Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Twoface?” Edward asked, his brow furrowing in shock. He stumbled over himself, “Uh, I mean, Harvey.”

Edward hadn’t noticed the man on his way into the shop, or perhaps he hadn’t been there and had just now found refuge from the snow, huddled in the corner, a blanket wrapped around him.

When Edward had walked up he’d been too focused on finding food to pay any mind to anyone around him, even now he wasn’t totally there, having not actually eaten yet. 

That was the thing about holing up at motels while working on big projects; there was really nowhere to store food and most motels had no methods of cooking. Edward had gone out of his way to find one in a nicer area of town, where his room had come with a microwave and a boiling tap.

Very fancy.

Harvey averted his eyes from Edward’s question. It was definitely Harvey, it was hard to mistake the scars on his face.

“Harvey?” Edward repeated, closing the gap between them.

The man let out a weak, angry sounding growl of annoyance at Edward’s persistence.

Yeah, definitely Harvey.

Edward ignored the pretty obvious anger, normal for Harvey, and crouched next to him.

“It’s supposed to reach temperatures as low as minus 3 tonight, Harvey. I doubt that thin blanket will keep you alive.”

Now Harvey’s eye flicked over to him. He looked… not quite right. Tired, filthy, anxious.

And angry, but again, that was normal for Harvey.

“That’s none of your business,” Harvey murmured, his voice a gravellier tone than usual. It was easy to surmise that he was feeling ill. Edward wondered how many nights Harvey had stayed out.

Edward frowned, concerned, “Maybe not, but that doesn’t mean I want to be complicit in your suicide.”

Harvey shook his head dismissively, the movement jerky with the cold. “I’m fine,” he stated. His voice was flat and emotionless. He really didn’t care that he might die?

Edward grit his teeth slightly and let out a questioning hum. “I don’t believe you. People who are fine don’t voluntarily freeze to death.”

Harvey let out another hoarse growl. “Stop mocking me,” he snapped, throwing an arm out with the intent to hit Edward, missing by… a lot.

“I’m not mocking you,” Edward clarified, a small pang of guilt in his gut with the realisation that Harvey thought he was saying this to make fun of him. “I’m inviting you to come and stay with me, I’m in the motel over there.” He jammed his thumb over his shoulder towards the motel.

He stopped himself from asking why Harvey didn’t simply break into one of the rooms for the night, it was obvious: the coin had told him not to. That thing was more trouble than it was worth.

“Why didn’t you just say that?” Harvey grumbled, his jaw clenching tight like he was holding back a spit of acid.

“I thought it was obvious.” Edward pulled himself back up to his feet, “So, do you accept?” He let out a soft huff, internally chastising himself at giving Harvey the opportunity to reject him. “Actually, no. I mean-” he quickly corrected himself, verbally stumbling again, he hadn’t expected this much human interaction on an empty stomach. “I’m not asking, I’m telling you. Get up and come with me. You’re staying with me,” he said with as much authority as he could muster.

He felt himself cringe, worried by how unsure he sounded. He usually felt more commanding, less bratty.

To his surprise, and delight, Harvey complied and got to his feet.

His delight was undercut by the discomfort of seeing Harvey in this state. He could swear Harvey usually looked taller, bulkier.

He looked so… defeated. Edward struggled to think what could have happened to him to do this.

The last time he’d seen him he was doing relatively well. It had been before Edward’s most recent release from Arkham. They’d put Harvey on some meds that had actually been working for him.

That was months ago, though.

He’d have to ask later. Once they’d both eaten.

Edward reached out and took Harvey’s wrist, the precious bag of groceries in his other hand, not willing to give Harvey the opportunity to protest or try to bargain or run away or whatever, and he led him silently across the road to the motel.

Harvey wasn’t usually very talkative but his silence as they walked was unnerving, Edward could almost feel the internal conflict. Harvey wasn’t usually this much within his own head.

Maybe they were debating breaking Edward’s arm for the Grand Crime of touching him.

Edward tightened his grip and pulled Harvey through the entrance, and to his door, letting go of him only to get his key out and unlock the door.

The door opened to reveal the small room. It contained, in addition to the microwave and tap, one double bed, one bathroom, one counter, one bedside table, one wall mounted tv, and one radiator. All densely covered with papers, books, and plans, peppered with a few pens and highlighters.

Harvey let out a disgusted groan.

“It’s a little disorganised, but it’s better than nothing,” Edward lectured. “You really plan to act as if you would rather be on the street than in a nice warm room because you don’t want to be surrounded by my genius?”

Harvey lifted a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, “I’m not leaving,” he said sternly. Edward wasn’t sure if he were telling Edward, or telling himself.

He’d forced a decision without the help of his coin, maybe he wasn’t as bad off as Edward had first assumed.

Either that or Harvey felt it truly was a life of death situation.

Hopefully it was the former.

“Good,” Edward smiled. He glanced around the room. “I’ll clear you some space,” he said absently. He put down his bag on the floor and began to walk around picking up pieces of his work, making sure they were all in a logical order, clearing a patch of floor in front of the radiator, and most of the bed.

He turned the radiator to full, then turned to look at Harvey, only now getting a good look at him. He really was filthy, he looked like he’d been wearing the same clothes for at least a week, Edward knew the look because it was usually one he himself was sporting.

On Harvey it did not look very becoming.

“Have a shower,” Edward told him, again trying to sound authoritarian, trying to negate Harvey’s want to use his damned coin.

Harvey let out a grunt of protest, but after a moment walked towards the bathroom.

“Good,” Edward muttered under his breath, worried for a moment that he wouldn’t oblige and Edward would have to spend the night with him looking and smelling like that.

“I’ll make us both some food and get you some clothes while you’re in there.”

Harvey gave another grunt and a nod as he disappeared into the bathroom.

Edward looked into his plastic bag and pulled out two cup noodles and a couple of eggs. He cracked the eggs into a plastic cup and put them in the microwave for 40 seconds, and filled the cup noodles from the boiling tap. He watched the cup of eggs spin round, and poured the half-cooked mix into the cup noodles once the microwave dinged.

It wasn’t until that point that he realised perhaps Harvey might not want an egg on his noodles.

He could always scoop it out if he didn’t, Edward wouldn’t mind having two eggs.

He moved to the bathroom door and knocked gently, listening to the sound of rushing water behind it.

“Harvey,” he shouted through the door. “I’ve put an egg in your noodles, is that ok?”

After a second the water stopped, and there was a clattering sound. Then Harvey answered, “That’s fine.”

Edward felt his gut sink as he heard the water turn back on. Had Harvey really gotten out of the shower to find his coin to check if an egg in his food was ok? Maybe he was doing as badly as Edward had first assumed, and he’d been wrong to hope. He hadn’t been that dependant on his coin the last time he saw him. He could barely tell who was fronting.

Things were obviously bad for him.

Edward let out a huff and walked to the bedside table, opening it and getting out some clothes. He couldn’t have Harvey continue to wear what he was wearing, even though Edward’s clothes almost certainly wouldn’t fit right.

He had brought a plain baggy vneck tshirt and some lounge-pants with an elastic waist, with the intent to wear them if he got overwhelmed and needed something overly baggy. They might fit him.

He laid them on the bed and went back to the counter, stirring the noodles and taking a mouthful from his.

He let out a soft hum, closing his eyes as he chewed, tipping his head back and stretching. Near ecstasy flooded him as the hot food hit his stomach. He had, as always, hyper-focussed on his work and forgotten that he needed things like food. 90c cup noodles tasted more than edible when you were starving.

A bang came from the bathroom, “Edward?” Harvey asked, yelling through the door, “Clothes?”

“They’re on the bed,” Edward informed him, yelling back through his mouthful of food.

Harvey was silent, and then slowly the door opened. He walked awkwardly, wrapped in a towel, to the bed, and picked up the clothes. “Thanks,” he said, his voice quiet and dejected.

“You’re welcome,” Edward smiled, looking Harvey up and down. He looked a lot better showered, and Edward was happy that he couldn’t see any obvious wounds or injuries. “You’ve got noodles too.” He picked up Harvey’s noodles and held them out to him.

Harvey stared at the noodles, his gaze holding for longer than Edward would have expected, and eventually nodded. “Ok, give me a minute.”

He walked back into the bathroom to change and returned wearing Edward’s clothes, slightly too small for him, but Edward was sure he was skinnier now, the clothes weren’t as tight as Edward had thought they would be.

“Eat up,” Edward urged, holding the noodles out again.

Harvey took the noodles and shovelled them into his mouth. He nodded, chewing and swallowing, his face softening. “Thankyou,” he said quietly, sounding genuinely grateful. He really did look a lot better after a shower, his skin looked brighter and healthier already without the layer of grime.

“No problem,” Edward said softly, smiling, a warmth filling him that had nothing to do with the food. “There’s more if and when you want it.” He gestured to the plastic bag on the counter. “I’ve got, uh, bananas, peanuts, oatbars, chips.” He shrugged. “A bunch of stuff.”

“Any protein?” Harvey asked.

“’Got more eggs?” Edward offered. “There’s not much protein that doesn’t need to be refrigerated... The eggs should be ok out for a day or so. They didn’t have that tinned chicken stuff in stock, or any tuna,” he felt himself begin to ramble.

Harvey let out a soft groan as Edward talked. “We’d kill for… an apricot yogurt.”

Edward smirked, shaking his head, “If I could afford the apricot yogurt they sell at that place I’d be in a Hotel not a Motel.”

Harvey let out a breath, taking another forkful of noodles. “Imagine getting room service. Burgers and lasagne and chocolate lava cake.”

Edward’s smirk broke into a full smile, “Stop,” he whined. “…We’ve got 90c cup noodles…”

“We’re not complaining,” Harvey said, a soft frown ghosting his face, “We appreciate the noodles.”

Edward shook his head quickly. “I didn’t think you were complaining,” he assured. “But you’ll make me hungry if you keep talking like that.”

He glanced at the heater, then at Harvey. “Are you warm enough?” he asked, “Do you want to sit in front of the radiator?”

Harvey’s brow furrowed, he let out a hum of thinking, then began to move to find his coin again, the object hidden away in the depth of his lounge pants pockets.

“Uh, never mind,” Edward corrected himself. His gut clenching again, he hadn’t meant to make Harvey make a decision.

“How long have you been on the streets, Harv?” Edward asked, “You’re getting worse.”

Harvey shook his head, “We’re ok. I’m… I’m ok. This is just a hiccup. Once my guys get out of Arkham things’ll be fine.”

Edward nodded. He could hear it in Harvey’s voice, how unsure he was. He was lying to himself.

“Do you want to stay with me, here. Until your ‘guys’ get out?” He smiled reassuringly, “It’ll be fun.”

“There’s only one bed,” Harvey debated, shifting on his feet, his eyes flitting from Edward to the bed.

Edward shrugged, “I don’t mind that. We’ll put a couple of pillows in the centre to keep us apart.” His smile wavered slightly, “Unless you want to cuddle, of course.” He let out a small forced laugh at his own joke.

Harvey glanced at him, then let out a soft hum of consideration, and pulled out his coin, flipping it.

“Oh, I didn’t-“ Edward began to protest.

“I’m ok with cuddling.”

Chapter Text

Edward wanted to get up. He had work to do.

Unfortunately, Harvey had not been kidding when he’d said he was ok with hugs. Edward had awoken around 45 minutes ago to find a heavy weight on him. Harvey was practically laying on him, arm wrapped tight around Edward’s chest, nose pressed into Edward’s hair. Edward couldn’t move.

Edward wouldn’t deny it was comforting. He’d had a better night’s sleep knowing someone else was in the room with him. The warmth of another person in the bed with him was undeniably lovely, comforting in ways he hadn’t felt in years, in way he didn’t realise he’d missed.

But after an hour he was growing bored. Harvey had fallen asleep before him and still hadn’t woken up. Edward wondered how long it’d been since Harvey had had a good full night’s sleep.

His eyes drifted to his phone on the bedside table. Unable to stay in this half-asleep state any longer. Slowly, carefully, he moved himself up and stretched his arm out to pick it up, trying to disturb Harvey as little as possible.

Harvey, obviously feeling Edward shifting, tightened his grip and pulled him closer. Luckily Edward had a tight grip on his phone which kept him from dropping it or knocking it onto the floor.

Harvey groaned softly, nuzzling into Edward’s side and pressing himself hard against him. Now in addition to Harvey’s nose pressing into his hair he could also feel… something else pressed against his hip.

Edward froze, feeling a blush come to his face, biting his lip to stop himself from laughing.

“Twoface,” he said quietly, trying to pull himself away.

Harvey let out another soft groan, and his eyes fluttered open. He pulled his head back slightly, as if he were shocked at Edward’s presence, a frown flashing to his face, he looked around, as if he wasn’t sure where he was.

“I need to get up.” Edward’s voice came out small and timid.

“Riddler…” Harvey grumbled. He shook his head and pulled away quickly, still disoriented. “We, uh. I… Sorry.”

Edward stretched out before lifting himself up on the bed. “I was the one who initially suggested cuddling. And you can’t help how, uh….” He glanced down at Harvey, “It’s fine,” he smiled, coy, choosing to say that rather than tell Harvey the truth- that he actually enjoyed it.

The cuddling.

“I should go,” Harvey said, his voice slow and cracking with sleep.

Edward shook his head sternly, “No, no. I told you to stay. I’m not letting you leave while you have nowhere to go. You haven’t even eaten breakfast.”

Harvey pulled out his coin and flipped it, then let out a sigh that sounded almost relieved. He pulled away and got to his feet, adjusting his slightly-tight clothing and walking over to the counter.

Edward had worried for a moment that he was going to walk straight out the door, and felt a flood of relief as Harvey walked to the ‘kitchen’ and began to rummage through the plastic bag. He pulled out a banana and began to peel it and eat.

Edward kicked his legs off the side of the bed, beginning to read through the notifications on his phone.

“Uh.” Edward heard Harvey inquire from where he stood.

He looked up, his eyebrows arched, a trace of annoyance passing over him as his focus was dragged from his phone. “Hm?”

“What is it you’re working on, anyway? We didn’t get to ask yesterday.”

Truthfully, they had plenty of opportunities to ask, but he’d been in a very bad place mentally. So wrapped up in themselves that he wouldn’t have been able to concentrate on what Edward was saying. Harvey had spent most of the evening half asleep, curled in on himself.

“Oh,” Edward squeaked in excitement, his demeanour brightening at the opportunity to spill the beans, though he made sure to dull his plan down to a level understandable to a layman. Even when Harvey was in a good place mentally, he wasn’t very good with technology, Edward already knew that. “I got a look at some of the new Ace security software, and I’m pretty sure it has a flaw I can exploit. I’m drawing up plans for a key I can simply plug in to a port. It infects their system, and my file attaches itself to every single Ace security device in… well, the world, really. And then anywhere that uses Ace security I can just walk into.”

“Anywhere?” Harvey said, curiosity piquing in his voice, finishing the banana and throwing the peel in the trash.

Edward nodded to confirm. “As long as they have the new software.”

Harvey frowned questioningly. “Won’t someone notice?”

“No,” Edward scoffed at Harvey’s naivety with a click of his tongue. “If they do they’ll assume it’s an issue with their software, they won’t think it’s a nationwide issue. They won’t be able to find me that easily.”

Harvey nodded. “Sounds good.”

Edward felt excited energy build in him at Harvey’s encouragement. “There’s no real way Batman will be able to catch me for it either-“

Harvey let out an angry, guttural groan. “Don’t fucking mention his name,” he said, cutting Edward off, his voice a mix of solemn and the usual anger.

“Oh,” Edward squeaked, stopping in his tracks, realising that that was a sensitive subject. “You wanna talk about it?” he asked cautiously after a second of heavy silence.

Harvey paused and pulled out his coin, flipping it, then reluctantly shook his head.

Edward exhaled slowly. He wished Harvey didn’t have to rely on that fucking coin. He so obviously wanted to talk about it.

“If you change your mind you can talk to me about it.” Edward smirked, his train of thought quickly changing tracks, unable to stop, “Last time I saw him he fell off the roof of a car. That was how I escaped,” his smirk fell slightly, “Dumb luck.” He shook his head at the memory, a laugh escaping him, “He was chasing me down the street, I ran across the street, he tried to leap over this car to cut me off, and he just,” he flicked his hand, blowing a raspberry, “Fell flat on his fucking face! It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, I wanted so badly to stop and mock him… but I knew I had to keep going… I just shouted at him over my shoulder as I ran.”

It struck him at that moment how much growth that showed in him. He had kept running, he hadn’t stopped, even though every cell in his body had wanted him to.

Harvey let out a hissed laugh. “The worst thing is when you think of a comeback when you’re already in fucking Arkham.”

“Yeah!” Edward gasped. “I don’t know what it is! Those doors close and they just flood your head, don’t they.”

Harvey shook his head, sighing softly. “I shouldn’t have… I… we…” He let out a groan and lifted his hands to his face. “We were so stupid. And now half our men are gone and …” He looked up at Edward, his eyes dark with the want to confess.

His hand played with his coin, but he didn’t flip it.

“Jed died.” The words left him quickly and almost flippant, as if he were pretending not to care, despite how obviously he did.

Edward’s eyes widened, shocked. “Jed died?”

He remembered Jed from the last time he and Harvey had worked together. A jolly looking man, he’d joined Twoface’s gang years ago, fresh out of prison after killing an abusive partner. He had been their go to guy for breakfast while they’d been working together.

Harvey nodded, though Edward could barely tell.

“How..?” Edward asked, his chest tightening with anguish.

Harvey slammed his fist on the counter, the sudden action causing Edward to jump. He held out his coin again-

“No,” Edward snapped, forcing himself to hold it together, to sound commanding. “Harvey, tell me.”

Harvey looked down at the coin, and grit his teeth as he put it back in his pocket. “Batman…” he growled, voice low and filled with sadness as well as cold lingering anger. “He got hit by one of the bat’s new weird… taser things. He fell backwards and hit his head on a… fucking door handle. He just never got back up.”

Edward shook his head, mouth lulling open, his gut twisting with a mixture of guilt at forcing Harvey to speak, adrenaline fear from Harvey’s sudden temper, and now deep sadness.

Of all people, Jed didn’t deserve that.

“Harvey, I’m so sorry. Jed was a great guy.”

Harvey let out a weak grunt.

No wonder he was doing so badly. There had been some close calls before but no fight with Batman had ever led to a death for them before.

Edward searched internally for something to say that would make Harvey feel better.

“You wanna… I don’t know.” Edward shook his head, grasping at straws, “Get drunk, or something?”

Harvey groaned and pulled his coin out again, flipping it. He shook his head. “I’ve already spent all my money on alcohol and…” his voice weakened, “other stuff.”

Edward resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He knew ‘other stuff’ meant drugs. No wonder his mental health had gotten worse.

“Harvey,” he said softly, disappointment in his voice. “It’s been years…”

“It turns out having one of our best men die in front of us made us want to self-medicate.”

Edward huffed, “That’s ok. I don’t…” he shook his head, “I don’t blame you, Harvey. Anyone would…” He huffed again, shaking his head again, pulling himself back and forcing himself to stop and think. “Harvey,” he said, his voice serious as he channeled all the therapy experience he’d gotten from Arkham. “I do not judge you for self-medicating, I am not angry at you for self-medicating. Thankyou for telling me.”

Harvey nodded dutifully, a look on his face like he didn’t believe what Edward was saying.

Edward wouldn’t believe it either. He knew how robotic and unnatural it sounded. Reading a script they had both heard countless times from people in white coats who didn’t give a shit about either of them.

“I’m your friend, Harvey,” Edward mumbled, dropping the pretence he’d been trying to hold since the previous night. “Why didn’t you come to me. Or Oz, or Jon, or… Any of us would have been happy to help you.”

“We didn’t want to…”

Harvey’s voice was so small.

Edward closed his eyes, letting out a soft breath to try to clear his head. Again, he knew, he knew what it was, he didn’t know why he’d even asked. He felt his gut clench in anger at that damn coin, at Harvey’s damned pride and ego.

Although he knew he wasn’t any better himself. He’d rather self-medicate and isolate himself than admit that anything was wrong.

“That’s a no to alcohol, then,” he said bluntly. He looked down at one of the piles of papers. “I’m going to do some work.” He sat on the floor, picking up a pen. He looked up at Harvey. “Would you like to help? I need to do a list of, uh, of companies that already have the new software, and match companies who have bought it but haven’t installed it yet.”

Harvey nodded. “Sure.” His voice was still quiet. Obviously telling Edward that had been hard. He hadn’t wanted to tell Edward, Edward had made him tell him. In hindsight maybe he shouldn’t have done that.

“Don’t you want to eat something?” Harvey asked, a strain in his voice as he forced himself to talk normally.

Edward cocked his head slightly, his head too full of work and concern to even think to eat. “Oh.” He scoffed, disappointed in himself for forgetting, “I probably should…”

Harvey picked up another banana and walked to Edward’s pile of paperwork, he handed Edward the banana and mirrored him, sitting down on the floor, crossing his legs and also picking up a pen.

“Thankyou for helping us, by the way,” Harvey said, beginning to busy himself.

“My pleasure,” Edward smiled, beginning to peel the banana. “I like your company.”

Harvey’s eyes drifted from the files to Edward. “Did you mean what you said? About staying here until our guys get out? I can find somewhere else to stay.”

“No,” Edward snapped, his mouth full of food. “Don’t go anywhere. Stay with me. I want you here.”

Chapter Text

For a moment, Edward had thought Harvey might flip his damned coin and ‘decide’ to leave anyway, to spite him in some way for daring to show him care. But he didn’t.

Edward couldn’t say he would have done the same.

Harvey obediently sorted through Edward’s files, searching for the list of companies Edward had mentioned previously.

The way he carelessly tossed aside the documents he didn’t need made Edward’s stomach turn, but he decided not to voice his discomfort. Harvey was searching for a reason to leave, Edward knew it. He wouldn’t give him a reason.

He felt a warm comfort in Harvey’s presence. A relief that he’d persuaded him to stay.

Not persuaded. Ordered.

Perhaps there was an issue there regarding consent. But Edward chose to ignore that particular puzzle. He wouldn’t let Harvey go out to die.

Harvey was alive and safe. That was good enough for now.

Though Edward wasn’t sure why he should care as much as he did. He had work to do, and Harvey would more than likely get in the way. With that blasted coin.

He repositioned himself once he’d sorted his documents, crossed legged on the bed, the same position he’d sat in for the past weeks, the only position he could reliably sit in for hours at a time without causing himself pain.

The scratching of his own pen was mirrored by Harvey’s, who had now picked a stray highlighter off the floor.

The warmth Edward felt light in him told him why he cared. Companionship. Simple as that.

Despite everything, he was a human, and isolation for long periods of time wasn't good for humans. Another thing he'd learned while at Arkham.

He let the sound of their pens on paper drown out the sounds that leaked in from outside the room. They worked wordlessly, which felt strange to Edward, not working in silence, he preferred that, but usually he felt uncomfortable in sustained silence. The silence they shared didn’t feel brittle, it was grounding for him.

Every now and then, Harvey’s highlighter would squeak on the paper a little louder, a little messier. It was a good measure of the passage of time.

The minutes quickly became hours. Almost 5 of them by Edward’s count. Edward realised all at once that he was hungry, he’d gotten so lost in their harmonious work that he’d forgotten everything else.

He leaned back where he sat, stretching, feeling his back give out a familiar crack. He stretched his wrists, his fingers, then his legs, swinging them over the side of the bed, ready to dig through the plastic bag filled with food, there was an oat bar in there that was calling his name.

His eyes drifted to Harvey as he crossed the room, the man hunched over himself like a shrimp, the lines on the paper messy.

“You know if you keep the lines neater they’ll be easier to review,” he commented as he stepped around him, retrieving his promised oat bar from the bag and opening the wrapper.

Harvey’s eyes lifted from the paper. “I don’t have to help you at all if you don’t like my work.”

A frown threatened Edward’s face, but he held it back. “You can take a break if you want to.”

Harvey’s fingers dropped the pen, and immediately moved to grasp his coin.

“Take a break, Harvey. Please.” Edward tried not to sound like he was pleading.

Harvey’s hand stopped a few millimeters from where his coin sat. Slowly he unfurled himself.

Edward was still surprised by how large he was, even now in his state of malnourishment.

Edward held out another of the oat bars for him. “Eat this,” he said softly, trying not to make the order sound like an order.

Harvey took the oat bar and ate it dutifully. There was no joy behind his eyes at the concept of eating. Edward couldn’t help feeling bad for him. 

He was no good at this, taking care of someone.

For the ghost of a second he found himself thinking that maybe Harvey would be better off back at Arkham, but he knew that wasn’t true. They’d take away his coin entirely and let him be paralyzed by indecision. He’d end up being fed through a tube, on meds that turned him into a zombie.

They’d both been through it before, when they were doing really badly. It was traumatic more than it were helpful.

Arkham couldn’t really help you unless you wanted to be helped, until you gave in to that they kept you subdued and studied you like a rabid animal. There was no ‘help’.

He noticed as Harvey’s face shifted into a frown. “You’re staring,” he grumbled, tossing the wrapper of his oat bar past Edward and into the bin. “Do I have something on my face?”

That sounded like a threat. It struck Edward that he was glad to see some of Harvey’s personality shine through, even if it was a threat.

Edward shook his head, “No, I um.” he cleared his throat. “You’re looking better, I noticed. Than you did yesterday, I mean.”

“Oh.” Harvey glanced away. “We feel it, I think. Not cold.”

Edward let out a soft chuckle at Harvey’s non-joke. “That’s an improvement.” He let his eyes search the room, after a moment they settled on the tv. “You should take a real break. You can watch tv?”

Harvey reached for his coin again, and Edward felt his gut clench. He couldn’t believe he’d let that happen again.

Harvey looked down at the result, and nodded, relieved. “Tv would be good.”

Edward moved back onto the bed, searching the bedside table for the remote before flicking the tv on. His eyes moved to Harvey again as the tv turned on.

“Come and sit down,” he offered, giving the bedspread a soft pat to entice him.

Harvey nodded and complied, carefully moving Edward’s files out of the way to make a space for himself.

For some reason the gesture caused a soft warmth on Edward’s chest, a small smile coming to his lips.

Harvey sat at the foot of the bed, in the space he'd created, and watched as Edward flicked through the available shows and movies, trying to find something that would be entertaining but not overly distracting or annoying. 

He settled on The Good Place.

It felt like something Harvey might like.

He let Harvey watch, and returned to his own notes, glancing up periodically to the tv, but not allowing it to distract him.

His heart soared at the sound of Harvey letting out a muted laugh.

He stretched his leg out to rest the side of his odd-socked foot against Harvey's leg, a soft, hopefully reassuring touch.

Happily, Harvey didn't recoil. Edward watched as his head gave a small twitch towards the touch, and leaned himself slightly to press back against him. 

He continued writing his notes, his plans. His foot stayed pressed against Harvey’s side. After some time, several more hours, he felt Harvey begin to slouch.

“Your posture is terrible,” Edward commented, offhand.

Harvey glanced back at him, “You’re one to talk.”

Edward forced himself to sit straighter, “What?”

“Sitting slumped over like that. You get lower back pain don’t you? It’s not because you’re ‘tall’...”

Edward scoffed, “Shut up, I am tall.”

Harvey let out a breath through his nose, another almost-laugh, before turning his attention back to the tv, and Edward found himself smiling as he turned back to his notes.

“I think I’m falling asleep,” Harvey said after another moment of warm silence. 

Edward gave a small nod, his eyes moved from his paper after a moment of hesitation, "Oh, let me, uh... clear..." He turned himself to clear more of his papers from the bed, piling them meticulously on the bedside table, pulling back the covers for Harvey after he had.

“Come here,” Edward encouraged.

Harvey looked back, then nodded. Slowly he moved himself back to lay in the bed, head propped up on the headboard as to still see the tv, right next to Edward.

He seemed to melt into the bed as he drifted off, falling into sleep at some point during the next hour. 

Edward continued working on his plans, eyes flitting to Harvey occasionally as the sleeping man shifted, moving closer to him, zeroing in on the heat source, till he was pressed against him, only the blanket separating them.

Once he was sure Harvey was asleep, Edward turned the tv off, and at some point in the following hours, he also fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Edward woke, expecting the heavy weight of Harvey’s arm pinning him to the bed again, nose pressed into his scalp, breath on his ear. That warmth, that… comfort.

Instead he woke to the smell of coffee.

His eyes jumped open.

Coffee?

He looked over at the other side of the bed, finding it empty, cold. Quickly he turned his attention to the rest of the room, searching for Harvey.

He was sat on the floor, back at his pile of papers. A cup of coffee at his heel.

“Harvey?” Edward said, his voice groggy, confused.

“You’ve got some.” Harvey’s eyes didn't leave his paper as he spoke. 

Edwards' gaze darted to the bedside table, finding the promised cup.

He raised himself in the bed, eyes still on the coffee. Confusion and disbelief in it being there.

He hadn’t bought any coffee. He'd been trying to wean himself off it since he'd discovered he got headaches without it. 

That meant Harvey had left, found coffee, then came back and made himself some. And somehow none of that noise or movement had woken Edward?

How deeply had he slept?

On top of that he couldn't figure out why Harvey had made him coffee too. Had the coin told him to? Was this a way of thanks?

He decided not to chastise him for it, Harvey had no way of knowing Edward was trying to stay away from it. 

“Don’t expect this every day,” Harvey added.

Edward felt himself soften at the joke. Assuming it was a joke and not some mild threat.

Perhaps it was a suggestion that he expected to be leaving soon, for good.

Edward couldn’t help but notice the tension that formed in his stomach at the thought of Harvey wanting to leave. Not because the coin wanted him to, but because he himself actually wanted to leave.

Had he wanted to leave today but the coin had prevented it?

