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“When are you gonna talk to mom?” Kase wants to know, irritated his father is not doing too much to patch up a relationship that completely fell apart after you caught him with another woman last month.
“Your mother doesn’t want to see me,” The Joker puckers his lips, displeased his 20 year old son keeps on bothering him with the sensitive subject.
“Well dad, you’ll have to try harder than this!” the young man gestures towards the paperwork piled up on his father’s desk, suggesting a solution won’t come from the maps and reports The Joker keeps on glaring at.
“I don’t need your mother!” J hisses, fumbling around with some files he moves over to his left for the lack of a better plan to show what a busy person he is.
“Oh, you don’t?!” Kase raises his voice. “How are you sleeping at night, hm?”
The King of Gotham sucks on his silver teeth, annoyed.
“I’m sleeping just fine!”
“You look tired,” his son points out, aware J can’t sleep without you.
“Why don’t you mind your own business?” a pissed off parent shouts.
“I would if I could, but what you did is truly despicable! Mom is heartbroken, can you understand that?!” Kase slams his fist on the heavy oak desk, the temper inherited from both of you kicking in.
“Watch your tone!” J growls, his eyes darkening since his son is really pushing it. “Don’t you lecture me!”
The 20 year old ignores the warning and his voice cracks when he thinks about the state you’re in:
“Mom would have never done this to you…Not in a million years.”
“Of course you’re on her side,” The Joker smirks, squirming in his chair.
“I can’t be on yours!” Kase almost yells, defying his father: he knows how dangerous it is but he can’t help it. “You fucked up everything!”
“Get lost!!” J snarls, barely containing his rage. “Get the hell out!!!”
Kase lifts his hands up in surrender, fed up with the meeting.
“Fine, I’m going…” he whispers, realizing a simple fact: talking to his father is useless. But before exiting the office he has one more thing to say.
“You know what dad?… You’ll never find another woman that will look at you the way mom did. She really loves you… I hope it was worth it,” and Kase quietly closes the door behind him, leaving The Joker speechless for once at his son’s accurate remarks.
“I don’t need her…” J mutters after a few seconds. “I don’t need anybody…” he reassures himself but for some reason the sentence doesn’t give him peace of mind this time around.
In the last few weeks, The Clown Prince of Crime managed to screw up his life beyond repair, not that chaos is usually missing from his daily existence: you moved out of the Penthouse, his son is mad at him, none of the schemes and plots seem to lead anywhere since he can’t concentrate on the mischievous strategies.
Yet The Great Joker doesn’t need anybody and that’s a fact: he is certainly unaffected by such insignificant matters.
*************
Kase sneaks in the house with food from your favorite restaurant, saddened to find you in the same spot you were a few hours ago: the recliner on the porch, still in the pajamas, one sock missing from your feet; didn’t even comb your hair today.
“Hi mom,” your son makes his presence known, parting the colorful beads separating the living room from the terrace.
“Hi honey,” you finally smile, forced to snap out of daze.
You have a hard time getting used to the change: Kase had neon green hair until 3 days ago. He washed the color off as a sign of rebellion against his father’s behavior and returned to his natural locks: a dark blonde, the long strands reaching his elbows. The Joker pretended not to notice, too proud to bring it up. One thing’s for sure though: he wasn’t happy about it.
“Ta-daaa,” the young man takes five boxes out of the bag and places them on the small table separating the two chairs on the porch. “Do you want plates?” he is fast to add because it seems you’ll say you’re not hungry and he is sure you didn’t eat today.
“No…it’s fine…” you sigh, forcing yourself to grab one box of warm food and nibble on the calamari pasta that has no flavor today.
“You OK?…” the young man reaches over and caresses your cheek, upset when your eyes get teary.
“U-hum,” his mother lies and he knows it.
You kiss his wrist and keep his hand on your face for a few moments, grateful to have him near; it feels comforting.
“You want something to drink?” your son offers, completely hating the fact that you look so lost.
“I have my tea,” the shaky voice alerts him something is wrong.
“Mom?…” Kase frowns when you turn towards him and ask:
“How many…how many times do you think your father cheated on me?”
It’s something you can’t stop thinking about; a rhetorical question that keeps you up at night, especially since you can’t sleep without The Joker, no other choice besides getting used to being alone in the huge bed.
