He could still picture that night as clear as day. The aching in his ribs and limbs from the attack earlier on in the day, the metallic taste of blood ocassionally resurfacing. His mother couldn't afford the trip to the doctors, so she could only give him some pain killers to dull the pain. She let him sleep in bed with her that night, cuddled up close bundled under thick sheets as she held him close.

"I love you so much. You are a brave boy, a handsome young man. Like your father was" Her soft smile seemed to glow through the darkness, lighting up the room around her like it always did. That cheeky, yet loving smile made his heart squeeze. He would give anything to see it again. Oswald sniffed and cuddled closer. Her perfume filled his nose, the familiar scent comforting and warming. "They may not see it yet, but you are like swan. Graceful, beautiful. A pretty bird"

He used to hate being compared to birds, but when she called him one it felt good. It reminded him of the crows in the park, the robins hopping through the snow, the starlings on his windowsill. They were beautiful. And soon became his favourite type of animal.

"My Kicsikèm" She mumbled gently as her soft hand traced his cheek, wiping away the tears rolling down his face. Suddenly, the room began to grow colder and colder as her smile faded into shocked confusion, "O-Oswald?"

"Mother?"

A figure slowly rose up behind her, and Oswald's heart stopped. Tabitha. No. Nonono.

"Anyu, ne hagyj el engem" He cried as a distance grew between them, Oswald throwing his hand out to catch her's but she was so still, so far. Lighting lit up the entire room, and Oswald let out a choked scream as he saw himself stood over his mother with an insane grin, blood staining his pale face. A cold, maniacal laugh echoed through the room as he raised the bloody knife over her motionless body, ready to strike again.

"Sajnálom!" Oswald screamed as he watched himself go to stab her.

Oswald woke with a horrified scream as he shot up in bed, hands balled up in the covers as his eyes stung with tears. He breathed hard in horror and panic as he looked around trying to recognise his surroundings, but the familiar setting of Ed's apartment settled his nerves. His heart beat loudly in his ears as he sighed in relief. It was just a dream.

His soulmate immediately began fussing over him, "Oswald, are you okay? You were yelling in your sleep and I couldn't wake you"

"I'm fine...I'm alright" He replied dishonest. He was not alright, far from it. His own brain had twisted yet another fond memory of his mother. It wasn't anything new; ever since she died he'd been having similar dreams. All being a memory of her, and all ending with him killing her. There's probably some weird psychology to do with it that Oswald had no interest in learning.

"Ok...it's just..." Ed started but cut himself off with a frown, as he shifted closer and rubbed Oswald's arm awkwardly in an attempt to comfort him. They sat in silence for a minute before he spoke, "You're aware that you talk in your sleep, but are you aware that you sometimes slip into your mother tongue too?"

"I do?" Oswald blinked confused. He knew he sometimes had dreams that were in Hungarian or dreams that had a few Hungarian phrases, but he wasn't as aware that he sleep talked in the language too. Then again, it shouldn't come as surprise. Sleep talking is sleep talking.

"Yes. Though I've noticed you do it more when you're distressed or upset in a dream, which is normal" A sad smile crossed his face "Anyu. That's Hungarian for mum right?"

Oswald nodded with a sad smile, "It was technically my first language, as mother spoke to me in her native language when I was born. It was confusing. I was already behind a lot of my peers, but it also took me longer to pick up English since Hungarian was the main language I heard as a child until then" He sighed, "The other kids didn't like me sounding so foreign, even more so when I developed an accent. I taught myself how to sound this way to try and stop their bullying, but it's been so long that I can't even remember what my natural accent is"

Ed frowned. He knew kids were cruel, and he had his own fair amount of bullying experience, but the fact that Oswald was forced to change a huge part of his identity just to fit in on the off chance that they would leave him alone upset him.  "What did the other words mean?"

"I can't remember. I'm sorry" He lied. He knew what he had said. Mother, don't leave me. I'm sorry. Oswald shook his head and changed the subject, "How long did I sleep for? A few hours I assume?"

"Approximately 18 hours and 15 minutes" Ed frowned, "Though that is along time, you need to rest to allowed your injury to heal. Are...you hungry? I can put some dinner on, but it's fine if you're no-"

"Yes, thank you. I am rather hungry"

A smile immediately appeared on Ed's face, conveying a mix of different emotions, though Oswald could tell he was relieved. Not only was his appetite coming back, Oswald was willing to eat. Neither of them could actually remember the last time he had actually ate more than a few bites, so this was definitely a big step.

"Spaghetti bolognese? I need to go shopping really, but I have the stuff for it already" Without waiting for an answer, Ed got up way more enthusiastic than he should and walked into the kitchen area, collecting the ingredients and materials for dinner. Oswald slowly got out of bed and walked over to him.

"Can...I help?"

