Pizzaz Chapter 1 [2/?]

[reonin]

Title: Pizzaz [2/?]
Characters: Harvey Dent/Twoface, Jack/Joker, (Harley Quin, OC, in later chapters) Batman/Bruce Wayne
Pairings: Harvy/Joker, Bruce/Harvey
Raiting: NC-17 (Over All)
Author: Reonin
Chapter Rating: Pg-13
Warnings/Spoilers: Slight Language, MxM sexual themes, Gore
Disclaimer: Characters mentioned aren't mine. Despite my desire for them to be. D:
Summary: Life gets Boring when you're dead. Life gets boring when you're 'ahead of the curve'. At least, until you meet someone who's as dead to the world and advanced in life as you are. Then, you get fireworks.
Author Notes: D:
AS YOU CAN TELL. I have no Beta. Want to be my Beta? 8D; As of yet, I might not want one. But if you're interested, I'd love to talk first. I tend to warm up more to people I knw. >>; But yeah. Anyway. Chapter ONE. :3


He’d have to have seen it to believe it.
Bruce sat atop a large building east of the site, watching the flames be put out. He’d never been, totally surprised by what some people could do. But, this sure got close.
He’d seen it on the news, a helicopter circling a massive park. Someone had taken to drawing a massive playing card with gasoline, though, in the middle were words that brought the thought that maybe, the Joker wasn’t alone.
‘Come on back, Mister J.’
Someone wanted the Joker. And, apparently, very much so.
---
"Har-ar-arvey," Joker shut the apartment door slowly, peering around in the darkness. "I got your message Harvey. I liked that, mhm, oho, yes. Very good, so thoughtful." He giggled, covering his mouth with his hands as he looked around. "Harvey, come on out. Don’t make me come find you." His hand slowly crept towards his pocket. "If I find you, we’ll play a little g-"
"You will listen to me and you will understand what I’m telling you, got it clown?"
Joker glanced down, wheezing a laugh against the knife at his throat. "A-aw, it’s nice to see you t-" He coughed, tilting his head back slightly and giggling. "Too."
"/Do/ you understand," Harvey half shouted, making the prince giggle further.
"Sure sure, whatever Harv." Harvey growled, pressing the knife a little closer. Joker felt it break skin and giggled insanely.
"I’ll join you. I want to see this city burn." He shifted, wrapping an arm around Joker’s chest and leading him to the window. "I want to see them crippled."
"Mm," Joker hummed, resting his head back on Harvey’s shoulder to stare mildly at him. He scanned over Harvey’s face for a good amount of time, before the angered creature looked away from the window. "Good. Good, Harv. Now, you’re gunna need to let me go." He glanced down in a gesture at his neck. "Before I, ah, get...uncomfortable."
Harvey stepped back, wiping the bloody blade off on his sleeve. The Joker ran a finger along the shallow cut in his neck, before falling less-then-gracefully onto the leatehr couch. He shifted this way, then that, then ended up sprawling across it with a leg hanging off. "Harv." Harvey looked away from the window again at the thoughtful expression the Joker gave his ceiling. He waited a moment, before the Joker sighed and looked at him. The most average, human look of indifference he’d ever seen on that face. Granted, the make-up made it a bit less appealing. "I think, this is the start of an, ah...be-yew-tee-ful relationship." He then collapsed into a fit of manic cackles, hugging his sides and kicking his feet into the air. Harvey stared at him, and in the back of his mind wondered exactly how similar the Joker expected them to be.
He was not like the Joker. No, no the Joker wasn’t human anymore.
At least Harvey still had a beating heart, even if Gotham thought he didn’t. He expect that, if you listened to the Joker’s pulse, you’d just find more laughter.
---
"Master Bruce." Alfred frowned at the groan he got, watching his young ward roll away to put his back to him. "...Master Bruce, it’s noon."
"Alfred," Bruce groaned, covering his head with a pillow. Alfred sighed and set the tray of lunch food on the side table.
"Master Bruce, you need to get up."
"Why," he droned slightly, but sat up anyway.
"You have two hours to be at Centry Hotel on Seventh avenue, sir." Bruce frowned, rubbing an eye. "For the Investor’s supper, sir."
"Oh, right." He ran a hand down his face, growling to himself. "I need sleep eventually, Alfred."
"I know sir," Alfred smiled warmly. "But I don’t think the rest of your world does. Come on now. Have a spot of coffee. I’ll go fetch a suit."
Bruce smiled at Alfred’s retreating back. "Thank you, Alfred."
"Of course, sir."
---
Two weeks, Harvey noted. It had been two weeks since his ‘calling card’ to the Joker. Sadly enough, it seemed, the Joker took that as a welcome into his home.
He hadn’t left.
Except to go out at random intervals, leaving news camera’s in his giggling wake. What made Harvey’s fingers itch for his coin, that had inevitably chosen his decision, was the fact the Joker kept asking him to wait. Waiting, being still, thinking things through, planning.
Not words you would associate with the man. He was waiting for something though. Keeping Harvey, his obvious new shiny toy for Christmas, hidden from the other kids. Had him all to himself.
Harvey regretted that fact.
He’d woken up from dreams again, not particularly remembering any of them, and couldn’t seem to drive himself back to sleep. The annoying green glow of his clock bored the little numbers into his head as 3.47 AM.
