Chapter Text
Gotham City was truly alive at night. It was often true that there were more people out during the day but these were the ordinary citizens of Gotham. The ones that didn't make much noise, that didn't make the ground shake or the sky burn. The boring ones as Harley thought of them, going about their day with dull jobs and dull lives, working to earn money to buy clothes and shoes and food. It was much more fun to just smash a window with a baseball bat grab whatever she desired, which is what she often did. Harley still remembered when she was the same as the 'normal people' but she didn't like to think about life before her Puddin'.
It was a colourless world before, like when Dorothy went from Kansas to OZ, she had gone from sepia to technicolor, and it was so much better.
Tonight Harley Quinn, former Doctor of Psychology and therapist at Arkham Asylum, was watching the world from the window in the hideout she occupied with The Joker. It was an apartment like living space that used to be offices when the building was a theatre. They had taken the dilapidated building over last year and redeveloped the downstairs into a flashy night club called Funfair with the spoils of the last bank robbery. Upstairs they couldn't really care less about what it looked like. As long as The Joker had an office and Harley had her bed they were happy.
Harley sighed and blew a strand of hair out of her face, she turned around to face the cracked gaudy mirror standing next to her and scrutinised her appearance.
Her platinum blond hair, dip dyed blue and pink was in dire need of a brush. Her stark white face was showing signs of exhaustion from the last couple of nights, fighting with Batman was wearing her down. The bruise she had sustained from when her face had collided with a fist was just coming out on the side of her head, her make-up was extremely smudged and her Daddy's Lil Monster t shirt that was once red and white was now grey and dark red. All in all Harley thought she looked like a state. The Joker had requested her presence in the club tonight as she had missed out last night but she knew if she went downstairs like this she would get the beating of her life from her lover. His image was very important to him and Harley didn't want to embarrass him or herself.
So she stripped off and walked across the hall to the bathroom. She climbed into the bath and set the shower onto hot, she waited until the water changed from muddy brown to clear and stepped into the powerful stream. Harley let the warm water gush over her, washing away her make up and grime from the last couple of days. She showered and shaved then grabbed a green towel from the rack. She wrapped it around her and began the monumental task of combing her hair out and blow drying it.
Once she was ready and had applied concealer on the rabidly darkening bruise Harley rifled through her wardrobe back in their bedroom and chose a red short dress with black glittery diamonds all over it and black heels. Harley applied the rest of her make up, creating one black and one red smoky eye with eye shadow and staining her lips with red lipstick, she shook out her thick hair and descended down the stairs that led to the backstage of the club.
Funfair, as well as being a club that provided DJs for the customers also often had dancers of both genders who entertained the crowds on various platforms. There were the normal ones that just had a flat square at the the top, others that had poles in the middle for swinging and dancing around and there was a special one that was Harley's favourite. A gilded cage right in the middle of the nightclub. Tonight Harley had decided it was high time that she got in to this one again.
Picking her way through the rest of the dancers who were milling around backstage she made a beeline for the lift that transported them up into the cage. Nick, one of The Joker's henchmen was guarding the entrance up into the club. He noticed her and nodded to her. “Evening Quinn”
“Nick-y my dear let us up there will ya” she said
“Are you sure? Its packed up there and the boss isn't in a very good mood”
“Oh when is he ever in a good mood? Pleeeeease Nicky for me” she batted her eyelashes at him
“Fine” he sighed and let her pass.
She climbed onto the platform and barely registered Nick say “Good luck” before she was sent into the loudness above ground. Dry ice surrounded her as she arrived inside the cage and the previous song had just come to it's end. She shook out her arms and legs before another song came on.
It was 'Applause' by Lady Gaga. She danced in time with the music and the crowd cheered around her. But how could they not? You see, the reason why people kept coming back to Funfair wasn't the reasonably priced drinks, because they were extortionate, or that it was owned by a local celebrity, because The Joker was often truly terrifying. It was because in the early days Harley and her Mista J had developed a drug that they pumped via the smoke machines that gave the recipient the feeling of jollity and weightlessness which was highly addictive. People kept coming back for more and so their repeat customer base was born, they didn't care that they were giving all their money to the Clown Prince of Crime, they just wanted their next fix. Naturally The Joker and Harley made sure that they and their gang were vaccinated against the gases.
Back to present, Harley was having a fabulous time in her cage, she spun around and faced where she knew her Pudding would be. It was a private booth that was fenced off by bullet proof glass, inside the glass room was a long table and chairs plus comfy gold sofas. Harley squinted and sure enough The Joker was their, surveying the club, hands in his pockets of his black pants, only a few buttons done up on his shirt exposing his tattooed chest. The look on his face was predatory but Harley knew he hadn't noticed her just yet.
'That's about to change' she thought as she unlocked the door on the cage.