Jerome's character is just too brilliant, I couldn't resist writing something to do with him.

You & I

Chapter Two

Mad

No sleep, no chance, no need
Forget about it
One life, live free, big dreams
We're all about 'em

You're finding it, take it, take it in, it's all here
You and me, no one else, nothing else but us right now

- You & I - Crystal Fighters.

You liked how quiet I had been at first, and I think that's what drew you in. You saw a pretty little thing sitting at a table alone and, in your mind, I was the perfect obsession; I was someone you could relate you. I allowed you to do this, of course, but how you saw me was exactly how I saw you: someone to be there, someone as mad as I was, someone to help me pick up the pieces in that hell hole of an Asylum.

But I had taught myself to survive in such places alone. I wasn't used to having someone there, someone pestering me and laughing at me and sharing madness that I knew so well. But that was you, wasn't it? Always there, always lingering.

You wanted to become an imprint on my life, so I let you.

'But don't ya wanna be remembered, Mads?' you drawled, sprawling yourself over the bench and waggling your eyebrows at me. 'Don't you want people to remember you, huh?'

The thought had never occurred to me, in all honesty. I'd never really wished to change the world I lived in until I met you, you know - before that, I never really cared about anything at all. What could I care about? I was Mad Madeline who shouted at walls whenever her mind was telling her to do do do something. What could I ever do with my life, other than rot away in an Asylum?

'I never really thought about it, Jerome,' I answered, picking away at my food. You'd already finished yours, as always. You ate so quickly, like that meal could be your last meal ever. I suppose, with your life, it could be. 'What's the point in being remembered, when you can so easily be forgotten after a day? I mean...I killed my mom and people only spoke about it for a week, tops. That was something I...I needed to do'. Impulse. Need. Do. 'For her and for me. If I was to be remembered, it's gotta be for something like that, you know?' Something the Impulse tells me to do.

You grinned, wide and toothy. 'Ain't you a treat'. You smacked your lips and leaned toward me, hands clasped and tongue moving in thought. 'Thing is, people have gotta be reminded that the world's an ugly place, y'know? I like to think I do that job pretty darn well. But they gotta realise that they just, uh...gimme somethin' here, Mads'. You clicked your fingers.

'Tiny cogs,' I mused. 'In one big factory'.

You clapped. 'Brilliant! Fantastic! There's gotta be someone to change that, y'know? To break that...schedule of money, work, sex and-and mundaneness, am I right?' Your tongue flicked out and caught the dryness of your lip. I blinked. 'You gotta have brains to look outside the box and see how stuff needs to change'.

And I saw it. I really, honestly saw what you were trying to say, Jerome. It made sense to me more than anything else ever had in my life, and I wanted to live that little dream with you. Two days. Two fuckin' days in, and already you had captured my mind and spread it wider than it had in a long time. And you...you latched onto me, the person who would listen to you and nod at your and who got you. It was then that I realised it, and knew that without a doubt I could use it. I could use you.

You reached for me, fingers curling around my neck and jaw. Perhaps you had squeezed a little too hard, but you always were violent, weren't you? You always expressed yourself with a crunching of bones and an axe to the neck. 'You see that, don't you, beautiful? You see what's gotta change and what's gotta be done'. You grinned and laughed. In there, no one even looked at you when you did that. It was the norm. Your eyes scanned my face, and for the first time I saw nothing but curiosity there. 'You're gonna be phenomenal, y'know? Be loud and proud, beautiful, and the world will be so much easier to live in'.

You were right.

It was.

'My mother was quiet,' I told you. 'She always told me quietness was a ladies best quality. To watch and listen and never speak out'. A grin sliced across my face. 'She's always quiet now'.

Only my Doctors saw me that way, Jerome. I never spoke to people enough to let them see the crazy.

You, though, you tightened your hold on my jaw and ground your teeth like you were stopping yourself from swallowing me whole. I knew how to play people, Jerome. I knew what to let them see; what part of my being would draw them to me most, if I needed them to be. With my Doctors, I was usually very quiet, very shy, very articulate in explaining myself. With you, and only you, I was real. You had been the only person to want to see that part of me.

And, oh, you made me free.

'I understand that you've made a friend, Madeline'. It was a week in. They'd noticed.

My Doctor, Doctor Isis, was a very smart woman. I liked her sometimes, but I didn't like her when she treated me like a piece of glass. I wondered often if that was her method, or if she simply though every crazy person was going to breakdown at any moment. I knew that she felt sorry for me, and that was my aim. Because of that, she listened to what kind of meds I was okay with taking, and what dosage made me feel empty.

Not that I ever actually took the meds, as you know. Neither did you, really. They made us think like submissive idiots.

I blinked at her, eyes wide and mouth closed. 'Yes,' I nodded. 'Jerome. He's nice. He talks to me'. Short sentence to punctuate the 'quietness' of my nature. The confusion of whether I should talk or not, whether she wanted me to talk. Barely any eye contact. Fiddling hands. Feet crossed at the ankles. Praises to you with naivety at what you had done. This is how I played them, Jerome. You loved it.

Isis pursed her lips and gave me a look of sympathy. Silly woman. She only wanted to help. 'I know that making friends is difficult, Madeline, but perhaps you would do better buddying up with someone a little less...outwardly spoken than Jerome, hmm? Doesn't he scare you?'

Nothing scared me. I'm not sure whether it was numbness to the feeling, or simply because I hadn't been exposed to anything particularly terrifying before.

I shook my head. 'He talks to me like I'm real'.

