When Jayde stepped onto the porch several days later, staring out at the empty back yard, she turned back to look at Dotcom through the sliding glass door with a confused frown. He shrugged his answer, conveying to her without words that he really had no idea what was supposed to happen either. All either of them knew was that Joker had asked Dotcom earlier to wake Jayde up and tell her to come out to the back yard. So when he had relayed the message only ten minutes ago, Jayde had gone along with it and gotten dressed.
Now she found herself opening the screen door somewhat slowly, walking out into the yard hesitantly as a breeze blew by her, rustling the tall grass. Her eyes scanned the small field and distant trees, wondering wildly what she was supposed to be watching for. Normally, she had a few ideas about what Joker's current plan was but this time, she was utterly bewildered. However, the further she grew from the door and the safety of the screen, the slower she moved as that increasingly familiar sense of foreboding returned to creep up on her. She was getting the distinct feeling she was about to be ambushed.
No less than ten yards away, hidden, tucked away into the tall reeds of newly green grass, lay the Joker, on his stomach with one eye pressed to the scope on one of his favorite toys. His elbows were propping him up slightly as he held the end of the gun steady with one hand while the other gripped the column, one finger rested lightly on the trigger. Another breeze moved the grass around him but he stayed perfectly still, squinting slightly as he watched his prey. She was still glancing around, growing nearer with every step but Joker was not concerned about her spotting him; his hair acted like camouflage.
Jayde tossed her hands, turning around in a complete circle one last time before she sighed, rolling her eyes. Just another perfect example of how much Joker enjoyed getting people out of bed in the morning and making them cranky. She had just cursed his name and was about to turn to walk back inside only for two dull 'pop! pop!'s to break the silence. Suddenly something smacked into the side of her leg a split second before another shot of stinging pain hit her arm. A loud squeal left her as she clutched one hand to the fresh welt on her arm, ducking back around the edge of the screen. Looking down, she brought her hand up, groaning when she found it was covered in bright green paint.
"That really hurt!" she yelled, remaining firmly in place around the corner of the porch, glancing back through it to try and see the other side of the yard. It was still empty but Jayde knew the second she stepped back out, more paintballs would come flying at her from seemingly thin air and her leg and upper arm were still stinging angrily. Seconds later, Jayde screamed, making a dash for the screen door when three more paintballs were shot at her, seemingly from somewhere closer and somewhat in front of her now. The door shut behind her but she stayed just on the other side of it, staring out into the yard from the other side of the screen, squinting to try and spot him amongst the trees and tall grass. Vaguely, Jayde was reminded of some sort of hunter in the Serengeti plains, hiding completely unseen. Joker had apparently mastered the art of making himself invisible.
"I'm seriously gonna have bruises from that, you know!" she shouted, placing her hands on her hips irritably, now frowning at the back yard. She had just taken a half-step back in preparation to go inside when a paintball hit the screen right in front of her and exploded, sending a light mist of blue paint all over her face. And that's when Joker gave up his position.
Across the yard, near the garage, Joker stood from the grass, only to double over slightly as he laughed loudly, slapping his knee a few times. Jayde had seemingly frozen there with her eyes closed, fighting with herself on which urge to act on. One half of her wanted to laugh while the other wanted run out in the yard and strangle him. Both sounded tempting but instead of either of those, she simply sighed, standing there with her eyes closed, waiting, while the sound of Joker's laughter grew closer until the screen door opened just in front of her. He stepped inside, still giggling to himself as he set down his paintball gun. Jayde took a deep breath.
"I hate you so much right now." She exhaled, slowly opening her eyes to look up at Joker as he grinned down at her with that shitty, accomplished smirk. His hands reached up a second later, dragging his fingers down her face until the wet paint had formed blue streaks from her forehead down to her chin. He laughed again but let his hands come to rest on either side of her neck, tilting her head back slightly.
"If I had a nickel for every time…" he mumbled somewhat distractedly, currently too focused on taking in everything about her face at that moment. A second later, he shook his head, blinking twice before an excited grin stretched his scars. His hands shook her face a bit. "It's training day!" he exclaimed, proceeding with his original plan in an effort to force himself not to just stand there and stare at her electric blue eyes against the deep blue paint on her face. It was evidence of how somewhat comfortable she had gotten over the past few days since his apology when she let him stand this close and…touch her for more than a second or two. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion and Joker's grin widened.
"Training day?" she repeated him in question form. He nodded his reply then motioned to the sliding glass doors with his head.
"Go wash your face then come back out here." Joker then instructed, taking his hands back from either side of her neck. Of course, since he had not answered her question, Jayde stood there, holding the glare she had on him until Joker sighed, turning her away from him to push her a few paces toward the door. "Go-uh…"
When she returned ten minutes later, Jayde found Joker out in the tall grass again with his back to her, looking down at something in his hands. At first, she could not see what it was but a second later, he must have heard her approaching and turned, revealing that he had been busy loading a black handgun. Jayde was about to hesitate before coming any closer but she had a hard time believing Joker was about to shoot her. If anything, it appeared as though he were readying the thing for her to take it from him. One of her eyebrows cocked as she walked up, now watching him fit a thin, cylindrical device on the end of the gun.
