Behind The Smiles.

Chapter One.

Joker sat in his chair, staring down on the papers in front of him while chewing on a pencil. "It's been weeks since I had a good idea. Damn it." He mutters, his head falls down on the drawing desk and he squints his eyes. "Why can't I focus?" Sighing in frustration and annoyance, he leans back and stretches his arms before starting to draw some random stuff on the papers. "Harley, did you feed the hyenas?"
"Yes sir, I gave them some of the leftover joker fish." Harley said as she starts to walk a little closer towards his chair and glances at what he has so far.
Joker gives a slight nod then continued his work, "Don't forget about the day after tomorrow, I hope you have everything ready?" He keeps doodling out his designs for weapons, as he reminds Harley about his plan to blow up the police station to hopefully distract Batman so he could drop Joker Venom in another part of the city. "This will be another long, long day." He sighs, getting rather bored. "I hope we'll get some action once in a while."
Harley continued to watch him doodle "I'm pretty sure I have it all, I can have Rocco go down and check for me." She looks over and notices Rocco raiding the fridge. "I swear if he's not eating he's complaining." She mutters to myself.
Joker's eyes move over to the kitchen area and he nods. "Yeah, I know. It's better when I don't see any of these dumb people around." He massages his temples with his eyes half closed. "They're really getting me stressed up." Snapping his fingers, he gets Rocco's attention and order him to check on Harley's equipment downstairs.
Harley continues watching Rocco, expecting his usual sluggish walk, but to her surprise he ran as fast as a bullet down stairs. "Woah! I've never seen him do that before puddin'." She says as she reaches for a pencil sharpener. "Your pencil is almost as dull as Pengy's personality, Mr. J... how about a back rub?"
"It's because he can tell I'm in a bad mood, and when I'm in a 'really' bad mood." He grins as his gaze followed Rocco.
He runs his hand through his hair as he compared the new designs for Joker Venom to the older one before answering Harley's question. "Why not, Harls... a back rub could do some good."
Harley starts to rub his back. "The venom guns look great, puddin." She says as she looks over his shoulder at the designs. "How does Chinese sound for dinner?" She takes a break from rubbing to get her hair out of her face.
Joker's eyes were closed by the time Harley asked about the food and He started to relax a bit. "Everything sounds better than pizza with sardines and mushrooms. Why do we even have that stuff? Not even Bud would eat that." He opens his eyes and look at the wall across from him.
"This is why I told you not to send the guys shopping, also I'm pretty Selina wouldn't eat it and she loves sardines." Harley says before calling Lou over to pet him. "I'll try to get some better food next week." She continues to give Lou a belly rub.
"I know, I know. I'd do it myself but I'm too busy trying to get some plans done." Joker rips the paper he held into little shreds and throw them into a trash can. "You want something specific from the Chinese delivery service?" He asked and picked up the phone before he looked at her, waiting for an answer.
"Yeah, I'll take some lo mien, bourbon chicken, and an egg roll please." She looks over at him with a smile on her face.
Joker nodded and dials the number, order hers and his food, then hang up. "Will be here in ten. By the way, I'm going to get a new suit tomorrow, you mind taking care of this place for an hour or two by yourself?" He asks after turning his chair around to look at her as well.
"Not at all Mr. J, are there any chores I need to do?" Harley continues to smile as she walks over to his desk.
"I'm going to set up some Joker Venom tomorrow, it doesn't take much care but make sure the capsules are closed. I don't want the gas to float around here." Joker put his pointer finger and thumb between his closed eyes and rub them afterwards. "When's the last time I slept longer than three hours?"
"I'm on it!" She scratched her head trying to remember when Joker actually had some decent sleep. "I think it was a week ago, if I'm not mistaken."
Joker opens his eyes, tired but unable to actually fall asleep. "I see. Well, I hope I won't wanna look like Crane after days without sleep."
Harley went went back to massaging Joker. "Red gave me a few sleeping pills if you some, they really work... unless you have an empty stomach." She says as she tries to remember were she put them. "And you don't have to worry about your looks, you're still just as handsome if not more." She gives him a little smile.
"I'm trying one more night to sleep longer, if that doesn't work, I'll take one." He rubs his neck, feeling his face getting a bit warm at Harley's last statement. "And thanks. But I am, like, the only person in the entire city who's got style. Certainly more than Batman." Joker mutters and relaxes again while starting to close his eyes.
"Okie dokie puddin." Harley went over to put the pills on the counter. "No one compares to you when it comes to style, especially Batman." She walked over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Joker's eyes open at her kiss and he gasps surprised, then look at the pills. "Thanks for those. How many do i have to take to sleep nine hours?" He asks and scratches his cheek. he goes over to read the bottle.
"No problem, it says to take one and a half for 14 hours so, probably just one pill will be fine."

