[a shady pub]

[sweet_caroline]

Caroline stalks into the dingy pub with plenty of time to spare before she's supposed to be there to meet Eddie. In fact, she's managed to get here before him. How nice. She grumpily takes a seat in a back corner and waits. Since she found the wad of cash in her bag last night, the jumble of emotions has mostly coalesced into anger. And she's only getting madder the more time that passes. She's honestly not even sure why she's bothering to show up for this meeting, except to give the damn money back. She's fairly certain it was Eddie and not Jonathan, but if she's wrong he can at least pass it along for her. Or do whatever the hell he wants with it, frankly. Caroline doesn't care.

Comments

[sweet_caroline]

"Please don't," Caroline says, frowning up at Eddie. "I just..." She knows she overreacted, but randomly finding money in your bag is definitely weird. She leans forward in her chair a little and actually manages to grab Eddie's hand this time.

"Is that really necessary, Edward?" Jonathan asks quietly. He's giving an Eddie a look like he's caught something Caroline missed. Which isn't much of a surprise, all things considered.

[confound]

Eddie hesitates when she actually manages to grab his hand, though he doesn't pull away. He just stares down at her fingers around his and frowns. It's a moment where he knows he should stay. It's what most normalish, functional adults would do if they wanted to, say, not wreck potential relationships. Eddie however is nowhere near normal and occasionally not terribly well-functioning; all he wants to do is go feel awful somewhere far, far away so he can sulk by himself, hopefully before he has some kind of minor fit.

He misses neither Crane's question or the look that accompanies it, even if he's not really sure how to respond to him. "I suppose not," He sighs, finally, after a very long moment.

It takes quite a lot of effort to fight the urge to bolt out of there as swiftly as possible. He manages somehow, and settles back down in his chair, if a little reluctantly. He doesn't even really know why. He's got absolutely nothing to say, at the moment, but he can't quite bring himself to pry his hand out of Caroline's.

[sweet_caroline]

Caroline's relieved when Eddie sits back down, and maybe gladder than she ought to be that he doesn't pull his hand away. But now what? She'd like to try and undo some of the damage she's done today, but she has no idea how to go about that. She looks down at the table and sighs.

Jonathan's hand in her hair is soothing enough that Caroline's brain actually starts working again after a moment. "I um, when I just- just found it in my bag like that with no warning, I... it..." She doesn't know how to finish this sentence. She really can't talk about it yet.

[confound]

It's a rare day when the Riddler lets a question go unanswered. And this... well. Maybe this isn't entirely the case today, but it comes very close to it. However curious he is, he knows an unhealed wound when he sees one, and he's not really sure he even has to fortitude to broach that sort of thing. He still wants to go crawl under his desk and die a lot.

"Bad memories?" It's less of an outright question and more of a confirmation. If she tells him sometime, she tells him. Later he might be slightly amazed she even wanted him to stay here, but right now he's spending most of his brainpower trying to both not bolt and not think about this because the latter will lead to the former. And he feels even more awkward than usual when he actually does move, especially since it's to pick up Caroline's hand and kiss it very softly. What is he doing.

He doesn't even know, really.

[sweet_caroline]

Caroline smiles weakly. "I guess that's kind of an understatement." And then anything else she might have been about to say just kind of sputters out of her brain when Eddie decides that kissing her hand is a thing that should happen. Normally she would have some sort of remark to make, but Caroline is honestly pretty overwhelmed right now. And quickly discovering that sweet gestures have more of an effect than they really should when she's already upset. Between this and Jonathan's hand in her hair, she could almost cry. And she's really not a crier.

...Actually, Eddie still doesn't look much better off than her. Jonathan is the only one who seems to have it together right now, and he's the one who materialized out of nowhere to pet her hair and convince her not to awkward away. Yeah. "Can we just rule today a mulligan or something?" Caroline asks after a moment. Normally she'd figure one or both of them were probably done with her after this, but well. They're both still at the table. And she can't really imagine keeping a couple of supervillains somewhere they don't want to be. Hell, Arkham certainly can't.

Jonathan snorts. "I think that can be arranged."

[confound]

Eddie can't help but fidget a little still, though that awkward fidgeting is slightly complicated by the fact his hand is still around Caroline's. With mostly just ends with him fidgeting with her fingers and frowning vaguely. What.

He's quietly grateful when Caroline finally says something, and even moreso at what she says. "Yes, I - er," He starts only to end up tripping over his words. "That works for me."

It's then that he finally disentangles his hand from Caroline's and stands again. Things... are momentarily less awful than they were a moment ago, but he's still had his fill of this outing. This might be one of his more painfully awkward exits but there's not avoiding that, is there? "I think... I'm going to call it a day. I'll see you both around."

Now, he just wants to go climb under his desk with a bottle of wine.

[jcrane]

Caroline murmurs something vaguely agreeing as Eddie excuses himself. Fortunately, she looks much less like she's about to have some sort of breakdown in public, though she is clearly still unhappy. Crane knows Edward well enough to know that he's just gone off to lick his wounds in private. Caroline shifts in her seat to look up at Jonathan. "Um..." She trails off and fidgets.

Jonathan is suddenly very unsure what to do with himself. It occurs to him that this is the first time Edward has actually left the two of them to their own devices, and Crane... doesn't actually know much about Caroline. "Maybe I should go too," she says finally.

"That's--" Jonathan stops himself before he actually says 'that's not necessary.' He flounders awkwardly for a moment. "I was thinking of going to a bookstore nearby. You're, ah, welcome to join me." He winces internally at that. Smooth, Jonathan.

Caroline brightens a little at that, somewhat inexplicably. "That sounds great."

Crane has to cough slightly to makes sure he doesn't blurt out a 'really?'. Instead he says, "Shall we go then?" and motions vaguely towards the door. Pubs of any sort aren't exactly places Jonathan frequents voluntarily.

"Yeah, let's go." Caroline pauses long enough to put her new phone in her purse, and then they're on their way out and to the bookstore.