Just Hanging Around

Highs and Lows pt. 1

a/n : Logan was my first love, I'm so excited he's getting the appreciation he deserves <3 There are not nearly enough slow burns for this man so ... here we go?

w/c : 2146

warnings: war, descriptions of gore, angry Logan

Tennessee , 1862

Bodies lay broken on the battlefield, a bleak expanse where life had been stamped out by the merciless weight of war. The sky, once vibrant with the colors of dusk, was now a dull gray, smothered by smoke and the stench of death.

Just a few miles north, a field hospital was a scene of chaos and suffering. Blood-stained tents and rows of cots filled with maimed soldiers. She stood alone, her once white apron ruined by gore, her eyes hollow with exhaustion. Torn banners fluttered weakly in the wind—the last gasps of the dying echoing from the trees. It was a chorus of agony that clawed at her mind, driving her to the brink of madness.

A/N: This is a short story about the first meeting between the reader and Arthur Fleck, i haven’t written in probably 2 years so i hope you guys enjoy it anyways. If you want a part 2 let me know!

A drop of rain landed on your face as soon as you stepped out of your decayed apartment building. You closed your eyes and tilted your head towards the cloudy evening sky.

The smell of Gotham flooded your nose. Trash, exhaust gases, alcohol, piss, tears and desperation. After a few seconds of breathing and listening to the street noises you started making your way towards the subway station.

It was a usual Friday night but you were hoping that the recent protests didn’t mean that there would be even less customers in the little diner you worked at. Tips were crucial for you since the old grouch who ran the place didn’t pay you a cent more than he needed to.

You knew you could do better and you used to have dreams but this city drowned them all before you had the chance to go after them. Not all hopes were lost though. The city was changing. You could feel it in your blood, something was about to happen. If that was a good or a bad thing, you didn’t know yet. The people needed change and they were about to make it for themselves.

The entrance to the subway was dimly lit, most lights were broken. The stairs were dirty and covered in pieces of old newspapers. A few homeless people were sitting on the floor inside the station hoping for some strangers with a few quarters to spare to walk by. Three minutes until the next subway would arrive, you used that time to put on headphones and put a new cassette into your Walkman.

The only i reason you could afford having one of those was simply because you had stolen it from a really rude customer a couple months ago. It was a middle aged guy who just had to make comments about your body and call you names, he even tried to touch you but that resulted in you almost breaking his arm. He had stormed out of the diner, calling you even worse names now, but as a pleasant surprise his Walkman had fallen out of his suitcase. The man never returned to ask for it so you were more than happy to make it your own.

You could hear the train approaching from the tunnels and stepped back a bit until it came to a full stop in front of you. The music on your headphones was loud enough to drown out most of the peoples voices as you entered the subway. There weren’t a lot of passengers, a couple drunk guys, an elderly man reading the newspaper, a woman with her two kids further down in the wagon.

You sat down on the empty bench and noticed the man sitting across from you. His hands were buried deep in the pockets of his jacket, his head was tilted downwards and a few strands of his wavy brown hair were falling into his face. He didn’t seem to notice or care, it looked as if his mind was somewhere else, far away from Gotham. You couldn’t blame him, it wasn’t a good place to be but it made you wonder what he was thinking about.

He must’ve felt your stare and his head jerked up making his deep green eyes meet yours. They were absolutely stunning and you felt your heart skip a few too many beats. Immediately you tried to smile at him just so he wouldn’t think that you were staring or judging him. He looked a bit unsure if you actually meant to smile at him, friendliness was a rare thing in the city these days.

After short hesitation his mouth formed a little awkward smile too and you could tell that he was a bit uncomfortable. You felt bad for staring,but there was just something about him that was very mesmerizing. He looked so genuine, so sweet and innocent in a world that only did him wrong.

The subway came to a stop and you realized that it was time for you to get out. The stranger across from you straighten himself and it almost looked like he was giving you a short nod as a goodbye.

For some reason you hoped that it wouldn’t be the last time you would see him but you also hoped that he would make it out of Gotham and have a chance of a better life.

You got up and waited for the doors to slide open. As you walked out of the train you started focusing back on the music that was still blasting from your headphones.

Arthurs view:

His mind was no where and everywhere at the same time. Why was life this cruel? What had he done to deserve this life of never ending pain and suffering. He just wanted to feel happiness for once, know what its like when someone genuinely cares about you.

One station after another was passing by and he didn’t even remember how long he had been riding this train already. He didn’t have a destination anyways, just aimlessly wondering around in the hopes of finding something that could make him feel like he mattered.

The subway just stopped and was now picking up speed again when he started to feel a bit uneasy. He hated when people starred at him, it made him nervous and he was scared that he wouldn’t be able to control his laughter attacks. He only wanted attention when he was prepared for it.

He stopped staring at the ground and looked up to find the source of his uneasiness when he met eyes with the woman sitting across from him.

He froze immediately.

Her eyes were fixed on his and they seemed as if they could hold the whole universe within them. How did someone so beautiful end up in this sordid city.

The stranger gave him an unsure smile as if she was silently apologizing for disturbing his daydream. It took him a second to be able to smile back since he was still startled by her stunning beauty.

His stomach felt weird looking at her, good but weird. He never felt something like this before so he wasn’t entirely sure how to interpret it.

The subway was approaching the next station and he could tell that the girl was getting ready to get up. It made him sad to see her leave so quick after just discovering her.

