A Clever Fascination

Chapter 22 - Bai's Moonlight

Never did Kit think she'd find herself having a drink with The Riddler of Gotham City in a, probably illegally run, club. Her eyes scanned the room and fell on many parts of the design that matched his mansion that she found herself in not too long ago. The staff also kept glancing at him with worried eyes but never made any move towards the table, other than to bring drinks over hurriedly. Rather than just asking if this was one of his clubs, she decided to be clever.

"So why this one?"

"Hm?" He replied. The suit jacket and tie he changed into before they left had been ditched and he sat in a button up white shirt, a button or two undone at the top.

"Why this club? Is this one special to you? Earn you the most? Sentimental value?" She mused.

Edward's face didn't give anything away. He'd had this smirk plastered on since they walked in and it hadn't dropped yet.

He only laughed at her comments. Kit's ability to draw attention to her intelligence was smooth but very much on parr with his own. It was difficult to let someone know how intelligent you really were, without just out right saying 'I'm so smart' and that was downright embarrassing. Kit peppered it in to her every day life, in a very practiced way. It made him think though, what had given this one away? So, she knew the club was his, but he didn't know how...

"Am I that predictable?"

He seemed much calmer than the other version of himself. Like he wasn't trying to prove a damn thing to anyone. It wasn't that he had more or less emotion in his voice, it was just different. It was her turn to laugh.

"I don't think predictable is the right word for it. You're terrifyingly changeable. So much so, in fact, that I can hardly bare to be around y-"

"I like that." He interrupted her, his smirk spreading wider across his face.

Kit narrowed her eyes. What did he mean? He liked being changeable or the way she had put it? She didn't want to ask so she chose to pose a different questions, a more defensive one.

"When I insult you?"

"When you laugh." He corrected.

Again, Kit didn't have the words to reply. It was difficult to form a response when he wasn't being snide or arrogant but this was something more. She only really knew how to deal with him when he was his other self, this one threw her entirely. Which wasn't exactly unfair, given that Edward rarely knew how to deal with Kit.

The club was quiet, hardly a single person there other than the two of them and a stoic bartender.

"What is this? Drinks and compliments? This isn't really a date, I'm certain you don't care to try and woo anyone. And we aren't friends, so what's going on?" She began, her voice was slightly lower and her tone sharper.

"We could be friends, Katherine. I've offered you that, time and time again." He shrugged, eyes falling to the table in a nonchalant shift of vision.

"And each time I have rejected that offer."

He sighed a little, leaning back in the chair and looking back up at her rigid posture and neatly folded hands. Edward knew what exhaustion looked like, he could practically tell Kit exactly how she was feeling right now. The GCPD was a 24/7 kind of job, given that it was so understaffed. Many people in the city took work in one of the businesses run by men like the one sitting right in front of Kit.

"You're tired." That observation was not relevant or necessary to her.

"Yes. You took me to a club, rather than letting me go home and sleep." She informed him, a comment that could easily sound like a playful complaint from a friend. But that simply wasn't the case.