Ed seemed surprised, but his smile grew wider as he nodded and nudged a pot towards him. "Ok, first fill it halfway with water, put it on the stove with the lid over it, then turn the  stove on"

Oswald took the pot and followed Ed's instructions, before leaning on the table to watch him cut up some vegetables. His kitchen was small, but both men were able to fit comfortably to cook dinner together. It almost reminded him of his own apartment, a thought that made his heart squeeze. He used to cook with his mum, but they were usually treats instead of meals. Cookies, cakes, brownies, anything sweet and tasty.

Without even realising he had zoned off, Oswald was snapped becak to reality when Ed called his name, asking him to pour some salt into the pot and put the pasta in. He moved towards the counter to pour some salt into the steamy water, then grabbed a half empty pack of spaghetti, snapped the pasta in half, and dropped them into the water. He followed Ed's instructions, until the pasta was drained and ready to be dished up.

Ed was still cooking the mince meat in a frying pan with the vegetables and sauce, so Oswald took a seat. He wasn't sure how Ed had the patience to deal with him this past week. Being soulmates didn't mean that Ed had to take care of him. He shouldn't have to. If it wasn't for the patience and enthusiasm in the other man, Oswald would probably feel more of a burden. He was lucky to have Ed, he knew that.

Dinner was served up with some grated cheese and orange juice with the bits. Oswald really didn't have the heart to tell him that he didn't like the bits. Not after all he had done for him. They talked and laughed and for the first time in a while, the apartment was filled with a comfortable atmosphere. Ed was happy his partner was getting better and making progress, and Oswald, well, Oswald was just happy he still had someone there for him. 

Once they finished eating, they argued about who was going to do the washing up. Ed won, surprisingly.

While he did that, Oswald wandered around the apartment with the blanket pulled over his shoulders again. He had been in Ed's apartment a few times, but he had never actually had the chance to look around properly. It was small, but well kept. There were a few posters of games on the wall, a weird cookoo clock, and a bunch of junk that Ed seemed to be hoarding for some bizarre reason. He limped back towards the bed, when he noticed a green glimmer beside the windowsill. The neon green sign outside glowed obnoxiously bright, though it was not what was sparkling. Oswald's breath caught in his throat when he saw what it was.

His rock. His gift to Ed as a 'love token', all because of a random Penguin comment.

"Ed, the rock. I- you kept it?"

"Of course I did! Why?"

"I just..." Oswald trailed off looking at him, "It's sweet"

Ed smiled and put the last plate on the draining board, before druing his hands on a towel. He held his hand up in a 'hold on' gesture, and walked to his cluttered desk to find something. Oswald watched as he grabbed something from a drawer, then walked over to him. He grinned as he stepped towards Oswald, his hands behind his back as he stopped and took a dramatic bow, one hand tucked behind him while the other holding out a shiny pebble. It was light brown, with swirls of white, black, grey and yellow, glistening in the light and smooth to touch. "For you, my dear"

"Ed" Oswald took the pebble, turning it in his hand. His heart fluttered as a small smile began to form at the corners of his lips. "You really didn't have to"

His soulmate chuckled, then raised both his arms out to the side and began to slowly walk around Oswald, so close that they almost brushed against each other. Then, Ed booped his nose against Oswald's cheek and let out a breathy laugh, before kissing him and moving back in front of him. "I love you, my dearest Penguin" He grinned, showing off his perfect white teeth, before reaching forwards to raise Oswald's arms up.

"You are strange, Ed" Oswald laughed. Pink dusted his cheeks as he smiled, icy blue eyes sparkling with joy. Something Ed hadn't seen in weeks. Oswald was almost back to his usual self.

He wrapped his arms around Oswald's waist, ignoring the fact that he could tell just how much weight he had lost since his mum died, and Oswald wrapped his arms around Ed's body. Ed leant down and kissed him gently, holding him close. Then, he began to sway softly as Oswald nuzzled his face into the crook of his neck, trying to imitate a slow dance as he hummed a tune.

The shorter of the two smiled to himself, his heart fluttering at the intimacy. However, that all came crashing down when Oswald suddenly recognised the tune. The same one was on the radio when his mother placed him ontop of her feet and danced with him in their living room. His body shook as he began to sob, and it took Ed a few seconds to realise what was happening. He looked down at his soulmate and frowned in concern, "Oswald?"

"I-I'm fine" He mumbled through sobs, hot tears falling against his skin, body trembling in his embrace. "I'm sorry"

"Don't apologise, it's ok" Ed sighed as he held him close and stroked his hair gently, before leading him back towards the bed. His soulmate cried in his arms for a while, head resting against his shoulder so the tip of his pointy nose pressed against Ed's neck. After a while, his sobs were reduced to quiet sniffs and soft breathing. Ed kissed his head sighing, "Are you alright?"

