Arthur Fleck and Joker Imagines

A little inspiration - Part 2

(Y/n) sat in the cafeteria, a cup of terrible coffee gripped in her hands as her finger drummed on the cup. She had to admit that she was still nervous about all this. She was sure that the man under all that greasepaint was quiet nice, but her slight case of coulrophobia was screaming at her to forget all about this idea, screaming at her to go out and find something else, someone else, anything else that would give her inspiration, but deep down she knew that she couldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, and that inspiration didn't usually fall so easily into her lap.

"H-h-hi." A soft nervous voice said, jarring (Y/n) from her thoughts, her eyes widening in disbelief as she looked at the man before her.

If this was the clown that she had not seen long before, then this was not what she was expecting, although if anyone asked her, she probably couldn't really explain what she did expect.

Unlike in the ward, the man in front of her seemed shy, nervous, almost as anxious as she herself felt, the man a far cry from the loud, happy, bubbly clown that had sung and danced for the children.

His gaudy costume had now been replaced by something much plainer, dower in fact, and if anyone had told her that this was the clown she had been watching, she would probably have called them a liar.

"Er....... Mister Carnival?" (Y/n) asked hesitantly, as the man stood uncomfortably before her, his eyes cast down onto the table.

"Yeah. But my name is actually Arthur." He informed her quietly, finally looking up at her as (Y/n) smiled, the appearance of his beautiful green eyes proving that this slender, frail looking creature, was in fact the man she wanted to talk to.

"Oh, sorry. I.......I didn't know. Well, its nice to meet you Arthur, I'm (Y/n) but of course you already know that." (Y/n) said with a slight chuckle as the man slowly pulled out the chair from the other side of the table and sat down.

"I didn't know what you would like, so I got you a coffee, or tea. To be honest I'm not quite sure what it is cos it all tastes like someone has washed their dirty socks in it; but its hot and milky, and I'm pretty sure that it's the best that we are going to get." (Y/n) told Arthur, pushing the full cup to his side of the table.

"Thanks." Arthur replied, as he picked up the cup and took a small sip, scrunching up his nose as the taste of the terrible liquid hit his taste buds.

"See, I told you that it tastes like crap. But if you take a few more sips I am sure that there is something that kills all your taste buds completely, and it doesn't actually taste too bad after that." (Y/n) chuckled, as she looked at Arthur who had actually allowed his lips to curl up into a small smile.

"You.......you said that you wanted to talk to me about something." Arthur said, steering the conversation back to the reason why he currently found himself sat across from a beautiful woman in Arkham General.

Arthur had to admit that he could have listened to (Y/n) talk for the rest of the day about coffee or anything else she wanted. In fact, she could have spoken about the most mundane subject in the world, and he would have still found himself captivated by the aunt of the pretty little Lily.

When the ill little girl had first mentioned her aunt, Arthur had not really thought anything of it, but as she had continued to gush on and on about how wonderful, kind, and funny her Aunty (Y/n) was, Arthur had found himself becoming slightly intrigued.

He had already met Lily's father, a rather stoic, slightly cold man, a man that was in complete contrast to his daughter, as well the woman that Lily was describing, and now that he was sat across from her, Arthur was finding it difficult to believe that the two could actually be siblings.

"You're nothing like Lily's dad." Arthur blurted out, his thoughts escaping his mouth before he had time to stop himself, once again seeming to change the direction of the conversation.

"I get that a lot." (Y/n) laughed, as she took a gulp of her now cooling coffee.

"As much as I love Marcus, he can be a slightly cold old thing. I'm happy to say that Lily got her temperament from her mother, who was a lovely woman, and I don't know how she put up with my brother. Marcus is far too logical, he likes facts and figures, and I am sure that numbers run through his veins. Whereas I am the artsy type, like my mother. Marcus always tells me that I have my head in the clouds, that I should ground myself in the real world; but I always tell him that I would rather be away with the faeries than boring like him. And, well, that is the reason why I asked to meet you." (Y/n) told Arthur, whose curiosity was beyond piqued.

"You see. I write and illustrate books for children, and I am quite successful in my own way. I don't pretend to be C.S. Lewis or Lewis Carroll, but I'm lucky enough to be able to do a job I love and get paid for it. But recently I have been struggling to come up with anything, and I have been looking for some new inspiration, a new story, something completely different to what I have done before, and I think that I have found that in you, well in Carnival at least. You see kids are really demanding, they know what they like and what they don't like, and they are not averse to telling you if they think that something is rubbish, so I use Lily as my spy into the world of kids, and given how I saw her and the other children interact with you, I thought that I would like to use Carnival as the protagonist in my new book." (Y/n) explained, smiling nervously as Arthur looked at her in disbelief.

"My proposition is this. If you will allow me to follow you around when you work as Carnival, to sketch and jot down ideas as you work, and create a story about you, then I'll pay for any inconvenience that I may cause, for your time, and give you a lump sum from my advance from my publishers. So, what do you think?" (Y/n) asked cautiously, not sure what a complete stranger would think of such a strange offer.

Arthur continued to stare at her in disbelief, not sure whether this was a joke or not.

"You.....you really want to write about me? But, but I'm actually not all that interesting. Most of the time I spin signs advertising sales at stores. I do parties for kids. I'm really not worth writing anything about." Arthur tried to explain, looking slightly confused when (Y/n) began to giggle.

"Arthur. No one that can make sick kids smile like you do, can make them forget their illness even for a short time, could ever describe themselves as boring. And believe me, in the right hands even the everyday can be made to be something magical. Look. Let me go with you for a couple of days, if you don't like it, if I get in the way, or annoy you, I promise I will leave, and give up this idea as a bad job and I will still give you the money." (Y/n) said hopefully as she reached over the table and grabbed Arthur's hands.

Arthur swallowed the large lump in his throat, his eyes focusing on their joined hands. How could he really turn down such an offer? It wasn't the money that was swaying him, although a little extra cash would certainly help, it was the fact that a beautiful woman was actually willing to spend time with him, to see and get to know what he did, to show him to the world.

"O-o-okay. We have a deal."