if he's the prince, i'm the jester.

Leo groaned good naturedly, shaking his head. “God, what have I gotten myself in to?” Still he smiled to show he didn’t really mind. Although solitude was nice, he could use more friends. Even friends as crazy as Jonny. “As long as you stop scaring the shit out of me, sure. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“You have gotten yourself into lots, buddy-boy!” Jonny exclaimed, throwing an arm around Leo’s shoulders and pulling him to the window. “Look. Nothing the light touches is yours,” he said. “But you see that dark stuff over there?” He pointed towards the direction of the street that Vagabonds was on. “That’s yours.” 

“Damn, I’m sorry man.” He really was sorry, but even Jonny’s problem was a welcome distraction to everything else. The past few days Leo had been worried about food, being registered, the possibility of a war between mutants and humans. On the other hand, Jonny’s problem was easily solvable. “Well I definitely have some houseplants you can look at. And… if you need to talk about it or anything, I’m here.”

“Don’t matter now—he’s gone but I’m still around ‘n’ livin’ my best life. Who’s the loser here?” Jonny hadn’t considered his feelings about the matter because there was no point. That was what Joker told him, at least. There was no point in thinking about it and there was no point in wallowing in it. There was what happened and that was it. “Are ya sayin’ yer my...friend?” he asked, placing special emphasis on the last word as he grinned wickedly. 

Plants. The city was going to hell and most people were stockpiling more food than they could ever eat, and Jonny was looking for plants. Leo laughed to himself and shook off his anger. “Right now it’s mostly fruits and veggies, but I have a calathia and some cape primoses here, and a couple orchids at my workshop. So who’s the lucky lady this time? Or is it more of an ‘i’m sorry baby please come back’ type of plant?”

Jonny was separated from everything that was going on in the city, thanks to his residence on the island. Because Joker was more than a little wealthy, and he paid Jonny well, Jonny rarely wanted for anything. The chaos was every day for him. This was an easily accepted normal. “Neither. It’s a plant for me. My dumb ex-boyfriend is gone.” He ran his hand over the leaves of a nearby plant. 

“You say that like it’s a fuckin’ crime,” she snapped back, though she didn’t bother looking up from what she was doing — her pistol sat disassembled and under Tanya’s scrutinizing glare. It decided it wanted to act the fool and jam on her while she was at the range, so the majority of her attention was spent cleaning it and inspecting it. She didn’t need any of her guns to fuck up when she needed them the most. “I feel like a god damn princess, I gotta tell ya. The kid’s practically in love with me.” Or maybe it was the other way around. “Where’s your boy toy? Haven’t seen him around. Don’t tell me y’all split?”

“Why’re ya bein’ so mean? Even I’ll admit I’d want to toast his buns,” Jonny said, turning to look at Tanya with a pout on his face. Jonny shrugged once. “He’s gone.” It was that simple, if only because Jonny was not the kind of person to dwell on his feelings, not anymore. He had been before, but he was miserable then. Joker had taught him how to let everything go without feeling the pain of its loss, and that was exactly what he was doing when it came to Grant. 

Somehow, losing his hearing made everything louder than it used to be. Every second of the day he had to focus to hear, to pay attention, so the quiet of his apartment was a welcome comfort. As soon as he got home, Leo went through his routine of making small dinner, putting on the kettle, and tending to his plants while the water heated. Finally the aroma of chamomile filled the apartment, and he immediately spilled the hot tea all over himself as someone burst through the door. “Shit Jonny, what the hell?” He demanded, looking up from the now-shattered mug. Anger mixed with the hot water on his shirt, but he found himself half grinning anyway. “You trying to give me a heart attack?”

“That would be a bonus, boyo, but I’m here for some new plants!” Jonny immediately ran his fingers over the leaves of the one closest to the door, inspecting it as if he was a prospective parent looking over an adoptive child. Jonny tilted his head back up to look at Leo and grinned, baring all of his teeth as he did so. “So. Ya got anythin’ fun ‘n’ excitin’ for me, or do I have to do this again in two weeks?” 

