love at first sight

[temporal_affairs]

Nathan tires out his mate and leaves him asleep in his room. He goes downstairs to see what there is to see.

Oh. She's still there.

Well. He's not going to leave. She can leave. Fuck her. He's not going anywhere.

Comments

[pythbox]

She glances between Golden and the Joker, then apparently gives up on maintaining the masquerade.

"Your 'friend' told me explicitly and repeatedly that he wanted to kill me," she says flatly. "And then he made a threatening move. I didn't want him dead, just incapacitated. But I didn't have a lot of time for finesse."

[temporal_affairs]

"I stood up," Nathan growls. "I got out of my seat. I wasn't going to kill you because that would've made him upset. And you started the conversation."

[pythbox]

She ignores him.

[luminous_regnant]

Golden wishes for the Bat's remaining hex or hexes.

One appears in her hand. "I don't think I can trust you with this," she says. "Maybe you can talk Stella into replacing it in spite of the note I'm going to leave in the Belltower. Maybe not. I really doubt she'd like it if she heard that she went to all the trouble of negotiating the Joker's move to my world and then you murdered his reason for going so nicely. Of course Nathan wants to kill you. You compromise his mate's attachment to him. I don't employ vampires who are incapable of wanting to kill someone and not doing it. I certainly don't employ vampires who are stupid enough to verbally announce their intention to kill someone who may or may not have the power to stop them before they do it. He was never going to kill you."

[temporal_affairs]

"It'd be fair, at this point," growls Nathan. "Turnabout."

[manofmyword]

"Sweetie," the Joker sighs. "Sweetie, no."

[pythbox]

...The look she gives them is composed of equal parts puzzlement and loathing.

[temporal_affairs]

Nathan hides his face in the Joker's shoulder. "She'd've half-orphaned our baby," he mumbles.

[luminous_regnant]

Golden wishes the hex onto her bandolier. "I think I'm going to stand here until you or they leave," she says mildly to Roberta.

[pythbox]

She looks at Golden, and looks at Nathan, and looks at the Joker.

(She looks at the Joker longest.)

Then she heads for the front door, and leaves by it.

[manofmyword]

"I know, honey," the Joker says soothingly. "But you're fine now, and I love you, and I don't want you to hurt her. Okay?"

[temporal_affairs]

"Can't now, anyway," mutters Nathan, "she's gone. God. I love you."

[manofmyword]

The Joker hugs him some more.

"You wanna go upstairs again, or go back home?"

[temporal_affairs]

"Not home, not yet, I need a while," Nathan says.

[luminous_regnant]

Golden teleports up to the Belltower to write in the note.

[manofmyword]

The Joker teleports himself and Nathan back to his room and snuggles into bed.

[temporal_affairs]

Nathan just holds his mate quietly.

[manofmyword]

The Joker curls up with him, wishes away his clothes and knives as an afterthought, pulls up a blanket for extra snuggle factor, and settles into comfortable silence.

[temporal_affairs]

"How can you love her? I don't understand it," mumbles Nathan.

[manofmyword]

"Do you want me to explain?" he asks gently.

[temporal_affairs]

"Yeah."

[manofmyword]

He sighs, and thinks.

"I love her because she's different," he says slowly. "In Gotham she was... a legend. A scary story to tell the kids at bedtime. But she was real. And it was amazing, just knowing there was somebody out there like that, with the brains and the balls to terrify every criminal in the city. There's no way she could ever love me back. I think I might even be disappointed if she did. She loves Gotham, though, that's for sure. It's sweet, the way she feels about that place, it really is."

[temporal_affairs]

Nathan's arms tighten fractionally around him. "And then she killed me and nothing changed?"

[manofmyword]

"It made me sad," he says. "But it didn't make me not love her. She's still the same person." He kisses Nathan's shoulder. "Feelings are complicated, sweetie."

He reflects a moment, then adds, "I'm never going back to Gotham now, though, that's for damn sure."

[temporal_affairs]

"I might kill her if I see her again," says Nathan quietly. "I'd try not to. I don't want to make you sad. But I might."