Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/7215409.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      F/M
  Fandom:
      Watchmen_-_All_Media_Types
  Relationship:
      Edward_Blake/Captain_Metropolis
  Character:
      Edward_Blake, Nelson_Gardner, Edie_Blake, Sally_Jupiter, Hooded_Justice
  Additional Tags:
      Rule_63, only_eddie_is_genderbent, Edie_is_underage, PWP, basically
      theyre_both_jealous_of_their_love_interest's_fake_relationship, and_then
      they_fuck, Masochism, Punching, Romantic_Face_Punching, my_favorite_tag
      even_if_its_not_really_romantic, Vaginal_Sex, Loss_of_Virginity, stupid
      fucking_story_stay_away, Painful_Sex, Homophobic_Language
  Series:
      Part 9 of Edith_Blake
  Stats:
      Published: 2016-06-16 Words: 2617
****** the grass is always greener ******
by WattStalf
Summary
     Nelson and Edie are supposed to be covering for each other, just like
     how Sally covers for HJ. Edie decides to take it a little bit
     further, because she's lonely and because she can, and because she
     discovers that they have a little more in common than meets the eye.
Notes
     I honestly don't know what the hell this is so please don't ask me
See the end of the work for more notes
Edie isn't sure if Sally knows about her or not, but whether or not she does,
Larry does, and even if he isn't saying anything, he's still doing something
about it. Why he's singling out her, when he never bothered with Ursula, she
doesn't know, especially considering she puts in a lot more effort to be
subtle. She really hopes those efforts have paid off, and that Larry really is
the only one who's noticed that there's something more to the way that Edie
looks at Sally.
Whatever the case, he at least tries to be discreet, and doesn't tell Nelson
the same thing that he tells Edie. What he tells Edie is that, since she's so
obviously infatuated with the Silk Spectre- “and why this team attracts so many
of  your  kind, I'll never understand”- and since Nelly is just as involved in
his affair as HJ, the two of them were to pretend to be in a relationship for
publicity purposes. What he tells Nelly is just that he thinks it will be an
even better cover if he has a girl on his arm as well.
Edie doesn't want to do it, but between being threatened to be removed from the
team to her own fears that Larry might expose her feelings for Sally, she
agrees to go along with it, much to Nelson's surprise. They're told that they
don't have to do much, just be in a few pictures together and act friendly in
public, but from that point on, they are partnered up for patrols and for
training, and Edie is forced to see a lot more of Captain Metropolis than she
ever wanted.
It's when their training one day that she brings up the other side of the coin,
the other false arrangement within the team. She isn't sure what makes her ask,
but there's a part of her that is curious, and that curiosity wins out.
"D'ya ever get jealous?" she asks.
"What do you mean?" Nelly asks in reply.
"Of your boyfriend an' Sally's fake fling," she says, trying to keep things
casual. It is often very hard for her voice to stay casual when she talks about
Sally. "I mean, I know you know that it isn't real, but do you ever, ya know,
still get jealous? Since they gotta spend all that time together, an' everyone
says they make such a 'charmin' couple', and all that."
He pauses, thinking before he speaks. "I guess it can get...difficult,
sometimes, but I try not to let it get to me." At first, he had always denied
it when she brought up his relationship- if that was even what it was; she was
fuzzy on the details- with Hooded Justice, and had acted like she didn't know.
"Larry told me why we're doing this," she'd said, not adding the fact that she
had figured things out a long time before Larry had come to her with the offer.
Now, Nelson almost seems to enjoy having someone he can be open with, but she
can tell that he would prefer someone less...well, less like her.
"How'd'ya do that?" she asks, hoping to sound nonchalant. "I mean, I bet it's
really hard not to let it get to ya, right?"
Now he looks suspicious, and she knows that she's fucked up. "And why are you
asking? You having some trouble with jealousy yourself?"
Her cheeks darken and she glares at him, snapping, "What? Fuck that, that's
crazy. No idea what you're talkin' about!" But she knows she's overreacted and
knows that she's all but given herself by now.
Nelly at least has the decency to look a little surprised before a grin breaks
out over his face and he says, "So, Larry had more than one reason for sticking
us together like this, then?"
"Bullshit," she argues weakly, already knowing that she has lost. And, oh, Edie
hates  to lose.
"I'm no expert on the subject," he continues, "but Sally isn't bad at all. You
have great taste, Edie."
