I guess we both know we're in over our heads

[harvey_twoface]

Who: Harvey Dent, Lex Luthor, The Joker, and Batman
What: A friend in need.
Where: Lex's penthouse

Comments

[thisislexluthor]

"Yeah," Lex muttered. He was rocking back and forth, the cuts along his back still bleeding slightly. He couldn't do this.

He had to. It wasn't...he didn't...Lex shook his head, eyes focusing on Harvey again.

"Come in." He settled a hand on Harvey's shoulder and pulled him inside. "You need to...You're my friend."

He slammed the door closed once Harvey was inside.

"I would never hurt you, okay?"

[el_joker_man]

"Oh, but I would." Drawled an all too familiar bouncing lilt as the Joker walked up behind Harvey, spinning around him and taking a prepared step back at the same time. Closer to Lex.

"Heya Harv! How's the bat, hmmm?" He asked, sleeves rolled up and a bare hand moving a little too intimately over Lex's head. "We've been waiting for you. Haven't we, Lexy?"

[thisislexluthor]

Lex shuddered away from the Joker and wrapped his arms around himself. He couldn't look at Harvey, so he wasn't sure if his friend was angry, or horrified, or afraid.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, picking at his fingernails until they bled. "I didn't...he just wants Bruce. You're gonna be okay."

[harvey_twoface]

Harvey didn't look angry, horrified, or afraid; he just looked sad.

"Lex... You didn't. Please, please tell me- God, why?"

Harvey's hands balled into fists at his sides, muscles clenching and releasing reflexively, a clear manifestation of his stress.

"He just wants Bruce, huh?" Harvey spat back coldly.

"That's all? Just my boyfriend and your oldest friend?! Well, fuck you, Lex. Just because your boyfriend is for all intents and purposes dead doesn't give you the right to take mine away from me."

Harvey squared his shoulders and fixed his gaze firmly on Joker, his lips pressed into a thin, angry line.

[thisislexluthor]

Lex wondered if the lab was always this cold. He didn't remember it being that way, but maybe that was because everytime he'd been down here, there had always been someone in the holding cells.

What was referred to among his scientists as the 'Specimens Lab' had the same basic layout of the rest of the labs scattered throughout Gotham's branch of LexCorp, with the key difference being the soundproof walls and human-sized cells.

Cages, Lex, whispered a little voice inside his head. It's where you put people in cages and experiment on them like rats. And you're about to put your best friend in there.Lex shook his head rapidly. He needed to be lucid for this, or as lucid as was possible these days

[el_joker_man]

Joker raised a brow at the tone. Sauntering over to the man in full regalia and paint now that he was ready for the games to begin.

"Really?" He cooed at Lex as he approached like a prowling cat. "I thought I was allowed to touch anything of yours these days."

As if to demonstrate he grabbed the front of Lex's shirt and jerked him forward, teeth sinking into the side of Lex's throat. Enough to bruise and leave obscene smears of greasepaint as telling evidence.

[thisislexluthor]

Lex shuddered. He was torn between shoving the Joker back and the desperate, instinctive feeling that if he just held still, it wouldn't be so bad.

He closed his eyes and wondered how this had happened, but he couldn't focus on it for long. These days, he could barely stay focused on anything.

"Get off. Harvey will be awake soon," Lex said, trying to shuffle back and put some distance between himself and the Joker. Telling him to get off hadn't worked before, but...

Lex straightened his shoulders. He needed to block everything out, the raging chaos that his mind had become. Harvey was what mattered.

[el_joker_man]

Joker made him pay for it. Letting his teeth drag across vulnerable skin as he was pushed away and left a scarping mark almost to his adams apple. A red tongue snaking out to lick his red lips.

"Oh now wouldn't that be en-ter-taining..." He drawled with a smile but backed up all the same. Though it was obviously his own decision and not Lex's.

"But I have a date." He said cheerfully as he turned on his heel and jingled a pair of keys in the air as he walked. away. "Borrowing this, you mind." He wasn't asking as he kicked the door open and strolled on his merry way to meet his bat-man.

[thisislexluthor]

The air on top the building was cold, biting against his skin as he looked out over Gotham. Apparently, people thought this city was beautiful at night, but Lex couldn't really agree. He'd never been one for Gothic melodrama and shadows. He missed the clean, bright lights of Metropolis, his city spread out before him.

It made him sad, to think he might not see home again. But if that was the way it ended, he wouldn't fight it. His so-called destiny was pretty much shot to hell anyway.

If it had to end on a rooftop, though, he really did wish it had been in Metropolis. Because that had been Clark's city as much as it was his. But Clark was gone, and so maybe it was more fitting that this happened in Gotham.

Lex heard the thump of heavy footsteps darting up the stairs, headed towards him, and closed his eyes. He wished he had a bottle of scotch. The rooftop access door swung open with a screech, and Lex murmured, "You took your damn time, Bruce."

[asilentguardian]

Batman's fists were clenched so tightly that he could hardly feel his fingers; his legs felt like blocks of lead that he was lifting and dropping heavily. In an instant, he was across the roof, unsure of what he wanted to do first. For several seconds he stared at Lex before raising one arm and elbowing him as hard as he could in the temple, catching him before he hit the roof and kneeing him in the stomach. His moves were very calculated and angry, lacking in any passion. Batman would have said something if he could, but all he felt was anger. Not relieved that Harvey was alive, not sorry for Lex and what was obviously a difficult time in his life, not repulsed at the Joker's blood that coated his gloves, just angry.

"You have no right to call me that anymore," He hissed, grabbing Lex's collar and throwing him down onto the roof, kicking him in the stomach. "You have no... fucking... right to talk to me, Lex."

[thisislexluthor]

Lex gasped in pain, spitting up blood from where he'd bitten down on his tongue. The roof was like sandpaper against his skin, scraping and re-opening his cuts. He fell onto his back and saw Bruce framed against the night sky, and for once he understood how someone could think Batman was a demon, something that belonged to the dark.

"No, I don't," Lex said. He swallowed and said a final, silent goodbye to Clark, where ever he was. "But I'm not going to stop, Bruce. So why don't you do something about it?"

[asilentguardian]

Batman refused to hear anything Lex said, he refused to be swayed into any further anger. Lex deserved whatever Bruce gave him, but he wasn't going to be goaded into something more. He breathed in heavily, leaning over, looking down at Lex, a pitiable shadow of the man he was before Clark had gone. Batman was disgusted by him.

He kicked Lex in the ribs and heard one, maybe two of them crack. It was almost satisfying, but he needed to cause more pain. He needed to hurt Lex more.

Batman kicked him in the mouth. Not hard enough to knock any teeth out, but hard enough. He turned around and walked several steps away, catching his breath.

"I don't care what you think you've lost, Lex. I don't care what Clark meant to you, you don't get to go around ruining other people's lives because you can't cope."