Batman: The Killing Joke

Salem sighed and dropped her hand from the lock. "I'm not cranky." She said quietly after a moment. Shrugging his hands off of her shoulders she pulled off her coat and hung it up, then walked into the living room and sat on the couch. "Thanks for that. My landlady would have a fit if those two got out into the hallway." She said with a guarded smile.
"So, Malach. Are you a good guy or a bad guy?"

Malach looked at her in surprise. "Well of course I which ever guy the situation calls for..." He knelt down to pet the cats and then straighted taking off his coat and hanging it as well, he might as well make himself comfortable. "Sometimes the bad guy does the job better than the good guy and vise versa...Tonight I believe I'm leaning towards good." Malach nodded and scratched his head while looking at her and thought 'unless you want me to be bad...' tearing his mind away from her Malach looked at the apartment, slightly sparse almost as if..."When was the last time ye had any friends over?"

Salem watched him hang his coat up, and if it had been anyone else she might have been annoyed at their being so at home already. But something about the way he made it look so natural just appealed to her better nature. "Good guy tonight, huh?" She paused. "It didn't seem like it back in that alley. You looked pretty bad to me." She said decidedly, not bothering to hide her coy smile. He didn't seem to notice it though, because he was already looking around and inspecting her apartment. I wish I had cleaned up a bit. She thought as she watched his face. Her stare wandered to his big purple eyes, and she almost laughed at herself for not noticing the vibrant lavender irises sooner.
They were beautiful, and she couldn't look away.
She was still staring at them in awe when his question threw her off guard, leaving her sputtering for an answer.
She tried coughing lamely and shrugging. "I don't know, not too long ago I suppose. I've just been really busy lately." She said with a nod, trying to ignore the red creeping up into her cheeks.

"Aye, well we can all get that way sometimes..." Malach nodded and turned to fix his eyes on hers. "Tonight I got a boy off the streets, sent him back to his mum who is sure to wallup his behind...and of course that gang will be loathe to mess with a stranger again..." He winked at her to tell her he got the hidden meaning of her message and then walked closer to her. With his right hand he made as if to run his fingers down her face instead they were only a few centimeters away...With his left hand he put a hand in her hair. "Before this goes further I must tell you...I can feel your emotions as you have them...only occasionally but just enough to know...how you feel now..." Malach's face was serious but that still could not take away the boyish features he would have for the rest of his life. "Does this bother you?"

Salem shook her head slowly, never taking her eyes off of his. "It doesn't bother me." She said aloud as she leaned her head so it rested in his hand. Then she raised a hand and touched his face softly, starting at his forehead and slowly trailing down over his eyelids, where his soft eyelashes brushed her fingertips and felt like feathers. Then down to his nose and over across his smooth cheeks, then right on down to his lips where her fingers lingered briefly before she dropped it back into her lap.
Timidly, she leaned forward and brushed her lips across his where their hot breath mingled and she could smell his cologne and his alcohol-sweetened breath.
"What am I feeling now?" She whispered..

Malach closed his mouth and swallowed before pulling away. "A fondness for me to be sure, a fondness that I don't think sure be happening tonight." He gave her a peck on the forehead, "It's not that I don't like ye lass, no I like ya far to much for my own senses...and if I were to act on that like tonight the spirit of me poor dead mother would haunt me it would." Malach wanted very much, so very much to touch her more but he settled with brushing lips over the knuckles of the hand he held. "Perhaps though you could put me up for the night? I was staying with me fine brothern at the pub but as you saw they tossed me fair bum outta there right quick tonight." He gave a light smile.

Salem straightened defensively and pointed to a door a few feet from them. "There's the spare bedroom." She said coolly as she stood and sauntered over to it and let herself inside. Reaching into a closet, she pulled out some sheets and a blanket and began to make the bed as swiftly as she could. "Just give me one second to set you up. I have to keep the sheets off the bed or else the cats will sleep up here and get everything full of fur." She said after a moment of flicking the sheets so that the snapping sound filled the silence of the room.
"The bathroom is right across the hall there, and you can shower if you want. The towels are under the cabinet. Help yourself to my kitchen too." She was done with the bed, and was standing in front of him with a smile on her face. "The sun will be rising soon, and I want to get some sleep." She was talking over her shoulder now as she headed towards her own room. "Will you be needing anything else before I do?"

