Define Close [Nygmobblepot]

Ch8: Attempted

Edward's POV

It took us a while to realize today was supposed to be my first day at work and once we did Oswald insisted I take a day off because I started a day early and he said he'd be staying in the office most of the day himself. He told me to go home and nurse my hangover which I would've loved to do but unfortunately this isn't my only or really even my real job so I promised to go meet the others once they heard I got the day off.

"Morning." I tell them as I walk in and they look at me with questioning looks.

"It's almost one." Tabitha points out and I frown.

"Is it?" I must've taken way longer to get here than I thought, not to mention I still feel like I only just woke up.

"What's wrong with you?" Barbara asks, looking disgusted. "Are you sick?"

"No, of course I'm not sick." I snap at her like it's unheard of. I don't remember the last time I got sick. "I'm just.. tired."

"Oh, my God. Are you hungover?" Barbara asks and I can't tell if she's surprised, amused or somehow disappointed.

"A bit." I admit. "I'm fine. I can-"

She laughs, an annoying giggle. "What were you doing last night?"

"Nothing." I tell her. I don't remember much of it but I do know we were just talking and laughing mostly. My headache gets worse when I think about it. "I was with Oswald, we just-"

"Oooh. Are we going somewhere with this?" She asks grinning and I scowl at her.

"It wasn't like that." I say flatly and she wiggles her brows at me, expecting me to go into detail and maybe admit something but there's nothing to admit.

"You do realize you kind of risked everything." She says then, turning more serious. "You could've slipped something up and ruined everything! Trust me, Oswald would have us all killed if he realized we're actually working against him."

"I'm aware." I reply. "I am not that out of control when I drink." I say even though frankly I'm surprised by how someone like me can lose control that well. I consider myself to be someone following pure logic and being in control of the situations I put myself in. There are exceptions, of course. Obviously.

"No one cares." Tabitha says. "But are you close?" She asks then and I pinch my lips together, wondering how am I going to play this in the end.

"Define close." I reply and she rolls her eyes at me like I'm a five-year-old who she's trying to explain something for the eighth time.

"Does he talk to you? Does he trust you?" She asks me and I think about it.

"I think so, he really seems to." I tell them and they all seem pleased with that. "He truly likes me." I say, more to myself, still impressed I managed to pull that off as smoothly as I planned and kind of terrified by how much I'm enjoying it. I truly like him.

"Fantastic." Barbara says smiling, glancing at her company over her shoulder before turning to me. "So, do you have something useful, then?"

I lick my lips briefly as I think. "I might." Something he told me I happen to remember and it might just be useful.

Oswald's POV

I have locked myself in my office and plan to stay there for the rest of the day. I'm feeling a lot better, though, stronger and my head is more clear. It has allowed me to memorize more of last night as well. It's mostly just blurry memories of talking and laughing, I think it was a bit more serious and dark at some parts but mostly we just had a good time. I don't think I've ever done that with anyone before. I do remember one thing that I can't really wrap my head around, I'm not sure what Ed was talking about and my drunk brain didn't really think of it at the time.

"I don't remember the last time I actually.. had fun. I mean like this." Ed chuckled, shaking his head and I leaned my forehead against the couch, starting to feel tired but smiled.

"Me neither." I admitted, looking up at him with that lazy smile.

He started laughing which in the moment didn't seem weird at all because that's all we were doing. "Remember when I said I liked you and enjoyed your company and.. all that."

I thought about it. "Yes. Vividly." I said nodding and then chuckled. "Why?" He sighed and leaned back against the couch, groaning like he was in pain. "What is it?" I insisted and he turned to me, looking confused and I wondered if he even remembered what we had been talking about. I wasn't sure I did.

"You know when you're supposed to do something and you just..." He shrugged, looking at me like he was waiting for me to understand. I didn't. "Have you ever been interested in someone you shouldn't be?"

I frowned and scoffed as I shook my head. "No. I've never really been interested in anyone like that before."

"Before?" He repeated curiously. "Are you at the moment?"

"No!" I laughed. "It just came out like that."

"Right, right, right." He sat up straight, putting the bottle he had in his hand aside on the floor. "Sometimes I feel like I'm disappointing everyone, including myself."

I had been laughing all this time just because everything felt so absurd but then I frowned and looked at him thoughtfully. "Why?"

He sighed and shrugged before taking the bottle and standing up, swaying. I had a weird thought about his head being very high considering how tall he is and it being no wonder if he felt dizzy. "Nevermind. You're right, nothing makes sense anymore. I'm gonna put this in the pile." He went around the couch but suddenly doubled over, starting to laugh again. "Pile." He repeated. "We can't pile these bottles."

I laughed, still a little confused about the earlier topic but very much willing to go with whatever direction the conversation went. "Just put it next to them."

"I'll make a line if I can't make a pile." He told me before disappearing behind the couch and I heard him moving the bottles around.

"Why must you organize them in the first place?" I asked him, taking a sip from the bottle in my own hand.

"You're right! What's wrong with me?!" He demanded and then appeared again as he stood up, leaning against the back of the couch but he was laughing again. "I'm gonna leave the bottles." He said before climbing over the couch, lying on it, his head next to mine. "I wish I could stop thinking about..." He shook his head and I handed the bottle to him before turning around, leaning back against the couch.

"About what?" I asked curiously, closing my eyes.

"The beauty..." He mumbled and I started laughing again.

"The beauty of what?" I asked, not sure if I was so drunk that I couldn't make sense of anything or if he was beyond any logic already. He sighed loudly behind me so I turned to look and he stared at me like he had just been intently staring at the back of my head. "What?"

He tried to drink from the bottle but fortunately realized he couldn't do it lying down so he sat up, sliding down on the floor next to me before taking a long swig.

"I'm gonna pass out soon." I informed him but I'm not sure if he heard me as he turned to me with a smile.

"How many knots do you know?"

After that my memories aren't very clear but based on our observations this morning I can pretty much deduce what happened.

I guess it's not that important or huge but I do wonder if it was just drunken words filling the dreaded silence or if he really had something pressing in mind he tried to make sense of. I mean he wouldn't have been the only one who almost slipped up.