~~~Third Person POV~~~

It wasn't uncommon for Harley to come home late anymore. In fact, it was something that was expected. Usually it was late nights at work.

Usually.

Other times? It was Harley being an idiot. Or picking fights. Or wandering off into the night. It was one of those days.

Harley had stumbled home, covered in blood, bruises and fresh burns. The voice still screaming in his head. He liked to call it his own person satan on his shoulder. Or just in his brain.

Someone that never stopped yammering. Even worse when he used his powers.

Once Harley reached the front door of his apartment he carefully - as well as he could - opened the door and shut it behind him. It took all of his energy not to collapse on the floor.

Instead he fell onto the couch and swallowed hard.

It was fine. He was fine.

He's been doing this since he was 15. He knew he would be okay. The redhead rested his head back trying to gain what little energy he could in order to clean up the mess he was most certainly making.

He closed his eyes, swearing to only rest his eyes and quiet his pounding head.

An minuet turned into an hour.

Joel quietly crept from his bedroom, nervous about the fact that their partner was not retuning their worried texts before his eyes widened at the couch.

"Harley?"

A muffled groan was heard.

Joel crossed the room to turn on the lamp beside Harley, nearly screaming when he saw the horrible shape that Harley was in.

The light jolted the redhead away only to make him hiss in pain at the commotion.

"Fucking hell, did you have to turn on the light?" The redhead hissed as he rubbed his temples.

"What.. you're worried about the light? Harley what happened?!" Joel pleaded as he stepped towards him.

Harley looked over himself. "Oh this? It's nothing."

Joel simply stared at him as if he was an idiot. "Harls, I hate to be so blunt with you, but you have burn marks all of your face and arms. You're bleeding everywhere and,, to put it kindly you look like hell."

Harley let out a cough, only a bit of blood sputtering out before he shrugged. "Well, I feel fan-fucking-tastic. Go to bed Joel."

Joel immediately shook their head. "No, you're gonna get an infection if you leave these wounds like this."

Harley instead shook his head slightly waving him off. "I'll be fine I'll be fine."

Bold face lie.

Joel shook his head before going over to a side closet where he took out a first aid kit and a fresh roll of bandages. Placing them on the couch he then went to to kitchen to pour a cup of water for Harley and fill up a small bin of ice cold water. Grabbing a rag and carefully balancing it all he went back to the living room.

Harley was still laying there silently, just staring at the ceiling almost glaring at it.

"Harls."

"Mm? Oh great a first aid kit." He had forced himself to sit up straight as he started poking through it.

'I've always hated this part.'

He grabbed a clean rag from Joel and carefully cleaned his wounds on his hand. Hissing in pain whenever he pressed too hard.

"Let me help you Harley, you're pressing too hard on it."

"M'not, I've done this a thousand times before Joel. I'm fine."

They didn't believe that. Not for a second. But they knew that Harley was stubborn. He would rather die than admit to help.

"So, are you gonna tell me what happened?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Mhm, nothing."

"Harley."

"Leave it Joel." Harley insisted with a hoarse voice. He didn't like pushing Joel away, in fact he hated it but how was he supposed to explain this. Something he barely understood himself. He wasn't.

With grit teeth he grabbed a needle and thread and carefully gave himself the messy stitches he was used to.

Joel couldn't take that, seeing Harley's concentrated face but seeing the pain in his eyes. He grabbed the rag, dipped it in the water and carefully started to wipe the blood off his arms.

Harley shrinked away feeling the cold water brush against his skin, nearly pushing him away.

The bad memories came flooding in.

The use of his powers and the aftermath of being shocked out of it. Was Joel trying to do that? Were they trying to make him lower his guard for that? Was he still showing effects of his powers? The thoughts kept spiraling on and on until Harley finally shook his head trying to get the thoughts out of his head. Although that just made his head hurt way way more.

Joel immediately put the rag down and looked at him nervously. "Sorry, does it hurt that bad?"

The redhead shook his head as he leveled his breathing before snipping the string for his stitches.

"No, it's not that."

"Is the water too warm on your burns? Or too cold?"

Harley stayed silent before shaking his head. "it's whatever, I suppose."

Joel slightly tilted his head. "So, can I continue?"

Harley nearly grimaced at the thought of doing that. However he didn't want to be rude to his partner. He simply just sighed, too tired to complain about it anymore.

"Just go ahead."