Your son rushes to hug you when you suddenly burst up crying, startled to see his mother depressed beyond any consolation he can offer. He was planning to return to the Penthouse, but decides it’s better if he sleeps at your home.
“Tomorrow I’m going to see dad again, you want me to tell him anything?” Kase tries the waters, maybe you have a message you would like to communicate to your estranged husband.
“Tell him to go to hell!” you whimper, blowing your nose in a tissue.
“Do you have the address?” your son grins when you crack a smile, softly chuckling at his silly joke.
“I’ll google it,” the short reply makes him snort, glad to have shaken you up from apathy.
***************
The sound of broken glass and loud voices abruptly end your son’s dreams. He stretches under the covers, slowly waking up and the noisy argument echoing in the house makes him recognize his father’s voice and yours.
“Oh shit !” he jumps out of bed, hurrying down the stairs as fast as he can.
J has you on the kitchen counter, blocking your every attempt to escape his grip, broken plates and cups on the floor after he cleared the area he forced you to sit on.
“What do you want me to do?” he yells, fired up after your stubbornness antagonized him to a whole different level.
“I want you to take it back!!!” you shriek through your clenched teeth, panting.
“I can’t take it back !! OK? I can’t !” and The Joker’s mouth gets really close to yours while you dodge the closeness, disgusted.
“God knows where that’s been!” the daring sentence makes The King of Gotham gasp. He wants to start ranting when your hateful comments continue. “If you can’t take it back, then there’s another thing you can do: drop dead! Do you hear me?! DROP. DEAD!!”
J is so angry he can’t even process what you said, but he wants to bite also.
“Why would I drop dead when there are so many women to enjoy?”
You slap him with all you’ve got and he closes his eyes, not expecting such strength from your part. His pale skin never changes color, but the mark of your fingers is turning pink now.
This is what Kase witnesses as he enters the kitchen, ready to intervene between his parents after the unpleasant endeavor.
“Mom, are you OK?” he checks, startled.
J growls, violently yanking at your hands while pulling you down from the counter; you almost lose balance when he gives you a nudge in your son’s arms.
“Here’s your precious mother! Get her out of my sight before I kill her!”
“I want you out of my house!” you scream and Kase hides you behind him when J stomps towards a livid wife; there’s nothing worse than a scorned Queen.
“This is MY house, not yours!” J shouts and your son blocks his father’s attack when he tries to snatch you.
“Stop it, dad! What are you doing?!”
The Joker disregards the warning and you can’t give up either:
“It’s my house, purchased with MY money!!!!”
“Everything in this town belongs to me!” The Clown Prince of Crime exerts his possessiveness when it’s not even necessary.
“Not everything!” you fight back and Kase can’t take it anymore.
“Both of you … SHUT UP!!!”
You and The Joker gaze at each other with contempt, almost breathless from the outrage and resentment poisoning your minds.
“Dad, can you please leave?” the stern request follows and J snarls, deciding to exit a residence he’s not welcomed at.
“Who needs her anyway?” he mumbles, making sure to break more objects in his way out, the trail of destruction being a way of marking his territory. On the way to his car, The Joker is seriously contemplating murdering his own flesh and blood but the fact that he doesn’t have other children halts the idea before it becomes reality. He just can’t stand the fact that Kase is so protective of you.
What good is having a son if all he does is hanging around his mother instead of indulging his father’s whims?!
And yet, The Great Joker doesn’t need anybody and it’s a fool proof statement: never did and never will.
So he shouldn’t be bothered by such unimportant matters, definitely immune to the problems he keeps on creating in his life.
*****************
After convincing Kase you’ll be fine if he goes out with his friends, you decided to end your self-imposed exile and invite over for dinner one of your old pals: Harvey Dent.
The horrible meeting you had with your husband this morning made you realize just how much you needed some company and nice conversation. The ex-politician is the perfect choice: intelligent, amazing personality and great sense of humor.
Back at the Penthouse, The Joker has been drinking all day; he started with a glass of whiskey which didn’t help tame his demons. The second one relaxed him a bit and after the third he lost counting: J got completely plastered and his inebriated brain decided the quarrel initiated with Y/N a few hours ago should be continued.
