Chapter Text
Gotham city was an cold hearted woman, ready to turn on you with a flip of a coin, leaving you in fates hands, snuffing out the bright lights of change and making way for the rogues that ran her streets rampant. The Batman was a chance for a better tomorrow with his gadgets and fleet of seemingly never-ending add ons of sidekicks but even they let people slip through the cracks.. It was hard to be everywhere in a city so big with so many nooks and crannies to hide in and in those spaces was where some people found a living that even the richest man couldn't stop.
The iceberg lounge was a gotham night life dream, a business front for the penguins more nefarious dealings that he did well to keep tucked away out of sight from the various gothamites that filed inside the lounge's walls every night. People of power, old and new money, even some gotham no goods so long as they behaved and kept their head down. It was the lowest of low but it was a damn fine place to hear good slow jazz, the music was a lull in the fast paced life of gotham’s streets. The undercities cherished songbird was stood on stage singing a lonesome tune, a long black dress with golden bands something akin to gold handcuffs on her wrists that shone against the lounges dim light. the floor lights were turned towards the singer like they had been for years now: It wasn't anyone's dream but it paid well for what she got. it had its way in letting her make a name for herself in Gotham's underworld in the penguins joint, locked up in a gold lit cage on display every saturday night at his lounge for all to see and enjoy so long as they paid the right price and didn't hurt the merchandise.
“Why don't you do right? Like some other men do”, Eveline's voice slowed to a stop as her song came to an end with the usual applause following the crowd earning themselves a practiced smile to the same faces shed seen the past five years of her life, she was thirty years old and still in the gilded cage that the fat bird had crammed her in with the promise of freedom someday. It gave her a headache just thinking about it.. But it wasn't anything a drink couldn't fix as she stepped off the stage, her steps slow as her eyes trailed over the crowd, one by one mentally listing off the faces she knew and ones she’d never seen before.A thug or two, a politician running for office, a few citizens and workers that had paused to listen to her sing, her voice had a sway over them but not enough to set herself free from it all. The sound of a glass sliding over in her direction broke her steady spiral as she looked to the young girl behind the bar: she'd come to care for like she was her own even if the oldest of the two wrangled the younger one in well enough.“thanks sugar..” Eveline hummed before sipping at the sharp whiskey in the glass. the drink went down warm, soothing her pipes as new music replaced her presence on stage and customers chatted away. “You sounded really pretty tonight.” said Katia, the younger of the pair that Eveline had quickly taken a liking to. The older woman could only chuckle with a pull of a grin to her lips, “good to know I'm not croaking up there..” she chuckled, setting the glass down to look at Katia now as her older sister rounded the bar with a sigh : things were slow for now. “you always sound good, eveline. If you start croaking, then we're all doomed.” Catalina said as she leaned against the bar, all but basking in the quiet of the normally busy bar that she and her sister ran like their life depended on it. Still, Eveline hated seeing them work here ; two young girls like them were practically Gotham’s poison of choice but eveline did her best to take any roaming eyes off of them and back onto herself. it was the least she could do to try and keep them safe.
“You heading home soon?” asked Catalina, the air about her exhausted. It was late and that tended to put a damper on the night despite the near constant schedule she worked. Eveline looked up at the clock behind the bar and sighed, “just about..” she said, sipping at her drink as she shifted her weight, her heels creating a dull ache in her feet by now. “you both should start cleanin’ up..” she grunts as she pushes off the bar, “Bout time for you two to head home before the real crazies come out.” she teased, a smile pulling at her lips before she finished off her drink and handed it off to Katia. Eveline playfully shooed both girls off to clean before she walked back into the still lingering crowd. It was easy to slip more into the cracks of gothams dark but the simple hellos and practiced laughs helped her stay afloat. The penguin knew he had struck gold with eveline: a rare beauty in desperate need of help?
It was an offer he couldn’t refuse.
He was quick to play saint with her when she was young and even quicker to drown her in debt that landed her in his club. She didn’t rush upstairs, mentally preparing herself for whichever bigwig or big-time criminal had bought a portion of her time. It wasn't uncommon for her to sit and chat with folks, typically some bigshot who tried to faux valiantly whisk her away with some out there promise of grandeur and so much fame she wouldn’t know what to do with it..she always waved it away, knowing she had no choice but to stay: “You’re sweet. But my place is here. Always has been.” she would say with an almost robotic air, a solemn yet grateful smile on her face.
Not that any of the clients would know the difference. she finally reaches the second floor and walked to the farthest private booth, the half round table coming into view with a plume of cigarette smoke: It was almost like a smoke signal, the kind survivors used when they spotted a rescue helicopter, Eveline thought briefly. she slowed to a halt in front of the table with a small curl of a smile, practiced and refined enough that it was practically a work of art even the most seasoned gallery appreciator wouldn’t be able to get enough of.
A satisfied hum came from the booth as the two-faced rouge leaned back almost as if taking in the view in front of him. Harvey dent was never usually came to the lounge on account of some particularly bad blood between himself and the penguins acid trick all those years ago,
At least, he wasn’t a regular until a few nights ago.