“You didn’t sleep in?” Edward asked, gently probing for an answer to the questions swirling in his head. Careful to make sure it couldn’t be taken as an attack or accusation.

Harvey shook his head.

No verbal answer.

“Did something wake you up, or..?” Edward continued to needle.

Harvey shook his head again.

“I wasn’t snoring..?”

Harvey’s eyes finally lifted from the paper, meeting Edward’s. “I just woke up early. What’s with the interrogation?”

“I was just asking,” Edward said quickly, trying not to sound defensive. He glanced back down at the coffee, and cautiously picked it up, as if it might break at his touch.

“No one saw you out there, did they?” he couldn’t stop himself from asking.

Harvey looked back at his paperwork. “Of course not,” he grumbled.

Edward doubted that. Harvey was a lot more conspicuous than Edward was. The scarred face and the overbearing presence.

They were in an area of town where people most likely wouldn’t call the cops on them, however.

He would have to track police calls, just to make sure.

It only took him a few seconds to check. GCPD’s system was infamously easy for him to hack. He didn’t even need a laptop to do it, just his phone. Didn’t even need more than one finger.

There had been no reports.

“Of course not,” Edward echoed with relief, putting his phone back down.

He took a sip of his coffee, letting the beautifully hot drink fill his stomach.

He’d missed coffee.

How long had it been since he’d had coffee? 9 days? Perhaps 10. Sleeping as inconsistently as he had been he couldn’t quite pin it down.

“What is the time?” he suddenly thought to himself, saying it out loud. He checked his phone and found he’d slept for almost 10 hours. His eyes widened. “I slept so long…”

In Edward’s periphery Harvey gave a subtle nod.

“I don’t think I’ve slept that long in years. Ever, maybe,” Edward mused. “Not without those meds Arkham gives you.”

“They knocked us out for 26 hours once.”

Edward let out a soft grunt, pulled from his own thoughts by Harvey’s admission. “26?” he asked. “Did they hook you up to an IV or did they just let you dehydrate?”

“What do you think?” Harvey growled, the answer obvious in his tone.

Edward’s hands clenched his cup with discomfort, and he gulped down the rest of the coffee, filling the uncomfortable space till he thought of a way to address it that couldn’t be taken as pity. “The way they treat you, it’s like you’re not even human,” Edward said slowly, externalising the thoughts he’d had the day before. “When I was first in Arkham and they were trying out new meds on me I never knew if it was night or day. Barely knew if I was even awake.”

Harvey gave a stiff nod.

“We don’t have to go back,” Edward assured him.

Assured himself.

Harvey nodded again.

The nods were a good sign, Edward decided. Harvey had never been a very talkative man, when he was doing badly, if his coin allowed him, he would, sometimes, natter. He wasn’t doing that, which meant he was improving.

After a moment of silence Edward moved, swinging his legs over the side of the bed, stretching and clicking his back.

He took his now empty coffee cup to the sink, rinsing it out. He looked at the coffee Harvey had gone out for, picking up the container to inspect it.

It was one of the cheap brands, by all accounts he shouldn’t have liked it as much as he did. Most likely it was just his body craving it that made it taste nice, similar to the cheap noodles he’d bought.

“It’s better than nothing,” Harvey commented, as if he thought Edward was judging his choice.

Edward’s eyes jumped back to Harvey, not expecting a comment. “Oh. Yeah, I agree. It was good, actually.”

“Put brown sugar in it,” Harvey stated, “Not white.”

“And what, it’s fixed, just like that?”

“Not fixed, but, palatable."

Edward let out a weak huff of a laugh, “If only it were that easy for us,” he mused.

No response from Harvey, and Edward felt himself recoil, cringing at what he’d said.

Sounded like a moody teenager. Next thing he’d be dying his hair black in the sink of a public bathroom. Again.

He cleared his throat to dismiss his awkwardness. “How much of that list have you gotten through?” he asked Harvey, mostly to distract himself.

Harvey glanced between the papers. “‘Bit over half.”

“Much overlap? Some of these companies take so long to update their software…”

“There’s some,” Harvey admitted, tapping his highlighter against the page, leaving uncoordinated messy smears behind. “Your handwriting’s shit, though.”

Edward smirked, “My handwriting is perfectly legible. Perhaps it’s your eyesight failing you.”

Harvey gave him a look, almost returning the smirk. The highlighter in his hand dropped absently as their eyes locked, making another uncoordinated mar on the paper. When his eyes finally left Edward’s and returned to the paper, he let out a slight huff at the mess he’d made.

“With my ‘shit’ handwriting, and your poor highlighting skills, we make perfect bedfellows, don’t you think?” Edward felt a teetering embarrassment as he realised what he’d said.

“I’ll try to be more careful, I don’t want to end up sleeping on the floor.” Harvey joked back, his voice left him quietly, his eyes stuck to the paper, sitting oddly still.

Edward felt a strange elation fill him, a blush coming unexpectedly to his face. “I wouldn’t make someone your age sleep on the floor. A bad back would affect your productivity.”

“I’m only 33,” Harvey replied, voice quick and warm.

“Oh, so you want to sleep on the floor?”

Harvey shook his head, Edward couldn’t see it but he could feel the man’s eyes rolling. 

The warm feeling between them lasted a moment, and then began to fade, naturally and comfortably.

“Uh, did you want another oat bar?” Edward offered in an attempt to draw out the exchange.

Harvey picked his coin out of his pocket, and flipped it. Then he nodded. “And a banana,” he added.

Edward’s eyes rested on the coin, the warmth in his chest weakening slightly at the sight of it, he gave a soft nod, turning to the plastic bag on the counter to pull out food for himself and Harvey. An oat bar and a banana each.

Harvey flipped his coin again, this time Edward wasn’t sure what it was for.

His eyes searched him: hunched on the floor over his papers, unwrapped oat bar in his non-coinbearing hand. Nothing obvious that he would need to flip for.

A confused frown came to Edward’s face as he tried to deduce. Eventually he decided to, simply, ask.

“What?”

Harvey’s eyes lifted again, his hands busy peeling his banana. He let out a weak questioning ‘hm’.

“That coin?” Edward pushed. “What’s…” he let the question fade to nothing.

Harvey gave a nod of acknowledgement, then shrugged. “Just… the tv.” He took a bite of his banana. “It’s fine though, we don’t need it.”

Edward scoffed, taking his usual seat on the bed. He picked up the remote and flicked the tv on. “Well,” Edward jabbed, trying to keep his tone playful and failing, “I want to watch more of The Good Place. If your eyes happen to meet the screen I’m sure your coin will forgive you.”

Harvey clenched his coin in his hand, a frown on his face. “Don't be so condescending.”

Edward felt his hackles raise, his temper flaring in him at the perceived challenge. He forced himself not to snap, his teeth grit as he spoke. “Fine. Just don't watch it.”

He put The Good Place on regardless. Watching only a few scenes before discomfort crept into him, replacing the anger and souring his stomach. 

Harvey had turned away from him, making himself physically unable to see the tv. His movements were stiff and awkward.

Edward knew he'd overstepped.

He flicked the tv off, setting the remote down in the bedside table, back where he'd found it, and picking up one of his documents, prepared to work through the awkward silence he caused. 

After only a few minutes the silence was broken, not by a joke or comment, or god forbid an apology. It was broken by the metallic clink of Harvey flipping his coin.

Edward felt his stomach twitch at the sound, but then an instant relief at the sound of Harvey's voice. 

“Pass me that document. The Goldstein one. Uh. Goldmine?”

“Goldfinch?” Edward offered a correction.

Harvey nodded, turning to Edward, hand outstretched.

Edward handed him the document, and watched him take it, fumble with it, highlight it- neatly, and return it to its place. 

Edward felt guilt pang in him again. Harvey was really trying. Whether through fear of getting kicked out or fear of losing Edward’s companionship, he was trying.

“Anything interesting?” Edward said as an olive branch.

Harvey shrugged, “Not particularly. Goldfinch has a different code to the rest. Same as, uh.” He picked up a different paper. “Holden.inc.”

“A counterfeit version, perhaps?” Edward smirked, “Could have some interesting weaknesses we could exploit.” His smile softened, his eyes tracking Harvey's face, “That's a good find.”

Harvey let out a soft grunt, acknowledgement of the compliment. “I am worth keeping around.”

That familiar warmth returned to Edward’s chest. “I'm aware you are.”

He chose his words carefully, again, not wanting Harvey to feel pitied. Just wanting him to be aware, validated.

Chapter Text

“Don’t expect this every day.” Harvey had said.

Yet, for the next 3 days, Edward woke to the delicious smell of Harvey’s coffee, finding it in some point of production as he stirred.

Edwards vow to cut down forgotten.

They were slowly working through the seemingly endless list of tasks, Harvey had finished making his list of companies that had updated their software, and then Edward had created a little program to keep track of the newcomers.

Then there were the ones with the erroneous code. A different program tracked those.

On the morning of the 4th day Edward didn’t wake to the smell of coffee, he woke to the grating sound of Harvey’s coin flipping. Grunts and groans of increasing anger filling the room.

Edward watched him, bleary eyed and utterly confused as Harvey flipped his coin 4, 5, 6 times.

“Harvey?” he asked, almost snapped, to break Harvey out of his spiral.

“Who cares what you think anyway!” Harvey yelled, internal argument suddenly externalised, the suddenness and viciousness of it making Edward flinch.

He watched with wide eyes as Harvey shoved the coin back in his pocket, and then sat on the edge of the bed. Radiating. Every muscle in his body tense, on the verge of shaking.

After a few moments of uneasy silence Edward spoke.

He could easily assume, of course, what had Harvey so riled: he wanted to make coffee, the coin didn’t.

“I don’t mind making it,” he offered, quietly.

Harvey paused, having a conversation Edward couldn’t hear, and then nodded. “I can’t make it.”

“But you can drink it? Correct?” Edward asked to confirm.

Harvey nodded again.

Edward pulled himself to the edge of the bed, resting his hand on Harvey’s knee, using it as an anchor as he got up, hoping the contact would comfort him.

“Well then, there’s your answer.”

Without another word he walked to the counter, rinsing out the cups and methodically starting on the coffee. Scooping in the instant pre-mix and, most importantly, the brown sugar.

He heard Harvey flip his coin behind him. Not sure of the reason.

He ignored it, and put the cup under the boiling tap, filling it three quarters of the way and stirring it.

“Here we are,” he announced, turning to give Harvey his cup, sitting down at Harvey’s side on the bed.

He took a sip of his coffee, and winced.

It did not taste as good as Harvey’s coffee.

He got back to his feet, leaving his cup on the bedside table, striding back to the counter and picking up the coffee container, checking the expiration date.

That had to be it.

Nope. It wasn’t expired.

“Why does it…” he murmured to himself.

“You made it wrong,” Harvey said from behind him.

“I did what?” Edward sneered. “It’s instant coffee pre-mix, that’s not possible.”

“If you don’t mix it with some cold water first then the coffee gets burned. The milk powder gets clumpy.”

“You could have-” Edward stopped himself, his eyes closing for a second. That’s what the coin flip was for. To tell Edward that he was doing it wrong. “Right…” he said, defeated.  

He grabbed his coffee and poured it away, brightening, “Nevermind. I’ll remake it. Give me your cup.”

Harvey sipped his sub-par coffee, defiantly.

Edward flexed his hand, urging Harvey to give him the cup.

Silently they fought their game of coffee-chicken, till Edward eventually spoke out.

“It’s not good,” he said firmly, not willing to let Harvey drink that swill.

Harvey gave his head a weak shake. “It’s not,” he conceded, finally holding his hand out to relinquish the cup.

Edward poured away the poor excuse for a drink, finding that, at the bottom, as Harvey predicted, the milk powder had clumped together into a sludgy mess.

He rinsed the cups out again.

“What am I doing? Talk me through it,” he requested.

The sound of a coin flip preceded the instructions. “One scoop of coffee mix,” Harvey began, “Two scoops of brown sugar. Cold water to cover it. Mix to a paste. Add one third boiling water. Mix. Fill to top.”

Edward followed along with the instructions, nodding as he completed each one. He felt like he was having to relearn how to ride a bike.

At the end he had a perfect looking cup of coffee. Compared to his previous attempt it looked creamier, less watery. Smelled stronger.

He lifted the mug to his lips and took a sip.

It tasted much better.

But it still didn’t taste quite right.

He frowned. “Come on…” he complained quietly, to himself.

“Give me it,” Harvey ordered.

Edward shook his head, “It’s not as good as yours.”

“It’ll be fine. Give me my coffee.”

Edward reluctantly handed the cup over, then turned back to the counter to try again.

“It’s still good,” Harvey remarked from his place on the bed.

“Not as good…”

Edward focussed on the coffee. Following the instructions Harvey had given him again. He took a sip of the finished concoction and shook his head. “What am I doing wrong?”

“Nothing,” Harvey assured him. “Coffee always tastes nicer when someone else makes it.”

Edward rolled his eyes, his lip twitching in mockery. “Whatever.”

He wanted to try again, but he resisted the urge. He couldn’t waste more coffee. They barely had any left as it was.

He really wanted to try again.

He knew that want would follow him through the day. Every little thing that went wrong his mind would link back to him not being able to remake that coffee.

“I’d make it myself if I could,” Harvey grumbled as Edward walked back to him, sitting down on the bed next to him.

“It’s fine,” Edward said with a shake of his head. “Really. I know you’ve got your own… uh. Stuff.”

Harvey let out a huffed breath of a laugh. “My own stuff?” he echoed.

“Shut up, I haven’t had my morning coffee yet.”

Harvey leant over, pressing himself weakly against Edward’s side.

A jovial gesture.

A soft smile on his lips.

Edward’s mouth dried, he took a gulp of his coffee to counteract it, to distract himself.

It wasn’t as good as Harvey’s coffee.

Harvey stayed close, glued to Edward’s side.

Each of them sipped their respective coffee in silence. Enjoying it.

It felt good, having Harvey here with him, natural.

Harvey finished his coffee first, and his gaze moved to the papers. “What are we doing today?”

Edward cleared his throat. “Oh, uh.” He gulped down the last of his coffee and then slipped himself down onto the floor, closing in on one of the stacks of documents, easing them up to free his laptop from the base of the precarious pile. Highly aware of Harvey’s eyes still on him. 

He tapped away at the keyboard. Reading the info that had been coming in overnight.

“Tell me I’m not just waiting again.”

Edward shrugged, “I think we’re both just waiting today. I need this data to filter. Then I can begin testing for weak points.”

“Great…”

“Oh, I didn’t realise that spending time with me was such an appalling concept.”

Harvey stretched out his leg, giving Edward a soft tap with his foot. “It’s not.”

His comment was accompanied by the sound of his coin flipping.

Edward let out a hum. He focussed in on the laptop, editing a line of his code. Just to tighten it, make it a little more efficient.

“What’s the data?” Harvey’s voice came from behind him.

Edward turned to answer him and found Harvey closer than he’d thought he’d be. Only a few inches from his face.

He clasped his hand to his chest. Flinching back.

Harvey smirked at Edward’s overreaction. “I was trying to read it,” he explained.

“Don’t do that, Harvey…” Edward chastised. 

Harvey stayed close, looking at the screen, although Edward knew he couldn’t understand what was written there.

Edward’s eyes fixed on Harvey, watching as he attempted to decipher Edward’s work.

His lips pursed as he read, eyes squinting slightly with focus. The sound of his breath.

Edward felt a warmth swell in his chest. Suddenly aware that they were sharing the same air.

Part of him wanted to…

Kiss him?

No.

That couldn’t be it.

He pushed away the obviously intrusive thought and forced his eyes back to the code on the screen. Away from Harvey’s lips.

“Can’t you figure it out?” Edward jibed.

Harvey shook his head, “Way over my skill level.”

“I’ll take that as you calling me smart and appreciating my genius.”

“You should.”

Edward felt himself blush, turning his face so Harvey wouldn’t see.

“We should have some food,” he said quickly, rushing to his feet. “A banana and an oat bar, right?”

Harvey’s coin thwipped. “Please.”

Edward let out a breath, deflating.

The supplies in the plastic bag were dwindling.

He handed Harvey the last banana and one of the last oat bars, taking the other for himself.

Harvey paused for a moment as he took the food, eyes studying Edward.

The coin flipped again before he spoke.

“If it’s the last one you have it.”

Edward looked down at the banana in Harvey’s hand, and shook his head. “No, you have it, I insist. You’re trying to gain your weight back.”

“I had more than enough weight on me to begin with, you’re practically a skeleton.”

Edward raised an eyebrow, then cast his eyes down at himself.

His shirt and pants were filthy from weeks of work with practically no breaks, he lifted his shirt slightly to inspect himself. Harvey was right, he had lost weight.

Feeding himself always took a back seat to his work, with the addition of worrying over Harvey, well…

He perhaps wasn’t in the best shape.

“Why don’t we split it?” he offered as compromise.

Harvey flipped his coin once again before answering.

“Sure.”

Edward let out a breath. “I should go get some more food.”

He didn’t want to leave the motel. The increased chance of being spotted while he was in the middle of such important work. It wasn’t really worth it.

If he were on his own he’d wait until he’d totally run out and on his way to staving before risking a journey out.

That’s what he’d done before, on the day he’d found Harvey.

Harvey flipped his coin again.

“We want to come.”

Edward shook his head, “No, Harvey, you’re too conspicuous.”

“I went out to get coffee and it was fine,” Harvey said to defend himself. “We’ve been on the streets for weeks,  no one even talked to me until you did.”

Edward felt his stomach twist, part in pity at the thought of Harvey being out on the street like that.

It was too dangerous for the both of them to go out. What if they were seen? What if they were seen together?

“We’re sick of being shut in this fucking room, Edward,” Harvey growled, seemingly able to sense Edward’s hesitation. “We’re just waiting today anyway.”

Edward shook his head in protest. Something bad would happen, he was sure of it.

Harvey let a soft breath leave him. “Please,” he said quietly.

At the word Edward felt something break in him. And he relented.

“Fine. Yes, ok. You can come.” He shook his head as he tried to justify it. “It’s just across the street. As long as you keep your face covered you should be ok. I’ve- I’ve got a hoodie you can use. It’ll be tight on you, but you can put the hood up.”

Harvey nodded, accepting the terms.

Edward nodded back. “Right,” he said to himself. He pulled himself away and opened one of the draws, quickly finding a hoodie, one that had been through the wash a few times too many, the once dark olive now patchy and faded.

Perfect for urban camouflage.

“Here,” he said, holding it out. “Let me see you in it.”

He put a similar one on himself as Harvey pulled the too-small hoodie over his head, face twitching in discomfort at the tightness.

It was tight in the right places though, Edward couldn’t help but notice. It showed off the muscles in his arms and the width of his chest.

Perhaps that made him look more conspicuous?

If only they had some sunglasses too. Harvey's eyes were so striking.

Harvey pulled the hood over his head.

Edward let out a soft grunt, reaching up to adjust the hood. Pulling it forward to cover more of Harvey’s face.

“I can’t see,” Harvey objected, pulling the hood back slightly.

“That means other people can’t see you,” Edward interjected, pulling the hood back down.

Harvey flipped his coin. And he left the hood where it was.

“And this should go without saying; no playing with that while we’re out.”

Harvey grunted. “Why don’t you just put me on a fucking leash,” he snapped.

There was a pause. A loaded tension between them.

“Let's just go,” Harvey grumbled. 

“I’m out of cash. I've got a credit card,” Edward began as he walked to the door, putting on his shoes, watching Harvey put on his own, leading Harvey out.

“It’s not mine, obviously, it's only got a 2k limit. I didn't want to raise any alarm bells.”

He watched Harvey closely as they walked across the street.

He was too tall, looked too confident. 

“Can't you hunch over, or something?” Edward verbally corrected him. “Put your hands in your pockets.”

“I’ll end up looking more suspicious…” Harvey grunted, and complied.

Edward wasn’t sure if Harvey understood the gravity of the situation, the possible irreparable issues that would be caused by him being seen.

It felt like he was just placating him.

Although, Edward supposed, it didn’t really matter, as long as Harvey followed his instructions.

They walked into the little store. The same one Edward had found Harvey outside of.

Although the snow had receded now, it was still too cold to spend much time outside.

In their hotel room the radiator was still working away at full kick.

“Pick out whatever you want,” Edward said as they reached the door. “Try to keep nutritional value in mind.”

He flinched at the buzzer of the opening door, at the sight of the store clerk’s eyes on them.

It must be a slow day for them, he told himself, there was nothing suspicious about two men entering, of course.

Harvey wandered away into the aisles, and Edward felt his stomach tug after him.

He let out a slow breath. Following close to Harvey. Picking out the supplies they needed.

Edward picked out the exact same things he’d gotten the last time he’d shopped. The same things he always got, with the addition of coffee.

Harvey, much more haphazardly, scooped items into his arms.

Edward could see his hand occasionally moving to touch his pocket, the one he kept the coin in. His heart leaping into his throat each time at the thought that he might flip it.

That would be a dead giveaway.

Batman would be on them the second that coin came out.

But Harvey refrained.

Thankfully.

They made it most of the way round the store, wordless, and were approaching the cashier before Harvey turned to him.

“They have tinned chicken,” he informed Edward, his voice quiet.

Edward barely heard him. Didn’t respond.

“Edward,” Harvey said, his voice raised slightly.

Edward’s head flicked to him. “Don’t say my name,” he snapped, his voice raised slightly more than he meant it to.

Harvey let out a growl. He took a step forward and tipped the armful of groceries he’d amassed into Edward’s basket. Tossing in some of the tins of chicken.

And he strode out.

“Hey!” Edward called after him, his heart in his throat.

He looked at the door as it slammed closed, then down at the basket full of food in his arms.

He swore to himself. Frozen.

Then he turned to the cashier, putting down their food to be scanned.

Chapter Text

With every step back toward the motel Edward felt his stomach churn. He wasn’t looking forward to a confrontation with Harvey. Assuming Harvey had even gone back, and hadn’t just disappeared off into the night.

He had nowhere to go. He wouldn’t just disappear.

He wouldn’t.

He had more sense than that.

Right?

It was a choice between an awkward conversation or living on the streets.

It was a choice that wasn’t down to Harvey. It was down to the coin.

It didn’t matter how much sense Harvey had. It only mattered what the coin said.

That stupid fucking coin.

He tried the door to the motel, and found it unlocked.

He felt relief flood him.

That meant Harvey was inside.

At that realisation a new tension filled him.

That meant he was about to have an awful conversation.

Edward hadn’t really done anything wrong, really. He had simply asked Harvey to not say his name. And Harvey had overreacted.

Storming out like that was childish. Leaving Edward to carry all the groceries back was rude.

He planned out his argument in his head, ready for the explosion he knew was imminent.

He felt his body tense as he pushed the door open.

The first thing he noticed as he entered the room was Harvey, of course. Sitting on the bed. Back to him.

The second thing was the smell.

It was… not good.

Two grown men living in close proximity.

Before he got back to work he’d have to clean up a bit.

He took a step into the room.

Maybe Harvey hadn’t noticed him?

He cleared his throat softly.

Why had he done that. He didn’t want an argument.

He could sneak around in Harvey’s blind spot for the rest of their time working together.

Harvey still didn’t acknowledge him.

The silent treatment?

Had the coin told him not to talk?

He walked across the room, to the counter, to place down the shopping bags in their correct place.

Each step seemed to echo. Edward felt as if the floor might collapse into lava underneath him.

Part of him wished it would, just to stop the silence.

He began to clean up, distracting himself with the process.

He needed to find a laundrette. 

Harvey took a breath, the sound of it causing a shock of terror to rip through Edward’s entire body.

Edward’s eyes jolted to Harvey. Ready for the yelling to start.

He looked oddly calm.

That wasn’t the face of someone who was about to start yelling.

“If you ever,” Harvey began to say, his voice was slow, measured. “talk to me like that again. It will be the last thing you ever say.”

Edward gave a stiff nod, his mouth dry, his soul no longer in his body.

He had never felt smaller.

Harvey was shaking. Edward could see it.

He couldn’t imagine how much he must be restraining himself.

Why would he do that?

Had the coin told him to?

Their eyes were locked, it felt as if Harvey expected more from Edward, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything.

He turned away to break the spell between them, busying himself with the groceries again.

His heart was thumping in his ears, silence taking over the room again.

After a moment he heard the metallic thwip of Harvey's coin again, and he tensed himself, waiting for a blow to land.

But none came. 

Just more silence.

“I thought you'd gone,” Edward admitted,  the words leaving him without permission.

“Where would I go?” Harvey asked in answer.

Edward shrugged half heartedly. “I'm glad you didn't,” he forced himself to say, the words sticking in his throat.

Harvey replied with a grunt.

Another moment of silence.

“Did you get the tinned chicken?” Harvey asked.

“Oh, yes, I did.”

“Good. You said you wanted some.”

“Yeah. That was a good find. Thankyou.”

Harvey replied with another grunt.

“What do you do with it?” he asked, a curious tone to his voice.

Edward glanced at one of the tins. “Usually I just mix it in with my cup noodles. Not much else we can do with the options available.”

“We wish there was a kitchen,” Harvey remarked, almost dreamlike. “A hotplate at least.”

“I got a hotplate once, it caught fire while I was using it and I got sentenced for burning down a motel as well as theft. I told the judge I didn't burn the motel down on purpose, but they didn't care.”

Harvey nodded, "You've got to be careful with them.” He let out a contemplative sigh. “We might not even need a hotplate, there's a lot I can do with a microwave.”

It didn't feel as if he was speaking to Edward.

Edward didn't see the point in having more than the bare minimum, not while working at least. ‘Cooking’ meant you had to wash up. The beauty of cup noodles was that you could throw out the container after you were done eating. No clean up, no wasted time.

Saying that, there wasn't much work to be doing right now.

It hadn't occurred to him that Harvey might think differently. That he might want something more than to just sustain himself. That he might want to actually cook, or god forbid ‘dine’.

And the idea of the two of them sharing a real meal was kind of appealing.

“Is there much you could make with what we bought?”

Harvey perked his head up, and got to his feet, walking to Edward’s side, peering into the grocery bags.

Edward could feel the gears in his head turning.

“Probably,” he said after a long moment. “Or at least make it look presentable.”

“...But it would basically still be tinned chicken and cup noodles?” Edward added.

Harvey shrugged, “That's what we've got.”

Edward let out a tiny hum, contemplating Harvey's suggestion and simultaneously mocking him. “If you want to mess about with it I won't stop you. Not like you've got anything else to do.”

Harvey gave a soft nod in answer, and began to pull items out of the bag to closer inspect them.

Edward took a small step back to give Harvey some space. He glanced around the room and resumed cleaning up. Picking up dirty clothes and random little bits of debris.

Harvey was muttering to himself. Out loud, this time, Edward noticed. Not keeping the conversation in his head.

Edward caught little snippets.

“Paprika-”

“Too salty-”

“Shut up. That won’t-”

He couldn’t help but smile.

He felt a strange joy in finding tasks for Harvey. Not just to distract him from his anger or occupy him. It felt deeper than that, but Edward couldn’t put his finger on it.

He tipped away the trash he’d collected, and looked at the small pile of clothes.

He’d really need to find a laundrette.

Come to think of it, he also needed a shower.

He couldn’t remember having one since before Harvey had started staying with him.

God he must stink. Just grown used to it like he had the stink of the room.

“While you do that,” Edward half sang, “I’m going to shower.”

Harvey grunted in acknowledgement, deep in concentration.

Edward stepped into the bathroom. He noticed, as he removed them, how dirty his clothes were. Splashed with old food, stained with sweat.

He had no clean shirt to replace his current one. He balled up the shirt and threw it into the shower. He could wash himself and the shirt at the same time. It was better than wearing it dirty, at least.

He stepped into the stream of water, finding it far too hot but not doing anything to fix it.

The heat helped ground him, he found.

Usually.

As he washed himself he found his mind wandering.

Back to what had happened in the store.

Harvey had said his name so softly, caring, like he was addressing a friend. And Edward had snapped at him so readily and viciously.

He hated how quickly his temper flared in him. How hard it was to control it.

Harvey, in turn, had controlled his.

Twoface, of all people, could control his temper better than Edward could.

He closed his eyes, sticking his face in the hot water, letting it sting his skin.

And after all that Harvey had offered to make him food.

There was a knock at the door, the noise knocking Edward out of his thoughts.

“Fuck…” he swore, clasping his hand to his chest.

“Edward,” Harvey asked from behind the door.

Had Edward remembered to lock it?

“Yeah?” he called back. “Is something wrong?”

“Do we have any plates?” Harvey asked.

Edward grit his teeth, letting out a soft hiss. “I think there are some paper bowls somewhere? Would those work?”

Silence came from the other side of the door.

Harvey must have walked off.

Edward was surprised Harvey was cooking for them.

Well, cooking may be a strong word.

Still, it was the sentiment that mattered.

Edward couldn’t say that he would do the same in his position.

If someone snapped at him like that the last thing he’d want to do was have dinner with them.

He wouldn’t even have come back to the room.

Harvey had come back.

That strange familiar warmth showed itself again.

He cleared his throat and shook his head, trying to rid himself of that feeling, or at least ignore it.

He didn’t have time for feelings like that. He didn’t have the mental energy. He was too busy. He had a plan he was meant to be following!

It hadn’t been an intrusive thought, earlier.

He had wanted to kiss him.

He squeezed his eyes closed, slammed his fist into the wall. 

Fuck.

No he didn’t.

He didn’t.

He continued cleaning himself, scrubbing his skin till it hurt.

After stepping out of the shower and wrapping a towel around himself, he picked up his now soaking shirt and scrubbed it too, wringing it out after, making it dry enough that it matched the rest of him before pulling it on, along with his last fresh pair of boxers.

