Everything was silent at first. Then the sounds started to come through, one at a time. First the gentle beat of my heart. Then the rustling of blankets. The clock. The flutter of my own eyelids. Then a voice. Low and raw and familiar.

"Harley. Harley." 

I groaned, lifted my hands to my eyes to block the glaring white light. 

"Harley it's me." 

My body throbbed with pain, from my toes to the pressure in my head. I could feel a coarse texture around my midriff. Bandages. Then I remembered. The sky. It had been so pretty. And I could remember the shouts. The aching scream-like shout of the Joker. How I couldn't tell if he was laughing or crying. 

The white light dimmed, and I saw red lips, blue eyes, green hair on a canvas of white. My Joker. I smiled, and reached up my hands to cup his face.

"I love you." I whispered roughly. Then I stopped, let my hands drop off his face and onto the blankets and looked away. "I had a dream, you said that you didn't-" He bent down, kissed me before the words could come out. Our lips locked, I closed my eyes and he pulled back and bit my bottom lip hard. I winced as it started to bleed, but smiled. My blood painted his lips, my lips too. He pulled back an inch, his breath mingling with mine. 

"I love you, Harley. Shit." He rolled his neck, clenching his jaw, then looked up at the ceiling and back at me. He was frowning with the effort of getting out the words. "I love you." His eyes were running over my face. I shivered at the words, the depth behind them. 

"Do you really?"

He grabbed my face frantically, like there was only a little time to say the things he wanted to say. "Yes. Yes, I love you Harley." He ran a finger along my face. I smiled wickedly and settled back in my bed. "Where am I?" 

He smoothed out my hair, his hands shaking. "You're home." 

I touched his red, red lips with the tips of my fingers.

"Can we go somewhere? After this? I just... I just want to leave Gotham for a while. Just me and you, someplace nice. Together." For a second I thought that he wasn't going to bother answering. That it was so absurd that he would just say no. He started to grin, and I felt my heart wither.

"Yes. Let's go somewhere. What do you have in mind?" He tilted his head to the side and I smiled, wrapped my arms around his neck. 

"Somewhere with a lot of sun. A little house in the country would be good." 

He curled back his upper lip. I touched the metal on his teeth with my thumb. "Why this sudden want for...for sunshine and little houses? Isn't Gotham good enough for you?" 

"Everything's fine. I just want to go somewhere for a while. Somewhere different."

He looked up at the ceiling and whispered something.

"What?" 

He looked down at me. "Venice." 

I grinned, imagined the blue skies and blue seas, us riding in gondolas along the river of love.I pulled him closer.  "Can we leave soon? I'm sick of grey." 

He sighed into my neck, his teeth grazing my skin, his green hair resting on my lips. "Ok. Three days from now. You have to recover first."

 I smiled, gripped him harder, my fingernails digging into the back of his neck. "Now tell me what happened." 

He tensed, then softened. "Some...some idiot shot you. I killed him personally afterwards. But you're fine now." I could tell in the depths of his mind that it was like an excuse. Oh he was gonna treat me bad, no doubt. But that didn't mean he loved me. 

"Thankyou." I whispered. 

I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of his heart and mine beating together. Enjoyed this sweet, sweet moment of peace between us. 

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