if you wanna start a fight, you'd better throw the first punch, make it a good one

—-

You put your hand on Dietrich's shoulder, making him jump a little in his seat. You did your best impression of Joker's smile. It probably looked like more like an animal bearing its teeth.

"You Dietrich?" You asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, man, who's asking?" He said slowly.

You probably should have felt a little nervous. This was your first solo job for Joker, and there were a million ways you could fuck this up. But the longer you wore Joker's smile, the more you felt that you were in control. You worked for the most dangerous man in Gotham. What threat could a greasy dude like Dietrich pose?

And hey, you'd already killed a man, already cried and screamed for him. You felt almost savagely confident that you could handle this man.

"Why don't you come with me," you said, and it was not a question.

"Hey, who the hell do you think you are?" Dietrich demanded, setting down the dice.

"The Joker sent me," you said. The words were enough to make his face grow pale. "Get up." He did, with no small amount of muttering under his breath, and followed you to one of the back rooms in the club.

Your confidence was beginning to wear off by then, and you found yourself back in the room at Arkham with the doctor.

No, you cut off that line of thinking. It's not the same. You can handle this.

"Sit down," you snapped at Dietrich, pointing to a chair near a desk on the other side of the room.

"What's this about?" He damn near demanded.

"You're losing the boss a lot of money," you said, taking comfort in the facts. "Some people are starting to think that you're doing it on purpose."

"It's just a couple of bad hands, I wouldn't try to-"

"Cheat J out of his money? I sure hope not," you placed your hands on the armrests of his seat and leaned forward to get into his space. As uncomfortable as it made you, it seemed to make him even more so, which you took pleasure in. "Because I think you know what he'd do if you did."

"I'm not afraid of you," Dietrich hissed at you.

"It's not me you should be afraid of," you countered. "But hey- stay defiant. That's fine with me. Because my orders are to make sure that you won't make it out of this room alive."

His face went deathly pale, and god, you savored it. You could feel your smile returning to your face.

"Look, you don't have to do this," he said quickly. "I've got money, if that's what you're after. Enough to get you out of the city, away from him."

"Why would I want to be anywhere else?" You asked. Then you shook your head. "Never mind." You pulled out your gun.

"No- wait-" Dietrich started, but then he launched himself at you and you realized- his act had been a feint!

He slammed into you, reaching for the gun. You twisted away from him and flicked the safety off. But it took you just too damn long to aim.

Dietrich grabbed you as you moved, shoving you back into the wall. He hit you in the stomach hard for good measure. You felt the wind get knocked out of you, and it was all you could do to knee him in the groin and keep the gun out of his hands.

He dropped to his knees with a groan, and this time, you didn't hesitate. Your finger was squeezing the trigger before you could think to do anything else. He collapsed, a bloody hole in his chest.

You stood over him for a minute, then swallowed your bile and stomped out of the club.

As you got back into the car, you felt your phone buzz in your pocket. It was a text from an unknown number.

Well done. Get back here, I've got something else I need you to do.

Your hands shook as you put your hands back on the wheel. The Joker was pleased with you- and you weren't sure whether or not that was a good thing.