He walked out of the bathroom, and instantly noticed the smell of food.

His stomach clenched at the smell. Only now realising that he was starving.

“That smells really good,” he couldn’t stop himself from voicing.

Harvey glanced over at him from the counter, where Edward had left him.

“Everything ok?” Harvey asked gruffly. “We heard a bang.”

“Oh,” Edward said, stilted, his eyes flicking to his hand, briefly acknowledging the faint ache there. “I slipped, it’s fine.”

Harvey grunted in acknowledgement, “If you’re sure.”

“Is the food ready?” Edward asked, his voice small.

Harvey shrugged. “Pretty much.”

It didn’t sound like he had much confidence in his creation.

Honestly, Edward didn’t either.

90c cup noodle and tinned chicken would taste like 90c cup noodle and tinned chicken, no matter what.

“Let’s have it, then,” Edward smiled, moving to the bed and taking a seat.

Harvey nodded, turning to Edward, holding two paper bowls, sagging slightly under their own weight.

Edward tried not to laugh at the sight, biting his lip to stop from smiling.

He took the bowl dutifully, looking over what Harvey had made.

It was tinned chicken and cup noodle. There was a thick sauce added, some kind of gravy with a pinkish hue. Probably made with the sauce and powder packets included with the cup noodles.

He scooped some up with his fork, and took a bite. Part of him expecting it to taste foul.

It didn’t.

It was actually really good.

Salty, with a slight sweetness.

He must have added some of that brown sugar. And he’d obviously mixed the sauce packets from two different cup noodles together, but they complimented each other.

It was far better than he’d expected.

“We probably could have done better with more time. Some actual ingredients.”

There was a slight anger to Harvey’s voice. As if he were upset with his own perceived inadequacy.

Edward shook his head quickly, “No, it’s actually good!”

“Some oregano would fix it,” Harvey continued to grumble.

Edward leant over to give Harvey a soft shove, “It’s good as it is,” he assured.

Harvey huffed, extending his own arm to give Edward a shove in return. “What would you know?” He smirked. “You can’t even make coffee.”

Edward chuckled, moving with Harvey’s shove to avoid spilling his food. “I’m getting better,” he said to defend himself.

Their shared laughter faded, and they continued to eat in silence.

It was really good. For tinned chicken and cup noodle.

Edward looked over at Harvey, watching him eat.

After a moment Harvey’s eyes flicked up and met Edward’s.

There was a softness to his expression. There was no argument raging angrily inside him. Nothing unsaid. He seemed content.

Edward felt his chest swell and tighten.

“What?” Harvey asked, his voice soft, warm, almost concerned.

Edward shrugged, “Nothing. I’m…” a crease formed on his forehead, “Guess I’m happy.”

“Decent food will do that.”

“Company too,” Edward added.

Harvey smiled.

Actually smiled. Not just a little smirk.

There was that urge again.

To kiss him.

Fuck.

He tried his best to reject the thought.

A frown ghosted Harvey’s face. “Edward. Something’s wrong.” His eyes flicked down to Edward’s bowl as he spoke.

“Nothing’s wrong, Harvey. I promise.”

Harvey grunted, obviously not believing him. “Whenever you’re ready to stop lying just let me know.”

He thought Edward was lying about the food, placating him.

“I’m not lying, I promise, the food is good. I was just thinking about the work.”

Harvey’s eyes dragged over Edward’s face, and Edward felt his cheeks turn hot at the inspection.

He could have sworn Harvey’s eyes stopped on his lips.

He felt his stomach twitch.

No. He was imagining things.

Harvey pulled back, reaching into his pocket and pulling his coin out, flipping it.

He caught the coin and looked at it, and the expression on his face flattened. Quickly he returned to his food.

A frown flashed on Edward’s face as he assessed the action.

He had to be reading into it. Making connections that weren’t there, again. He did that sometimes.

Edward followed Harvey in his move; back to his food, finishing it quickly.

“That was so good. Maybe we should get you some actual ingredients?”

“That would mean leaving the room again,” Harvey growled.

Edward swallowed hard. “Yeah…” His eyebrows quirked up, “Maybe we could doordash something to the front desk?”

“You didn’t think of that before?”

Edward shrugged awkwardly.

A smirk returned to Harvey’s face, “And you call yourself a genius?”

Chapter Text

Edward watched intently as Harvey made coffee the next morning. On his side in bed, propped up by one elbow, barely blinking.

Scoop of pre-mix.

2 scoops of brown sugar.

Cold water.

Mix.

Hot water.

Mix.

Fill.

Done.

How was that any different than how he had done it?

Harvey crossed the room to hand him his cup.

He took a sip.

It was perfect.

He shook his head, “Dammit…”

Harvey shrugged, sipping his own coffee, a smug energy to the action. He sat on the bed at Edward’s feet. “You'll get it eventually.” He gave Edward's leg a soft pat. “You overthink everything.”

Edward felt his gut tense at the physical touch.

So pathetic.

He wished he could brush those feelings away.

A few nights of sleeping with Harvey clinging to him like a security blanket, and now he couldn’t get through a conversation without… feeling something he didn’t want to.

“Does it bother you? Having to share a bed with me?” he asked, testing.

Harvey shook his head, a frown coming to his face at the supposed suddenness of the question. “No?” He looked over at Edward, his eyes searching him for something. Context. He flipped his coin before asking for it. “Should it?”

Edward shrugged, the action weak and non-committal. “I-... Most men would feel uncomfortable.”

Harvey shook his head again, “Not me. You being gay doesn’t matter to me. It would be hypocritical.”

Edward felt his throat tighten. “What?” he squeaked, trying to sound normal. “Hypocritical?”

“I’ve had men before,” Harvey exposited. He flipped his coin. “Well. A man. In college.”

Edward’s throat was dry, his heart in his ears, practically drowning out what Harvey was saying. He felt as if he’d just been punched in the chest.

Harvey punching him in the chest would have been less of a surprise.

“So, no.” Harvey confirmed, matter of factly. “Doesn’t bother me.”

“Ok,” Edward breathed, his grip on his cup tightening, a torrent of questions filling his head. None of which he could ask.

He couldn’t help one question slipping out.

“Just once?”

He bit his lip, chastising himself internally.

Harvey shook his head. “Roommates. Happened every time we got drunk. Messy. Temporary. Just something to do.” His face twitched with embarrassment as he reminisced. “I threw up on him once.”

“Were you even attracted to him?” Edward couldn’t stop himself from questioning.

Harvey gave him a look, a frown coming to his face that made Edward feel like he’d said too much. “We don’t fuck people we’re not attracted to,” he stated. “I’m not an animal…”

He sounded a little defensive, but Edward couldn’t help but feel his pulse quicken.

Edward let a smirk come to his lips, trying to lighten the mood he’d created. “It makes sense for you, bisexuality. It fits your brand. Two sides of the same coin and all that.”

Harvey let out a soft huff of a breath. “Cute,” he grumbled.

Edward swirled the last of the coffee in his cup, pretending to give it his full attention.

“I should probably get to work,” he said after a moment of silence, during which he worked on calming himself.

He slid himself onto the floor, back up against the edge of the bed. He pulled his laptop to him, opening it to see that the data had finished processing, finally. And now he could begin writing his genius little program.

“Finally,” he said, his voice breathy and filled with excitement.

He could feel Harvey’s eyes on him as he began to tap away.

He heard the coin flip, and then felt Harvey’s foot press up against his side.

“Oh,” he said quietly, glancing back up at Harvey, his fingers continuing to play on the keyboard. “Um. There’s not really anything for you to do… I need to write this, and I know coding isn’t, uh…”

“Yeah, we don’t know that shit.”

“Yeah…”

Harvey flopped back onto the bed, flicking his coin a few more times.

Edward tried not to let the noise bother him, sinking comfortably into his work.

Coding was familiar. Predictable. He knew what he was doing.

Much simpler than dissecting his feelings.

A program would do exactly what he told it to. If it didn’t he knew exactly what to do to fix the problem.

He shifted slightly against the bedframe. He felt Harvey move, pressing his foot harder against his side.

His eyes stayed on the screen, but his mind drifted to the pressure he felt on him.

Harvey kept his foot there.

Still flipping his coin. 

Edward forced his focus back to the code, fixing an erroneous line.

The rhythmic noise rang through Edward’s brain.

“You two are so loud…” Edward mumbled.

Harvey paused. The pressure of his foot weakening. “I wasn’t aware we were speaking aloud.”

“You’re not. Just flipping your coin.”

“Trying to win an argument,” Harvey justified.

Edward let himself laugh, shaking his head. “Can’t you just watch tv, or something?”

Harvey didn’t respond. He gave Edward’s side a series of soft taps with his foot. Equally as annoying as the coin flips.

“Harvey,” he cooed, as if he were talking to a child. “I need to concentrate.”

Harvey continued tapping him.

Edward let himself laugh again, unable to stop himself. He moved his hand from the keyboard to grab Harvey’s ankle.

“Please…”

Harvey lifted his head to look down at Edward.

He was smiling.

Edward felt his heart stop at the sight.

“You’re fucking with me on purpose, aren’t you?” he accused. “Harvey, this is important. I’ve been waiting a whole day to get to the point where I can code this.”

“Give me something to do, then,” Harvey retorted.

“There is nothing for you to do.”

“Then we will entertain ourselves.”

Harvey pulled his foot from Edward’s grip, and gave him a few more deliberate, rhythmic taps.

“If you’re going to act like a child you can have some paper and do some colouring? How about that?”

Harvey let out a soft huff. Then stopped poking him.

He flipped his coin again.

Then Edward felt Harvey pull away. Feeling a pit form inside him at the lack of contact.

“Won’t you find the TV annoying too?” Harvey asked.

Edward shrugged. He wasn’t wrong. “I don’t want you to be bored.”

He felt Harvey’s foot press up against him again as he spoke. “I like spending time with you, we won’t get bored.”

He felt Harvey’s foot tense, and retract.

There was a moment of silence between them.

Then heard the coin flip again.

And then the TV flicked on.

Edward sat, frozen, analyzing what had just happened.

Harvey liked spending time with him. He wasn’t just staying with him because he had nowhere else to go.

Edward had suspected as much, of course.

But his foot. That pause..? It felt loaded.

There was something there.

Maybe he was overthinking again.

He needed to focus on his code. He had to get this done.

For a few hours he forced himself to focus on his work.

As the time passed it got easier, but every time Harvey shifted, cleared his throat, flipped his coin, changed the channel, his attention jumped to him, just for a moment. Reading unwillingly into every one.

He only let his eyes move from the screen when Harvey finally left the bed- after a coin flip, of course. He made his way to the counter, rooting through the bags of groceries.

He held out an oat bar and a banana for Edward to take.

“Oh,” Edward said, surprised at the caring move, trying to keep a smile from his face. As he looked at the food infront of him he realised that he hadn’t yet eaten. “Thankyou,” he said as he took the banana and began to peel it.

As he spoke his and Harvey’s eyes met.

His gaze was so warm.

Harvey broke their eye contact first, Edward noticed, and he began to peel his own banana.

“I should take a break,” Edward mumbled, turning where he sat, towards the tv, beginning to eat his food. “The Good Place, again?”

“We’re nearly at the end,” Harvey said to confirm. “Dunno what to watch next.”

“100 years of tv, I’m sure you can find something entertaining.”

Harvey huffed, “Nothing entertaining came out before the 1970s.”

Edward frowned deeply in disbelief. “Oh, you’re kidding. 1939 The Wizard of Oz? 1946 It’s a Wonderful Life? The 1932 Jekyll and Hyde? That doesn’t interest you?”

Harvey smirked, then flipped his coin, letting out a soft hum at the result. His eyes met Edward’s, a glint shining through. “That was to decide if I was going to make a ‘friend of dorothy’ joke,” he informed Edward playfully. “Decided against it.”

“I want to kill you,” Edward joked back, laughing, realising the trap he’d fallen face first into.

He felt that urge fill him again. The urge to kiss him.

It was getting harder to resist that urge.

The air between them felt heavy. Charged with… something. Edward refused to assess what it was, turning his attention to his oat bar.

Harvey stayed standing, stayed still. After a moment he flipped his coin again, and then frowned.

Chapter Text

“Idea,” Harvey said, the word preceded by a coin flip, breaking the near silence that had sat between them for several minutes, since their movie had ended.

“Hm?” Edward questioned, his eyes not leaving the screen, his fingers dancing on the keyboard.

“We can find the best way to access Ace.”

Edward’s fingers paused for a microsecond, before continuing on.

He already had a plan in place to access the servers, but nothing was solid yet, he hadn’t wanted to give himself too tight of a deadline.

There was no harm in letting Harvey come up with something. Maybe he would come up with the same idea Edward had had. There was a slim chance he’d come up with something better than Edward had. Two minds were better than one, after all.

“Sure. Good idea.”

“What were you thinking?”

Edward felt himself smile, looking over at Harvey, finally stopping typing. Of course Harvey had guessed that Edward already had a plan.

“Well, sadly we can't do it remotely, I already tried a spoof login and I lost access immediately… had to relocate just in case. The USB needs to be installed directly into the server, and left for no less than 4 minutes before being safely removed.”

“-We might see some action,” Harvey interjected, happy.

“I thought I was going to have to have one of my little rats do it…. But I… I don’t trust them to complete the job.”

“Do you trust us to?” Harvey asked.

“Of course,” Edward nodded. He was surprised by how quickly and easily the response came to him.

He cleared his throat, “More than any of them, at least,” he added quickly, “You know, once I told one of them to gather information on Vicky Vale, the reporter, and he came back to me with just her comings and goings? Like I care when she leaves for work.”

“No passwords or bank info or..? It seems obvious to us that’s what you wanted.”

“Exactly! You get it.” Edward let his hand leave the keyboard to give Harvey a soft pat on the arm.

“He no longer works for you, we assume?”

Edward shook his head. “I let Joker borrow him.”

“Oh, so he’s dead.” Harvey smirked, looking Edward over. “Ruthless.”

Edward shrugged, a blush threatening him at the fire in Harvey’s eyes. “He shouldn’t have been so stupid.”

Harvey flipped his coin, then let out a soft hum. “We’ll need CCTV access to the building, and any known allies or weak links in the business. Do we have access to blueprints?”

“I have some,” Edward nodded, his fingers tapping on the keyboard again, pulling up the blueprints. “I’m sending them now.”

“Thankyou,” Harvey grumbled. He picked up a stack of papers and one of Edward’s phones. He flipped his coin again, then paused. “We should eat before we get started.”

“I’m good,” Edward said with a shake of his head, returning to his coding.

Harvey growled and flipped his coin again. “You need to eat too, Edward.” He shook his head, “You never stop.”

“Nope,” Edward confirmed.

He focussed on the laptop, letting Harvey get up and begin on food.

If he continued to work at the speed he had been it would be less than 3 days till the program was finished, by the end of the week he’d have an entry way into Ace security systems.

From there the world was his oyster.

Harvey sat back on the bed next to him, Edward jumped at the sudden weight against him. His eyes flicked over to see that Harvey was holding out an oat bar for him.

“I said I’m fine,” Edward smiled, shaking his head dismissively.

“Don’t smirk at me. I will force feed it to you.”

Edward let out a sigh, letting his hands leave the keyboard again, taking the oat bar and unwrapping it. “Thankyou.”

“Good,” Harvey grumbled, his eyes still on Edward as he ate his food. “You’re as bad as we are,” he added.

“At least I know how to keep a roof over my head,” Edward said, mouth full of food.

“Say that again,” Harvey growled. It came across as more playful than threatening.

Edward felt a spark in his gut at the tone, swallowing his food. “Get to work,” he ordered. “We’ve got too much to do.”

Harvey tutted, then flipped his coin again. “Fine,” he grunted, picking Edward’s phone back up and unlocking it.

Edward tried to turn his attention away from the heat in his face, his racing heartbeat.

He had to focus on his work. He had so much to do. He was so close.

He didn’t need Harvey distracting him. He had something to do now, why did he still insist on playing with him like that? 

After a few minutes and a few coin flips Harvey settled down, the sound of pen scratching on paper flowing from him. The soft sounds relaxing Edward and helping him concentrate on his own work.

It was more likely the oat bar. Edward couldn’t recall if he’d eaten otherwise. He had had Harvey’s coffee that morning, that much he did remember.

He wanted to try making coffee for them again. He’d watched Harvey make it enough times now.

He found a natural stopping point in his code, and put the laptop down.

He could feel Harvey’s eyes on him as he got up.

“What?” he said softly, his eyes flicking back to Harvey for a moment.

Harvey flipped his coin, then shrugged, “I didn’t realise you and the laptop could be physically separated.”

“Only occasionally,” Edward retorted. He began to make coffee, a cup for him and a cup for Harvey.

One scoop pre-mix.

Two scoops brown sugar.

A little cold water.

Mix.

Hot water.

Mix. 

Fill.

Done.

He sipped the coffee, then shook his head.

“For fuck’s sake,” he growled.

It wasn’t right. It wasn’t as good as Harvey’s.

He couldn’t even get coffee right?

Harvey made it right.

“It’s just coffee,” Harvey said to comfort him.

It didn’t work.

Edward stepped forward, thrusting Harvey’s cup in his direction. “Drink your swill,” he grumbled, he put his cup of crappy coffee on the bedside table and sat down, pulling his laptop back onto his lap.

Harvey took a sip. “It’s good,” he offered.

“It’s not,” Edward whined. He leaned in close to the screen of the laptop, typing away furiously.

The code took shape before him. Despite the unwanted distractions. Despite Harvey’s eyes prying into him.

He was meant to be working on the task Edward had given him, not watching him work.

The sound of Harvey’s pen on paper had stopped.

“Back to work, Harvey.”

“We’re drinking our coffee.”

“You’re looking at me.”

“TV’s not on.”

Edward glanced over his shoulder, his eyes catching Harvey’s. He grabbed the remote and tossed it his way. 

He made no move to take it.

“Tv’s not as interesting.”

Edward felt his heart lump in his throat. He scoffed to cover the tightness inside him. “What is interesting about watching me write?”

Harvey flipped his coin, the corner of his mouth twitched. “It’s like watching a bee on a flower.”

Edward frowned, “I’m like a bee?”

Harvey shrugged and nodded, flipping his coin again.

“Ok…” Edward turned away, shaking his head. Not letting Harvey see the blush on his face. He tried to focus on his code again.

He could still feel Harvey’s eyes on him.

His face grew hotter.

Why a bee?

…

He looked at the laptop screen. And saw the words ‘why a bee’ staring back at him.

He deleted the stray words, shifting to try to stop Harvey from seeing his screen, just in case.

Harvey chuckled behind him, flipping his coin again.

The sound sent a shiver up Edward’s spine, part humiliation and part affection, a warmth at the sound.

He closed the laptop, defeated. “Thankyou, Harvey, you have sufficiently distracted me.”

Harvey flipped his coin again. “Ok.” He leant forward on the bed, his head just over Edward’s shoulder. “Is there a deadline you’re working to?” he asked, his voice suddenly focussed and quiet.

Edward shook his head stiffly, unnerved by how close Harvey had gotten. “Nothing solid, but the sooner the better.”

Harvey nodded, pulling away by a hair's breadth. “You putting your little riddles in the code?”

Edward felt himself bristle at the term. ‘Little riddles’. Harvey was trying to get under his skin on purpose, he was sure, though he didn’t know why.

“No,” he growled.

He didn’t want to. The whole point was that it couldn’t be traced back to him, as proof of his genius as it was, it would work its magic under everyone’s nose.

But Edward had had it happen before, where he hadn’t wanted to include a riddle, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself.

He was working on his compulsions and intrusive thoughts, like the one he kept having about kissing Harvey.

“Would you be offended if I checked your code to make sure?”

Edward felt his stomach twitch, no longer thinking about kissing Harvey. “Offended?” he frowned, “I’d be thoroughly insulted.” The thought of Harvey tampering with his art… He pushed, squashing his temper back down into himself, forcing himself to think logically. “But I’d rather you found something than the bat, I guess.”

Harvey flipped his coin again. “We don’t want you to get caught.”

“Were you distracting me on purpose, Harvey?” Edward asked, “Because you are worried about me getting caught?”

Another coin flip, then silence. Harvey pulled away, leaning back on the bed again. Edward felt his insides squirm at the silence, resisting the urge to look back at him.

“We don’t distract people we don’t care about,” Harvey said, quiet and cryptic.

Edward huffed out a breathy laugh, trying to cover up the heat Harvey’s answer caused in him. “Cute.”

He felt a soft hit to his side as Harvey kicked out at him.

“What? You can call me cute but I can’t call you cute?”

“We’re not cute.”

“And I am?” Edward scoffed.

Silence stretched between them again. Edward felt a tension grow between them, heat building in his face.

He cleared his throat, hoping to clear the awkwardness between them, and he pulled his laptop back onto his lap. Opening it and beginning to type.

It flowed slightly easier now. A slight but noticeable weight had lifted from him. He didn’t feel the need to police himself as much as far as riddles went, he could let the text fall from his fingers and trust that Harvey would catch any riddles he accidentally dropped.

He would put a couple in on purpose, he decided, for Harvey to find, just to make sure he was actually paying attention. If he caught both of them Edward knew he had nothing to worry about.

One had already sprung to mind. 

‘If a man holds a bee in his hand, what is in his eye?’

Talk about cute.

His fingers paused above the keyboard, his eyes fixed on the riddle hidden in the code. Was it too obvious? Too…

It was stupid.

He should delete it.

He didn’t.

Chapter Text

Harvey was pacing the room. He’d spent the past day making various noises, accompanying the scratching of pen on paper and the tapping of his fingers on Edward’s borrowed phone. And of course, the occasional flip of his coin.

The pacing was new. He’d gotten up to make them some coffee, and he hadn’t sat back down.

Edward hadn’t commented on it, but he did miss the weight of another person on the bed.

Harvey flipped his coin again, and then stopped pacing, turning to face Edward.

Edward finished up a line of code, then looked up from his laptop.

“Something to say?” Edward enquired.

Harvey nodded, then picked up a piece of paper. Preparing himself as if for a speech, standing straight with one hand behind his back.

“One may think,” Harvey began, “That it would be advantageous to access the Ace HQ through the side entrance, rather than the front entrance, and that is true, however there is clearly an oversight.”

A frown came to Edward’s face, his mouth opening to interject. That had been his first instinct.

Harvey held up a finger to stop him. “The freight dock.”

Edward’s frown deepened, but he stayed quiet.

“Yes, there is the issue of distance.” Harvey continued, “‘The freight dock is on the other side of the building’ we hear you say. That issue is almost entirely countered by this:” he took in a soft breath, as if pausing for effect, “There is only one guard, one door with a keyless digital lock, and a full 110 seconds of camera blindness on the door and following hallway. As long as we can make it down the hallway and stairs within those two minutes we will be like ghosts.”

“And then stay in the lower left quadrant of the server room…” Edward added, nodding.

Harvey gave a stern nod, “Yes. I’ll watch the exit, you install the USB.”

An odd feeling filled Edward as Harvey talked. Part hollow and part… impressed? Was that it? 

He hadn’t even considered the freight dock, he’d realised how far away it was and he’d immediately disregarded it.

Harvey had investigated it and… struck gold.

“It’s a long way, with not much time,” he grumbled.

“It’s less than a quarter of a mile, anyone could run that in 2 minutes.”

Edward gave a soft hiss, considering talking back, deciding against it.

He could probably do that.

Eventually he nodded. It was a good plan.

He couldn’t believe he’d overlooked it himself. Gone for a more convenient option and subsequently put himself in more danger.

“It’s a good plan,” he said, giving Harvey a nod. “Do we have the code for the lock?”

“We’re still working on that,” Harvey admitted. “Our eyesight isn’t the best.”

Edward nodded again, “I can help with that.” He smiled, “How about you go over my code. Do not delete anything without my approval. While I check the surveillance and try to get the code.” He paused a moment, chewing his lip. “If I can’t get it we might need to… go and look.”

The idea of leaving the motel for something as simple as getting the code was not appealing.

“Or you could ask one of your rats to do it?” Harvey suggested.

Edward grunted. He wasn’t sure which was worse, asking some lackey to collect an important piece of their puzzle, or leaving the motel to get it themselves.

“Neither is ideal,” Harvey grumbled, externalising Edward’s internal conflict.

Edward gave a nod, then held out the laptop to Harvey. “Hopefully it won't come to that,” he said weakly.

Harvey took the laptop, then sat on the bed. He flipped his coin, then pressed himself against Edward’s side, the action comforting and gentle. He opened the laptop and began to read through Edward’s code, leaving Edward to watch the footage.

Edward isolated every instance he could find of workers entering the entrance code. Hours of footage of the same set of people pressing the same buttons.

It was a 6 digit code.

The first number was a 7.

He could feel Harvey’s warmth next to him, pressing softly into him.

The second number was a 0.

He felt Harvey begin to slouch into him.

Had he fallen asleep?

The third number was a 5.

Harvey’s head tipped down, then jolted back up.

He was falling asleep.

Edward smiled, pressing back against Harvey.

His head tipped down again, thunking softly against Edward’s.

“Ow,” Edward said with a chuckle.

Harvey let out a hum, nuzzling into Edward’s scalp. “So boring,” he grumbled sleepily.

“I know,” Edward chuckled again. “Take a break if you want.”

Harvey limply took his coin, flipping it halfheartedly, he forced an eye open to look at the result.

“It’s heads,” Edward said to help, his voice a whisper.

“Gunna nap,” Harvey grumbled, pressing himself back against Edward, closing the laptop and pushing it off himself and onto the bed.

Edward gave a weak nod, feeling Harvey’s weight shift on him.

He was warm, heavy, his breath shallow and steady.

He timed his own breathing to match, and began to feel his own eyelids growing heavy.

He woke with a start, he wasn't sure how long they'd slept.

Harvey was still asleep, leant against him, arm wrapped tight around him, breath hot against his skin. 

It felt so nice.

He knew he should pull away, get back to work, but he didn’t. He didn't want to move and wake Harvey.

Harvey's nose brushed Edward's temple as the man stirred, and Edward felt his own breathing freeze.

A word left Harvey's lips, muffled with sleep. Edward couldn't understand it. 

Was that Spanish?

‘No te-’ something?

A questioning grunt left Edward, involuntarily.

“No te vayas,” Harvey repeated, his voice louder but still a low grumble, squeezing Edward tight.

“Harvey, ow,” Edward whined quietly, feeling every breath of air get squished out of him.

That was definitely Spanish. Too bad Edward didn't know any.

He did have access to Google, however.

But he couldn't get to his phone without potentially waking Harvey.

And he didn't want to risk that. Didn't want to risk breaking this… whatever this was.  

Though he didn't move, his mind worked overtime. Rolling Harvey's phrase over in his head.

No te vayas.

No te vayas.

What did it mean?

‘No te’ meant don't, didn't it?

He had only taken one year of Spanish in school, and that particular year was a blur.

It was a command of some kind?

What did vayas mean?

If he could just get his phone he'd know. Mystery over.

But he didn't want to move, he couldn't disturb Harvey, lose the weight of his arm on him, the breath on his skin. Harvey’s face was so close to his, his lips practically touching Edward's cheek. Just another few millimeters.

He pushed that thought away. 

He had to know.

As slowly as he could hear inched himself out of Harvey's iron grip, picking his phone up clumsily.

He searched the phrase. Then felt blush fill his face. 

Don't go.

He was saying don't go. 

Edward let out a breath, trying to keep himself from reacting as he read the translation over and over.

He wanted to believe Harvey was talking to him. But he knew Harvey was asleep. Dreaming. 

It meant nothing. 

He moved away from Harvey, letting him slump into the bed and wake up. 

“Hey…” Harvey grumbled, his eyes half open as he was disturbed. “Where are you going..?”

Edward kept his eyes on his phone, pulling up the footage he'd been looking at before they'd fallen asleep. He couldn't look at Harvey. He couldn't. “We can't sleep forever, we have work to do, remember?” Edward tried to keep his tone light, despite the crushing weight in his gut that wanted him to lay back with Harvey and never leave.

A shock flashed through him as he felt a hand grab at the back of his shirt, turning his head to see Harvey grabbing at him.

“You're warm,” Harvey grumbled, still half asleep. “Don't go.”

Edward's heart stopped. He shook his head. “I need the bathroom,” he protested weakly, pulling away from Harvey and scrambling off the bed.

When he returned Harvey had fallen back asleep. 

He was so… open when he was tired. Without that fucking coin controlling his every move.

Was that the real him? The real Harvey? The one from before his accident?

Edward wasn’t sure if that was how DID worked. He'd done some light research before they'd first met, just to make sure he didn't commit any faux paus that could lead to his death. 

Harvey had seemed grateful for the research he'd done. 

He took a seat on the floor, back against the wall, positioned so he could still see Harvey, still watch him sleep. 

The steady rhythm of his chest rising and falling.

Watching it filled him with an odd light, calm feeling.

Part of him, a really large part, wanted to rejoin him, fall asleep with him, wake entangled in his limbs again.

But he had work to do.

He had work to do.

Important work. 

He kept repeating it to himself. Ordering himself to work.

Like a knife Harvey's plea sliced through his internal order.

‘Don't go’.

Harvey had grabbed for him like a lifeline. He'd left regardless.

His stomach twisted as the thoughts swirled in his brain.

Quietly he moved back to the bed, sitting on the edge, teetering off, like a coin on its edge. Simultaneously afraid of tipping too far one way or the other and waking Harvey by accident.

How was he meant to work under these conditions?

He stood up and walked to the counter, busying himself with making coffee. One for him, one for Harvey.

One scoop pre-mix.

Two scoops brown sugar.

Cold water.

Mix.

Hot water.

Mix.

Fill.

Done.

It tasted… fine.

