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Tainted Minds	By : Madame_Anarchy Category: DC Verse Movies > The Dark Knight Views: 3671 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I don't own Batman's Universe or any of it's characters. I'm not writing this story for money.

Chapter List
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Bruce got back in time, almost afraid to look at the sky and find the Bat-signal on while he drove back to the Manor. “It’s Friday night, I wouldn’t complain if villains could gather up and spend their stolen money on drinks tonight, I just want a break” he thought to himself. His life was very demanding, he could be young but keeping up with his routine was making him exhausted. Sometimes he didn’t have time to sleep and had to go back home, take a shower, clean wounds, take analgesics for breakfast and leave again. He didn’t know for how long he could manage to do all this, certainly not for the rest of his life, but that didn’t matter now, all he wanted was to get home for his favorite green haired anarchist.
When he got downstairs, Joker was reading something that looked like an instruction manual while sitting with his legs crossed over a metal desk he had on the Batcave. He had unconventional places he liked to sit for a read, Bruce noticed, sometimes they made sense, like a chair, but some other times they were completely random like under the table or standing still or even a spot on the floor that looked like he intended to go somewhere comfortable to read but got impatient and just sat there. Bruce would bring him some books he had upstairs, so he could pass the time. Joker wasn’t much of a reader, he didn’t finish any of the books Bruce brought him, he got bored easily while reading and he was too agitated to maintain focus on something that wasn’t one hundred percent interesting for him. But he seemed very interested on what he was reading. Bruce got closer quietly, not letting the other notice his presence, he was good at that. It wasn’t any of the books the brought, it was the manual for his Batsuit that Lucious Fox wrote him. He never read it, he didn’t ever remember it ever existed.
“Where did you find that?” Bruce asked suddenly, making Joker almost jump from the desk from the fright.
“YOU SNEAKY BASTARD!! DO YOU WANT TO GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK?” he screamed, first angrily, but finished laughing and beating Bruce with the manual he had in hands in a playful way.
“Oh, you’re reading something I haven’t seen in ages, and I am the sneaky bastard?” he answered.
“You know that locker you have at the gym, in the corner? It was under it” Joker said, answering the question.
“I brought you all kinds of books from different authors and themes and stuff but you read something that was gathering dust under a locker, that not even I read when I was supposed to” Bruce said amazed by how random his reading choices were.
“Well, none of those books could teach me how to undress you when you’re in your Batsuit” Joker pointed out raising an eyebrow.
“So, have you learned it already?” Bruce asked in a seductive tone, getting closer to him, almost kissing him.
“I think I might need a practical lesson to make sure” Joker said narrowing his eyes that were filled with malice.
They sometimes tried to play a “hard to get” game between them while saying things like that, but they always ended up kissing and making out. They just couldn’t resist. After some fast but intense kissing, Bruce gently broke the kiss. He was awake since five in the morning, exercised in the gym, had sex, read many things that weren’t so obvious to comprehend and been to two meetings, he was tired.
“So, did you put your things in the box I left you?” he asked
“Yeah, it’s in the bedroom” Joker answered, sounded excited.
“I’ll carry it for you, let’s go” Bruce said, not hiding his own excitement.
Bruce guided him through the way out he used frequently, leading them to the main study inside the mansion. Joker took a moment to adjust his eyes to the light. The Batcave was a dark place, humid, cold and with that never-ending sound of the waterfalls. Here, was the extreme opposite; it was bright, beautifully decorated and cozy. As they walked their way to the part of the mansion where the rooms were, Joker was looking around curiously, he wanted to see everything. He was just a bit nervous because he wasn’t sure if he was going to see someone inside the mansion, like a maid, a cook or a butler, but he didn’t see anyone. He couldn’t avoid thinking Bruce was a lonely person. Everywhere he took him evoked a lonely feeling. The Batcave was a secret place, Bruce was probably the only one who went to that park he took him on Christmas and this place was huge, designed to accommodate many people, but he was alone there. They got to a long corridor with many doors and Bruce stopped walking.
“Ok, now you can choose which one you want. I have other rooms in another part of the house, but I like these ones better, bigger beds. If you don’t want any of them, I’ll show you the rest” Bruce explained. “My room is the last one in the right and I keep the last room in the left locked. Besides those two, feel free to choose” he completed. Last room to the left used to be his parents’ room. He never felt comfortable using it as his own or allowing anyone in, except for cleaning.
Bruce gave him some company while showing the rooms. Joker was surprised because every room was unique, they all had something different about them. He chose the one next to the locked room, the disposition of the furniture and the view pleased him. The room had a good view of the back of the property.
“I thought you would choose a room with fewer windows” Bruce said while placing Joker’s box in a desk, close to one of the windows.
