The Joker got better, eventually. It felt, to Jonathan, like it had taken forever, but really it had only been a couple of weeks. When he was almost fully recovered, they were sat on the sofa watching some ridiculous daytime television show and Jonathan turned to him.

"Hey, you know what day it is?"
"Er, Saturday?"
"Yeah, but… The date?"
"No?"
"It's the 23rd December."
"And?"

Jonathan looked up at the Joker.

"And, it's Christmas in two days."

The Joker sighed and tore his eyes away from the TV to look back at Jonathan.

"And?"
"And, well, I haven't spent it with anyone in a while."

He muttered his last sentence, and his ears turned slightly red. The Joker looked at him out of the corner of his eye.

"Me neither, Johnny. Sorta loses meaning over the years, doesn't it?"

….

The next night and the Joker was almost completely back to his normal self.

"We should go out. To the pub or something."

Jonathan frowned, "Why?"
The Joker shrugged, "Just want to."

He'd spent over an hour in the bathroom and Jonathan was about to give in and just piss in a cup when the door opened.

"Fucking took your time," Jonathan growled, and stumbled past the Joker, clutching at his sides and into the bathroom. The Joker rolled his eyes and leant back against the wall until the sounds of Jonathan's piss stream had died out about 3 minutes later and the tap began to run. He was staring at his nails when Jonathan walked out again, contented.

"What the hell were you doing in there, anyway?" he asked, wandering over to the table that they were using to store all their aftershave and picking a shirt up from the kitchen floor. He had no idea how it had gotten there, but he'd decided to go with the flow and just use whatever seemed clean. Jonathan gave it a sneaky sniff, and, when he was sure it wasn't disgusting threw it over his shoulders and started to try and drag a comb through his too long and far too curly hair.

He needed a haircut, but he didn't dare ask the Joker.

When he got no answer, he turned round to face the Joker and was slightly surprised to be confronted with a man wearing, well, normal clothes. Dark jeans, boots and a purple t shirt to be exact. With the Joker's face being as carved up as it was, he didn't expect the man to try and, well, blend in.

And that's when his eyes were drawn to the Joker's face which, remarkably, was scar-less.

"Woah."

The Joker looked up from his hand.

"What?"
"You've done a good job on those."

The Joker laughed, bitterly.

"I haven't always wanted to show them off, you know."

Jonathan had never really considered a time when the Joker wasn't the Joker, and as a consequence had never imagined the man in front of him being able to effectively cover them up.

"But why tonight?"

The Joker laughed.

"I don't wanna draw, ah, unnecessary attention to us, Johnny. I don't think I'm up to fighting random strangers yet. My reaction times are still fairly slow…"

Jonathan repressed the thought that the Joker's 'slow' reaction times were still probably ten times faster than his own in a fight.

"So, the idea of a quiet drink seems kinda… drawing. Especially with my buddy on Christmas Eve."

Jonathan smiled.

"Okay then, lets go."

They headed back home a few hours later when the pubs were closing. Joker gave Jonathan a piggyback up the street, staggering himself, while singing in their respective accents.

They got to the door and spent five minutes trying to open the door before their landlady opened it for them.

"Nice night, boys?"
"Ah, yeah. Thanks," the Joker choked out in an Australian accent. "Did we wake you?"
"Oh, no, I was cooking the turkey."
"At 3 in the morning?"
"I couldn't sleep. I never do on Christmas. Anyway, you'll catch your death out there. Get yourselves to bed!"

They staggered up the stairs and collapsed into bed.

A/N: Fairly OOC but c'mon, it's Christmas. Normal service will resume tomorrow.