Professor Fear (the sequel) - Jonathan Crane

Chapter 34

After a long, lovely day of hanging out with Daria at home, Jonathan whisked himself away to the basement to work. Daria didn't worry about his removal. It was evidently intentional. He'd spent the whole day making sure she had everything she wanted so that she'd be comfortable without him for a few hours.
Now, he's a keeper. Daria thought to herself in her Mother's southern drawl.
She cosied herself up in the double bed, alone, and drifted to sleep at the earliest hour ever since she'd moved in with Jonathan.
In other words, she fell asleep before midnight.


Edward came to a finish of his eighth crossword of the evening. He'd found himself delighting in a boring day after the melodrama of the night before.
It hadn't been the right kind of melodrama for him.
Jonathan wanted Ed to come over at 4am to talk about a project. Of course, Ed had said no less than 'yes' to his friend's request. There was never a dull moment when working with Jonathan on a project. The mind was always active, whirring. For now, he would work through every puzzle he had, passing the time.

Ivy sat on her soft mossy bed. She was wrapped in a blanket she had stolen from an Indian seamstress in Gotham a while back. It was so delightfully smooth and a creamy white. She held a curved mug of tea in her hands. It was a caffeine free flower tea that she had brewed herself from her own flowers she'd planted in a nearby garden that wasn't hers at all.
The old couple had never suspected a thing.
Ivy sometimes went undercover as a gardener for the elderly. She was able to hide more particulars in their garden that way. They wouldn't be randomly uprooting anytime soon.

An echoey knock fell upon her door.
"Come in," She adjusted the blanket, so it did not look like a cocoon but more of an off-shoulder dress. She had a reputation to maintain after all.

"Hey Red, can we talk?"
Ivy hadn't expected Harley to want to talk to her so soon. Only a day after the events. There she was, beautiful as ever. Dressed to kick ass in the hottest way possible. Her makeup, albeit chaotic, brought out the colour of her eyes, the shape of her ... Incredibly serious... worried?... face.
Not angry?

"Hey," Ivy just managed to push out. Staring at the crazy woman who had stolen her heart.

Harley rushed up to the bed and hugged her without any more words.

"You put yourself through all that for me, Red, It was stupid, but sweet,"
"That's love Harley," Ivy smiled. "Stupid but sweet,"

Daria spooned out the chocolate-dusted foam of her cappuccino, eating it slowly to pass the time it took for Almasi to pack up the café's leftover baked goods for the day.
"free banana muffin?" She offered, not wanting to waste.
"Can't refuse," Daria grinned back.
Ever since she'd been coming to the café, she'd sat at the same table that Jonathan and herself had their dates at. It was their table. It was closest to all the lovely hanging plants and the best caught the sun's warmth at midday.

Almasi placed herself across from Daria. She had a steaming cup of reddish tea and a pastry of her own.

"You seem much more lost in thought today, Honey, how goes it?"

Daria shook her head, swinging the sun-styled hooped earrings she wore. "Not lost, just thinking about it all, yanno?"

"Oh I know, that's when I usually have a bottle of wine rather than a cup of sweet rooibos tea," She grinned. Daria laughed at her response. They both sighed in unison.

"It's the man isn't it?"
"What?" Daria blushed, "No, him and I are good,"
"but he's complicated?"
"You can say that again," She raised her cup in salute and took a sip. "but I love the complications, he just... knows too much about me and I'm not used to anyone knowing so much," She began to admit.

"That's good, coming out of your comfort zone is gonna feel all sorts of itchy at first, but it's necessary, you both with have the strongest relationship if you can know each other in every aspect," She paused and then clapped her hands together, "You're the psychologist, why am I lecturing your ass?" She began laughing. Once again Daria joined in.

"Psychotherapists have to get therapy too, it's mandatory in some places."

"Sounds smart to me," She punctuated her sentence with a sip of tea, wincing at the hot liquid and putting it down quickly. "that wasn't smart."

And that was how it was for the rest of the evening, back and forth statements followed by short fits of laughter between the two women. Responsibilities were kept on pause. Almasi closed the cafe but her and Daria stayed behind for longer, using the space. 

Back at Jonathan's, Edward sauntered downstairs into the basement. He nearly slipped on one or two skinny paperback textbooks on the floor.

The mess was appalling yet satisfying with its boastful scholarly chaos.

"Good, you're here," Jonathan appeared from under the desk, holding a heavy looking granite mortar and pestle. "Help me clean up,"

"What?" Edward blinked.

"Help me clean up, order the books, you're good at sorting things,"

"I'm- I'm not a maid, Jonathan!"

"I'm cleaning up too, and telling you the plan during,"

It took Edward a minute of staring at Jonathan who exchanged a dorky smile back. "Please?"

"Fine." He crouched down to pick up all the skinny books on the floor. Jonathan followed his friend's behaviour as they began to clear the floor and line the books against the wall, creating a secondary wall of books in no time.

Jonathan couldn't stop the grinning as he spoke, "Now, Gotham's about to have a new make-over, and this is what we're going to do,"