Chapter Text
It all began with a pebble.
Well, perhaps “began” was inaccurate. Ed had been acting somewhat strangely ever since they properly reconciled over Arthur Penn’s dead body (may he rest), and even more so after the Battle for Gotham, but the pebble was the obvious beginning of Ed’s little plot in retrospect. He walked into Oswald’s home office while he was doing his paperwork, already grinning as if he had done something clever. Oswald couldn’t help but be slightly endeared by the sight.
“Edward," he greeted him, “did you need something?”
“No. Well, yes. It depends on what you mean by 'need',” he said while reaching into his breast pocket. He kept whatever he fished out of it hidden in his clenched fist, “I saw this when I was outside and I wanted to give it to you.”
He extended his arm out towards Oswald and opened his hand to reveal a small, round, black pebble.
"Voila!" he exclaimed, and if he didn't look proud of himself before, he did then, “It was the nicest pebble that I could find,” he continued, and then proceeded to wink at him for some godforsaken reason.
Oswald squinted at the object to see if there was anything particularly special about it, but from what he could tell it was a perfectly normal pebble. He was not impressed by it even though Ed was acting like he should be. He appreciated that Ed thought of him while he was out, but that care manifested as gifting him a rock that he found outside? Seriously?
Of course, knowing Ed, there had to be a reason why he chose to give it to him. He rarely- if ever- did anything at random. The pebble- or at least the kind of pebble it was -had to mean something or another.
Oswald just couldn't figure out what.
“It's a rock, Edward, one that you found in this city no less,” Oswald said, but he gestured for him to hand it over anyway
For a split second Oswald could have sworn he saw a flash of disappointment cross Ed's face, but it was gone as fast as it appeared.
Ed handed him the pebble, and to Oswald's surprise it was genuinely one of the nicest pebbles he had ever seen. It was smooth and incredibly polished, and it even shone slightly when he held it up to the light. Oswald supposed that if he were to picture a perfect pebble, if such a thing even existed, it would look an awful lot like this one.
He could see why Ed would like it so much. He liked when things were "perfect", for lack of a better term, but it still did not appeal to Oswald very much.
"Not that I don't appreciate the gesture, but I don't see why you felt compelled to give this to me."
Ed smirked, “I wanted to give you a gift to represent the new beginnings of our renewed relationship.”
And to top it all off, Ed seemed like he was physically biting his tongue to hold himself back from saying more. Oswald couldn't even hope that Ed was going to do anything but turn this into an annoying, unnecessary game.
He wished he was more irritated about it than he actually was.
He could demand that Ed just tell him what the meaning of this was, but he also couldn't see a reason why he shouldn't indulge him. Who was he to take away his fun? Besides, there were much worse games Ed could play with him.
So, he picked up the wine glass on his desk and raised it (not before he made a show of rolling his eyes), even though he knew that Ed couldn't do the same.
“To new beginnings, then,” Oswald said.
Ed…….giggled (????).
“New beginnings, indeed,” he said, and then he walked out the door without any further explanation.