His partner did just that, carefully brushing Harley's red tangled locks back before lifting the rag up to his face. They took their time to carefully remove the crimson blood that was staining his face.

Harley initially shifted uncomfortably in place but after a while he just sat there with his eyes closed.

"So, what happened?"

Harley sucked in his breath, trying to think of whatever lie he could spew out. He came up empty handed, all he could hear was the voice in his head. Not helpful, mind you.

Joel continued to clean his face, moving his bangs out of his face to look at his newly acquired black eye.

Turning towards the first aid kit he thought what could he possible use to make it better.

"I got into a fight."

"What?"

"I lost my cool."

Joel silently stared at Harley as he huffed in pain.

"I lost myself.. and it came through and I couldn't stop it. They just made me.. made me feel and think things I haven't thought about since I was younger."

Joel narrowed his eyes as grabbed the disinfect carefully using it to patch up some of the injuries on his face.

"So,, did they.."

Harley let out a pained chuckle. "Oh no, none of these injuries were from them. All were self inflicted."

"What"

"I can't use my magic very well. Um.. I guess it kinda, burns the shit out of me?"

"Jesus Christ, Harley why did you risk using it then?"

Harley stared forward again kinda just, staying silent. "Erm, well.. it wasn't up to me. I can't.. control it that well.."

Joel sighed before bandaging his eye up in order to continue moving on.

"It's not really something I can explain that well but.. it's like.. there's another person is controlling me. The more I fall into the magics hold the more I loose myself to him."

Joel looked at his partner with a soft look. "Harley.."

Harley shook his head with a yawn. "It's whatever, but long story short um.. we aren't very compatible.." Harley snickered. "Not me and you but me and.. him."

The brunette sighed before carefully undoing Harley's tie and then his vest. "How is he? Like.. what's he like?"

Harley thought about that, looking slightly bothered but he only looked at Joel with a shrug.  "He's a monster. He turns me into a monster."

"You aren't a monster."

"You haven't seen me use my powers so you wouldn't know. No offense, my prince."

"So does he cause all this.. damage?"

Harley simply shook his head at that. "No he doesn't. I do. Kinda. My body wasn't made to handle magic, well.. it wasn't made to handle this type of fire magic. It burns me away because I'm not equipped to handle it."

"Jesus, Harley.. I'm so sorry.."

"Nah, you're cool.. um are you nearly done?"

"Nope"

"Damn." Harley simply laid his head back. "Sorry for waking you up, I was planning on dealing with this in the morning."

"You do realize we'd be in the same position that we are right now, just.. in the morning?" Joel chuckled. He carefully undid the buttons on Harley's shirt before carefully taking it off. Their heart sinking at all the bruises, scars and blood on his chest.

"I'm so smart, huh? Wear a red shirt then no one can see all the fucking pain you go through right?"

The tone was framed as a joke but the wording was off. Almost like he forced himself to say it in order to not worry Joel.

"Harls.. are you sure we don't need to go to the hospital?"

Harley sat up with a frown on his face. "No. No hospitals. I've done this before countless times and never needed a hospital."

"I hope you don't see that as something to brag about."

Harley shrugged. "I'll brag about it if I damn please. I say that respectfully by the way."

His tone was harder to tell. Constantly jumping around the place as well as not having it focused on one single thing.

"Okay.. well I'm going to clean the blood. Try to stay still okay?"

"Okay."

Joel carefully dipped a new rag into the cold water before carefully cleaning off the crimson stains from his chest.

The redhead gripped the couch tightly nearly wanting to push the rag away. Instead he grit his teeth and decided that he could deal with this.

He's been through far worse.

This time was no different.

'Suck it up Harley, Suck it up.'

The air between the two of them was quiet as Joel tried to quickly attend to his wounds. Harley stayed mostly silent except for the slight hiss of pain whenever he would brush across some more recent scars.

Soon once the blood was cleaned they grabbed the roll of bandages carefully wrapping his chest in them.

The same process repeated on his arms, as they hummed softly to themself.

"Harley?"

"Mm, what is it?"

"Why did you get in the fight?"

Harley thought for a bit before deciding that there shouldn't be any harm telling the truth.

"Because, they were assholes. Plus um.. I guess I knew them."

"Friends of yours?"

Harley chucked. "Sure, if you call working for them and doing partially illegal things with them friends I suppose we were best friends."