"What's that for?" she asked, pointing at the attachment before looking up to his face as he scowled at the gun in his hands, concentrating on what he was doing.
"Silencer," he finally replied, then quickly pointed the gun into the trees nearby and pulled the trigger. Jayde had been prepared to jump and cover her ears but paused when she was about to bring her hands up; the silencer had eliminated nearly all of the sound of the shot being fired, leaving just a softer but still noticeable noise. A dull thud had sounded just after the gun when Joker's bullet made contact with a tree about forty yards away and he smirked, turning to look down at Jayde. When she looked back up at him, his eyes slowly slid down from her eyes to the gun he was now holding out to her and her gaze followed his until she shook her head.
"No, c'mon…" she started but Joker was already copying her by shaking his head fairly hard, letting his hair whip him in the face.
"Yes," he interrupted her. "You need to learn accuracy with one of these if you're going to be coming out on our little…excursions. So here's the deal," he took a breath, wrapping one of his arms around her shoulders to turn her toward the far trees. "I want you to shoot at that tree until you hit it ten times…consecutively. So if you hit it nine times in a row and miss the tenth?…"he asked, leaned down slightly with his ear cupped toward Jayde as he waited for her answer. She sighed, rolling her eyes heavily.
"-I'll have to start over at one…Right…" she grumbled, shaking his hand off of her shoulder and for a split second, Joker considered flicking her hard in the back of the head and telling her to knock it off with the attitude, that this was important, but he had a feeling that letting her be pissy and irritated while still participating would benefit him in the long run. He took a step back and over to the side so he could watch Jayde on one side and the tree, on the other.
A ways from him, Jayde was looking down at the gun, trying to mess with it so he sighed again, tossing one hand at the tree. "Just aim and shoot, Jayde. It's ready to go!" he called but then rolled his eyes when she just pointed hastily and fired, missing the tree by several feet. He shook his head when she shrugged. "Don't just…shoot." He then explained. "Take the time to actually aim and visualize." Across from him, Jayde huffed, tossing her hands and he grinned as she waved the gun.
"Why can't I just have a normal target? Like a board with a big circle on it?" she asked irritably and again Joker took a second to remain patient although he still growled, grabbing the front of his hair.
"Be-cause, anybody could hit a target like that. A tree is kinda…human-shaped. Now fire again!" he shouted, crossing his arms to watch when Jayde raised the gun again, this time squinting with one eye toward the tree and it seemed she was about to shoot when Joker cut in once more. "Open your eyes!" By now, Jayde was fully aggravated and was about to throw the gun but seemed to think better of it, and instead she squealed, bouncing a few times where she stood.
"Shut up!" she yelled, but then raised the gun and fired three shots consecutively, followed by three dull thuds from across the yard. A tiny smirk threatened to escape her when Joker laughed.
"Keep going!" he called, turning to begin circling behind her, watching closely as she fired another two shots. The first of the two hit its target, but her fifth attempt missed by just a hair. He groaned as though he were disappointed when Jayde huffed, shifting her weight back and forth a few times and he grinned as she looked over at him.
"So I have to-…"
"Yep!" he cried, grinning even wider when she groaned. "Start over at one! Aaaaand…fire!"
Finally, after nearly a half hour of inconsistent shots, of making it all the way to eight hits in a row then missing the ninth, a half an hour of Jayde stomping away angrily several times only for Joker to drag her back, she had finally gotten ten shots in a row and had just hit the tree an eleventh time when she threw her arms in the air, squealing.
"Yeah! In your face!" she shouted, turning to stick her tongue out at Joker as he walked over, grinning widely, holding out his hand for the gun.
"Yes, finally…" he groaned, rolling his eyes as he disarmed the gun and took out the silencer before stowing it in the back of his jeans. "…fuckin' Helen Keller…" he then added under his breath as he turned to open the screen door, laughing with a wheeze when Jayde smacked him hard on the back.
Inside the house, both of their roommates were downstairs, Tre over at the couch watching something on tv while Dotcom was in the kitchen, pulling something from the oven. Jayde trotted over to him when he straightened up and smiled at her as Joker followed suit, opening the fridge for a bottle of water. He was smirking to himself, admiring then just how fucking adorable she was when she was proud of herself.
"Guess what I just did, Dotcom." She began, glancing over at Joker as she hopped up to sit on the counter next to the stove and the hot tray of toast he had just pulled out. Dotcom's eyes shifted from hers to Joker's at the fridge before he shrugged at Jayde.
"What did you do, Jayde?" he asked in an effort to entertain her excitement and he glanced back to Joker who smirked at him as if to say 'just humor her'. She straightened up, sticking her nose in the air slightly.
"I just hit the tree ten times in a row and a lot more times before that!" she exclaimed only for Joker to cough with a suppressed laugh and even from the living room, she heard Tre chuckle to himself. Her excited grin fell instantaneously. "What, is that not good?" she then asked, frowning from Dotcom to Joker and back again before both of them shrugged. A second later, Joker stepped over, grabbing her wrist to pull her down from the counter and force her to follow him.
