not the season 3 gotham needs but the one it deserves

[agnomen]

[It's been a few months since Oswald so generously and kindly bribed his way into getting Ed out of Arkham. A few fewer months since Oswald's new club opened and made Barbara and her ilk ten kinds of pettily jealous, a few weeks since Butch's betrayal was so magnanimously revealed by Ed himself—Ed, the only person Oswald has left who he truly, one hundred percent believes he can trust. Ed, who would do anything for him and after nearly losing his life to Butch for Oswald, pretty much already has! There is no denying that Oswald has made his way in the world, in Gotham (which is the part that matters) without anyone else's help. He's crawled his way up from the deepest, darkest, coldest depths of this wretched city and turned it on its head time and again. He swore this town would know his name and now they do, and Oswald knows, this is something he's done all by himself.

But Ed's... contributions cannot be taken lightly. A memory plays out again and again each time Oswald catches himself looking a moment too long at the color of Ed's hair or the line of his jaw, the smooth column of his throat—and the memory is of Ed himself, telling Oswald that all he needs to do is give up on love and he will be completely free. He has a brief, sharp moment of shame; that the man he's lately been so smitten with is the one who told him quite pointedly not to do that is embarrassing, to say the least.

It doesn't help; smitten he remains, half the time having to ask Ed to repeat himself because he gets carried away with thoughts of how it might feel to reach out and touch that cheek, to turn Ed away from his work and back to Oswald, where he should probably spend most of his time looking anyway, and then—well, and then. Ed would do anything for him, and while Oswald has never once even entertained the idea of doing the same for Ed, the weight of Ed in his arms that night Butch nearly killed him lingers in his memory like a persistent ache for the one thing he wants and still does not have.

So Ed was probably wrong about the love thing because Oswald always gets what he wants, but that's alright. He doesn't have to be right all the time. Oswald is mildly observing the curve of his lips as he talks about... something or other, only blinking himself out of his distraction when he notices the thin, impatient line those lips have set into. Oh. He's being asked something again, uh—]

Oh. Yes, you should. [Yeah he has no idea what Ed is talking about. He should what? Oswald shakes his head before Ed can sigh at him for not listening, holding hands up to rub his temples.] Listen, Ed, can we talk about... something else? Like, oh, I don't know... anything else? It's been half an hour and there are things that need to get done today whether or not you come with me.