He rolled on his mattress onto his good side, glaring at the wall for a good amount of time before deciding that a drunken coma would feel better then no sleep in the morning. He got halfway to the living room before he heard the soft, mindless chatter coming from within. Oh yeah, he had a house guest. Pest.
Hey, they rhymed.
He glanced at his pajama pants and T-shirt, deciding he didn’t care one way or another how the idiotic clown saw him, and continued his quest for booze. He didn’t cast a glance at the couch, but knew the Joker had seen him when the giggles changed.
"Good morning, Harrrrrvey. You look...rumpled." Joker snorted, and Harvey tired to ignore him. The man scrambled off the couch and followed him, fingers twitching. "So, so, are you ready? Hm? I am. Oh I can’t wait, Harvey! I can’t wait to see half of Gotham shrink away from their own white knight." Harvey jumped at callused fingers brushing his forearm. He looked at the other man, mild realization that the Joker had shed all but his garish purple slacks and tacky blue-pattered shirt. He seemed intent on watching his own fingers caress Harvey’s skin, and Harvey just, let him. "I can’t wait Harv." The dark eyes looked up through those heavy lashed, and Harvey closed his mouth. He didn’t realize he’d been gaping.
They stood like that, Frozen in time, before the Joker turned to wave a hand over his shoulder and pace about the kitchen. Harvey let out a breath he hadn’t noticed he’d taken hold of.
"This, will be a social experiment in and of itself, methinks. I wonder, will they recognize their once White Knight? The, ah, beauty in the beast." He giggled madly, and Harvey found himself gripping the counter to save himself from gripping the Joker’s neck. "I mean, truly Harvster. Some people might think you’re ah...half the man you were. Ahaha! Hahah!" Joker bounced, waiting for Harvey to laugh. He got a dark look, and frowned slightly. "Well be that way." He waved it off and went about his pacing. "Personally, I believe you’re twice the man you once were." He stopped, turning his head ever so slightly to see Harvey from the side of his eye. "...Don’t you agree?"
"I don’t know what you mean."
"Oh Don’t lie to me Harv!" Joker was on him in a heart beat. "I know you can hear him. I see him in your eyes when you’re...ah...off. The night I came back, you didn’t hold that knife to my neck." He giggled madly, resting his fingers on Harvey’s chest. Harvey stared down at him, scowling.
He half noticed the height difference. Though, at the moment, he seemed to tower over Joker, he had to take note of the man’s posture. His shoulders and head ducked all the time, and how...bent at the hip he was.
"Stand up."
"...Mm?" The Joker’s brows knitted together and he took a long step backwards. "What?"
"Come here, and stand up. Straight." The Joker looked perplexed, for once, and Harvey grinned to himself. "Come on then, don’t make me make you." The Joker stepped up to him almost mechanically, stiffening his back and stood straight, almost awkwardly.
The Joker felt a bit annoyed, to say the least.
"Harvey I d-"
"Huh." Harvey blinked, shrugged, and waved him off. Joker scowled.
"Don’t /wave me off/."
"You’re taller then me." Harvey went back to find his booze. It was to early. Way, way to early. He sighed when the Joker spun him around, back to hunching over. "What?"
"Is that what you wanted?" Harvey had to lean back a bit. He could nearly smell the grease in the Joker’s smudged make-up.
"...I was just curious."
"Curious..." Joker tilted his head, eyes scanning the good side of Harvey’s face. "About little ol’ me?"
"Your height, really. You hunch over all the time I thought you were short." Joker made indignant sound, glaring. "You’re at least, if not taller, them me standing up...straight." He quirked a brow, watching the Joker look down at himself, then wiggle about and roll his shoulders. "What are you doing?"
"Why were you looking at me so hard," The Joker ceased his twitching and jerking, peering at Harvey with blank, misplaced innocence. Harvey was a bit thrown by the question. And by the subject change.
"What?"
"Why," The Joker sighed in annoyance. "Were you staring at me so hard to need to know my height?"
"I-I wasn’t." Harvey quirked his brow. "You just, hunch all the time."
"No one else has asked me my height. Not even Batsy." He giggled, covering his mouth. "But, but I think he’s just a grumpy guss." He snorted, ducking his head and trying vaguely to stop his giggles. Harvey rolled his eyes and gave up on his booze. He’d never get to sleep now.
"What were you talking about when I walked in?"
"A-hm," The Joker looked back up, giggles bubbling up now and again. "Oh, that, eheh. Nothing." He waved and yelped when Harvey grabbed it and jerked in closer. "Harvey."
"You wear your gloves to much. Your hands look almost untouched." He let it go and looked mildly at him. The Joker stared, pulling his hand to his chest and frowning. Then grinned and began to giggle. Then full-out cackle.
"Oh, My dear Harvey. I have to keep my hands tip-top! Tippy-tip-top!" He tossed his hair and snorted. "Keep my lovely feminine wiles in tact you know. Keep’em nimble to play the pian-er." He made a mock movement with his fingers, humming a waltz, before actually dancing to it. "Hm, I says to my partner. Hm, I says. Methinks he’s trying to study me, I says. She just giggles and laughs, and continues to dance." He stopped and looked at Harvey, grinning wide. "…So, are ya, Harv? Are you /gandering/ at me?"