"It means ya still got some work to do, kiddo." He answered over his shoulder, glancing at Tre as he passed the couch to the stairs and from the look his best friend gave him, Joker was positive he knew how much fun he was having, training Jayde in the ways of a true assassin…especially now that she wasn't spitting in his drinks anymore.
Luckily, it seemed Jayde was still too distracted by wondering if hitting the tree ten times in a row was good or not to notice where they were going but as usual, the moment he closed his office door behind them, she asked "What are we doing now?" Joker laughed to himself as he crossed the room to his desk.
"Well, obviously, I'm about to tell you, right?" he asked in return, glancing back at her on the other side of the room to watch the way her quizzical look faded to a frown. Both of her hands met her hips in that very 'Jayde' sort of way and Joker had to look away back to his desk to hide his grin and the fact that that small move she did was rapidly growing to be one of his favorite things about her. She usually cocked a hip to one side and her head, the other in a very characteristic sort of way that always made him smirk just a little.
He returned a few moments later with his hand held out, showing her the bundle of short thin knives and their silver, metal handles that he had pulled from his desk drawer. Jayde looked down, taking one from him immediately to run her fingers along it curiously. He watched her for a moment before he looked up. "These are throwing knives. Very handy for ya know…uh-…run-aways." He explained, trying not to start grinning again when Jayde's head quickly looked up at him, her gaze bouncing between his eyes as if trying to read if he was being serious or not. He continued a moment later, stepping away to walk over to the far side of the room, across from the back of his door. Jayde followed, honestly a little intrigued by this.
"What I want you to do is take the knife, by the blade¸ and throw it at the door." He said at first, miming what she was supposed to do but didn't actually throw the knife. Jayde frowned when he moved to hand it to her and instead held out the handful to him, taking a step back when he took them.
"You do it first." She requested, shrugging when he cocked an eyebrow at her. "I need to see how its done." She then added, which was completely true, but not the whole reason. Honestly, she just really wanted to see him do it…for her own reasons. It didn't take much persuading for Joker to comply and within moments he had stepped back over and was preparing to throw the first.
In one fluid motion, the threw the knife hard at the door, causing Jayde to jump from the surprising noise it made as it stuck into the wood. She was about to turn and look at him but jumped again when he threw another and then another and another until all six knives were stuck in the middle of the door on the other side of the room. Jayde exhaled slowly as she walked away to pretend to need a closer look at how far they were stuck in. In all honesty, she just needed to distract herself before she admitted openly to Joker how fucking sexy it was that he could do that. However, Joker was following her, grinning proudly as she tugged hard on one of the knives stuck nearly an inch and a half into the wood. When he reached her, she glanced up, rolling her eyes at him.
"Show off…" she muttered, grinning when Joker laughed, wrenching the knives from the door.
"No, no…If I wanted to show off, I would have you stand here and then let me do it." He replied, grinning down at her evilly as she shook her head, staring up at him sternly.
"No…Never." She stated, stepping away to the other side of the room again although she did honestly have half a mind to let him try it. However…she had a feeling if he succeeded in missing her with the knives, she might just drag him into his bedroom down the hall and that was not an option at this point.
As she arranged the knives in her hand across from the door, Joker disappeared onto the other side of the room only to return a moment later, sliding himself along backwards in his rolling computer chair. When he spun around a few feet from her, he was grinning widely, nodding his head.
"Ok, throw." He commanded, motioning toward the door with his head. So Jayde did what she was told but groaned when her knife simply hit the door lamely and fell to the floor with a clank. She turned immediately to Joker, half-expecting him to be sighing or rolling his eyes but he was not and instead simply shrugged. "Eh, I didn't expect you to get it on the first try." He said consolingly, but then held up his hand, showing her how to hold it right. "It's more of a fluid motion, not just moving your arm. You gotta put your shoulder and everything into it so you'll throw harder. Try again."
So again, Jayde obeyed him and threw it harder at the door, gasping when the tip of the knife stuck momentarily but then fell to the floor. She huffed irritably, tossing her hands while Joker laughed, shaking his head.
"You're not throwing it hard enough!" he explained, reaching out to take one of the knives from her as he stood up. "Ya gotta…" he began but then paused to throw the knife hard, leaning into it slightly before motioning at the door when the knife stuck with a dull thud. "See? You gotta really throw it. None of this wimpy-…" he paused again to mime Jayde throwing with a very sissy movement of his arm. When she glared at his poking fun of her, he laughed, sitting back down in his chair to watch. "Throw, now."
Finally, as was usually the case with Jayde, Joker was finding, it only took a few tries before she finally succeeded and was throwing the knives into the door fairly consistently. She was definitely better at this than at shooting but Joker was not necessarily surprised. Throwing knives was more intimate, more accurate once the person becomes accustomed to it. Besides, this was one of Joker's favorite methods of attack and it made him truly proud that Jayde was somewhat good at it. After several minutes of her sinking the knives one after the other, she turned to him, somewhat breathless with enthusiasm.