She scowls at him, but she can't muster up further protest and her face is so
warm that she's sure she must be bright red. She'll kill him for this, she
swears it, and she clenches her fists, ready to lash out physically, since her
words have failed her. Pulling back a fist, she hesitates at the last second
and he catches her arm.
"Whoa, whoa, Edie," he says, "calm down. I didn't mean to upset you."
"Fuck off," she mutters, yanking her hand back. "I'm not upset. I don't care
either way. Just wanted to see if ya really liked it that much or not."
"Liked what?"
"Gettin' hit," she says, and Nelson's face turns guilty. "Or maybe you wouldn't
like it from me cos I'm a girl an' all."
“That isn't- that's not-” He struggles to come up with a response, and now he
is the one whose face is read. “I don't enjoy...that.”
“Really? Cos you got a black eye that tells me different.”
“I got that on patrol.”
“Yeah? That what he tells ya to tell people?”
“You don't know what you're talking about.”
“Oh, is it like that? Some big secret that he don't want anyone to know about?”
she asks, smiling her most menacing smile. “Do you not actually like it? Is
that what it is? Oh, you poor thing, maybe you need me to save you fr-”
She isn't expecting Nelly to fight back, and she especially isn't expecting him
to fight back with his fist, but then her head snaps to the side and her face
really fucking hurts, and when she rubs her cheek and looks over at him,
hissing from the pain, his hand is still clenched and his chest is heaving. And
then she watches his face as it dawns on him what he's done, and he looks
positively horrified.
“Edie, oh, Edie,” he cries, “I'm sorry, I didn't-”
She punches him back, harder than she means to, but only because she's really
enjoying herself now. There are few things she likes more than fights, and he
hit her  good , and this is the first time that she's ever wondered about
herself like that. This is the first time that she begins to question her own
reaction to pain, and she supposes that she and Nelly might have something new
in common. They lock eyes when he comes back up from her hit, and she wonders
if she's the only one who can feel the room shift.
“Tell me the truth about Sally,” he says. She hesitates, because it's really
none of his damn business, but she's never told anyone before and it would be
nice for someone to know besides Larry, and there's something going on here
that she feels will be broken if she tries to lie.
“I think I might love her,” she says quietly, and she's suddenly aware of how
young she sounds, how stupid she sounds. There's more to it than that, but she
isn't sure Nelson wants to hear about her sleepless nights and the things she's
had to do to keep her own sanity, to maintain an ounce of self-control whenever
she and Sally are in a room together.
He gives her a pitiful smile, like he feels sorry for her and like he thinks
it's so damn cute that she said that, and she wants to punch him again.
Instead, she slams her lips on his and doesn't give a fuck that she's wasting
her first kiss on putting Nelson Gardner in his place. The bastard kisses her
back anyway, which is good because she honestly has no idea what she's doing,
but she can mimic whatever he does and learn that way. If he isn't resisting,
she has to be doing something right.
“Trying to make your boyfriend jealous for once?” she teases when he pulls back
from her, and he looks so guilty that she almost bursts out laughing.
“We aren't...he doesn't...” Nelly sighs. “We aren't serious, I don't think.
We're just...”
“Fucking? Well, shit, that means you can fuck just about anyone you want,” she
says, smirking at him. She isn't sure when she decided that this was happening,
but she knows that it is happening, and she knows that she really does want it
to happen. It has to be the loneliness, the desperation, because she's never
wanted a man like this before, and even if she was into them, she's sure Nelson
wouldn't be her type.
But he's here, and he seems pretty damn lonely too, and they're in the same
boat and they're stuck together and they have more in common than meets the
eye, and so she's decided that she's going to fuck him. She can't be sure,
because she's still inexperienced, but if she thinks he might be thinking the
exact same thing. He  did  kiss her back, after all.
"But who says I want to fuck anyone else?" he asks.
"C'mon," she scolds, "don't tell me you're going to get all sentimental and
monogamous over him, when he won't actually commit."
"And what about you? Are you hoping we can make Sally jealous like this?"
Edie glares at him and says, "It's different with me. She don't give a damn
what I do, and you know it." He looks like he feels bad for saying it, which
she can use to her advantage, so she frowns and says, "I'm just tired of being
alone all the time. I know she'll never want me, and I just wanted something
wtih...with anyone."
He's wearing down easy and he sighs and says, "Edie, you know we can't actually
do this, right?"
"Cos I'm a girl?"
"No, that isn't...I'm not  completely ..."
"Well, I'm not  completely  either. At least, apparently not enough, cos I'm
standin' here going for you."
