icebergloungers | Got A Clue

"Yes. Yes, of course, golden child, that means you get to go home with me." Edward laughed, not surprised that this was what she honed in on. Oh, he knew himself, at that age he'd have still asked a lot more questions than Stephanie was asking, but it wasn't as if he hadn't had the same dreams. Someone to take him away from all the bullshit? Yes, please.

Naturally, reasonably and legally he could not just take her. But he was a rogue, what did he care about reason and legality? "See, I brought a bag." He took it off his shoulder now and handed it to her. "You can pack everything you want to bring. Don't worry too much about clothes and toys and everything, I'll buy you new things. Just pack what you really want to have."

"Okay, I won't be long!" Maybe she shouldn't run off with him but she didn't know what else she wanted to do. She just knew she didn't want to be here. Here was bad so why not take a chance and find a good place? She packed a few items but mostly her drawings, the pad and the crayons she used. She finished packing and hauled the bag onto her shoulder, wanting to try and handle it herself. She also had her light pen, neatly tucked away in her jacket.

"Eddie, can we leave my mom a note? Just that I'm okay. She's not good but she's not bad, I don't like when she cries." She didn't know if her mom would notice or come back but she hated the idea of her being sad because of her.

"I'll ensure your mother will be notified, Stephanie, don't worry. It's sweet that you think of it." He petted her head and then, gently, took the bag from her to carry it himself. "I'm the dad, right? I should do the heavy lifting."

True to those words, he also lifted her up and out of the window, gently letting her down to the fire escape, immediately following behind her. He leaned down, one arm across her shoulder, pointing to his car that was parked downstairs. It was one of his subtler ones, black with dark green leather interior. "That's my car. I got a booster seat for you."

He was prepared! Very responsible, he felt.

"It looks so cool! Are you rich? Your car is so shiny!" She giggled excitedly as she hung on the railing of the fire escape, looking down at the car. She didn't see a lot of cars like that, she usually saw ones without wheels. She was never sure how those ones worked but they were all over the Narrows. "When I'm older, I want a car like... like... Batman."

She was trying to think of someone who had a cool car but cars were dumb and boring. Batman had cool cars though cause he fought people with them and they shot rockets.

Edward noticed some boys standing too close to their car as they started to climb down the fire escape and he pressed a button on the car key, causing some sparks to shoot out, enough to scare that kind of Narrows trash off. He'd been there, didn't mean he was about to let his car get damaged. "Batman does have a cool car."

Admittedly. "I'm comfortable." Wait, she probably wouldn't know that that meant. "I am rich, yes."

"That means you could buy a million cars if you wanted to." Stephanie informed him wisely as she held onto Edward's pant leg so she didn't lose him, walking towards the really shiny car. She looked around to make sure the boys were gone, not wanting to accidentally recognise one of them cause then she'd have to explain what she was doing and that was scary.

"How far away do you live?" She reached out and touched the shiny car, just curious to see if Edward was yell or slap her hand. If he did then she ... she wasn't sure what she'd do. She supposed she'd have to accept it. Dads did hit.

Edward handed her the car key, pointing at the right button. "Press this, all right? That unlocks it." With her helping with that important step, he opened the car door to the passenger side for her, taking her hand so she could climb inside. "I live a bit closer to the city centre. You'll see. I live in a very high building, maybe you'll get a little scared."

Time for her to learn what a penthouse was.

"Nuh-uh! I never get scared! I like when things are high." Stephanie insisted, not wanting to seem like a wuss or anything. She was a badass and she would not be scared of a silly high building. She opened the door and looked at the child's seat, not sure what it was. She'd never had one before, she usually just sat in the back of her dad's car without even using the seatbelt. "Is that a booster seat?"

As she climbed into it, she looked around and then down, noticing how clean the car was. Woah, it was so ... nice. And it smelled really good too. "It's really nice here. Do you live here?" It seemed too nice to just be a car.