Malach looked at her and felt the heat of the rejection, it turned his insides to mush. He couldn't even retrort 'a good night kiss', he simply nodded no, and gave her a wave of good bye. He laid upon the bed after taking off his shoes and sorted threw his feelings, feeling lonely and that he had been a horrible person Malach didn't stop the tears from tracing across his cheeks. When he'd had a good sniffle he took off his clothes and stood only in his boxer breifs, one of the first things he'd purchased in America. Getting up Malach went to releave himself as well as blow his nose. Walking, more so, stumbling to the bathroom he opened the door to reveal a partially clothed Salem washing her hands as she'd just finished with the loo. "Oh...umm...My pardons miss...I'll...get out ya?" Scampering away Malach rushed into the kitchen. "Come on Mal, get yourself together...umm baseball, monster trucks...granny's sags drawers!" Malach tried in vain to get his erection to go down, but even the vision of his dear granny in her undergarments did not take the vision of Salem out of his mind, and what a vision she was.

Stunned, Salem stood dumbly at the sink, watching the door long after it closed with her jaw on the floor. Did that just happen? Quickly she dried her hands and threw on her pajamas, trying to ignore her reflection which she knew would be bright red.
"Why do I only have the shorts in here?" She whispered frantically while looking through drawers for a longer pair of pajama pants. But alas, all she had were the shorts and tank top duo.
"Great. Embarrassed and half naked. This day sucks." Complaining all the way, she timidly crossed the bathroom rug and opened the door a few inches to peek outside.
She could hear him pacing in the kitchen. He sounded like he was muttering frantically under his breath, and she felt a pang of remorse. He must be a real gentleman if he's taking me in my underwear so hard. She thought with a half raised eyebrow.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the bathroom door all the way and walked towards the kitchen to go apologize. As she got closer, she could see he was standing with his back to her, and he was only in his underwear. Her eyes flew open and she stopped in her tracks, and started to turn around before she embarrassed them both even more, when his frantic muttering reached her ears clearly.
"I'm sorry, did you just say I had granny panties?" She exclaimed with a shocked expression as her mind raced to remember what underwear she was wearing. I'm wearing Victora's Secret! Her mind huffed.

Malach turned around startled and immediatley had to cover umm...himself. "Ah no I...was..." He couldn't, well of course Malach could but would it be inappropriate? "I was tryin' ta get the thought of ye outta my mind by thinking of me pour sainted grandma in her underpants, that she'd had for nearly a century." Malach blushed from his toes to the tips of his pink hair. "Excuse me now..." Seeing her in the tank and shorts made him squirm and as he tried to push past her it just made the problem worse.

Salem frowned as Malach's face turned a pink that matched his hair, and even as she watching him squirm under her stare she was puzzled.
"Why would you need to think of her un- Oh? OH!" She exclaimed when she glanced down at where his hands were gathered to cover himself.
Hastily she grabbed the throw blanket from the back of the chair next to her and threw it over her shoulders.
"I'm sorry. I should have locked the door." She offered with a blush as he tried to squeeze past her with a grimace. "Don't be embarrassed, kay? I mean, you saw me in my underwear. Last week I walked in on two complete strangers having sex in a public bathroom. And 10 minutes ago I tried kissing you, which failed miserably..." She trailed off, unsure of what to say that could make him feel at ease. "What I'm trying to say is, worse things have happened." She finished with a small smile.

"Oh no!" Malch clutched the blanket around his shoulders. "It's just that....I was raised right. My mam taught me that you must be courting a girl else you'll be stealing her kisses. I didn't even see me own sisters clad the way you are..." Malach's eyes that were bright darkened "I won't be like me brother, and plant a baby in your belly and leave ye to fool around with others." Malach walked up to her and put his hands on her shoulders, looking her straight in the eye. "I want you ta be sure in your affections for me and me for you before anything more than friendly touching happens..." Malach was a virgin, he wasn't afraid to have sex he just wanted his first to be the girl he spent the rest of his life with, at the moment Salem was that girl, he felt it in his soul that she was his forever.

Salem smiled under his gaze and nodded her head. "It's okay, Malach. I understand. I think you're sweet, and I don't mind getting to know you. I just couldn't help myself before. I think it was your eyes." She giggled and looked up at him through her eyelashes. "Do you want to skip the sleep and watch a movie with me, instead? Unless you have somewhere to be tomorrow..." She offered hopefully.
Suddenly, she frowned. "You mean your sisters never wore shorts? I thought this wasn't so bad." She said as she looked down at herself. In her honest opinion, she was covered where it mattered.
"I can go change." She said as she turned and headed to her closet. "Now, don't you go following me, or we'll just end up in the same situation." She teased as she closed the door.

