For all my hate for OBD Riddler I do think it brings an interesting concept for an AU: what if Edward's mother had kept him? I don't know why I kept thinking about it and not sleeping even though I have a test tomorrow morning and I ended up writing some random things about it:
" She should never have kept him. She knows that, has always known that.
Edward looks at her with big inocent brown eyes and questions too complex for a boy his age and she knows she should have gave him away. Is not that she doesn't love him.
She didn't at the start. When he would take her sleep and her employers with loud cries and empty bellies. But while she knows that she can't truly remember how it is not loving him.
No, she thinks again, looking at his too big second rate clothes and messy red hair, is because she loves him that she should have let him go. Because a boy like him is wasted here. What matters if her son can read at two when they are barely scraping above the poverty line? She should have let his father take him away."
"Edward Tierney never grows to be a troubled young man in a boarding school terrifield of his father fury and tamed down by riddles.
Instead Edward Nasthon grows to be a troubled young man in a poor part of the city terrifield the violence of Gotham will take his mother away. For him riddles and puzzle books aren't a sign of failure, they are his one strengh.
The Riddler is born either way.
But Edward Nygma is a very different man depending on the story we tell here."
"She still remember that day.
The biggest decision of her life. Her biggest failure, the one she does never truly regret.
The baby in her arms turns and tussles as if knowing that this is the moment that will change his life forever. And in another life she would have done the right thing, Edward would be raised in fancy clothes and warm meals and have access to all the knowledge his heart so desperadly desires. But on this life she didn't.
Not when the man, the fateful client, the father, looked at their son like that. She knew that look, the contempt and disgust, she had accepted that judmental rich white man would always look at her like this, as if she was lesser. But to see him look at their son that way. To know on her gut he would love the boy less just because it was hers.
Hot anger fueled to her veins. All she remembers after is the man leaving and saying that she better not expect child support because he won't pay for his own blood to be raised by a whore. She never sees him again and life goes on."
"She sees him again. She knows it's him the moment her eyes met his and she almost feels ashamed somehow, almost hides, but she refuses to lose. This city already broke her too much as it is. "
"Edward is four years old when he sees his first body. Mom took him for a fun day in the park close to the appartment and even bought a cheap ice cream cone for them to share.
He is running around trying to discover the secrets of the park. Maybe catalog it's bugs, he read a book about bugs recently in one of his visits to the library. He would like to study them closer. Instead he finds the remains of a woman.
He is four and he read a book on the human body once but even if not he knows it should not be open like that. He knows it's weird and wrong. He pokes it with a stick and tries to see if the insides match the book.
His mother finds him ten minutes later. She looks horrifield at the scene before grabbing him and hugging him way to tight. They don't go to the park again."
"She can't say no to the schoolarship.
Her boy is smart too smart for his own good but more importantly too smart for what she can give him. And this is a chance to give him a future. It's a good sign. First the boarding school and then a good college all paid.
And if she could take more clients knowing Edward would be far away all the best. So you see, irrecusable ofter. Even when he is also there.
"Behave, try to make friends instead of just studying all the time and do not engage with the principal unless absolutly necessary." He says with the habitual pre teen annoyance. Although not even it is enoght to hide his excitement. She is doing the right thing. "There's a thing I don't unserstand." Edward continues curious as always. "Why is not talking to the principal so important? I do understand you don't want me to cause trouble but why ask this in a separate order from behave?"
She brushes some strands of orange hair from his face. He is big now. Soon he will be bigger than her.
"Eddie" she pleads "For once in your life, don't ask question."
He pouted. And she had to supress the smile. They might grow fast but he will ways be her little boy.
"No buts, let this one go, son. I'll ground you if need for."
He pouted harder but noded.
"Okay, mom. I won't ask about it."
She pretends to believe him."
