Chapter Text
“Breaking News—Another body found in the East Harbo—“
Harley muted the TV and let her head fall back. In the corner of her eyes she could still see the subtitles running, but the buzz of that reporter’s voice was gone. The ceiling was stained from their whatever the upstairs neighbors were doing, but it was a familiar kind of dirtiness.
Joker was still in his room, to the left next to the bathroom. He had been in there for a few days now, and Harley was starting to get worried. She’d left a meal out yesterday, and though the sandwich had a bite eaten, it just sat sadly outside his room now. At least before he was still eating. Now it just seemed like Jay wanted to block the world out, would never leave his bed if he could.
Maybe they could go out to dinner tonight. They would have to find someplace small, couldn’t risk anyone seeing them too closely, but it would help get Jay some fresh air at least. Though, he’d probably just turn her down again. Ivy was the only one who could really drag Joker out to do anything, he knows I’ll cave to his stupid whining and puppy-dog eyes.
Harley rubbed a hand along her neck, trying to soothe the ache there. She’d slept on the couch, hoping that Jay would come out and wake her if he felt like talking. He hadn’t though, and all she was left with was a shitty night’s sleep. She remembered when Joker and her would just stare at the ceiling and laugh about what the apartment above could be doing. The memory felt stale now, a sting of pain in the new environment. Letting her eyes close for a moment, she reminisced about the previous year.
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New Years in Gotham was a party, one of the few times the streets weren’t empty and eerie. Every alley was filled with partiers, people in brightly colored outfits drinking and singing with one another. Harley and Joker always took New Years off, decorated the apartment and put on music with their crappy stereo. They were sat on the fire exit, watching the swarms of people below as they stumbled around.
The last month had been hard, with new criminals popping up left and right. A few of the news outlets had called it a “New Generation of Villains” and a few of the upstarts had taken it to heart. One had stood up one of the post offices, injuring nearly twenty citizens and killing two of the tellers at the stamp station. He had been shortly arrested, but that hadn’t stopped a whole new wave filling his place. It wasn’t like the stunts Jay or Ivy would pull; these new guys were focused on hurting as many people as possible, whether or not they were innocent.
She knew what the public thought of her, of Joker too. They saw chaos and crime and didn’t want any explanation. Jay would claim he was exactly what the people called him, but she knew better than that too. They had come from the same side of town, were both fighting against the Gotham that had made them grow up too fast. It may have been chaotic, but Joker never wanted to hurt the citizens of Gotham, just the corruption that festered in those places of power.
Joker was smoking next to her, letting his legs dangle over the street. He had seemed more depressed over the past week, but Harley didn’t have much to cheer him up with. A kid, he called himself ‘Destruction’ had walked into a hospital, a maternity ward and killed 4 expecting mothers.
She remembered the footage when he was arrested.
“Gotham is full of filth and all you know it! The Joker set the stage for me, and I’m going to make Gotham clean again!”
Jay hadn’t left him room after he saw the news that day and had only come out to go to the bathroom since. New Years had drawn him out of his shell, but after he would be just as isolated as before.
“Jay… I wanna make a toast.” She raised her plastic champagne glass to the sky, and shoved Joker when he didn’t do the same.
He sighed and grabbed his glass, rolling his eyes as he lifted it up. “Yeah Harley, what do you wanna toast to… the new Gotham perhaps?”
“God no, I’m toasting to a new year, and a better year than the last.” She clinked her glass and drank the last sip, but Jay just set his down.
“Harley… you know I love the enthusiasm, but what could really get better in this place?” He gestured to the street below. “The police have cracked down harder since these new kids are lashing out, and only the lower side is suffering for it. And now I’m supposed to be a figurehead to them! They kill the people we want to save and tell them that I wanted it done. What the hell is going to get better with that?”
Joker had pounded his hands with the last sentence, and his cigarette dropped into the wig of some partier below. Luckily, it didn’t flame. Harley stayed silent for a few moments, before responding to Joker’s rant.
“Jay, I don’t know how it’ll be better, but I refuse to believe that we can’t try to help. If you want to sit and watch as this city falls even farther into shit, go ahead, but I’ll fight these new guys just like we’ve been fighting Gotham for years now. They can try to destroy our city, but they’ll have to kill me before they do.”
Jay looked at her, eyes shining and so, so tired. She felt it too, the sagging weight from the past years building up. When they were younger, it had been so easy to think they could help Gotham, that once those in power weren’t corrupt, the situation would just fix itself. Now, they knew it wasn’t simple, but they were still trying. She had been labeled a maniac, and her dissertation on the effects of rehabilitation for criminals had been dismissed without thought. Joker became the monster under children’s beds, and she knew it was getting harder for him to bear that title.
They weren’t naïve, and they weren’t foolish now, but they were working against every power in Gotham to make the city better. Harley wanted so badly to have the hope that she did when she was younger, but that exhaustion had made its mark.
They had sat out the entire night after that, silently watching the sunrise together and only coming in when Ivy arrived the next afternoon.
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The TV had turned to commercials now, as Harley opened her eyes. Four months had passed since New Years, but so far, the year was just getting worse. They had started keeping tabs on the newcomers in the beginning and had started to plan against what they heard on the streets. Destruction had broken out in February, and only a month later was planning to set off explosives under a newly opened children’s hospital. Harley had flooded the building with Joker gas to get an evacuation, but she hadn’t had time to stop the bombs from destroying everything. She had stopped the casualties, but the kids were now displaced into other facilities, which were only getting more crowded.
After the "Joker Gas incident” the press seen it as a sign that Jay approved of Destruction’s plan, and he now spent all his time in his room. Even Batman was failing to combat every new disaster, since so many villains were now popping up. She had seen him while patrolling a few times, but it seemed their feud was on the back burner until the city settled down.
Harley had been scanning the subtitles, only just gleaning the basics when the commercials ended. Though there was the intro for another news segment, no anchors came on, and the new screen caught Harley’s attention. She unmuted the TV, and sat up again so she could see properly.
“Billionaire Bruce Wayne is holding a fundraising event, raffling off a date with all proceeds going to the rebuilding of St. Anthony’s Children’s Hospital. Wayne has already donated several million to the process, and with the recent Twitter scandal theorizing that he could be Bisexual, the businessman seems to be taking advantage of the situation. Entry details are posted online through Wayne Enterprises’ website, with a direct link available through WayneDateRaffle.com. An exclusive interview with the publicist outlining the event will follow later this evening. Now back to the traffic—”
Harley turned off the TV and quickly stood. A date with Bruce Wayne being raffled? She was far from interested, but she did know a certain someone who could use the socialization. With Ivy gone at that Botanist convention, Harley had been dying for some non-nefarious project as well, and just imagine the possibilities if Wayne Enterprises was on their side? Jay would finally get out of the apartment, and it would be a perfect first step to combating the new wave of criminals. After all, Wayne did have plenty of sway among the Gotham elite. It would give legal funding for the charity projects Joker had been wanting to support and provide an easy-in to the powerful side of Gotham!
Harley jumped up and started to plan. She turned her gaze towards Jay’s room, and a smile crossed her features. It wasn’t the solution she was looking for, but it was a solution nonetheless.
She was going to set up the Joker and Bruce Wayne.