Malach smiled "A movie would be fine..." When she went to the room he hung around outside her door. "No, we lived in the back woods of Ireland, where it was still untouched by modern man, where there was still magic." Leaning against the wall Malach let out a light hum. "When I was young, the village where we went to get our flour the villagers thought I was a changling, and the real Malach Delaney had been spirited away to their hollow hill. When I started playing they were sure of it, but they still let me play in the pubs..." Malach grinned, remembering that the hype had brought a lot of business from the other towns. When she came back out he held a hand out to her to take her to the living room. "And no, me mum, me sisters and all the lasses in the village never wore skirts, we were like your omish almost, making our own cloth and that...I didn't own a proper pair of under bretches till I got here...Now what movie shall we watch?" His face was happy and eager as he held her hand.

Salem have switched to a pair of flannel pajama bottoms and a sleeveless t-shirt, and she was hoping it was good enough for him.
Allowing herself to be led to the couch, she felt a shade of shame spreading across her face. "Aw, well now I just feel guilty for living here in the city with all of the temptations and greed." She said remorsefully. "Your hometown sounds like it would be a site to see someday. One of those mysterious and magical places that never change." She smiles for a moment. "I read of those places when I was little. I've always wanted to go." Hating the tone in her own voice, she changed the subject by walking to the closet by the TV, where she thrust the doors open for him so he could see the shelves filled from floor to ceiling with DVDs.
"Well, as you can see, I have quite a collection." She smiled. "How about Twilight?"


[[OOC: Who cares if it's not out yet? ]]

"Ah I haven't seen that one yet..." Malach said and bounded happily over to the couch snuggling up in the corner while Salem put in the movie. When she sat next to him he snuggled up to her pecked her on the cheek and snuggled into her. "I'll take ya someday, but ye'll have to git a proper dress first of course." He grinned at her making a joke, out of something so serious. As the movie started he began to enjoy the scent of her more and more, and he realized what this Edward was going threw. Salem drove him absolutely mad. "We did have quite a bit of the fair folk there, I'll take you to see them...and you can meet me da, and me sisters if they aren't married and moved away."

Salem could feel him sitting there. Even where his body wasn't touching her, she could feel him as if he were.
She frowned and turned from the movie. "Yea, a dress." She flashed him a smile, and she sounded distracted. Imagine what it would be like if he were a vampire! her mind teased.
"You mean you can't keep in touch with them? That sounds so hard!" She said. Like sitting so close to you. Against her better judgment, she leaned backwards and made herself comfortable against his arm. "Mmm, you're comfy." She sad quietly as she watched Bella fall head over heels for Edward. She was pretty sure he didn't even hear her.
After a few minutes of the movie, she felt her eyelids start to droop. She couldn't even hold them open anymore, and her head was starting to slip.
"I'm so tired!" She murmured as a little yawn escaped and she let her her drop to his shoulder.

Malach smiled and curled himself so that he was her blanket, covering her with his limbs. He felt her heart slow, matching her breath and soon he too was asleep. The next morning when the light shown threw hitting his eyes just perfectly Malach woke and untangled his body from hers, though making sure she was covered so as to stay asleep. Rumaging threw Salem's cubboards Malach happily started the stove and began cooking. Humming a tune he quickly had a full meal prepared, fresh colcannon with leeks and bacon, flapjacks with warm syrup, sunny eggs and fresh squeezed orange juice. Piling it on a serving tray that he'd scoured up and putting the orange juice into wine glasses he carried it to the living room. "Up and awake now Salem, I've made you a fine Irish breakfast."

Salem sat up with a yawn and a stretch. "Aww! You made me an Irish breakfast?" She purred as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "Sorry I fell asleep on you last night." She said apologetically as she bit into her bacon. "I was exhausted! Ahh this is delicious!" She crowed happily. "You made it perfect. I'm afraid you're spoiling me. I burn everything I cook." Giggle. Chew, chew. Smile. "You've outdone yourself Malach, thank you!"
After their breakfast, Salem took the dishes to the kitchen and rinsed them and left them in the sink.
Then she returned to the living room with a shy smile. "So, uhm... Are you doing anything today? Because I was thinking that maybe after showers we could do something... together?" She asked as she danced from foot to foot nervously.

Malach munched away happily. "No I don't have anything taday." He wiped his mouth grinning at her again. "Mind if I use your shower?" He needed to wash his hair and his body could use with a good scrub. Malach took another bite and a quick swig of orange juice and just looked at her. She looked good in the light streaming threw the windows, almost like a dark princess.