The Joker's Dream

A/N This chapter is from the Joker's perspective, which I thought would be kinda interesting as a one-off:) I hope you guys love this, because I reeeallly loved writing it 3

I'm sat in a garden. It's not my garden: the house we live in is set on an utter wasteland. But it's nice. Real nice.

I'm sat on a bench... It's warm, yet cool at the same time. I look up and realise the warmth is from the sun - that's something I haven't seen in a long while. I exhale and close my eyes: the sun feels good on my tired skin. Nowadays, all my work is done indoors. I miss the outside.

It's quiet. There's some birds singing, again strange, as in Gotham it's entirely skyscrapers and apartments. There's no space for trees, or parks, or anything that's gonna hold wildlife.

Where am I?

There's another sound I can hear... It's faint, but getting closer. It's relatively high pitched, very bright in sound, it keeps ringing in my ear, and it's making the hairs on my arms stand up with glee.

Laughter.

I open my eyes and my vision darts around the garden; eager to locate the source of the sound. My hazel orbs settle on a little girl.

Light hair. Very light hair. The kinda lightness that would have resembled mine if I hadn't gone and dyed it seaweed green. Her eyes aren't my colour though, they're blue and are speckled with green flecks. Very unique, very intriguing. 'She'll get all the boys when she's older,' I think to myself. I chuckle a bit. She's so innocent and adorable, but when she's older, she'll be so elegant and beautiful. Something inside me makes myself feel proud.

Pride? Why pride? It's not like she's my daughter.

Or is she?

The little girl pads round the garden barefoot, chasing butterflies and sniffing flowers and so-forth. She trips up a few times, causing me to laugh a little at her somewhat-lovable clumsiness, but she just gets back up, dusts off her chubby little knees, and continues racing round the garden.

Next thing I know, she's run up to me. I don't know why, but something tells me to get off the bench and crouch down. I crouch at her level and extend my arms. I'm smiling as she runs into my chest and hits me with an excited 'thump', wrapping her arms around my sides and then squeezing: trying to touch her hands together. But her arms are too little, and she can only just reach around my sides. I settle my arms around her also: my palms practically half the size of her back. She's still giggling at something, her breaths erratic with adrenaline. I laugh too as I stand up, taking her into my arms and carrying her on my hip.

The little girl wraps her arms around my neck to steady herself. I remember doing the same thing when I was her age: my mother would pick me up and I wouldn't trust her - clinging onto her hair, or her ears, or whatever was available to assure myself that I wouldn't fall. This little one was doing the same thing.

"I won't drop you kiddo, don't worry."

I looked her right in the eyes as I said this. I looked her right in those big blue eyes. Her eyes were so big... so guiltless. So blameless. This beautiful young girl had never sinned in her life. She had her whole life ahead of her. I suddenly felt like I wanted it to be the best life anyone had ever had.

Who was this girl to me? Why did I feel like this?

Without warning, the kid twisted in my arms so that she could look over her shoulder. She let go of my neck with one hand and started waving madly. "Mummy!" My eyes widened, and I too turned to see where she was facing. I was looking back at a house. This definitely wasn't my own. It was small, probably some kind of cottage, and there was someone stood in the doorway.

She was absolutely stunning. Dark tresses fell from her perfect head, draped delicately over her shoulders and just brushing against her breasts. It was wavy like my own. Her eyes were blue... Even bluer than the eyes of the girl of whom I was holding. She smiled, perking the corners of her beautiful mouth up into a charming smirk. She slowly came down the stairs of the cottage, approaching me and assumably her daughter, and stood on my other side so that she was facing the girl. I looked her figure up and down. She was wearing a dress: pale blue in colour with a white, lacy trim. It was modest over her breasts. Tasteful. I allowed my eyes to sink lower, towards her hips, but instead of hips, I noticed something else.

Her stomach. It was rounded. It wasn't big, but it was perfectly rounded and smooth in appearance. The lady glanced up at me before resting a maternal hand on her tummy.

She chuckled breezily to herself. She went up on her tiptoes, placing her other hand on my shoulder to support herself, before kissing me on the cheek.

"I love you Jack."

I knew that voice. I pulled her closer to me with my spare arm, wrapping it around her waist so that my fingers skimmed the edge of her stomach.

"I love you too, Leila."