Straying out of Sanity

"Hello ladies," I heard Leo's voice sound around an hour later, coming out of the back with the two other girls. They separated from him and sat together on the couch a bit over from me to my left and Leo himself sat down to my immediate right and draped his arm around the back of the couch and my shoulders casually.

"I'm not drunk enough to deal with you yet, asshole," Stacia told him, rolling her eyes as he sat down.

"Because all you've been drinking are these dacaries, right?" Leo asked her, eying the seven or eight empty glasses on the table around the dancing pole.

"Your right," Stacia replied after a few seconds and walked up to the bar.

"What are you doing?" Candy called after her, remaining in her seat across from me. I glanced up to see her getting new drinks for us from Ace. When she came back she had three glasses, one for me, her and Candy and handed them to us. I took a sip from the glass and it tasted like Coke, but maybe just a little... off.

I looked back over to Stacia with a questioning look, wondering what she had given me, and she smiled back. Okay, whatever, I told myself and drank some more.

Half way through the off-tasting soda the door that Leo and I had come I through when we first entered this place caught everyone's attention when the guy guarding it flung it open. All our heads turned to watch soaking wet men come pouring in, some looking severely broken, even to the point where they were being carried in by other men. But then again there were men who looked completely fine. There were definitely more than just the men that were in the white stalker van and the few that were in the limo with The Joker, Croc, Leo and I.

A lot of them I didn't recognize but then there were the few that I've seen around Joker's manor and for sure none of them were Mitch or Jay. But then again two other key men were missing as well. Croc and The Joker were just as absent as Mitch and Jay. I glanced down at Leo's wrist watch he had on to realize that it was almost eight thirty.

"Looking for someone?" I heard Candy ask me as I took a final glance back at the horde of men that had half filled the club.

I turned back in my seat, taking another sip from my whatever I was drinking and shook my head. "No one that isn't here."

"Who isn't here?" Candy asked, stretching her neck to look all the men over again.

"Are you blind?" Stacia asked her friend, "Neither of the bosses are here, asumin' thats who you were looking for," she then turned to me, with a semi-questioning look.

Leo turned around again to scan the men like Candy had done as I shook my head "no" to Stacia, taking another, quite larger drink from whatever she had given me to try and settle my nerves that had rapidly shown up after realizing my two friends weren't here.

"Actually most of the men we were with earlier aren't here," Leo said, finally turning back around in his seat.

"What?" I asked him, turning to quickly face him.

"They're probably still out with Joker and Croc, don't worry doll-"

"Don't call me doll," I said hastily through a clenched jaw, being instantly reminded of that scumbag Maroni.

"Okay, okay," Leo replied with equal haste, "Just don't worry about your friends, they'd be here if something serious had happened."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"Because the few men that were with us before that are here now are the ones who didn't walk in," Leo told me and pointed to my left. I looked to see those men that had been carried in here and realized just how broken they looked. I then quickly looked back to Leo who repeated, "Don't worry about them."

"Damn," I heard Candy mutter, scanning over the injured men as I had.

"Just what are Croc and The Joker doing?" Stacia turned to Leo and I.

"Bat hunting," I answered her.

"Bat hunting?" Stacia repeated as Candy started laughing.

"It's what Joker said," I smiled at her. She stared at me for a few seconds before blinking twice, shaking her head and finishing off her drink.

"Finish that," she told me, indicating the drink she gave me that I was still holding.

I did as told and chugged the last half of the glass I had as Stacia stood up and Candy said, "Oh! Mine too!" and chugged down the rest of her drink as well. Stacia took the three glasses back up to Ace, most likely because there wasn't much more room for empty glasses on the small table in the center of the circular couches.

She returned a minute later with three of the same drinks that Candy, her and I had had before. Within the next few minutes of all these new guys being here quite a few more girls had shown up as well.

By the time these drinks were nearly downed as well I was in a much more comfortable position on the couch, my legs stretched out on the empty space between me and the two nameless girls as I was leaning back into Leo. Stacia had seemed to mostly forget her "intense disliking" or whatever you'd like to call it for Leo. Candy... well Candy was being even more giddy than she already was. Yes the three of us were drunk but we weren't... drunk.