"That's a booster seat, yes." Edward finished doing up her seat belt, then he closed the door, walked around and got into the driver's seat. He was putting on his own seat belt by the time she asked her rather unexpected question. Huh. "No. I don't live in a car. I live in an apartment. A penthouse. So at the very top of a high building. I guess now we will live there. You too."

He looked around. "It's a lot bigger than the car. There's beds and a kitchen, surprisingly."

A short laugh and then he used voice command to activate his navigational system, the screen flickering to life. "Back home, please."

"Of course, Mr Nygma. The shortest route?"

"Let's go for 'least traffic'." He glanced at the screen for a moment, then backed out of the parking spot. "Shouldn't take that long. Twenty minutes or so."

"Can you live in this car? It seems so nice. I feel like someone should." Like a gang of mice or some nice crows or something. She thought this would be such a fun place to stay all day, it was so clean and bright, so many fun gadgets! She happily daydreamed some chaos in Edward's poor, unfortunate car before she heard the navigational system talk to Edward.

It talked to him and talked back! It was a robot. No wonder the car was so nice, it was a robot.

"Hello, Mr Car!" Stephanie offered, waving at the front. "Thank you for the ride."

"You are welcome." The car really was polite.

"Her name is Stephanie." Might as well train the AI some, while he had the time. "Cross-reference that, please."

"As you wish, Mr Nygma. It is nice to meet you, Ms Stephanie."

Edward grinned, glancing at Stephanie from the side. Her enthusiasm was very appreciated. Quite a few of the people in his life just rolled their eyes at his gadget, few even acknowledged their ingenuity. "I built the AI. So, I programmed the voice to be smart and learn what I teach it."

"You made a robot? Woah. You're so cool, Eddie." She giggled excitedly and grinned up at Edward before leaning forward to pet the dash, wanting to assure the car that he was very happy with it. Good car. Nice car. "I'm a Ms. That's what they call adults." It was very novel and she liked it a lot. "Can you teach me to make robots and talking cars? I want to build friends!"

She could make them, sure, but how was that more fun than building them?

"Am I? Neat." All right, he assumed saying 'neat' deducted a lot of the cool points he was gathering, but here was hoping that Stephanie was too young to realise that. "I can teach you how to do a lot of stuff, but it will take some time before you can do it really well. Practise makes perfect." And he wasn't yet sure just how Stephanie's brain functioned, but he could definitely teach her something.

"I don't have a bed for you just yet, but we can work on your room together. Maybe tonight, you can sleep on the sofa?"

"Okay, I promise I won't be in the way or mess with anything or touch anything." She just wanted to hang out with Eddie and have a good time, she didn't want to upset him. Maybe he'd be her dad and things would get or maybe they'd just continue to be friends and build robots - either way, she wanted to stay in her life. She wanted him as her dad, even if she was very aware that it wasn't solid yet. It was just more fo a fluid idea.

"Do you have a wife?" She was wondering if Edward had a lady that he lived with, she wasn't sure how she felt about that but it was a scary idea. "Or just a girl you reaaaaaaaaally like?"

"No, I'm single. That means I don't have anyone." Wait, that made him sound sad. "I'm pretty happy just me. And you now." There, maybe that was better at making him come across as something other than a lonely loser. "I'm not very good at dating, to be honest with you. I do have a sister that will be very happy to find out that she's an aunt. And I have some friends who'll be thrilled too."

And a lot of people that would think he had finally gone completely insane, but he was focusing on the positive here.

"I always wanted a sister. It would be really fun." Stephanie wished she had some kind of sibling in general but she knew that it was probably for the best that she didn't. It'd just be nice to have someone to play with - someone who wasn't just her imaginary friends. "I think you could find a nice girl to marry you easily. You're really handsome and you're smart, you make robots! You're so cool, you could marry Elsa!"

That was how cool Edward was - he was Elsa ready.

"Really? That's quite the honour. I don't know if I'm her type, but if I ever run into her, I'll try my best." Honestly, not as if she'd be a bad match. He'd never hooked up with a queen before. Or with a cartoon character for that matter, but... Details. "I like boys and girls, you know? Some people do. My sister, she likes girls. She wants to marry a girl some day."

