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A/N: Prompt from Bingo Card: Storm
Oswald looked out the window of the back of the limo he was riding in to go home for a few hours and cursed. “This rain is not letting up,” he muttered to himself. Not like it’s a surprise in this city, he thought bitterly.
“Doesn’t look like it, boss,” Gabe commented. Well, not totally to himself it seemed.
“Dammit. I had plans tonight!”
“With your man friend?” Gabe asked, looking in the rearview mirror.
“If you must know, yes. But, if you ever say man friend again in reference to that, I will have to cause you severe physical pain,” Oswald said, grimacing at the term.
Gabe chuckled and nodded a few times. “I got it,”
Oswald was still brooding about it when he walked inside, and his mother noticed his distress instantly. “What is wrong, my boy?” Gertrude asked, stroking his cheek.
“Just some plans that are probably going to fall through due to the storm,” Oswald told her, and the resulting sound of thunder making the apartment rumble in its wake did nothing to soothe his worries. “It’s a mess out there,”
“You will figure something out, my little Oswald. You are so smart,” Gertrude was always so optimistic; Oswald mostly admired her for it, but sometimes he wondered where she got it from, living in Gotham and all. He nodded to make her happy, and retreated back to his room. He removed his jacket, mostly wet from the rain and hung it on the back of the chair to dry. He collapsed on his bed, and sighed in despair. This was going to be the third week in a row where something or another screwed up his plans, and it was making Oswald angry.
He felt his phone buzz in his pocket, and he answered immediately when he saw who it was. “Hello?”
“You see outside?” The gruff voice asked, and Oswald chuckled darkly, knowing the man felt as annoyed as he did.
“No, I walk blindly through life. You know that,” Oswald responded sarcastically.
“You’re hilarious,” Jim responded, deadpan.
“Don’t I know it,” Oswald replied.
“We shouldn’t be out in this. There are enough accidents out there already,” Jim sounded put out, and Oswald’s heart clenched painfully at the sound of it.
“I agree.” Oswald sighed, but then an idea struck him. “I have a crazy idea,”
“Those are never comforting words coming from you,” Jim said, with a chuckle.
“Hear me out, okay? I still have a key to your place. I can go set up dinner for us or something,” Oswald suggested.
“Oh! Well, that sounds great actually. I get to see you at least,”
“Don’t sound so surprised I have a good idea, Jim. I’ll see you at 7,”
“I may have to work a little over—“Jim began but Oswald cut him off.
“Don’t be late,” Oswald used his ‘Do not mess with me’ voice, and it seemed to work because he heard Jim sigh.
“See you at 7, Os,” Jim agreed, and hung up the phone. Oswald couldn’t see him at the moment, but Jim was smiling. He was so angry that he and Oswald would have to cancel plans again, but now he was looking forward to a private night with his boyfriend. Jim wore a smile for the rest of the day, even ignoring Harvey’s comments about him being whipped.
-0-
Oswald rushed about, sending a text to Gabe to pick up all the supplies he would need for his plan to work. At first, he was just going to make dinner. But, it was for Jim so why not go the extra mile? He planned a movie night, which he hadn’t had since he was a child with his mother. Gertrude was a huge movie buff, from Casablanca to Magic Mike, the latter making him shudder to think of her watching. She had passed the tradition onto her son, which he enjoyed as often as he could. He figured he would rent a couple of movies to bring, if he didn’t already own them himself. As many times as he had been to Jim’s apartment, he knew Jim’s DVD collection was sparse. A few action movies and a musical at best. Oswald rolled his eyes fondly at the idea of Jim watching Easter Parade.
“Are you following through with your plans, then?” Gertrude asked, appearing in his doorway.
“Plans have changed.” Oswald told her. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll stay indoors, I promise. I have no desire to look like a drowned rat,”
“As long as you are safe. Have fun, my boy,” Gertrude patted his cheek, and went back out to the living room. He hadn’t told her about Jim…he wasn’t sure why. At first, it was because Oswald wasn’t sure it was going to last, but it had been six months already. He smiled at the memory of just how special Jim made their six month anniversary. Oswald mentally scolded himself to focus and that things needed to be done. He texted Gabe to meet him downstairs in ten minutes, so he could go get the movies.
