Ed couldn't help feeling that he had brought home a bird with a broken wing. The bird was observing him warily with sad bright eyes. Ed tried to feed the bird from the palm of his hand, but it only hooted, not wanting to accept more help.
The bird had freckles and a narrow, expressive face, fingers cold from the blood loss and words cold because of grief. Ed had a splash of excitement in the blood and deceptively harmless glasses with a sharp look behind them, and infinitely long limbs full of irrepressible energy. Ed had a lot of riddles in his head, and it was a mystery too, so he knew that he could find a solution. How to tame a bird?
Ed was bringing small gifts, but Oswald did not take them, did not want them, did not need them. Ed wanted to help, but Oswald lost his way and could not carry on. Ed watched Oswald spend a long time sleeping, gaining strength, so as to leave this house, Gotham, Ed's life forever. The gears were spinning in his head. How to tame a bird?
Gradually. Furtively. As far as you can. Then came the answer, and Ed was amazed at its logic and beauty, its simplicity and wit.
The bird sings. How to tame it? Sing back.
Which Ed did, and then Oswald slowly started letting steam off. Along with this, the hole in his heart - a place where there used to be someone so important that now this emptiness will not be filled until the end of time - began to bleed. Ed knew the feeling. Only he quickly came out of it. He realized that one should not try to heal this wound and fill the void; it's useless, you'll only lose everything you feed to it.
Ed showed Oswald the new perspective. Now that nothing draws it to the ground, the bird could fly. The broken wing has healed. The broken heart became stronger.
Ed got his bird, Gotham got his king back. It just wasn't aware if that yet. As it did not know that as a bonus to Penguin, it found something new – the Riddler. Oh, glorious city of Gotham, interesting times await you...