Jonny was trying (and failing) at learning the gymnastics tricks that Harley always tried to teach him. It was always the same bits, the same basic stuff that Jonny, no matter what he did, couldn’t pick up. He tried and failed at yet another cartwheel, landing on his back with a yelp. “I’m giving up! I’m too unco-unco-” He paused before slowly sounding the word out so he wouldn’t trip over his words as well as his feet. “Un-co-or-din-at-ed,” he said, shaking his head. “See! Even my tongue’s all messed up!” 

Jonny had been blissfully keeping his mind closed off to any thoughts of Grant. His heart hurt—Grant had bruised his feelings, already soft and easily bruised, so the best way Jonny knew to deal with it was to just ignore the problem until it went away. That had worked with his ex-wife, that would work here, too, right? He had thought that he had found someone who could be like his Harley, who could be the symbiotic pair to match his level of crazy, but ever since Grant had started going to that lady-doc, everything had gone off the rails. So, he was avoiding Grant as much as possible, but that night, it was impossible not to see him. All dressed up as Ravager and covered in blood, it made Grant irresistible to Jonny—so Jonny just froze where he was. 

“I hear you’re  spendin’ lots’a time with the baby bat!” he said. Jonny titled his head. “Well, one of the baby bats. There are too many of ‘em, I keep losin’ count!” Jonny tilted his chair back dangerously close to falling over, his hands interlaced behind his head. “How’s that goin’ for ya? Ya know me, I love to be nosy.” It didn’t even register to consider that Tanya might not be so excited to seem him, especially not after her run-in with Harley. For Jonny, getting beat up by his friends was like a running gag. 

“I’m baaaack,” Jonny sang as he burst through the door, not even waiting for Leo to answer. “You got anything good for me?” Even though Jonny knew that he was a nuisance to  Leo, but he figured that the  kid could use the cash and he loved getting new plants for his little apartment on the island. With his relationship with Grant hitting the rocks, he was more than ready to dive headfirst back into cultivating his own little greenhouse of strange and often carnivorous plants. 

Billy let out an irritated grumble. He stopped pacing away and held up a hand at his side, twisting it skywards before a wave of water formed itself from the particles in the air above Jonny and cascaded down on him. As Billy twisted his hand back and forth, he chilled the water colder and colder. After a couple of moments, he stopped the water and turned around with hands sparking. “Wanna test what water does to electricity, or do you just want to shut the hell up?” He asked. He knew he should just turn around and walk off, but his nerves were shot from dealing (or more specifically, not dealing) with his own problems and everything else right now. Jonny was grating those nerves and he was so tempted to vent his frustration on the man, as horrible as that sounded even to him.

Billy looked at the man and shook his head a few times. “You’re sick..” He remarked about the man’s blatant lack of fear or regard for the situation he was in. Or maybe it was just that there wasn’t anything to fear from Billy – he was a ‘hero’ and the scum of this City knew what that meant even if times were making the lines a little more blurred than before. He spun on his heels, throwing his cape out behind him and let out a breath. “Get off the ground.” He stated as he took a few steps away from the other.

Billy was caught off-guard by the man’s wink and sarcastic quip, blinking for a brief second before shaking his heading quickly. He stopped approaching him lifted a hand towards him. A low rumble echoed through the area before a sharp stream of jagged spikes burst themselves from the ground and retracted, traveling in a line towards Jonny – before splitting and circling around him at the last minute. With a crack, the spikes launched themselves into the air above before they rained back down as heavy droplets of water. The mutant grumbled and dropped his hand with a small jolt of electricity – nothing too damaging, just enough to smart. 

“Better than being some lowlife with a mouth.” He remarked. “You’re messed up if you think I’m going to stand here and keep at this. You’re defenseless and I’m not a bully.”

“Me?” Harley squeaked, eyes wide. “Who’m I gonna tell? Ya know ya can trust me, Frosty!” Tilting her head, she frowned thoughtfully. The mention of a “lady doc” made her eyes narrow, but the change in her expression was no minimal that it would go unnoticed. She knew exactly who Jonny was talking about.

Crossing her arms, she swayed back and forth. “Hmmm… got any ideas ‘bout what this doc is tellin’ ‘im?” 

