Don't Believe Everything You Read On the Internet

Chapter 12

       Bruce didn't have anything on his agenda, so he spent most of the day lounging around. He had given Alfred the honor of schooling Richard, just like Bruce had been taught. This meant that the two were busy a lot of the time, which should've been great for Bruce, seeing as how he loved his alone time, but now that he had become used to being with family, he became very bored most of the time. There was a lot of stuff to do in Wayne Manor, yet today Bruce decided to just walk around aimlessly. He couldn't help thinking about his text mix-up with the Joker, and if Joker would try to message him anytime sooner. He doubted it, considering that Joker had some scheme that he had been hinting at for quite a while. Bruce hoped that it would be worth all of the anticipation. Knowing Joker, it probably would be. Bruce decided to check his phone to see if anyone had contacted him in the past 25 minutes.
          Luckily, someone had. Even better, it was the Joker. As usual, the clown had done so via text. The text read:
  Hey, I realized that since you let me out of the Asylum and gave me $45, I owed you one. Would you mind coming and seeing me behind the restaurant you took me to whenever you're not busy? It would mean a lot to me.
           Bruce wasn't currently busy, that was for sure. He was totally willing to go see the Joker. Still, he didn't want to leave the house without telling Alfred or Richard. He ended up writing a quick note that he was meeting up with someone, but figured that it would be best if he didn't specify who he was meeting up with. After he left the note on the kitchen table, he quickly put on his Batman suit and left to go see the Joker.
.....
         Joker paced nervously behind the restaurant. He wasn't sure if the text would make Batman suspicious of his intentions. The criminal gulped, afraid that Batman would end up bringing the entire police force with him. Joker shivered, imagining tranquilizer darts hitting his back. Suddenly, Batman appeared in front of him. He was surprised that the dark knight hadn't worn any of his brighter costumes, considering that is was the middle of the day. Then again, Joker liked seeing Batman in his regular getup. He looked nice in it.
    "So, what's with this whole meeting thing about?" Batman asked, trying to act casual.
     "I just wanted to give you a little something," Joker replied, taking out a small box. When he opened it, there was a bracelet with Batman's symbol on it. Batman's eyes widened with wonder. He wasn't a fan a jewelry, but he couldn't deny that it was stunning to look at. For a moment he considered putting it with the collection of jewelry that his mother had owned, but Batman figured that it might look nice on him.
       "Do you like it? I spent most of the $45 that you gave me on it. I thought you would like it," Joker explained, a gentle blush growing on his cheeks.
       "Joker, it's beautiful," Batman exclaimed.
     "Great! Do you want to put it on?" Joker asked.
      "Sure, I'd love to," Batman answered, holding out his wrist.
           Joker placed the bracelet gently around Batman's wrist. Batman admired how it looked on his hand, a glow seeming to arise from it. Unfortunately, it looked liked the string around it was starting to become loose. Batman inspected the string, only to realize that it was continuing to grow. That, and his bracelet still held firm around his wrist. The bracelet's string seemed to crawl up Batman's arm and slowly wrap around his body. Batman tried to break out of it, but is seemed that the more he struggled, the tighter the string would become. The string wrapped around both of the hero's legs at once, making Batman fall over. He glared at the Joker, who had a maniacal grin on his face. This time, Batman had been the one caught in a trap, and it didn't look like Joker would be letting him out anytime soon. Batman heard the sound of roller skates hitting the ground, and Harley's hammer suddenly smacked into his face, knocking him out.
        When Batman woke up, he was stilled tied with the bracelet's string. Now, that string was attached to some sort of 7-foot rocket. He was being guarded by Bane and Calendar Man, while the rest of the villains were talking in another room, far enough away that Batman couldn't hear them. His head throbbed, the memory of being hit in the face with a hammer coming into view. Batman figured that all of this was part of Joker's big scheme that had been mentioned on multiple occasions. The vigilante had assumed that the scheme was supposed to be stopped by him. If he wasn't the one who would stop it, than who would it be? There was the option that no one was supposed to stop it, and that the villains were supposed to win. Batman thought about why he hadn't considered this sooner.
          Halfway across the room, a phone rang. No one picked it up, so it went to message. On the other side was Richard, who was asking where his father was. This meant that it was Batman's phone that was ringing and someone must've taken all of his means of contact and escape from him while he was asleep. This was understandable, but Batman kept his phone in his back pocket, which meant that someone had to reach into there.... Batman started sweating at the thought.
"Who took my phone out of my back pocket, exactly?" Batman asked the guards.
"The Mime took out all of your gadgets. Why, were you hoping that your boyfriend would?" Calendar Man asked, a slight smirk on his face.
  "That was uncalled for," Batman stated, a deadpan look on his face.
    "Oh, I see that Batsy's awake," Joker noticed, walking past the door to the room. He told the guards to let Batman and him talk in private. The guards gladly agreed. Joker and Batman were now alone together.
    "Let me get this straight. I break you out of Arkham, I give you $45 to spend however you want, and this is how you repay me?" Batman asked.
   "This isn't for those times. This is for publicly punching me in the face when I asked for a kiss on the cheek. This is for the night that you broke my heart. This is for all of the years that you spent under appreciating me. This is for taking 77 years to finally tell me that you hate me. Two nice gestures will never make up for any of that," Joker explained, anger pouring out of every word that he said.
     "What about the day that we saved the city by holding hands? You know, the day where we confessed our feelings in front of a freaking romantic sunset. Did that just slip your mind?" Batman asked, putting anger into his own words as well.
     "I've plotted ways to hurt you in the past, why are getting so angry now?" Joker asked in return.
     "I-I just thought that you had changed. I thought that you might care for me more than you let on. I thought that you might... like me," Batman explained, yearning in his eyes.
        Joker didn't know how to respond to this. Everything that his enemy had just said was true, but he had convinced himself for so long that he almost believed that he didn't have feelings for Batman. There was a smart part of him somewhere that had tried to tell him this, but Joker had totally ignored it. Still, he had gotten this far into the plan, he would have to ignore it some more.
      "You thought wrong," Joker lied, lowering his eyebrows at the heartbroken vigilante.

Author's Note:
I am so sorry that I didn't write anything yesterday, I was out of town. I really hope that this chapter makes up for it! Tune in for the next chapter, I guess.