I Hate You, But I Love You

Chapter 3: I Don't Give A..

Bruce stood there, mainly in shock, not quite sure what to say in response to that, really. "He didn't say much after that, just asking if Batman was seeing anyone. I said I didn't know. He's a real mystery, that one." Harvey added and walked over pouring himself a drink. "So I feel like that should get me some bargaining power, seeing as you've got monetary power over the city." Bruce shook his head and pointed toward the door. "I'll see what I can do. You have to leave. You can't be seen here, Harvey." Two-Face simply shrugged. "That's all on you. I bring you good intel and you simply ask me to leave? How rude, Mr. Wayne." He then left without protest, which was strange. Did he know Bruce's biggest secret? It seemed like it, although Bruce was quite paranoid lately due to the Joker's antics along with all of the other villains. He felt his heart hammering as Two-Face left his mansion. J had feelings for Batman? Bruce shook his head, thinking he might just be in a nightmare. He felt slightly sick to his stomach. The murdering psychopath has feelings for him? He needed to find Alfred. He hated to admit it as stubborn as he was, but he needed Alfred's council a lot more than he accepted it. "Alfred?" He called out, trying to remain calm. "Yes, Master Bruce?" Alfred called from down the hall. "I need to speak with you. Urgently." Alfred thought that was strange coming from Bruce so he hurried to him, having a seat with him in Bruce's unofficial office. "Two-Face just announced to me that the Joker has feelings for Batman." Alfred was a bit shocked at first too, but he had heard and seen stranger. "Well, that is a bit odd, but considering he always stabs you and every single time misses vital organs, I'd say he either cares for you or has absolutely appalling aim." Bruce sighed. "Alfred, this isn't a time for jokes. He paralyzed Barbara. HE KILLED MY SON!" Bruce had worked himself up into a frenzy, absolutely furious with the clown. He was shaking, never so angry and upset in all of his life. "I'm going to find him and kill him. He has brought me nothing but pain." He spoke in an eerily calm tone, slipping from behind his desk and heading to the Batcave. Joker had no idea what was coming.

J had spent the majority of his free day zoned out on the drugs, thinking about how he got to where he was now. Things were always changing. Especially his memory. Every time he would think of a memory, he could never truly be sure it was his. Was he always this crazy? He didn't know. He could barely remember falling into that pit of acid. He stared up at the ceiling of his mansion that was surrounded by his 'Funland' theme park. He never wanted normal, not that he could remember anyway. He loved the chaos. He was softly singing along to a depressing indie song, counting the specks on the ceiling. He kept losing count, not that it mattered much. When he closed his eyes, he remembered a moment in time in which he was happy. He was at a carnival with his parents? At least he assumed they were his parents. He saw the clowns and the elephants and he was completely mesmerized. He smiled a little and his thought was interrupted by a loud banging on his door. "JOKER!" Bruce called out with nothing held back. "Have you come to annoy me, embarrass yourself, and flee the scene again?" He slurred slightly. It was then that Bruce kicked down the door, walking briskly over to the Joker whose mind was completely mush from the drugs. He could smell a strong scent of Jack Daniel's on him as he picked him up by the collar, slamming him against the wall. "Someone told me you care about me. Did you care about me when you paralyzed Barbara?! DID YOU CARE ABOUT ME WHEN YOU KILLED MY SON?!" He yelled in J's face. The clown flinched back, his head hitting the wall behind him. "B..Batsy... ya gotta believe me.. I do shit and I... I just get the urge and I gotta do it." He was mumbling and Batman slammed him against the wall again, causing J's head to bleed slightly, tainting his green hair. "Look... I'm sorry for that. I'm so sorry.." he held up his hands in defense from their position clutching Batman's chest plate. He was defenseless right now. He met Batman's eyes and the other looked straight back at him. "You care about me?" He demanded, looking at the wasted clown in front of him. "Well, fucking obviously I do. If not I would have killed you by now." Bruce knew this was a drunken confession, but drunken confessions were sober thoughts. "So... ya gonna kiss me or kill me, Bats? I know you don't like killing.. so.." J smirked a little sloppily up at him and Bruce held his breath for a moment. Was he? Was he going to give the clown what he wanted? This was a dangerous game. Under all of that mess, Bruce could smell J's cologne. He leaned in slightly, not sure whether to kiss him or not, when J leaned in quickly, taking the opportunity. The joker may have been wasted, but he wasn't wasting this moment. As their lips met, Bruce immediately felt tingles throughout his body, his posture now relaxing a little as he kissed J back. J wasn't a bad kisser at all, and in fact, Bruce liked it. It was like time had stopped, their warm lips and eventually tongues melding together. Bruce slowly pulled back, searching J's eyes for any reaction to what had just happened. "Y..you kissed me." J grinned and Bruce wanted to slap the grin off of his face. He felt like he had been played. He let the Joker go, immediately hating himself for kissing his worst enemy. He threw Joker to the ground enough to rough him up and slipped out of the mansion as quickly as possible.

