Rorschach Voyeurism
Carrey!Riddler x OFC
part 1/8
"when you were here before,
couldn't look you in the eye"
see a03 for tags and full story
Prologue
Everyone knew Edward Nygma was obsessed with Bruce Wayne, if the pictures splattered all over his walls were any evidence. He didn’t advertise his fascination with the younger Katherine Wayne, but it was obvious to anyone who paid attention. Her dark eyes and ruby lips were permanent residents in his fantasies. He’d met her once, well, seen her. She was sitting cross-legged on the receptionist's desk after a Wayne Industries New Year’s Eve party with a bottle of champagne in her hand. That night he dreamed a world where he caught her eye and they’d shared the bottle. After New Years, she disappeared. No one heard from her, but she had been captured in plenty of photos. She never stopped in one place for long, walking runways across Europe and Asia. He’d read every article and clipped her pictures from each magazine, methodologically pinning them up in his apartment.
“...beautiful.” Edward mutters to himself, standing in the grocery store checkout line and clutching a special edition with her face on the cover.
“Mister, you gonna buy that?” An unimpressed college girl stands behind the register, her hair in a ponytail and a couple cigarettes in her front shirt pocket. Edward now notices that the line is clear, and must’ve been for a while while he was lost in thought. He flushes, and steps forward without a word, laying the magazine down on the conveyor belt with a pack of pens and a bag of ground coffee. He shoves his hands in his pockets as she scans the items, fumbling for his wallet.
It’s cold and rainy when he reaches the door, the raindrops covering his glasses and immediately impeding his vision. He groans and sets the grocery bag down, wiping his glasses, just for them to be covered again as soon as he looks back towards the street. He starts to take them back off, before a warm body walks right into him.
“Oh!” A feminine gasp comes from the body, “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine.” Edward says without looking up, still fiddling with the glasses.
“No, really. Here, take my umbrella. You look like you need it more than I do.”
“Oh...thank you!” He says, surprised and finally moving to meet her eyes as she practically shoves the umbrella into his hands.
“It’s no problem, sorry again.” The brunette rushes off into the crowd just as Edward recognizes her. He pushes through the crowd, desperately searching for one more look at her, but it’s no use, she’s gone. When he looks back down, he notices the umbrella in his hands. Specifically, the “K.W.” professionally embroidered on the corner in gold threading. He runs his thumb over it, his heart thumping in his chest. He tucks the umbrella under his coat and takes off down the street, bag in hand.
*
Katherine is soaked when she walks through the door, slipping off her heeled boots and raincoat and piling them beside the entryway.
“Hello?” She calls into the vast expanse of Wayne Manor, stockinged feet padding across the hardwood. “Hm.”
“Miss Katherine!”
She smiles, “Hi, Alfred.”
“Master Bruce will be home very late, but I can make up some coffee if you’d like to wait up?”
“No, no. I think I’ll just take a warm bath and go to bed.” She says, running her hand over the railing as she takes the first few steps up the staircase.
“Of course. Oh, and welcome home.” Alfred says with a gentle smile.
“Thanks, Alfred.” She mutters, heading up the stairs to take her shower.
Her room is just the way it was when she left. She was 23, fresh out of business school and getting signed for an international contract. It’s only been two years, but it seems like so much longer. The world has changed, she’s changed. She falls onto the bed with a gentle moan, wriggling into the goosedown and twisting around to grasp for something on her nightstand. Her fingers close around an oak frame and she brings the picture down from it’s place to rest it on the towel she has wrapped around her. Martha and Thomas Wayne, each with an arm around one of their young children. Bruce was seven in this picture, Katherine was two. She puts the picture back into its place and turns over in the bed with a sigh, staring out the open window.
*
He pins the magazine cover to the wall, chewing on the inside of his lip, before turning back to his desk where the umbrella sits. He can’t fully believe it. She...touched him. He sits on the rickety twin bed. If he focuses on the memory, shutting his eyes and going back to that afternoon, he can almost feel her warmth against him and the brush of her hand against his. He’s frustrated with himself for not noticing who she was sooner, recognizing her voice, or at least looking up at her as soon as she bumped into him. But he didn’t, the opportunity was squandered, and yet she still gifted him with something of hers. It’s just an umbrella, but the sight of K.W. makes his heart skip a beat. He wants to see those initials everywhere. They fill his head. K.W. K.W. K.W. K.N. He opens his eyes with a start, blushing at the thought of K.N. engraved on her jewelry. The thought that there could be a universe where she belonged to him, on his arm and in his bed at night. He lets himself believe the fantasy long enough to drift into a peaceful sleep.
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Do y'all remember my idea for there being three Ridlers rather than the shitstorm story we got with three Jokers?
I have my cast.
I present to you my three Riddlers;
But you see fair friends they are led by an elder Riddler, the one who organizes them together to go fuck with Batman;
I am accepting casting choices for Echo and Query, as well as for Batman and the other Gothamites that will be subjected to this madness.
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