He put Harvey's cup on the bedside table, as Harvey usually did for him, and gave his arm a soft tap.

“Harvey?” he sung quietly. “I made us coffee.”

Harvey grumbled softly, running his fingers through his hair and growling, shifting and squirming on the bed. “We were asleep,” he protested, “Why did you get up? We said not to go.”

The words shook Edward more than he expected, his heartbeat lifting into his throat. “We have work to do,” he said weakly, the words catching in his throat.

There was a pause, during which time Edward thought Harvey had slipped back to sleep. He lifted his eyes to Harvey’s face, and found his eyes open, meeting his.

“Drink your coffee,” he forced himself to say. Turning back to his own and taking a sip.

Harvey growled again, lifting himself in the bed and picking up his coffee. “You've never woken us before.”

His statement was more of a question.

“You…” Edward stumbled over himself. “You know you speak in your sleep.”

Harvey stilled slightly, “Did I say something inappropriate?”

Edward couldn't help glancing back. Had he been having an ‘inappropriate’ dream..?

“You tell me,” Edward grumbled, trying to ease some kind of confession from him.

Perhaps he shouldn't have. 

The thought of Harvey clinging to him while thinking about…

He closed his eyes for a moment, forcing himself to calm.

“I'm sorry,” Harvey grumbled. “I don't remember anything.”

A lie?

Edward felt his heartbeat quicken again, despite his efforts. “Well it was in Spanish, so I wouldn't know. You might have nothing to apologise for.”

Harvey gave a weak grunt of acknowledgment. “We apologise for waking you regardless.”

“Is English not your first language?” Edward asked, trying to take his mind away from Harvey's lie, from everything.

Harvey shook his head, “No. Only spoke Spanish till I started school. How did you know?”

“It's quite common for people to speak their first language while they're sleeping. One of the biggest reasons spies get found out. Happened a lot in World War 2. Also happens when people give birth, but I don't think that's something you have to worry about-”

The explanation tumbled from Edward without his permission, his nervous energy filling the silence.

Harvey’s eyes stayed on him, nodding at the appropriate points, he seemed to be actually absorbed in what Edward was saying, or at least entertained by it.

It wasn't helping the nervous energy issue.

He felt like the centre of Harvey's world.

“Sorry, that uh, got away from me,” Edward muttered to shut himself up.

Harvey shook his head, “We like listening to you talk. You're like a documentary, but interesting.”

Edward felt his face flush yet again, he shook his head. “We've got work to do, “ he said again, partly to remind himself. “We don't have time for a history lesson.”

“You said we don't have a deadline,” Harvey reminded him, the sentence punctuated by a flip of his coin. 

“No, but 5 minutes here, 5 minutes there, it adds up quickly.”

Harvey huffed, indignant.

“I know this is the boring bit,” Edward cooed, “but it won't last forever, and the quicker you do it the quicker it'll be over.”

Edward let himself settle back on the bed, careful not to make physical contact with Harvey, not wanting to spur those annoying feelings in his mind. He just wanted to be comfortable while he watched several hours of door footage.

The fourth number was 2.

He felt Harvey's foot nudge him, electricity sparking through him at the touch.

He moved away. Just a little.

He didn't want the distraction. 

Harvey’s coin thwipped somewhere behind him, and he felt another nudge.

Edward looked back at him, figuring Harvey must want attention, not just be seeking physical touch.

He had the laptop on his lap, his eyes fixed intently on the screen as he combed through Edward's code.

“It's beauty,” Harvey stated. “The answer to this riddle you planted.”

Edward smirked, trying to stop his heart swelling. “You found that one, did you?”

“Testing us?” Harvey asked, his tone judgmental.

Edward shrugged. “Just doing my due diligence.”

“We expected as much.” Harvey smirked, lifting his eyes to meet Edward's. “Make the next one a challenge.”

Chapter Text

Edward’s mind played in the background as he watched the surveillance footage. The next riddle for Harvey.

Harvey said to make it a challenge, but he didn’t want to make it too hard. What if he didn’t make it hard enough, and Harvey took it as an insult? What if he made it too hard and he didn’t catch it? Or he thought he was lording his intelligence over him?

He had a few ideas, but he couldn’t decide.

His brain was going numb from watching the door footage. He could practically feel his IQ dropping, and he still had 2 numbers left to collect, even after staring at the screen all day.

He let his eyes slip closed for a moment, he could still see the door in his mind.

“Hey,” Harvey said softly, giving Edward’s arm a tap. “Don’t you go falling asleep on me now.”

“Nah, that’s your job,” Edward jibed back. “My eyes hurt from staring at the damn pin-pad.”

“2 numbers left, still?”

Edward nodded, the corners of his mouth dropping into a dramatic frown. “They keep shielding their hands.”

“We could always send someone to do reconnaissance. Or go ourselves to look. If we could see from a different angle.”

Edward shook his head, “I don’t want to risk going to the site. If someone sees us they’ll ramp up security and our whole plan goes down the toilet.”

Harvey flipped his coin, letting out a huff at the result. “You’re not going to get anything looking at that footage. When they’re shielding the numbers they’re shielding it from the camera. They probably have some foreman breathing down their neck about it.”

“Can’t think why,” Edward joked. He shook his head, dismissing himself, “I’m sure someone will slip up. I’ve only got…” he checked the timeline, and felt his soul drop through the floor, “7 hours left of footage. Oh my god. I need a break.”

He pinched his brow, throwing the phone onto the bed.

“Coding or tv,” Harvey said aloud, giving his coin a flip, then shrugging as he looked at it. “Tv.”

“We should have some food too,” Edward added.

“Did we even eat this morning?” Harvey mumbled.

Edward shrugged, “I… don’t remember. This morning feels like two days ago. I am hungry, though, I know that much.”

Harvey clambered off the bed, closing the laptop as he did. Edward’s heart clenched at the movement: he didn’t have access to another laptop, if Harvey broke this one they were screwed.

“Be careful,” he warned.

Harvey glanced up at him, a frown ghosting his face. “We are being careful, Edward.” He walked to the counter. “What do you want?”

Edward let out a playful hum, “I think we’ve got bananas and oat bars, or oat bars and bananas. I can’t choose.”

“We’ve got cup noodles, we’ve got peanut butter and jelly… a lot more than just oat bars and bananas, we’ve barely touched anything else.”

Edward let out a hum, he’d honestly forgotten that food outside of oat bars and bananas existed. Been so caught up in work, amongst other things.

“Just give me whatever, I don’t care,” he said dismissively.

Harvey flipped his coin a few times in quick succession.

Edward watched as Harvey picked up a banana, holding his hand out to receive it. To his surprise he opened it and began to cut it with one of the plastic knives they’d accumulated, then started spreading peanut butter onto the slices, arranging them into a circle on one of their paper bowls.

Edward’s eyebrow quirked as Harvey held the bowl out to him. “Thankyou?” He looked down at the bowl, “Very pretty.”

“You need to eat more,” Harvey informed him. “You don’t eat enough protein or fat. You need to keep your weight up.”

Edward shook his head, “I’m fine. After my plan has come to fruition we’ll get burgers, how about that?”

Harvey frowned. “Edward, we’re being serious. You have to run a quarter of a mile in 2 minutes. You won’t be able to if you don’t eat.”

Edward glanced away. Harvey had a point.

He usually let his body begin to fail him while he was working like this. There had been a couple of times he’d had to be put on an IV upon admission to Arkham due to dehydration and poor nutrition. It hadn’t occurred to him that he couldn’t run on empty this time.

He picked up one of the slices of banana, smeared with peanut butter, and popped it into his mouth.

A soft moan left him as he chewed. It was genuinely good.

Maybe he was just that hungry.

He wolfed down his bowl of bananas and showed Harvey his empty bowl. “Happy?”

Harvey shrugged, then flipped his coin. “We should doordash a meal.”

Edward frowned, “What? No. That’s too risky.”

“We’ll get them to leave it at the door, no contact delivery. They won’t see us.”

Edward let out a grumble, chewing his lip. “We have food already.”

“Eat more of it, then,” Harvey ordered, his voice flat.

The frown on Edward’s face deepened. “I don’t like your tone, Harvey. I don’t like being told what to do any more than you do.”

Harvey’s hand twitched into a fist, and Edward felt his stomach tighten with panic.

His hand moved fast, and Edward tensed himself, instinctive anticipation of a blow.

Then heard the thwip of Harvey’s coin.

“Are you scared of us?” Harvey’s voice filled the room, almost as unsettling as violence would have been. 

Edward gave his head a stiff shake.

“Eat more,” Harvey ordered, “Or you will be.”

He picked up another banana, holding it out for Edward to take.

Edward let himself look up at him. It felt as if their eyes meeting would be taken as a threat, but when they did Edward saw only concern. 

“You've got to eat more too,” Edward said sternly, knowing his words wouldn't have the same chilling effect, but hoping the message would convey regardless.

Harvey swallowed, his eyes darting away momentarily as his adams apple bobbed.

Slowly, as if he too were waiting for a physical blow, he turned and picked up a banana for himself.

“Careful,” Edward jibed, “or I'll start thinking you're scared of me.”

Harvey's eyes flicked over him, and he couldn't help feeling exposed.

“You want me to be?” Harvey asked.

Edward paused. “Well, no…” he looked down at his bowl, marking the sticky smears of peanut butter with his nail. “Fear’s not respect.”

“You want us to respect you?”

Edward gave a weak nod, a halfhearted shrug.

“Would you respect someone who can't feed themselves?”

Edward let out a hum. “That's an… apt point,” he grumbled.

Harvey flipped his coin again. “We're not taking breaks to eat anymore. We eat while we work.”

Edward's lip curled in disgust at the thought of having a sticky keyboard, but nodded regardless. 

“We should also do physical exercise, we don't want to get a stitch while executing our plan.”

Edward felt a more obvious look of disgust creep into his face at the thought, but again nodded regardless.

It was a good idea. He would never forgive himself if he got caught because he couldn't do something as simple as run down a hallway.

“Don't look at me like that.” Harvey growled, mouth full of banana, “You know it has to be done.”

“I can agree with you and still hate it,” Edward chimed back. 

“We don't like exercise either, “ Harvey admitted.

“Really?” Edward cocked his head, looking Harvey up and down. “You? You're built like you did football in college.”

“Lacross. We hated it.”

Edward snorted, unable to hold back a laugh. He held up his hand as apology. “What would you suggest we do?” he asked quickly to cover up his embarrassment.

“We would have to focus on core and legs,” Harvey said, his voice serious again, as if Edward had got him in his element. “Lunges, jogging, situps, squats.” He paused for a moment, “Stretches, first. Very important.”

Edward nodded, his stomach clenching at the thought of doing any of that. “You’re gunna have to talk me through all that, as if I don’t know, and can’t do any of it. Because I can’t.”

Harvey slumped slightly, his eyes slipping closed. He took another banana and sat on the bed again, beginning to eat it. “An absolute beginner?” he growled. 

“Only stretches I’ve ever done are the ones for carpal tunnel. And cubital tunnel.”

Harvey let out another growl. “Ok… We’ll show you.”

“Oh am I going to get a show?”

“You’re going to do them with us.”

Edward glanced across the room, “Will we have room..?”

“It’ll be close quarters, but yes. Just push the bed against the wall.”

The thought of working out with Harvey was simultaneously thrilling and repulsive. He watched helplessly as Harvey flipped his coin, then got to the floor, pushing the bed back to free up more floor space, revealing who knew how many years of lint and muck.

“Oh, gross,” Edward remarked, reclining at the sight.

Harvey let out an affirming grunt, reaching forward to brush the debris back under the bed. “Sometimes we forget that we’re in a motel…” He glanced up at Edward, “Come here.”

Edward huffed. “I thought we were going to watch tv.”

Harvey reached for the tv remote, and flicked it on, pulling up a film at random. Some animated thing for children. “On the floor,” he ordered.

“Shouldn’t we wait till our food’s digested first? Isn’t that a thing..?” Edward said quietly, knowingly grasping at straws.

“That’s swimming, and that’s a myth. We’re just going to talk you through the basics.”

“I know it’s a myth,” Edward retorted weakly as he sat on the floor infront of Harvey.

“Let's see what you can do. Basic stretches. Stick your legs out straight, then lean forward and try to touch your toes.” Harvey demonstrated as he talked, bending himself in half on the floor, wrapping his fingers around his toes.

Edward mirrored him, only just able to reach.

“Hold for 5 seconds. Then relax.”

Edward groaned, “This is already awful.”

Harvey moved into the next pose, one leg bent, the other stretched out, and once again grabbed his foot. Edward mirrored him again.

One by one they moved through a set of stretches, Edward matching each pose, almost.

“Not bad for my first try,” Edward smirked.

“That was just the stretches,” Harvey frowned. “Now we’re going to try sit ups. Lay down on the floor with your legs bent.”

Edward compiled, reluctantly. Harvey took his feet and pressed them to the floor, pressing down on them with his knees, leaning over him. “Cross your arms across your chest. Slowly bring yourself up.”

Edward nodded, feeling his face flush with nervousness, and tried to lift himself up, making it about halfway.

“Go further up, try to make your chin touch your knees.”

“I’ll headbutt you.”

“No you won’t.”

Edward forced himself up again, their faces almost touching for a moment before he fell back against the carpet.

Harvey let out a low chuckle, the noise reverberating through Edward’s gut. “You’re babying yourself. You can do anything you set your mind to, you’re a genius, aren’t you?”

Edward could hear his pulse in his ears, turning them red. He forced himself up one more time, his eyes fixing on Harvey’s lips as he approached them. He could smell the coffee on his breath.

He thudded back onto the carpet and shook his head. “No. That’s enough.”

“Congratulations, you did 2.”

“3!”

“2. They only count if you sit up all the way.”

Edward covered his face, groaning and squirming. “We need another plan.”

“No, our plan is fine as it is.” Harvey shifted, taking his weight off Edward’s feet. He flipped his coin. Then moved to hook his own feet under the bed, laying back on the carpet. “Watch me,” he instructed.

He crossed his arms over his chest, and began doing situps.

Before trying them himself Edward wouldn’t have thought of doing situps as impressive, but the way Harvey did them truly was.

The movement was slow and smooth, his legs tense but barely moving. Edward hadn’t been able to stop his legs from shaking.

He climbed up on the bed, sitting at Harvey’s knees.

“How many of these can you do?”

Harvey’s eyes locked with Edward’s as he continued to do situps, his head bobbing, breathing soft and slow. Words broken by sit ups, one sentence on the way up, then a breath, then another sentence on the way down. “Normally stop at 100. We’ve done 700 before, but we’re never doing that again.”

“700?” Edward said, shocked. “I couldn’t get past 3.”

“It’s a skill. You have to work to improve it. Increase your stamina. Core strength. Legs.”

Edward waved his hand dismissively, “It’s hard to take you seriously while you’re doing that.”

Harvey smiled, eyes still locked on Edward. “Impressive, I know.”

Edward sat back on the bed, hoping to hide his blush from Harvey. “Sure.”

He fixed his eyes on the tv. Watching as… some guy got turned into a cat?

He had not been paying attention.

“Where’s the remote?”

No answer from Harvey, just his soft rhythmic breaths.

Edward found himself breathing in time, calming himself with the action.

“Harvey?” he pried.

He heard the coin flip.

“Do 5 squats and I’ll let you have it.”

Edward frowned. “I said I’m done.”

“Guess you’re watching this, then.”

Edward rolled his eyes, and settled back on the bed.

After a few minutes Harvey emerged from his place on the floor. He’d barely broken a sweat. “You didn’t watch me.”

“I watched enough. You’re a very impressive specimen.” Edward cooed playfully. “Do I have to run? Can’t you carry me?”

Harvey flipped his coin, then shrugged, “You do have to run,” he confirmed, an equally playful tone to his voice. “We’ll work on it. You’ll get there. It won’t take long.”

Edward nodded, reassured. “Yeah. We don’t have a time limit, we can wait until we’re ready. I’m just… I didn’t realise how…” his sentence trailed off, unsure exactly of how to finish it. Finishing it would force him to confront how poorly he treated himself.

“Neither of us are in great shape,” Harvey concurred, his voice oddly quiet and tentative. “We can work together to fix that.”

Chapter Text

The addition of exercise into their day had intensified the need Edward felt to find a laundrette. Everyday muck and grime he could stand but the smell of sweat was only comforting to a point, and on himself he didn’t find it appealing. 

When he showered he was having to put on the same dirty clothes again, or put ones on that were wet from the shower too.

It was getting overwhelming.

Harvey didn’t seem to mind as much, or at least didn’t voice it.

Edward knew that Harvey’s accident had affected his eyesight as well as his sense of touch on his burned half, maybe it had affected his sense of smell too, somehow.

He had taken a break from staring at that footage of the door. Another break. He couldn’t concentrate on it. Not with Harvey distracting him.

Constantly shifting, breathing, clicking… Flipping that damned coin.

He had been right. The footage was so boring his brain was searching for distractions.

Harvey was as apt of a distraction as the laundry was.

The laundry matter was more pressing, though.

He was having the same repeating dilemma. With the laundry, with the code, with the food. Every issue led to the same dead end: they couldn’t leave the room. Not to do laundry, not to check the code, not to buy food.

They were stuck here. In dirty clothes.

Edward pinched the collar of his shirt, lifting it to his nose, taking a sharp sniff, feeling his face twist in disgust.

Harvey’s eyes flicked to him at the sound. He was perched on the edge of the bed, laptop balanced precariously on his knee, to the point that it wobbled with each keypress.

Yet another thing for Edward to be distracted by.

Harvey flipped his coin, then his eyes returned to the screen.

“We need to go to a laundrette,” Edward decided to voice, instead of letting the thoughts swirl.

Harvey’s eyes moved to him again, slower this time, dragging over him as if he’d just turned purple. “You’re not willing to leave to get the code, but you’re willing to risk everything to clean your socks?”

Edward let out a distraught huff. “No,” he protested his own idea. “No… I’m not. But the lack of hygiene is affecting my morale. This is unbearable, I’m festering, I feel disgusting.”

The thought of all that bacteria made his skin crawl.

“We can’t leave,” Harvey said, a flick of his coin reinforcing his answer.

“I know we can’t leave.”

“We have a bathtub,” Harvey suggested. “And soap.”

“I’m aware, that’s what I’ve been doing, but it’s not the same. It doesn’t get them clean.”

Harvey scoffed, “You’ve never had to wash clothes in a bathtub before, have you?”

Edward raised an eyebrow, “Of course I have,” he lied. “I know how to wash clothes.”

Harvey’s eyes dragged over him again, picking him apart. 

“If you’d like to give a demonstration,” Edward suggested, “We could see how our two methods differ?”

A smile flashed on Harvey’s face, and he closed his laptop, seeming happy to have a distraction himself. He flipped his coin, but Edward got the feeling it was purely habit, and not to decide anything.

“Shirt off,” Harvey ordered, getting to his feet and beginning to pick up the stray articles of clothing from the floor.

“Oh, uh,” Edward glanced down at himself. “This shirt?”

“Are you wearing two?” Harvey quipped. 

Edward watched as Harvey took his own shirt off. He averted his eyes, heart stalling inside him.

“I don’t usually undress on command,” Edward growled in protest.

“You’re welcome to stew in your own filth,” Harvey retorted, his arms full of clothes.

Edward paused for a moment, his lips tight, then slowly removed his shirt.

… It somehow felt sticky and crusty at the same time…

Harvey took the shirt from him, his nose crinkling at the feel of it. He gave his head a weak shake and walked into the bathroom. Edward heard a soft thud as Harvey, assumedly, dropped the clothes in the tub.

Then he heard the rush of water from the tap.

“Come in here and help,” Harvey called back to him. “We’re not doing it all for you.”

Edward realised that he’d been so distracted by his disgusting shirt that he’d not noticed Harvey’s reaction to him being shirtless.

As far as he could remember Harvey hadn’t seen him shirtless. He’d seen Harvey shirtless only the once. On that first night he’d come to the motel.

He had gained back some of his weight, his muscle. It looked good on him. He seemed healthier.

“Edward,” Harvey shouted from the bathroom, summoning him.

Edward got up from the bed, crossing his arms over himself as he crossed the room.

He had never been very confident in himself, physically, his mind was where he shined. Physically he was scrawny, currently undernourished, his ribs were almost visible, deep scars lining his body, cutting him in half at the chest.

He had a hard time believing anyone could find him attractive. That Harvey might find him attractive.

He grit his teeth, pulling his mind away from the thought and forcing himself to be present in their current dilemma.

The water in the bath had turned a horrific beigey-brown colour. Edward felt bile rise in his throat at the sight.

All that gunk…

“So you decided to join us,” Harvey mumbled.

“That’s disgusting,” Edward squeaked.

“It’s pretty bad.” Harvey sunk his burned hand into the water, mixing the clothes in with the steaming water.

It must be boiling. Edward wondered if Harvey could even feel it. He must not be able to, or else why not use both hands.

Edward watched as Harvey swirled the water, and then drained the tub.

“Uh,” Edward stuttered, “You didn’t use any soap.”

“It’s called a pre-soak,” Harvey informed him. He glanced at Edward over his shoulder, the action making Edward’s skin feel hot, making him somehow feel more exposed. “I thought you said you knew how to do this?” he added.

“I- I do,” Edward stuttered, “I just usually use soap during it.”

A soft huff left Harvey, he shook his head and returned his eyes to the washing.

Now he poured soap onto the clothes, beginning to knead them slowly, squeezing them to saturate them.

The thought of touching the soggy clothes made his skin crawl more than wearing them dirty did.

Harvey turned the tap on, pouring water to cover the sludgy mess, continuing to knead with the balls of his hands.

“Come on,” Harvey urged. “I’m not doing this all by myself.”

Edward’s lip curled. “Ugh…” he groaned in complaint. “How dickensian…”

“The sooner you start the sooner you finish.”

Edward continued to hover by the door. “Is this even going to get the clothes clean? We’re using soap, not laundry detergent.” He knew he was talking to delay doing the work, but god it was disgusting work… 

“First we wash with soap, then shampoo. It’ll do.”

Edward frowned, “How long will this take?”

Harvey shrugged, “An hour, maybe two.” He looked back at Edward again, “Get down here and help us.”

His patience was obviously waning. Edward wasn’t sure how much further he could push before Harvey snapped.

He leaned his head back against the door, tapping it softly against the wood.

“Edward,” Harvey barked.

Edward reluctantly sunk to his knees, shuffling in next to Harvey, almost touching him, bare skin to bare skin. He swallowed hard at the realization. “What do I do?”

“Scrub,” Harvey ordered.

Edward picked up one of their shirts, his eyes on Harvey in his periphery, trying not to make it obvious that he wasn't sure exactly what he was doing. He watched Harvey pick up a shirt and begin to scrub, rubbing it hard and fast between his hands, sending soap suds flying. He couldn’t help noticing the muscles in Harvey’s arm flexing.

He mimicked the movement, perfectly, of course. Trying not to notice as the white soap turned off colour.

He wrung out the shirt, dirty water splashing everywhere. “Oh, shit,” he mumbled.

“That’s why we do it shirtless,” Harvey smirked. Edward got the impression he was enjoying his discomfort.

Edward grunted, wiping the water off himself, feeling conscious once again of his own body.

“It’s just water. You’ll survive,” Harvey said, leaning over to give Edward a soft nudge, shoulder to shoulder.

“Barely,” Edward retorted, a small spark zapping through him as he nudged back.

Harvey flicked his hand, deliberately splashing Edward with some of the dirty water, chuckling weakly as Edward recoiled.

Edward splashed him back, “Don’t do that!”

“You gunna stop us?” Harvey growled, his voice halfway between playful and threatening. 

Edward scoffed, shaking his head, “Don’t tempt me.” He glanced over at Harvey, letting a small laugh leave him. Harvey echoed the noise.

“Wring it out, then soak it again, and repeat,” Harvey said after a moment of shared silence, forcing Edward’s attention back to the task at hand.

Edward let out a groan, moving his hands again, copying Harvey’s movements. The rhythmic repetitive movements were quite calming. Or they would be if he weren’t incredibly aware of how dirty the water was.

After some time they worked their way through the clothes, and Harvey drained the tub again, then filled it again.

“My arms hurt already,” Edward grumbled.

“If you exercised more they wouldn’t,” Harvey remarked, mixing the clothes in with the water, rinsing them again, repeating the action of draining and refilling the tub again, before pouring shampoo on the clothes and beginning to knead the clothes. “Just a couple more times,” he said, attempting to reassure him.

Edward grumbled, sticking his hands back in the water and copying Harvey’s movements again.

It took what felt like hours, the repetitive movements quickly losing its relaxing nature, the companionship and closeness of Harvey’s presence forgotten in lieu of the discomfort and pain that sprang in his arms, making his teeth grit.

“We’ve never seen you this quiet,” Harvey smirked, giving Edward another playful nudge.

“I might never talk again, because doing this is going to kill me,” Edward growled.

Harvey chuckled weakly. “You’re so dramatic.”

“I’m an appropriate amount of dramatic.”

“‘My arms hurt’ gets across the message as effectively.”

“My arms hurt, my knees hurt, I don’t think there’s a single muscle in my body that doesn’t hurt right now.”

He held out his arms, doing a few of his PT stretches.

Harvey watched him intently, eyes tracking each muscle movement, frowning softly, “Is it that bad?”

Edward nodded, feeling strings of numbing pain run down his forearm.

Harvey let out a grunt of acknowledgement. “Take a break, we’ll finish up.”

Edward looked Harvey over, trying to measure if this was some kind of test. “I can keep going, I just need to stretch,” he said defensively.

Harvey shook his head, “Don’t push yourself.”

Edward felt something flare inside him. An unwillingness to do what he was told. “No, I can do it.”

Harvey gave the clothes-soup one last stir before draining it again. 

“We just need to wring them out, then hang them.”

Edward nodded, and wrapped his fingers around the sodden fabric, ignoring the twinging in his wrist as he twisted them. The steady drip of the now clean water filling him with a sense of accomplishment. He forced himself to keep pace with Harvey, each twist proved something, though he wasn't sure what he were proving. That he wasn't weak? That he could keep up?

Maybe his previous failure in physical exercise had affected him in a deeper way than he'd realised.

He could feel Harvey watching him. Making sure he didn't push himself too far. Harvey had slowed his own movements, Edward could tell it was deliberate. He was making sure Edward didn't overexert himself. He couldn't say that didn't make him feel babied. Cared for.

“We're done,” Harvey stated, reaching over to take the last item of clothing from Edward. He got to his feet and began hanging them over the shower curtain railing, after flipping his coin he took two of the damp shirts and walked out of the bathroom, leaving Edward on the floor, nursing his wrist.

“What are you doing?” Edward asked after him. 

No answer. 

He slowly got to his feet, his movements stilted as his stillness stiffened muscles resisted. He looked across the room to see Harvey hanging the shirts on the radiator to dry.

“Ah, right,” he grunted.

Harvey looked back at him. “You ok?” he asked quietly.

Edward nodded, flexing his fingers to check for damage. “Yeah, just strained my wrist. It's nothing new, and nothing for you to worry about.”

Harvey flipped his coin, then crossed the room, and forcefully grabbed Edward’s arm, rolling his thumb over his wrist. Somehow he found the painful spot with little effort, and gave it a soft press, massaging the area slowly. “That help?” he asked as he stopped, though he left his hand where it was, practically holding Edward's.

Edward reluctantly pulled his hand back and flexed his fingers again. He nodded at the absence of pain. “Yeah, that's helped a lot, actually.” He glanced at Harvey and smiled as their eyes met. "Something you learned from lacrosse?"

Harvey rolled his eyes dismissively, but then smiled softly and gave a small nod, speaking as if he was telling a secret, “Yeah. It wasn't totally useless.”

Chapter Text

“Come on, Edward,” Harvey growled, encouragement and a rare excitement in his voice, his nails digging into Edward’s knees, putting almost all his weight onto him to keep him grounded.

Edward grit his teeth, holding his breath, keeping his eyes locked with Harvey's.

He fell back onto the carpet, breath rasping as he panted, feeling his muscles scream.

“30!” Harvey crowed happily, he bent over him, cupping the sides of his face and squeezing slightly, warmth immediately coming to Edward's face at the touch. “Edward, I could-” 

Harvey froze, startled by himself, he pulled his hands away quickly, reaching for his coin. The metallic thwip filling the room.

Edward felt a lopsided smile creep onto his face. Letting Harvey's sentence hang, the sound of his praise ringing in his ears. He wanted to ask Harvey to finish his sentence, to taunt him at least.

“Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-” he chanted quietly to himself through grit teeth as Harvey pulled away, every nerve in his body suddenly on fire. He frowned up at Harvey, the verbal slip forgotten in lieu of pain. “How do you do this without wanting to kill yourself?!”

Harvey huffed, “It gets easier. Just keep building yourself up.” He crossed his legs, hands in his lap, playing with his coin. “Squats next.”

“Those are the worst. Can't we have a break?”

Harvey shook his head, “Gotta keep your heartrate up.”

Edward closed his eyes, grit his teeth again, and positioned himself for squats.

1.2. 

His muscles were already burning.

3.

He could feel Harvey's eyes on him.

4.

“Are you enjoying the show?” he asked, his voice strained.

“Watching your form,” Harvey answered.

“So that's a yes?” Edward said, one of his eyes slitting open to see Harvey's reaction. 

He was watching intently, his forehead creasing. “Pause,” he ordered.

Edward stopped, mid squat. Gritting his teeth harder to help hold himself in place.

Harvey lifted himself up, taking Edward by the arms and straightening them. Poking him in the chest to straighten his torso.

“Continue,” Harvey ordered.

5. 6. 

That did make it easier. 

7.

Still felt horrible though. 

His stomach ached, his legs hurt.

He'd had about enough. 

“Get to 10, Edward.”

