|The River|
Star only had a few seconds to see that Joker jumped in after her. She inhaled, preparing to yell at him, but before she was able to the water already closed above her. The cold immediately forced itself in her body, and she smacked in a rock hidden underneath the water. The current pushed her up, and she gasped for air as she got back up.
"JOKER?" she yelled once, not daring to open her mouth any more. She couldn't see him anywhere in the roaring waters, that foamed from the violence with which they crashed upon the rocks in the river bed. Suddenly she spotted a flash of red, yellow and purple. "JOKER!" she yelled again, before the water splashed in her face, making her inhale it in reflex.. Joker looked, seeing her being shaken back and forth by the current, and he attempted to make his way to her.
'Idiot… bleeding idiot!' she thought to herself, trying to keep her head above the water. What was he trying to prove jumping in after her like that? She was getting angry, which was probably to be preferred over panicking. If only she could reach him and give him a piece of her mind. If only he could be near her now…
Before she could finish her last thought, she slammed back first in a rock. The impact drove the air from her lunges, and she could feel the rock scratching her back. Still, it allowed her to remain stationary, and it gave Joker a chance to catch up to her. He had seen her, and fought to get closer to her location, instead of being swept past her. He would've been pushed away from her if she hadn't somehow thrown out her hand, holding on to the rock with her other hand. He grabbed her with his good hand, the prosthetic as if by some miracle still attached to his body. He got near her, their bodies pressed together by the water as he looked at her.
"Star, ye're safe!" he said, trying to ignore the water slamming in his back.
She fumed, grabbing him by the collar, both because she was angry and because she didn't want to be separated again from him. "Now is not the time for 'thank god' and 'you're safe'!" she said, glaring at the man. She noticed his make-up was almost all washed away, the remainder dripping from his eyes. "What are we going to do, Joker?" she asked him.
To her annoyance, Joker let out a relieved smile. "We let ourselves be taken with the water. I've been 'ere before, the water will calm down soon enough."
"You mean you fell in the water here before?" Star asked, her teeth shattering as she tried to ignore the cold being spread in her body. Joker shook his head, before he explained that they had passed by the river here once already.
"Even if the water calms down after a while, if we get too cold we'll die just the same." Star said as she glared at the ginger.
Joker sighed, before grabbing her arm, squeezing it as he grinned. "The longer we stay 'ere, the colder it'll get." He pointed out, before dragging her to the sides. The water pushed at them, carrying them away from the rock faster than Star could react. "Idiot!" she tried to yell at Joker, but the water pushed in her mouth before she could form the word. She held on to Joker tighter, determined not to get scared. So far her anger had served her well, so she would remain angry until they got to dry land.
|A little while later|
Star coughed up the last bits of water as they dragged themselves more up the shore. Her clothes clung to her body in an uncomfortable way, somehow making her feel even wetter. Joker let himself fall on his back next to her, his prosthetic lying there being totally useless. She lay down on her stomach, catching her breath as she lay there, thinking nothing. Her body felt heavy, as if she weighed double of what she otherwise weighed. Every muscle ached and shivered, exhausted from the efforts she had made trying to stay alive.
Joker got up, folding his legs under him as he put his hand on her back. His hand was just as cold as her body, he was worried to notice. They had gotten out of the water just in time. "Star, are ye alright?" he asked, hoping she would be fine.
Before he knew what happened, she slapped him. His head was thrown to the side, cheek throbbing with the impact. "You idiot!" she yelled at him, sitting on her knees, face completely washed clean from any make-up.
He looked back at her, flabbergasted at the way she reacted. "Star, what's the matter with ye?"
"What's the matter with me? You're one to talk! You're the idiot that jumped in a freezing cold river after me, aren't you? Why would you do something that's so… so… agh!" her hand lashed out again at him, but this time he was prepared. He caught it in mid-air, looking Star in the eyes. She burst out in tears, shoulders sagging as if something snapped deep inside her.
"Star?" he asked, being confused by her sudden mood swing. When he got closer to her to check if she was hurt, she started hitting him on the shoulders, though it wasn't anywhere near as hard as the smack in his face.
"Stupid idiot! What were you trying to prove, huh?" she asked in between her sobs. "Getting yourself almost killed like that, what's the point of it? You could've cracked open your skull jumping down like that, or drowned, or frozen to death! You stupid, stupid, stupid man!"
Joker took her in his arms, but that only made her cry harder as she threw her arms around his back, like a child desperate for comfort. He tried to hush her by gently rocking her, making meaningless soothing sounds. "It's okay now, isn't it? We're both alive, and nothing bad 'appened. Stop yer cryin' Star. It's over now, it's all over."
