She grinned into his chest.

"It wasn't how I thought it would be…" She blurted out.

He was silent, his smirk spreading wider. He turned down to the girl clutching to his side, covered with beads of sweat and face-paint.

"Oh… you've thought about it, have you…" She felt her cheeks burning.

"I dunno…" She refused to look up at him.

"So tell me, how uh, did you think it was going to be?" His voice was filled with proud curiosity.

"I just… I just thought you'de be more.. uh…violent? Uh.. force…ful?" She swallowed hard, hoping he wasn't going to get insulted by her practically expecting him to have been a rapist. Was it that far-fetched, considering the things he's done?

She jumped as a wild laugh shook his chest and a finger pushed her chin up from underneath, directing her eyes to his own.

"You saying you thought I couldn't get ladies moist instantly with my good looks?"

She paused. "You are a very handsome man, you know." She said seriously.

His brows raised slowly.

"Its… its just… well you said it yourself, you don't have rules."

He gave out a heavy sigh.

"My lack of... mmmmh, rules lets me do as I please… so you better watch out if I ever feel like taking someone by force," He flashed a quick smirk, "but I have yet to have such… desires." He gazed up to the ceiling, giving it a hard look. "But really, as I'm sure you know, people with those kinds of urges… well… they're troubled."

She digested his words. So he didn't believe himself to be troubled… did she believe he was? She just wasn't sure anymore. He didn't have any particularly abnormal ticks, apart from the occasional licking of his lips... that she knew of. He always seemed in control of himself. Spontaneous, but in control. He didn't seem… like he was actually insane. More like he chose to be this way, rejecting what was expected of him. From what she had heard about him, he killed people just for the sake of stirring things up. Not like he needed to.. He wasn't after money, not even power really. He was purely chaotic… but did that make him insane? Her feelings about him swung back and forth like a pendulum, and she knew it was coming down on her if she didn't decide quickly.

"So you believe it's wrong, then?" She was beginning to wonder if she should press this.

"You gotta realize this, kitty cat. A hundred years ago, people didn't look with such disdain at a guy who forced himself on a woman. A hundred years before that, even less so. A hundred years from now, who knows what rules will be set in place about it? And I'm only talking about the good people of America... You wouldn't be so pleased to find out which norms of other parts of our, uh, lovely little planet have found a place in the sun. The only thing the terms right and wrong should be applied to are stating real facts. Facts that don't change with every new person's perspective, hmmm?" He looked down at her again.

"I love the game of getting someone on my side. Unfortunately the only real way to make people understand how serious they should be taking you is by instilling fear. Killing people, of course is what I mean. There will always be casualties when a big change is brought about but I don't take particular pleasure in forcing someone to do something they don't actually want to do, deep down. There's no game that way. It's pointless. And I'm all abo-o-u-t making a point, princess. It's just too much fun to go into someone's head and figure out their little twists and turns like… like a labyrinth," His right hand gestured in the air, "and to find that cheese in the very middle. I love that cheese... and I love the journey there. Everyone, believe me, everyone, even that Batman has his buttons. And I was born to push them." He chuckled.

"…so we are back to your arousal from manipulating people."

His hand moved to hers and guided it down to his length again, pressing it down.

"You tell me." He chuckled. He was hard again. "The best part… are theeeese." He gestured to his scars. "These repel people, even before I didn't have a, uh.. bad reputation. I got used to looks of pity, fear, and sometimes plain disgust and scorn. People wanted to hurt me for having them. And that's where the game begins. The whole world sides against you and you have to bring them to your lonely, little island, to watch as they break down, realizing that whatever little rules they thought would protect them are the very things that destroy them."

She listened intently, beginning to understand. A strange feeling stirring somewhere..

"That's where I heeeeelp them see things from the other side, and once your eyes grow black, there's no coming back. It's funny, our minds are just tiny machines that need the right tweaks to become self-consuming."

A feeling of pure unease washed over her. Did that mean… she was.. like him now? She raised herself onto her elbows, brows furrowed, a strange pulling deep in her chest.

Joker noticed this.

"You're worried it's happened to you." He stated blankly.

She had no idea what to say. She understood him now. She really understood him. That was what he had wanted all along. She actually could see it from his perspective and put herself in his shoes. She pushed herself up into a sitting position, her arms crossed over her chest, covering herself, trying to collect her thoughts.