"This is kinda fun!" she admitted, walking over to sit down on the rolling stool next to him, holding out the last knife she had failed to throw. Joker laughed, shaking his head.
"Well, you're a right sight better at this than at shooting so it's a good thing you think its fun." He answered mockingly, laughing again when she slapped his knee but he went on. "Since you're so advanced now, try throwing it from here." He challenged, pointing at the door from the somewhat deepened, angled distance. "Sitting down." At first, Jayde wasn't sure if he was serious but after staring at him incredulously for a few moments, he nodded again, raising his eyebrows expectantly.
So with all the strength she could muster, Jayde wound up before throwing the knife as hard as she could at the door, only to squeal and jump up from the stool when it stuck in the wood fairly deeply. Joker laughed as she pointed at him.
"You're damn right I'm advanced at this!" she cried, trotting away across the room to pull the knives from the door as Joker stood up, cracking his back. "You didn't think I could do it, ha!" she added when he walked over, holding his hand out for the knives and he shrugged when she handed them to him.
"I never said that," he answered, winking at her as he turned to cross the room to put the knives back in his desk. "In fact, I felt pretty confident you could do it." He added as he returned, smirking. "I might even find you a uh…moving target to practice on."
It seemed, at the moment, that Joker and Jayde were done in the office for the time being as he was now leading her out into the hall to go back downstairs. Tre was still on the couch as they approached but he glanced over and stood up when he noticed them and was tying his long brown dreadlocks back behind his head when they made it downstairs. Apparently, the look he gave Joker had been one of questioning what all the noise was from and Joker answered a second later, shrugging as he grinned. "Throwing knives."
"Ah…" Tre answered, following them out onto the back porch where Dotcom was seated, smoking a cigarette while he read an instruction manual to some new gadget. He looked up at the sound of the door and grinned at Jayde as he set down the manual, sliding his pack of cigarettes toward her. However, Joker reached out a second before she did, grabbing the cigarettes before she could take one.
"Ah, ah…" he started, sliding them back to Dotcom. "We still have one area of training left and you'll be needing your lungs nice n' pink for it." He told Jayde, grinning widely when she groaned, leaning her head back against the chair.
"Ugh," she whined. "Seriously? What is it? Screaming?" she then asked, rolling her eyes as Dotcom and Tre laughed and Joker leaned forward on the table, linking his fingers together.
"Noooo…" he answered. "Running." All laughing ceased at the table and Jayde's head turned quickly toward him as if she hadn't heard him correctly. Joker could tell she was about to ask 'running?' so he went on, cutting over her voice. "Yes, running. Now let's go."
After shooting Dotcom an irritated roll of her eyes, Jayde left them at the table to follow Joker out into the back yard again, sighing with her hands on her hips as he walked all the way out to where the grass was shorter and the field extended out into the back yard of the empty, model-home mansion next to them. Once at a spot where he felt it was safe for running, he turned, motioning with one hand for Jayde to come join him and after a few moments, she walked up looking thoroughly disinterested. He grinned widely at her, placing his own hands on his hips.
"Alright so…In our…'line of work'…" he began, holding up quotation signs with his fingers. "-It may become necessary to run, either from something or after something." He was explaining, watching Jayde's eyes as she did the same to him, listening to his words but he was positive they were probably going in one ear and out the other. He was about to go on when Jayde cut in, staring out across the field now.
"So what do I have to do?" she asked, turning to look back up at him when she felt his expression change and she found he was grinning again. His shoulders shrugged a second later.
"All you have to do is outrun me." he answered simply, his grin expanding when Jayde huffed, rolling her eyes as she turned to face the wide strip of land, bordered by lanes of tall grass on either side. The wind blew gently, rustling the distant trees and grass all around them. "I'm going to give you a head start then I'm gonna chase ya. If I catch you, we do it again until you can outrun me. Capiche?" he asked, leaning down slightly with his eyebrows raised only to find that Jayde was looking back up at him, her eyes somewhat half-lidded and…unless lack of…'intimacy' was making him delirious, it almost appeared as though Jayde were giving him the eyes…those eyes… He could swear her lips were puckered just a bit more than usual, parted that oh, so sexy way that showed off her…
Joker jumped slightly when Jayde suddenly took off, sprinting away from him, laughing as he called out after her. "Oh, I see!" he yelled, kicking out one of his legs to try and stretch any kinks out. "Diversionary tactics, hm?" He watched her for a few moments, counting slowly backwards from five. She was honestly running pretty fast and had already gained a good amount of ground, but the moment he mentally reached the number one, he took off, sprinting after her, quickly gaining speed as his pace evened out.
Jayde was still laughing and had just glanced over her shoulder when she must have heard him approaching and her laughter quickly evolved to a scream when she realized how close he had gotten behind her. Joker was now the one laughing, cackling as she squealed, trying to zig zag slightly although this only slowed her down, bringing Joker another foot closer to her. His arm had just reached out to wrap around her waist when she suddenly changed directions completely, sprinting into the expanse of tall grass. Joker went sliding past her and she went to laugh breathlessly but screamed again, squealing with laughter as he quickly doubled back and gained the ground behind her again.