Harvey's words of encouragement successfully spurred him on.

8. 9.

“Fuck, I hate this,“ Edward whined. 

“One more.”

10.

“Good work.”

Edward let himself fall to the floor. “I hate you, I hate you so much.”

“Us or yourself?” Harvey asked, poking Edward with his toe.

“Ugh. Both. Everyone in this fucking room.”

“You can go back to watching the same footage over and over,” Harvey jibed.

Edward shook his head, the action taking far more effort than it should. “That sounds just as bad. Fuck that door. Fuck my life. And fuck you.”

“We're trying to help you, don't be rude.”

“Everything hurts,” Edward complained.

Harvey let out a soft hum, considering… something, then flipped his coin. “Massage?” he offered.

Edward's throat dried, his breath catching. He must have misheard.

No. There was no chance he had.

Was it a test? Was Harvey messing with him?

The look in his eyes wasn't mocking, no, he seemed… sincere.

“What am I, a cat?” Edward joked, attempting to break the spell Harvey had him under. “I thought you said I was a bee?”

“Some annoying animal,” Harvey quipped back. “Are you incapable of giving a straight answer?” He sat on the bed and gestured for Edward to sit, on the floor, between his legs.

Edward’s eyes flit between Harvey and the space on the floor. “Of course I'm capable, ‘am I willing to’ is the real question,” he said as he crossed the short space.

He sat dutifully, every muscle in his body rigid with something akin to fear. He could feel Harvey’s knees pressing against his sides, holding him still. 

They shared a bed every night, woke every morning practically tangled in each other. 

The prospect of a massage should not make him feel like this. It made no sense. It was so stupid.

Harvey probably didn't think anything of it. It was just a massage. That was it. The same way he'd touched his wrist.

“Relax,” Harvey said, his voice almost a purr.

Edward let out a laugh, the nervous noise ripping from him without warning. “That's not my specialty.”

He felt himself tense moreso, unaware that was possible, as Harvey pulled in close, and placed his hands on him.

Heavy and firm.

Edward was glad Harvey couldn't see the look on his face. He had to be scarlet.

He felt himself begin to melt as Harvey pressed his hands against his shoulders. The discomfort of the situation quickly replaced by relief as Harvey's hands worked their magic.

It really was magic. 

Harvey was practiced, it seemed.

Edward let out a hiss as a small spike of pain shuddered through him.

“Ow, that hurt.”

“That's a knot. That's what we're trying to get rid of.”

Harvey kept pressing into the area. And eventually the pain eased, the pressure started to feel good, in fact.

Really good.

Edward felt his head lul slightly, found himself pressing back against Harvey's thumbs as they rolled down his shoulders.

He could feel the heat of Harvey's steady breath on top of his head as he moved in closer, shifting to the edge of the bed behind him.

It had been so long since he'd let another person touch him like this. 

He hadn't realised quite how badly his body ached.

“You do this to everyone you work with?” he asked, trying to break the tension, bring attention away from himself, stifle the moan threatening his throat.

“No,” Harvey replied, his voice flat with concentration as he worked his hands. “Just you.”

Edward’s mind scrambled for a response, but he found none, lost at Harvey's hand.

The words dominated his mind instead. 

‘Just you’.

“I refuse to believe that. You're too good at this to not have experience.”

Harvey pulled his hands away for a moment, and Edward felt loss fill him, willing his touch to return.

“Believe what you want.”

He heard the coin flip. Then the hands returned, moving slower and deeper now.

He grit his teeth.

“Stop,” he said quietly. His voice was weak but commanding enough, and Harvey stopped touching him.

“You sure?” Harvey asked, his voice low and loaded.

He was enjoying this too. He had to be.

Edward let out a stuttered sound, searching himself for a reason. Finding none.

“The coin said keep going,” Harvey offered.

Edward let out a small huff. “I don't have to do what your coin says. Why don't you tell me what you want, Harvey. And we'll do that.”

Harvey pulled back again, a nerve successfully hit. “That's not how it works, Edward. You know that.”

Edward shook his head, already missing the pressure of Harvey's touch, growing angry at himself for that. “How am I meant to know what's you and what's the coin?” he asked, finally letting free the question that had plagued him. 

Harvey paused at the question, Edward could hear him fiddling with his coin, but didn't hear it flip. “It's all us. One and the same.”

Edward frowned. “I've seen you do things you don't want to before.”

“Part of us wanted it.”

Edward felt his heart sink. Thinking of the circumstances that had led them to where they were now. Part of Harvey had wanted that. Part of him thought he deserved to freeze to death in the snow. He leant back, cautiously, finding Harvey's leg and pressing back against it. Hoping Harvey would find the contact soothing.

Quickly he found his voice again. “I'm glad you let me override the coin, sometimes.”

Harvey didn't move, didn't give any indication that he had even heard Edward speak. After a long moment, Edward wasn't sure exactly how long, Harvey flipped his coin.

There was another moment of silence, a brief one this time, before Harvey spoke.

“Do you trust us, Riddler?” he asked, his voice dry.

Edward felt his gut twitch.

He wasn't sure the extent to which he trusted him.

He was unpredictable. Violent. Impulsive.

But there was no one in the world he trusted more. 

Other than himself, of course.

“I do,” he answered.

“We trust you.” Harvey laid back on the bed, the movement jostling Edward slightly. “That's rare.”

Edward felt a swell in him at the comment. It felt almost like a confession.

Harvey flipped the coin again, more pointed and aggressive with it this time. Edward stilled, and then felt himself flinch as Harvey's hands returned to him, slowly and carefully kneading into him, Edward recalled him making the same movements when they had washed their clothes.

If Harvey’s coin said to keep going, that meant that he wanted to keep going, at least part of him. That was basically what Harvey had said. 

So Edward let him keep going. 

His protest disregarded, he pressed himself back against Harvey's hands again before he could stop himself. Savouring the touch. It made his head spin. Harvey's breath hitched slightly before tightening his touch, his feet either side of Edward's hips, pressing against him slightly. 

Such an easy sensation to get lost in, for both of them, it seemed.

There was an almost imperceptible difference in pressure between Harvey’s hands, the damaged one pressed harder, Edward noticed. To Harvey it must feel the same.

Edward’s arms hung limp at his side, hands less than a centimeter from touching Harvey’s foot. He let his fingers extend to brush Harvey's skin, wanting to touch him back in some way, a kind of thanks.

Harvey flinched at the touch, then paused, looking down at where Edward had made contact. 

“I'm not hurting you?” he asked for clarification, his voice cracking as if he'd been woken from a dream.

Edward shook his head. “No, you're doing good.”

“Should I keep going?”

Edward smirked, “You're not going to ask your coin?”

“It might say no.”

Edward felt his smirk soften slightly. He brushed his fingers over Harvey's foot again. “I'd like you to keep going, but if a large part of you wants to stop it would be cruel to force you to continue.”

Harvey let out a breath, almost a laugh, before putting his hands back on Edward’s shoulders. “Stop petting us, we're no more a cat than you are.”

Edward bit his lip and retracted his hand, opting not to verbally apologise.

“I should try giving you a massage,” he decided to say instead. “You're always tense.”

Harvey retracted a hand, almost too fast, and flipped his coin. A moment of tense, heavy silence passed before he let out a small huff.

He didn't have to speak for Edward to know what the answer had been.

“At some point, not right now,” Edward added quickly, relieving some of the rejection on both their ends.

Harvey's hand had stilled on him, the pressure on his shoulders easing. “Yeah,” he mumbled. “At some point.”

After another still moment Harvey flipped his coin again. “We should take a break. You need a shower.”

Edward felt his heart sink. He shouldn't have said anything. He gave a weak nod and shifted away from Harvey, or tried to.

Harvey’s feet were still pinned to Edward's hips. A vice-like grip.

A smile came to his face, his chest warming again. He gave Harvey’s foot a gentle pat to bring attention to the contact. “You're sure that's what you want?” he asked.

Harvey flinched again at the touch, then relaxed the grip of his feet, freeing Edward from him. He cleared his throat, pulling his legs up onto the bed. “We'll make food while you shower,” he said quietly.

A sort of olive branch, Edward decided.

Chapter Text

That night Edward found it hard to sleep. He could still feel Harvey’s hands on him.

Although they were now, literally. 

In his sleep, Harvey had latched onto him, again, as he had every night since Edward had taken him in. The heavy weight of his arm wrapped around him, the sound of his breath in his ear. The warmth of him. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to sleep without it now.

That was in his sleep though. Subconscious. Harvey couldn’t help it, every morning he jumped back as if he were shocked by Edward’s presence.

But today? That had been intentional. Deliberate. There was nothing accidental about it.

Harvey had cupped his face, praised him, put his hands all over him.

He wasn’t sure what was worse, Harvey clinging to him without thought, or Harvey choosing to touch him in the way he had.

It was the latter. Definitely the latter.

His stomach twisted and his mind raced as he played over the day in his mind.

The past week, in fact.

Harvey had gotten a lot more… physical in his affection.

Not just while he slept. He was constantly giving him little prods, touches, taps.

Since they started exercising together it had gotten more intense. Physical touch was necessary during exercise, Edward understood that, but it was becoming insufferable.

Edward suffered from intrusive thoughts. Over the past years he’d become adept at dealing with them. But Harvey made them worse.

Was making them worse.

He couldn’t get through a day, a single interaction, without thinking things he didn’t want to think. Having urges he didn’t want to have.

What was he doing?

What was Harvey doing to him?

Harvey let out a whine in his sleep, muttering… something in Spanish.

The sound of his voice tore through him, an ache filling his chest that had nothing to do with the exercise.

“Siete,” Harvey grumbled in his sleep.

Siete? Edward frowned softly. Wasn’t that a number?

“Cero… Cinco.”

Cinco was definitely a number.

Siete was seven. Cinco was five.

Cero was…

Zero?

7, 0, 5…

Harvey was saying the door code in his sleep.

2 would be next.

“Dos.”

Edward felt a smile come to his lips.

That urge filled him again. The urge to kiss him.

Harvey cared enough about Edward’s work to be talking about it in his sleep.

Edward had assumed that Harvey was just playing along. He had nowhere else to go and he was bored, the coin told him to help so he had.

He couldn’t kiss him.

He didn’t want to.

He wouldn’t.

‘I don’t want to kiss him,’ he said internally, forcing his eyes closed.

He repeated the phrase. The order to himself.

He tried to shift away, but at the movement Harvey’s eyes snapped open, a weak smile coming to his face.

He didn’t pull away.

“Good morning,” he grumbled, moving a hand from Edward’s waist to rub the sleep from his eyes.

Edward let out a soft huff, shaking his head, “It’s not morning.”

“Then why are you awake..?” Harvey asked.

Edward shook his head again. “Just… can’t sleep.”

Harvey groaned softly, reaching out to wrap his arm around Edward again, pulling him close and squeezing him. “Sleep.”

Edward forced his eyes closed, letting Harvey squeeze him, savouring the touch of the half-asleep man.

It felt both safe and like a trap. Harvey's fingers the teeth of a bear trap, digging into his skin.

The more Harvey recovered, the more himself he became, the more Edward suffered.

He wasn't sure when, but he fell asleep. 

The next thing he knew there was light filtering through the blinds.

Harvey wasn't at his side anymore, he was, as usual, making coffee.

Edward felt his chest swell at the sight, comforted by the routine.

“You were talking in your sleep again,” Edward informed him, laying on his stomach and watching him. 

Harvey showed no reaction to Edward speaking, focusing only on the coffee. “Did it wake you?”

Edward shook his head, although Harvey couldn't see it. “I think you were saying the door code.”

Harvey froze for a fraction of a second, then resumed stirring the coffee. “That's interesting.”

Edward let out a soft teasing hum. “Yeah. I didn't think you cared that much.”

Harvey shrugged. “People can't control what they do in their sleep.”

“Most people just snore.”

“Do we snore?” Harvey enquired.

“No,” Edward clarified. He narrowed his eyes, “I don't either, right?”

Harvey shook his head, crossing the space between them and handing Edward his coffee. “You do have nightmares,” Harvey confessed, the words leaving him slowly and gentle.

Edward's stomach clenched, his face falling, his grip on his cup tightening.

He distracted himself with his coffee, swirling the liquid before taking a sip, refusing to let his embarrassment show on his face.

Did Harvey watch him sleep as much as Edward watched him?

The idea of being seen like that, weak and vulnerable, he hated it.

“I didn't realise they were noticeable,” he stated flatly.

Harvey let out a grunt, the noise conveying more than words might have. He sounded concerned.

Edward's nightmares were enough to worry him. Enough to make it worth bringing up.

Defensive words left him before he could rationalise himself out of it. “Well, if it disturbs you you can always sleep on the floor.”

Harvey shook his head, a frown coming to his face, “No, it doesn't disturb me.” He flipped his coin. “Us,” he added. 

Edward nodded. “Good.” He cleared his throat. “I'm going to do some more coding today, I think.”

Harvey let out a groan, knowing that meant it was his turn to watch the footage of the door.

Edward felt bad making him watch it, with his poor eyesight he struggled more than Edward did, and grew tired quicker.

But he couldn't exactly hold off on coding, it was something that needed to be done. Harvey certainly couldn't do it. 

“Food first,” Harvey said after flipping his coin. He lifted himself from the bed and walked to the bag on the counter, picking out an oat bar and banana for the both of them, tossing Edward’s into the bed, before sitting himself down, pulling the footage up on his phone, flipping his coin a few times in quick succession before settling in.

Edward tried to focus on the laptop, tapping away. Burying himself in the work, but finding his mind occasionally dragged from it by Harvey, again. His mind snagging on memories from the past week, his heart tugging him to look up.

He eventually gave in, and saw Harvey hunched over his phone, eyes narrowed, squinting and straining.

If only they had another laptop, or a larger screen. Then Edward wouldn’t feel like he was subjecting Harvey to torture.

Edward couldn't code on his phone, he couldn't risk making a mistake.

He took a sip of his coffee, and a bite of his banana, worked another riddle in for Harvey to spot when he checked it.

He reached his foot out and gave Harvey a gentle tap with his toe, hoping the small physical act would bring Harvey some comfort.

Harvey leant against his touch, and he felt his heart swell, a smile soft on his lips.

“Now who’s being distracting?” Harvey mumbled.

“I can stop.”

Harvey flipped his coin. “No, it’s fine.”

Edward twitched his toe, as if proving a point.

Harvey flipped his coin again, letting out a deep sigh. “We want to go and get the code in person,” he grumbled, as if saying something he knew he shouldn’t say.

He was right, he shouldn’t say it.

“We can’t,” Edward said sternly. “It’s not worth the risk.”

“We know,” Harvey emphasised. “My… head hurts. Our eyes. Constantly staring at screens isn’t our thing. I hate being cooped up.”

Edward’s stomach knotted. “I know… But you know if someone saw you out there they’d tighten security, our whole plan would need overhauling.”

Harvey’s eyes flicked to him, “We know. Just let us complain.”

Edward’s jaw clenched, feeling like he’d misspoken. “Right,” he mumbled.

Harvey flipped his coin again, the action made the hair on Edward’s neck stand up, it felt… dangerous. Somehow.

“No one would have to see us,” Harvey continued to grumble, almost talking to himself. “We know where the camera blindspots are.”

Edward felt his blood turn cold, he shook his head weakly. “Harvey, stop. You can’t go.”

Harvey’s eyes landed on him again, pinning him still.

“We just need to keep watching the footage,” Edward forced himself to say, the words feeling like a challenge. “They’re being careful right now, but someone will slip up. They never keep up their guard for long in places like that.”

“And how long will that take?” Harvey growled, flipping his coin again. “Anouther week? A month? You expect us to be stuck here for a month?”

Edward swallowed hard. He wasn’t sure how to deal with one of Harvey’s little tirades.

It was like having a storm cloud in the room with him, one that could shoot out a bolt of lightning at any second.

This meant he was getting better, right? This had to be a good thing.

“It takes as long as it takes Harvey,” Edward tried to keep his voice calm.

A growl left Harvey’s throat like a rumble of thunder. A metallic snap of his coin accompanying the sound, sending a shiver down Edward’s spine.

“Harvey, please think logically,” Edward pleaded, his shoulders stiff and rigid. “The moment you leave the room it’s over. You’ll get caught.”

“If I get caught they’ll have no reason to heighten security,” Harvey snapped, suddenly on his feet, beginning to pace, phone discarded on the bed.

“You’re saying you’d rather sacrifice yourself than stay here with me?”

“You need the code more than you need me here. Why aren’t you thinking logically, Edward? You that afraid of a little risk?” A coin flip punctuated his question, taunting him.

Edward’s stomach churned with discomfort. “I need you here Harvey. I want you here! I don’t want you to get caught because I care about you!”

He paused as he realised what he’d said, averting his eyes momentarily, his hands shaking. “I’ve put a lot of time, effort, and money into making sure you stayed alive, I’m not letting you hand yourself over to Arkham,” he added, as if it would erase his confession.

Harvey stopped midstep.

He flipped his coin, for a moment Edward thought he may have actually gotten through to him.

But then he walked toward the door.

“Harvey, don’t you dare!” Edward was on his feet, unaware of when he’d left the bed, his hand reaching out to grab Harvey, physically stop him now his words had failed.

“Don’t touch me,” Harvey growled, his voice low, commanding. For a moment Edward actually stopped.

“Harvey.” Edward grabbed Harvey’s shirt, but Harvey quickly pushed his hand away.

And he was gone.

The silence before a storm was well known, but the silence after one. Hollow and empty.

Edward heard his breath quicken before he felt it, that tightness in his throat, in his chest, anger and panic rising in him and exploding out before he could stop it. Each breath scraping his throat and leaving it raw.

Harvey had left. He’d actually done it. Edward couldn’t believe it.

He picked up his almost-empty coffee cup and launched it against the wall, feeling the anger in him lessen at the sound of it smashing. Pieces of ceramic scattering over the carpeted floor.

What he’d said replayed in his head. He’d simultaneously said too much and not enough. And now Harvey was gone.

He’d probably be carted off to Arkham, loaded up on drugs, turned into a zombie, just what they had been trying to avoid.

The room felt far too big without him. Quiet and empty.

He swallowed hard, closing his eyes and forcing himself to calm down.

He had work to do.

Until he knew Harvey had fucked up his plan he’d continue as if nothing was wrong. He would continue to work on his code until he got confirmation.

He got back on the bed, being careful to avoid the shards of his broken mug that coated the floor. He would clean them up later.

The soft glow of the screen would anchor him. It always did.

He typed away, laptop on his knees, knees hunched up to his chest. The screen was an inch from his face.

The text swam infront of him, slowly getting longer at Edward’s hands.

He paused for a moment, pressing his palm harm against his forehead, grounding himself with the pressure. He could swear he could still hear Harvey flipping his coin.

Found himself straining to hear the noises outside. Footsteps, voices…

He was gone.

Harvey was gone.

He probably wouldn’t be coming back.

Edward had to make peace with that.

He stared at the screen through the day and well into the night, foregoing food, he didn’t need it. He needed to finish this. It needed to be perfect. Nothing else mattered.

Chapter Text

Edward gave up on his work only when he couldn’t physically continue. His hands shaking, his eyes and wrist aching, the text blurry and spinning before him.

He hadn’t showered, hadn’t eaten, hadn’t done the exercises he’d meant to.

Harvey’s outburst had ruined his day.

The room was covered in ceramic shards, the smell of stale coffee etched into the carpet.

He couldn’t believe he had lashed out like that.

He cursed himself. Cursed Harvey.

He squeezed his eyes shut, stretched out his wrists, trying to stop the aching.

He needed a break. He needed a shower. But he knew his mind would begin to spiral if he stopped staring at the screen.

He picked up the discarded phone from the bed. Pulling up the footage of the door.

There was a delay on the feed he could access, so he knew he wouldn’t see Harvey.

That didn’t stop him hoping, even though he knew that Harvey was the worst thing he could see on that screen.

He took the phone with him into the bathroom, careful to avoid the sharp objects that peppered the floor.

He glanced down at the white shards as he passed them. 

Maybe he deserved an injury.

An urge slammed into him; to stomp his foot down on the largest shard.

He let out a huff at the thought, pushing it away, shaking his head. The last thing he needed was an infection.

Maybe he’d already trodden on a piece, so small he couldn’t feel it, and there was already an infection building itself within his foot.

What a stupid thought. If he had an infection he’d know. He’d had infections from poor wound care before and he had none of the symptoms.

He glanced down at his feet regardless.

No wounds. No splinters.

The thought struck him that a piece could have already worked its way into his bloodstream.

No.

Impossible.

Stop.

He climbed into the shower, not bothering to shy away from the initial stream of boiling water. He turned his eyes to the phone screen as the water stung him, watching as yet another hand hid the code from his view.

There was a rotation of people entering the code, by this point Edward recognised them all.

Red nail woman, french tip woman, man with scar, man with a bruised thumb, weirdly skinny guy…

He lathered soap on his skin and into his hair.

Weirdly skinny guy was the worst. He would hold his hand so he could see all the digits but the last two, he would move his hand at the last moment to cover the pad. He must have some kind of issue with the person who had requested they hide the code.

As he saw the skinny hand cover up the last 2 numbers yet again he grit his teeth. Who was this guy to tease him like that? If he ever met weirdly skinny guy he would put a bullet between his eyes.

He opened his mouth to say words of that effect, yell them through the door. But then he remembered that no one would hear them. Harvey wasn’t there. Wasn’t in their sorry excuse for a kitchen making food for them.

He leaned against the wall of the shower, tapping his head against the tile, and he turned the water temperature up to distract himself. His skin quickly turning red from the heat.

He rinsed himself off and stepped out of the shower to dry himself off, the footage of the door still playing, doing nothing to distract him from the hollow in his chest.

Carefully he made his way back to the bed, pulling his shirt and boxers back on once he’d arrived, and he laid down in the bed, laptop at his side.

Listlessly he tried working on his code.

Just a few more lines.

The shower had helped refresh him, slightly, but he caught himself making mistakes.

There was no point in keeping going if he was going to have to fix it all after he woke up.

Despite his exhaustion he found it impossible to drift off.

His mind pulled him back to Harvey, or the lack of him.

The man’s strong arms usually clung to him. His soft breath usually brushed his skin.

Tonight there was nothing.

Just him, alone. 

He lay in the dark, a deep pit in his chest.

A sound at the door pulled him from his wallowing.

Edward had left the door unlocked.

Had Harvey come back? Or betrayed him after being caught? Perhaps these were cops coming to take him away.

The door handle turned, slowly, and the door opened.

Edward looked at the door, trying to be discreet.

It was Harvey.

Edward recognised the gait, the shadowed form bathed in light from the streetlights outside.

He’d come back.

The dark silhouette of the man disappeared as the door closed, and the familiar sound of Harvey’s footsteps filled the room.

At that point Edward remembered the sharp teethlike fragments of his mug that scattered the floor like landmines. His heart clenched at the thought of Harvey injuring himself.

But somehow he seemed to miss them all.

Edward felt a weight on the bed as Harvey sat down, barely able to see him through the dark.

Harvey laid down beside him.

A moment of silence passed between them.

Edward wasn’t sure what to do. Yell? Apologise? Hug him?

“705242.”

Edward blinked into the dark, processing what Harvey had said.

Harvey’s voice was soft, quiet, as if he were unsure if Edward was awake and able to hear him. None of the frustration and anger from earlier in him.

“705242,” Edward repeated back, equally as quiet.

“That’s the code.”

Edward turned to Harvey, reaching out a hand to cup his face. “You are such a moron. I can’t believe you.” Edward couldn’t stop a laugh of relief from leaving him.

Harvey pulled him into a tight hug.

Edward felt that urge fill him again, the urge to kiss Harvey. This time he didn’t hold back. Through exhaustion and fear he couldn’t.

He let himself lift his head, and press his lips against Harvey’s.

Harvey kissed him back.

After a fraction of a second Edward realised what he was doing, and pulled his head back, a weak gasp of astonishment leaving him.

Had he really just done that? Or was he asleep and dreaming?

“I shouldn’t have-” he started to protest.

Harvey stilled as he talked, then extended his arms to wrap them around Edward, in the manner he’d become accustomed to.

Edward stopped talking as Harvey pulled him close, squeezing him softly. Edward felt Harvey envelop him, warmth surrounding him, the weight and gentle, even pressure on him sapping every ounce of tension out of him. This wasn’t a dream.

“Sleep,” Harvey ordered, the word drawn out, leaving him like a song.

Edward let out a low, soft hum, nuzzling into Harvey almost instinctively, and instantly fell asleep.

He slept through, deep and dreamless, waking up to the smell of coffee. As if the previous day hadn’t happened.

He rolled over on the bed, his eyes settling on Harvey, still blurry with sleep. 

It took a few blinks for his vision to clear, for him to verify it was Harvey standing in the room.

A quiet yawn left him, he stretched slowly, and he replayed what had happened last night.

Harvey had found the code.

And then.

Edward felt himself still.

They’d kissed.

Harvey’s eyes flicked to him, over his shoulder. 

Maybe Harvey didn’t remember.

“What’s with the shit all over the floor?” he asked, as nonchalant as anything.

Edward felt a tension come to his gut, the memory of himself smashing the mug replaying in his mind.

He let out a small groan, disappointed in himself. His inability to control his temper.

“My mug,” he grumbled. “I… smashed it.”

Harvey nodded, “Thought so… You know, we only had the two mugs.”

Edward felt his stomach clench. “That’s ok,” he said hurriedly, “I wanted to cut down anyway. Too much makes me fidgety.”

Harvey nodded again, “If you say so.”

He walked across the floor, placing a mug of coffee onto the bedside table.

At that point Edward realised that the fragments of his mug no longer covered the floor.

Harvey must have cleaned them up.

Hopefully he hadn’t hurt himself.

If he had he probably wouldn’t volunteer the information.

Harvey sat on the bed, the weight of the movement causing a flash in Edward’s mind, of what had happened the previous night.

They’d kissed.

They really had.

Part of him had thought it was a dream.

Hoped.

Of all the intrusive thoughts he could have given into.

Couldn’t he have just stomped on the broken mug last night instead..?

He didn’t know how to bring it up.

Harvey’s coin flipped, the sound bringing Edward’s mind back to reality, a small pang of fear springing through him.

Harvey moved toward him, towering over him. Edward’s mind sped, overcome with the thought that Harvey was about to hit him.

“About last night,” Harvey grumbled, too close, intimidating.

Edward opened his mouth to protest, to say it meant nothing, to tell him to forget it. But the words refused to leave him.

“We’re not sorry.”

Edward’s open mouth dried, and he wished he hadn’t broken his coffee mug. He needed something to distract himself with. Fiddle with.

Harvey’s eyes studied him, Edward watched the man’s adams apple bob slowly. “It doesn’t have to happen again.”

Edward’s stomach clenched. He wanted it to happen again.

No. He didn’t. 

He didn’t.

It had been a mistake.

“If it did, I-” Edward began, the words leaving him involuntarily. He stopped himself, his teeth clacking together as he forced his mouth closed.

Quickly he looked away. “We’ve got the code, that’s what’s important.”

A frown came to his face a second later. “And I’m still mad at you for walking out,” he added.

Harvey extended a hand, and Edward worried that his instincts had been right, Harvey was about to hit him for daring to reject him.

Instead of a physical blow, Edward felt Harvey’s hand rest on top of his head, fingers running through his red hair.

He felt a deep blush come to his cheeks, his heart racing from something other than fear.

Harvey’s hand retracted, having picked some fluff out of Edward’s hair.

His eyes dragged over him again, making Edward feel exposed, practically naked under his gaze.

“Not that mad,” Harvey stated.

Edward lifted a hand to swat Harvey’s away, swearing at him. “Find something to do,” Edward ordered, “Other than tease me.”

Harvey let out a hiss, and flipped his coin again. He pulled away, “Did you eat yesterday?”

Edward nodded, “Yeah.”

“Other than the banana we gave you,” Harvey urged.

Edward felt his throat tighten, then shook his head. “I was too busy,” he justified.

Harvey let out a grunt of acknowledgement, then flipped his coin.

After a short pause, during which Edward could practically feel Harvey’s internal conversation, he got to his feet, walking over to the counter, beginning to root through their bag of food. “Let us make you something.”

“Is it going to be an oat bar and a banana?” Edward joked, hoping to ease the tension.

“More substantial,” he replied, deadpan.

Edward let out a huff, and pulled the laptop to his knees. Opening it and beginning to work. Well, first he had to fix everything he’d done yesterday.

So many mistakes.

He must have been so emotional to make such basic, careless mistakes…

Harvey’s disappearance had really shaken him. It was almost laughable, it would be if it wasn’t so pathetic.

Edward thought he was past that sort of emotional based thinking.

Apparently not.

How annoying.

As he worked Harvey began to hum. Some pop-type melody, quietly, under his breath.

He was in a good mood.

Was it simply because he’d been allowed to leave?

Edward felt a pang of guilt, that part of Harvey’s poor mood had been caused by him feeling trapped.

That or his good mood had been caused by their kiss.

That was worse.

That couldn’t be it, anyway.

Edward had rejected him. That wouldn’t put anyone in a good mood.

He tried to focus on his code. On his mistakes. But, as usual, Harvey distracted him. The humming, the sounds and smells of his cooking, the clinking of his coin.

After a few minutes, a few lines of code fixed, Harvey presented Edward with a paper bowl.

“What’s this?” Edward asked, smiling at the spread of food, his stomach aching for it.

“Noodles, plain with butter and egg, and bread with butter,” Harvey explained, pointing to the foods as he named them.

“Looks gorgeous…”

Harvey gave a nod, sitting on the bed. He glanced down at his own bowl and frowned briefly, then scooped over a few more noodles into Edward’s bowl. “Wasn’t even,” he mumbled in explanation.