"What did you think I meant about pushing you into the right direction? Sex isn't a direction, it's a pleasant distraction." His tone was serious and flat. He sat up next to her. "Lisa... hey. Look at me."

She looked up at him, pure discomfort in her face.

"You only needed a tiny… little… push. You weren't that far from this, you know." He said matter-of-factly and raised his brows, pressing his lips into a line. "You were going to end up here anyway. What you're feeling right now is that laaaaast little itty-bitty bit of resistance you have left."

"I… Uh… um-" He could see she was extremely upset now, trying to keep herself from crying.

"Shh-sh-sh-sh-shhh." He took her into his arms, comforting her. "When I said everyone had buttons, I meant everyone. Including you."

She ripped away from him, pushing back on his chest, tears in her eyes. "Then where the fuck are your buttons then, huh?!" She spat furiously.

"Now that is a good question. And I'll tell you."

Her breaths grew heavy with outrage, struggling to keep listening. She wanted to slap him.

"My buttons," His head bowed down, brows fully raised, eyes locked on hers, "have been pushed so many times that they've lost their purpose. They've fallen through the holes and lie in the dark, rolling about aimlessly. And they've been down there for so... long... I gotta admit, I don't even remember which ones go where."

"Broken." She said quietly, calming herself.

He cleared his throat. "Its a funny thing... When all of what you think makes you who you are is finally destroyed... or like you said, broken.. you become truly," His hands went up, fingers spread, "..free." His expression was glowing, like he was speaking of something divine. "Its when all those little pieces that used to work a certain way, don't work that way anymore, and its a surprise to find out what those pieces do now. And they switch all the time too. I get insulted, I feel outrageously happy; I feel happy, I want to break things; I break things, I feel proud; I feel proud, I can't feel anything! Physically that is. I feel nothing, I get into a fight and the pride is replaced with absolute, ruthless exhilaration and rage and if I get my ass kicked... usually by the Batman, I just want to laugh so hard until my insides bleed. And he gets so upset at this that it makes me laugh even harder. The irony of it is that I end up feeling more pain from laughing too hard than the blows from his fists!"

He barked out in a loud, crazy laughter. She was no longer angry, more bewildered at his sudden elevated mood and expressiveness.

"...Its exciting. Slowly finding out this new thing you've become that transcends all the weakness you had in you before.. and pleasantly unpredictable... well." He looked back at her with a quizzical smirk, "Not pleasant for everyone."

"Is that why you got upset when I kissed your scars?" She was feeling brave, uncaring of his reaction. She wasn't going to try to decipher what was and wasn't going to set him off anymore.

His hands lowered down again, his smirk dropping to a frown as he looked her straight into the eyes. "It was unexpected," He said calmly, in an explanatory tone,"Because that's not their, uh... purpose." He shrugged nonchalantly. He acted like he wasn't bothered... she wasn't sure.

She felt a throb of sadness. How long had he been laughed at, ridiculed, teased, hurt, looked down upon in pity for them to have become the way he was? How did he even get them? What horrible thing must have happened to him, driven him to this depth of hysteria and darkness? To rip apart the man he once was entirely? She knew nothing.. nothing. It must have been just... just...

'That's not their purpose' he had said... She thought about this.. He might as well have inflicted them upon himself in some attempt to push people away. To remind himself of how easily a few scars, unfit by beauty standards, could change the way self-proclaimed unprejudiced, righteous people looked at him, acted toward him. Perhaps his once good looks made it difficult for him because people automatically took to liking him. They were a tool. To deal the cards fairly. To see who exactly it was he was dealing with.

And just as fast as the sadness came, it left, and she felt nothing. It didn't matter how he got them. He didn't mourn the past. However it was, he had learned to love them for what they let him see in others. He loved being challenged by them, spitting in the face of standards and laughing... like a loon... while he did it. Even with them, he had found ways to get people to do what he wanted easily, to fear him easily. He'd plan his method of infiltration according to their reaction. He was smart. Very smart. She found herself now more impressed with the courage it took to commit himself to this.. to face the entire world alone with a smile that never fades away.

"You could have helped so many people with that brain of yours, you know." Lisa said indifferently.

