg now that he was 'reformed' was beyond her).
As Ivy argued, Selina took the time to locate Eddie.
He was still at the end of the bar, a book of crosswords on the mahogany top before him.
Deciding he annoyed her enough for payback, she pushed to her feet, making her way towards him, slinking through the thinning crowds.
"Most people come to a nightclub to socialize, Ed." She purred, slipping onto the stool beside him, turning so that her knee brushed his hip as she crossed her legs demurely.
He gave her a glance, before turning his attention back to the crossword puzzle. "Is that a written rule? Because, if so, they should really post them clearly at the door."
Reaching over, she took the book away, sliding it close to her.
Eddie looked up and over at her, eyes taking her entire form in as though just seeing her.
"Walk me home." She ordered.
He furrowed his brow at her tone.
They wandered through Gotham, Selina moving with her cat-like grace, despite being drunk enough to be in Eddie's presence willingly, Eddie moving with the usual bounce to his step about two or three steps behind her, hands in his pockets, cane hung around his forearm.
She had always liked his walk, it was springy and youthful, belied the darkness that could easily wash over him.
However, despite his brilliance and his walk, the man was quite boring. He had no fire, no passion. Harvey had passion back in the day, Jack had passion, hell even Ozzie had a hellfire brewing in his belly, but Eddie had always been sort of dull. The only thing that made his eyes spark fire were those damned puzzles of his.
Thinking of this and eyeing the man's profile in the fleeting moments under the blue hued streetlights as she slowed to allow him to catch up, caused this urge in her to want to see Eddie's intense gaze on her. To be pinned underneath him, to be the source of his passion. Of course this was merely drunk thinking.
But still, she thought, what kind of lover would he be? Surely with his ego he'd be selfish, seeking his own completion and leaving it at that. But then again, he was honestly one of the least threatening of the rogues. Maybe this translated into a thoughtful lover? His genius would make him fast to catch on, clever when it came to reading her reactions. He would splay his hands over her thighs and read her soft moan as a go ahead, sliding those long, dextrous fingers up and around…
Selina broke out of her thoughts when she noticed Eddie's sharp blue eyes on her, studying her with a gaze that could cut glass, not quite that fiery look, but close.
Eddie always wore those gloves of his. Would he wear them in bed? She wondered, her mind overpowering the urge to feel abashed under his gaze. These thoughts plagued her right up until they reached the door into her apartment.
Standing in front of her door, at a moment when most women would be locking lips with a man after such a night, Selina sighed. "How old are you, Eddie?"
He tilted his head in response.
"Forty?" She guessed.
"Two years older than you, kitten."
Selina narrowed her eyes at him. "How do you know how old I am?"
"Because I stalk you in my off-time." He replied, a little too simply. The devilish smirk that pulled his lips up a little further in the right corner was the only tell that he was joking.
For a moment Selina played with the idea of letting Eddie scratch her itch. It didn't have to mean anything and he was male and there. He wasn't grossly unattractive - hell, Selina, the man's good looking- and she believed that with his lack of sexual activity he would be disease free. Who needed to know she slept with the Riddler? It could just be a thing. Though he'd probably read too much into it. And her reputation would take one hell of a shit kicking if anyone found out.
She may have been a little more drunk than she assumed upon leaving the Iceberg, when suddenly sleeping with Edward Nygma seemed like a good idea.
Still, she wrapped a hand around Eddie's purple tie and purred. "You know, Ed, you still owe me for ruining my night."
He chuckled calmly, tilting her head up with his cane handle under her chin. "I'm going to have an infection set in, because you skewered my hand, Selina. I'd say we're even."
Looking at the gloved hand that held the cane to her chin, she pursed her lips. "I'm still going to bed alone."
For a second Selina could have sworn his blue eyes sparked electric, before becoming a warm cornflower. "Goodnight, Selina."