i'm about four minutes from a heart attack, and i think you make me a maniac, but you don't know, oh

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The Grin and Bare It was at the top of its game when you walked in. The music was loud, the bass making the floor shake beneath your feet. Brightly colored lights flashed all around you, and it was damn near impossible to see anything clearly.

Everyone was watching you and the gang as you followed Joker inside. Their looks ranged from appreciative to downright terrified, and you found yourself reveling in the attention you were getting. A drink was pressed into your hand and you took a long drink, wincing at the burn as it went down.

"Cool, huh?" asked Fox from beside you. He was grinning, holding a beer in his right hand.

You nodded. "Really cool," you said, and his smile got wider.

"Just wait until the dancers come out," he said conspiratorially. "For now, we just gotta hit the dance floor!"

The two of you mingled with the crowd, pushing your way to the middle of the group of people dancing. You hadn't heard the song that was playing before, but it had a strong beat, and you were dancing to it in no time. You swapped drinks with Fox at one point, laughing and pretending to spit in the other's cup.

Sharkey cut in a little later. He leaned down to whisper in Fox's ear, and Fox giggled, grabbing onto Sharkey with one hand to stay upright.

He turned to you. "Well, I gotta go!" he said brightly, giving you an overly exaggerated wink. You lifted your cup to him and shouted your support. They were off the dance floor in no time. Probably going to make out in a corner, unless you missed your guess.

You hadn't really allowed yourself to do things like this in your normal life. You'd gone out occasionally, but never let go the way you were doing now. You danced and shouted along to the song playing, even let a girl in a short, tight-fitting dress with glittering gold eyeshadow kiss you on the mouth. She tasted like peaches and vodka, and she winked at you as she disappeared back into the crowd. You couldn't stop smiling, though the whole time the back of your neck prickled as if someone was watching you. You dismissed it as a side effect of the alcohol.

And then it all came to a head when you heard a gunshot.

You were elated, not hammered, so you slipped out of the crowd and went to find Frost. You found him in the back room with Joker, the place only separated from the rest of the club by a golden curtain of beads. There were two men seated in a booth, their backs to you. One was dead. Joker sat on the opposite side of the table, and his eyes flicked to yours when you entered, quiet though you were. But he didn't object to you being there, so you moved to stand next to Frost. Joker just went back to snarling at the one alive man.

"So you thought you'd disobey me?" he snapped at him, his anger practically taking on a physical presence of its own.

"I-"

"Shut up!" Joker shouted. He picked up his gun from the table and lunged forward, jamming the barrel of it into the man's temple. "I should kill you for this," he mused, suddenly quiet, and pressed the gun harder into his head. "I really, really should. But." He grabbed the man's wrist, forced his hand out, palm up, and slapped the gun into his hand. "I'm going to let you fix your mistake. I'm going to let you... make it up to me." 

The man swallowed, eyes flicking from the gun to the Joker and back again very quickly. 

"You know what to do, don't you?" 

He nodded, and you saw him squeeze his eyes shut, there was a bang, and then everything was still. 

Joker looked up from the gore, the blood and brains spilling out over the seat, the table, his shirt, and locked eyes with you. You felt trapped, prey held under a predator's gaze, and you found that you couldn't make yourself look away.