"You're too young for me, for one thing," he says, still trying to make him
point.
"You don't even know how old I really am!"
"You're not eighteen," he replies, "and there's no way you can convince me
otherwise."
She throws her hands up in frustration and says, "If it's cos I'm a girl, just
say it! I already knew you were a faggot, you're not gonna shock me or
anything."
"I don't want either of us to do it like this," he says at last. "Just because
we're lonely and a little jealous doesn't mean we should..."
"Doesn't it, though? S'not like anyone has to know."
"It's not going to fix anything."
"Or it's gonna fix everything," she argues. "But we won't know until we do it,
and I ain't getting any younger."
"Thank god," mutters Nelson, and then Edie kisses him again, and this time
she's learned a little bit and she can keep him in it for longer, and by the
time she's let him go, his resistance has faded completely. He gives her a
slight nod, just to let her know she's gotten her way, and then she's
scrambling out of her costume because she doesn't want to waste a single
second. Either one of them could change their minds, and she wants to get it
over with before she has the chance, before she gives him the chance.
He's a bit more hesitant with undressing, so she helps him out, and she has to
admit that he isn't bad looking, for a man. If she has to waste this on anyone,
he isn't a bad choice, and she laughs as she realizes that she's actually going
to do this. She's about to fuck Captain fucking Metropolis, all because he had
the balls to punch her in the face and because she can't have Sally and because
he isn't sure wha's really ging on between him and HJ.
He looks self-conscious when she laughs and she waves a hand to let him know
that it doesn't mean anything bad, and then she decks him, just to make sure
she's seen the las of the hesitation in his eyes. The noise he makes actually
causes to shiver, and then he hits her back, and they're fighting each other
until they're down on the floor, and she's pretty sure her nose is broken but
she couldn't care less because it's finally happening and she wants him so
badly, even if it is  him .
She wasn't expecting him to pin her first, but she lets him because she's sure
he doesn't get the chance to feel this powerful normally, and she doesn't know
what she's doing, even if the image of holding him down and riding him is doing
more for her than she ever would have expect. Edie makes a mental note to
revisit that image when she's alone, and then she lets Nelly do what he will.
He gets all tender and sappy out of nowhere, kissing down her neck and telling
her she really is quite beautiful, and she nearly gags as she tries to pretend
she isn't a little bit flattered. She knows she isn't pretty and doesn't really
care, but hearing that someone, even a prissy little fag like Nelly, thinks
otherwise is nice. He yelps when she bites his ear, but she's sure he loves it.
She's way too fucking tight for this, and he probably realizes it because he
slows down almost as soon as he starts pushing into her. It hurts like hell and
she growls, but she doesn't want to stop because she wants to  get this over
with already . He apologizes, saying, “I've never...not with a woman,
anyway...”
“I've never, period,” she grunts. “Fuckin' get on with it.” He hesitates for a
second, and she reaches up to cuff him, and even though it isn't a particularly
hard hit- because she can't get a good hit in from this angle and because she's
distracted, damn it- it has the desired effect, and she winces and bites her
lip to keep from screaming as he thrusts the rest of the way inside her.
From that point on, all Edie can do is grit her teeth and try not to let the
pain get to her. She doesn't like it all that much, and this really just
reaffirms the fact that this isn't what she wants for herself, even if she
doesn't know what it is she's supposed to do with Sally, or any other girl. But
she's a good sport and she holds on while Nelson groans and thrusts, until he
hastily pulls out to finish. He looks so ashamed of himself that she starts to
give him a reassuring smile before remembering herself, and it twists into a
mocking grin.
“So, how was the other side?” she asks with a snicker. “Grass greener?”
He doesn't answer her as he starts to get dressed, and when he does speak, all
he says is, “I don't think you liked that very much.”
“I lost interest when ya stopped hitting,” she lies.
“I can try something else if you...if you want.”
“Nah.” She shakes her head. There's a long silence in which they both finish
getting dressed, and there's the unspoken agreement that this won't be
mentioned again, to anyone.
They're about to go their separate ways when she says, “Good luck with, ya
know, whatever the hell you've got going on.”
“Good luck with Sally,” he replies, his smile actually genuine.
“Don't make me laugh,” she snorts.
“I wouldn't count her out just yet,” says Nelson. “You never know what someone
might be willing to try.”
“I'll say!” She laughs at him then, and for the first time that day, he laughs
with her.
 
End Notes
     I'd like to apologize to the world at large
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