Harvey had first seen Eveline on stage, a pure coincidence when passing through. Now, Harvey made it a point to come every other saturday, listen to her sing, then buy some up close and personal time even if it was just for a few moments. “Aint you a sight tonight?” he chuckled, his voice rough and his gaze dark to match as it followed her form sliding into the booth, sitting at his side with a tinkling laugh of her own. The smoke circled them both as she sat back against the cushion, almost as if creating a literal smoke screen between them and quiet buzzing of conversation below them. “I thought I felt someone paying more attention than usual tonight.” she teased, grinning to herself as the man only smiled in return, tapping the ash from his cigar into the tray on the table, “guilty as charged..” he hummed, his voice taking on a huskier tone as his other half spoke now, “i missed ya, birdie..” he rasped out, wordlessly beckoning her to come closer with his arm draped over the top of the booth. eveline moves on cue to slide up beside him now: this was just a part of her job, all his money going toward her fund she had tucked away back home. “You say that every time..” she said softly as he brought his arm around her shoulders, drawing her to his scarred side. the sight wasn't pretty near or far, his skin twisted and scarred a nasty pink tone and his eye left open in an almost crazed look.
Yet he looked to her with a clear need that matched every man before him.
It was a look that had tried to lure her away from the penguin, greedy and wanting nothing more than something to own that wasn’t in the form of money or gold. “You boys ought to have a lady at home by now..” she mumbled, “instead of comin’ to see somethin’ pretty sing.”
Harvey grinned, the arm around her shoulders sliding down to her waist and then to her hip, the curve of it filling his hand perfectly. it drove him crazy how perfect she fit in his hands, in his head, how she drove even the more composed side of him up the wall. It just pissed him off to no end how he couldn't get her to leave that fat old bird no matter what he promised or said, “and leave you for someone else to grab up?” he mused with a raise of his brow, shaking his head with an almost playful tut of his tongue., “not a chance. Yer too good to quit doll..” his hand shamelessly trailed up her side, mapping out the her shape and stopping just short of her ribs, his fingers trailing up one by one. he makes a mental count of each one, One, two, three.. Just before he could count a fourth, her hand came up to grab hold of his own almost flawlessly, bringing it to her lips now and pressing a kiss to his knuckles that (and he wouldn’t admit this) sent a shock through his body and down his spine. She worked him like a damn puppet, the grin on her lips as she pulled back giving away the hold she very well knew she had on him. She laughed faintly now, looking up at him from his side as she idly played with his hand, “ya needa find another tree to bark up, harvey..” she hummed now, sitting up and letting his hand come back to her hip where eveline shamelessly and only internally hoped it would stay. “i aint goin anywhere, “anytime soon..” she hums as she starts to slide away from him, slow and careful even if he let his hand linger as she moved away for the sake of space, “im too tied up here to run off like some damsel in distress.” the thought alone was something to laugh at, a pipedream that she could only wonder about since she was close enough to pay off the lounge's owner. Harvey's jaw clenches slightly in response, a subtle tick of agitation in being denied what was rightfully his for what felt like the umpteenth night.
It was becoming annoying. She was annoying. He huffed and watched her get comfortable in the space just across from him, “ill getcha to say yes someday, E..” Harvey muttered, almost like he was making some twisted promiset that hed get his way even if it meant going behind her back. and poking around to figure out what was tying her down so tightly, “you know id treat you right..” he hums, “wouldnt dream of hurtin ya, hun.. Neither of us would..” his voice lowering in tone for a brief moment of time. despite his split mind, the two consciousnesses could agree on the decision to keep her safe. Maybe that was why he couldn't quit her.. She made them whole, fit like the perfect puzzle piece they didn’t know they were missing. At least, thats what it made them feel like. Eveline could never know the torment the man in front of her went through or endured, how broken he truly was. he hid it well when she was in front of him but with her glance away from him, he couldn't help but clench his fist just out of her view. “Im sorry, boys.” she said, starting to move out and away from the booth at the sound of a faint whistle that signaled the end of her and harvey’s time, “but you'll hafta try better next time..~” she saysin a sultry tone that practically harmonized with the sway of the music that was slowingto an end now. She flashed the man a small smile over her shoulder, a brief uncovering of her real sympathy for him before she turned away.harvey watched her, drinking her in for every second she was in his sights before she was led up to the third floor and into the office of oswald himself. Harvey cursed under his breath once she was gone, bringing the cigar he had been nursing through the night to his lips. there is the warmth of the nicotine within now acting like a cheap mock of what he imagined her lips felt like against his, something soft he craved, something he was practically starvedto taste. He blew out the plume of smoke now, snubbing it out as he stood andglancing to the set of stairs that she had gone up as if trying to catch one last glance.. He finally turns away and up the stairs he had climbed countless times before and out the lounges doors. Carding a hand through his salt and peppered hair, harvey could only sigh as his men rolled up with his car. This woman was making him into a fool.. And he didn't like it. Not one bit..