Star-crossed? Not quite.
It wasn't like Carter, aka Terminal, aka head of a Jokerz segment, aka most popular and second smartest kid in Hamilton High School didn't have his pick of any girl (or boy for that matter) he really wanted, in Jokerz or high school, it was just that he had a sort of contempt for anyone and everyone. And a deep mistrust for other people, mostly because of his mother. He tended to see everyone as the next person to dominate his life and grind him into nothingness from disapproval if he opened up and gave them the chance.
And yet? Deidre aka one half of the Dee Dee twins, aka rumored to be Joker's granddaughter, aka the nice twin, aka the one better at gymnastics and better able to kick your butt, aka the high school dropout, had gotten his attention. In the simplest way possible, and she didn't even know or have any idea, he was sure of it (he truly hoped she was clueless. He didn't know how to handle things if she wasn't)
It started at an annual meeting of all the Jokerz groups. They did it about every other month to go over each group's territory, spoils, who was currently hired to who, and current rankings of the Jokerz. It was when Carter(Terminal) had just become a Joker. He'd only had two others in his 'crew', instead of the usual five or six that made up a normal Jokerz gang. And yet, he'd already been ranked then as an up and coming, one of the people you stayed away from, the dangerous one. He was similar to a smaller Joker, similar style and both extremely savvy at computers and hotwiring things, but the difference between Terminal and Ghoul was, if they both saw a large bug getting ready to eat them, Ghoul would cringe and his football playing counterpart would shoot just the damn thing. No, Terminal was the 'evil version of Nightwing' and he was quite proud of it.
His life was turned on its head however(and yet somehow remained perfectly the same) when he bumped into a pint-sized yarn-wig wearing girl in short-shorts and caused her to drop her things(a collapsible mallet, an iron-spiked rubber chicken, a container of possibly doctored candy) Terminal, still getting used to being the silent bad-ass he'd eventually be known as (at school he was the 'nice-guy' the one who helped grandmas cross the street. Terminal was a 360 from that persona and he loved it, but it took getting used to at first) had dropped to his knees immediately to help the one half of the Dee Dee Duo pick up her things. She'd done so at the same time, and looked up when he did when large hands started scooping up the candy. They stared, girl shocked boy expressionless. The other Dee Dee grabbed her sister (taller, slightly larger chest, her eyes squinting with a jaded look the small one didn't have. Impossible to mix up, in Carter's mind) and pulled her up and away, leaving the wig-wearing red-head on the ground with the chicken and the candy.
He wondered which Dee Dee he'd helped, and if she was pretty under that make-up that made her look like Raggedy-Anne's slutty sister. With those large and expressive blue eyes, he thought so.
They met again in what he supposed was called 'civilian guises' or maybe that was just for heroes. She was beautiful, he'd been right about that, but at first they didn't know who the other was. She was just a girl working at a coffee shop, and he was just a high schooler getting dragged along shopping by his overprotective overbearing mother. This time he bumped into her, and thankfully there wasn't any drinks or food on her tray, just empty things needing to be cleaned or thrown away. He immediately apologized and began bending to pick up the things when a (small, pretty, gentle) hand touched his shoulder and he looked up into expressive blue eyes. "No, it's alright. I should have been faster" he was about to say 'no, it's my fault. Don't tell me sorry, you were fine' when a sharp (harpy claw, thin, violent) hand gripped his elbow and pulled him away, his mother smiling politely but eyes sparking cold anger and voice hissing biting, veiled remarks that made him want to hide. He looked back at (nametag reads 'Hello, my name is: DEIDRE') the blond girl, ankle length hair tied in a respectful braid, small body swaying with natural grace, but she was already up and slipping through the kitchen door, her mess cleaned up as if with magic. Carter had no choice but to stop resisting his mother and allow himself to be tugged out of the coffee shop.
It was like that for at least two months, minus the knocking each other over. It was random meetings all over Gotham and sometimes they talked and sometimes they didn't. As Carter and Deidre they talked about Carter's mother, work, love, sports, and school. Deidre wanted to go back, loved school and reading, but she had to take care of her grandmother, and be there for her (he knows Delia is mentally unstable. But he's pretty sure Deidre's in denial) problematic twin sister. As Terminal and Dee Dee they talk about heists, hatred, the other Dee Dee, fighting tactics, and the Jokerz gangs. Terminal loves his gang, though he mistreats them, relates to them more than anyone else (Dee Dee knows he's unhappy though, knows he's outgrowing them. He's the Evil Nightwing. Of course he's outgrowing this family) and is loyal to a fault. After four months they both have figured out both identities are one and the same.
It's come down to the possibility of being more than friends.
They're both wounded, mistreated creatures who can't leave the ones hurting them most (Carter's mother, Deidre's sister). But they want to try. Deidre doesn't cry when Carter is put in Juvie, she knows he wanted to become someone else. She does cry when he gains a split personality and leaves the Jokerz. He doesn't leave her, though. They're still friends, he invites her to be his partner, be more than the (little, beaten, pathetic) other Dee Dee. When Delia goes off the deep end and almost kills Batman and a new hero named Little Boy Blue in acid, she accepts the hand offered and becomes the first female Scorn, the evil (but now antihero) opposite of Robin. And Terminal/Carter put his head back together (for her, it was always for her, and it had to be. He needed her, she was clarity) and becomes the evil (though now it's the antihero, to match Deidre) Wrath, Batman's opposite.
It's six months later they actually become more than friends. Wrath and Scorn keep the city safe from the darker violence Batman isn't going to ever find out about. They even made uneasy alliances with Boy Blue and Batman and some of the Justice League. Deidre's now "the little Rapunzel doll with a voice like an angel and a kick like a bitch" and Carter's the two-faced snake. It suits them both, and at least some of the Jokerz still care. Though Ghoul's going into his own insanity now. Wrath and Scorn keep Batman and (Maxine) Question tipped off on where he is, it won't be long before he ends up like Delia. Carter comforts Deidre when she cries at night, because it's one thing to lose a twin sister (piece of your soul) and it's another to lose the one thing that kept you sane before you found your other half. Carter can kiss away the bruises, not the broken heart.
For now, the apartment is a secret world, and Deidre's applying for night-school.
For now, the two sickly insane are clinging to each other in a bid to retain who they want to be.
For now, they're making their own happiness, piece by fractured piece.
And if Deidre became Carter's heartbreak, he wouldn't mind. Though he might just become the next Two-Face if she did. Like Deidre knows how easily she could become a new Harley Quinn, if Carter let her fall into the black pit called insanity.
It's the gamble of a lifetime. The (he now dies grown elbow-length hair black) dark-haired former football star and the petite (she cut her hair to waist-length. Harder to grab and she's tossed the yarn wig) high-school applicant look at each other and
Roll
The
Dice
.
.
.