He hoped to see her again someday but he also hoped that she would make it out of Gotham to have a life better than it would ever be possible here.

She got up and he noticed that something was now laying where she had sat just a moment ago. It looked like keys, he started getting freaked out. Were these hers? He couldn’t just let her walk away when he had the opportunity to do something good.

“Ma’am ...Ma’am!” She didn’t hear him.

Just now he realized that the girl had headphones on her head. She had already walked out of the subway and was making her way towards the street exit.

It was now or never, he had to make a decision. As fast as he could he got up and grabbed the keys and sprinted out of the train before the doors could close.

Your view:

The subway stations of Gotham were without a doubt the grossest parts of the city so it felt almost refreshing to get back into the cold street. The diner was only a couple blocks down the road and you were a bit too early today so you weren’t running like usual.

The streets were moderately busy and there were quite a few shops and corner stores still open and beaming with lights. It always made you feel better when it felt like there was still some life left in the city.

In front of you a glass door opened and you slowed down to let the people pass. You looked into the reflection of the glass door and noticed a figure about thirty feet behind you. It was the stranger from the subway.

His hands were again buried in his pockets and you could tell he was looking at you. God dammit. You knew this city to well to believe that it was a coincidence. He was following you and the hands in his pockets most likely meant a knife or worse. Why couldn’t you just smile at a stranger without getting murdered.

You continued the walk towards your work place, right now you had the advantage. He didn’t know that you caught on to him. If he thought that you didn’t know how to defend yourself after growing up here then he was mistaken.

The further down the road you got the less people were out on the streets. You knew that there was an alley way coming up and it would be your chance to catch him off guard.

You had to act quick. The alley was right next to you, you took a sharp left and pressed yourself against the cold brick wall of the building. Your breath was shaky and your hands were sweaty, you pulled down your headphones so you could hear him approaching.

Blood was rushing trough every part of your body, making you almost exited with anticipation. The man was walking into the alley, he didn’t see you standing in the shadow until it was too late.

You grabbed his arms from behind, yanking them back so everything the was holding inside his pockets fell down to the ground. He was making muffled sounds of distress and confusion.

As soon as you had a good grip on his arms behind his back you pushed him face first into the brick wall and stood very close to him so he could hear you clearly.

“Why are you following me?” Your voice was calm and strong.

He was trembling under your grip and he let out a small laugh.

You were very confused, why was he laughing? Was this some sick game, did he like following seemingly defenseless girls at night?

“I’m... “ he coughed and another small laugh interrupted him.

“... sorry, y-our ...... keys “

He was almost wheezing, his foot was now pointing towards something that had fallen to the ground when you had overwhelmed him.

You looked down and saw the familiar bundle of keys laying on the wet floor. You let out a long sigh and let go of his hands to bend down and pick up your belongings. He turned around and slammed against the wall with his back, his hands coming up to grab his own throat while still laughing and coughing at the same time.

You stood back up and looked at him a bit unsure regarding his laughter. One of the mans hands came down to his jacket and he clumsily tried taking something out of his pocket. Now you got nervous again, maybe he did have a knife of a gun and you had failed to disarm him.

To your surprise he pulled out a wrinkled little card and held it out in front of him so you could grab it. He had to bend over from all the coughing and you took the card from his hand and read the words written on it.

After you read the card you looked back at the stranger, you felt bad for him, what a terrible condition to have.

“Hey ... hey! It’s okay. I’m really sorry, i thought you were following me and i got scared you know ....”

You put your hands on his shoulders and pushed him so he would stand upright again.

“It’s okay, just breath .... inhale ......exhale ...... its okay, I’m here.”

You looked him in the eyes and you could see the pain and panic in them. He mimicked your breathing patterns and you could tell that he was slowing calming down.

“Good... you’re doing great ... inhale ..... exhale.... there you go ....”

He was finally breathing normal again and he closed his eyes for a few seconds before locking them back with yours.

“Thank you... i just get these outbreaks sometimes... I’m sorry ..... I didn’t mean to scare you. You left your keys on the subway, i was calling for you but you had your headphones on and then .... i don’t know i got anxious and just followed you so i could leave the keys somewhere for you ... im so sorry .... you must’ve been so afraid ...”

The words were pouring out of him like a waterfall but you stopped him when you put your cupped hand on his cheek.

His eyes widened and confusion spread across his face.

“You don’t have to apologize, i didn’t think about the headphones, i just put them on so people don’t bother me. Thank you so much for grabbing my keys, I’d be pretty screwed without them.” You smiled at him and you could see a small smile forming on his face as well.

“I feel terrible for pushing you into the wall and overwhelming you ... let me make it up to you.”

You took a step back and straightened your jacket. With one hand you pointed down the street.

“I work at the diner just a few minutes from here, if you like milkshakes then I’ll get you one on the house.”

You smiled at him in hopes he would agree. Why exactly you felt the need to make it up to him you didn’t know. Maybe because he wasn’t what you thought he would be and his awkwardness and clumsiness made you feel some sort of way.

Even though his way of trying to give you your keys back wasn’t exactly ideal, it was still nice to know that he was going out of his way to do something good.

It’s far more than anyone else in this city would do.

“You really don’t have to do that-“ he started before you promptly interrupted him.

“No no no no, i insist, i almost broke both your arms, this is the least i could do.”

He still looked like he was going to decline but then he shyly nodded and gave you the cutest smile you had ever seen.

Tony comes back to earth and finds out that Pepper has been wiped out too????