Her weeping turned into sobbing, and the sobbing turned into soft hiccups. She settled down, but still Joker held her tight, resting his chin on the top of her head. What did it matter that the two of them were soaking wet, somewhere all alone in a forsaken place, when he could hold her? When she clung to him in a way he had only just dared to dream of?
After a while she pulled away, averting her face from him. With her wet sleeves she rubbed her tears away, though she only succeeded in making her face more wet than it was before. Joker plucked at his clothes, that stuck to his body as if someone had glued them on. Star stood up, her legs wobbling as if they could cave in underneath her any moment.
"We should get a move on, find the others." She said, turning around. She had regained her composure, at least she hoped she had. She hadn't cried like that ever since she and George had run away from home. Letting her guard down like that, it was dangerous since it made her seem weak. If she had learned one thing in her life, it was that one should never appear weak.
Joker shook his head when she said that. She threw him a questioning look. "We'll be fine. Best thing to do now is wait 'till Dagger an' the others look for us. If we move away, they won't be able to find us."
Star let out a groan, acknowledging he was right. She didn't like waiting around though, so she volunteered to gather some firewood, so they could dry up. Moving her limbs was harder than she had expected, but she grit her teeth and didn't let up. They needed to get warm, and a fire would make it easier for the others to see them. Though she didn't know how late it was exactly, it was somewhere in the late afternoon. It would be dark if the others arrived, until they planned on waiting until morning to search for them. Knowing them however, they would be far too worried to wait until dawn to look for them. From the moment they had gone missing, Snake and Beast would have alerted the others. It would have only taken them a few minutes to mount horses and start searching the sides of the river.
Arms loaded with firewood she returned to Joker, who was examining his prosthetic in a worried fashion. He couldn't move it anymore, and he started to tap against it with his other hand, letting it swing back and forth. When he heard Star arrive, he looked up with a guilty look on his face.
"It's broken, huh?" she asked, dropping down the wood. Joker nodded, feeling unhappy with the situation.
"Did ye expect anythin' else?" he asked, a bitter tone not entirely concealed in his voice. Though the prosthetic enabled him to do things he normally couldn't, and he truly did delight in its unusual form, it still was a solution to a problem. If he hadn't lost his arm, he wouldn't have needed it. When the prosthetic broke down, he was always reminded of the fact that he was unwhole.
Star looked at him, arranging the logs and kindle in the way she had seen people at the circus do all the time. "Doc will be able to fix it, like always." She said, in a way that suggested she had complete faith in the man's abilities.
Joker gave a small grunt, before he ignored the broken body part. Then he noticed Star looking at the pile of wood in a questioning manner. "Star, what are ye doin'?" he asked. He had expected that she would start the fire right away, but then she said…
"I don't know how to start a fire." She admitted, giving the wood an interrogative glance.
Joker let out a sigh, before he walked over. "Well, I can't do it with one hand, but I'll show ye. Look closely." He said, as he started to explain how she would go about building a fire best. Star followed his instructions, and soon enough a few little flames started to flicker. She let out an excited gasp, carefully nurturing the little flames. Joker held a close eye on her, making sure she didn't set the place on fire. When the fire was finally well started, the both of them huddled in front of it, relishing the warmth.
"You know we're going to be sick, right?" she asked him, eyes closed as she rested her head on her knees. Her clothes had gone from wet to clammy and sticky. Joker made a concurring sounds, looking at Star as the flames cast their light on her face. He wanted to know more about her, wanted to learn what made her who she was.
He wanted to know everything.
"Star… why did ye run away from home?" he asked eventually, breaking the silence. She tensed up, her eyes shooting open as she focused on him. He froze up as well, alarmed by her obvious fear that his question had called to life. It remained quiet for a few minutes, but Star kept her gaze firmly locked on him, thinking over if – or what – she should tell him. She decided she could tell him, but only the essentials. If only because Joker was… Joker.
"George was in danger." She said, and paused, because she wasn't sure on how she should continue from there. Joker raised his eyebrows, waiting for her to continue. Star wet her lips, trying to think of how she should go on from there. "Well, I was an only child until I was twelve, so mother being pregnant was a surprise to pretty much everyone, and mostly me."
