Dancing the line between love and hate (Batjokes)

A change of pace

Bruce felt an overwhelming sense of relief flood through him, seeing Joker smile like his usual self- Bruce never thought that unsettling smile could bring him comfort. But seeing Joker now, lit up with his usual energy made the cold uncomfortable feeling in Bruce melt away a little. He was worried, so so worried when he'd seen Joker in the state he was in. He never knew he could feel such concern for a man as despicable as Joker, but Bruce was only just truly realising how deep his feelings for the disturbed man in front of him ran. Feelings so deep even he wasn't fully aware of them, and he wasn't sure he wanted to be.

Bruce wasn't good with his attachments to people, ever since the death of his parents he'd built walls around himself, ones he'd designed to be impenetrable, and even if someone could break through the cracks Bruce would find a way to push them back out again. He wasn't good with emotion, and his best way of coping was to push past any uncomfortable feelings and to focus on his one goal; keeping Gotham city safe.

He wasn't really doing a good job of that, kissing the one most dangerous threat to the city's safety. Bruce could feel the guilt creeping back up, he felt so much responsibility to his city and he knew he was letting it down in this moment.

Or maybe he didn't have to be, maybe he could find a way to keep Gotham safe whilst pursuing the unstable mass of green hair and lanky white limbs in front of him?

Probably not.

Joker started to frown, and Bruce then realised that throughout all of his inner monologuing he had failed to respond to Joker.

He didn't know what to do, but he'd only just restored Joker back to a stable state, well, whatever a stable state was for Joker anyway. He wracked his brain trying to think of a way of not triggering Joker off again, although with Joker it was like walking through an active mind field, one wrong step and it would blow right up in your face.

"Joker I... I can't do that, not- not until we've sorted some things out. I think if we're to proceed with... whatever this is, then we need to lay down some ground rules first."

Joker heaved a big, exaggerated sigh and rolled his eyes at Batman.

"Tsk tsk, why must you go and ruin anything fun with rules Batsy? I want you and I know you want me, really honey it's as simple as that. No need to go and over complicate things with your misplaced morals."

"Look Joker, I need you to meet me halfway here. If we can't find some common ground I can't continue with this."

Joker stared at Batman intently, as if weighing up what he said and deciding if he wanted to entertain the idea.

"Okay Batsy, I'll play along, what are these rules you're so desperate to impose?"

"Well, first off you're going back to Arkham, and if we're going to continue there will be absolutely no killing anyone, or harming anyone-"

Batman was interrupted by Joker's shrill laughter, instantly angered by the blatant lack of care from the crazed man.

"You might as well just put a collar on me and chain me up, I'm not some toy you can put on the shelf and leave until you next decide you want to play Batsy baby. Try again."

"Joker if anything is going to happen with us you need to be willing to make compromises."

"Oh really? And what compromises will you be making?"

"I'm compromising everything just by entertaining this idea, you have killed and hurt so many people. That's not something that can just go away."

"And how would this little thing between us even be able to continue if I was sitting pretty in the nuthouse?"