Disclaimer: I do not own Batman.

It was quiet for a few seconds as she blurred away. Then, the spottiness in her vision stopped, and consciousness flitted back to Bonnie. As laughter vibrated in her ears, Bonnie jerked up from her seat.

The Joker, in hysterics, rested his head on his arm as his fist pounded the table three times. His other hand pointed at Bonnie when the man was able to open his eyes from his mirth.

Bonnie blanched. Harley didn't know what else to do, so she giggled alongside.

What? Bonnie thought. Was this a secret test of character? Did I miss something?

"K-kid, you s-should have seen your face!" the Joker bellowed. "You looked like you were going to p-pass ou-HA, HA, HA, HA, HA—!"

Never had Bonnie felt so embarrassed. It was a test!

The Joker could have died seeing her face. It was like she embraced death and just waited for the good ole' Reaper to step in. Yet again, the man did put a little something in her food to make her dizzy. But she saw it coming! Priceless!

"…Mistah J?" Harley said, confused.

"Ah, Harls, I'm fine," the Joker said. "Just leave us alone for five minutes."

"But Mistah J—"

"Goodbye, Harley."

Harley was silent for a moment, until she stomped her foot and stamped out of the room. When the door shut, there was another cold silence in the room.

Bonnie slowly turned her head down and away from the Joker, knowing the inevitability of her death. She probably just failed a test that meant life or death, and knowing the Joker's tactics, she probably wouldn't make it out alive of this one this time.

The one time that Bonnie looked back to the Joker, he finally caught her gaze. Bonnie squirmed when the Joker smiled and dissected the emotions in her eyes, until he finally laughed.

"Little one, chin up!" the Joker exclaimed. "You shouldn't be so afraid. I'm not a monster, am I?"

Someone with a cold pencil was drawing on Bonnie's shivering back, yet she slowly straightened up to look fully at him. She slightly paused halfway, realizing what he had just asked.

"No, you're not," she answered, assured.

She wasn't lying to him or herself. To Bonnie, the Joker really wasn't a monster. Actually, he really wasn't much one at all.

He was just really, really, really intelligent. A genius, really. He understood everything—he was an expert in every single field that Bonnie could think of. He especially understood how meaningless and vicious the world was, but he was able to make much more sense of it than the average nihilist was. And to Bonnie, that only illustrated how brilliant he was, not monstrous or insane as people paint him. He wasn't even insane; in fact, he was probably the sanest person in the world.

Even with her respect for him, however, she still feared him. Brilliant he may have been, but he was also the most dangerous person in the world for that reason. He was probably going to kill her, and it was probably going to be at that moment.

While she was thinking about this, the Joker stared at her, completely expressionless.

"No? Then what's the matter, kid?" he asked, in a knowing fashion. His mocking words just made Bonnie feel more dread for what was coming her way.

He's doing that on purpose! thought Bonnie. What should I say? What should I say?

Finally, she croaked, "…Aren't…you… going to kill…me?"

See, Bonnie? she thought. That wasn't so bad, wasn't it?

Her mind quickly shut up when she thought that, for the Joker's face turned sour.

"Kid, we went over this!" he snapped. "Repeat after me: I'm not going to kill you."

"…I'm not going to kill you," Bonnie said, in a borderline robotic tone. It didn't help that the Joker was controlling the movement of her jaw with his hand.

"Well, you better not!" the Joker said, looking offended. "Besides, you'd fail, anyway! And I'd kill you for that one!"

The Joker, with a red tint in his eyes, ruffled Bonnie's hair, and the grin came back to his face. Bonnie nearly recoiled, even though what he said might have been his way of a joke.

Then what's going to happen to me? Bonnie didn't even realize she said her thought aloud.

"Nothing! You're staying, kid!"

If there were glass walls in Bonnie's eyes, they were all shot down. Then again, there was something else in her perplexed pupils. She didn't know what it was, and all she wanted to do was to think about it and everything he just said.

What? Bonnie's mind raced. Was this planned all along? There's a catch, isn't there? Am I in debt—is he letting me live so I could do something for him? Is he going to say "just kidding" and put Joker toxin in front of me? Are they planning something else? Or does he actually...mean that?

Bonnie's choppy, rushed thoughts suddenly ceased.

…Does he really?

"I'm just going to guess that you had a brain jam, so take as long as you need to have it sink in. I'm in no hurry," said the Joker, tapping his foot.

"I..."

"The audience is, though. The suspense is killing them."

"I…why?"

"Because I want you to. The rest, you can figure out yourself. And to think I thought there was a noggin in your head!" He poked Bonnie in the forehead three times. "Really, even Harley knows! Well, I told her, but then again—!"

The door slammed open.

"IT'S BEEN FIVE MINUTES!" the aforementioned woman screeched with her unbearably shrill voice. She burst into the open room so spontaneously that confetti should have had exploded from behind.

