"And how about this one?" the Joker asked Arsenio and pulled out another card from a deck of cards with a picture of a different animal on each one. It had been one of Arsenio's favorite games for weeks.
"Umm..." Arsenio said and glanced at the card and then looked away.
He looked distracted, the Joker thought.
"Otttopus," Arsenio said while still looking away.
"Yep," the Joker said. "That's the one. How about this one here?"
The Joker pulled out the next card and held it up. Arsenio looked at the picture and shrugged. The Joker turned the card to look at it, making sure he had seen it correctly. It was a picture of a cat. The Joker knew for certain that Arsenio knew the answer.
"You sure you don't know?" the Joker asked Arsenio.
"Cat," Arsenio said, finally.
"Good job," the Joker said. "Would you like to do something else?"
Arsenio shrugged again.
"Arsenio," the Joker said and Arsenio looked him in the eyes.
"Hm?" Arsenio said.
"Is everything alright?" the Joker asked him.
Arsenio looked away again.
"Yeah," Arsenio said finally.
The Joker's phone rang, and he pulled it out of his pocket. An unknown number.
"Hello?" the Joker asked and watched as Arsenio looked at one of the cards on the table. A picture of a tiger.
"Hello, Jack," Bruce said. "Is my son with you?"
"Yes," the Joker told Bruce, still surprised that Bruce was allowed to call him.
"May I speak to him?" Bruce asked.
"Yes," the Joker said and then looked at Arsenio. "It's your father."
The Joker watched as immediately, the distracted and distant look Arsenio had been wearing vanished. His eyes lit up and the spark came back to into them immediately.
The Joker put the phone onto speaker and Bruce's voice filled the room.
"Arsenio?" Bruce asked.
"Daddy! Hi, Daddy!" Arsenio beamed and placed both hands on the phone, looking at the screen hoping it would be a video call, but it was not. "Daddy!"
The Joker listened as Bruce and Arsenio spoke. They loved and missed each other very much. In a way, the Joker was relieved that Bruce had called him. Bruce had improved Arsenio's mood in such a way that the Joker knew he could not. Arsenio loved Bruce.
"Mommy fighting!" Arsenio told Bruce, meaning that Adriana was out practicing her vigilantism.
After talking for almost thirty minutes, Bruce told Arsenio that he had to go. The Joker noticed Arsenio's body language became a bit stressed. The Joker placed a hand on his shoulder in an effort to calm him and it worked.
"Ok Daddy," Arsenio said finally, not wanting the call to end.
.
.
.
"You could take some home with you," Adriana said to the Joker. "I'll pack some of the roast beef up for you."
"Thank you," he said and watched her go to the cupboard for tupperware with a slight limp. "You badly hurt?"
"Not at all," Adriana said. "I just need to rest. How was your day? Did you and Arsenio have fun earlier when I had to go out?"