When I was just about finished with this second off-tasting soda the door behind us caught our attention again. I turned quickly, hoping to see if Mitch and Jay were here yet. I didn't care what Leo told me, if they weren't here right now I was going to worry my ass off about them (or just possibly drink enough alcohol until I'm completely pissed and don't know what's going on).

A smile spread on my face when I noticed those two men walking in, along with the other guys that were in the limo and Leo's friends that were with us earlier and, of course, the last two in were Croc and The Joker.

Mitch had spotted me in a matter of seconds, after quickly eying a few of the injured men, and was dragging Jay over to where I was. "What happened to your arm?" I asked Mitch, eying the dirty red mechanic's rag around his upper left arm, when he and Jay both reached the sunken in pit thing I was at.

"Just a flesh wound," Mitch told me as Jay decided he wanted to sit where my legs were on the empty space and I proceeded to try and kick him away.

"You'd say it was a-" I started as Candy started giggling at the mini fight Jay and I were having, as he was trying to keep me from kicking him by holding onto my ankles, and I managed to kick his side, "-flesh wound if your arm was falling off. Let go of me!" I then yelled after finishing saying what I wanted to Mitch.

"Le'me sit down!" Jay yelled back. Mitch had already found a seat next to Stacia. I whined a bit more but eventually gave up and let him sit down, my feet now on the floor which was awkward for me because of the position I was in and made me feel all twisted around.

"No, seriously," Mitch smiled at me, or possibly just at how stupid Jay and I had been right now, "It's just a flesh wound..." His smile quickly faded noticing something behind Leo and I but before I could turn and look too, or at least give him a questioning look I heard the hammer of a gun being cocked and suddenly my very comfy position I was in was gone as Leo quickly moved away from me, causing me to fall backwards a bit. After catching myself I was able to see The Joker, purple coat in his right hand while a shiny revolver was held in his left, pointing it at Leo.

"You're in my seat," I heard his deadly words barely escape his lips in a low growl as I sat up fully, wondering what the hell he was thinking. Joker kept his gun held at Leo, who was now cramming himself next to Candy, who was red in the face, hand over mouth trying not to laugh because this was somehow funny to her.

Joker made his way into the sunken in area to sit exactly where Leo was, to my immediate right, before letting the barrel of the gun face away from Leo as he draped his left arm around the back of the red couch, as Leo had. I looked at him questioningly but he didn't notice because his eyes were closed and he was resting his head on the back of the couch so that it was slightly tilted upwards. I then looked over to Jay, who had decided he no longer wanted to sit where my legs should be and instead ended up in between the two other girls on the red couch to my left.

In my half drunk state I didn't see why I couldn't return to the position I was in previously with Leo, despite the man replacing him was holding a loaded gun and didn't seem all that happy. So instead of sitting up and possibly moving a bit away from the dangerous man next to me I instead leaned back into him, resting my head on his upper chest and putting my legs back up on the couch. As I did this I noticed him moving his gun from his left hand to his right, noticing that it was pointed at my lower legs before he moved it, and then dropped it on his purple coat to his right, all without opening his eyes.

Candy quietly squealed across from me, drawing my attention to her.

"Cute," she mouthed to me and I gave her a weird look, as did Stacia. Candy, however, didn't notice because she was suddenly interested in watching Leo get up and leave as his friends came over with a beer for him and then brought him to another part of the strip club.

"Bye asshole," I heard Stacia mumble, pushing Candy into the empty space Leo had left so her, Candy and Mitch wouldn't be so squished together. "Your flesh wound," Stacia said a few seconds later to Mitch, pointing to the rag around his arm, breaking his glare I only just noticed he was giving me, "It's bleeding," she continued and he looked down to his left arm to see a trail of blood escaping from the rag and starting to run down his arm. He grabbed the rag, pulling it off his arm to reveal an eight or nine inch slightly curved gash, running from about his mid deltoid to across his bicep, and started wiping up the blood.

"Flesh wound?" she asked upon seeing the deep cut in his arm.

"Yeah," Mitch said, concentrating on what he was doing.

"Mmhmm," she hummed disbelievingly before standing up. "C'mon honey," she said tugging on Mitch's other arm to get him to stand as well and follow her, "Let's get you cleaned up." Before she left she turned to me and pointed to the other side of the club, most likely indicating she wanted me to meet them over there when she was done "cleaning Mitch up". If not then I have no clue what she was telling me but I nodded anyways, not really caring.

