Chapter 15

Well that was...awkward.

I lie in the bed next to Oswald, still fully clothed, or at least as fully clothed as a leather one-piece and fishnets can be. Oswald is without his jacket, and he's also loosened his tie. We're pretty sure Gilzean has stopped listening by now, and our hour is almost up anyway. I turn to him, as he lies silently beside me, staring up at the ceiling. The disheveled look kind of works for him, he looks kind of nice…

I turn away just as quickly as I'd dared to look. Just, focus on something else, anything else-

"You're a good screamer." he comments, followed by a chuckle.

I cringe, not quite sure if I should take that as a compliment or slap him right here and now. That train of thought is interrupted by muffled sounds coming from the other room. One of the voices, the female, is very familiar, the unmistakable low-toned, seductive inflections, although the exact words being exchanged aren't quite audible. I rise from bed and press my ear against the wall, trying to get a better listen.

"Mhm, you've been a naughty boy, haven't you?" it's Fish Mooney's voice, as I suspected.

"I'll...I'll do whatever you say, Ms. Mooney." the timid male voice replies.

Is that...Lazlo? The waiter from earlier.

"Trixie, you might wanna have a look at this." I turn around and see Oswald's out of bed, looking at the mirror on the wall.

I walk over to the other side of the bed, where Oswald stares intently at what appears to be a normal mirror. He reaches over to the corner of the mirror, and with his long fingernails, picks at the edge until the thin adhesive screen comes peeling off. He removes the screen to give a full view of the room next door, where Fish has Lazlo pinned to the bed, their backs turned to us. I quickly lose interest in watching them, and walk back over to the bed.

"Do you think she'd ever do that to me?" he asks, his eyes glued to the actions taking place next door.

I shrug, "Well, you certainly seem like her type."

Oswald flicks his head to face me, "What do you mean?"

"Look at Lazlo. Thin, tall, young, sharp cheekbones, dark hair, fair skin, nervous demeanor, very similar to yourself."

He reapplies the screen and sits down on the bed with me, "Do you...have a type?"

"Don't know, I don't really ever look at people that way."

"But you do."

I sigh, "Well, if I do, I suppress it...to the best of my ability."

He smiles almost knowingly, cupping his chin with his hands, "Why?"

"Because, I'm just not cut out for that sort of thing-"

"Because of your job?" Oswald interrupts. He grabs my wrists, and pushes them into my lap, leaning in toward me, "Well I've got something to tell you Trixie, you're not working for the CIA anymore. You can be free my bird, free to do as you please." he kisses my cheek, his lips sliding down to my neck…

There's a loud banging at the door, "Yo! You two finishing up in there?" it's Gilzean, of course.

I get up to answer the door while Oswald scrambles to collect his jacket and fix his tie.

"Yeah, we're about done." I tell him, opening the door and leaning against the doorway.

Gilzean stuffs his hands in his pockets, examining the situation, "Well, why are you completely dressed? And why isn't he?"

"We finished about five minutes ago," I lie, my expression narrow-eyed and unmoving, "and him? He likes to take his time, if you know what I mean." I give a small smile, and a slight wink.

"Ah...well, just give Fish a moment, she's busy with...business affairs." he excuses.

"Uhuh."

Oswald is fully presentable by the time Gilzean takes us back to the now mostly empty restaurant area. Fish is waiting for us at her usual table. Oswald and I stand before her, and she stares at us, judging our every move,

"So...Oswald, tell me, how was it?"

He stifles before coming up with a response, "E-Exceptional, Ms. Mooney."

She smiles at me, "Good. I'd ask for the details, but I am am a lady you know. I'll be seeing the both of you tomorrow night. Now get out of here, and shower when you get home."

We both nod, and quickly walk out of the restaurant together.

Oswald is practically squealing by the time we're out of the restaurant,

"Haha, yes! She fell for our ploy, don't you think?" he asks, unfurling his umbrella.

"I hope so, but it's hard to say." I respond, putting on a jacket over my normal dress.

He tilts his head down towards mine, "Looks like we'll be living andworking very close to each other."

"Hey, I'm just happy I can finally start my work." I reply, although it's hard to keep the smile off of my face.

He lifts my cheek up, "You're happy about something else too, aren't you?"