Isis nodded and scrawled something across her notebook. 'That's fair enough, Madeline. Please, though, won't you be careful?' I nodded and smiled at her in a way that was nothing like the way I smiled at you. Closed mouth, kind eyes. 'Today, Madeline, I want to talk to you about your father'. I was surprised at this notion, this suggestion. She never talked about my father, you know. Only my dead mother. 'Is that okay?'

I uncrossed my ankles and nodded.

'I spoke to him very recently,' said Isis, pushing her blonde hair over her shoulder with manicured hands. On her wedding finger, there was evidence of white skin where a wedding band would have been. I'd noticed that when I'd arrived at the Asylum. I stared away from her hand and to her face, egging her to carry on talking. 'He said he would like to see you, as he now believes he's ready'.

I could have scoffed. Ready? I did him a favour, and he God damn knew it. 'Oh'. I breathed in. 'I don't really want to see him'. Stay calm.

Isis nodded. 'I thought that would be the case, Madeline. I want you to really think about this though, okay? Seeing your father again could really help you in...in healing. It could help you come to terms with what you did and why you did it, which is what we're really trying to get at here, isn't it?'

I know why I did it. I did it because she was killing every part of me. I did it because she may have well have been dead already, the empty shell of a woman she was. Empty. Empty. Nothing. I nodded, brow furrowed in thought. 'I understand. Yes. I'll think on it'.

Ten minutes later, I was storming into the recreational room with red cheeks and tights fists, eyes searching for only you. You sat with the gang, mouth moving quickly and eyes intense as you stared at Sionis across from you. Cannibal Man grinned when he saw me, meaty cheeks pulling upward, and said something to you. By this time, I had already thrown myself onto a table farthest away from anyone else in the whole room.

Your gaze darkened when you saw me.

In ten seconds flat you were sitting closer to me than you had ever sat before. 'What?' you asked, eyes always so intense and staring. 'What's wroooong, beautiful?'

In one week, you had become such a fixture in my life that I could not dismiss this new event. I had to tell you. I wanted you to know. 'My father wants to come and visit me'. You leaned back. You clucked your tongue. 'He found me. Saw me. Saw me do it. Saw me get that knife and cut into her like-like that. Felt like slicing into an apple or something softer, y'know?' You looked at me like you got it and all I could think was finally. 'He saw it, though. I don't wanna see him. He reminds me of her. Let her rule him like he was nothing. I did it for him - so he could get rid of her. So he could stop being so sad. It was such an easy solution...no one would miss her and he doesn't. He can't'. I shook my head, curls flying. 'Why are they all so stupid, Jerome?'

You bowed your head and grinned, eyes only on me. 'There you are,' you said.

And there I was. You found me. I let you see me.

Later, I sat in my cell with my feet pressed against the ground and my fingers playing across the cuts on my arm. I can't really remember how I'd done them, but my Doctors never let me have my fingernails very long, so I could make a guess. I didn't remember a lot of things, you know. I think I blocked stuff out that I didn't want to remember. Stuff that I had no time for.

You can't even imagine my surprise when you came into my cell, something that was strictly forbidden in Arkham. One week, and you had already bent the rules and remade them to fit your own needs.

'Sionis,' you said, grinning at my look. 'Paid off one of the guards - he owed me a favour'.

'Already?' I asked.

You shrugged. 'I work quickly'. You stood before me, nearly six foot and, with hands playing at your sides, you cracked your neck. 'Get up'.

I scowled. 'Say please'.

You loved it. 'Oh, oh! It's all an act, ain't it, Madeline? Quietness and cuteness and big, round eyes. You just wanna stay unnoticed and get on with your little act, but I'll play along'. You threw yourself onto the bed. 'Y'know, Sionis wasn't too happy with me wasting my favour on you, beautiful'. You sat there, back straight and eyes wide and unblinking. I wondered, sometimes, how you were even real. 'I heard somethin' pretty funny, truth be told'. You lowered your voice and leaned in. 'Wanna know what it is?'

I smiled so hard my cheeks hurt. 'I think I can guess what it is'.

You hooted, only to shut your mouth when there was a small knock on the door. 'Gotta be quiet, huh?' You rolled your eyes. 'I heard that Sionis, ahem, tried it on with my Madeline, huh? Silly man. Silly, silly man. But I bet he knows that now!' You slapped your hands against your knees. 'He wouldn't tell. Me. What. Though'. You frowned hard. 'You wanna tell me, Mads? I won't be able to sleep unless I know what it is!'

I was baffled. 'You wasted your favour to find that out?' You said nothing. You only stayed and bumped your knee against mine. A strand of ginger hair fell into your eyes, and I watched it before sighing. 'Fine, Jerome. Fine. I bit him, okay? I kicked him and bit him and made sure that the guards didn't see any of the marks'. I smiled prettily. 'They can't resist my sweetness, you know'.

You jaw clenched quickly, muscle jumping rapidly as you stared at me like I was cake on your birthday. 'Bad girl,' you said, teeth pressing into your knuckles. 'Naughty girl'. My stomach felt hot and pulled your knuckle away from your mother and met my gaze with dark eyes that sometimes, sometimes, could be a very lovely shade of blue. I was very aware of who you were in that moment. I was very aware that you were simply an eighteen year old boy who had, most likely, never really had many encounters with women or girls.

I wanted to know you more than I had ever known anyone else.

'You can kiss me, Jerome,' I said.

You pounced, mouth slamming against mine but, oh, I loved it. Your hand landed on my cheek and your knee bumped harder against mine. It lasted maybe ten seconds, maybe less, before there were two knocks on the door.

You breathed. You grinned. 'Oh. Oh. I'm never gonna wanna stop doing that, beautiful'.

Second chapter. Yay! The reviews have been wonderful, thank you so much! If you want to leave some more than would be very nice :) Remember, the tumblr is qarlgrimes!