TW: cutting

Harley evened her pigtails and pulled them tight to her head, wrapping the clear rubber bands in two scrunchies, one black and the other red.

"Mistah J!" She called as she skipped down the hall, forgetting to put down the brush she was using to comb down her furious tangles.

She heard a faint mumble coming from the bathroom, the door was ajar, spilling stark white light into the dim hallway.

"Puddin'!" She exclaimed as she pushed the door open gently. The brush clattered to the ground.

He was standing in front of the mirror, holding a bloody knife. The knife that he now dragged across his right cheek from his mouth to his eye. He didn't whimper. He didn't even breathe. 

He moved his hand to the other side of his face, holding the tip of the blade to the left corner of his mouth.

Harley placed her hand on the hand holding his bloody knife. He froze in place, the blade shaking in his grip. Harley Quinn gently pulled his hand down from his face. She slowly removed the knife from his grip and placed it on the counter.

Harley grabbed a wad of tissue from a tissue box and pressed the cloth to Joker's bleeding skin.

A slow smile spread along Joker's face, and he started to laugh. Harley knew he couldn't stop, and could only watch in helplessness as the skin on his face split. He covered his face with his palms and laughed longer and harder into his hands, now dipped in red paint.

Finally when the fits of laughter slowed to a chuckle, she pulled his hands from his face. His skin was ripped and bloody. Harley felt tears in her eyes.

"Sh... Sh... Puddin', it's okay..."

He shook his head, and his crimson hands clenched into fists. Harley continued to dab at Joker's wounds, which had stretched unevenly and shaky. She reached for the first aid kit underneath the sink. She dipped the tissue into a bottle of hydroperoxide and pressed it on his skin. 

Her Joker winced slightly, closing his pale lids over his shadowed green eyes.

After Harley had finished cleaning the wound, she calmly proceeded to do a butterfly stitch on the right side of Joker's face.

"Hold still," She said gently. He opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it again.

Finally, she finished the butterfly stitch on his skin.

"The other side," He motioned with his eyes, barely moving his lips to speak. Harley froze. Her eyes darted to the counter. She could feel her hands shake, her body tremble.

Harley reached for the knife lying on the countertop, dripping blood on the tile.

She picked up the knife in her delicate hands, her black nails glinting just like the metal on the blade.

"Do it." He looked away. She cupped his cheek in her opposite hand, and then held the tip of the blade on the left corner of his mouth.

Slowly, she sunk the blade into his flesh. He stiffened.

She pulled the knife upwards and to the edge of his eye. A tear of blood fell from his eyes and trailed down his cheeks.

Neither of them moved, staring wordlessly into each other's broken eyes.

Slowly, Harley Quinn raised the bloody blade to her own face.

Joker watched as red paint spilled down his skin.

Harley held her breath as she plunged the knife into the side of her mouth and pulled up to her cheeks, in line with the ending of her nose. Tears ran down her cheeks from the flaming blaze of pain.

She quickly did the same thing on the left side of her face. Her hands shook and her body heaved with sobs. The knife fell into the sink.

"Now we'll never stop smiling," She choked out, then she pulled his cold body into her arms.