Oswald nodded as a reply, staring at the Zelda poster on the wall. They sat in silence, Oswald listening to Ed's breathing, before he smiled to himself and looked up at him, "So Ed, how long have you been studying bird mating dances"

The shock on Ed's face as he immediately flushed red made him burst out laughing, as the other tried to explain through embarrassed stammering. "I-I-I-"

"You knew I took care of birds, did you not think I'd notice what that little performance was?" He laughed then leant up to peck his cheek, "You're so sweet. I love you"

"I love you too" Ed mumbled with a smile, running his hands through Oswald's raven hair and laughed at the fact it apparently did not like to stay flat against his head right now. The back of his hair stuck up weirdly, making him look more like a cockatiel than a Penguin.

"What's so funny?"

"You look like a cockatiel"

Oswald snorted as a response, "Oh yeah? I'll take that as a compliment. I actually had one as a pet- his name was Lajos. Such beautiful and social bird, I loved him"

"What happened?"

"I came home from school to find his cage empty. Mother said they needed some fresh air and did not seem to realise he may fly away until he went out the window"

Ed felt bad for laughing, but the smile appearing on Oswald's face assured him that even a tragic event like losing his pet bird could be amusing in some circumstances.

___

What's the best way to cheer up the kingpin of Gotham?

Torturing a lackey of his biggest enemy with his soulmate.

Leonard was surprisingly easy to capture, as his daily routine was repetitive and had hardly any changes each day. He was a boring man, which was his downfall. Ed had studied his routine everyday -before work if he had a late shift, and after work if he had an early shift- so he had a rough idea of where Leonard would be and when. A baseball bat in the back of his head did the trick, disguised by the darkness of the evening. He was tied to a chair and had a bag stuffed over his head, ready for Oswald when he woke up.

Oswald was somewhat disturbed by the sudden hostage in their home, but once he found out who it was he became excited. Ed, of course, had heard him mumbling his name in his sleep, so he knew his partner would be thrilled with the opportunity. However, despite predicting his response, Ed felt happy that Oswald was finally looking like his old self. The fire in his eyes was beginning to ignite once again, it just needed that final spark.

Leonard shook and begged to be released, though his pleas were partially muffled by the material of the bag. As the two collected items such as pliers, lighters and knives to torture the man with, they noticed how they both seemed excited about what was about to come. And for Oswald, this was surprising, if not slightly concerning, considering Ed was a mess last time he murdered someone. He had definitely grown since Dougherty and Kringle, like he had finally come loose and embraced that part of himself. It somewhat reminded him of himself as young boy up to his first month working for Fish.

The sight of blood and his agnonized screams were pleasing as they tore off nails, burnt his flesh and left cuts all over his body. Oswald drew great pleasure by imagining him as Tabitha or Gallavan in the chair instead. Oh, he would love to torture them slowly and painfully until they begged him to take their life, and even then he would continue until he thought they had suffered enough. How he would love to watch the life drain from their eyes as they finally bled out after hours and hours of torture.

Ed enjoyed participating, but he enjoyed watching Oswald more. The intensity of each injury inflicted on Leoanrd, no matter how small, was mesmerising to watch. His eyes were wide and fiery, a huge grin on his face as he continued with certainty. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Ed fell back and decided to watch Oswald finish the man, once again finding himself in awe of him. Oswald stabbed Leonard with a final scream, and he fell silent as he slumped over either dead or unconscious. Neither cared which one it was. Then, Oswald turned to Ed panting, a grin spreading across his face as blood stained his skin. His eyes were wide and dilated, full of satisfaction. Ed couldn't help but grin back. Watch out Gotham, Penguin's back!

He immediately grabbed Ed, pulling him close, and crashed their lips together eagerly. Surprised at the sudden change in mood, Ed kissed him back as he wrapped his arms around him. After a few seconds, Oswald pulled away breathing hard, before looking over his shoulder, then back at him with a smirk, "Mr Nygma, is that your bed?"

"Why yes it is"

He giggled and began to walk backwards reconnecting the kiss, his hands moving to the jacket Ed was wearing.

____

A few days later, Oswald was stuck at home bored, reading one of Ed's biology textbooks as he had hardly any worthy fiction books laying around. Frankenstein was too hard to understand half the time with the old language, and Oswald always found it boring how Victor was constantly whining about how miserable he was in more than half of the paragraphs. The only thing he had ever found interesting was the gay undertones of Clerval and Victor's relationship, which his teacher had constantly tried to deny. There may not be many homophobes in this world, but homosexuality was still weird to some people. They often thought it was a mistake in the bonding process, but the bonds were rarely wrong.