"Mm, that bad?" Joel asked

"That bad. But it's okay. M'not worried about the them."

'Liar.'

"You aren't?"

"M-m, why should I be?"

"Dunno you literally came home bruised and bloodied and refused to let me clean your wounds and talking in more sarcasm then usual."

Harley looked at Joel before he shook his head with a chuckle. "Fair points, all fair points. However.. I literally have no defense or any arguments."

"Mm" was all that Joel could say before putting the rags that he used back in the bucket, making a mental note to clean later.

They looked at Harley kinda just lying there, nearly falling asleep before gently shaking his shoulder.

"Cmon Harls, let's get you to bed."

"M'not tired."

"You sound tired."

"M'not." Harley insisted before looking up at him. "I'm gonna make breakfast."

"Harley it's like 2 in the morning."

He supplied with a simple shrug.

"I'll make something for you in a second then." Joel said as he started to pack up the first aid kit.

"Nah, it's fine." Harley said as he sleepily rubbed his eyes.

Joel placed a gentle kiss on his forehead before they went to their bedroom, pulled out a cozy sweater for Harley and walked back out to present him with it.

Harley gave his signature smile as he pulled it on with a sigh. "Thanks for helping me out Joel."

His partner nodded as he sat on the couch beside him. "It was the least I could do."

Harley rested his head against Joel's shoulder making little to no movement.

Joel nearly reached towards the light to switch it off before Harley spoke again.

"Sorry if I was mean to you when you first started to help, I just got all defensive. It's nothing personal towards you. Promise."

Joel carefully wrapped their arm around Harley messing around with their partners messy red locks. "It's fine, sorry if I made you uncomfortable with it, i just.. didn't want to see you in pain."

"I know" Harley buried his face in the crook of Joel's neck. "You didn't make me uncomfortable though. I just have.. bad memories regarding this sort thing."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, not your fault." Harley supplied.

"I take it that's why you didn't react to well to me cleaning your wounds."

"Something like that. I don't mind cold water. I like rain, I like swimming, y'know? But something 'bout cold water after i use my magic... it makes my skin crawl."

Joel silently listened as he carefully brushed Harley's hair, doing his best to unknot the tangles.

"Did they use it against you?"

"Mm, bingo bullseye right on target. Whenever I.. slip into the magic they always had to snap me out of it. If not I probably would have destroyed a lot of shit. The used to drench me in ice. Then um... they used to use electricity."

Joel's eyes widened as he looked at Harley to see if he was exaggerating or if he was just pulling his leg. Instead he looked exhausted like he was just talking with little filter. Their face darkened as they looked gloomy at him.

"I'm so sorry."

"Don't be, what's in the past is in the past. I'm beyond caring really."

They carefully rubbed comforting circles in his back. Hoping that it would bring some sort of comfort. Harley was silent before his playful grin - while weak - came back.

"I hope you aren't expecting me to start cryin' or some shit."

That was enough to send Joel into a slight chuckle.

Harley didn't cry.

Harley barely cried.

The last time he saw Harley cry was.. probably tears of joy actually. Joel never recalled any time that Harley was crying or when he was so visually upset. Even now.

His eyes may have been tired and slightly out of it, but no trace of tears.

"Well if you ever need to cry.. you know you can."

"Nice try, but I told you m'fine."

"I know, you always seem to be." Joel carefully kissed his forehead again.

Even if Joel knew that Harley would always admit to being fine, he wasn't. Not deep down. But they both knew that no matter how many acts, how many masks and how many lies he used to cover it up, that he was most definitely hurting.

Many times it would definitely spill through, many times it would appear through the many cracks. But they both knew that even if they weren't okay that things would get better.

Just a little time needed.

Joel looked down at Harley who now seemed to be getting comfortable and who finally closed his eyes to go to bed

"Forget about breakfast, m'so tired." Harley mumbled into Joel's shirt. They took this as a sign to start to get up.

"Cmon let's go to bed then."

"No, i don't want to move, I will literally trip up the stairs."

They let out a breathy chuckle as he slightly leaned over to turn the lamp off. "I suppose that we can sleep here tonight."

"Good. Cuz I wasn't planning on movin'." Harley remarked as he started to get comfortable.

The brunette began to shift in a more comfortable position beside the redhead as Harley carefully pulled him closer.

"Good night, Harley."

"G'night, Joel."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Some hurt/comfort jarley because um- I felt like it- also they make me very happy so <3