“Thank you,” Oswald told the cashier as she handed him the bag with the DVD’s in it. He had chosen a few different movies to watch, including Super Troopers, The Devil Wears Prada (one of his favorites, anyone could fight him on that one. Meryl Streep is a GENIUS.) The Exorcist, and the Omen. He had a special place in his heart for horror movies. They never really truly scared him; Oswald was really only creeped out by the ones with either dolls or creepy crawlers. He opened his umbrella to walk back to the car that was parked a little ways down the street by the curb and hurried to get inside.
“Did you get everything?” Oswald asked Gabe.
“Everything on the list, boss. Plus, I threw in a few things of my own. Spray cheddar cheese, the ultimate popcorn topping. Also, marshmallows.” Gabe replied.
“Why marshmallows?” Oswald asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Because they are marshmallows,”
“Well…okay, then. Thank you,” Oswald couldn’t think of any other way to respond other than that, but he appreciated the gesture nonetheless. They took off toward Jim’s apartment, Gabe insisting he carry the heavy bags up. Oswald had him follow him to the door, but no further. “Only because he doesn’t like anyone else in here,”
“I got it. Gordon is a private one.” Gabe waved to Oswald as he left, and Oswald headed inside to begin setting up. Oswald was excited for this, but a little nervous. He hoped Jim liked it. It was 6:15 now, Oswald thought, so he had time to order their dinner. He dialed the closest pizza place, which happened to be Jim’s favorite.
“Hello, I need a large meat lovers pizza and one large cheese pizza please,” Oswald recited. He thought a moment and added, “And a garden salad, ranch dressing on the side. Yes. 40 minutes. Perfect. Thank you,” He hung up, and pulled the money for it out of his wallet and set it on the table by the door. He clapped his hands together. “Right, so I have work to do.” He got busy gathering up the supplies he would need out of the bags he had brought with him.
Oswald was finishing in the kitchen, when he heard Jim’s key in the lock. He smiled, and waited by the coffee table with nervous butterflies in his stomach. “Os? I’m home…oh…oh, my. What did you do?” Jim was greeted with the sight of two pizzas laid out on the table, along with red vines, marshmallows, each of their favorite Chinese food dishes from Charlies down the street, popcorn, gummy bears, chocolate kisses, peanut butter, and what looked like the Chips Ahoy cookies that Oswald knew was Jim’s guilty pleasure. “There’s enough food for twelve here,”
“Do you like it?” Oswald asked, nervous feeling growing.
Jim crossed the room and kissed Oswald in greeting and in thanks. “I love it. But, how did you do all of this?”
“I have my ways. Besides, this isn’t all just for dinner. We, Jim, are going to have a movie night!”
“A what?”
“A movie night. You know, where you eat all kinds of food and binge watch movies, go to bed feeling sick?” Oswald explained, and Jim still was giving him a blank look. “You mean to say…you’ve never done this before?”
“Um, no. Not really.” Jim shrugged, taking his jacket off and loosening his tie.
“I know you don’t own many movies, but you work a lot so that’s expected. But…you like movies, right?” Oswald asked, now genuinely curious and wondering how Jim could have never experienced such a wonderful thing.
“Sure,” Jim nodded.
“Have you ever seen, let’s say, Casablanca?” Jim shook his head. Oswald widened his eyes in horror. “You’ve never seen Casablanca? What are you waiting for?” he asked, incredulous.
“To have an occasion to see it?”
Oswald named off a bunch of his favorite movies, and they all received a shake of Jim’s head. “Oh. We have such work to do,”
Jim laughed. “Bring it on,”
“Go get changed, and come back out; the food is getting cold. I’ll get the movie set up,” Oswald explained, and Jim rose to his feet. He grabbed Oswald by the waist, startling him a bit, and Jim smiled in a way that made Oswald’s brain turn to mush.
“Thank you,” Jim pressed a light kiss to Oswald’s lips.
“If that’s what I get for the set up, I can’t wait to see what I get for the actual experience,” Oswald teased. Jim rolled his eyes playfully and retreated back to the bedroom to get more comfortable.
Oswald had changed out in the living room, because he knew if he saw Jim in any state of undress, the movie night wouldn’t happen. He had changed into his t shirt and jeans that Jim insisted that Oswald looked great in, but were also comfortable. “Jim, stop primping!” he teased.
“I do not primp,” Jim responded, gruffly. Oswald was putting their first movie in, The Exorcist; figuring they could start with a horror and move onto something more lighthearted after. Jim joined Oswald on the couch, and pressed a kiss to his cheek, making Oswald blush a little. “You didn’t have to do all of this,”
“You have lived a sheltered life, Jim Gordon. It is my duty to rectify that. You are one click away from cinematic brilliance. Are you ready?” Oswald asked, with a smile.
