Her touch was gentle, so gentle it felt like his face was going to break. 'Hard.' he thought, 'Give it to me HARD.' Batman knew how to give it to him hard. In fact, that's why he was unable to stop her feeble grasp on his face, which was beginning to swell. There she went with those crocodile tears again, looking livid at the man in black. Then her face shifted. His mind, like his vision, was getting fuzzy. He spent most of his days in a delightful haze, but this kind of fuzzy was what others like to refer to as- reality. He hated that joke. Just the right amount of hits would send him to the right place. One too many or one too little would leave him in a limbo he could no longer comprehend. He and Harl had crossed the same line through sanity; but sometimes he could still see her foot step over and smudge the paint that divided them from the rest of the world. He could see it now as she was bent and bleeding, with those eyes. Blonde hair fell on her furrowed brow from the torn hood. There was a foreign sentiment he couldn't describe or share. Strange enough, he could see that the dark knight couldn't relate either. That stone wall had so many lines drawn it was like a laser maze. But that was half the fun.
Batman knew that all the Joker and Harleen could accomplish was an act. The whole relationship was modeled after some slapstick comedy routine that re-ran nightly, long after decent people were asleep. He could see it playing out again with the girl in pigtails sobbing loudly like her toy had fallen and broke. Essentially it had. Suddenly the performance stopped and she looked up. It was like somebody clogged the projector. He froze.
Her poor Pudding was all messed up again by Batzy! She had even sustained some injuries taking the hits for him, what kinda brute hurts a lady? She could feel the familiar fire growing inside her for the man in black. She glanced toward him and was about to admonish his actions when she noted the brown hair that had slipped out from under his cowl. This thing in a suit… wasn't some imaginary, nightmarish shadow. Her stomach dropped as she saw the blonde streak above her own eye. They were human. Both of them. In this moment.
When was the last time that the Joker was? Was he ever? Could he ever be again?...