When Bruce arrived back at the mansion, he undressed out of his suit, heading to get his dinner. Alfred turned to greet him and noticed the smudged red lipstick covering his lips and chin. "Master Bruce? You have... um.. lipstick all over you." He spoke it in such a blasé manner as if he wasn't surprised. Bruce frowned and brought his hand up to his lips, wiping them with the back of his hand. "Catwoman." Bruce lied to cover up what he'd done. "I couldn't kill the Joker.. so I went to find her." Alfred said nothing more and simply nodded, not believing it one bit. Bruce was a terrible liar. Bruce could only hope that J wouldn't remember a thing from that night.

The next morning at Joker's mansion, he woke up on the floor of his bedroom with a terrible hangover. It took him a moment to get used to his surroundings, but then things started to flood back to him. He could hear Harley's sing-song voice calling out down the hall and his head was pounding. His body ached and he felt his sore head, finding dried blood there. That was when he remembered Batman. Batman came over to kill him but ended up kissing him. He stood up and tried his best to get to the bathroom. He leaned against the counter and looked into the mirror, seeing his smudged lipstick. It was real. Harley then came into the room, carrying a tray of breakfast. "Breakfast in bed? Ya seemed like you were havin' a bad day, so I decided ta make ya some breakfast!" She smiled and placed it on the bedside table, walking over to him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and placed her head on his shoulder, looking into the mirror at him. "Are ya feelin' any better today, puddin?" Harley asked, placing soft kisses to his shoulder. He simply nodded a little, feeling a bit of guilt from having pushed her away the day before. "Yeah, Harls. Thanks for the breakfast." He managed a simple smile, his head running wild from last night. "We can even spend a day runnin' all over the place and breakin' stuff if ya wanna." She giggled softly and ruffled his messy green hair. He nodded. "Daddy's gotta take a shower first. Then we'll get to work." He grinned widely and headed off to get a shower before the time would come to cause more chaos around Gotham.

Bruce had slept on the fact that he'd kissed possibly Gotham's worst criminal, murderer, thief, and arsonist. He was actually terrified of the repercussions that might come from it. If the clown didn't keep his mouth shut, his whole reputation was on the line. Then again, no one could really believe a word that came out of the Joker's mouth. He had to keep his little secret a secret. An even bigger problem was also brewing on the horizon. A number of heroes that happened to include him were forming a 'Justice League' to take down the big bads of the city. Batman never killed, but a few of the others had no aversion to killing when necessary. He wasn't willing to kill the Joker, but someone else might be if he did something to the effect of what he'd done to Bruce's family. It was unforgivable when he thought about it, yet, something about the Joker seemed to say he was sorry. It still didn't make up for the pain he had caused, however. Bruce had to manage his company today, so that was something to keep his mind off of the crazy antics that were all going down. At least he could put it off for just a little while.

At the same time, Joker was planning his next attack. This time he was planning it out like a military operation. He was taking on Arkham Asylum and planning on breaking the other villains out. He knew that Batman wouldn't be happy about that, but he was going to do it anyway. Part of him loved pissing off Batman at any chance he got, while another part of him craved the attention. He was explaining what they were going to do to the place and going over the plans with Harley, but not only that, he also had to recruit inside men to help execute the plan perfectly. He headed down to his club where he could find off-duty Arkham guards. They never turned him in as long as they could enjoy his club. He knew he could get Griggs with a bit of sweet talking. He brought him in and grinned, taking a seat on his lap like he had before when he'd convinced him to give the phone to his sweetheart. A grope here and there, a threat, and a whisper into his ear later and Griggs was ready to recruit more of the guards to this crazy operation of Joker's. It was going to be bigger than anything he'd done this far. More tricks and more choices for Batman to make. It was all about how he reacted to the situations and how he handled saving lives over having them taken. Joker ideally wanted him to turn to the proverbial 'dark side' to prove a point, but it was becoming more clear that he wanted him for other reasons too. Oh how he wanted to take a seat on Batman's lap like he had on Griggs, just to see him squirm and react to whatever Joker felt like doing. He loved being in control, and what had always just seemed to him as an attention grab for Batman was quickly becoming evidently something more to him. He couldn't wait to show Batsy his toys.