She entered the room where her mother had run off too. The last few months, mother had had the tendency to suddenly run off to a separate room. The young girl didn't know why, but it did have her worried. Father and mother had always been a little bit distant to each other, and now she feared that there was another breach in their relationship. "No, Mara! I will not do anything like that. In fact, I'm getting it removed tomorrow. Have you made the arrangements?" "My Lady, please reconsider this! If word were to get out that you did such a thing, there's no telling what the Master might do. He might-"
When she walked in further, she could hear her mother's attendant talking in the agitated tone of voice that adults use when discussing secrets.
"My Lady, you should inform the Master about the happy news, I'm sure he'll be delighted to hear-"
The maid stopped talking when she spotted the daughter of the house. Big eyes looked up at her mother, wondering what they were talking about. "Mother, what is going on? What are you getting removed?" she asked, not having caught on the what was happening yet. Her mother froze up when she too saw the child and realized she had been caught. The tall, slender woman walked up to the girl, guiding her outside the room by pushing a hand in the small of her back. "Hush hush now. Get outside, go to your tutors. You're probably late again. I'm dealing with grown-up problems, and little girls have no business in this." she closed the door behind her daughter, turning the key in the lock, shutting her off from the conversation.
Joker shrugged when she said that. "Is it that big o' a surprise then? Seems like something pretty normal to me, when ye think of the life nobles lead." The tone in which he talked seemed to say that he didn't consider Star to be a noble in the least.
Star nodded once, her eyes directed at the fire. The warmth it spread couldn't heat the chill running down her spine when she continued. "I had expected my father to be happy about it when it he heard the news. Instead he threw such a fit, I feared for my mother's life and that of her baby, George."
SMACK. The sound reverberated through the room. Young Valentine looked as her mother was thrown back by the blow against her cheek, sending her flying backwards in a small dress table. Father had found out about her mother's secret, on the evening the woman had been planning to get rid of it. The dark-haired man's face was red as he screamed at the woman lying there. "How dare you do this to me! How dare you, you ungrateful woman?" he lifted the woman again, preparing to strike once more.
The young girl grabbed his arm, trying to stop him. "Papa, please! Whatever mother has done, it can't be that bad!" she pleaded.
The man dropped his wife, instead grabbing the girl by her shoulders. "Valentine…" he shook her back and forth, harder than he intended, before pointing her to the woman. "Do you know what this woman has done, Valentine?" he yelled again. The girl shook her head, her long hair in front of her eyes. The man continued, as if he couldn't believe it himself. "She's pregnant! The whore is pregnant!" The young girl's eyes spurred wide open. Her mother was expecting a baby? It was the most wonderful news she had ever heard. She tried to look back at her father, trying to reason with him. "But that's a wonderful thing, papa!" "Shut up!" he shook his daughter again, exasperated. "The thing in her belly is not mine! The treacherous slut has been having affairs behind my back!"
The woman, still leaning against the dresser that had so unkindly broken her fall looked at the man and child with a venomous glare. "Who are you to judge me, Charles, when you were the first of us to make such a mistake?" she asked, her eyes directed at the young girl. Valentine felt her heart sink in her chest when she realized what her mother meant. "You're not…?" she started, but her voice trailed off. She didn't want to hear this, didn't want to know it. Instead her father continued, breaking her illusions once and for all.
"The thing in her belly has no relation with you at all, my girl!"
"Father was quite angry with my mother." Star said, casting a quick glance at Joker. "I don't know what the reason was, but he tried to attack her." She continued with a small lie. Some things were better left untold, and that was one thing she never wanted George to find out about. "I managed to somehow stop him, but things were quite… uneasy for the next few years. I was sixteen, George four, when we made our escape. Mother had died a year earlier, from diseases one could call mysterious at least. My father had set the mansion on fire in a drunken stupor, and was determined to get George out of the way once and for all. I had already packed some small items in case it would have been necessary, so with those and George I made a run for it that evening. I made a living, the best I could, by stealing and gave George the basic education he needed for the past four years. And… well, here I am now, alive and well."
Joker looked at her, a pained expression on his face. From what he guessed, there were some things she wasn't telling him, but the big picture was possibly as true as it could be. "Star, I'm…"
Star rolled her eyes when he started, and cut him off before he could finish. "Oh please, Joker. What's the past is the past. George and I turned out quite alright, as you can see. And that's in no small part thanks to you." She added, looking him in the eyes again.
Joker blushed a bit, taken aback by that statement. Star let out a yawn, before she leant over to him, pressing a quick kiss on his cheek. "I guess I overreacted a bit earlier. Thanks for saving me, Joker. I really mean that."
Joker nodded, struggling to speak. "Anytime, Star. Anytime." He had never meant anything as much as he meant those words.