Harvey felt a blush cross his good side, anger mounting. "Out."

"…Out?" Joker stared, then danced out of the way when Harvey lunged.

"OUT."

"Oo-hoo! You were taking a gander!" Joker cackled, running towards the door, Harvey at his heels. "I’d have never guessed, Harv-Whoa-" Joker coughed and found his feet leave the ground and his back hit it instead, skidding a good four feet back from the door. He rolled onto his side and shorted, covering his mouth from wheezing giggles. "Aha, oho, ooh, ow. That smarted, ouch, oo, aha." He glanced at the bare foot in front of him, then up in time to see Harvey crouch next to him. He winced slightly at a rough hand in his then giggled again.

"Listen, clown." Harvey shook the creature by his hair. "It’s four fuckin’ thirty in the morning. I’m exhausted. And you’re going to shut up. I don’t know why you’re suddenly so interested in me, but you-"
"Suddenly?" He stared, then snorted and cackled in Harvey’s face. His fingers really twitched for his coin. "Oh, Harvey Den-ta, Mista Twoface. I been looking for you for…" He wiggled his fingers. "Long time. Then I found you. You’ve been keepin’ it on the DL, if you know what I mean."
"I’m suppose to be dead."

"Exactly! But, I knew you wouldn’t be!" He poked his nose and giggled madly. "Cause I /know/ you, Dent. Inside out. You’re to strong to die that easily, just like the bat." He grinned wide, moonlight making it so much more eerie then need be. "…Just like /me/." Joker yelped when his head connected hard with the floor, then drowned in a fit of giggles as Harvey stiffly found his way back to bed.

I’m not like the Joker, he told himself. I’m not like the bat. But I’m not like myself. Then who am I?

‘That’s easy,’ whispered the voice. Harvey closed his eyes as he lay down. ‘…You’re twoface.’

Harvey woke up every hour after that. This last time, the last time, he woke up to a clown staring down at him.

He nearly jumped out of the /rest/ of his skin.

"Aha! Hiya Harv. Did I scare ya?"
"The hell are you doing in my room, clown." He sat up, throwing the clown to the floor who laid there to grin at him.

"Nothin’."
"…Of course. You’re so innocent."

