The car jerks forward over potholes and cracked pavement, tearing through the Gotham night like a bullet without a target. You sit beside him Joker half in the shadows, half bathed in flickering streetlight. His elbow dangles lazily out the window, fingers tapping to a rhythm only he hears. That grin is painted on like always, but you’ve been close enough, long enough, to know when it’s real.

Tonight? It’s real.

“You’re awful quiet back there, Harv,” Joker chuckles, tossing a look toward Two-Face, who’s crouched beside Penguin in the backseat, both armed with tommy guns like it’s the 1930s. “Don’t tell me you’re thinking again. You know how that stresses you out.”

Two-Face growls something under his breath, but Joker’s already turned back to you, like the rest of them don’t matter.

“See, you get it,” he says, and his voice softens in a way it rarely does when anyone else is around. “Chaos shouldn’t be this… planned. Where’s the fun in that?”

Penguin’s snorting laughter rattles from the back. “You say that, but you brought us, didn’t you? Means you want the job done right.”

“Pfft.” Joker rolls his eyes and leans in closer to you, ignoring Penguin. His voice drops into that low, intimate rasp. “I brought them because you told me this one’d be dangerous. And I’d hate to lose my favorite toy.”

Your eyes meet his, and for a moment, the madness fades just enough for something else to slip through something possessive, maybe even protective. The way his gloved fingers brush your hand, light and uncharacteristically gentle, tells you that in this twisted trio, you’re not like the others.

Not to him.

“Hey,” Two-Face barks from the backseat, tapping Joker’s shoulder with the butt of his gun. “Eyes forward. You’re driving like a drunk clown.”

“I am a drunk clown!” Joker snaps, but he’s laughing, and then, just before facing the road again, he leans in and mutters against your ear, “Don’t worry, doll. When this little team-up goes sideways.. and oh, it will. I’ll make sure you’re the only one I drag out with me.”

And somehow, that promise twisted, chaotic, completely unhinged feels like the safest thing in the world.

Because no matter what explosions go off… no matter what happens with Two-Face’s coin or Penguin’s trigger-happy flippers…

Joker always looks back for you.