Despite the henchman trying to convince him otherwise, The King of Gotham ordered Frost to drive him to your house: even if it was a bad idea, he couldn’t disobey his drunken employer.
Getting to the front door was a difficult challenge for somebody with so much alcohol on board: J fell on his knees twice, at one point crawling in between the rose bushes growing on the sides of the alley leading to his targeted goal. Nothing to really use in order to prop a body that doesn’t have any equilibrium so The Joker got pissed and started a fight with the last rose bush he stumbled on.
The rose bush won, J being no apt match for the sharp thorns.
It’s a miracle he gathered himself up and managed to ring the doorbell; took seven tries but he showed that button who the boss is !
Harvey is the one to open the door and he gets shoved to the side a moment later by the totally smashed Joker; thank heavens for the walls he can use in order to walk towards the living room. You are eating and furrow your eyebrows when you see him like that.
“What are you doing here?!”
The mighty Prince of Crime addresses Harvey instead, straining to articulate a few words:
“Wha’ are you here wit’ ma’ kite Dent, huh?…” he stutters, jealous to find another man in there.
“You mean wife?” your friend stretches his facial scars in a wild smirk.
“Yeah !” J firmly holds on to one of the chairs at the table, wobbly to the point of collapsing.
“We’re having dinner and then we’re gonna have sex,” Harvey blurs out and you quietly sip on your wine, watching the scene quite intrigued.
“Whaaa’?” J’s eyes get big, not sure if he understood correctly.
“You’re not deaf, are you? I’m sure you heard me: after we eat, we’re going to have sex. Very busy night for us so if you just turn around and disappear, it would be appreciated.”
The Joker’s chest is going up and down faster and faster, his clouded mind attempting to make sense at the atrocity that just reached his ears.
“Tha’s ma’ woman!” J huffs.
“What’s your point Joker?” Harvey laughs and J begins to search his pockets with one hand, gravity making it nearly impossible to fulfill the task.
“I’m gonna kill ya !” he threatens, not understanding why he can’t find his gun. The answer is simple: he doesn’t have it with him.
“Can you hurry up?” Dent urges, only two steps away from his apparent adversary. “I told you we have things to do.”
“Huh…?” J lifts his head up, bugged by the green hair spread all over his face. He tries to move it, but the fingers keep on missing his head: there is no correlation between movement and practically inexistent sobriety.
“Alright Joker, I don’t like to make a lady wait and my food is getting cold too. Are you gonna kill me or what?”
“Ho…hold on…” your husband stammers, frustrated. “You can’t have sex wit’ ma’ wife!”
“Why not?” Dent cuts him off. ”You can full around and she can’t?”
Right when you thought you can’t love your friend more…there it is.
“I don’…I don’ sleep around!” J straightens his back and damn, it does take a lot of effort!
“Oh, you don’t?” Harvey mocks, crossing his arms on his chest. “Then what were you doing naked on top of the woman Y/N caught you with? Were you giving her CPR?”
The Joker is so drunk he can’t understand the sarcasm.
“Yeah !” he has outburst of exuberance. “ C…R …P…R …,” he misspells and abandons the project seconds later.
“You’re pathetic,” Dent shakes his head, revolted by the unwanted guest’s conduct. “I guess that’s how you repay loyalty: with dishonesty and lies. You don’t deserve Y/N in your miserable existence, you lousy piece of trash! She gave you your son and puts up with your crap; the least you can do is keep it in your pants!”
The Joker might be plastered, yet he recognizes the elements of an insult. He wants to retaliate but suddenly the two guys hear you sniffle and finally turn their attention towards you.
Harvey is ready to apologize, thinking he was too harsh with The Joker and that upset you; he’s just that considerate. You couldn’t care less; the jerk deserves it.
What actually hurts is the fact that another man admires the few redeeming qualities you have while your own husband takes them for granted.
“Y-you made ‘er cry,” J scoffs, unnerved. “That’s nude!…Rude!” he surprisingly picks the correct term right away and abandons the safety of his anchoring chair, wanting to punch Dent. Since J has two left feet, he trips on the carpet and falls, hitting his head on the table and knocks himself out cold.
“Is he dead?” you wipe your tears, getting up from the table.
Harvey bends over and analyzes the Joker, informing with regret:
“We’re not that lucky; still breathing.”
You softly kick the limp body and the former senator notices your distress.
