Jerome Valeska || OS/SS/I

3. I Spy...

"I spy, with my little eye, something that is... yellow."

...

You sat at the back of the stupid yellow eyesore, counting the seconds 'til you'd be off and getting back home. You ran the paper for Gotham U. and had drawn the short straw in pinpointing future stars during todays high school match. You were to collaborate with a couple of boring old talent scouts in order to give GU an insight on who to offer scholarships to.

Unfortunately, you also had to travel there and back with a bunch of noisy, rah rah let's go, teens. It was fūcking excruciating. Even your Beats™ and Ace Hood's 'Bugatti' wasn't enough to drown them out.

You shut your eyes over and hummed the song to yourself, effectively ignoring the ridiculousness going on around you.

Whilst you sat there, ignorant, the bus was stopped. Gotham's most wanted made their way on to the bus, led by a strikingly handsome ginger with a killer smile... literally.

"I want you all to know this was a very difficult decision for us."

Jerome Valeska began pacing back and forth between the first three rows of the bus, enthusiastically waving his gun around as his voice filled the tin can.

"It was between you and a senior citizen bingo party.

In the end, we decided to skew a little younger."

He whipped round and surveyed the group of mainly screaming girls, a few whimpering boys, and beamed.

"Youth won the day. Hahahahaha." He began rocking back in forth with laughter.

"Sarrry."

He drew the apology out as long as he could and it couldn't have sounded more fake if he tried. The laughter hadn't died from his face before he began jumping up and down at the front of the bus.

"Give me an 'O'!" He was met with stoney silence; the low hum sounding from your headphones providing the only response.

He glanced at you, amused by either your blatant stupidity or your lack of ability to sense tension around you.

The lack of response from the rah-rah's was pīssing him off, however. He held his gun to the roof of the bus and fired, the loud shot merely fading out to nothing in your ears as Rick Ross belted out the chorus and went into his verse.

"I said give me an 'O'!" His eyes flickered over to your still calm figure, your feet tapping lightly on the floor as you continued to enjoy the musical fantasy world you were currently in.

"Ohh." Their quite voices dragged out the letter.

"Give me an 'N'!" He brandished his gun back and forth as he jumped.

"N." Soft voices responded.

"Give me another 'O'!" His smile grew wider as he took in your hair looped up under your baseball cap, your dark smudged eyeliner surrounding your closed eyes, your knees poking through your ripped jeans and your black cropped shirt, quite fittingly telling anyone who read it to 'FŪCK OFF'.

"O."

"What's that spell?" He asked as he made his way up the bus, dragging a hose that had been passed to him by fellow inmates Dobkins and Greenwood.

"Oh NO."

They resumed their screams of panic and dread as shouts of encouragement came from Tweedledee and Tweedledum at the front of the bus.

"Do it, do it, do it."

You slowly cracked an eye, hoping you were almost at the stupid stadium so you could get today over with and return to that bottle of Jack you had resisted the urge to bring with you.

The sight that met you had you bolting upright, yanking your headphones off, smoothing down your hair and smiling gently. What? The sight that met you was a good one –gorgeous Jerome Valeska, grinning right in front of your face.

Obviously you had fallen asleep and were dreaming, otherwise you'd be sh*tting the knickers you were almost certain you'd remembered to put on this morning.

"Ah, well hellll-o, gorgeous!" His face remained right in front of your face as reality began to trickle its way in and you realised this was no dream.

"Nice to meet ya, I'm Jerome."

He stuck his hand out, gripped your wrist hard and pulled you up until you were standing in front of him. He swiftly landed a warm, wet smooch on your right cheek and proceeded to pull you along with him to the front of the bus. He shook with laughter as he sprayed the entire bus and everyone on it with a foul smelling liquid.

The gasoline drenched both your tee and his flame-red hair. You were almost frozen in a state of shock. That still wasn't enough for your filter to kick in though.

"What the fūcking fūck balls is going on here?" You blurted out, gripping his upper arm tight and shaking him roughly.

"Hahahaha. Ouch, woman. Chill out." He pried your fingers loose and secured an arm around your waist as he pulled you flush with him.

"What is going on here, is that these annoying brats are gonna go kaboom –up in a ball of flames..."

He glanced down at you, secured under his arm, and dropped the hose. He brought his hand up to move your sticky hair from your face and pinched your chin, pulling it up so you locked eyes.

"...and you, beautiful, are gonna come with me and watch."

He smirked as your cheeks flushed with the compliment.

Despite the situation you were in, you couldn't help but be smug. A man you'd fantasised about, after seeing him around outside the big top, was holding you tight and saving you. Ok, yes, he was saving you from a deadly situation he'd orchestrated, but he was saving you none the less.

As Jerome, Dobkins and Greenwood taunted the teens, you found yourself swirling around in your own thoughts. Dark thoughts. Thoughts you had buried a long time ago. Or so they would have had you believe.

Drawing yourself out of your darkening thoughts just for a moment, you seen him glance and at you and murmur.

"...far too beautifully damaged to burn."

You smiled. You burst into a giggle. The situation you were in was ridiculous. Yet, you couldn't find it in you to care.

These peppy, walking pom-poms epitomised everything you hated about high school. Cliquey, b*tchy, little girls and full of themselves guys. You hated them back then and you hate them even more when you're forced to be around them once you'd grown up.

There were plenty other issues that had played their parts in breaking your mind down over the years, piece by piece, until it was a mass of swirling colours, voices and madness. The counselling had only been a temporary fix, but this? This was a whole other rabbit hole –one that you were more than ready to tumble down.

The more the darkness consumed you, the more you found you liked the idea of watching this bus blow. Reaching your conclusion, your mind finally completely broken, you bounced on the balls of your feet, gripped Jerome's hand in yours and raised your voice.

"Anyone got a light? Ahahahaha!"

----

A/N

How about that GIF though? 😍
Ah, Jerome ❤.

Hope you enjoyed this one 🙂. Lemme know in the comments and if there's anything you wanna see here 😘.

Happy weekend!

- Ellie 💋