It shouldn't take too long now. It never takes long for the Bat to catch up…

The Joker stood still, his gaze directed out at the heaving body of Gotham City. Despite the darkness, its metabolism continued to churn and rumble, supporting the degenerate life of its dark alleys and corners while street and residential lights continued to flicker in protest.

The start of a sardonic smile graced his lips as he listened to the sudden muffled sounds behind him; groans, dull thuds and the sharp cracking of bones.

The Bat was here…

Whistling a tune, he carelessly swung the detonator by its cord in small tight circles as he briefly choreographed in his mind a possible musical dance and song routine. He could tell from the rising crescendo of moans and screams that the Bat was working through his henchmen at record speed. Soon, the Bat would reach him.

It never ceased to amaze the Joker the amount of raw power, precision and agility displayed by the dark figure. It made the Bat all the more dangerous and exciting. Like an exotic but rare predatory species, it fascinated and thrilled him when they had their encounters.

It took all of his strength not to turn around when he could feel the presence of the Bat enter the room. Anticipation tingled and gnawed at his skin and with one gloved paw, he slipped the detonator back into the pocket of his purple coat.

"Trying to pretend that I'm not here?" The voice behind him rasped. It sounded harsh and deadly, yet threatened to rise into a horrifying shriek.

"Mmm?" The Joker twirled around, his gruesome smile extending even further into a lopsided grin. "Oh. Ohhhh….you! Fancy, seeing you here. Out for a casual stroll, I see?" He leant forward, lowering his voice, "although Batsy, I'd be a little more cautious. A beautiful girl like you, wandering around these parts of town…" He paused, to quickly lick his scarred mouth before continuing in a low drawl; "I mean, I hate to break it to you honey pie, but you really are, uh, asking for it…"

The Joker watched gleefully as his prize stepped out of the shadows, a look of contempt curling up on her exposed lips. "I think you know exactly why I'm here. Now give me the detonator."

"Oh. Blunt and straight to the point. I like that in a woman" he leered.

The Bat took a step closer, he could now see her steel blue eyes gazing steadily at him through charcoaled slots in the mask, her jaw clenching and unclenching. Oh, she is so pissed. As much as he love teasing and unnerving her, he'd learnt many times in the past how fast and precise she could be. A swift blurred leg or arm, and he'd previously found himself with temporarily paralyzed limbs or had woken up from a brief lapse of unconsciousness, tied and gagged at Arkhum's doorstop. While physically, he was slightly stronger, it was her speed that won her through the battles again and again. And the Joker didn't want this battle to end too early.

"See, that's the problem with women these days. They dance around in these little circles, instead of going from A-Z, they go from A – D, then from D-C, then C-G, G-M, M-Y and so on. You get the point. They fluff around with all these little subtleties and expect that you will magically read their minds." He stole her a cunning smile; "But you…YOU know exactly what you want. Ohhhh….and I love it! Just love it!"

The Bat took another step forward.

"So, uh, how was your little date with what's his name? You know, that little cretin who thinks he's Popeye?"

She stared back at him, her mouth hardening into a grimace. "You" she grated "know very well, how my date went." Flashbacks of the previous night involving her 'date' barring himself in his apartment and refusing to speak or go near her, out of fear for his own life, spurred her rising anger. Ever since he had discovered her identity, the Joker had taken it upon himself to terrify away potential bachelors that she had taken an interest in.

The Joker smirked. "Darling, you should count yourself lucky that you have me around. Not every girl gets her very own personal date filter. Just think of how many fools you would have wasted precious time with, if it weren't for me." The very thought of his beloved Bat paying attention to any other man made the Joker completely livid. "And besides" he continued to slur, "it's not as if I kill 'em or anything, just you know, scare them senseless."

"Is that what you think you're doing for me? A favor", She stepped forward again, her voice lowered to an angry hiss, "How about this for a favor. Why don't you just hand over the goddamn detonator."

"How about I give you the detonator, if you give me a kiss? Hm?" He waggled his eyebrows making a clicking noise with his tongue.

Anger rising, the Bat's lip curled up baring a set of pearly whites. Slightly annoyed at her reaction the Joker continued; "You see the thing is…you have terrible taste in men", he spat.