“Thankyou.” Edward felt his stomach warm, looking down at the food, he hadn’t realised how hungry he was, once the food touched his tongue he became ravenous.

The food was gone before he knew it, his stomach still a deep pit.

He glanced over at Harvey’s still half full bowl. “Is there more?” he asked, knowing the answer.

Harvey flipped his coin. “You can make more,” he said, pulling his bowl closer to himself, scooping another spoonful of noodles into his mouth. “Or wait for me to finish.”

Edward scoffed. “I’m meant to be working,” he grumbled.

“Cooking is work.”

Edward gave a playful hiss, stretching out his leg to give Harvey a prod with his toe. “I didn’t eat yesterday,” he whined.

“Neither did we,” Harvey smirked. 

“Oh,” Edward grunted, defeated. “Well then.” He pushed the laptop off his lap and got to his feet, walking across the room to fetch himself an oat bar and a banana, taking one of each for Harvey too.

He crossed back to the bed, handing the food over to Harvey with a smile. “You know you can’t get annoyed at me for not eating and then not eat yourself.”

Harvey huffed, and then flipped his coin. He looked at the result and then let out a weak grunt, acknowledging that Edward was right.

Edward curled himself back up on the bed, laptop at his center, working over his code again, eating his food between lines, feeling productivity fill him again.

He’d be done in no time.

They had the code.

And Harvey was back.

Chapter Text

Edward tapped out line after line of code, his work speed had increased with his mood.

Harvey sat at the foot of the bed, his eyes flicking from the TV to Edward occasionally. Edward had noticed, though he was sure Harvey thought he hadn’t.

After a while Edward heard Harvey’s coin flip, and he let his eyes leave the laptop screen to settle on Harvey, waiting for him to do or say whatever that flip had been about.

“You really don’t know how to cook, do you?”

Edward shrugged, letting his hands leave the keyboard. His eyes dragged over Harvey, wondering what internal conversation had led to that question. “I never needed to,” he answered after a moment of thought.

“Everone needs to eat.”

“I’ve managed just fine,” Edward said with another, weaker shrug. “My mind is better put to use on more important things than cooking.”

Harvey huffed, flipping his coin again. “Bullshit.”

The word left him as a growl, it sounded like a challenge, like he knew Edward was hiding something.

It was true, it was bullshit. He had a habit of letting himself suffer. Usually he relied on microwave meals, but in situations like this one; a motel with no fridge, the inability to leave through fear of being seen. Even a simple cooked meal may as well be made of gold.

“I refused to learn,” Edward grumbled, hesitantly letting the truth leave him. “My father used to say it was women’s work.”

Edward felt his cheeks warm at the silence that followed.

“What a sexist fucking prick,” Harvey growled, giving his coin another flip, his gaze sharp and on nothing. 

Edward felt his stomach twist and swell, simultaneously feeling chastised by association and validated.

“What garbage,” Harvey continued to grumble, “Got you thinking you were too good to learn to look after yourself?”

Edward’s cheeks grew warmer still, a lump coming to his throat. “Something like that,” he mumbled.

“Laundry and cooking are basic fucking life skills. Everyone should know that.” Harvey shook his head, “Dumbest shit I ever heard…”

“Who taught you?” Edward asked, almost snapped, unable to stop the want to argue back from rising in him. “No one walks out the womb knowing.”

Harvey flipped his coin, and Edward could tell it was to decide the tone of his response. Lean in to the argumentative tone, or away.

“My father taught us,” Harvey stated, as if he were trying to simply relay a fact, although the softness of his face betrayed him. “He said that it was to prepare me to be a good husband to a strong woman.” He let out a noise that sounded almost like a laugh. “Before they realised we inherited our mother’s mind.”

“People thought you were stupid as a child too?” Edward smirked.

Harvey shrugged, “Rebellious more than stupid.” He flipped his coin a few times in quick succession, processing something. Edward could see memories flashing behind his eyes. “That was before… everything,” he grumbled, his voice turning dark.

Edward swallowed hard, feeling like he’d touched on a trauma Harvey wasn’t happy to face. “They used to think I was stupid because I had trouble reading. I got over it though, eventually. Showed them,” he smirked.

“They sound like assholes,” Harvey said, his voice still dark, sending a shudder down Edward’s spine.

“They were,” Edward purred. “I was so happy when they died.”

A smile came to Harvey’s lips, a soft grunt of approval leaving him, his jaw clenching slightly, the noise sending another shiver through Edward.

He swallowed hard again, the smile dropping from his face as he realised what he was feeling. 

“I wouldn’t be opposed to learning to cook, under your tutelage,” he said briskly, changing the subject. “Just the basics, I can teach myself from there.”

“No doubt you could.” Harvey’s eyes flicked to him again, “It should probably wait until after we’re done here, though. After we’ve installed your little program.”

Edward’s eyes dropped to his screen, still feeling Harvey’s gaze on him. He was almost finished. He hadn’t considered what might happen after. He hadn’t really let himself think about it. He hadn’t thought about if Harvey would want to stay.

Although, logically, why wouldn’t he? He wasn’t really tied to his current plan in any meaningful way.

He had said that first day that it could take months for his men to get out, months till he left.

He had thought that Harvey might have changed his mind, especially now, having had the experience of living together with no escape from each other. Even with the boredom, the arguing. Harvey was still thinking of staying?

Edward focussed on his screen, the code danced infront of him. He may as well be typing in German. Or Spanish.

“Once we have some money coming in I’ll find us a nicer place to stay,” Edward said, almost under his breath, unable to stop himself thinking about it.

“With a real kitchen,” Harvey added, “Might teach you to make bread.”

His dream-like tone cut Edward in half, but the sentence itself did nothing but confuse him. “Teach me to make bread?” He shook his head, “That’s not basic.”

Harvey flipped his coin, then gave a weak nod. “It’s easy. Calming.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“What is the most complex thing you’ve cooked?” Harvey asked.

Edward felt his chest tighten a little, embarrassment washing over him as he thought. “I’ve not done much more than mix pre-cooked chicken into a cup of noodles.” He paused, “I did try to make chilli, once,” he shook his head, “Didn’t go well.”

Harvey let out a soft hum, nodding. “What food do you like?”

“Well, I used to like chilli,” Edward joked. He paused to think, “I…” he shook his head, “I don’t know.”

“Spicy? Salty? Sweet? Meat heavy? Vegetable heavy?”

Edward leaned back where he sat, his eyes traveling to the ceiling as he thought. “Salty? I guess. Uh, I like pork, and beef?”

Harvey nodded, listening intently, then flipped his coin again. “We’ll make a list,” he said decidedly, “of food we know how to make, you can decide what you want to learn.”

“Once we’re in a new place?” Edward said to confirm.

Harvey nodded.

Edward smiled and nodded in return, a silent confirmation. They were going to continue living together, working together. His heart swelled at the thought.

Edward would have to look into temporary accommodation in the area.

He took out his phone, laptop forgotten, and searched airbnb, just to see what sort of thing was available. 

He could easily use fake documents, make a fake account, make them seem like the perfect temporary tenants.

He scrolled through the listings. Almost all of them were larger than the motel room they currently shared, several of them had 2 bedrooms.

His heart clenched at the thought of them no longer sharing a bed.

He cursed himself at his body’s involuntary reaction.

He shouldn’t care that much. It was logical for them to have a larger place, somewhere not so cramped, somewhere they could have time and space to themselves, a place to retreat to when tensions became high.

Maybe if they’d had another room Harvey wouldn’t have stormed out the other night. Then they wouldn’t have the code. They wouldn’t have…

He swallowed hard, his tongue swiping his top lip without his permission, he gave it a soft bite as a punishment. His pulse sped up too, though there was nothing he could do to stop that.

“Done coding?” Harvey asked from his periphery, the word pulling him back to reality.

“Huh?” Edward squeaked, sitting up straight.

Harvey nodded towards the discarded laptop.

“Oh,” Edward felt his chest tighten. “I just thought I’d look at airbnbs nearby, to see what’s out there.”

“Anything good?” Harvey enquired, unaware of Edward’s internal strife.

Edward shrugged, “A few nice places,” he paused for a moment, unsure how much he should say. “Some two bedroom places.”

Harvey’s forehead furrowed, quickly he flipped his coin. “We don’t need two bedrooms,” he said, dismissive.

Edward felt his heart leap into his throat. “We… don’t?” he asked, his voice turning quiet.

Harvey shook his head. “No. We’ll save money.”

Edward chewed the inside of his lip. “Yeah..?”

“Yeah.” Harvey smiled, leaning over to give Edward’s leg a soft pat. “We already said, we don’t mind sharing a bed. We just want a kitchen, and a bedroom that’s separate.”

Edward felt himself relax, tension leaving him he hadn’t realised he was carrying. “A bedroom separated from the rest of the property, by a door? Dare we dream.” He smiled playfully, turmoil temporarily forgotten. “I will miss being woken up by the smell of your coffee, though.”

“We can bring you coffee,” Harvey smiled back. 

“Very thoughtful of you.” Edward’s smile brightened, “And if you sleep in I can bring you coffee.”

“We don’t sleep in.”

Edward huffed, “You’re right, and I never wake up in a single-digit hour.”

“We’ll sleep in on our birthday, let you make us coffee?”

Edward let himself imagine it for a second, then felt his heart stop. His birthday? In August?

Over 8 months away?

“Isn’t your birthday 8 months away?” he asked to confirm, all the playfulness evaporated from his voice.

Harvey nodded, the acting nonchalant, without a second thought, or a first one, even.

“You… Still want to be staying with me in 8 months time?”

Harvey glanced him over, that teasing air still hanging off him, “We can flip for it?”

“No!” Edward yelped, holding out a hand. “I’m just surprised. After… uh,” he cleared his throat, his heart in his throat as he forced the thoughts from his throat. “After the argument we had, I thought you might change your mind.”

Harvey let out a scoffed laugh, “That wasn’t an argument.”

Edward frowned, “What the hell do you think an argument is then?”

“That was just a difference of opinion,” Harvey said with a shake of his head, dismissive.

“We yelled at each other, you stormed out, I smashed my mug against the wall. The definition of an argument is ‘a heated exchange about opposing views’. We very literally had an argument.”

Harvey gave another dismissive shake of his head. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“It was a bad argument, Harvey.”

A soft grunt left Harvey, in lieu of a proper response. And Edward felt a frown come to his face.

“Harvey,” he said, forcefully.

Harvey flipped his coin, then huffed. “Fine. We had an argument. We came back, didn’t we? We didn’t hurt you, or threaten you, break anything.”

“You left, for a whole day, Harvey. I thought you’d been caught, I thought you’d left for good. I was…” Edward shook his head, the word caught in his throat like a hairball, he couldn’t force it out.

After a moment of silence Harvey spoke, his eyes soft on him, his voice steady. “You were what?”

Edward couldn’t say it, the thought of the word leaving him turned his breath quick. He closed his eyes, forcing himself to calm down.

He could say it. Slowly, quietly.

“Scared.” The word left him as a sour hiss through gritted teeth, barely audible. The rest tumbled out of him without thought; “I thought you were being dragged off to Arkham, I thought they were going to sedate you, you were gone, locked away for good.”

A slow breath shuddered out of him.

Harvey shifted closer to him on the bed, his eyes soft. “We came back.” He glanced away, “We didn’t mean to make you feel that. We just,” he flipped his coin, not looking at the result, “wanted to get the code for you.”

“You put yourself in danger.”

Harvey let out a grunt, before flipping his coin again and forcing himself to speak. “We’d do it again.”

“Then we’d argue again,” Edward sneered.

“Then we’d argue again,” Harvey stated, as if it were a simple fact. “And we would do everything we could to make sure we came back, too.”

“You can’t control if that happens, Harvey.”

Harvey let out a soft huff, his eyes drooping closed for a second. “That’s our compromise.”

“Not much of a fucking compromise,” Edward grumbled.

Harvey shrugged, as if there was nothing he could do about it, as if he couldn’t change his mind, or say it wouldn’t happen again.

He was, in fact, very clearly stating that it certainly would happen again.

Harvey let out a soft sigh, moving his hand to rest it on Edward’s leg. “We would do anything in our power to help you. And we would do anything in our power to come back. We can promise you those two things.”

“I don’t want you putting yourself in danger.”

“That falls under ‘We would do anything in our power to come back’.”

Edward rolled his eyes. “That is not a real solution,” he growled.

“It’s what we’re offering,” Harvey grumbled back, giving Edward’s leg a soft squeeze, as if the action grounded him, as if he hoped it would ground Edward too. Maddeningly, it did. “We want to stay with you. But you can’t change us.”

Edward huffed. “I just want some consideration.”

Harvey nodded, “We’ll take your opinion into consideration next time, but we will still argue.”

“Is that because you like the arguing, or because you’re stubborn?” Edward needled, tone part way between insulting and teasing.

Harvey flipped his coin, then shrugged. 

“Answer me.”

Harvey let out an almost chuckle, his hand moving from Edward’s leg to cover his eyes before he answered. “Both.”

Edward echoed his laugh, shaking his head. “You’re… insufferable.”

Chapter Text

For the rest of the day Harvey’s admittance of ‘both’ continued to float through Edward's mind. He just couldn't leave it alone. Prodding at the word as one might poke a blister, threatening it to burst. 

Both.

It sounded like a confession. 

It was a confession that he wasn't being just being difficult through habit, or to be intentionally annoying, not trying to press Edward's buttons to upset him. It was intensional, personal. 

Harvey enjoyed it. He wanted a reaction, and not just from anyone, from Edward specifically. He wanted Edward to react, to engage with him, to spar.

It was a route to connection. 

It was a confession, he liked it when they clashed, he liked when Edward pushed back against his stubbornness.

He liked Edward.

The blister of emotion inside Edward's brain burst, his heart swelling, pounding in his chest. Harvey actually liked him. 

He tried to push that feeling down, not to let it show on him. He hasn't realised how much of an effect Harvey had on him, how little control he had over that effect. It was both terrifying and thrilling.

And he had months of this ahead of him. 8 at least if he could take Harvey's word for it.

“I thought we asked you to give us a challenge.” Harvey's voice dragged Edward from his thoughts.

Edward smirked, leaning towards where he sat to get a closer look at the laptop hanging from Harvey's lap. “Found another of my traps, did you?”

“The answer is an egg. A toddler could get it.”

Edward scoffed, “It would take at least a 7 year old to get that one.”

“We’re in our 30s,” Harvey grumbled. “If you don't put harder ones in we'll start getting insulted.”

“Making sure you catch them is more important than stroking your ego.”

Harvey closed the laptop, pushing it away to put his focus solely on Edward. “We don't appreciate being underestimated.”

Edward felt a pang in his gut, that was something he could relate to. “Ok. A harder one: What is something no one wants to have, but once you have it you will not want to lose it?”

“A lawsuit,” Harvey answered instantly. “I was a lawyer for years, Edward. You think I haven't heard that one before?”

Edward let out a weak hum. “One unrelated to you then?” He chewed his lip for a moment, thinking, every riddle that came to mind was something that could be connected back to Harvey. “What runs around a field, but never moves?” he eventually asked.

Harvey stilled for a moment, letting out a weak hum. After a moment he began flipping his coin, the action purely out of habit.

“Could be either a fence, a road, or a path. Considering you specified a field, it's most likely a fence.”

“Very good deductive reasoning,” Edward praised, smiling softly. He nodded, “I'll make sure to put difficult ones in the code from now on.”

They couldn't be too much harder than that one, Edward decided. The amount of coin flipping told him alot about how hard Harvey had been thinking, and he did want Harvey to be able to solve them.

It felt odd, to be thinking of riddles to entertain someone, rather than to stump them, prove he was smarter than them. 

“You could put none in?” Harvey offered.

Edward scoffed and shook his head, “And have you get lazy? I wouldn't do that to you.”

Harvey smiled, extending a hand to give Edward a playful shove. 

Edward's smile strengthened at the physical contact, and he extended his own hand to reciprocate, giving Harvey’s arm a tap. “I'll be finished with it soon, and then you'll miss them. You'll be coming to me every day begging.”

“Begging for riddles?” Harvey said, skeptical.

Edward nodded, “It’ll happen, just you wait and see.”

“Maybe we could come up with a couple for you,“ Harvey said, giving his coin another flip, not bothering to look at the result.

Edward felt his face flush. “Don't get insulted if I solve them faster than you come up with them.”

“We haven't dedicated our whole life to riddles, it would be surprising if you didn't solve them quickly.”

The blush on Edward's face deepened, and he forced himself to look away. “Yes, well,” he mumbled, the words struggling to get past the tightness in his throat. “I'll still look forward to it.”

“Gives us something to do,” Harvey shrugged, as if trying to downplay the compliment.

Edward felt his heart thump. Not only had Harvey offered to tell him riddles and complimented him on his riddle solving abilities, but now he was trying to take it back because he could tell Edward was getting flustered.

That man was a riddle in himself, Edward couldn't help wanting to solve it, and he cursed himself for that. 

He could feel Harvey’s eyes still on him, assessing him, it made him feel tense, exposed, but also… comforted, somehow. Harvey was looking into all the little nooks and crannies of Edward's being that he didn't usually let people see.

“Maybe you should make us some food,” Edward suggested, hoping to remove Harvey's attention from him. 

Harvey stilled, his eyes flicking away, as if startled by himself. “Uh, yeah,” he grumbled before getting to his feet, flipping his coin a few times as he crossed the room.

Edward couldn't help smiling. Harvey had gotten so caught up staring at Edward, analysing him. 

A tingle played on his lips as their kiss flashed across his mind again.

He forced the smile off his face. He didn't have the time to turn into a giddy teenager. He had to focus on his work.

He was so close. If he buckled down he could be done by the end of the day.

He forced his breath to slow, closing his eyes to calm himself.

The smell of Harvey’s coffee seeped into his mind. The sound of him cooking. His humming.

“Could you-” he began to snap, his eyes opening to look over at Harvey. He swallowed his words.

Harvey glanced over at Edward, an eyebrow quirked. “Could we what?” 

There was a tone of warning to his voice, his coin flipping again.

Edward let a huff out through his nose, and gave his head a shake. “Nothing.”

“We're distracting you?” he asked. “You've asked us to cook.”

“I did,” Edward grumbled. He pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a sigh.

He pushed the anger growing inside him away, knowing he shouldn't take it out on Harvey. The voices of the Arkham doctors played like a record in his mind: He was just projecting his nervousness, his anxiousness… it wasn't Harvey's fault.

“Pretend I didn't say anything.”

Harvey grunted softly, flipping his coin again. “This is why we need a larger place.”

“Yeah,” Edward’s voice was small as it left him, laden with the guilt left by his temper.

“The end of a project is stressful, but don't rush. You're not on a time limit,” Harvey reminded him.

“Yeah,” Edward mumbled again, none of his usual wit coming to him. “I just wish I had some space to myself.”

Harvey flipped his coin, glancing down at the result. “You could always sit in the bathroom?”

If Edward didn't know better he'd think Harvey was joking, but his tone was serious, quite compassionate, actually. 

“I don’t think so,“ Edward protested, his head shaking weakly. 

“It's private and quiet. Not much other choice.”

Edward hummed in thought. Then gave a nod. If it was that or getting into an argument he'd pick the bathroom.

He picked the laptop up and walked to the bathroom, glancing at Harvey as he went. It looked like he was making something with the last of the tinned chicken. 

He found himself a seat in the bathroom, opting for the bathtub rather than the toilet.

He liked to be able to cross his legs, laptop balanced in his knees.

With the door closed and locked it felt close to silent, like he’d shut himself in a bubble.

He finally felt like he could focus. He tapped away at the keyboard, watching as the final lines of code formed at his hand, pouring out of him effortlessly.

After a while the smell of coffee and food leaked its way through the cracks in the door, filling his nose and pulling his attention away from the screen.

Just one more line.

Then he could eat.

He was almost done.

He typed out the last line, and then leant back, looking at the screen.

It was done.

Finished.

He let out a breath.

Then his hunger hit him, like a punch to the gut.

He stood himself up, shakily, his legs numb from lack of movement, from sitting on the hard metal.

Limping, he made his way back into the main part of the motel room. He stretched and clicked his back, looking to the kitchen for Harvey, not seeing him there. His heart skipped a beat before he moved his attention to the bed, seeing him there.

“Food?” Edward felt the word leave his mouth before he had processed it.

“Counter,” Harvey informed. “It’ll be cold,” he added.

Edward frowned, “Already?”

“You were in there for 2 hours.”

Edward’s frown deepened, “2 hours?” he let out a soft huff, “No wonder my legs are numb.” He walked to the counter and picked up his bowl of food, the same chicken and noodle combination Harvey had made before.

It tasted just as good cold.

He plopped himself down on the bed, putting the laptop infront of Harvey. “I’m finished, by the way,” he gloated.

Harvey’s eyes widened. “You didn’t lead with that?” He looked down at the screenful of code infront of him. “We check it, then what?”

“Then we load it up onto a little usb stick, we go down to Ace, we enter the code, we run down that hallway and down those stairs, we put the usb in the computer, we wait for no less than 4 minutes, we take out the usb, we leave. And that’s it. We’re done.”

“You make it sound easy.”

“It will be easy,” Edward cooed. 

“We’ll have to keep track of the blindspot intervals so we can leave without being seen.”

Edward nodded, “There is 110 seconds of blindness every 7 minutes. If we do it smoothly the whole thing should last 10 minutes and 40 seconds.” He scooped some noodles into his mouth as if to emphasise his point.

Harvey scoffed. “The quickest heist we’ve ever been involved in.”

Edward swallowed his food quickly, “Isn’t it!” he said excitedly, almost choking on his food. “It’ll be the easiest money we’ve ever made, and no one will even know it happened!”

“Impressive,” Harvey purred.

Edward gave a small, playful bow. “Thankyou.”

Harvey flipped his coin, then sighed softly. “We mean it.”

Edward felt himself stall, a smile ghosting his face. “Thankyou,” he repeated, more sincerely. “It’s been a lot of hard work.”

Harvey nodded, “We never really appreciated that before. We’ve never worked with you this closely on a project.”

Edward felt the smile solidify on his lips. “It’s been nice having you here. I might have gone crazy without you.”

“You would have starved to death.” Harvey gave Edward’s bowl a slight tap at the mention, bringing Edward’s attention back to the food.

He scooped up another mouthful of noodles. He let out a soft, content sigh as he chewed. “Having my own personal chef has been lovely.”

Harvey flipped his coin again. “We like it, cooking for you.”

“And I like eating what you cook. I can’t wait till I can test the depths of your prowess.” He paused a second, “Once we get a real kitchen, I mean.”

Harvey nodded, “We knew what you meant.” He let out a soft sigh, flipping his coin before closing the laptop. 

“You aren’t going to check the code?” Edward asked.

Harvey shook his head, “We should celebrate your victory first.”

“What kind of celebration did you have in mind?” Edward asked, cautiously. 

Harvey shrugged, pausing to think. “We…” he flipped his coin, then shook his head. “Nevermind.” He pulled the laptop back towards him, opening it up again.

Edward frowned. “What?”

Harvey shook his head, “We were going to suggest getting a drink.” He shook his head again, as if reassuring himself that it was a bad idea. “Can’t leave. Don’t want a hangover. Might… make a mistake.”

Edward let out a hum, nodding solemnly. “It’s a nice idea, but perhaps not the smartest.” He smiled weakly, “Is that what you usually do to celebrate a victory?”

Harvey nodded, his eyes back on the screen, beginning to check Edward’s code.

Edward reached out a hand, giving Harvey’s knee a soft rub to comfort him. “Maybe we can find another way to celebrate? We could watch a movie?”

“Not much of a celebration,” Harvey mumbled. “How do people celebrate without… substances?”

Edward shrugged, “They… eat a special meal? Go out somewhere?”

“Neither of which we can do.”

“Yeah,” Edward grumbled. “We might have to settle for a movie.”

Harvey grunted disapprovingly. Eyes still on the laptop.

Edward leaned forward to push the laptop closed again. “Come on. Watch a movie with me.”

Harvey flipped his coin. “Fine,” he grunted. “A horror movie.”

Edward shrugged, “Sure. How about Friday the 13th? The original one.”

“Classic,” Harvey said in agreement.

Edward smiled, letting Harvey maneuver himself on the bed, crawling to lay beside him. Harvey flopped down next to him, and for a moment Edward thought Harvey might wrap his arm around him, the way he did when they slept.

Hoped.

No. Not hoped.

He forced a smile as he found the film, flicking it on, letting himself settle in at Harvey’s side.

“This movie used to scare the hell out of me,” Edward reminisced, the smile on his face becoming more natural as the film progressed. His eyes flicked to Harvey, “I used to watch it despite that because I really liked Kevin Bacon.”

“We liked him in Tremors,” Harvey smirked.

“In Tremors?” Edward chuckled.

Harvey nodded, “Him and that other guy had something going on.”

“Val and Earl?”

Harvey nodded again, “His attraction to women felt very performative.”

Edward let out a soft hum, nodding, “Yeah. I suppose I could see that.” He gave Harvey a nudge, “We should watch that after this, view it through a homoerotic lens.”

“Didn’t realise there was another lens to view it through.”

Edward let out another huffed chuckle. “So how old were you when you had that realisation? About the film, I mean.”

“First time we watched it. Think I was… 11?”

“That’s very astute for an 11 year old.”

Harvey smirked, “We’ve always had good media comprehension. Guess twists. Guess who the murderer is. Part of the fun.”

Edward hummed and nodded in agreement. His eyes flicked to the tv as one of the teens was killed, “Oh, this bit!” he pointed at the screen, “This bit gave me nightmares for weeks.”

Harvey snorted, frowning weakly. “How old were you to find this scary?”

Edward shrugged, “About 7.”

“7?” Harvey asked, almost shocked. “You said you watched it because you liked Kevin Bacon..?”

Edward shrugged again, nodding weakly. “I didn’t know why I liked him, at the time. That’s why I got so obsessed, I think.”

“Why were you allowed to watch it at 7?” Harvey continued to interrogate, his tone oddly protective.

Edward shrugged, “Shut me up, I guess,” he said quietly.

He’d never thought about it before, but letting a 7 year old watch a graphic horror film multiple times a week was probably not a good parenting decision.

Harvey shook his head. “The more I learn about your fucking parents…” he growled.

Edward felt his heart swell at Harvey’s anger, a soft appreciative breath leaving him. “Yeah,” he said weakly. “Imagine how I feel.”

Harvey let out another grunt of agreement, giving his coin a quick flip. “We’ll have to visit their graves at some point, so we can piss on them.”

Edward couldn’t really tell if that was a joke, or if Harvey were being serious.

Either way was acceptable, really.

“I’ll happily take you there, once we’re free to roam the streets again,” he smirked.

Harvey gave Edward’s arm a weak pat, “Good.”

With the word he turned his focus back to the movie. The two of them watched happily, intently. Supposedly unseen glances passing between them.

By the time the credits rolled Edward could feel his body turning heavy, sagging into the bed. He hadn’t realised how much he was resisting until he noticed the text on the screen turn double and blurry.

“Tremors next,” he forced himself to say, stretching slightly in an attempt to wake himself.

“You’re falling asleep,” Harvey whispered playfully, moving his face far too close to Edward’s.

Edward shook his head, “‘m not.”

“You are,” Harvey teased, giving Edward’s arm a poke.

Edward glared at him, too tired and comfortable to argue back, the warmth of Harvey’s proximity calling him like a siren’s song.

He let himself give in, nuzzling into Harvey like Harvey did to him every night, warmth and comfort filling him as he pressed against him. “Not much of a celebration?” he mocked, half asleep but even now unable to let himself not have the last word.

Harvey hummed softly, the low rumble of his chest spreading through Edward’s body and standing his hair on end. “Maybe not. Still happy we’re here.”

Edward let out a tired hum of agreement. He felt himself beginning to drift off.

As sleep took him he felt Harvey shift, pulling the blanket over them both, draping his strong, heavy arm over him, nuzzling into his hair.

Chapter Text

When Edward woke Harvey was already awake, as usual. Coffee and breakfast made. He stood at the counter, laptop in hand, already scanning the code for mistakes and hidden riddles.

“Hard at work?” Edward purred from his place on the bed, his voice cracking with sleep. 

Considering how close they were to putting their plan in action he was surprised he'd slept at all, but he had, slept deep under Harvey's comforting weight. 

Usually he got too anxious, too restless.

Maybe it was because he'd stopped drinking so much coffee.

Who could say, really. 

“Today the day?” Harvey asked, not taking his eyes off the screen. 

Edward nodded, “Today's the day,” he confirmed.

“Gunna be a good day.”

Edward felt his chest tighten, nervous. He still had so much to do, and there was so much that could go wrong. He had planned as best he could… “It better be,” he said pensively, his eyes averting. “If something does go wrong, I-”

Harvey flipped his coin in protest, “Don't think like that.” He walked to the bed, placing a banana and a mug of coffee onto the bedside table, somehow carrying them and the laptop without dropping anything.

With his hand free he cupped Edward's cheek, eyes contact intense and heated.

“It will go as planned. Nothing will go wrong,” Harvey said sternly.

Edward let out a sharp squeak, not daring to move as Harvey's grip tightened.

“Say it,” Harvey ordered.

“Nothing will go wrong,” Edward said, his heart in his throat, skin on fire at Harvey's threatening touch.

“Eat,” Harvey said as he removed his hand, the word free of the previous authority.

Edward huffed, picking up his banana. “It's important to have contingencies, otherwise you're planning to fail,” he said under his breath to defend himself. 

“Don't make us grab your face again,” Harvey growled, shooting him a glare. “We’re not interested in watching you spiral.”

Edward let out a soft grunt. Obviously Harvey was nervous too, but he was going the other way, pretending everything would be fine rather than worrying over what could go wrong. 

