No one likes Mondays, not even the Joker. He stared down at the blueprint paper before him and looked over his half completed plan. He knew how to turn Harvey against Batman, but now he needed to figure out how in the world he was going to remain the innocent bystander. He wracked his mind wondering how that might be possible, but his mind was all over the place today. Everything from Nostradamus to the fly in the corner was plaguing him. He had yet to figure out if that ancient guy was psychic or just loony and he could not kill that fly! He tossed his pen aside and sighed deeply. He just needed the day off. He walked out of his study and pushed his sleeves up. Today, Gotham could have a normal day and he would cool down for awhile. Besides, without him causing havoc, the city would be completely on edge because this too was outside the plan. He laughed darkly; he always won.

He headed for the sitting room which he knew would be vacant. His composure had wavered for a moment so his goons had gone running for it. He threw himself onto the lumpy, faded couch and clicked on the TV to begin channel surfing. This killed about a good half hour until he became bored with the featured Disney movie and its sickening moral. Really, the lies in that were awful, torturous even! To think, people allowed their children to be brainwashed by this talk of happily-ever-afters and "if you can dream it, you can do it," nonsense. This again was why people reacted to him the way they did. They believed everything should be sunshine and rainbows, he comes along, gives them a sharp dose of reality, and they freak. Walt practically set the world up for his chaos! Hmmm... he would need to send them a lovely thank you card eventually. He turned the television off and stared at the ceiling. There was not much to do, and he had vowed he would not leave the house. He glanced around the room and saw several stacks of cards and a chess board. There was always a rousing game of Solitaire, but he just was not in the mood. With a sigh he got up and began wandering the building.

He passed Rachel's door twice and each time he would press an ear to it to see what he could hear. Silence met him both times. On his third walk about he paused and stared at the door. The last person he had kept this long had been screaming by this point. He folded his arms and tapped his foot wondering what was going on. He had kicked everyone out before he had gotten the report on her. For all he knew, she was dead and that would be a serious snag in his plans. This thought made him mad. No one interfered with his plans except for him! With an irritated lick of his lips and a sigh he unlocked the door and went inside.

Thankfully, the girl was still alive. She was sitting in the far corner, hugging her knees to her chest. Her hair was still damp from her shower earlier and her clothes were terribly wrinkled from excessive wear. She was not crying, but simply staring off into space with boredom. He leaned against the door frame and cleared his throat. She glanced up at him, not really seeing him at first, and jumped when she finally comprehended that it was in fact him and not one of the goons at the door. She pressed herself further into the corner and crossed her arms defensively over her. He laughed at her fear.

"Well, hello Beautiful. Huh, I thought we agreed you needed to smile more?" he teased her. She squeaked and covered her mouth with a hand as if that would really stop him had he felt the need to make her over. This caused a terrible cackle to escape him. This simply made her more afraid and that worsened the laugh. Finally, after dabbing some tears from his eyes, he was able to control himself. He licked his lips once again before speaking. "Hey, don't worry, you've been in here for over a week, I wouldn't be smiling either! Actually, I've come to rescue you from a painful death," he informed her with an overdone sweep of his arms. Instead of the gratitude he had expected, he simply received a blank look. He sighed again; some people just didn't get it. "Boredom! I figured it would ruin my plans if you died of boredom," he explained gruffly. She mouthed 'oh' and gave him a humored nose snort, but it was too late. It wasn't funny now that he had had to explain it. They stared at each other, she being unsure of what to do, and he waiting for her to get up. "Well, ya comin' or what?" he finally asked impatiently. Rachel quickly scrambled up and walked out of the room, but did not go far. She knew that with him around she could not try escaping again. However, he wasn't willing to risk anything, so he threw an arm around her, laughed lightly as she flinched, and led her to the sitting room. He locked the door and motioned for her to take a seat before retrieving a stack of cards.

He pulled up one of the spare chairs to sit across the make-shift coffee table, laughing at Rachel's look of pure ecstasy from sitting on a cushioned surface. She noticed this and quickly returned to her stony expression. He began shufling the cards, throwing in a few tricks, though his partner seemed less than impressed, and then dealt the deck between them. Rachel gave him a questioning look which he returned to mess with her.

"What are we playing?" she asked finally. Right, he forgot that not everyone could read his mind. Even he didn't know what he was thinking at times.

"B.S," he answered as he sorted out his cards. Yay, he got to start!

"B.S? Are we still in the fifth grade?" she teased him as she too sorted her cards. He shot her a warning glare. He did not swear if he could help it. It was a sign of inferiority and limited intelligence, two things he would never be described as. He plucked two aces from his hand and smacked them down.

