When Eddie is little they play this game.
It starts late one night, when Eddie is supposed to be asleep, tucked up in the bed that used to be Wayne's but is now solely Eddie's. There's a freak thunderstorm that wakes him, and he wanders his way into the living room and into Wayne's lap.
It's still early in their relationship, Eddie still trying to feel Wayne out- figure out how much he really cares, how safe Eddie truly is here. So, wrapped up in a blanket, head tucked against Wayne's chest, Eddie asks "would you still love me if i slept here tonight?" Voice barley audible over a crack of unexpected thunder.
It continues from there. Eddie asking random little questions at odd times. A "would you still love me if i turned purple?" at bedtime. A "would you still love me if i ate all the cheerios?" at the grocery store. Even one very memorable "would you still love me if i was a worm?" on a rainy day- he'd stopped midsplash in a puddle to ask Wayne that one, face scrunched up in seriousness.
Every time, without fail, Wayne always answers that yes, he will still love Eddie, even then.
Even as Eddie gets older and the questions get more serious, Wayne's answer never wavers.
When he comes home from work one morning to find Eddie sitting on the couch awkwardly, hands trapped behind his back, trying his level best to look casual, and asks "if i almost got busted tonight and needed you to pick the lock on some handcuffs, would you still love me?" Eddie's smile is impish, shy, but there's real fear sitting in his eyes. Wayne sighs, gets a drink, and works on setting his nephew free.
(It takes nearly an hour and three bobby pins, but Wayne still gives the kid a gruff "yes" before kissing his hair and going off to bed.)
"Would you still love me if i didn't graduate again?" Eddie asks, voice scratchy and eyes red rimmed. There's a bag sitting by his feet, overflowing with Eddie's things, like his boy is expecting Wayne to kick him out for this.
"I'll always love you, kid. And this will always be your home," he says, picking up the bag and dragging it back to Eddie's room where it belongs.
..."Would you still love me if i was gay?" It's barley a whisper, shaky and tear filled. Eddie's sitting on the far end of the couch, like he's afraid he might need some distance here and that simply won't do. Wayne stands- knee cracking painfully- and sits down next to his boy. Wraps an arm around him and pulls him into his side. He still fits like he did when he was seven.
"You listen here, and you listen good," Wayne says, "There is nothing that you could ever do or be that would make me stop loving you. Not a single damn thing."
"What if i, like, murdered somebody?" Eddie jokes wetly. Tears are starting to spill down his cheeks and Wayne knows that he's seconds away from sobbing.
Wayne sighs. "Shit, I'd probably help you hide the body." A laugh bursts out of Eddie and then they're off, laughter quickly turning into tears. Wayne holds him through it, letting a few tears of his own drip into Eddie's unruly hair.
Wayne thinks about this when he's sitting on his porch steps, smoking a cigarette and waiting for the cops to come. A dead girl lying on his living room floor behind him.
Eddie is gentle. Sweet. That just isn't in his nature to do. And Wayne knows that. Will fight tooth and nail to prove that, to find where his boy is.
Because just like he always said, he still loves Eddie.
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