"Thanks, I'll put the pill on my nightstand just in case." He digs into his food as the hyenas comes over. He quietly keeps eating until he's finished and throw the packaging away, then sigh tiredly. "Do you have anything else to do?" Harley goes to throw away her garbage.
"Just to put the hyenas in their cages I guess." She moves her hair out of my eyes.
"Okay then. It's..." Joker checks the time on his watch. "7:30pm... Well, I'm going to try to get some rest before I'll wake up for some reason. Again." He scratches his head and walks into the bedroom. "Try to be quiet when you go to bed, okay?"
"I'll be as quiet as I possibly can, good night puddin'." Harley got up and put the hyenas in their cages, then start getting ready for bed. Joker brushes his teeth, then yawns letting himself fall into the bed with his face in the pillow. "Ugh.." He growls, trying to fall asleep. Harley entered the bedroom after her nightly routine then curled up in the bed next to Joker. "I hope you get some sleep, puddin." She kisses him on the cheek again.
"Jeannie, dear. Be quiet." Joker whispers in his sleep, starting to mumble random stuff nobody could understand with his hands starting to twitch.
"Not this again.." Harley mutters to myself. She runs her hands through his hair trying to get him hands to stop twitching.
Joker's eyes squint and he starts growling in anger with only a few audible words. "...not...bad...don't worry...get..out." He suddenly opened his eyes and sits up, his heart skipping a beat as he was half asleep but awake enough to remember that dream.
He quickly turns his head to see if Harley noticed and cleared his throat. "Looks like I watched too many TV shows...Hah."
He fixes an awkward smile, grabs one of the pills and lays down again.
"Are you sure you're okay, sweetie? We can talk about if you want." Harley said looking up into Joker's eyes. She was rather concerned at this point.
Joker's heart skips a beat and his breathing intensifies as the memories hit him like one of Batman's punches and he gasps.
"N-No, I'm fine. Just...a bad dream." He grabs the pillow tighter, violently trying to calm down. "You can do that. Don't let it get to you." He whispers to himself, not able to banish the pictures from my mind.
Harley's concern grew. "It's fine if you don't want to talk about it, but just remember that you can always tell me anything and I'll try to help you the best I can." She got up to readjust her pillows.
Joker takes a deep breath and avoid eye contact. "Thanks, Harl. But...I'm still trying to deal with the news by myse-" He bit his lip, hoping Harley doesn't ask about the 'news' and pull the blanket up to his nose, pretending to fall asleep. He lays back down in bed with the blanket up to his chin.
"I understand puddin, you're tough and I'm sure you can get through it on your own." She tried to get in a comfortable position. "But don't ever hesitate to talk to me, alright?"
Joker opened one eye and looks at Harley from the side, wondering why she acted like that. "Um. Sure. Soon as I understand it myself. Thanks." Turning her head, she look at him. "Of course." Harley gives an awkward smile.
"I want you to try and get some rest, we have a big day ahead of us this week." She gave him a hug and let out a yawn.
"Oh-kaay..?" A little confused about the sudden hug, Joker's eyes widen and it takes him a moment until he slowly pulls up his arm, wrapping it around Harley and hugging her back. "Well. Good night then." Joker whispers and closes his eyes.
She started to blush a little as he hugged her back. "Don't let the bed bugs bite." Harley whispers and starts to fall asleep.