Henchman (JOKER X READER) ✅

chapter 25: harley quinn

you just want back streets, you don't want me, you're just gonna play it back the wrong way

author's note: the reader's view of harley and joker are not mine. harley is seen somewhat negatively here, thanks to jealousy on the part of the reader, but i personally think she's a badass. the goal of this chapter is just to portray how wack joker and harley's relationship is from an outsider's perspective (not that the reader's relationship with him is much better).

---

The woman that emerged from the acid was completely different from the one that went in. You should know- you watched it happen.

You stormed out of the warehouse, tossing your gun into the back of the van and getting behind the wheel. You briefly entertained the idea of driving off, but you kept Frost and everyone else in mind and stayed where you were.

Your head was spinning. He knew how you felt- or at least he knew that you wanted him desperately. He'd kissed you in Arkham. So why this? What could Harleen Quinzel give him that you couldn't?

(The answer came a couple days later, when you almost walked in on them fucking on the penthouse couch.)

You studiously ignored the pitying looks you got when the guys climbed back in the van. No one said anything. No one tried to say anything as you drove back in silence, actually obeying traffic laws for once. You felt like you were carved from a block of stone.

Anybody could have guessed that Quinzel would bring change, but you hadn't anticipated this much of it. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

As time went on, you and Frost had front row seats to the new dynamics within the gang. You watched as young, intelligent Dr. Harleen Quinzel became Harley Quinn, the mad queen of Gotham. She was devoted to the Joker just like you, except she stepped over every line and boundary that had ever existed between you and him. You saw her call him puddin' and baby and wished, with a hunger that scared you, that you could take her place.

But if Harley Quinn was an effective replacement for you, wouldn't it be best to walk away? To just let her win? She already had, in every way that really mattered. And you... you just worked for the Joker. She had managed to capture his heart.

Even so, you decided that you were going to stay. Not just because of your misplaced affections for the Joker, but because your life had been irreversibly changed the day Jonny and the rest of the gang robbed Gotham City Bank. You were reborn in the rain and baptized in an innocent man's blood. You could never go back to what- who you were before. No, you'd signed that away on a dotted line. You were a part of this now, and the Joker himself had taught you that it was always better to burn than to fade away.

So you would do your best, just as you always had. You'd give everything you had until the well ran dry, and then you'd try for more. In a way, it was safer than trying to dethrone Harley. You saw how he treated her when she annoyed him, and it made you just the tiniest bit glad that you had learned the ins and outs of his moods early on.

The problem was, Harley never seemed to learn. The fact of it all was that she was desperate, and Joker couldn't shake her.

Maybe she wasn't adjusting because the rules Joker played by shifted every day, and what made him ecstatic in the morning could get you killed by noon. Maybe it was just that you'd known him longer, and to some extent, knew what he liked and what he didn't. Or it could be just blind luck. But time dragged on, and she still kept fucking up. You felt bad for her. He treated you better than her most days.

"Y/N! Get over here," Joker snapped. Harley had made him mad again, and his habit now was to go to you afterwards.

You got up and went over to him. "Hey, boss," you said, trying to look as unassuming as possible.

"Bring the car around," he said. "We're going out."

"'We' as in everybody?"

Joker shook his head. "'We' as in you and me. They're all pissing me off."

"Yes sir," you said. By the time you'd gotten his purple sports car to the front of the building, he was already out there waiting, looking impatient.

He got into the passenger seat, slumping like a puppet with its strings cut. "Drive me, Y/N."

"Anywhere in particular?"

"Just... drive."