A small chuckle escaped her, finding it very odd how she didn't actually believe the words that had just come out of her mouth. Like it wasn't really her who said it. She furrowed her brows at this feeling, unable to wipe the half smile away. It seemed so absurd now, telling him that.

"I do help people."

She turned to him. There was a small grin on his face, his eyes shining brightly.

"Yeah, you get it." He said to her. His hand went up and ran through his hair, pushing it out of his face. She found herself analyzing the peculiar way that at certain angles, he looked incredibly handsome, the way the light was hitting him from the right side. She didn't notice him scooch closer to her.

His hand was suddenly on her thigh and gave it a gentle squeeze. His gleeful look then turned dark, lustful. He lifted himself a bit and moved even closer to her, sliding his hand up her thigh slowly. "Hmmmmm-so. I'm okay with you finding a new use out of my scars if it means I get to tickle you from the inside some more."

She moved backwards, slightly stunned at his sudden advance. She glanced down to see that he was aroused again. Pushing aside the last few minutes of distress she felt, a laugh trickled out of her at the silly way she still got surprised at the way he could change demeanor so fast. She should be used to it by now.

"You laughing at my boner again?" He said, grinning mischievously.

She laughed a bit harder. "No."

"I think you deserve to be taught what happens to girls who laugh at my boner." He continued crawling over her, as she backed slowly, moving over a very broken pile of a fold-up chair.

"Uh-oh, now I've made a real boner." She burst out in full-blown laughter now.

He then exploded in laughter, far more powerful than her own, which only made her laugh even louder than she knew was possible.

"I'll show you how many boners I can make." He leaned in, kissing her roughly, effectively knocking her backward onto her elbows. He lowered himself down, his hand squeezing her upper thigh, inching higher slowly. Lisa let herself drop to the floor completely, onto the cold tile. His hand reached her sex, barely grazing it and pulled back to watch her face.

She squirmed slightly beneath him, trying to move herself against his fingers, but he would move with her, not letting her increase the pressure of them against her.

"I hate you." She said, almost whispering, giving him a look of frustration.

"That's what makes this so fuuuun." Buried bent down and found her ear. She exposed her ear further and pushed into him, feeling him nibbling on her earlobe. A gentle moan left her, feeling his two fingers brush back and forth.

Her hands wove between his arms to his hips. Her left hand squeezed him there and her right reached down, fingers entwining in his curls, giving them a small tug before continuing to him, feeling how firm he was. He grunted as she squeezed him. He thrust his hips forward into her hand, his own fingers slipping into her with equal force. She arched her neck and back. Her head made contact with his other arm which was on the right of it, on the floor, supporting his weight so as not to crush her. He begun using his fingers inside her, and his thumb on her clit. She turned her face to his arm next to her head and placed her mouth over his skin there, muting her moans against him, stroking him with matching movements of his own fingers. Things were heating up fast-

CRAAASH!

Lisa's entire body jerked while Joker instantly froze at the sound of very loud glass breaking from the main area of the store. They gawked at one another in silence, listening as male voices could be heard along with the sound of feet stepping on broken glass shards. Someone had broken into the store. Upon this realization, Joker's face lit up in fury as he bounced to his feet, pulling his pants up and hooking the button for them to stay on, Lisa now noting that he wore suspenders that hung at his hips, which she previously hadn't noticed. How old fashioned, she thought for a split second before pulling herself up to try to find her own clothing. As she searched, Joker was near the storage room door, listening quietly to the voices.

"Alright, if there's anybody in here, you better get the fuck out here now!" A deep voice with a Jersey-accent barked. Luckily the storage room's lights were off, keeping the attention away for now. "We got guns, so don't do anything stupid!"

Lisa's hands were trembling, trying to squeeze her legs into her leggings fast and then found her ripped shirt near the freezer. Damnit, Joker. She eyed his coat on the floor.

"What are you gonna do?" She whispered to him. His face turned to her with a huge grin, and his hand gestures across his throat. In his other hand, he held a rather large blade. So he would kill them, but how? He had his knives but they said they had guns!

She was shivering, from fear or adrenaline, she wasn't sure. She grabbed his long coat and pulled it on. It was quite heavy and far too big on her, but at least she was covered up. She felt all sorts of pockets filled with hard objects within it, some obvious as to what and where they were, others in hidden compartments on the inside. She wasn't about to go exploring though. The coat was softer than she imagined, made of a nice, quality suede.