Jim was reaching for a slice of pizza to set on the paper plate he had in his lap. “Yeah, start it up,”
“NO, I mean are you ready? Don’t you wanna squish around a little bit?” Oswald joked. “Come on, Jim. Squish around a little bit,”
Jim laughed, and shook his head. “Would you just start it up?”
Oswald smiled back, and sighed happily. This was one of his favorite movies of all time and he couldn’t wait to watch it with Jim. “Here we go,” He pressed play on the remote. The FBI warning came on, of course, making Jim squint in thought.
“What’s that?” Jim asked.
“Ok, don’t tell me you’ve never seen the FBI warning before,” Oswald scoffed. Jim shrugged, and Oswald rolled his eyes. “Oh for the love of…you’re beyond sheltered. This is worse than I thought,”
“Press play, Os,” Jim chuckled, taking a bite of his pizza.
“If you say so,” Oswald resumed the movie, and started on his own food. He had been so busy, that he had forgotten to eat all day and was famished.
As the movie reached one of his favorite parts, he smiled happily and waited. He looked over to Jim, who sighed. “Stop doing that,”
“What?”
“You’re looking at me while I watch the movie, so I always know when something big is gonna happen,” Jim teased, looking over to Oswald.
“Oh, sorry.” Oswald smiled, sheepishly.
“It’s okay,” Jim wrapped his arm around Oswald’s shoulder and settled back in.
As the night went on, though, Oswald was watching the movie with rapture, as Regan begins to levitate, he felt Jim shift beside him. “Are you ok?”
“Yeah, yeah. ‘m fine.” Jim assured him, but Oswald could tell his voice was shaking a little. Oswald wasn’t completely convinced but let it slide for now. Oswald put the popcorn bowl on his lap, and the two began munching away on it, Jim asking questions about the plot and characters to keep himself distracted. Oswald had had his heart set on this night, and he didn’t have the heart to tell him…that horror movies scared the ever loving shit out of him. Being a detective in Gotham, he had seen some crazy things happen. However, Jim couldn’t ever get over his fear of them. Probably because his brother had made him watch the movie It when they were kids, Jim thought.
It came to the climactic scene of Linda Blair being completely possessed by the demon, which was Oswald’s favorite part. He laughed as Regan said the line as the priest was setting up the exorcism. Jim was even distracted for a moment. “Well, I didn’t even expect that,” Jim muttered.
“It’s hilarious, I don’t know why,” Oswald chuckled, still munching on the popcorn. However, as the scene continued, and Regan’s head turned all the way around and the room began to shake, Jim couldn’t take it. He shoved his head into Oswald’s shoulder, not wanting to see it.
“Jim?” Oswald could tell something was wrong now. He carded his fingers through Jim’s hair, trying to coax him out of his shoulder. He mumbled something, but Oswald couldn’t make it out. “What was that?”
Jim raised his head, and looked Oswald in the eyes. “I don’t like scary movies,” He mumbled, looking embarrassed.
Oswald sighed, and pressed a kiss to Jim’s lips. “Why didn’t you say anything before?” Oswald felt guilty for choosing one of the scariest movies of all time now.
“I know you put a lot of work into this, and I didn’t want to spoil it,” Jim admitted, and as Linda Blair raised into the air, ‘The power of Christ compels you’, Jim gritted his teeth and hid in Oswald’s shoulder again.
“Jim…love, I can turn it off,” Oswald suggested.
“No, it’s ok; Just…sit close with me?” Jim asked, in a small voice.
“You don’t have to convince me,” Oswald snuggled close with Jim, as close as he could get without climbing in his lap. He pressed a kiss to Jim’s cheek and they watched the movie together. “No monsters or demons will get you from me. I just got you and it took me this long to get you. There would be some serious consequences if anyone tried,”
“I believe that,” Jim chuckled, and the movie didn’t seem so scary anymore. Not with Oswald sitting right next to him, warm and comforting. Jim felt a little childish admitting to Oswald how he was feeling, but in reality he knew Oswald would never fault him for something he had no control over. He had really gone all out for Jim this evening. Even though the storm raged on outside, and Regan was screaming demonically...all that mattered was Oswald in that moment. Jim couldn’t think of a better way to spend a night, then in the arms of someone you loved. He snuggled closer, to which Oswald had no complaints about; plans falling through really weren’t as bad as they seemed.