"Candy!" we suddenly heard a shout from up on the... I don't know what you'd call it... a cat walk type thing...? And her and I both turned in that direction to see another one of the girls that worked here. "Get'chu ass up here girl! Jesus!" she yelled at Candy.

"Ugh!" Candy gave an extremely exasperated sigh before standing up. She looked to me, pointing where Stacia had and said, "I'll meet you there too," before leaving. I then noticed that Jay and those two other girls had disappeared. After giving a "what-the-fuck" look to the empty space on their red couch before looking around as best I could without moving from my comfortable position I noticed the three, allover each other might I add, just before they disappeared into the back room where Leo had taken me when I first got here.

I gave a disgusted look to the door they vanished behind, muttering an, "Eww," as well before sighing. In less than a minute I was alone. Well except for the murdering psychopath I was using as a pillow. In less than another minute it was just too quiet for me. Well not in the club, the club was really loud. But where I was felt too quiet with The Joker just... sitting there.

I moved a bit so I could look up at him and saw his eyes still closed and wondered if he was sleeping. Only a few seconds later one of his eyes opened and stared back at me. I smiled at him and his eye closed again with a grunt. I sighed before sitting up, turning around and sitting on my legs so I was facing him.

With a sigh from him he sat up a bit from his original position, looking over to me. "What?" He asked, popping the "t" on the end.

I cocked my head to the side and shrugged before asking, "Why do you wear so many clothes?"

"How drunk are you?" he countered quickly.

I blinked at him when I tried to think. "Only... some..." I said a moment later and caused him to scrunch his eyebrows together with a slight frown, contrasting with his scars. "Is it possible to be comfortable in that many clothes?" I asked after another moment, pushing his previous question away.

"... I got used to it," he mumbled, the same look on his face as he turned away from me to face forward. I also looked away from him and stared at his left hand. I took it in my own hands, undoing the snap before pulling it off his hand and discarding it in my lap. I then moved on to unbuttoning the cuff on his sleeve and rolling it up to his elbow.

I glanced back up to his face for a second to see he was looking back at me, his face now blank besides his eyebrows which were still slightly furrowed. I looked away from him quickly before getting onto my knees. His glove fell onto the couch below me as I moved myself so that I was straddling his lap, which was slightly awkward because he was sitting in a typical "guy manner" with his legs slightly spread apart and I was thankful that my skirt was allowing this and not riding up any further than it had. Sure he'd seen me half naked a few times before but the rest of the people in this club haven't and I wasn't yet drunk enough to not care.

After getting comfortable I started to unbutton the buttons on his vest, noticing that the second of the four button's was missing, before untucking what I could of his hexagon pattern dress shirt. I then moved back up, untying his tie and slinging it around the back of my neck and moving my hair so the fabric would rest against my skin. Joker moved his head up a bit as to stretch his neck when I started to unbutton the shirt so I could have easy access to the first button. When his shirt was fully unbuttoned I took his right hand and removed the glove as I did with his left, discarding it where his left one fell, before unbuttoning the cuff and rolling up the sleeve.

When I was satisfied I leaned back a bit and his revolver, being shiny and catching the dim light in the club, caught my eye.

"Can I leave?" I asked him, still eying the gun.

"I don't see whats keeping you here," he replied laconically. I looked away from the gun to him and saw his slight frown had returned. A frown of my own made it's way onto my lips and I remained silent for the next few moments, staring at one of the buttons on his shirt that I had unbuttoned before looking back to the gun.

"How would you unload that?" I asked.

"I'd shoot it."

I looked back to The Joker with my nose scrunched distastefully, "No, the non-lethal way."
He grabbed the gun from atop his coat, pushed a small button forward on the side of the gun before swinging out the cylinder. When he tipped it up four bullets fell out, along with two empty cartridges, into his hand.

"Why couldn't I have one of these?" I asked him, referring to that one complicated gun he had given me a week or two ago when I was shot in the leg.

"You want one? Here," he said pushing the gun into my chest. I grabbed it with my left hand while steadying myself with my right hand on his knee. I looked at the gun before hesitantly shoving it into the back of my jean skirt and looking back at him.

"You sure you won't mind if I leave?" I asked him.