"Alright, Mico, get the register, I'll go check." The guy who had spoken before was talking to someone else. How many were there?

Joker was still, his shirt hung open and his pants on with the fly still down. Yet even so, he didn't look like he felt vulnerable. He braced himself as footsteps approached the storage room, Lisa backing up in the darkest corner where the fold-up chair had previously stood before being moved and uh... re-purposed. She bent down low and pulled the collar of the coat up around the bottom half of her face as if it would protect her from bullets. She noticed that smell again... like a campfire. Something reminiscent of burning wood and something else. Perhaps a hint of gasoline.

She watched as the man's shadow came into view, then the barrel of a gun, and finally him. He was burly, with a shaved head and pierced ears. He wore a thick winter jacket, jeans and army boots, moving cautiously.

Joker was in that spot, the one right near the door where he hid when Jill had come around. Fuck... Jill would be worried shitless, and probably had called her a billion more times by now. She worried then at the possibility that she would come to check again and bump into the robbers.

As the man turned the corner, the first thing he noticed, which the light illuminated in the middle of the storage room was the broken chair.

"What the fuck..." He mouthed and lowered his gun momentarily. Joker took this opportunity to come at him from the side and hook his arm around, the blade at his throat firmly.

"I'm a patient man, but this is the second time tonight that I have been so ruuuudely interrupted." Joker spat venomously into the side of the guy's face from behind. "Drop it." He dug the blade deeper into the guy's neck before the man threw the gun down, hands rising in surrender.

"Man, just, let's work this out, alright? We'll pay for the window, just... take it easy, friend." The man begun trying to reason, completely unaware of who with.

"Alright, uh, friend, let's take it easy." Joker briskly circled around the man, shoving him back against the shelves, keeping the knife in place, now looking him in the face. Lisa couldn't see the Joker's face from this angle but all she needed to know was said through the ever-rising terror on the man's eyes when he finally saw who his new friend really was. "What'll it be then, huh? ...That we are taking so easily, hmm? How 'bout your sad little life, friend."

"H-h-ooly shit.." The man said at barely above a whisper, with knife pressing so hard against his throat. "N-naw man, shit. I'm sorry, man, honest I didn't know. P-please, you get it. You're one of us."

There was a long pause.

Joker's head then spun slowly to the left as he held the man's life under his blade. He turned back at Lisa with a horrific, crazed look, grinning like a madman.

"You hear that, sweet cheeks? I'm one of them! This is news to me.." With a quick jerk of his arm, a look of desperate shock washed over the man's face as he realized he was done for. He gurgled and choked, blood spilling over the front of his dark winter coat and onto the floor as he slumped down and finally fell from the Joker's grasp. Joker didn't even look at him, turning sideways to examine his blade before turning again to Lisa.

She gasped quietly, watching the man's life pooling around him for the second time in her life, again at the hands of the man she had just had blissful sex with, and was about to again only minutes prior. Joker was far more amused by her reaction than watching a something-hundredth person die. She lifted herself out of the corner, tip tapping across the floor to the body and examined it closely, careful not to step into the growing puddle of blood.

"Its so weird..." She muttered.

"Hmm?"

"The way they twitch like that." Her eyes were glued to the fresh corpse. Joker flicked his eyes down to him.

"You think that's interesting, you should see what happens to a body burning alive."

Lisa looked up at him, her eyes wide as ever, with what? Curiosity? Certainly not something she thought she would feel.

"We got more friends outside. Grab the gun." He commanded, gesturing to the door.

"What? I have no idea how to use that thing!" She whispered loudly.

"Its quite simple." He bent down and picked it up. "This here's called the hammer. Ya cock it back like thiiiiis," He pushed the metal tab down with his thumb, "And then its ready to fire... You know where the trigger is, don't you?" He eyed her from the side, ready to ridicule her if she didn't.

"Yes I know where it is." She huffed.

He let out a breathy chuckle. "Good, then just remember to point it anywhere but at me... or at yourself... and go crazy!" His hands popped up in an excitable manner.

"You really need me to go out there?" She squeezed the coat tighter around herself, it suddenly felt very cold.

