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God, Edward hated schools.
They were drab, ineffective in their teaching, full of children. The list went on.
Mercifully, he and Oswald’s little mayoral visit was almost over. Ed sighed to himself as he glanced over at Oswald, who still seemed to be trapped in conversation with one of the school's teachers. Though the mayor seemed to be listening with polite interest, Edward could tell he was about two seconds away from pulling out a knife and making this entire visit just that bit more complicated.
It was time to intervene. Ed made his way across the room as swiftly as possible, narrowly avoiding one child that didn’t seem to understand to step out of his way.
Oswald looked over as he approached, flashing Edward a quick, relieved smile.
“Ah, Edward,” He started, already walking to meet Ed as fast as he could. “Is it time for us to take our leave?”
*I’m afraid so, Mr. Mayor.” Ed shot a faux-sympathetic look at the woman who’d been talking at Oswald for the past fifteen minutes. Christ, that was the fakest smile he’d ever seen. “We’re very busy today, lots of places to be. It’s a pleasure to have been able to stop by, Miss- ?”
“Hargreaves. It’s wonderful of you to drop by and see us, Mayor Cobblepot.” She offered her hand to Oswald, who begrudgingly shook it. She then turned to Edward. “Mr. Nygma.”
Edward ignored her, instead turning to Oswald. “The car is waiting for us outside Mr. Mayor.”
“Excellent.” Oswald said as they began their exit. “Do we actually have anywhere to be?”
“No.” Edward grinned. “We’re free up until our dinner tonight,” He could’ve swore he saw Oswald blush at that, but Oswald didn’t think of him that way. Oswald didn’t like him back. “Well, free to fill out paperwork, anyways.”
Oswald chuckled as he got into the car. “You better not forget that wine.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it”
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The mansion was by far a much nicer place to work than City hall. Edward readjusted himself in his seat, absentmindedly reading through a report. He tried to focus, but all he could think of was dinner. With Oswald.
“Nervous?” Grinned a voice from the corner of the room.
Ed hesitantly looked up to see his hallucination.
“What do you want?” It took a lot of effort to keep his voice steady. He was very much not in the mood to argue with the Other.
“What I want,” The Other made his way over to perch on the corner of Edward’s desk. “Is for you to stop fooling around and do something.”
“I’m not ‘fooling around.’” Ed ground out. This was giving him a headache.
“Oh, sure” the way the last syllable was drawn out was irritating, to say the least. “The reason you’ve been neglecting to tell Oswald how you feel about him must be perfectly logical, then.”
Edward swallowed. “If you were tangible, I would punch you.”
“Feisty today, aren't we?” the Other laughed, getting up to pace in front of the desk.
“I don’t particularly feel like getting rejected, that’s all.” Ed grumbled, all but throwing the report back onto his desk, edges crumpled from how hard he’d been gripping it.
“Rejected? Oh, Eddie, you really are an idiot.”
“I’m not an-” Ed started before pausing to lower his volume. He definitely did not want Oswald to hear him yelling at a hallucination of himself. That would be quite difficult to explain.
The Other raised an eyebrow. “You really must bring him into everything, huh?”
“That was a perfectly logical train of thought, we’re in the same damn house!”
“Yeah, yeah. Now back to the matter at hand.” The Other approached the desk again. “He won’t reject you.” He placed his hands on the surface of the desk.
“Yes he will. He doesn't like me in that way. Now, if you’re quite finished-”
The other rolled his eyes before cutting Edward off. “C’mon Eddie. You’ve seen the way he looks at you. You’re the reason he became Mayor. You saved his life. It would be unreasonable of him to not love you.”
Love. Love was a strong word.
“Oswald didn’t need me to become mayor, he could’ve done just fine without my help.”
“Sure, but he would never know that he was capable of winning this city over. He would believe that the only reason he was in office was because of his bribes.”
Edward mentally swore at himself. The more he thought about it, the more the little things started to add up. The more it- no, he was giving himself false hope. He knew how a confession would go. He could almost hear Oswald’s cold and disdainful “I don’t love you.”
“Oh will you get over yourself!” the Other finally seemed to run out of patience, raising his hands to slam them back down on the top of the desk as he yelled. “Tell him or god help us, I will!”
Ed bit his lip. Shit. The Other didn’t joke. He meant it, which meant Edward had to tell Oswald first.
“I hate you.”
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Edward made his way into the city about forty-five minutes before he was due to eat with Oswald. The Van Dahl manor was situated a fair bit out of the city so he wanted to leave himself lots of time to get back, should he get caught up in anything. The wine shop was one he and Oswald frequented (well, had people frequent on their behalf), a relatively small shop compared to some of the others in the area. It suddenly entered his mind that he had forgotten to ask Oswald what they’d be eating, so he had absolutely no idea what to get. After what had to have been an embarrassing amount of deliberation, he settled on a Merlot. He made his way to the counter, skilfully avoiding the blonde who had been trying to catch his eye since he’d entered the store. After he’d secured his purchase, he made his way back to the car waiting outside. As soon as he’d settled into his seat, the driver began the journey back to the mansion.
God, he was nervous. He tapped his leg rhythmically as an attempt to distract himself. It must’ve worked as when he next looked up, the car already had pulled into the driveway and he was halfway out of the car. As he approached the door, he took a moment to ground himself before entering.
“Oswald? I’m back, I brought the wine.”
“Ah, right on time, my friend!” Oswald made his way into Edward’s field of vision. “Come, let’s eat.”
Edward followed Oswald through into the dining room. He waited for Oswald to take a seat before opening the one and pouring the man a glass. Oswald simled in thanks. Edward poured his own glass before sitting down.
They chatted happily as they ate, Ed trying to ignore the nervousness he felt burning through his stomach, leaning back in his chair as the conversation naturally petered off.
It was now or never, he supposed.
“Oswald-” He started just as Oswald opened his own mouth.
They both chuckled.
“After you, my friend.” Oswald shifted his leg into a more comfortable position under the table.
Edward nodded. He opened his mouth before realising he had absolutely no idea how to verbalise what he wanted to say.
He must’ve been quiet for too long as the next thing he heard was:
“Edward, are you okay?”
“I can’t be bought, but I can be stolen with a glance. I’m worthless to one but priceless to two. What am I?” He spoke without thinking in a desperate attempt to just get it out.
“love, Ed you’ve told me that one be-” Oswald was cut off before he could finish.
“I love you. That's what I meant to say.” Edward took a shaky breath before repeating. “I love you.”
The room was deadly quiet. Edward fidgeted with his hands. He knew he'd fucked up Even rejection would be preferable to the purgatory of Oswald’s silence.
“I love you too.”
“What?” Edward couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“I said,” Oswald got up and slowly made his way over to stand in front of Ed. “I love you too.”
Edward just stared, vaguely acknowledging how the dampness he felt on his cheeks seemed to match Oswald’s. He smiled.
That had definitely gone better than expected.