Work Text:
Thud,
Thud,
Thud.
For the past week and a few days, Edward had been haunted by the sound of someone constantly roaming around his hideout. It was oddly timed, waiting until the evening but careful to avoid disturbing Edward’s sleep. Sometimes he would wake up to missing pieces of his resources, claw marks indents on the remaining sheets of metal. Edward had already thoroughly checked his hideout, but nothing. He did not need this right now. He had just recently escaped Arkham, Batman had humiliated him, Jonathan wasn’t answering his calls and now he had to deal with a mystery creature roaming around taking his things.
Edward whacked his pillow over his head, listening to the thudding continue. It wouldn’t even be worth trying to try and peer out his window to spot them because there was now a semi-regular fog that blanketed his hideout. At least it kept away possible patrolling police officers away. Edward finally pulled himself out of bed, carefully made his bed again, frowning as he heard metal scraping against concrete. Edward blinked into fog, seeing someone moving around in the distance. It seemed to pause once it realised Edward had been staring at him, and it gently raised a hand to politely wave at him
Edward decided, after that, he needed to figure out what exactly was lurking around his hideout. He was cooking during the evening, plotting about what he would hypothetically do to lure out said creature when he heard soft breaths that were completely out of sync with his breathing. He turned out to be said creature, peering blue eyes watching him through the fog. Edward, for once, ran out of words, and just let out a strangled, baffled noise. Once he tried to step a little closer to the creature, it seemed to be startled before disappearing into the fog.
Edward sighed, wishing he’d just stood still to get a far better look at it, but alas. He just calmly finished cooking, before sheepishly making a rather silly choice. He carefully made a second portion before leaving it by the back door on the coffee table he didn’t exactly like left outside, because he wasn’t putting his nice plates on the concrete outside.
The food was gone when he checked in the morning.
He decided he would start exploring around the area in the evening, it was mostly likely a nocturnal creature. And one who would be interested in human food. Edward couldn’t really tell which direction he was walking towards, just trying to see something in the fog. He could barely see his hands in front of him. The fog slowly began to colour itself, before he took off his glasses to rub off the smudges with a cloth.
He’d prefer to blame that for why he suddenly walked into the creature.
Edward immediately startled once he realised it, stumbling backwards and stupidly tripping on his own feet and hitting the ground. He stared up at the peering blue eyes awkwardly, distorted features peering down at him. It loomed down at him, inspecting him curiously. The fog seemed to roll off of its tattered body, the soft orange hue becoming more obvious up close. A claw carefully extended towards and gently rested on the top of his head, carefully weaving through his ginger hair.
“... Hi.” Edward mumbled once he realised that it wasn’t going to eat him, despite the large rows of glinting teeth on obvious display. The creature shuffled towards him slowly, its skin fused with the burlap cloaking it. Edward took one look at the burlap and the bright blue eyes before being embarrassed at his lack of attention to details.
“Jonathan?” The creature’s eyes immediately lit up and furiously nodded.
“Oh thank God, wait, how the fuck did this even happen to you?!” Edward asked, gesturing wildly to Jonathan’s sudden appearance. Despite Jonathan’s carefulness, he still was a little on edge with him. The fog could be responsible, it seemed to be fear toxin, albeit a very light version. He stilled himself as Jonathan came closer, before letting out an embarrassing yelp as Jonathan picked him up by the back of his shirt collar carrying him off to a clearly in a woody area.
“Jonathan, don’t carry me like this!” Edward frowned, although quickly getting his bearings when he realised what Jonathan had been doing with those pieces of metal. It had been carefully ripped up, and dragged around the clearing until he got it just how he wanted.
It was a question mark.
There were empty paint cans resting nearby a tree, splashes of green and orange streaks clumsily spread across the metal.
“Did you make this for me?”
Jonathan nodded, chirping happily at the surprised expression on Edward’s face.
“Ah, it’s certainly impressive given your current state.” Edward nodded, causing Jonathan to huff before nudging his face. Jonathan gently nudged Edward all the way back to his hideout, much to his annoyance. “I can walk, no need to drag me all over the place.” He rolled his eyes before Jonathan stopped at his backdoor. Edward stepped into his hideout, assuming he would follow but Jonathan stopped, shifting his weight on his hind legs.
“You can come in, Jonathan. Just because you’re currently… Like that, doesn’t mean you can come in. Just don’t leave a vole on my bed or something.” He hummed, gesturing to come in. Jonathan stayed still. Edward gestured again but he just shook his head no, eyes dropping to the grass outside. Edward paused, nervously coming up to him and gently touching Jonathan’s face, or the burlap that seemed to be woven in and replaced where skin would normally be.
“Jonathan, I don’t care whether your usual self, the Master of Fear, dosed out on whatever cocktail of drugs they stick in you at Arkham, or even this new form of yours.” Edward explained calmly, a slight blush on his face he would admit that there was for once. “You’re my equal no matter what, alright?”
Jonathan finally relaxed in his hands, which was how Edward could tell he was almost purring. He cracked his eyes open, observing the soft expression on the man’s face. Edward was enjoying the quiet moment until he felt Jonathan’s cold, spindly tongue drag a path across his face, formerly neat hair now sticking up from his bangs once his path had completed.
“... Jonathan I know you’re more than a mindless beast right now so I know you did that on purpose.”
Jonathan grinned and just licked another path across Edward’s face again before following Edward to the sofa.
“Well I’m sure I can spare some pillows because you’re definitely not fitting in the bed upstairs…” Edward mused before being knocked off of his feet by Jonathan, who went to dismantle the pillows and cushions on his sofa. “If you’re going to tear up my furniture at least let me make sure you don’t rip anything particularly-”
As Edward went to stand up, Jonathan frowned at him and shooed him back to where he’d left him. He sighed dramatically, flopping down on two of the cushions and waiting for Jonathan to finish whatever he was doing. Eventually, Jonathan finished dismantling every cushioned object he owned to build his own version of a crow’s nest. Before tugging Edward to his side once he’d curled up, wrapping a loose limb over the man. “So, are you even going to explain to me how this happened to you? I feel it’s an important thing to discuss if you’re a scarecrow werewolf as well.” Edward pointed out, and he just got a soft hum of amusement as he was tugged closer.