He shoved the cocked gun into her chest, her hands scrambling nervously to grab it safely without setting it off. It felt so heavy and slightly warm from the Joker's hands. He said nothing in response but looked down to his right foot, the one with the shoe still on, which was surrounded and stained by the blood on the floor.

"Hmm." He lifted it and moved it to the floor in front of the door frame. He begun spreading the blood around there... no. No, he was writing something.

He wrote... 'Hi.' In blood.

"Hey yo, Rob! What the hell's keeping ya?!" A higher pitched, younger man's voice sounded. Silence. Lisa gulped, standing closely behind the Joker as he re-claimed his space near the door. "Shit. I'll go check it out, stay here."

There were more than just the two, then. Joker dropped his knife into one pocket and reached into the other, pulling out a different one that had a larger, heavier looking handle made of steel. As the footsteps approached, Lisa braced herself for anything. She didn't know what she was supposed to really do, there hadn't been time to discuss it. She held her breath, watching the shadow appear as well as another gun.

"Hello?" The voice said.

The guy paused, clearly having noticed the little greeting Joker had left him. Like lightning, the Joker used the handle of his knife to crush hard against the man's hand and the gun went flying to the floor with a clank.

Before he could utter a word, he was at the mercy of the Joker just like the other guy who lay dead behind her. He had on a thick, black sweater and beanie. He was younger and slightly handsome.

"Goo-o-o-od Monday moooorning to you too." Joker said with a higher-pitched tone of mock-friendliness and smirked at the man whose mouth hung open in fright. "Dear, will you pick up this nice gentleman's gun and hand it to me please?"

Lisa flinched, forgetting she was in the room and not just an unseen spectator. She picked up the weapon and held it out to Joker, who licked his lips and took it, placing it at the guy's head. He retrieved his blade from his neck. "Thaaaank you very much, doll. Alright. Come on." He lead the man to the main store room, Lisa following closely.

"Sh-shit!" The third, and apparently last, guy of the group stood near the open register with a small duffle-bag around his arm. "Don't do it, man! We'll leave the money, just.. just don't kill 'im! Please!" He was a shorter, older man with a black down jacket.

"You and your money." The Joker sighed with a chill, pressing the gun harder into his hostage's temple. Lisa peeked out and pointed her gun at the man with the gun. Joker may not have cared about the money being stolen, but this was her job.

"Drop the bag, asshole!" She said, surprised at the demanding, un-quavering force in her tone despite her nerves making her hands shake. She then noticed the huge front window that had been shattered to pieces, letting freezing winter air fill the entire store. No wonder it was so cold. She gasped, gun lowering as she took in the sight. A moment later, something in her snapped and she pointed her gun with both hands at the man. She scowled at him. "Now was that really necessary!?" She shouted at him.

Something didn't click. There was a dead man in the storage room, and two more would most likely end up dead in the store, but the completely destroyed window was for some reason infuriating to her.

"Goddamnit!" She shrieked, her hands trembling even more.

Joker turned to her, shrugging his brows, with a loud burst of giggles. "Now you've really pissed her off! Better watch what you say, pal!"

"Man, man please, we didn't want no trouble, honest. We weren't gonna hurt nobody!" The short man said. "Don't hurt Jimmy, please! He's a good kid!"

"Why the entire fucking window!? Why!?" Lisa didn't understand what was coming over her but she could feel her rage growing rapidly. "There's a fucking door, you could have broken the door, but an 8 foot window!? The entire fucking thing!?"

Joker could not contain his laughter at this point. He cackled madly, the guy at his gunpoint shaking fearfully, hearing that laugh. Everyone in Gotham knew that laugh. But the Joker could not stop, watching the stupid, terrified and confused look on the face of the man with the bag while a girl was going off on him. The girl, he knew from the very start, who had great potential. And she was really beginning to show it...

"I - I'm sorry, Miss! Honest! Honest!" The bag man kept glancing from her to the Joker and back, unsure of who to address, of who to be more scared of at this point. Which was ridiculous, because of course the answer is obvious and yet that's what made it so unbelievably hilarious!

"Whaa-ha-haaaaaaaaa!" Joker threw his head back practically crying from the ludicrousness of it all.

The man by the register carefully set the bag down onto the counter top. He clearly had absolutely no idea what to do here.

Joker started ceasing his laughter, taking deep breaths to calm himself, uncontrollable giggles still bursting out in between.

