Arthur Fleck and Joker Imagines

Dark Night - Part 1 - Arthur x Reader

"No (Y/n), leave me alone; I don't like you, I never liked you. What makes you think I would want to be seen with someone like you? You make me sick"

Arthur woke up with a start, his hands gripping onto his sweat soaked bedsheets for dear life; he'd been having these terrible nightmares, more like terrible memories, since he had seen the article in the paper.

The words from his dream lingered in his mind as he got out of bed, his body wet with perspiration, and salty tears stinging his eyes. Making his way to the living room he dropped unceremoniously onto the sofa, wiping the sweat from his brow with an equally damp arm. He couldn't believe that he had ever said those things, he couldn't believe that he had ever done those things, especially not to her; even though the words had been uttered so many years ago, they were currently stinging the back of his throat, as if he had just said them. He had been a coward, he had let himself be manipulated, he had bowed to peer pressure and he had hurt the one person that had always been there for him.

He picked up the paper and looked again at the picture and the article that accompanied it.

"(Y/F/N) (Y/L/N) AND HER BAND DARK NIGHT TO RETURN TO GOTHAM FOR SPECIAL ONE OFF INTIMATE PERFORMANCE." The headline read, as Arthur's eyes settled on the picture.

There she was in a publicity shot of her and her band, he could still see the young girl he remembered, but there were differences, and those differences were dramatic.

Her hair was short and black, shaved at the sides and back, while the top grew long; both arms were covered in tattoos, and she seemed to have grown taller and more muscular since he had last seen her. She looked dark and brooding, all this in complete contrast to the girl he had known.

Arthur had grown up with (Y/n); from the first day of school when Arthur had bumped into her, knocking her over, they had been friends. Instead of crying as she sat on the floor nursing the grazed elbow that she had managed to get when Arthur had more or less run into her, she laughed, it was a laugh that was so infectious that Arthur couldn't help but join in. As he had helped her up and introduced himself, he had noticed her eyes, one was bright green the other bright blue, and from that moment he had been captivated, even as a young child he knew she was different, and Arthur liked that.

As the two had grown they would spend more and more time together, the two best friends rarely apart; (Y/n)'s home was a sanctuary, Arthur would go there after school and they would help one another with homework, he would go there to escape the tortures of his own home, he would go there when he had had a bad day, when the bullying had got too much, when the abuse had got too much.

(Y/n)'s parent's loved him, her mother would always have a good hot meal waiting for him in case he came over, and clean clothes for him to change into if his mother hadn't washed for him; her parents knew all about Penny Fleck and they had seen first hand the abuse that had been inflicted on the poor young Arthur, and they did all they could to protect him.

(Y/n) and Arthur would go everywhere together, she would save up all her allowance so that she could take him to places like the movies, or the fun fair, knowing that his mother couldn't afford too let him do those things, and even if she could she probably wouldn't.

Arthur had always admired his best friend and would often look at her and wonder how she remained so good natured, and kind despite her own bullies. (Y/n) was bigger than most other girls her age, she had been a big girl since they were little, not that Arthur minded, in his eyes she had always been the most beautiful girl in the world, and he was proud of what and who she was.

She had often lamented over the fact that she wasn't skinny, but then would laugh and say that she liked being an individual, that she liked the fact she was different, that she was glad that she didn't fit that cookie cutter girl that society and the media make us believe is the only way you should be. So what that she a bit bigger around the body than other girls, what mattered was what a person was like on the inside she had always told him, adding that if people couldn't see past her larger backside, or her not so flat stomach then they were not people she wanted to know.