A second later, when Jayde moved to change directions again and run past him, Joker reached out, wrapping one arm around her waist, to tug her back and down into the tall reeds of grass, just next to him. She was fairly winded, giggling breathlessly as Joker did the same, rising onto his elbow at her side to move his hair away from his face, squinting at the sunlight beaming down on them. Jayde's heart was hammering at the inside of her ribcage as she caught her breath but this was nothing compared to what it was doing when she opened her eyes to find him looking down at her, smirking. Somehow his forearm had ended up underneath the back of her head as he stayed propped up on his elbow and now Jayde could feel butterflies zooming around inside of her stomach. As she watched his gaze flicker up and down between her eyes and lips a few times, she tried desperately hard not to wish he would lean down and just do it. Yes, he had apologized and things had been leagues better over the past few days, but it did not erase what he had done…And yet…it had been so long since she had felt the scar on his bottom lip against her smooth one.
It seemed Joker was thinking something along the same lines and in an effort to control the situation, he raised his eyebrows, nodding once. "Think its safe to say I caught you." He stated. "Even though you did try to distract me and you changed directions a few times…" Jayde shrugged, trying to keep her left hand where it was at her side so she wouldn't reach up and run it along his broad shoulder and upper arm.
"Well, you can't blame me for trying!" she said, tossing her hand.
"Since you just…ran away, I didn't get to finish what I was saying," he went on once Jayde had looked back up at him, only to find that his expression had grown somewhat serious. Her eyebrows furrowed. "If you're out with me and I tell you to…run or duck or…shoot," he started, pausing to nod his head. "You have to do it, without question." His eyebrows raised as if looking for her to indicate that she understood what he was saying. "If you hesitate and something happens…" Again, he paused as his voice trailed off, looking up through the grass toward the house with a sigh before his eyes came back down to meet hers. There was every chance that what he was about to say would launch them into an awkward situation but it needed to be said, she had to understand. "You have to trust me, Jayde."
As he expected, her eyes flashed slightly at his words and at first, it appeared as though she was going to say something but seemed to think better of it. She shut her mouth again and resorted to a simple nod. Perhaps she didn't want their current situation to end either? Joker sighed again, reaching up to move some of her hair from her face when a breeze blew it there, rustling the tall swaying grass around them. He had been trying not to let himself do that but it didn't seem like she was going to stop him and he really couldn't help it anymore.
He knew Jayde was watching him fight himself and normally that would have irritated him but this was the closest he had been to her, the most comfortable he had felt around her in over a month. If there was only some way he could have read her mind to know what she wanted. The moment was going on far longer than it needed to and just when he was about to give up and lean down further, he jumped, looking up when the sound of rustling footsteps approached them. A second later, Tre appeared, standing in the stretch of short grass, smirking but immediately looking away as though he had walked up on something awkward. Luckily, Joker was already standing up, pulling Jayde along with him and Tre laughed somewhat nervously, glancing from Joker to Jayde.
"We heard you screaming all the way back at the house. I take it he caught you." He said to Jayde, turning to walk back toward the mansion as she laughed, her eyes quickly glancing up at Joker. He didn't seem to be paying much attention and was now walking along with his hands in his pockets, biting on his bottom lip as he stared ahead pensively.
"Yeah, he did." She answered, wishing there was some way to even out what had just happened so they could go back to being friendly and not all awkward around each other. A grin met her lips as she continued to look up at him and a second later, she reached out, sliding her finger into the bare belt loop at the side of his jeans, holding on as they stepped over a bit of uneven ground. Beside her, she noticed Joker's formerly somewhat confused frown fade slowly into a smirk.
Tre didn't seem to notice what she was doing until they had reached the screen door and she let go when Joker moved to hold it open for them to go through. At the table, Dotcom was still sitting reading that instruction manual although he looked up with a grin when they approached.
"So you lost?" he asked, sliding his pack of cigarettes toward her once she had sat down and she glanced at Joker as he leaned against the post of the patio with his arms folded, grinning. She shrugged a second later, taking one of the cigarettes to light it and inhale deeply.
"No, I didn't lose." She answered, frowning at him. "He just has longer legs than me…unfair advantage." When Dotcom, Tre and Joker all three laughed, she smirked down at the cigarette in her fingers, suddenly completely in love with her 'family' for some reason or another.
A few minutes later, after Joker had gone inside saying something about a shower and Dotcom had gone in saying something about dinner, only Jayde and Tre remained, smoking in silence as they both looked out to the back yard. This sort of quiet contemplating was not awkward to Jayde but before she could revel in the fact that they were finally familiar enough to have a comfortable silence, Tre's deep voice broke it.
"So…I didn't mean to interrupt anything just now…" he said somewhat slowly in reference to the moment between she and Joker he had just broken up. Jayde was about to tell him that he hadn't really interrupted anything when he went on. "But if you don't mind me asking, what were you guys talking about when I walked up?" Jayde rolled her eyes a bit, exhaling a thin stream of smoke when she looked over at him across the table.