“I don’t hate daylight, I just don’t like to see people when I have to get out, that’s why I mostly do things at night. I think I’ve spent enough time in the darkness, anyway…” Joker said
“I guess you chose the right room, then” Bruce said smiling in a gentle way. “This place is a little old fashioned, we had to adapt my room to make it a suite. This one doesn’t have a bathroom, but you can use the one we have in this corridor”
Bruce was extremely tired, but not sleepy. He said he would get ready for bed and read the newspaper while he didn’t feel like lying down. Joker’s sleep was light and Bruce didn’t want to wake him, so they decided to sleep in their own rooms tonight.
It was about three in the morning when Joker woke up because he heard an owl outside. He was thirsty, so finding a kitchen was a good excuse to explore the mansion during the night. He never thought about buying a house and decorating it with the money he made with crime, but he had to admit it, this place was awesome.
He was walking around the first floor when he found an open door that lead to a room whose light was on, which was strange. He went there and discovered it was a kitchen but also saw Bruce sleeping over the newspaper with an empty glass of what must have been scotch close to his head. He was still wearing the clothes from before, the jacket from his suit and tie were hanging in the chair close to him. He got closer to the table and shook his shoulder a little.
“Bruce, let’s go to bed, it’s three in the morning” he said
Bruce woke up but was very drowsy, he didn’t seem drunk, he just wasn’t entirely awake. Joker got water for himself and when he turned around Bruce had closed his eyes again.
“Come on, at least go to the nearest couch” Joker said touching his shoulder again
“Alright, alright” Bruce answered in a grumpy, drowsy way.
When they got to the corridor on the second floor, Joker took advantage of the fact that Bruce was not thinking straight and just guided him to his new bedroom, so they could sleep together.
“Take these clothes off, sleeping with them must be horrible” Joker said when he saw Bruce going to bed without any intention of removing them.
He took Joker’s advice and lay down close to him only with his boxers.
“Why is that I always end up sleeping in my underwear in your bed after I had a tough night?” Joker wasn’t sure if he was talking to him or to himself, his voice was distant, typical from someone almost asleep. Joker thought for a moment but didn’t say anything, Bruce wouldn’t remember it the morning.
It was about ten o’clock when Joker woke up, he turned around to see if Bruce was awake, but he seemed to be in a deep sleep. So he took a shower and got back to his new bedroom. He was getting his makeup from the box when he heard Bruce move in the bed and yawn.
“Good morning, newspaper drooler” Joker said in a distracted way.
“I guess I deserve this title, but I didn’t drool that much” he said while sitting on bed, half covered by the sheets.
“What was that all about?” Joker asked while starting to apply his makeup, using a big mirror close to the desk that had a baroque wooden ornament around it.
“I wish I knew… I was drinking a little, probably read two paragraphs of the news and next thing I remember you’re there telling me it’s three in the morning… I don’t even remember taking my clothes off” he said looking under the sheets to check if he had underwear on.
Bruce watched him while he did his makeup, he had never seen him starting it from scratch.
“You’re really good at this, it’s almost ready in ten minutes” Bruce said, still watching him.
“Oh, I did this so many times I could do it with my eyes closed” Joker said in a bored way.
“I don’t understand why you keep wearing makeup, I’ve already seen your face”
“I never did it to hide my identity, this is who I am. I’m the same person with or without makeup. I agree, it’s convenient for when I don’t want to be recognized, but not many people in Gotham have scars like mine… I wear it… ‘cause I feel like it” he said nodding in the end and looking up, giving some thought to what he said and feeling satisfied with it.
“So when you don’t wear it, I’ve seen you without it many times, it’s simply because you were not in the mood that day?” Bruce asked trying to understand a little further.
“Yeah, you could say that… Or maybe because someone forgot to buy makeup remover” He said teasing Bruce a little.
“It was just once! You spoiled brat!” Bruce answered in a playful tone.
They shared a moment of comfortable silence while Joker applied the lipstick and after that he went to the bed to give Bruce a good morning kiss, sitting next to him after it.
“Anyway, I don’t know how you do it” Joker said in a somehow admiring tone.
“What do you mean?” Bruce frowned.
“Well, at night you’re Batman, and during the day you’re Bruce Wayne, the playboy billionaire. They are both masks. When you took off your mask the first time I had more questions than ever in my head about your identity. You can be Batman, but sometimes you need to do things only Batman would do, same for that image of Bruce Wayne that you sell to people. It was when you showed me your face that I realized that I knew nothing about you! About the real Bruce Wayne. How can you do it? I wouldn’t be able to play a role that isn’t my own, how do you manage to play two?!”
Bruce was quiet for a moment, he did think about this before, but no one ever asked him directly how he felt about it in his entire life. Not even Rachel or Alfred. He would never think the Joker could have this kind of sensibility to understand emotions. He knew he was explosive about his own emotions and lacked the slightest sign of empathy for his past victims, but this was a higher level of understanding.
“There is nothing scarier than you, when you have a point, Joker” He said pausing a little. “I’ve spent weeks thinking about what you said when you first woke up here” he admitted.
Is this why I’m here? So you don’t get to hate yourself forever for leaving me to die in that alley?