Seemed as if there were higher odds of that happening than him getting married to anyone of any gender.

"Cause girls are less smelly than boys? That's smart. Boys are dumb. Not you, you're not a dumb boy but, like, most boys are really dumb." She only knew the boys from the neighbourhood, she didn't go out much but even so, she knew they sucked. They sucked a lot. They called her names and they hurt each other for laughs. It was so stupid. "She seems smart, I get why she doesn't like boys... why do you like boys?"

That was the weirdest part to her. Who liked boys?

"Hm. I don't know, good question. Some boys, sometimes, they make me feel good inside. Some girls do too. I guess when it comes to who I want to be with, I just don't really care about boy or girl." There, that was quite the heavy discussion out of the way. Eh, whatever. Now she was all set for Pride. "Most of my friends are girls though. They will all love you."

He paused, wetting his lips before pressing them together. Then he just said it. "Stephanie, do you know that I'm the Riddler? You've heard of the Riddler?"

"The Riddler?" She frowned and turned to Edward, trying to see what he was saying to her but he wasn't at all like her dad had described to her. She knew the name and it did scare her, she felt her stomach will with butterflies, but Edward wasn't like that so he couldn't be him, could he? "But you're nice to me..."

So what was going on? "The Riddler is supposed to be mean and rude... he would kill me! My dad said so. He said the Riddler is real bad. You wouldn't kill me, would you?"

"Well, Stephanie, you will come to learn a lesson that I've learned a long, long time ago. Your father, the man you thought was your father, he's an idiot and wrong about pretty much everything. Anyway, I have issues with him, not with you. Never with you." Edward turned his head to smile at her, since they were at a red light now anyway. "I can be rude and I can be mean, but I won't kill you or hurt you. That's better than what that idiot ever promised you, right? All you have to know about the Riddler is that he is brilliant."

He grinned. "So, believe me. I'm him."

"You better be. I don't want to get hurt. I know I can't do a lot about it but one day, I'll be big and strong, then I'll kick your ass. So promise you won't make me do that. You're my dad now..." And she just wanted to do dad things with him, the sort of things that kids on TV got to do like hold hands and go fun places and do crafts! She wanted a normal dad. Well, not normal boring but normal nice.

"I can trust you cause you haven't lie, right? Cause you don't like." He seemed honest to her.

"I don't lie, no. And I promise, Stephanie. Remember. Something I have to keep not to break it." He smiled at her for a few moments, then turned his attention back to the road, as the light turned green. Not long after, he turned the car around a corner, down into the parking garage of his building. "We can talk about fun things now. Like... What are your favourite foods? I'll make you something nice tonight."

With that, he parked the car - next to another one of his, this one green, a classic - and reached out to undo her seatbelt. "We should start you off with a bath, I think, then I can sort out your hair properly this time."

"I like spaghetti with hotdogs cut up in it. My mom makes that a lot." It was cheap, quick and she loved it. She had simple tastes, she wanted to eat like three things and that was all. "I also like pizza annnnd fries. Maybe sometimes chicken nuggets but not always." She shrugged a little, not sure if that was enough or if he wanted to discuss more food with him. "What do you like this best?"

As Edward helped her out of her seat, she slid out and took Edward's hand readily. "Is my hair bad?" She wasn't sure but properly was one of those words that meant something had been wrong before. She frowned a little. "I try to brush it but it hurts."

"Your hair is beautiful, sweetheart, but it needs proper care. Like mine does too, but yours even more, because yours is so long and pretty." Edward gave her hand a slight squeeze as he headed for the elevator, then he pressed the button and waited for the door to open. "I will give you a good shampoo to use on it and then we can apply some conditioner that will make sure it won't hurt to brush it and it will be silky and shiny."

He knew a lot about haircare, after all. As the doors opened, he walked inside, then showed her what button he had to press. "See? Top floor. All the way up. And I think we'll have pasta today. I like pasta too. I'll make fresh pasta for us, that's way better."

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