"Noelle? I heard that you were still at Wayne Manor. This is Oswald; I wanted you to know that I've come back home to stay now. Mother's been laid to rest at her family plot in Metropolis; it didn't seem right to keep her here. I'll miss her, though."
Oswald Cobblepot stood straight as an arrow for the length of the conversation. He tried to be on his best behavior around Noelle, he always had. She was something special, and now she was probably the most important person left in his life.
He stood five foot three in his dress shoes. He was still wearing what he had been wearing on the flight home, the same three-piece black suit he'd worn to the funeral. He favored black in his clothing, he always had, but not for this reason.
"I hear tell that you're looking for work as a domestic," Oswald went on, his chin rising slightly as he chewed on his lip nervously; he would rarely do that around anyone, but he was all alone here. "I couldn't pay you much, but you know the place, and you know what you're getting into with me. And I hope that you still consider me good company."
It had been four years since they'd seen one another regularly. He'd gone off to college, and she had stayed at home, where she'd grown up. With her father and Bruce. He'd been scarcely sixteen years old then, and girls frightened him; not so much any more. But he had thought that there had been something special between him and Noelle then just the same, and here he was hanging on her every word, hoping that she had felt that way too.
"So -- what do you say? Will you come and live with me?" Put that way, it was much closer to what he really wanted to ask her.
Oswald Cobblepot stood straight as an arrow for the length of the conversation. He tried to be on his best behavior around Noelle, he always had. She was something special, and now she was probably the most important person left in his life.
He stood five foot three in his dress shoes. He was still wearing what he had been wearing on the flight home, the same three-piece black suit he'd worn to the funeral. He favored black in his clothing, he always had, but not for this reason.
"I hear tell that you're looking for work as a domestic," Oswald went on, his chin rising slightly as he chewed on his lip nervously; he would rarely do that around anyone, but he was all alone here. "I couldn't pay you much, but you know the place, and you know what you're getting into with me. And I hope that you still consider me good company."
It had been four years since they'd seen one another regularly. He'd gone off to college, and she had stayed at home, where she'd grown up. With her father and Bruce. He'd been scarcely sixteen years old then, and girls frightened him; not so much any more. But he had thought that there had been something special between him and Noelle then just the same, and here he was hanging on her every word, hoping that she had felt that way too.
"So -- what do you say? Will you come and live with me?" Put that way, it was much closer to what he really wanted to ask her.