Not really, but I certainly am in a good mood. I gaze at him, his gleeful expression unwavered by the dreary city atmosphere and harsh downpour around us, it's rather endearing really. I rise up just a little, and kiss him on the cheek, his complexion turning a bright red,

"You know what? Maybe I am happy about something else. Like you said, we're going to spend an awful lot of time together."

We kiss again, longer this time, and I let him wrap his arms around me. He releases me from the kiss, but keeps me in his arms,

"So, does this mean you concede to me?"

I bury my head in his chest. If he wants to manipulate me into helping him join the mob, two can play at that game, "Yes, Oswald. How could I not?"

He raises his eyebrows, he's genuinely surprised, "What do you mean?"

I chuckle, smoothing my hands up to his shoulder blades. While I feel guilty about leading him on like this, he is blackmailing me and taking my place as Amanda's agent. And besides, this is what he wants, and despite everything I tell myself, this is what I want. It's just now I have a justifiable reason to do so,

"You have an alluring sense of style, you're charming, sensitive," I smirk, tapping his nose with my index finger, "and not to mention that fine Roman nose."

His expression lights up, his breathing increasing at a rapid pace. He runs ahead of me into the heavy rain and grabs a nearby street lamp, swinging around it in a full circle, "Doddy, do do, doddy, do doddy doddy dooooo," he starts, jumping off the street lamp, a toothy grin drawn ear-to-ear.

I laugh, he's not really going to-

"I'm singin' in the rain, just singin' in the rain. What a glorious feeling, I'm happy again," he begins, tapping back toward me, arms outstretched. He twirls his umbrella around with one hand and wraps his arm his arm around my shoulder with the other, "I'm laughing at clouds, so dark up above. The sun's in my heart and I'm ready for love," he pulls me forward, our arms linking, as we both do a jazz square. After we finish, we start skipping down the empty nighttime streets, "let the stormy clouds chase, everyone from the place," he throws himself forward, "c'mon with the rain, I've a smile on my face!" he rejoins me and we slow down to a synchronized stroll, leaning back slightly as one leg goes forward before the other, "I walk down the lane, with a happy refrain. Just singin', singin' in the rain,"

He spots a rainwater drain, pouring water down at a steady pace. He holds his umbrella over the drain and spins it, letting the water splash everywhere. I grab ahold of him under the umbrella, avoiding the water from the drain, our clothes already soaked from the rain. He looks down at me and smiles, before taking my hand and waltzing with me, "dancin' in the rain, duddie yea, dud duddie yea," he starts waltzing into the deserted road, our feet moving against the concrete. He spins me around before pulling me back into the safety of the umbrella, "I'm happy again!" we waltz some more, moving toward the other side of the street. We hit the sidewalk on the other side of the street, and he picks me up and lifts me onto the sidewalk, before stepping on himself, "I'm singin', and dancin' in the rain,". We link arms and skip through the street once more, until Oswald spots a large puddle on a street corner. He jumps into the puddle with both feet, bathing dirty street water all over the both of us. I giggle, before jumping in myself, dousing him with water. His eyes perk up, and with one foot, he kicks some water toward me. I respond, kicking water toward him. We paddle water at each other, laughing all the way until Oswald grabs me, lifting me and carrying me back to the sidewalk, putting me down but still remaining close, "I'm dancin', and singin', in the rain." we kiss one more time, as the rain miraculously stops all around us.

Author's Note: musical numbers = my fluff

Song Oswald Sings: Singin' In the Rain from "Singin' In the Rain"

Guest: Thank you :)

HellsButterfly13: Phew, I was worried, thanks. I wanted to level the amount of sexual content with that of the show, hopefully I've accomplished that.

Guest: More action of what kind? Romantic action or physical action? Because both are on the way.

Cee: So I've heard, but my golden standard has always been a T rating, if I do write M rated content, I'd post it exclusively on AO3 like I did with The Doctor Is In.

Red: Oh, thank you so much. And yeah, I was a little worried about the character dynamic between those three (I'd written the original version of that chapter before the release of the show, and I had to base their interactions on the comics alone). The formatting error came from the copy/paste as that's a common error it does (I try to go through it before posting, but the errors are never consistent), but the rest is my fault. Once again, thank you so much for your help.

Thanks! :)