“We're going to do the job, not get seen, come back here,” Harvey said, almost to himself. “Nothing will go wrong,” he repeated, as if trying to make it fact.

“Almost done checking the code?” Edward asked, mouth full of food, trying to put Harvey's minds back on track. 

He picked up his coffee and took a sip to wash down his mouthful of banana, letting out a hum at the taste. He could feel Harvey’s eyes on him. 

“Think we got it.” Harvey held out the laptop for Edward to take. “A coin,” he said, answering the last riddle.

“It wasn't too easy for you?” Edward asked with a smile. 

Harvey shook his head, then shrugged as if admitting something to himself. “Took us a minute.”

Edward's smile deepened, “You got it, that's what matters,” he said, gloat infecting his voice. 

Harvey flipped his coin, putting the laptop on Edward's lap. “You feeling up for the run?” he teased.

Edward shrugged, feeling his emerging ego take a hit at the thought. “I'm sure I'll survive.”

“Sure.” Harvey flipped his coin. “How long till we go?”

“Everyone leaves at 5, security does a round at 5:30. Then again at 7. Then every 2 hours after that, each lasting 70 minutes, passing the freight docks at minute 40. We need to be at the door for 9:45.”

He felt his stomach twitch with nerves as he recounted the plan, closing his eyes briefly to visualise it.

Harvey let out a hum, listening intently. “In 8 and a half hours we leave.”

Edward gave a nod. “I need to load the program onto the usb. That'll take some time.”

Harvey let out a low grumble, flipping his coin a few times, processing.

“We'll watch Tremors while it loads?” Edward suggested.

Harvey flipped the coin again, his eyes flicking down to the result. “Sure.”

Edward tossed the remote to Harvey, clearing the bedside table and using it as a surface for the laptop. He found the usb drive he'd saved for the occasion, one in the shape of a question mark, of course, and, after turning it in his hand 3 times, plugged it in, opening it up and moving the program over.

“Estimated time: 1 hour 36 minutes,” he read off the screen.

He watched as the progress bar ticked to 1 percent, feeling his nerves settle as the familiar animation played on the screen.

Harvey gave a nod and a hum. His coin flipping restlessly. Remote untouched at his side.

Edward picked the remote back up, nestling himself at Harvey's side, as if physical touch might drain the restless energy from him. “We're in a ‘hurry up and wait’ situation.” He pulled up Tremors on the TV and pressed play, his attention more on Harvey than the movie.

Harvey's eyes moved to Edward, then the TV. “We know. Doesn't mean we have to like it.”

“You like Tremors though?” Edward smirked. “Kevin Bacon being gay?”

Harvey laughed flatly, rolling his eyes. “Don't be condescending. We're not a toddler you're trying to keep calm on a car ride…”

“Don't act like one then,” Edward cooed, giving Harvey another shove.

“We're used to being more active,” Harvey growled, seeming more annoyed at himself than anything. “Doing drills, checks…”

“You can… do some press ups? Watch more of the footage if you really want?”

Harvey let out a grunt of disgust, shaking his head, settling and forcing his eyes to the tv.

His coin betrayed him, though. Nail scratching against the marred side, thumb running over the other, not flipping it but playing with it.

“You'll put a dent in that thing,” Edward remarked, tipping his head to knock against Harvey’s shoulder. 

“Better than the wall,” Harvey muttered. “Or you,“ he added, tilting his head to knock it softly against Edward's. 

“I wouldn't be opposed to wrestling with you,” Edward joked, stretching out his arms to crack his knuckles, “I'll even let you win… for morale.”

Harvey let out a hiss, giving Edward's head another knock, and his coin another flip. “You're infuriating, you know.”

“I try my best,” Edward smirked, his heart swelling at Harvey’s tone. “You're the one who said everything would be fine, remember? We've been through everything, three times infact. There's no point in doing any more run-throughs.”

“We know,” Harvey mumbled. “Just restless.”

Edward gestured to the screen, “Kevin Bacon in tight jeans, how is that not distracting you? He's practically painted into them.”

“Yes, we see the attractive man. Our eyesight's bad but we're not blind.”

Edward lifted his head from Harvey’s tense shoulder, looking him over. “When we worked together before I remember you getting restless too. You're always yelling at everyone, I always just kinda stayed out of your way.”

Harvey nodded, the action stiff. “We normally have my men to yell at, things to do.”

“What do you usually do to relax before something like this? I can tell watching a movie isn't working.”

“Observant…” he let out a sigh, flipping his coin. “Nothing we can do here that we do normally.”

Edward let out a hum, thinking.

He could feel Harvey's discomfort second hand, it was putting him on edge. 

“I suggested pushups earlier. Would that not help?”

“We don't want to wear ourself out.”

“Just do some stretches,” Edward urged. “That won't wear you out.”

Harvey growled to himself, and internal conversation storming inside him. He flipped his coin and smiled, then pulled himself away from Edward's side and clambered onto the floor.

Edward watched him as he splayed himself out on the floor, smiling as he stretched and pulled himself into various shapes.

He was becoming visibly more relaxed as he pretzelled and un-pretzelled himself, the tension in his muscles melting away, his face softening back to its usual uneasy calm.

“Watch your movie, not me,“ Harvey said, his voice strained with effort, but obviously no longer as tense, the almost playful tone Edward had come to expect back in full force. 

Edward huffed, feigning disappointment, “You afraid you'll bore me?” he said, layering some false disinterest into his voice.

“More afraid we'll excite you,” Harvey smirked back.

Edward felt himself blush, and turned his head to the tv.

A laugh filled the air from Harvey, behind him, and Edward felt himself prickle. “What's so funny?”

“You say flirty shit to us all the time, but we say something back you clam up like a schoolgirl.”

Edward felt his throat tighten at the comment, eyes still on the tv, refusing to move them, despite feeling Harvey's eyes boring into the back of his head. “Well,” his brain quickly grasped at straws of responses, “I'm joking when I say it, obviously. Or I don't mean it to be flirty.”

Harvey’s smirk came across in his voice. “You can keep telling yourself that.”

Edward felt his stomach twist. He hadn't realised he'd been so obvious in his feelings, the ones he'd tried to deny himself. He shook his head quickly, “You're imagining things,” he said, his voice short, willing the exchange to end.

“Hope not.” Edward heard Harvey mumble to himself, the words punctuated by a flip of his coin.

A frown came to his face, his temper raising quickly in his chest, “We don't need this right now, Harvey. I don't mind you distracting me but you're going too far.”

Silence.

Other than the movie. 

He turned to the bedside table as the credits rolled, looking at the progress bar. Still 42 minutes to go.

He swore to himself.

Harvey's eyes snapped to him at the sound. “What?” he asked, worried.

Edward felt a slight tug inside him at the tone, and quickly shook his head, “Oh, nothing, nothing. It's just going to take a little longer than initially expected.”

“How much longer?” Harvey asked.

“Just an extra 40 minutes. It's really nothing to worry about, just annoying.”

Harvey let out a soft huff, relieved, returning his attention to his stretches. “Good. Don't want any fuck ups…”

“Nothing can or will go wrong on our end,” Edward assured him, unable to stop that caring tone from seeping back into his voice. “Everything is planned out. My program and my plan are perfect. The only things that could interfere are outside forces.”

“We can deal with them,” Harvey assured him in turn.

“I don't doubt it,” Edward said, weakly. He let out a breath. “Only 6 hours 54 minutes to go,” he grumbled, “What do you suggest we watch next?”

“Eat,” Harvey said firmly. “We can't do this on an empty stomach.”

Edward gave a nod. “I'll let you do that. I'd only get in the way.”

Chapter Text

The click of the door as it locked sent a shiver down Edward's spine. It sounded final.

It was his first time outside in weeks, other than for groceries. His first time wearing his suit in months. 

He felt like himself again.

“Once more unto the breach,” Harvey purred from his side. His voice was measured, calm, underlaid with excitement.

Harvey was himself again too, suit cleaned and pressed as best as they'd been able to. He filled out his suit a lot better than he had when Edward had first come across him. 

Silently and hidden, they made their way to the Ace building.

Edward couldn't stop himself from patting his pocket every few steps, ritualistically checking the usb stick in his pocket.

Not a soul saw them.

There had been a warning put out by Scarecrow a few days ago, everyone must still be sheltering in place.

They probably could have gotten away with strolling there, no ‘sneaking’ required, given how quiet the streets were.

It wasn’t worth the risk though. Fewer people meant less generalised crime, meaning that the Batman was more likely to come across them.

They made it to the door, unharmed, unseen.

They hid just to the left, behind an outcrop in the wall, pressed against it, practically on top of each other to avoid the camera's watchful eyes.

Edward let himself make eye contact with Harvey, reaching out for a fraction of a second to give the man's hand a soft squeeze.

He held out his other hand and stretched out his fingers, lowering each finger to count down from 5.

5.4.

He exhaled, matching his and Harvey’s breath. 

Ready to go.

3.2.1.

On the count of 0 he stepped out, Harvey close behind him.

He pressed the code into the door.

7.0.5.2.4.2.

After each number was a sharp and satisfying beep, and a flash of green light.

The door clicked open.

Harvey gave Edward a triumphant pat on the arm, and began sprinting down the hallway.

Edward's heart leapt into his throat, adrenaline filling him as he chased after Harvey.

Far too soon he felt his breath turn short, his blood start to burn.

He closed his eyes, grit his teeth, eyes locked on Harvey’s back, trying to match their steps, to keep up with him. 

He could see the stairs.

They were so close already.

Slowly pain was taking him over, spreading up his side, making breathing painful.

He gasped, clenching his fist to try and cover the pain.

Harvey looked back over his shoulder, panic on his face. “Come on!” he yelled, giving his hand a quick wave, trying to be encouraging, “Breathe!”

Edward nodded, forcing himself to breathe in the pattern Harvey had shown him.

Breathe in over 3 steps.

Breathe out over 2 steps.

He felt the pain ease, just a little, but enough.

His lungs still burned, vision blurred, fists clenched.

He made it to the stairs.

Plenty of time to spare.

Harvey looked back at him again, a lot less worried, smile on his face. He took off down the stairs, two at a time, practically falling down them.

Edward followed him again, checking his pocket as he bounced diwn the stairs. The USB stick was still there. 

Almost there.

Almost there.

As he hit the last step he felt Harvey grab his chest, pulling him sharp to the left.

Harvey had placed him infront of a computer. 

Smoothly Edward reached into his pocket, taking out the usb port, turning it 3 times in his hand before pushing it into the slot.

Three more clicks.

Execute.

He took a step back, clamping a hand to his chest and finally letting himself breathe. Panting. Gasping. Eyes slipping closed and head tipping back. Sweat dripping down his brow.

“You did so well,” Harvey whispered next to him, his breathing steady but heavy. “7 minutes rest, then we go again,” he reminded Edward, as if he needed reminding, as if the schedule wasn't burned into his brain. 

Edward nodded regardless, he reached out to pull Harvey Into a tight hug, clinging to him, unable to speak as he continued to pant.

After a second he pulled back, letting himself smile, feeling his breath start to calm.

“That was…was so difficult,” he managed to say, trying to keep his voice quiet, just in case.

Harvey's eyes were fixed on him, his mouth lulling open slightly. His eyes on Edward's lips.

He flipped his coin and swallowed hard, shoving his coin back in his pocket. “You did great,” he said again, his voice softer. 

Edward averted his eyes, his pulse racing from the running as well as the intensity of Harvey’s gaze. Eyes burning into him. He took a small step back to press himself against the wall. “6 minutes,” he said, still breathless.

Harvey nodded quickly, as if distracting himself with the action. He lifted his hand to scratch his chin. “Yeah,” he mumbled. He closed his eyes, letting out a deep breath.

Somehow Harvey had already recovered. Edward was going to need the whole 7 minutes. He forced himself to breathe properly. Slowly. Calm himself.

He let his eyes flick to the computer, watching the timer tick down.

Just 2 and a half minutes till he could take the usb stick out.

They stood, watching the timer run down, the air tense with adrenaline, making each second feel far too long.

Edward shook his head, unable to stand the silence. “That was so horrible,” he said between breaths. “I didn't expect it to hurt like that.”

“You never got a stitch before?” Harvey asked, a smirk playing on his lips.

“Not that I've had to keep running through.”

Harvey held back a laugh. “You have to keep breathing, or you'll get one on the way out too.”

“I don't want to do it again,” Edward whined. 

“We'll just live down here then?” Harvey joked, reaching out a hand to give Edward's arm a tap.

Edward felt a zap of adrenaline flow through him at Harvey's touch, he quickly buried the feeling. 

“4 minutes,” he said to himself. “I've got to calm down.”

Harvey took Edward's hand in his, holding them tight as if it would ground him. “Breathe. Use your diaphragm. In through your nose.” He breathed in in demonstration.

Edward copied him, breathing in deep, feeling the cold air fill him.

“Out through the mouth.”

Edward exhaled, slowly, in time with Harvey's breath.

Harvey flashed a smile, giving Edward's arm another tap. “Just a little longer.”

Edward looked at the timer. Watching it count down to 10.

9.

8.

7.

6.

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

Edward swooped forward, ejecting the usb and slipping out back into his pocket. Putting the computer to sleep.

“That's it,“ he breathed. “It's done.”

His mouth was dry, heartbeat thumping hard in his throat. Suddenly the sprint back down the hallway didn't feel as impossible.

He set his eyes on Harvey. “Harvey,” he said, the words ebbing from his without thought, “When we get back to the motel…”

He managed to stop himself.

Harvey let out a weak chuckle, giving a small  nod. “We knew it…” he said, almost triumphantly, as if he'd won an argument with himself. 

Edward felt his stomach knot slightly at Harvey's reaction. “I know I'm a prize but there's no need to brag.”

Harvey's face softened, and he took Edward's hand again, keeping eye contact with him as he lifted it to his lips, placing a kiss on Edward's knuckle. 

Edward let him, but then pulled his hand back, his breath shortening again, he shook his head. “Not here. I… I need to stay calm. We're so close.”

He wasn't sure if he were taking to Harvey or to himself. 

He couldn't let honestly think about that. He wouldn't. 

Harvey let out a low rumbled hum, a frown soft on his face. He turned to lean himself against the wall, at Edward's side.

“Shouldn't've…” he mumbled under his breath, his hand finding his coin in his pocket. 

Edward swallowed hard, his eyes on his shoes, concentrating on his breathing,  counting down in his head. 

He did his best to ignore Harvey at his side. The want pulling in his chest. His body felt somehow cold and on fire at the same time. He had to ignore it.

Just for 1 more minute.

He counted down in his head. Letting the words externalise as they got down to single digits.

“6.”

Harvey gave a small nod, pulling away from the wall, prepping himself to run.

“5.”

Edward mirrored him, standing near the base of the stairs.

“4.”

“Remember your breathing,” Harvey said next to him. 

“3.”

“2.”

“1.”

They ran up the stairs, almost keeping pace with each other.

They burst into the hallway, turning quickly, dashing down the long hallway.

“Go!” Harvey yelled, beginning to speed up, overtaking Edward with ease.

There was joy in his voice. 

Edward tried his best to keep up, but his inexperience dragged him back.

He felt himself beginning to gasp again, that familiar pain coming back into his chest.

He cursed himself, his inexperience, his weakness.

“Riddler!” Harvey yelled, snapping him out of his spiral.

Edward felt his breath hitch, forcing himself to focus, breathe in the rhythm Harvey had talk him. 

How did this run feel longer than before?

But he could see the door now.

There it was.

Freedom.

The job finished.

The plan complete. 

He let himself slam into the door. Eyes on Harvey as he typed in the code.

705242.

Beep.

Flash of green light.

The door popped open.

They were free.

Harvey took Edward by the sleeve, pulling him away from the building, leading him down the street, towards their motel. 

“We did it, “ Edward whispered, panting hard, his legs threatening to give way beneath him. 

“Not done yet,” Harvey growled, “Gotta get home. Almost there.”

“I thought you said you hated exercise,” Edward said between breaths. Heart beating so hard he could feel it in his teeth.

Harvey shook his head, wrapping his arm around Edward to keep him up and steady. “Hate lacrosse,” he corrected. “We like… boxing, fencing, running-”

Edward grunted, “How could anyone like this?”

Harvey let out a laugh. “You shouldn't push yourself like you have. You go further in small increments.”

Edward groaned, disgust at the thought of doing that ever again.

“It feels good after a while,” Harvey assured him,  giving him a squeeze.

They stuck to the shadows, making their way back to the motel.

Again the journey felt longer. The promise of home dangling infront of Edward like a carrot.

Warm comfortable bed.

Food.

Coffee.

Harvey.

As they approached the door Edward let his eyes move to Harvey.

The plan had gone off without a hitch.

Somehow.

It was time for a real celebration.

The door clicked closed behind them. The silence of the room tense.

They stood, catching their breath. 

Harvey flipped his coin, letting a smile come to his face. “You did it,” he said quietly, calmly, his voice an anchor for Edward's buzzing mind.

Edward's eyes snapped to him, that urge filling him again.

This time he didn't even try to stop it. 

He threw himself at Harvey, arms round his neck, their lips meeting, one of Harvey's hands found the small of his back, pulling him close, the other hand in his pocket, fiddling with his coin. 

“Bed?” Harvey asked between breathy kisses. 

Edward wasn’t sure if he was going to regret this, wasn't sure if it was a good idea, but he was high on adrenaline and didn't want to stop. Didn't want to think. Just wanted Harvey.

He nodded.

Harvey stumbled the few steps to the bed, flopping down gracelessly onto it, dragging Edward with him.

Edward let himself move into a more comfortable position, straddling Harvey’s hips, arms still wrapped round him, their kiss deepening.

He let that familiar warmth in his chest grow and take him over.

Their kiss broke as he threw off his jacket, working the buttons on his shirt.

Harvey watched him for a moment before taking off his own jacket, beginning to fumble with his buttons.

Edward watched as Harvey struggled, his marred hand pinching and pulling, clumsy and uncoordinated.

“Fucking buttons,” Harvey half snapped.

Edward let out a breath, the flow of their intimacy interrupted, his stomach twisted as he watched Harvey struggle, and he felt all the doubt he’d been ignoring crash into him.

He closed his eyes, tipping his head back, a breath leaving him.

“This is a bad idea, isn’t it,” he mumbled, the words sticking and dragging in his throat, burning as they left him.

Harvey let out a soft hum, running his hand up Edward’s arm, Edward’s skin tingling rebelliously at the touch.

“It’s not,” he half-whispered back. “Not every idea has to be great, Ed. Sometimes you can just let yourself have fun.”

Edward scoffed, a frown coming to his face, he began to shift away, “Not the sort of fun I’m used to having…”

“You’re not a virgin,” Harvey stated.

“No,” Edward said defensively. “Of course not. But I’m not like you Harvey, I don’t screw everything that moves.”

Harvey let out a growl, then shifted. “Where’s our coin, we need to flip to see if we should punch you for that.”

Edward scoffed, a smirk coming to his lips.

“What’s the harm, Edward?” Harvey asked, coin forgotten. “What’s the worst that could happen? That we have a nice time? We have some fun? We celebrate what we’ve accomplished?”

“I don’t want to just be ‘some fun’.” Edward began to do his buttons back up.

“That’s not what we meant, Edward, you know that,” Harvey purred. He lifted a hand to fumble with Edward’s buttons, trying to undo the ones he’d just rebuttoned. “Edward…” he protested weakly.

“I’m not willing to be one of your indulgences.” Edward pulled himself from Harvey’s lap, getting to his feet, looking down at Harvey, still splayed on the bed.

“Edward,” Harvey said again in protest, lifting his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. He let out a huff, wounded. “An indulgence?” he repeated, his tone close to confused. “That’s what you think this is? How shallow do you think we are? You really think that little of us?”

He sat up on the bed, reaching over for his jacket, fishing in the pockets for his coin, desperation in his movements.

Edward flinched as the coin flipped, the metallic sound cutting through the silence in the room.

Harvey let out a sigh. “You don’t wanna do this, fine. But don’t think you’re not important to us.”

Edward felt his cheeks turn warm. “What?” he said weakly.

“We won’t say it again.”

Edward swallowed around the lump in his throat. “I…” His words stuck in his throat and refused to leave him.

Harvey’s eyes burned into him, absently fiddling with his coin. Letting the silence thicken around them.

The coin flipped again.

“Fine,” Harvey grunted. “Don’t say anything.” His eyes dropped to his coin. “For the first time in your fucking life.”

Edward felt a scoff leave him. “You’re just trying to get me into bed,” he said, defensive.

“We wouldn’t do that,” Harvey growled, flicking his coin again. “Look,” he said slowly, his voice low, calming as ever. “We know you’re not… used to this. It’s ok.”

Edward swallowed again, sitting down on the bed at Harvey’s side. “Don’t want you to think I’m easy,” he grumbled. He let out a huff at himself, shaking his head. It felt so childish to say.

“You’re joking…” Harvey said with a shake of his head.

Edward let out a grunt, his eyes slipping closed. “I know, I’ve got issues, I’m working on them,” he growled, angry at himself for the emotions swirling inside him, memories from his younger years stabbing at him.

He felt Harvey’s hand brush against his back, and felt himself lean into the touch.

“We know you’re not easy,” Harvey said, a smile obvious in his voice. “Didn’t realise that was a thing that people worried about…” he added under his breath.

“It is,” Edward snapped, pulling away from Harvey’s touch. “Especially-” he shook his head, cutting himself off.

A moment of silence passed between them. “Go on,” Harvey urged.

Edward shook his head.

“Edward.”

Edward swallowed, feeling himself retreat into himself. “It’s nothing.”

Harvey flipped his coin, then let out a grunt. “We won’t make you tell us. If you’re sure it’s nothing.”

Edward closed his eyes. Harvey was trying to connect. Trying to help.

“I didn’t have a good homelife, growing up, obviously,” he mumbled, the words leaving him slowly and unwillingly. “I used to… Find attention elsewhere. A lot. Older men.”

“How old were you?” Harvey enquired, a flip of his coin punctuating the question.

Edward felt his stomach twist. “14,” he confessed, his voice small.

“How old were they?” Harvey’s voice had turned cold, the hand leaving Edward’s back.

Edward shrugged, “20s? I dunno.”

A low growl came from Harvey, behind him. He could feel anger emanating from him.

“You were a child.”

Edward shrugged again. “Young and stupid, I guess.”

“You weren’t stupid, you were groomed,” Harvey snapped. “Were any of them prosecuted?”

Edward let out a chuckle, short and bitter. “What? No.”

“Disgusting…”

Edward gave yet another shrug, not sure what else to do with himself, he fiddled with one of his buttons. “I thought I wanted it, at the time.” He exhaled softly, “Once shit hit the fan I… realised they were using me.”

He felt Harvey’s hand take his, giving it a light squeeze, trying to offer comfort.

“You know we’d never use you,” he said quietly.

Edward paused, and then nodded. The warmth of Harvey’s hand settling him.

He squeezed Harvey’s hand back.

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Harvey assured him, his voice soft, authoritative. Everything Edward needed him to be.

God, he felt pathetic. Shame and relief waging a war inside him.

He lay back on the bed, next to Harvey.

“I’ve slept with people in my adulthood, too, of course. I’m not some…” he struggled to come up with an apt metaphor, “Damaged… flower. Or…” he shook his head, excuses beginning to pour out of him “I’m fine, is my point. It’s-It’s, just. Uh. We’re going to be working together for the foreseeable future, I wouldn’t want to make it awkward, or…” he let his sentence trail off. 

Harvey flipped his coin again, then pulled Edward’s hand toward him, pressing it to his lips. Edward didn’t resist the action, letting the warmth of Harvey’s lips swell his chest.

“I… trust you,” Edward said softly, his voice a whisper. “I really do. Tonight has proved that to me more than anything.”

“It was fun,” Harvey mumbled against Edward’s fingers.

A smile found itself on Edward’s lips. “It was.” he let out a breath, turning on the bed so he and Harvey were face to face. “It was so good. Nothing went wrong, nothing. How often does that happen?”

“Never happens,” Harvey confirmed.

Edward pulled his hand away from Harvey’s mouth, then, after a moment of contemplation, leaned in to kiss him.

Harvey kissed back, then pulled away. He lifted his hand to cup Edward’s face, a gentle smile on his face, brushing his thumb over Edward’s cheek bone. “You’ll get no more than that,” he said sternly. “Holding you to your no.”

Edward felt his heart flutter, and forced a nod.

Chapter Text

Edward lay in bed, phone in hand, as Harvey made them coffee.

He was scrolling through airbnb listings.

Not just to browse this time. He was actually searching for a place. 

Somewhere nearby. A larger one bedroom. Almost open concept, a barrier of some kind separating the livingroom and kitchen.

He let himself dream as he scrolled.

“As long as it has a burner and a washing machine we'll be happy,” Harvey said from the counter, his eyes on his mug as he made coffee.

Edward hissed playfully, “Both a burner and a washing machine? You're really shooting for the stars.”

“We're a simple man,” Harvey shrugged. “We just wanna be in there as soon as possible.”

Edward nodded. “What would your dream place have?”

“We're not looking for a dream place.”

“I know. I'm just asking.”

Harvey shrugged. “Office, big livingroom, home gym, kitchen with a double oven. Electric. Induction hob.”

“I'll have to look up what that last one means,” Edward grumbled.

“Magnets,” Harvey said, as if that were any explanation.

“An office would be great.” Edward smiled, “And a wardrobe.” He let out a soft gasp, his eyes sticking on the listings as he scrolled past them, “Harvey, we're going to have a couch.”

Harvey let out a moan of pleasure, tipping his head back. “God, that sounds good.”

Sitting on something with a back, both feet on the floor. It sounded like a dream.

How small his dreams had become. 

Edward let out a chuckle, pulling up one of the listings, scrolling through the pictures.

It was close, available immediately.

“How about this one?” He held his phone out for Harvey to see.

Harvey walked over, placing a paper cup of coffee on the bedside table. He took Edward's phone and began to swipe through. 

“Looks a bit dark.”

Edward raised an eyebrow, “It's close and available immediately.”

Harvey let out a groan. “Yeah.” He flipped his coin, then shook his head, “Sure, go ahead. Book it in.”

A frown came to Edward's face, “No, come on, what do you mean?”

“You know my eyes aren’t great.”

Edward nodded, “Ah, of course.” He pulled the phone from Harvey’s hand, clicking back to the search results.

“We can deal with it. Book the place.”

“No,” Edward sneered. “I’m not gunna make you live somewhere where you can’t see.”

“Softy,” Harvey purred, reaching out a hand to push a strand of hair out of Edward’s face.

Edward let his eyes meet with Harvey’s. “I’m just not that evil.”

“Didn’t you once get a rat to eat a man’s face?” Harvey teased.

Edward raised a hand. “He did that to himself.”

Harvey smiled, letting out a chuckle. He took a seat on the bed, practically sitting on Edward’s lap, flipping his coin quickly. “We can’t wait to live with you.”

“You already live with me.”

“You know what we meant. In a real apartment.”

“You’re just excited to be able to cook, it’s got nothing to do with me.”

“We are excited to cook,” Harvey nodded.

Edward looked back down at his phone. Scrolling through the listing again.

“We’ll be cooking for you,” Harvey added.

Edward tried to focus on his phone, but he could feel his chest warming against his will. Images of Harvey cooking for him filling his head. The smell of fried garlic and onion filling the air. Sitting on the couch, listening to Harvey humming.

It had felt like a far off dream for so long. Now, if he played his cards right, he could have it by the end of the day.

Somehow it felt too much, too quick.

He pushed the feeling away. This was the plan. They had had this plan for weeks. They were sticking to the plan.

“This one’s brighter,” he remarked, clicking on one of the listings. “Everything in it is white, though, better hope we don’t spill anything.”

“My hand eye coordination isn’t good either,” Harvey mumbled, reminding Edward as if he didn’t already know.

Edward hummed weakly, nodding, clicking out of the listing. Back to the list. Continuing to scroll.

“Go back to the first one, Edward. It’s fine.”

Edward shook his head, “I said no, Harvey.”

He scrolled through a few more, looking at the pictures, those images running through his mind again. Harvey making him coffee. Harvey sitting with him on that couch. Harvey eating cereal at that breakfast bar. Harvey sitting at that desk, writing up plans for their next heist.

For 8 months.

Such a commitment.

“You ok?” Harvey asked, the words cutting into Edward’s mind.

Edward nodded hurriedly. Eyes flicking from Harvey to the screen and back. He tossed the phone on the bed, the action almost angry, and picked up his coffee, taking a sip.

Perfect, as always.

Damn it.

“Nothing good?” Harvey asked, glancing at the phone that now lay on the bed.

Edward shrugged, eyes still on his cup.

Harvey grunted softly, picking up the phone and beginning to look through himself.

Edward worked on his coffee, letting Harvey scroll, trying not to look up at him.

“This one’s good,” Harvey grunted, shoving the phone in Edward’s face.

Edward looked at it, swiping through the photos. Almost open concept, with a breakfast bar to separate the livingroom and kitchen. A desk in the corner. A washer/dryer. The couch was green.

“How did I miss this one?” Edward asked, talking to no one in particular.

Harvey answered regardless. “It’s not available for another 3 days. Pretty far down the list. It’s pretty perfect though. It’s even got a green couch.”

Edward felt himself smile, then forced it from his face. He gave a nod, “Yeah. I guess.”

“You guess?” Harvey growled. He flipped his coin. “What’s wrong. Tell me.”

Edward took another sip of his drink, shrugging. “Nothing. Nothing’s wrong.”

“You were fine a moment ago.”

Edward shrugged again. “I’m still fine.”

“You’re not.” Harvey reached out his free hand, putting his hand on Edward’s leg.

Edward felt himself clam up, lump forming in his throat, he refused to let his eyes lift from his coffee, watching it swirl in his hands. Harvey could see right through him.