"Oh.. oh-hoh.. oookay now, okay..." Joker shook his hair out of his face and turned his head down again to look at the man near the register, only for another quick burst of a laugh to shoot up through him, but letting out out a noise that almost sounded like a suppressed sneeze. "Lisa, don't you think the old man over there looks like a scared little mouse?" He grinned maliciously.

Lisa blinked a few times. "Sure."

"Well he broke your window. And he was about to take off with all that hard earned money." He paused. "Also, most likely he has a gun."

"..."

"You uh... gonna do something about that or do I just have to do everything myself tonight?" He turned to her.

"You want me to shoot him? No! I'm not a-"

BANG!

Lisa collapsed onto the floor and crawled back near a shelf. The next few moments seemed to play out in slow motion... She looked up to see the Joker had shot his hostage, letting him fall. His gun was lowered though, and he was staring at her calmly with a smirk. What was he doing!? She peaked around the corner to see the older man shuffling through his coat in panic, kneeling on the ground. Her eyes shot back to Joker who kept his gaze on her still, he wasn't ducking out of the way of the shots soon to come his way.

Her hands moved of their own accord. They aimed at the old man who had been in the process of raising his gun at the Joker. They squeezed the metal lever and BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Click. Click. Click...

Silence. Deafening silence. Her ears rung for what seemed like minutes before her hearing returned. Her eyes fixated on the curled up form on the ground across the room. It wasn't twitching. It was very still.

The gun dropped from her hands and she looked at them like they weren't her own.

"Ah, so you do care.." She heard a giddy but calm voice. Turning to her left, she saw Joker standing, leaning on one foot, arms crossed looking smug.

She didn't want to move. "Are you fucking kidding me..." She whispered. Anger was the first wave she felt, then something akin to anxiety but not quiet, then anger again, then indifference, anger, and numb... He had forced her to shoot him. Forced her to choose between letting him die or cowering behind the shelf. She would have probably died shortly after him though, so had she chosen to save him or herself? And the absolute craziest part was... how the fuck would he know how good a shot she is!? She could have missed entirely! She could have not moved fast enough! This man just did NOT GIVE A SINGLE FUCK.

"How could you do that!? ...How?!"

"Ahem. I didn't do anything. That was all you..."

"That could have gone really badly if luck wasn't on our side! What the fuck!" She roared at him.

"I'm a firm believer in beginner's luck. It never fails."

She could keep arguing but it would go nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. She could argue that he had forced her to kill, and he knew what he was doing by shooting that man, regardless of his claim that he did nothing. She could accuse him of putting her in danger, but that wasn't exactly fair to say. He had put his own life at stake as well and he had taken out two of the guys that would have threatened her life if she were there alone... yet she wouldn't be there at that hour if he hadn't come around in the first place. He wouldn't have come around if she hadn't made such a strong impression on him in the alley months ago, and she wouldn't have done that if he hadn't been there after killing that guy, and he wouldn't have killed that guy if he...

"What did he do..." She said through her teeth, glaring at him from the floor, kneeling and sitting back on her heals, her hands in fists resting on her thighs.

Joker licked the corner of his mouth, "Care to elaborate?"

"The guy. The guy you threw off the roof in that alley when we first met."

He furrowed his brows and looked at the ceiling as if trying to remember. Then his face lit up.

"Ah! Ah yes," He cleared his throat. "He forgot to feed my cat that night."

"...motherfucker." She snarled. So this was all happening because of an incompetent henchman.

"I know!" He threw his hands up.

She rose to her feet and kicked the gun, sliding it across the floor. "Fuck." She murmured, she was wearing no shoes and it didn't feel good on her foot protected by a thin sock to collide with a heavy metal object. She didn't even look up at him to see if he noticed or was about to laugh at her. Pulling the long, purple coat more taught around herself, she crossed the store lobby toward the man she had killed. She stopped at the counter, placing her hands lightly on it before looking down at the body. He had been hit in the head, shoulder and if anywhere else, she couldn't see from the way he was curled up. She sighed heavily and suddenly kicked him with her foot in the back, making him budge only barely.

She heard a hushed giggle from behind her. She searched the counter for her phone. Nothing. She bent over the counter to see if it had fallen and didn't see it on the floor. Puzzled, her eyes glanced at the small duffle-bag near the dismantled register. She inhaled and exhaled very slowly and reached for it, opening it to find a mess of money, cigarettes, and there it was. Her phone.