“I always thought I didn’t kill people because bringing them to justice seemed the right thing to do, I didn’t want to become a murderer like the person who killed my parents. But maybe you’re right, maybe I spared people not because I truly thought they deserved a chance to live, but because I, in a selfish way, knew I wouldn’t be able to deal with it and live my life afterwards” Bruce said in a reflexive way.
“You might have brought me here out of desperation, Bruce. And you might have spared people based of selfishness, but you did spare them, and you did save me, you feel guilt and compassion. There is no way you could ever be this kind of murderer you’re afraid of becoming. Even if you killed someone, it wouldn’t be a person you and everybody else consider as innocent. You wouldn’t kill someone for the sake of it, I think” Joker said trying to somehow comfort him. He knew he could be cruel when he made people question themselves.
Bruce was afraid to ask him if he felt a sadistic satisfaction when killing someone, he was almost sure he did, he gave him and Gotham many reasons to believe so.
“Do you feel guilt? Or remorse or anything like that when you kill someone, Joker? Bruce asked. It was a touchy question, but when else could he ask it?
“I wouldn’t say I don’t feel any kind of empathy, I would say it’s very, very, selective” he said, taking a moment to think. “But no, I never felt guilt or remorse while I was doing it. It was part of the ‘act’, let’s say. What I did feel was that I crossed the line once and for that one, I regret. I wanted to push you to your limits, I loved to see that fury in your eyes, but seeing you in such pain and grief was not what I wanted” he continued in a gloomy tone, making the atmosphere around them darker. They could almost see the things that happened in the alleys being played before their eyes.
This time the silence was unsettling. After moments of tension, both immersed in their own thoughts, Bruce sighed loudly.
“You know what? Let’s just stop doing this. When did this become a competition of who is sorrier and who messed up more or who started? I just want to move on from all that, don’t you?” Bruce said in an upset tone.
“Yes, more than anything”
“I know some things trigger you, don’t worry, I’ll keep being patient. But, please, let’s try to stop beating ourselves up mentally, ok?” Bruce said taking Joker’s hand in a gentle way.
“Ok… newspaper drooler” he said, sealing their agreement, making Bruce smile back at him. “Still, you didn’t answer me… How do you manage all this, doesn’t it get confusing? Don’t you get tired?” he asked
“To be honest, I think it’s harder to pretend I’m that Bruce Wayne people know, than being Batman. I think I’m doing the right thing fighting crime, protecting people, it’s natural to me. Sometimes I have to make decisions that I don’t like that much because Batman has an image and a lot of responsibility attached to it. But it’s mostly me. Now, that Bruce Wayne is a real struggle to maintain. I hate being labeled as shallow, futile, greedy, egocentric and even a jerk to women. I try to protect these people but many of them don’t even support Batman and everybody thinks Bruce Wayne is just another playboy with some expensive cars…” he sighed “That is frustrating…”
“How about that promise of not beating yourself up mentally? You are very hard on yourself, Bruce. I don’t think you’re any of those things, now that I know you better. In fact, I never thought Batman or Bruce Wayne could treat me so nicely as you do. I like the real you better than I liked Batman, if you want to know” Joker said trying to cheer him up, meaning every word and also feeling strange for deliberately saying nice things to someone.
Bruce’s countenance changed while he listened to those words. He was very insecure to be himself with people and not many people got a glimpse of who he really was. People not liking Batman or his playboy facade was something he was used to, it wasn’t personal to him. Getting to know him for real and being rejected was, on the other hand, a very desolating idea. He had a smile on his face that could be expressing a list of good things. He gave Joker a look filled with meaning, mostly gratitude, and kissed him. This time, the kiss didn’t express lust, they were doing it because there were no words to describe how they felt, so they had to show it in a physical way.
“Are you hungry? How about we go to the kitchen and get something to eat?” Bruce suggested after they stopped kissing.
“Who doesn’t get hungry after such a philosophical conversation in the morning, right?” he said messing Bruce’s hair with his hand. “Thought you had someone to cook for you”
“Sometimes I hire someone to cook for me and Alfred for some time, but I like Alfred’s cooking and I can cook a couple of things myself”
“Alfred being…?” Joker asked.
“My parents hired him as a butler before I was born and when they were gone, he raised me and took care of me, he is family”
“Sounds like a nice person, where is him?”
“Gave him some vacation so we could have privacy at home, but sometimes people will come here to clean the place, I’ll let you know” Bruce said
“So you live in this place but you’re doing your bed and washing dishes?” Joker asked not believing it.
“I never do my bed and I let dishes accumulate. I hire people to help me keep the house, but it’s not a hotel”
“Well, room service got significantly better after I started making out with the maid” Joker said in a mocking way.
Bruce wasn’t used to people having such liberty to make fun of him, but it was a breath of fresh air for him to be treated as an equal, not like a boss or an intimidating figure, just himself in his boxers and bad morning breath.
Author’s note: Hello everyone! I’ve always wanted to make them have these conversations, had a lot of fun writing them ^^
I hope you enjoyed the chapter and thank you all for reading!
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Tainted Minds