Harvey huffed, frowning, retracting his hand. He flipped his coin. “We’re reserving this apartment.”

Edward gave a small nod. “So we move in 3 days?” he said after a moment.

Harvey nodded back. “Gives us some time to get used to the idea.” He touched Edward’s leg again, giving him a weak pat. “It’s a big change, but you’ll survive.”

“Shut up,” Edward grunted, flicking his leg slightly to push Harvey’s hand off him. He shook his head “I’m fine. I’m not worried about moving. I want to move. Three days is too long as far as I’m concerned.”

Harvey let out a hum, smiling as if he’d sussed Edward out. “You think you’re fooling anyone with that?”

Edward pouted and shrugged. “Myself?” he offered, weakly.

“We won’t make fun of you for being nervous, Ed,” Harvey mumbled, flipping his coin. 

“I know.”

“Then why are you trying to hide it?” Harvey growled. 

“I don’t… I don’t know,” Edward grumbled back. He shook his head, trying to order his thoughts, trying to put the doubts inside him into words. “It’s a big change,” he said quietly, his usual verbosity lost.

Harvey let out a huff, putting his hand back on Edward’s leg. “We’ve reserved the apartment. No going back now.”

The words made Edward’s stomach twist. 

“Why did you have to find the perfect place, with the green couch,” he grumbled.

“What do you mean?”

“The place you found is almost exactly what I wanted. You found a great place, and everything you said last night.” He shook his head. “Just,” his eyes flicked to Harvey, “What's wrong with you?”

“A lot is wrong with us.”

“You know what I mean. There's a lot wrong with me, Harvey. And you like me? You're going out of your way to find us a place that has a green couch? You're making me fall for-” he slammed his mouth closed, eyes widening, fists clenching. “I just don't see why you care,” he added quickly.

Harvey’s eyes narrowed, he smiled, hand still tight on Edward’s leg, other hand absently playing with his coin. “Because you matter to us. Not much of a puzzle. Haven’t we covered this already?”

“A lot’s happened since then,” Edward grunted. His fingers twitched, an urge to take Harvey’s hand coming to him. He managed to resist it. “You mean it?”

“Yes, we mean it,” Harvey said, voice flat, “It’s not some mystery.”

Edward’s mouth opened, then closed, and opened again. No words came. He pulled away from Harvey’s touch. He put his now empty cup back on the bedside table. “You’re insufferable. Making me…” he shook his head, unable to believe the words that were about to leave him, “Making me feel things like this.” He ran his hands through his hair, shaking his head again. “You say these things like it’s so simple.”

Harvey chuckled, the noise low in his throat, almost mocking. “It is simple, Ed. You love to complicate everything.” He put his hand back on Edward’s leg, his touch firm, heavy. “You turn straight lines into mazes.”

“Mazes make sense to me,” Edward snapped, pulling himself away from Harvey's touch again. “This doesn’t. Feelings don’t. You shouldn’t want me at all, you shouldn’t care. You’re better now, you’ve got money, you can leave! You don’t have to stay!” Edward felt his voice raise, turning ragged as he began to shout, but he didn’t try to stop himself.

“We care, and we want to stay,” Harvey replied, his voice as flat and quiet as always, coin rolling between his fingers. “Mystery solved.”

Edward pinched the bridge of his nose. “You drive me crazy, Harvey Dent. You know that?”

“You drive us crazy too,” Harvey said, smirking.

“Oh, you’re being so fucking funny,” Edward snapped.

“You’re the one being funny.” Harvey shook his head. “Acting like we’re trying to trick you? You matter to us. Accept it. Or we’ll start feeling insulted.”

Edward shook his head, pausing for a moment, his shoulders slumping. “I… I don’t think I can accept that.”

“You’ll get there,” Harvey said simply. “We’re not going anywhere. We told you. We meant it.” 

He sounded so matter of fact. Two plus two is four. The sun rises in the east. He wasn’t lying.

His brain screamed at him to argue back. He wanted to insult him, mock him, do anything he could to… push him away.

The realisation hit him like a brick: He was being stupid.

“I need to calm down,” he muttered, letting his eyes slip closed, laying back on the bed. He focussed on his breathing, slow, feeling himself calm.

Harvey didn’t move, didn’t respond, didn’t push him. Let him breathe. 

That didn’t help…

“You talk about everything like there’s no nuance. No layers. It sounds so easy.”

“You make things feel easy,” Harvey cooed. He shifted on the bed to press a kiss onto Edward’s forehead.

“Fuck off.”

Edward opened his eyes to see Harvey at his side, face to face.

“You overcomplicate, we simplify. That’s part of why we work so well. You’re talking in circles.”

Edward couldn’t argue with that. Harvey’s logic was like a cage around him. He extended a hand to give Harvey’s shoulder a soft shove. “Insufferable,” he grumbled.

“You too,” Harvey grumbled back.

Edward took a breath, some of the panic inside him fading. His hand found Harvey’s and gave it a soft squeeze.

“What are you looking forward to, about the apartment?” Harvey asked, his voice quiet and low, so calm.

“Falling asleep on the couch,” Edward let himself say, his voice equally quiet. “And then… when I wake up you’ve put a blanket over me.”

“Cute.”

Edward felt his face flush. He tried to brush past it. “What about you? Just cooking?”

Harvey paused, humming in thought, then flipped his coin. “No. Washing machine.”

Edward laughed. “Oh, yeah. Of course. Can I change my answer?”

Harvey shook his head, “Too late.” He smiled, “We’re also looking forward to getting up in the morning and not having to sneak around. Takes a lot of effort to not wake you up.”

“Well, thankyou for your effort.”

Chapter Text

It hadn't taken them long to pack, within all of 5 minutes their belongings had been bagged. 

Folded neatly by Edward's hand, balled up and stuffed in by Harvey's. They had a day left, and nowhere for that anxious energy to go. 

Harvey had his feet under the bed, using it to anchor himself as he did situps.

A physical outlet for his worry about their move. 

Edward could feel the bed jostling with each one, laying on his back, trying to busy himself.

His mind was racing with all the things he wanted, no, needed to do before they could count their move as complete.

It was a short list, but he played it over and over in his mind. 

“What am I on?” Harvey grunted, his voice unaffected by the strain of his exercise.

Edward’s eyebrow quirked, “You think I’m counting?” He let out a small huff, immediately going back on himself, “Ugh, I’m always counting. You’re on 83.”

“Fuck,” Harvey grumbled. “You ruin our rhythm every time.”

“You were trying to stop at 80?” Edward tutted. “Should’ve let me know.”

“Got distracted. Your fault,” Harvey grumbled, speeding up his repetitive movements, torso bobbing up and down, bed jostling slightly more with the increase of force.

“I did nothing to distract you.” Edward couldn't help but smirk, knowing how many times Harvey had done that to him. “Now you have to go to 100, don’t you? Can’t resist a round number?”

Harvey let out a growl, “You know me too well.”

Edward chuckled softly. “I wouldn't share a bed with someone I don't know well.“

“We're well aware.”

Harvey's voice was unaffected by the strain of his exercise, and sounded slightly possessive. Edward found it calming. He hated that he found it calming.

“Ok, stop, that was 100,” Edward said hurriedly. 

Harvey lay back against the carpet, chest rising and falling slowly. If it weren't for the slight sheen of sweat there was no evidence he'd just been working out.

Edward sat himself up, leaning over to look at Harvey, peering over the side of the bed. “Your form breaks a little at the top of your sit up,” he informed him, “you drive with your right side. It’s a little uneven, and it gets more obvious as you progress.”

Harvey nodded, letting out a hum as if taking note. “Makes sense, that’s the stronger side.” 

Their eyes locked for a second, and Edward felt that now familiar pang of want inside him. He watched as Harvey reached over to the bedside table and retrieved his coin, immediately fiddling with it.

“Just trying to help you reach perfection,” Edward cooed, a nervous smile on his lips.

“With the way you were drooling over us, ‘perfection’ might kill you,” Harvey joked. 

Edward scoffed, the warmth of embarrassment quickly coming to his face. “I was not,” he sputtered, “I was analysing. Observing.”

“Observing closely.”

“How else are you meant to improve?” Edward snapped back. “I wasn't even looking at you,” he added.

“You don't have to look at us for your attention to be on us.” Harvey flipped his coin, then pulled his shirt off and threw it at Edward in one swift movement. “We're going to shower.”

“Ew?” Edward whined, picking Harvey's shirt off himself and throwing it to the floor. “The fuck is wrong with you..?”

“We’re meant to be packed, remember?” Harvey shouted from the bathroom, the door still open a crack. “We’re not washing that till we move. Put it in the bag.”

“Yes, I know, but throwing your used gym clothes at me? That’s disgusting. The bag is right there, do it yourself.”

He rolled his eyes to himself, as the door to the bathroom clicked closed.

A smile appeared on his face. Harvey had gotten flustered that time too.

Now he was fully aware Harvey wanted him he noticed it all the time. The little glances the smile, the coin flips that were about him. 

He turned the tv on, turning the volume up to drown out the sound of the shower.

As he watched his attention dragged itself back to Harvey’s shirt, laying on the floor.

He let out another huff, eyes slipping closed for a moment.

How inconsiderate. Couldn't even put his shirt directly in the bag?

He pulled himself off the bed, approaching the crumbled shirt. He gave it a soft kick towards the bag, before bending down to pick it up, almost reflexively holding it to his face to give it a quick sniff, inhaling the scent of Harvey’s sweat.

It hit him, suddenly, what he was doing. He felt a stab of disgust pierce him. “Oh, god, ew,” he yelped, throwing the shirt onto the bag. Wiping his face with his hand, giving his head a shake as if that would dispel his internal horror.

He retreated to the bed, his eyes fixing back on the tv. The scent of Harvey’s sweat sticking in his nose.

He inhaled deeply, admitting internally that it did smell… comforting. Reminded him of sleep.

The sound of the shower penetrated his mind, somehow sounding louder the more he tried not to focus on it. Intruding on him. Making him uncomfortable. 

Harvey showering wasn’t an irregular occurrence, but since the night of their heist it had begun to feel awkward.

Edward had a new urge, a new intrusive thought. He wanted to go in there, watch him, join him.

He pushed the thought away, as he always did.

He felt his chest tighten as his mind pressed the sound of the shower into every nerve in his body.

He could feel himself tensing up.

He lay back on the bed, pulling the blanket over himself, as if the thin fabric would block out the noise.

It didn't.

It was happening again. He was letting himself get overwhelmed.

He focussed on his breathing, closing his eyes, fingers picking at the blanket to help ground himself. 

The discomfort slowly subsided.

The shower didn't sound so loud anymore.

After a few minutes, abruptly, the sound of the water stopped.

Edward pulled the blanket from over his head, watching as Harvey appeared in the doorframe.

Harvey looked down at him, towel around his waist, coin in his hand.

Edward averted his eyes, pulling the blanket back over his head.

“Forgot to take in new clothes,” Harvey remarked, as if it was nothing. He paused for a moment, and Edward could feel him assessing him, trying to read Edward's thoughts. “Something wrong?”

Edward nodded. “No, actually,” he said quietly.

It was mostly true, he'd managed to stop spiralling, a rare accomplishment.

He used to be so good at controlling himself, as he worked to get better, to self improve, he got worse at it. It got harder. It was frustrating. Every little thing felt like a fight, a failure. 

Harvey hummed, not seeming to believe him. “When you want to talk about it, you know who to come to.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Edward said, a little too quickly. 

“Sure, play pretend,” Harvey said back, equally quickly. “Which bag?” he added.

“The blue bag with the bird on, that's what's clean,” Edward informed him, happy for the change of subject.

Harvey grunted on acknowledgement, and Edward heard the bag rustle, assumedly Harvey was picking out clothes and dressing himself.

“Let’s pretend something was wrong,” Edward said quietly, testing the waters, still hiding himself from the world. “What might it be?”

Harvey huffed softly, the bed shifting as he sat. “More riddles…” he muttered.

Edward pulled slightly away from where Harvey sat, unsatisfied with the silence. But he could hear Harvey’s coin, he could tell he was processing, talking with himself.

“Let’s see…” Harvey mumbled after a moment. “Four probable causes. First, the move: you don’t like change, but that’s too obvious. Second, we made you uncomfortable with the comment we made, and now you’re overthinking it. That one’s the likely suspect. Third, you’re seeing us in a towel, but you were freaking out before that, although it likely compounds the overthinking issue. Fourth, you don’t like when we see you like this, but you have no where to go to have privacy, so you feel like you’re losing control.”

Another beat of silence.

That had been disturbingly precise.

“You’ll tell us, when you’re ready, regardless of if we’re right or not.”

“Fucking hate you,” Edward growled, burying himself deeper in the blanket.

He felt Harvey’s hand firm against his leg, finding that same spot that it seemed to think was its home.

“You don’t know me that well,” Edward almost snapped.

“You asked. Not our fault I’m right.”

Harvey’s voice was annoyingly even. So sure of himself. Edward chewed his lip, unable to retort. Harvey was right. 100%. It felt very exposing, having the issues in his head plucked out and spoken aloud by someone else.

“You missed one,” Edward informed him, his voice an unsure whisper. 

“Go on.”

Maybe telling him wasn’t a good idea. What if it made them worse? What if he mocked him?

Harvey would pull the information from him eventually if he didn’t tell him now.

“I have intrusive thoughts,” Edward stated, his voice still small.

Harvey huffed, “That’s normal, not even important enough to list.” Harvey’s hand patted him. “Bad?” he asked, his voice as strong as his grip on Edward’s leg. Demanding an answer. It reminded him of Arkham’s clinical intake team.

“Yes. Well, no. They’re strong, and love making things complicated.”

“Not bad?”

Edward shrugged, “Not… not really.”

“Tell me.” The coin flipped, and his voice hardened, “And come out from under there, talking to a cushion’s getting old fast.”

Edward swallowed hard. “I can’t look at you and tell you what it is.”

Harvey tutted. “Fine. Don’t, then.”

More silence, as Edward gathered the nerve to tell Harvey what his urge had been. His first time admitting to one out loud.

“I,” his stomach clenched, blood pressure rose.

Maybe he shouldn't say it.

Harvey's hand squeezed his leg, gentle, reassuring. Pulling the words from him, like venom being sucked from a wound. 

“I thought I might… join you.”

“In the shower?"

Edward couldn't bring himself to confirm it. He sat, frozen, hand over his face, hiding, as if his thoughts were a predator stalking him. 

“We get that one all the time,” Harvey responded. “Not very original. Understandable, really.”

Edward's eyes squeezed closed. Again Harvey was reacting as if it were the most normal thing in the world. 

Two plus two is four. The sun rises in the east. Harvey had thought about… that.

Edward felt himself blush, the words sinking in.

“You wanted to join me?” he asked, seeking clarification despite himself. He knew what Harvey meant, but he had to be sure, his mind screamed at him to check.

“Yes,” Harvey growled, voice deliberate, as if annoyed by repeating himself.

The grip on Edward’s leg loosened, and Edward's mind tensed, the sound of the coin filling the space.

“We want to,” Harvey said slowly, picking at his own words. “Not really an intrusive thought,” he added, correcting himself with a flick of his coin. “Not something to panic over, or for us to act one, we decided. You're not ready for it. We won't push it.”

Edward grumbled to himself, his fingers knitting in the blankets, balling into fists. 

He wasn't sure if it was something he wanted. It was an urge he had. Made him feel uncomfortable, sick even. But there was something else to it. A pull of desire from deep inside him which clashed with his want for control over himself. It almost made him feel dizzy.

“If I were to…” he began, then stopped himself. “Never mind.”

“Do what you want,” Harvey responded regardless, “Or don't. Flip a coin if you need to. Don’t opt for inaction and regret it.”

That sounded like permission.

Edward pulled the sheet from his head, looking over at Harvey. “Does it not disgust you?”

Harvey shook his head, frown deep on his face. “Why would it?”

He sounded like he really didn’t understand the question.

“What should we be disgusted by? Our body? Yours?”

Edward felt a small stab inside him at the thought Harvey might be disgusted by his body, or his own, instead of just the situation.

“No, I…” Edward shook his head, eyes averting, unsure of what he was trying to convey. “Wanting something like that,” he eventually settled on saying.

“We already want you, we’ve made that clear,” Harvey replied, confusion in his voice. “It’s not disgusting to us.”

Edward let out a huff. “Feels unnatural to me,” he muttered, unable to wrap his head around the idea.

He was more fucked up than he’d thought. Every layer he peeled back revealed more to fix. Something worse, more rotten.

Harvey saw all of that and didn’t flinch. Still wanted to join him in the shower. Edward couldn’t comprehend it.

It didn’t feel real.

“The truth’s like that sometimes,” Harvey said, he gave Edward’s leg a soft pat and pulled himself away from the bed. “Food?” he asked.

Edward shook his head.

Harvey grunted, pausing and looking down at him. “Banana?” he offered.

The word sounded more like an order.

Edward let out a hard breath. “Fine.”

“Good.” Harvey walked to the counter, taking a banana from the bag on the counter and holding it out for Edward, watching him take and peel it. He took one for himself. “We’ll be eating real food this time tomorrow.”

Edward nodded, taking a bite of his banana, watching as Harvey began to eat one of the last remaining oatbars. 

“We’re going to cook you a meal,” Harvey stated. “We never thanked you for helping us.”

“I didn’t really expect you to thank me,” Edward smirked, “That’s not really your style. I should be glad you didn’t kill me and take all my things.”

“Thought about it. Still not off the table,” Harvey smirked back, he flipped his coin, as if making a joke with it. “Our first meal, from our kitchen. That’ll be our thanks.”

The smirk on Edward’s face softened into a true smile. “That sounds nice. What do you want to make?”

Harvey shrugged. “Suggestions?”

Edward shifted in the bed, sitting up against the headboard. “I don’t know.”

“After eating shit for months you’re not craving anything?” Harvey moved to the bed, taking his usual seat next to Edward.

Edward frowned in thought, a list of food flashing through his mind. “Beef ravioli.”

“Beef ravioli?” Harvey echoed.

Edward shrugged. “First dish that came to mind.”

Harvey nodded.

“Spaghetti would be fine,” Edward offered.

“No. You said it, beef ravioli.”

“It’s basically the same thing.”

Harvey shook his head, “They’re as different as you and us.”

Chapter Text

Edward's fingers splayed, tapping out a code into the little lockbox.

It was a similar digital lock to the one they'd studied for their heist. The urge to type in 705242 was almost overwhelming.

“Remind you of something?” Harvey asked from behind him, obviously having the same thought. 

Edward chuckled. 

The lock beeped that all too familiar beep, and swung open. 

Revealing the promised key.

Edward rolled the metal object in his hand, suddenly finding a newfound understanding of Harvey’s obsession with his coin. 

This key was a step forward. A new beginning. Worth far more than its weight in gold. 

“That's just the key,” Harvey smirked, “Can't wait to see your face when you see the apartment.”

“Is it a crime to be excited?”

Harvey shook his head, pulling away, arms filled with bags of their belongings, beginning to search for apartment 3G. “Thankfully no, or we'd be sharing a cell.”

“Haven't we been doing that for the past… how long? Month and 6 days?”

Harvey let out a soft hum, "That's a record.”

“Doesn't feel that long when you say it.”

“Felt longer.”

Edward gave Harvey’s arm a soft slap, half  insulted, “Oh, thanks.”

“We've enjoyed it,” Harvey smirked. “Still felt longer.”

Edward didn't respond, his eyes had locked with the apartment door, copper plated ‘3G’ emblazoned on the door. 

His heart was thumping faster than he'd expected. It was an apartment, not a bank vault, but the sight of it caused the same excitement. 

“Open it,” Harvey ordered, unable to do it himself given his temporary role as a clothes mule.

“You're meant to savour milestones like this one, Harvey,” Edward jibed. “Take a moment to reflect?”

“Open the damn door, Ed, or your clothes will end up in the street.”

Edward smirked, unable to take Harvey seriously. “No need to make hollow threats.” He put the key in the door and turned it, letting the door swing open dramatically. 

Edward let himself take a moment to absorb the space.

It was everything he had wanted it to be. Slightly larger than he'd expected too.

Harvey threw their bags of clothes down by the door, looking around, as much in awe as Edward was. “We're home.”

There was a gorgeous triumphant tone to his voice which made Edward's chest swell. He'd heard it a few times before.

Edward's eyes stopped on the couch. “Oh and there's my green velvet couch. You beautiful thing,” he cooed at the piece of furniture, running his fingertips over the soft fabric before taking a seat, letting out a moan as he sank into it. “I might never get back up…”

As he tried to let himself physically relax, his brain, traitor that it was, began to scan the place. Part of him wondered if their new landlord might have hidden away a camera or two. There was a CCTV camera on the wall opposite the window, visible from the couch, but it appeared to be pointing away from them. He made a mental note to keep an eye on its positioning.

He got back to his feet, almost absently scouring the shelves.

“You don't think the landlord put in surveillance cameras, do you?”

Harvey shrugged, exploring the apartment himself, coin playing happily in his hand. “They're legally not allowed to.”

“Yeah and legality always stops us,” Edward quipped, pulling out a potted succulent to check underneath it. “I don't want some pervert watching me.” He glanced over at Harvey, “Present company excluded.”

“Flattery,” Harvey mumbled in acknowledgement, not taking his focus away from the kitchen. “Ah, here,” he said after a minute.

Edward's heart jumped, pulling himself away from the bookshelves, thinking maybe Harvey had found a camera. 

“Washer dryer,” Harvey smiled. Opening and closing the door to it.

Edward let his eyes slip closed, feeling as if he'd won the lottery. “I don't have to hand wash my socks anymore.”

“Almost new. No rust, seal’s intact,” Harvey added, his coin flicking joyfully in his hand. “And,” he announced suddenly, the word aching with excitement, walking away from the machine and to the corner of the room. “Bedroom, with a door.”

The door squeaked slightly as Harvey pulled it open.

Edward moved to his side, peering through the door as it opened.

A double bed rested against one wall, around a foot of space bordering it, a wardrobe running alongside one wall, the door to the bathroom next to it.

Harvey let out a hum. “Smaller than it looked,” he remarked.

“Harvey,” Edward smiled, “It’s not about the size, it’s about functionality.”

Harvey chuckled and flipped his coin, “You know something about that?”

Edward’s eyes widened, his face flushing and heart skipping as he realised what he’d said. “Crass,” he snapped, giving Harvey a shove. “You know I meant the bedroom. It doesn’t need to be big, we have the rest of the apartment.”

Harvey rolled his eyes, a soft smile on his face. 

Edward knew Harvey knew what he’d meant, but he couldn’t help defending himself anyway. He was sure Harvey did it just to get a reaction.

He took a step into the bedroom, opening the wardrobe and checking the shelves.

“You’ll drive yourself insane looking for cameras,” Harvey grumbled.

“Too late, I’m already there,” Edward smiled. “It’s preventative, Harvey. It’s necessary. It makes sure we’re safe. Like locking the door.” He paused, “You did lock the door when we came in, right?”

Harvey nodded. “Door’s locked.”

Edward nodded back, making a mental note to double check the door later, when Harvey wasn’t looking.

Harvey left the room, leaving Edward to busy himself.

“The kitchen has a radio,” he yelled back in after a moment.

“Who listens to the radio anymore,” Edward scoffed, “We’re not in the 50s.”

“You listen while cooking. It’s entertainment.”

Edward hummed out a soft ‘uh-huh’. “I’m willing to bet we have very different music tastes.”

“We do,” Harvey confirmed, his head appearing in the doorframe, leaning against it. “You like classical.”

Edward sat on the bed, noting that it was perhaps too firm. “I do. I never told you that.”

A sly smile split Harvey’s face. “When they first brought you to Arkham you were singing Ave Maria, and yelling ‘this is our song.’”

Edward felt his stomach turn, retreating into himself. He could almost hear the Arkham guards laughing. “Don’t make fun of me for what I said while going through a psychotic break.” 

“We’re not,” Harvey said quickly, simply. “Just, hard to forget. You’ve got a good voice.”

Edward’s stomach continued to twist. He hated being reminded of his early days, and hated moreso the fact that they stuck in Harvey’s mind, and probably the minds of many others. “I can’t really hit the high notes anymore,” he deflected.

Harvey frowned, “Your voice hasn’t changed much.” He flipped his coin, eyes steady on it. “Bet you still could.”

Edward shook his head, pretending the comment hadn’t stung, “No, my range has, uh, changed.” He cleared his throat, trying to push past the subject, “Anyway,” he got to his feet, pushing past Harvey and walking back into the rest of the apartment, “What other secrets are hiding from us in here?”

Harvey followed him out. “The walls are thicker than the motel. You could sing and no one would hear you.”

Edward scoffed, getting to his knees and looking through one of the sideboards. “Why don’t you sing?”

Harvey flipped his coin again. “Love to. Can’t. Can’t even whistle anymore.”

Edward heard a strange blow of air behind him, turning his head.

“See?” Harvey said, shrugging.

“You can’t sing? Like physically can’t?”

Harvey shook his head. 

Edward sat back on his heels, looking Harvey up and down. “Huh… I knew about your eyesight, nerve sensitivity. I didn’t consider it might affect your ability to sing.”

“We didn’t used to sound like this,” Harvey informed him. “Used to get told I sounded dreamy.”

Edward held back a chuckle. “Any recordings I could listen to?”

Harvey shook his head, “Singing, no. Old interviews, probably?”

Edward pulled his phone out, beginning to search. “I can’t believe I never thought to look that up.” He glanced up at Harvey, “This is just how you sound to me, I never thought there was a ‘before’.”

Harvey nodded, walking to Edward’s side, looking at the phone, he pointed to one of the clips, “Me and Bruce on a night out, he fell in a fountain.”

Edward clicked on it, then paused. “Wait, why am I sitting on the floor? We could be sitting on our new couch!” He clambered to his feet and took the few steps to the couch, plopping down on it, phone still in hand.

“Ugh, beautiful,” he remarked.

“We used to be pretty hot,” Harvey joked, following Edward to the couch and sitting next to him.

Edward felt his face flush. He had been referencing the couch. “You still are,” he cooed playfully, leaning against him so he could see the phone.

He clicked the video.

“Brucie, get out! You’ll get a fine for disorderly conduct!” Younger Harvey yelled, voice as dreamy as promised, climbing into the fountain after a younger Bruce Wayne. Obviously both drunk. Both happy. Hands all over each other.

Edward’s eyes moved from the phone up to Harvey, who was watching, oddly still. “You slept with Bruce Wayne?” he asked, not needing an answer. “He’s the roommate?”

Harvey gave a nod, the movement stiff.

“Talk about a score. He’s gorgeous.”

“Fun night,” Harvey said softly, his coin rolling in his fingers. 

Edward closed out the video, the giddy spell of realisation fracturing at Harvey’s stilted reaction. He felt he’d misstepped.

Edward’s mind whirred. Trying to solve the puzzle.

Was it him? Was it the memory? Was it Bruce? Seeing himself acting so carefree must be difficult, seeing himself before his accident must be… hard.

Maybe it was seeing himself drunk. Drunk enough to fall in the fountain with Bruce. Drunk enough to act that carefree and stupid.

Something told him that wasn’t it.

He placed his hand on Harvey’s knee, the way Harvey often did to him. “What’s going on in there?” he asked.

“Talking. Thinking.”

“‘Bout what?” Edward asked, trying to sound casual.

Harvey let out a slow breath, as if clearing his mind. He flipped his coin. “It’s strange,” he said, voice low and gravelly, as if he were leaning into the damage. “Like watching a dead man.”

Edward had had those thoughts too, about himself, who he used to be. He’d undergone a dramatic transformation too. Harvey’s had been more traumatic, though. Edward’s had been by choice, not by force. Perhaps it wasn’t an apt comparison.

“He’s not dead.” He gestured to Harvey’s head, “He’s still in there. Little different now, maybe. Got a little less space to himself. You’ve changed. Adapted to what you had to.”

Harvey chuckled, the noise humorless, performative. “Not how we’d put it.”

Edward felt his chest tighten, feeling as if Harvey was calling him wrong. “The version of you in that video didn’t just vanish,” he doubled down. 

Harvey’s eyes dragged over him, his gaze sharp. He let the silence between them stretch.

Edward wanted to keep talking, assess and break apart what Harvey was feeling, but he resisted. He felt like he had to keep quiet, let Harvey make the next move, or risk drowning him.

He could feel Harvey’s knee jiggling under his hand. He could only imagine the conversation happening inside Harvey’s head. He hated being an outsider in the conversation.

“We used to be so…” Harvey started, the conversation slipping back inside his mind.

Edward huffed. “You have to speak out loud Harvey. I let you in on my breakdowns.”

Harvey growled. “We were so loud. Drunk. Didn't care what anyone thought. We’re so different now.” He leaned into him, giving him a nudge. “You must feel the same about your old self.”

“Yeah…” Edward admitted, “I deleted everything from before I was 22. Search me and there’s no videos, no photos. Seeing them made me feel physically sick.”

Harvey scoffed, the sound sounded almost like a spit. “And you think we’re having a breakdown about our past?”

“It was a little different for me,” Edward admitted quietly. “I think we’re both entitled to a breakdown or two.” He gave Harvey’s knee a soft squeeze, “I can do a scrub for you too if you’d like? It’d be like you didn’t exist pre-twoface.”

Harvey flipped his coin, then shook his head. 

“You want to watch them to torture yourself sometimes?” Edward asked.

Harvey shrugged.

“Not going to flip your coin for that one?” Edward joked. “Yeah, I used to do that too. Part of why I got rid of them, in a moment of relative strength.”

Harvey flipped his coin again, catching it smoothly. He looked at the result. “Do it.”

“Really?”

Harvey nodded. “Your next project.”