The Joker gritted his teeth, turning away from Bonnie.

"You blondes have the WORST timing! It CAN'T be five minutes already!" the Joker yelled, his voice building in volume with each word he spat. He walked toward her, tightening his fist.

"What are ya talking about, Mistah J?" she mocked, innocently. The Joker was about an inch away from her at the end of her reply, but Harley didn't care.

"I was JUST saying that—oh, Harley, what are you eating now?" He eyed at her two pieces of bread with some chocolate spreading on them.

"Oh, yeah! Sweetie, want some?" The henchwoman waved one piece at Bonnie. She shook her head, more than a little freaked out.

Harley went on, "It's nutty. Get it, Mistah J? Because everybody thinks that we're nutty and for the visual pun, I'm eating Nutell—"

The Joker's eyes were bulging out of his eye-sockets. "Harley. Number one. Your jokes are predictable, dim-witted, and NOT. FUNNY. And secondly, when will you ever stop eating? You're getting so—"

"I am NOT!" Harley said. "That's mean! I'm as skinny as a rail, thank you very much! Red says that I should be proud of my body, and—"

"So we're talking about the PLANT, now?" growled the Joker. "That's it, you annoying blonde!"

"He, he, he…I was a brunette, Puddin'."

"WELL, YOU'RE A BLONDE NOW!"

After that comment, every insult turned incoherent to Bonnie. The clattering of Harley's plate was not as loud as it should have been, and Bonnie's ears reacted to the yelling like anyone would react to chalk on a blackboard. She should have been afraid for her hearing, but oh, well—wait, was he in a headlock?

"Go upstairs, kid," the Joker groaned, his voice raspy. "Too violent for a child's eyes, eh, Harley-Girl?"

Now, it was Harley who was in a headlock.

Bonnie quickly walked away, looking downward the entire time. Grunts and growls were not far behind since she only got halfway up the stairs, so Bonnie tried to focus on the sound of her hand petting the railing.

Even then, something particularly interesting happened at the three-quarter point upstairs, which made Bonnie stop in her tracks.

"Oh, Puddin'!"

"What will it take you to shut—?"

For a moment, it was quiet compared to before. The two noises present sounded like…moaning? No, kissing?

Bonnie twisted her head. Their lips were squashed together in a volatile mix of every intense emotion out there. Harley was dipped downward, and her face had the word "success" written all over it.

With his brow knotted, the Joker made a shooing motion at Bonnie. She left, not glancing back.

And then came the arguing:

"The heck was that for, woman?"

"You don't UNDERSTAND, do you?"

"You've been acting weirder than usual lately! Do me a favor: snap out of it, or I'll make you!"

"I'm only doing this in the name of love, Mistah J!"

"Not this again!"

Meanwhile, Bonnie sped down the hallway. Even though she didn't want to come to other certain conclusions, those two were definitely an odd couple. Yes, she had the nerve to even think that, since the Joker seemed to possess the uncanny ability in reading her mind. She didn't want to think about anything that could offend him.

Plus, it would have been rude to call them an 'odd couple'. Just having the word 'odd' pop up in her brain made her feel like a horrible person.

Finally at her destination, Bonnie shut the door to her bedroom as fast as she opened it. She wished that there was a lock, yet it would have been useless against the Joker and Harley Quinn, anyway.

She wanted to flop onto the bed, but they would probably hear the bed clank. Also, a book was sitting on one of her pillows.

Bonnie's eyes gleamed at it. She hadn't seen a book in ages. She almost felt like she was being delusional for thinking that it was actually there.

Even though she felt like the entire scene was a mirage, Bonnie picked up the novel. It was real indeed, with a golden silky bookmark and a shiny, fair cover. A yellow post-it was on it:

Little Red,

I thought you'd like it. Don't show it to anyone, though. They'd probably rat us out to Hatty.

-M

Bonnie mouthed the letter as she read it again.

M? Bonnie thought. Who's 'M'? Why did 'M' get her a book? Hatty? Who? Who could have known about this? What? How?

Bonnie took the post-it, which just so happened to be on the cover, Through the Looking-Glass.

Huh. She never read the sequel to Alice's Adventures.

Befuddled, she slid into her bed's covers and began reading. It had been a long day, and there wasn't another time where she felt this relaxed. Even though it was probably the morning or the afternoon, she felt her head persuading her to drift off. Still, she just kept reading. Knowing that this could have been the last book she would ever read, she wanted to memorize every single word.

Another Disclaimer: I also do not own anything by Lewis Carroll. I also do not own Nutella. Cheers for you, Fridge.

My take on the Joker and Harley's…relationship issues are somewhat downplayed, but they were seen through Bonnie's perspective (because she barely knows anything about that).