"I've been alone fifteen years, do you really think I'd care if you left?" It was his turn to ask a question now. It sounded like he was saying that just to get me to feel sorry for him but then again the tone in which he said it scared me and made me want to leave.

I decided to listen to him and believe he didn't care if I left, thinking it was safe to blame how drunk I was for the intentional misinterpretation, if there even was one. I moved off of him so I could stand up and when I did I heard him continue.

"Besides," he said in a much less hostile manner, "I'm not too fond of people when they're drunk," he paused to smack his lips, "They tend to... annoy me." He gave me a sinister smile before I left hastily, the way he was acting was scaring me, he had just had about four mood swings in the past ten seconds.

As I was walking away I noticed that I still had his tie around my neck. Rather than going back and giving it back to him I instead tried to tie it. I half tripped over my own feet as I did and decided to not walk and tie the tie at the same time so I wasn't hazardous to myself or anything else.

I frowned at the result of the knot I had made in the tie, since it looked more like a rectangle if anything. I hastily untied the tie, trying to retie it in a better manner, doing a whole bunch of random loops and twists. The result of this made the tie look rather awkward but at least the knot was a triangle this time. I smiled at the knot, just happy it was the right shape, and started to walk off again, something that was short lived because as soon as I was walking again I caught notice of someone I hadn't seen in a while.

"Hunter?" I asked as I quit walking again. He was seated at a booth type thing with a few more of The Joker's henchmen.

He turned around to face me at the sounding of his name and smiled at me, "Emma."

He had a gash across his cheek that was surrounded by a yellow and green bruise that looked like it was having a hard time healing, the remains of what looked like a nasty black eye, and a faded hand print bruise around his neck like someone had tried to choke him.

"What happened to you?" I asked, stumbling over to him and sitting in the extra space at the end of the booth. They men he was with didn't seem to notice or didn't bother to care that I was here.

"What? My face? That's only the half of it really. I guess Joker was only kiddin' 'bout killing me if anything happened to you. How's the leg by the way?" he asked and I looked at him like he was crazy. His smile faded a bit when he saw the look I was giving him and he continued with, "Babe, I'm fine really. Don't worry about it."

"If you're fine then why haven't I seen you since I got shot?" I asked him, crossing my arms over my chest.

"The hospital. Beauty of wearing those masks is that no one knows who the hell you are," He told me turning away from me a bit to take a shot that was placed in front of him just then.

"You were at the hospital?" I questioned.

"Yeah," he said after a second, his face and voice still slightly distorted from whatever was in the shot glass. "But don't worry 'bout me babe, I told you I'm fine."

"Yeah, now you are."

Hunter rolled his eyes at me, grabbing another shot that was randomly placed in front of him, like the shot glass was refilling itself automatically, and passed it off to me. I took it without question and drank it quickly, regretting doing so just as quickly.

"What was that?" I choked out, shoving the glass back to him.

"Gin," he laughed, setting the glass back on the table before turning back to me and putting an arm around my shoulders.

"Well I don't like gin," I told him.

"I saw that," he smiled but I kept my sour look. "Aww, come on babe," he said and then reached to grab one of the random bottles off the table, used the edge of the table to pop the bottle cap off and then handed it off to me.

I checked the label first to make sure what he was giving me was actually beer before taking a sip. "I'm drinking way too much tonight," I then told him.

"How so?" He asked me, faking extreme interest as he turned more towards me in his seat.

"I've had like two dacaries, two... whatevers, a shot of gin and now a beer," I smiled at him, swirling the liquid in the bottle before taking another drink.

"And your not shit-faced yet?" he asked, picking up another shot that was placed in front of him and taking it.

I shook my head no and told him, "It'll hit me all at once later and I'll die."

"You'll die?" he asked, a moment after taking the shot, placing the small glass on the table.

"Or pass out. You know, same thing."

"Well then," he said before taking away the beer he had given me, the beer I was about to take another drink from.

"Hey-!"

"We don't want you passing out now do we?" he asked, smiling and placing the beer on the table before turning back to me.

"But I-"

I froze because I'm very sure that Hunter spontaneously kissing me wasn't the way I was going to end that sentence. I felt his lips smile slightly against mine and I felt a bit more sure of the situation I found myself in and leaned into him a bit, my arms snaking around his neck.

Well it wasn't the way I had planned the sentence out but it was way better than what it was going to me, thats for sure.