"He was just telling me that I have to listen to what he says when we're out and to trust him…" she answered. Tre's eye brows raised.
"And?…" he encouraged her to go on. She took a deep breath, folding her hands over her stomach once she had put her cigarette out.
"Well, I understand what he's saying. But…I don't know how I feel about trusting him completely. I mean after what he did-…" her voice trailed off, not wanting to finish her sentence but luckily Tre cut in.
"There is no one on this earth that understands Kieron like I do. And just the fact that he actually verbally apologized to you is something huge in and of itself, I don't think you understand that." He explained, pausing to take a drag from his cigarette and Jayde was positive he was about to go on so she stayed quiet. "That dude has never felt remorse for anything, period…" At this, she cut in.
"Yes, but just acting like mister perfect isn't going to just gain my trust back. I mean it's helping, don't get me wrong but…" It was now Tre's turn to interrupt.
"Jayde," he began and she blinked. That was the first time she had ever heard him say her name. "If I can be perfectly honest with you, I have never seen him act the way he has lately. He's been so…happy, even when you're not around that is really weird for him." He said and Jayde cursed inwardly when she had to try hard not to grin. "He is absolutely crazy about you and I think he's been realizing it lately," Again, he paused and Jayde was starting to feel antsy from the new butterflies fluttering around in her stomach. Why did hearing this from his best friend make her feel so…elated? Tre was continuing. "So, if you don't ever plan on letting him win your trust back, then you need to let him know, soon."
Silence descended again while Jayde thought, biting down on her bottom lip before she looked over, tossing her hands. "I want to trust him, Tre. I honestly do, but how am I supposed to…do that? I don't want to just…run up and be like 'oh, yes, I trust you, I know you wont ever ever hurt me again' because then he'll just do it again-…" Tre shook his head, holding up a finger.
"Jayde, you can rest assured that he will never do what he did to you again." He stated first but then went on. "Just take things slow, girl. Believe me, he understands that it will take time for you to trust him again. But you can't blame him for trying harder to make you happy in the mean time." Finally, he looked back over, smirking at her when she sighed, shaking her head.
"Ya know, Tre? Joker is so lucky to have a best friend like you." She said, smiling at him. "You're so calm and…collected and patient with him and it seems like that is what makes you two such great friends. You even each other out." Across the table, Tre was nodding slowly.
"Exactly, Jayde. That's the same sort of thing you two have." He replied, grinning when realization dawned on her face. "You are calm and collected too. You're patient with him because you care about him and know what it takes. That's why you two make a good match. You're polar opposites but you're both completely crazy about each other, whether you want to admit it or not." It seemed Tre was having one epiphany after the other and he went on again after another pause. "That's why it's been so frustrating for Dotcom n' me lately. It's like you and Ki are just trying to ignore the fact that you both have feelings for each other. It's the whole 'elephant in the room' thing. If you both just admit it, things would be so much easier…for everyone."
Jayde was about to laugh and reply when the sliding glass door opened behind her and a wave of excellent-smelling cologne met her senses just before Joker stepped out, apparently sensing that they had just been talking about him. He glanced from Tre to Jayde and back again somewhat suspiciously before he sat down, placing the white towel he had brought with him on his head to rub it over his dripping green messy hair. At first, Jayde wasn't really sure what to say so she stayed silent and instead looked up at Tre when he stood, sliding his pack of cigarettes into his pocket. Apparently, he didn't find it necessary to explain why he was leaving but Jayde was positive that he wanted to give them time alone to possibly talk about what had transpired in the grass…She was also positive that Joker did not want to talk about it.
Once Tre had left them, Joker looked over, exhaling heavily. "So you kinda passed your training." He stated, cocking one eyebrow at her as she frowned. "You still need some work though." He then added, grinning when she rolled her eyes.
"So do I get a prize for kinda passing my training?" she asked somewhat sarcastically although her eyes widened when Joker nodded.
"Actually, you do, miss smarty-pants." He answered, leaning forward on the table toward her. A second later, she copied him, staring at him expectantly until he went on. "If you want, I'll tell you what my 'big plans' are…but you probably want something else-…" Jayde gasped, bouncing a few times in her chair.
"No! Tell me! That's the prize I want!" she squealed, grinning when Joker laughed, rising from the chair as he glanced inside at the kitchen.
"Alright, fine. After dinner, meet me in my office and we'll…chit chat…"
Dinner, as usual, was beyond delicious and perfectly filling although Jayde did honestly eat a little faster than she normally would have. She could hardly believe Joker was finally going to tell her what he had been planning although she did feel a bit skeptical about whether he would really let her in on everything. She had been the first one to finish eating, had already taken her plate into the kitchen and was now sitting on the couch, pretending to watch tv when she heard Joker rise from the table on the other side of the room behind her.