The Bat continued to glare at him; "Because, you're such a good judge of character" she seethed, sarcasm dripping from her words.

"As a matter of fact I am. I know why you go for a certain breed – because it is always the same breed – the same breed of these whiney, sniveling rich boys who wouldn't survive a week without their, uh, fancy, smancy mansions and servants; who have been babied and smothered their entire lives and have grown into these poor mimicries of men. But I can see through their pathetic façade.' The Joker sneered at her; 'And I think you can too, but you deliberately go for it."

The Bat was getting sick of this. The Joker was obviously playing games with her again. Constantly disapproving her own personal life, she gritted her teeth angrily as she contemplated the audacity of this criminal, this psychopath to try and tell her how to live her life. How dare he…

"Why, I bet they don't even know what a clit is, let alone, uh, where it is, or what to, uh do with it…"

When he tried to continue with his ranting monologue, she took it upon herself to attack. She was close enough to him now, and with a well aimed swift kick to his knee cap, she had him flat on his back. Another kick – this time in his stomach to momentarily wind him so that she could quickly handcuff him, straddling him to hold him down with her body weight as she did so.

"Mmmm…ohhh, yes." The Joker wheezed. Up close she could see that some of the black charcoal that lined his eyes had smeared across his face, dirtying his cracked, white face paint, some of which had rubbed off onto his fitted purple coat. A couple strands of greasy curls hung over his forehead, and she noticed that despite this, he didn't smell as bad as usually did. His sloppily applied red lipstick that covered his lips and scars blared angrily at her and through her disgust at the writhing body beneath her she briefly wandered how he managed to get the color to stay for so long.

The Joker groaned again; "Oh, if you could just, ah, shift back a bit…that would be, uh, that would be great, just where I need it. Oh that's the spot." He figured that as she hadn't rendered him unconscious yet, it was a good sign.

Her response to his pleas was to let out a feral growl, before using her fingertips to squeeze at pressure points on the man's body.

"Aw, no, no,no!" The Joker moaned, as he lost complete control of his arms. "There's no point if I can't feel anything!" He pouted at her, trying to pull off a puppy dog expression. The effect though, was morbidly creepy. She used the opportunity to begin rifling through his pockets, before finally fishing out the detonator triumphantly. She quickly set it aside, as far away as possible and began fiddling with her communications device on her wrist to inform Gordon where the Joker was. He watched her hiss with annoyance as the device failed to work, obviously destroyed by one of his henchmen during her recent battle to find him.

"Well, look at you", he murmured, ticking his tongue; "just can't stand it when you're not in control…can you?" He chuckled softly, before biting down on his bottom lip; "that's why you always go for the same pathetic guys – the yes men- the ones that you think that you have compete control over."

She rolled her eyes in exasperation, "What is your obsession with my personal life?" she growled.

"Me? Obsessed? I'm just pointing out the obvious aren't I? Those men that you choose, they'll never complete you, never understand you. How do you think they will react when they find out that their little bunny likes to run around the Narrows at night dressed like a, uh, giant bat? Hm? Not exactly, very lady-like is it..?"

The Bat grimaced slightly at this. If having her femininity brought into question was done by this madman alone, it would not have concerned her. The fact that it was done on a daily basis by the tabloids is what she struggled with. Running Wayne Enterprises had earned her the reputation of being a 'ball breaker.' Combined with constant speculation about her lack of companion and most recently, her 'withering womb' as one tabloid delicately put it, she could not help but feel conflicted. The huge expectations fed through to her on a daily basis sometimes exhausted and overwhelmed her. Her alter ego also took a complete bruising in the tabloids, with psychologists speculating that whoever the vigilante is she must have had 'daddy issues.'

Instead of pondering too much about it, she instead sneered at the clown below her; "Really? I could have sworn wearing lipstick isn't very 'man-like' either."

The Joker smiled at this, his grin stretching out so wide that the Bat briefly worried that the strain would cause his wounds to pop open again. "Funny, that you say that. Yet, you probably don't even get the irony of your words following mine. How similar we are."

Oh, here we go again. The Bat considered making him unconscious. At least that would shut him up, but as he continued she paused.

