Title: You see but you do not observe
Rating: K
One: Cherry chapstick and perfectly manicured nails.
The first thing Jim notices about Edward Nygma, the young- well, in his twenties, same as Jim- forensics scientist with slender fingers and a nervous smile are his perfectly manicured nails and tendency to put on cherry chapstick when he's thinking, head bent over a file as he absent-mindedly taps a six-four beat.
It's not unusual for the upper echelons to have their nails trimmed and buffed at a mani/pedi spa, but those places charge quadruple digits per hour, and that's far above anyone in the GCPD's pay grade, and the fact that, no matter what sort of state the rest of him is in, Ed's nails are always perfect leads Jim to believe that he must do them himself.
The chapstick, though, is more unusual- it's something that, Jim knows from personal experience, almost always leads to bullying and slurs thrown. What's even more interesting is that in Gotham, if you're a certain type of person, chapstick is a sort of code- earl-grey for polyamory and cherry for bisexuality, to name a few. This can easily be explained away, though, as Jim highly doubts that Ed knows about the Code. He probably just buys whatever chapstick happens to be in stock, unknowing of any double meaning. Jim can easily believe this- Ed is as much of a workaholic as he is, and Jim once ran into him- quite literally- at two am drinking a cup of cold tea, which he then dumped catsup into, having, in his sleep-deprived state mistaken it for creamer.
This doesn't stop Jim from falling over himself, nerves at an all-time high, when the most-definitely-straight subject of his affections is anywhere in his vicinity.
Two: Kristen Kringle.
Kristen Kringle is the bane of Jim's existence. Oh, she's nice enough, polite and charming, but she has one thing that makes the green-eyed monster that is envy flare in Jim's ribcage: Ed's affections. It's public GCPD secret that Edward Nygma has a hopeless crush on Kringle, who, unbeknownst to most, is actually dating Officer Dougherty. To make matters worse, Ed- who is his friend now- often mopes to him.
"What can I do to make her notice me?" he asks Jim one day, and Jim resists the urge to either bang his head against the wall or kill Kristen Kringle. The worst part is that Kristen uses Ed without guilt, and Ed is too infatuated with her to see it. If she were single and nicer to Ed, Jim would be doing everything in his power to get them together, no matter what his heart feels, because in the end, Ed's happiness is more important to him than his own.
As it is, he just grunts and listens as Ed continues to lament.
Three: Cats.
Eventually, they somehow wind up becoming flatmates. It's a nice, domestic thing, being able to watch as Ed putters around the kitchen, muttering under his breath as he opens and closes various cupboards, looking for Gods know what. It's all fine, until-
Until Jim comes home to find Ed curled up on the sofa with a blanket, a small, grey kitten in his lap.
"Oh, Gods no Ed," Jim mumbles, "Tell me I'm dreaming."
"He was cold and wet and hiding in the fire-escape, can we please keep him?" Ed's eyes are wide, and Jim can't say no to that face.
"Fine," he sighs, and Ed's face lights up.
Somewhere along the line, they wind up adopting a second cat, who Ed names Patroclus who joins Achilles, the grey tom, in his box in the corner. There's something about cats that makes Ed lose his usual awkwardness, and maybe that's why Jim doesn't protest when Ed brings home the third kitten.
Four: Family
Ed is usually bubbly, often spouting off random facts and riddles, but one day Jim walks into the forensic scientist's lab to find him hunched in his chair, tears trailing down his cheeks, a bruise on his cheek and a half-healed cut below his eye.
"Ed!" Jim exclaims, drops his papers on a desk and rushes to his side. "What happened?" Ed shakes his head wildly, leans against him, and Jim wraps his arms around the other, waiting for Ed's quiet, choked sobs to die down. "Hey, hey, hey," he comforts, "It's okay, Ed, you're okay."
He wonders who did this to Ed, and there's a rush of rage that anyone could do this to him-Ed may be socially awkward and miss some social cues, but he's sweet, kind, caring, funny, and intelligent. Whoever did this to him is a disgusting monster, and deserves to die.
Eventually, Ed raises his head, draws in a shaky breath, and looks at Jim, eyes red. "M-my father decided...decided t-to vis-visit," he says, shakily, and Jim draws in a sharp breath. Ed's father is...well, he's not a pleasant man. When Ed was a child, his father mocked and bullied him relentlessly, leaving him with severe trust and self-worth issues. If his father is in town...Jim cuts that thought off. "H-he said...said you were just- just using m-me-" Ed's voice breaks, and he buries his head in Jim's shoulder, tears seeping through the fabric.
"He's a terrible, terrible man, and a filthy, filthy, liar," Jim whispers fiercely, "He doesn't want to believe that you could ever be happy without him, or that anyone one could love you- but he is so, so wrong, Ed. I've seen you- you've changed, Ed. Your smiles light up the sky, and you love what you do." And I love you, Jim almost says, but he knows that Ed is still mooning after Kristen, and anyway, Jim has no right to drop something like that on him in his current state.
Then, he realizes what he's just though. Oh no, he thinks faintly.
+1(Ed): Riddles and Tea and kisses
Ed observes as Jim makes his way around the apartment, sips his cup of tea from under the mountain of blankets Jim had piled on him the night before when he came back from running errands to find Ed asleep on the couch, book slowly slipping from his hands. Jim, hair mussed with sleep- it looks so soft, Ed thinks, I'd love to run my fingers through it- pours tablespoons of coffee grounds and hits the coffee machine's on button. His eyes are half-lidded with sleep and he yawns, think, pink lips pulling back to reveal perfect white teeth.
"What is hardest to hold despite being lighter than a feather?"
Jim's question breaks him out of his trance. "Breath," Ed answers dutifully.
"I was afraid you were going to go blue if you didn't breathe," Jim jokes, takes a gulp of coffee and sighs in bliss. "What's on your mind?"
Your beauty, his traitorous mind supplies. He's well aware of his own less than platonic feelings for the detective, which he isn't about to act on. Ever.
"Really?" Jim asks, surprised, and shoot, he just said that out loud, didn't he.
Ed fumbles with his glasses, blushes, "I can explain-!"
"Stop me if I've read the situation wrong," Jim asks, and he wasn't that close a minute ago, was he? Soon, Jim is close enough that it nearly short-circuits Ed's mind. And then, the last few centimetres are closed, and Jim leans to press a chaste kiss to his lips, and Ed doesn't protest- after all, why would he? The morning is already going much better than he could ever have hoped.