Enough For Me (batjokes)

Relapse

Joker caught up to Nygma and Oswald.
"Something's wrong." He whispered to them. "I know Bruce is hiding something."
"What do you think it is?" Asked Ed, like he already knew the answer.
The Joker smiled. "He has two personalities." His grin faded. "And I don't know how he's doing it."

Bruce stayed behind them, noticeably keeping his hands out of his pockets.
Joker, Penguin and Enigma all turned to look at Bruce at the same time.
Bruce avoided eye contact, pretending to be fiddling with something in his jacket.

The Riddler pushed up his glasses. "You're right." He told Joker. Penguin rested his chin on Edward's head.
"Please be nice, or he's not going buy me food." He said audibly enough so that Bruce overheard.
A little smile crossed Bruce's face. Joker gave him Oswald a dirty look, but he didn't see.

"Guys, I swear. I'm not hiding a thing." Bruce called to them. Joker laughed, but Penguin smiled down at him from atop Riddler's shoulders.
"I believe him." Oswald mumbled, hugging Ed's neck. Joker's face fell a little.
Bruce's did as well, but the slight falter was very noticeable to Joker.
"You better not be lying, Wayne." Joker said, feeling the blade in his pants.

"If you lie to him, you're getting backstabbed." Joker said, shooting him his dirtiest look. He turned to Edward. "Hand me a cigarette please, Ed."
Nygma dug the packet out of his pocket and handed it to Joker with a lighter.
"Stop it!" Yelled Bruce, clenching his fists.

The boys all jumped in surprise. The fire from Joker's lighter fizzled out as he fumbled with the lighter, nearly dropping it.
"Damn!" Joker hissed, and glared at Bruce. Him and Edward stopped walking. Oswald turned around to look at Bruce.
"Stop smoking that thing." Bruce said angrily.

"What's it to you?" Joker sneered, relighting the lighter.
"It's your life to me." Bruce said, walking up to him and aggressively smacking the lighter out of his hand.
It flew into the snow, and disappeared from view. Joker grimaced and pushed Bruce hard in the shoulder.

It knocked him back a couple steps, but Bruce regained his balance and rammed into Joker's chest, knocking him into a neighbor's snowbank.
Joker was deep in the snow, with Bruce literally on top of him. He couldn't breathe as Bruce smacked him across the face.

"You put that ciggie down!" Screamed his mother from the other room as a big, burly man pushed himself onto Jack.
He pressed a lit cigarette into Jack's arm, leaving a burn mark. Jack did all that he could to writhe away from the man, but to no avail.
The man, named Kage, only added press after press, laughing out loud while Jack screamed in pain.
His mother did nothing. She was ramming another guy in the bedroom, like the whore she was.
More men came into the room and made their marks on Jack, some in areas in which no eight year old boy should be touched.
"Shuddup!" Yelled one, slapping Jack across the face after he screamed too loudly.
Kage rammed his hips into Jack's tiny body.
More pressing.
The cigarette marks were becoming so painful, they were second-degree burns in under three minutes.
Kage laughed again, pinning Jack up against a wall before continuing.
Jack's mother did nothing.

"Jeremiah...?"

Joker snapped back into reality. His eyes were wide with terror, and he didn't realize that the smile on his face was so big that it was hurting him.
His eyes focused to see Bruce and Penguin standing above him.
"Are you okay?" Asked Oswald. Joker sat up, snow falling into his hair and eyelashes.
"I'm sorry that I smacked you." Bruce said. Joker pulled himself to his feet, his hands shaking. "I didn't mean to do it so hard."

"Oh yeah, no problem." He said, a little coldly but still with a smile. His face stung with the force of the slap, and water began building up in the corner of his eyes.
Joker giggled and looked away from Penguin and Bruce, hiding his face as well as he could incase the tears were going to start rolling.
Thank goodness it was getting dark.