"Just this once." Joker sat up to stare at him expectantly, before scrambling to his feet. "Wait right there." He dashed out of the room, leaving Harvey to glance around for anything out of the ordinary, before returning with a box wrapped in green paper. He giggled madly, crawling onto the bed on his knees and offering it.

"…What’s this for?"
"Call it my, ah…" Joker licked his lips thoughtfully, then shrugged. "My comin’ out present."

Harvey scrutinized it before taking it, watching the Joker bounce erratically. He opened is slowly, to reveal his suit.

His old suit.

The left side was burnt and the fibers welded together in places, the right in perfect, starched condition. He looked back up at the Joker’s giggling face. He threw his hands to the sides and laughed once. "Tada!"
"…my old suit?"
"Of course! We’re going to a party there, Harvster. Throwin’ you a ‘welcome back’ kinda shindig. You’ll have a…blast." He licked his lower lip, then crawled off the bed. "Come on, get going! We have plans to make and people to break-meet. Meet." He snorted and danced out of the room, leaving Harvey to stare dumbfounded after him.

---

Bruce walked around with his playboy grin, greeting people he didn’t know, avoiding those he did.

His usual routine. He sipped a glass here, laughed a little there, eat some shrimp. Wasn’t much different then any other affair he’d been to.

"Champagne?" He paused, looking at the little girl who offered him a silver tray and flashed a grin. She smiled hesitantly back.

"Sure. Thank you." He took the pipette and tipped it at her, before wandering back into the crowd with a drink he wasn’t interested in.

"Bruce." He spun around, eyes roving to find his beckoner. He smiled genuinely, Lucious finding his way to him through the crowd.

"Ah, there’s a fresh face."
"Nice to see you too, Mr. Wayne." They shook hands and Bruce offered his friend his drink.

"I don’t want, haven’t touched it I swear-I’m glad you got to come tonight."

"Well, can’t say I had much else to do." He smiled at his young friend, sipping the liquor. "You look defensive. What’s up."
"The quiet." Bruce crossed his arms and nodded at a man as he passed by.

"No Joker."
"No Joker," He sighed, looking at Lucious dejectedly. "He’s plotting something."

"If you ask me, Bruce," He sipped his wine and looked back at the crowd. Bruce followed his gaze. "This Joker doesn’t seem like much of a schemer."
"I don’t think he is," Bruce scowled, looking out the windows. "That’s why I’m agitated. He’s not usually so silent this long."

"Maybe had to do with that playing card that’s burned into the city park." Lucious looked at him, then out the window as well.

"That’s what I was guessing. I don’t know who did it though. No evidence at all." He looked back at Lucious, who continued to look thoughtfully out the window. "I’m worried."

"We all are, Bruce." He sighed warily and looked back at his friend. "For now, though, let us change the subject."
"Alright, to what?"
"I’ve gotten those reports in from Stalkos," He shifted and began to roam the floor, Bruce at his side. "Seems they’re willing to lend a hand in some of our endeavors."

"Stalkos…Stalkos…"
"German wire and pipeline."
"Ah, yes. Guy who I can’t understand."

"That’s him." Lucious laughed heartily.

"Which ‘endeavors’."
"He’s wanting to invest into our continental Government Charge of letting them run pipe through acres we own."

"Oh boy. Let’s help pollute."

"I’m sure excited." They shared another laugh, before the party’attention was called to a set-up stage in the far right of the massive ball room. The older announcer, and owner of the new Centry, waved at the crowd cautiously.

"Thank you, thank you. I would like to thank you all for coming this evening to the Investor’s Banquet. Without these companies, the Centry would not be standing now." The ordinary golf clap of manicured hands and silk gloves washed over the room briefly as a screen was set up, listing names of investors. "We would like to recognize our top five investors for their massive donations towards our building."

"Oh /yes/," The crowed turned curiously towards the buffet table, those closest to it shrieking and backing away. Bruce didn’t have to turn, he knew that voice.

The slow, rhythmic clapping followed, as well as a badly stifled giggle. "Come on, ladies and Gents. Don’t get tense! The fun has only just begu-na."

"This is unfortunate."

Bruce glanced at Lucious, touched his shoulder, then darted off into the crowd. Lucious sighed. "Here we go. Again."