"Two aces," he began.

"A two."

"Three threes."

"Two fours."

"Five fives."

"B.S!" Rachel decided. He cackled and revealed five fives. Her jaw dropped and she gave him a scandalized look.

"That's not fair!" she yelled as he pushed the pile at her. He shrugged and wet his lips again.

"Life isn't fair sweetheart. Plus, you're playing with a Joker deck, a thing I've modified. Five cards each, a Joker of each suit, and absolutely no Jacks," he explained. It would have been meaner to not point this out, but he wanted to have some kind of a challenge with this.

"Why no Jacks?" she asked. He shrugged again.

"Because..." She accepted this, probably on the foundation that he had no motivations what so ever, and carried on. They got through two rounds, and Rachel was defiantly loosening up and enjoying herself. "You seem to really like this game," he commented, laying down two sevens and a ten.

"B.S." she sassed, and he took the rather large pile gingerly. "My roommates and I used to play it in college, only we liked to spice it up." He raised an eyebrow, seeing an opportunity with this.

"Care to uh, "spice it up" now?" he asked innocently, sucking on his lower lip.

"Depends on what you have in mind."

"If you lay down the wrong cards and are caught, you must answer a question honestly. If you incorrectly call bs, then you have to answer the question. Shall we consider this a way to become better acquainted?" he proposed. She tossed the idea about then, reluctantly agreed. While the knowledge that he could find out her secrets was heavy on her mind, her curiosity out weighed the danger. They continued with the game.

"Two Jokers."

"Four Queens."

"A King."

"Three Aces."

"Liar," Rachel laughed. He took the cards and awaited her question. "What to ask? What to ask?" She nibbled on her lip as a million things came to mind. He leaned back and fixed her with his innocent smile that really meant he was toying with her, sucker. "What's your real name?" He had expected that.

"Samuel," he answered. She continued to look pointedly at him awaiting a last name. "Adams." She nodded.

"Samuel Adams... hmmm... Wait a minute!" she yelled as she finally got it. He laughed and listened to her yell the rules at him. "Alright, my name was originally Joe, but that's all you're getting. I think you can see my need to drop it."

"Yeah. Doesn't exactly inspire fear," she agreed bitterly. They continued, but only got a few rounds into it when he caught her fib.

"Favorite color?" he asked. This question caught her off guard. No doubt she expected him to ask Batman's true identity.

"Uh... purple."

"Well, that's one thing we have in common then," he giggled and returned to the game.

They played for a few more hours and they learned a lot about each other... or he learned a lot about her and she knew next to nothing. Finally, it was down to her having three cards and him having one. Unfortunately, luck was not on his side this time.

"B.S. Mr. Joker," she sassed. He tossed over the card, revealing, ironically, a joker instead of a four and sucked on his lip for the ninth time that day. She seemed to be having difficulty finding questions at this point.

"What's with your lip thing?" she finally asked. "Is it like a tic of yours or something?" He weighed the dangers of telling the truth, but found nothing. She could not use dry skin against him.

"The paint is very drying, and it gets annoying and itchy at times," he allowed her to know. She chuckled to herself and he raised an eyebrow in question. His agony was not funny! What kind of human could laugh at another person's suffering? Oh yeah... well laugh at his suffering at least.

"Ever hear of a moisturiser?" she asked sarcastically. Alright, this chick was getting too confident for her own good!

"Do I look like a lotion user?" he shot back. She seemed to take the hint and returned to her more defensive stance.

"Well, I know that it can be very bad for the skin. I know my skin always got scaly after Halloween... it's just a suggestion," she muttered. He lightened up and shrugged it off.

"It's probably late. You should get some sleep, and I should try and finish that scheme," he told her.

"Oh, yeah, wouldn't want you to get behind on that," she mumbled. Wait, so she had actually forgotten about his plan to get Harvey? That was curious. He escorted her back to her room, locked her in, and returned to his study, but his mind was still elsewhere.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rachel curled up in her corner and tried to fall asleep, but the guilt of her actions was too great. She had just spent several hours enjoying herself with a notorious mass murderer who was out to kill her boyfriend! No amount of his charisma or her boredom justified that. She groaned, and covered her ears, trying to block out all sense of peace she felt.

A/N: YAY! Another chapter completed! This truely was off the top of my head, and I liked it. I know it was fluffy, but I figured that even the Joker could enjoy games. So, give me your opinions, good and bad. Thanks. Next chapter will be up soon-ish hopefully.

Alex: Thanks, glad you liked it. I had to work the Pencil trick in. It's like the signature move of the new Joker, and it worked quite well.