One Bad Day

Excess Energy

Joker's POV

I couldn't quite sleep that night. It is becoming increasingly more difficult every night. Perhaps it's because I felt things stirring inside of me. Every day the antipsychotic leaves my system, and every day the voices increase. I was turning into the Clown Prince of Crime again. The only difference now is Joker has a soft spot. But I don't think it's anything I can't hide if I need to. There was no way Jack's army of one could take on the other three. Yet, that weak spot was there for good. So I'd just have to learn to live with it, no matter how inconvenient it was.

"I've never been so bored in my life!"

"I must say, Im disappointed too! I thought living with Batsy would be way more fun than this!"

"Lets kill the bat!"

"No," I shake my head as I stare out the huge window into the night sky. No bat symbol tonight. That tells me Brucey must be somewhere around here. I wonder if he's half as bored as I am. Probably not, he still gets to be the bat. It really infuriates me that he's the bat for anyone besides myself. It felt like it was our game, our dance, our destinies. I didn't like sharing my bat, so Im jealous, so what?

My breath fogs the window. I raise my finger and draw a smiley face. But it didn't make me smile. Getting my hands on Zsasz would sate some of the things I was feeling. However, I didn't have Zsasz at my disposal just yet. Damnit, why didn't I ever learn patience?

Next I draw a little bat free falling to the ground. My finger makes a zigzag under it as I whistle the poor little bats final descent, head first into pavement. "Splat..."

"I think Alfred would appreciate it if you didn't leave streaks on the windows. Especially ones that depict my demise," A voice says.

I lightly chuckle and smear out my artwork. "There, no evidence," I say and fold my hands behind my back.

"Can't sleep?" Bats asks me.

"No," I reply. "You seem to be suffering just the same," I note.

He swirls the ice cubes in his drink, "I'm usually up at night, you know, out in the city."

"Oh I'm quite aware of your routines Bruce. You understand of course, all the times I've stalked you to learn those routines, it was just business, right?"

He just takes a drink of his drink with a soft snort.

"But I am curious about when you actually sleep. Batman by night, philandering billionaire playboy by day. I mean, I never sleep either, but I'm...insane," I say.

"You seem...hyper," the bat says in observation.

"Well," I shrug, "I suppose I am feeling a little...manic." I watch the expression on Bruce's face quickly change. "Not manic like Im going to turn into a maniac in 60 seconds. Manic as in hyper, referring to a side effect to thise who suffer from Bipolar one disorder, skitzophrenia, and most sociopathics and psychopathics," I shrug.

"Yes Joker, I'm already aware of your mental repitoir," he casually sips his drunk.

I open my mouth to speak and stop. "Did you just make a...joke?" I smile.

Bruce faintly smiles and just shrugs. Then he sighs deeply. "I think I know what you need," he says. "Come on, follow me.

He leads me to a room. The floor is padded, there's no windows, and the walls are padded too. What the hell? Why does bats think that taking me to a padded room and telling me its what I need, would in any way amuse me?

"Its a trap!"

"Fucking kill him!"

"Uh, not funny," I say and am just about ready to fly off my rockers. I go to turn around and the second I do Bruces leg sweeps out, knocking my own legs out from under me. I land on the padded floor.

"It is a trap you fool!"

"Kill that fucking bat!"

"HaHaHa!"

"Come on J. You and me. No Joker Venom, no batarangs. No bat suit, no...no crazy Joker shit," Bruce says unbuttoning his shirt.

A smirk crosses my face. "Oh Batsy, you did know exactly what I needed!" I clap from the floor and jump up. I start taking off my own shirt.

"I thought you might be getting a bit bored," Bruce nodded, "Alfred suggest I engage you in something...Well, this was all I could come up with," he says and shrugs.

I crack my neck and cross over to him. "No, this is perfect!" I smile and swiftly punch him in the nose.

He dabs at his nise and sees the blood on his fingers. "I wasn't ready," he protests.

"Oh, well neither was I when you knocked me off my feet!" I laugh and swing at him again. This time he doges it and just smirks back at me with a small trail of blood running down his nose and over his top lip. "Tell me Bruce, what does blood taste like? I'm never sure if mine tastes as it should, you know, from all the chemicals."

Bruce swings with his right and I quickly dodge it. But I was wide open to the left he caught me by surprise with. I cradle my hit ribs a second and chuckle.

"Sorry J, did that hurt a little?" Bats taunts with a smirk.

He moves to punch me again when I spin and come up behind him. Then I kidney punch his ass. "Come on Bats, you know I'm faster than you." I laugh.

He cocks his head and raises an eyebrow at me, "Yeah, smaller things usually are."

"Oh thats it Bat brain!" I shout and lunge at him. I throw all my weight into him, knocking him down. I land on top of him with a thud. I raise my fist and pummel his jaw.

He quickly throws me off him and I roll across the floor and slam I to the padded walls.

"You forget Joker, I'm stronger than you," I hear Bats say and jump up from the floor.

I laugh and stand up and take a fighting stance again. Bats takes a swing but I duck and take him off his feet. "HAHAHA! Oh Bruce, its not the size of the dog in the fight, its the size of the fight in the dog!"

We both stand there in stance, eyes locked on one another, bleeding and smiling about it. We were like coiled snakes ready to strike. But then the door slowly opened. We both look to the door.

"Is there a problem Master Bruce? I heard a commotion," Alfred says, but then he sees us both bleeding. "I see," he smiles.

"We're just burning off some energy," Bats says.

"Yes Master Bruce sir, I'll leave you to it. Goodnight sirs," he turns and leaves.