PSL 03: tact from me is like blood from a stone

[theansweris]

Riddler takes them out to try and calm Ed down.

Away from the house and temptation and messy emotions, Ed does start to settle again, until he's quieted down and able to function again. Riddler's relieved and lets Ed pick the lock on the framing shop, letting himself in and acquiring what he needs and letting himself back out again with no sign of robbery. It's possible it might take them months to realise it ever happened.

Ed, being the sentimental one, is satisfied with this.

Riddler is not.

He spends a while acquiring his present. It's not as valuable as it could be, but he's satisfied. And that's enough for them to go home and get changed into more casual clothes and settle on the bedclothes with a book. He might sleep. He might not. Either way, he could be quiet until morning.

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[hobblepot]

[Jerking awake to a slight headache and an angry throbbing in his knee is nothing new. But jerking awake to a slight headache and an angry throbbing in his knee late in the morning, warm and curled up at the edge of a sprawling king-sized bed, is a whole other story. Or it seems that way.

Shock comes first, his memory taking longer than it should to catch up as he frowns and slowly blinks his world into focus, taking in his room with its sleek wooden furnishings and antique knickknacks, all the space in between. He rubs the sleep-grit from his eye for a while, his eyelids heavy. But when he looks all around himself a second time, everything is still there, familiar and waiting for him.

Sometime after sitting up to swallow some ibuprofen from his nightstand drawer, he hears a muted bark through the floor and breaks into laughter. Laughs and laughs until he cries, relief wrenching a sob from his throat.

It isn't a long crying jag. But it knocks him flat and keeps him down, deepening the dull ache at his temples. Maybe it wouldn't hurt, lying in bed for just a while longer. Life could wait, for once.]