He groaned as he shoved the book away, leaning back in the chair and looking at the clock on the wall. 8:47 PM. Ed had already called to say he was asked to stay behind for a case, but Oswald was so bored. He spent the first week here in bed because he was too tired and unmotivated to do anything other than sleep, wishing he could disappear and make the pain go away. The past four days were more active, but Oswald was not used to being cooped up in one place for so long. There was nothing to do here, which made it even worse.

Grabbing the heavy book, Oswald walked back to the desk and placed it down with a loud thud sighing, when something caught his eye. A small machine sat in the open drawer of the desk, grey and box like with a plus button on the left and four circular buttons on the right. A gameboy? He picked it up and searched for the power button as he walked back to the kitchen table. It turned on and began loading up the game left inside, which apparently was Mario. The pixelated graphics moved across the screen as the title screen appeared, along with 8-bit music in the background. Oswald frowned to himself as he pressed random buttons, realising he didn't know how to use it or what to do, until the game began to load up. He began to press random buttons again, eventually managing to select a level.

The game was hard at first since he didn't understand what he was doing or which button did what, but once he managed to figure it out he started to have fun. Time flew by as he completed several levels, but was unable to beat Ed's time on them. When he became stuck on one level where he couldn't make the jump from one platform to the next, Oswald had to restrain himself from throwing the device across the room in rage, becoming increasingly more frustrated. The jump was possible so how in the world was he failing at it?!

He was so engrossed that he hadn't even heard Ed walk in until he touched his shoulder, making him jump, "I brought dinner"

"Ed! You scared me" He sighed as he leant over to place the consol on the kitchen counter,  and Ed took the containers out of the bag before searching for cutlery.

"Sorry. I hope you like Chinese" Oswald smiled but did not reply. Instead, he helped him sort everything out and began eating.

Ed asked about the gameboy and made a few jokes, and Oswald shared his frustrations about the level he was stuck on, which Ed found unfairly amusing. After that they fell into silence for a few minutes before Oswald decided to talk about something he had been thinking about constantly.

"Ed? There's...something I wanted to ask you"

"Hm? What is it Oswald, are you alright?" Ed looked at him concerned, wiping some sauce from his mouth.

"Can I live with you?"

More silence, though this time it was full of confusion. His brows furrowed, "You already live here"

"No I mean- I just. I haven't been back to my apartment since..." Oswald shook his head frowning, "I can't go back to living there. There are so many memories of her and I wouldn't be able to cope. All my things are still there, and if I don't collect them soon then the landlord will throw it out and rent it out to someone else. I have no where else but here"

Placing his hand ontop of his, Ed leant forward with a soft smile, "You're welcome,e to move in with me if that's what you really want. I can come with you to collect your things and say goodbye"

"Yes, thank you..." He blinked away tears, "Thank you..."

____

In all honesty, Oswald did not want to be back here. A place he had grown up in, had once called home, once full of warmth and life now cold and lifeless. Family portraits of him and his mother decorated the walls and shelves. Just seeing them made his heart ache. There was no music, no delicious aroma from the kitchen, and no suffocating hugs when he walked through the door. She really was gone.

Ed placed his hand on Oswald's shoulder frowning, who placed his hand ontop and took a deep breath. He wiped the tears away that were beginning to form in his eyes, before heading towards his room. It was tidied since the last time he had been there, with his bed made neater than Oswald usually did, the covers tucked into the bed frame. The faint smell of cleaner and flowery perfume lingered in the air, triggering off more tears which freely slid down his cheeks. Unable to cope with the smallest reminders of her, Oswald collected the bird gifts from his desk, the clothes from his closet and some money stored away in a metal tin before quickly walking back out.

Ed looked at him as he reappeared, placing a picture back down where he found it, and walked over as Oswald sniffed. "I need you...to come with me"

His voice was barely a whisper as his breath shook, and Ed silently nodded as he made his way over. They pushed the door open for Gertrud's room, but Oswald found himself stuck to the spot. The smell was strongest in here. He couldn't do it. This was hopeless, he couldn't do it.

"Os" His boyfriend whispered moving an arm around him, "It's ok. Collect anything you want and then we can leave"

Only a few things came to mind: Her necklace, the album she kept ontop of the closet, and  the picture of them both sat in the park. Oswald held his breath and searched for the three items, before bolting out the room. He stuffed them and a few other pictures in his bag, before heading towards the door without any goodbyes to his childhood home. His whole body trembled as he held back tears, and kept walking as soon as he left. Down the stairs, out the building.

It hurt too much to be here. He couldn't possibly live here anymore, surrounded by constant reminders that she was gone and was never coming back home. She would never smile at him, hold him close, laugh with him, dance around a room with grace, or play piano. She would never tuck him into bed at night, kiss him, tell him how loved and pretty he is, or sing that lullaby. And he would never taste her cooking that always warmed him, even on the coldest and darkest of days.

Gallavan had taken the world from Oswald, and he sure as hell was not going to get away with it. He would get revenge, even if it killed him.