"RRRRRrrrah!" She kicked the dead man beside her at least ten more times with both feet, spitting profanities while she heard more laughing from the other end of them room. She shot a look at the Joker whose eyes widened quickly as he pulled his lips into a pucker and tried to suppress his laughter. Clearly he was enjoying this. Her eyes all but burned a hole through him.

"Why so serious?" He shrugged.

"Kuh!" She turned back to the the bag and pulled her phone out. 3:24 AM. Time. Time was weird she thought. She had eight missed calls from just after midnight and only three missed calls near 1 AM. Part of her felt relief that she didn't worry Jill too much, who had most likely fallen asleep by that point. She didn't even want to think about how she was going to explain all of this to her or her manager, Mark. What should she even do? There were three dead bodies and she was here with a psycho... she would have to make up a story... She killed someone... oh god.

Oh...shit.

She killed someone.

It was like a tiny puff of smoke somewhere in her chest. That's how it felt. When she said that to herself. She had killed someone. No. Nothing. She felt nothing now. It was gone. What was that tiny thing that had left her just then? It was something familiar... perhaps guilt or shame. But now it wasn't there. I KILLED SOMEONE. I AM A MURDERER. She screamed in her head. Nothing. Did she murder? Was it murder? Self-defense? Was defending another criminal a crime? Was it a crime if she in turn defended herself? Was it this or that? Was there even an answer?

"Lisa."

His gentle voice cooed from behind her. Her feet felt so cold from the freezing air spreading across the floor, but it didn't feel unpleasant. She held the coat to her, feeling secure within it. It was like a fortress.

"Lisa." She heard again but closer. Right behind her. She turned her head sideways to see him approach her. "Its time to go."

She nodded. He then held out two objects. She looked at them for a moment without seeing them. Oh. Her shoes. She took them, dropped them onto the floor next to the dead guy, and slipped them on. Didn't feel that different. She noticed he had retrieved the rest of his attire as well, probably while she was lost in thought.

"Thanks." She heard herself say.

"Come on." His hands on her shoulders, he started leading her toward the entrance.

"Wait." She said. She blinked hard and regained some feeling, somehow. She circled around the counter and picked up her purse, dropping her phone inside. She then noticed her sketchbook on the ground and reached for it... looking at what she had been drawing, coming back around the counter.

Joker bent his neck around to look.

"What is it about cats today?" She said softly. It was a picture of a cat that she had been doodling earlier.

"Because they are magnificent." He said in a deep, dramatic tone, intended to lighten the mood. The Joker, a cat person.

She slipped it into her bag and they approached the front of the store. She had this urge to use the front door, even though there was this enormous hole in the front of the store now. She was about to suggest they use the door when she felt a squeeze on her shoulder.

"I've never liked leaving the same way I came in, kitty cat." He smiled at her. She let the feeling go and they walked over the broken glass, feeling it crackle underneath their feet. "Also, I love that sound." He chuckled. They stepped over the window frame, and turned around to look at the wreckage that her job had once been.

She smiled. "So this is what happens when you have sex with the Joker."

"Hah! Which reminds me..." He reached into the opening of her (his) coat, feeling around, grabbing her left breast momentarily. "Heheh.. excuse me." What. The hell.. he then felt around the inner side of his coat and dug around, pulling out a roll of cash.

He took out a hundred dollar bill and handed it to her.

"...what..." Her nostrils flared. Was... was he paying her for the sex!? He blinked twice.

"It's for the morning after pill, dummy." Relief washed over her face. Fuck, that's right, they didn't use protection. She shuddered.. all this crap that had happened and she totally forgot that he didn't pull out. Wow... not cool Lisa. Not cool to forget something like that.

"I don't know how much they are... is it more?" He said and started pulling out another hundred but stopped.. and lifted his eyes at her slowly.

"Unless..." He grinned, "...unless you want little clown bab-" She slapped her hand over his mouth immediately, not liking where this was going. Of course he had to say it didn't he? She shook her head in disapproval.

"That depends..." She took her hand away from his mouth, smirking.

"Ooh?" He cocked an eyebrow.

"Do you do birthdays?"

De end. ;3