❝ Biscuit, Mr. Joker? ❞
❝ Nah, I'd rather take a bite outta you ❞
in which an aspiring journalist catches the attention of two of the most powerful men in gotham - the joker and the batman.
[ the dark night | joker x oc x bruce wayne ]
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CHILDREN WHO HAD ABSENT PARENTS WERE EITHER ONE OF TWO THINGS: THEY WERE STUBBORNLY INDEPENDENT OR ANXIOUSLY HYPER-DEPENDENT.
Stephanie liked to think she was the former. She prized her sense of self, her ability to play the hand of cards life had thrown at her mercilessly. She was a self-made journalist - well, on her way to being one at least. For the time being, she had a good job, a roof over her head, and one good friend. That was more than she had dreamt about as a child.
However, she knew she was also the latter. She was the student who silently and bashfully lapped up praise. As an adult, she chased that high, whether she liked to admit it or not. She had one friend, Layla, and she had latched on to her the moment they started developing emotional ties. She was, unexpectedly to many, sentimental, and she carried around a pocket square that smelled like her mother. Verona Carmichael had given it to her when she was a baby. As a teen, Stephanie figured out what kind of perfume her mother used to use, and she adopted the scent. It was foolish but Stephanie felt like she was being embraced in a warm, lavender scented hug whenever she sprayed it on before stepping out her apartment door.
Stephanie often thought that she was the maker of her own destiny, even though her very quirks — the salient sarcasm, the dexterous work ethic, the tough facade —were products of the experiences she lived and endured because of the choices made by two people.
That wasn't to say Stephanie was special; the young woman knew this. Her life was little, it was replicable, it lived in bits and pieces across the human population. Some where in the world, there was a young boy with a criminal father, a girl with a flinch, a mother with hands that twirled her hair when she was in deep thought— they were her, and she was them.
"How's the head?"
She broke out of her thoughts, finding Reese from legal at her desk.
His office was two floors down, but that didn't stop him from visiting her every lunch break. Kyle Dent, his intern, was sometimes around but he had gotten sick with a nasty flu. Kyle seemed a little bummed about missing their weekly lunch dates at Ro's to which Stephanie assured him she would take him every day for the next month when he returned. For now, she was video calling the college student every few days, keeping him company as he coded some things she was too stupid to understand and solving logic puzzles. He was a strange kid. Nerdy but with a sharp tongue.
She liked Kyle. He had spunk.
Reese...not so much.
"Oh, it's a lot better. Thanks for asking, buddy," Stephanie replied pleasantly. She pretended not to see the way the sparkle dimmed in Reese's blue eyes and the way his smile disappeared at the word "buddy."