A second later, he appeared out of nowhere and Jayde was just about to look up when he suddenly plopped down on her lap heavily, sliding one of his arms around her shoulders to link his hands together at her arm. Jayde groaned, bringing up her hand to rest it on his back and he grinned when she glared up at him.
"Are you sure you wanna know the plans?" he asked, squinting down at her. "Ya know, there are other prize options…" Jayde was shaking her head indignantly.
"Nope! I wanna know the plans." She answered immediately, although she was somewhat curious as to what other 'prizes' he had. Her curiosity for his plans far outweighed her interest in other 'options' so when Joker stood up, holding out his hands, she did not hesitate to place both of hers within his larger ones and he pulled her up before heading to the stairs.
Upstairs, with the office door closed behind him, Joker followed Jayde over to his desk where she helped herself to the more comfortable of the two chairs before swiveling to face him as he sat down on the rolling stool across from her. She was already leaned forward expectantly, staring at him with a poorly hidden, excited grin on her face. He glanced at her before smirking to himself as he pulled a small book from his desk drawer before flipping it open to his bookmark and clearing his throat. He knew Jayde was staring at the open Bible in his hands, probably wondering what the fuck he was doing reading from it but instead of stopping to explain himself now, he proceeded to read, knowing there would be plenty of questions for her to add to her list once he was done reading.
"Then the Lord said to Moses: "Tell Aaron, 'Take your staff and raise your hand over the waters of Egypt—all its rivers, canals, ponds, and all the reservoirs. Turn all the water to blood. Everywhere in Egypt the water will turn to blood, even the water stored in wooden bowls and stone pots.'" He read, pausing momentarily although Jayde stayed silent so he continued reading and reading and reading from the book of Exodus until he had finished the book and set it back down on the desk with a satisfied sigh.
Across from him, Jayde was staring blankly, dumbfounded that he had gone so far as to read to her for nearly fifteen minutes and he laughed, shrugging his shoulders when she blinked a few times, sitting up. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly as she tried to think through the enormity of what he was trying to tell her.
"So…you're going to…do the 'Ten plagues of Egypt'?" she asked finally, frowning fully when Joker nodded enthusiastically, his grin wide with excitement and pride at his idea. "That's what you were talking about when you said you were going to turn water to blood?" she asked again, her frown deepening when he nodded again, harder. "Um…why?" At this, Joker sighed, deflating slightly as he slouched on the stool.
"Why not?" he answered with a question, apparently convinced that his logic was completely air-tight. Jayde tossed her hands, rolling her eyes.
"Honestly, I'm a little surprised that you've actually read that thing," she commented, motioning toward the closed Bible with one finger. "You don't really strike me as the religious type, to be honest, Joker." He shrugged.
"I'm not the religious type." He replied. "I just got curious about what all the…fuss was over this one book so I sat down and read it. Then I read the Koran too, just out of curiosity. Very inspiring, the wrath of this…'God' person." He went on to explain, turning slightly to lean his back against the desk, looking over sideways at Jayde. "He's the ultimate agent of chaos, see? Very inspiring to someone like me…"
Through his explanation, she had slowly started shaking her head until she finally laughed, leaning back in his chair, honestly a little blown away by how smart and creative he was when he wanted to be. She would never have ever thought of using an idea like the ten plagues of Egypt on a corrupt and bustling city like Gotham but now that she thought of it, it did seem like somewhat of a cool idea. The water into blood thing, she could understand; that's why he had been meeting with the owner of a huge chain of slaughterhouses about purchasing around seven or eight tons of blood. That's why they had been down at the docks near the water processing plant for the entire city of Gotham. But the book of Exodus spoke about masses of frogs and locusts that infested Egypt, about lice and boils and blisters that afflicted nearly all of the Egyptians of the time. Joker's plan was starting to seem a bit monumental but also incredibly overwhelming.
"So that's the plan," he was saying, holding out one hand, only to grin when Jayde gasped, leaning forward towards him.
"No! You said you would tell me everything!" she cried, reaching out to slap him on the knee while he laughed, holding out a hand to deflect her smacking.
"I just did!" he answered, rolling away from her slightly. "I never said how specific I was going to be…" Across from him, Jayde huffed, leaning back to cross her arms over her stomach like a disappointed little girl and Joker grinned when he even noticed her bottom lip poked out a bit further than usual.
"That's unfair," she murmured, glancing down before smirking back up at him when she found herself unable to frown for too long. Joker looked away a second later, moving to put his Bible away, thinking wildly about telling her how it was awfully rich of her to call anything unfair when all he could do was sit there and think about kissing her right on that pretty mouth of hers…and about how she would probably punch him if he were to attempt it. He cleared his throat a second later to try and distract himself from the thought.
"Well, at least now you can't say I never tell ya anything, kiddo." He said rather off-handedly, completely unaware that Jayde was now staring at him, wondering how wrong it would feel if she were to just stand up and sit down in his lap. But then again…Tre had said it would be smart to just take it slow with Joker now. So in an effort to put a little distance between them, Jayde stood up, stretching her arms out as a yawn took over and she shivered when Joker stood as well.