“You’re the biggest gossip I know! Ya tell me all sorts of shit!” Jonny laughed before his face fell again. “I don’t got a clue. He don’t talk to me.” He shook his head. “She’s been tryna fix up a new serum for him, but it’s not working. And Grant’s just bein’ all mean ta me.” Jonny sighed. “Boss is gonna be so disappointed. I wanted to do this good thing so he’d be proud o’ me, but now he’s just gonna get mad.” 

“Baby, come here.” Grant didn’t flinch when Jonny pulled away. “I didn’t mean for you to go like go, go.” He go up from the couch and approached him, carefully putting his hands to Jonny’s face. “Pookie, look at me.” Grant’s eyes were gentle, just as his voice was as he tried to calm Jonny back down. Grant could feel another violent episode boiling in his blood and he was doing everything he could to suppress it. He had to start fighting it because he absolutely could not lose Jonny in all this. 

Grant’s thumb grazed over Jonny’s cheek as he watched him, breathing carefully as he tried to remain as outwardly relaxed as possible. He didn’t want to alarm Jonny. “I just need to get some help, okay? I think we both figured that out the other day, right?” Grant’s head tilted. He want on a massive killing spree which resulted in the deaths of quite a few of the lackeys. Jonny was the only thing to bring him out of that. He was the only one who really looked at him and pulled him back. “I don’t wanna lose you, baby, I just need to get some help. That’s all. I promised you, I’d never go anywhere. I love you…”

Jonny hadn’t gotten into this for all this trouble. He had originally just manipulated Grant into being something useful and something to stave off the boredom. Even if Jonny felt something for him now, the disdain at how that didn’t seem to be working out and he had failed at the one thing he tried to do on his own was enough to make him feel like it wasn’t worth it. He gestured vaguely at the things he had just dumped on the ground for a moment, as if he couldn’t think of the right words to say when he was really just hoping Grant would get out of there before Jonny had to say it. 

“I don’t care. I don’t care, you can stay on the island if you want, but you’re not sleepin’ here. And you’re takin’ the ferry in the morning.” Jonny took a step back. “I don’t wanna hear it, I don’t care.” He did care, but he was trying his best to pretend like he didn’t. The next day, he was sure he would come around and he wouldn’t make Grant move away. Jonny’s loneliness and his determination to make this little project a success so Joker would place even more faith in him was enough to make him salvage whatever was left here. 

Grant’s hand came up to gently push Jonny’s fingers out from his hair. “Don’t tell me what I ain’t, Jonny.” He shook his head, voice trembling as he spoke. He was starting to feel jittery again, and the jitters were usually followed by a big lashing out and that was followed by a complete emotional outburst. It was all a pattern now and it didn’t take Grant long to memorize it and accept what feeling would inevitably come next. He’d been trying his absolute hardest not to take it out on Jonny, but the closer Jonny wanted to get— the less control Grant had.

His arms wrapped around himself tightly, fingers digging into his sides until the tips turned white. “I told you, I’m just tired. You know I haven’t been feeling so good. I— I just–” Grant felt the heat rise in his cheeks and his brain slowly felt like it was turning to mush again. His hands came up to grip his head as if that would stop him from spiraling. “You gotta go. Please, just go.” Grant groaned, fingers curling into his hair as his body moved into a tight ball on the couch. 

Jonny shook his head, pulling his hand back. Enough was enough—he had already talked to Harley about this, and she agreed that if he was being mean just to be mean, then he wasn’t worth the trouble. Jonny, even if he was just a man who worked for the Joker, he was powerful because of it. People were drawn to that power. He’d find another boy, another toy to drag around, another pretty person to hang off his arm like a pet. He’d find another. 

He stood up, walking into the bedroom and pulling Grant’s clothes from the closet, his shoes from the shoe rack, tossing them out into the living room. Jonny really was an all-or-nothing kind of person. “Get out,” he said. He rummaged around in Grant’s coat until he found some cigarettes and a lighter, lighting one up and taking a big drag. He sniffed once and rubbed his nose with the back of his hand. “I don’t care where ya go. Get the fuck out.”