“You want me to leave?”
“No way,” you protest the proposal. “Help me put him in bed and we can continue our evening.”
“You want me to break his neck? Now is your chance,” Harvey scratches his scar, hoping you’ll agree.
“No…I guess not…” you utter after carefully considering the suggested assassination.
**************
The Joker woke up at 6am in your bedroom, not remembering too much from the previous night. The strong taste of alcohol in his mouth almost made him gag and he staggered to the bathroom and brushed his teeth, taking a quick shower also. He had such a headache he almost fainted, didn’t even have the energy to search for clothes. J wrapped his naked body in a blanket and creeped up back in bed again, wondering where you were before he passed out.
************
He opens his eyes and sees you next to him, still wearing your nightgown. You just stare at The Joker, squeezing the handle of the knife in your hand.
“What’s that for?” he grumbles, gazing at the sharp blade. “Are you gonna stab me?”
“Sort of. I want to cut your pride and joy to pieces and then set your crotch on fire,” the bitter tone makes him aware you mean it: you are vengeful and hold grudges just like he does.
“My son is my pride and joy. Why would you want to cut him up to pieces? I thought you love him,” the smart comeback doesn’t score any points. Not a single muscle moves on your face and you usually laugh at his cleverness.
J licks his dry lips, sliding a few inches closer to his wife.
“How many times did you cheat on me?” the sudden question halts his motion.
“Once…” he serenely admits like it’s nothing.
“I don’t believe you,” you interrupt and he scoots over more.
“It’s true!”
“A-ha, sure is, because you never lie,” you sigh and he can’t comprehend why there’s no trace of emotion in your eyes: that special way you used to look at him is gone, just like his son warned the other day. And The Joker didn’t think it would irk him.
“So what do you want me to do, hm?” he directly inquires, curious to find out if you care enough to give him a solution.
“I want you to take it back,” you whisper.
Who knows if it was because of the concussion he got last night or something else, but The King of Gotham has an epiphany: he wants to tell you he can’t take it back when he realizes what you meant when you requested the same thing yesterday. J was too fired up and furious to acknowledge that was your way of demanding a formal apology for his betrayal.
“I take it back…” he slowly blinks and wants to kiss your nose but you avoid his touch.
“Don’t !” you roll back towards the other side of the bed, placing the knife under your pillows.
“Can I sleep here? I have a horrible hangover,” J pretends not to be affected by the lack of intimacy and physical attraction that used to be an important part of your relationship.
“If you want to,” you turn your back on him, wanting to take a nap after being awake for hours.
That’s how Kase found his parents; he returned to your home after not finding his father at The Penthouse, worried something terrible happened in his absence. Such a relief when there was no evidence of a fight and he peeked inside your bedroom to see if you were there. The door was cracked opened and your son was surprised to see his mom and dad in the same bed; so much space in between them, but finally able to properly rest since they can’t sleep without each other.
The Joker kept on coming to sleep at your house every single night and Kase would check in the morning to see if he has to order breakfast for two or three people: it’s always for three.
You left the bedroom door half opened for weeks until this morning when your son found it closed; he went downstairs and made coffee, ordered breakfast for his family and had enough time to dye his hair too. When you finally show up with J, the first thing you do is kiss your son’s forehead and then you go to open the fridge in order to take out the creamer.
The Joker follows and hugs you from behind, purring and whispering something in your ear that makes you giggle. He pinches your butt and then he sees his son’s smirk; Kase is at the table already, waiting for you two to join him.
“Mind you own business!” the grouchy father snarls.
“I am,” the young man admits, turning the pages of the magazine he’s pretended to read.
“Leave my baby alone,” you pout and J gasps, irritated nobody is ever on his side.
“Your baby is 20!”
“Just leave him alone,” the mother repeats and The Joker starts bickering, glancing at his son from time to time: he did notice the neon green hair matching his again, how can you miss it?! Too proud to bring it up though, but it makes him happy.
J keeps on complaining and suddenly his heart beats faster: I mean, you seem annoyed with the speech but you look at him in that unique way he thought he won’t see again. Too arrogant to admit, but it makes him happy.
So strange for somebody that doesn’t need anybody around…
After all, The Great Joker is certainly unaffected by the problems he keeps on creating in his life.