"I really think I need a shower and maybe early bed." she said in something of a mumble, hoping to diffuse this random, somewhat awkward moment. It was obvious neither she nor Joker really knew how they got there but both were itching to make it stop. "…Seeing as to how I got something of a work out today…" She continued with a slight laugh as she rolled her eyes, hoping Joker would catch on. Luckily, it seemed as though he did and was now walking over to the office door to open it for her. Jayde followed but just when she thought he was going to leave it there and say goodnight, he stepped out after her, closing the door behind him.
Without missing a beat, Jayde began walking down toward her bedroom door, mildly surprised that he was going with her although she had half-expected something like this to happen…he had to get her alone at some point to talk about things and get something of an update on how she was feeling toward him. She was positive beyond all doubt that he was going to mention it the moment they reached her door whether he wanted to or not so in an effort to control the situation, she trotted forward a step or two to turn and face him, arching an eyebrow.
"You know…Just because you've been so nice to me lately doesn't mean I don't hate you still." She said with a grin and a joking tone to her voice. Fortunately, Joker was smart and she was grateful he could see through her 'joke' to the underlying message she was trying to get across. Having serious conversations with him was fairly hard to do so if she could keep her tone light and somewhat playful, he would be much easier to reason with. As she reached her door, he stopped and turned to lean against the railing of the landing, folding his arms. He was smirking somewhat smugly…a good sign.
"But I bet it's helping, hm? Am I right?" he asked, leaning forward slightly to grin at her. Jayde shrugged, fully disappointed in herself when she felt her legs force her a step closer to him. After a pause, her eyes slid up and away from his as she looked quizzically at the wall.
"Maaaybe…" she answered in a questioning tone but looked back to the Joker when she heard take a deep breath and exhale. At the moment, it seemed as though the Joker was growing frustrated and wasn't really sure how to handle it…Jayde hated herself for understanding him so well… He tossed his hands with a shrug, squinting at her with one eye as he hung his head slightly.
"I've never had to…make up for something before, Jayde," he stated a moment later, his voice somewhat low and flat, all clowniness temporarily missing. "So you gotta help me a little here."
"Well, maybe if you-…" her answer had been so immediate, Jayde caught herself off guard but instantly stopped there, wondering how on earth she had convinced herself so quickly that it would have been a good idea to tell him to kiss her. Shaking her head, she looked down momentarily, completely sure that Joker knew what she had been about to say, and she was just looking back up to say something else, completely unrelated, when Joker's scarred lips caught hers half-way through the motion. She gasped lightly against him, her hands instinctively raising to rest on his chest gently but a second later, her brain had kicked in and she pushed him instead, taking a step back. As hard as she was trying to be mad, her efforts were staunched by the surprised grin on her face.
"Hey, you can't just-" she had started to say but in one movement, Joker had stood from leaned against the railing to bring his hands up to either side of her neck, pulling her only an inch closer to him to connect their lips again. Finally, Jayde's defenses broke like a weak dam and she found herself moving so close to him, she had her head tilted all the way back as he stood straight up. She sighed in content as a warm, tingly feeling passed through her from the two places where his hands were at her neck and chin and suddenly her body was seemingly vibrating. Against her, she could feel that wonderful, perfect scar on his bottom lip as she caught it between hers and she wondered fleetingly how she had never appreciated it before.
Joker was grinning as he pulled away, only for a half-second to laugh quietly to himself, before pressing his lips to hers again, bringing one of his hands to the back of her neck, underneath her hair. Jayde felt herself melt right into the carpet but just as she was about to place her arms around his shoulders, he pulled away abruptly, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear as he grinned. A second later, he was walking away, leaving Jayde to blink several times as though she had just woken from a nap. She looked over quickly at the back of his lanky, retreating figure, wondering wildly what she could say to get him to turn around again.
"Hey, you never told me what the other prize was!" she called, knowing full-well that she was blushing deeply, but she was beyond caring if he saw her bright pink cheeks. Halfway down the hall, Joker paused and turned partially with his hands in his pockets, grinning at her over his shoulder.
"You just got the other prize." He answered, arching an eyebrow with that characteristic smirk before continuing on his way down the hall, leaving Jayde to float into her room once he had disappeared into his.
A/N: Alright, so you kiddies have a little homework to do if you want to understand the Plagues of Egypt. I realize some of you may not agree with the Bible and I understand, as I am with most of you on that. However, I have been intrigued by the plagues for some time and think it will make for an excellent satirical aspect to this story. So I have a link for those of you who would like to actually read the inspiration from the scriptures themselves. The book is Exodus, the translation is called "New Living Translation". So for those of you who don't wish to read, that's fine. For those of you who would like to, private message me and I will send you a link to the text. I didn't go into detail with the plagues in this chapter for a reason. You can find the New Living Translation on a website called… NLT dot scripturetext dot com /slash/ Exodus /slash/ 7 dot htm But again, if you just want the link to the site, private message me or leave it in a review. LEAVE ME YOUR LOVE/HATE IF YOU WANT THE NEXT CHAPTER! = ] -QoM