"Those men, tabloids, whatever…they don't have any purpose in life. They just kind of drift through it with their simple little plans. Make lots of money. Meet someone. Get married. Fuck and pop out rugrats- and that's their baneful existence right there."

"And I suppose killing innocents somehow puts you above that?" she hissed at him.

The Joker ignored her and continued in his one pitch tenor, unwavering; "but us, you and I. We have a purpose, an aim. I know, for instance, how pointless the structure and rules placed on us by society are. I know that deep down every one of us are nothing more than uncivilized animals just waiting to break free as soon as structure is removed. I know that, you know this and that the knowledge terrifies you. I do everything I can to prove this point, and you do everything that you can to hide this point. To bury it in the hopes that nobody will find out."

He tilted his head and smiled at her, he could feel his arms now. The Bat just stared at him.

"See, I challenge you Batsy. I keep you on your toes, and you are all the more better for it. It keeps you sharp and ready, see?" He shifted his body a little bit underneath her, trying to make himself more comfortable while savoring the feel of human warmth on him. He could feel the intensity of those steel blue eyes boring into him. He ached to make a move soon, but he knew that if he was to succeed that he would need to be patient which he loathed.

The Bat brought her face down so that she was closer to him, eye to eye. "Don't you EVER try and use me as an excuse for your plans" she growled ferociously, the words sounding as if they were being dragged over sharp pieces of glass. "We are NOTHING alike." In a fit of anger she smacked him across the face. Hard.

The Joker just laughed heartedly, "Now, there's my girl. C'mon, do it again! Hit me! Make daddy proud!" And she did while gritting her teeth. Again and again she smacked him hard across his laughing hideous face. Like a warm punching bag, she took out all her anger on him, her stress and all her worries concerning Wayne Enterprises, the tabloids, the falling of Gotham City were projected onto him with a series of fast and hard punches.

Yet he continued to talk.

"I find it soo funny that you fight for structure and rules." He gurgled. "That you work so hard to uphold it. Yet, you don't even stop to think that it is those very rules and structures that hold you back."

Panting, and feeling tears of rage filling her eyes, she sat back. Her mind barely registered a gloved paw slowly reaching towards her face. It was only when it began to slowly grab her chin that she jerked her head back, realizing that the Joker had somehow gotten out of his handcuffs. Why am I letting him do this?

The thumb of the glove slowly traced her jaw line, and still panting she let it. The Joker used his other hand to brace himself up so that he was now sitting up and facing her. Once up, he placed his other hand on her jaw line, sweeping his thumbs up in circular motions so that they swept under the cowl to wipe away at the charcoal that had been slightly dampened by angry tears.

"Aww…are you, are you crying, Batsy?" he twisted his features into a look of mock concern, bringing his pursued lips within inches of her own; "Something I said, maybe?"

The Bat jerked her head again, though not enough to shake off the Joker, her mouth was barely parted as she felt his tongue slide inside. Her mind felt sluggish and hazy- it always did when this happened, it just all felt so surreal. It was always the gentleness of his first kiss that disconcerted her and she felt her body freeze as he continued with it, not really caring that she wasn't an active participant.

"Now, let's see that pretty face!" The Joker growled, as he clasped his hands around her cowl and proceeded to remove it revealing a handsome 31 year old woman with a stylish bob. The tear streaked charcoal smeared around her glinting eyes was a parody of his own and he tossed the cowl aside before hastily removing his gloves so that he could clasp her face again with his bare hands.

"Why hello, beautiful" he said it so low that the words seemed to rumble out huskily from his throat, a contrast to his usual high pitched voice. He leaned forward to place a couple of delicate kisses up her neck; "You always look so pretty when you cry" he whispered, his hot breath tickling her ear.

He nuzzled his face gently into the crook of her neck, before moving up to place a kiss on the end of her nose; "It must be sooo hard" he sighed, "to be so passionate about a city that hates you", he bit down on his bottom lip to try and suppress the muffled giggles gurgling up from this throat. In response, the Bat gave him a sharp shove sending him flat onto his back again.

"So that's it, is it? You waste my time and have me come all this way to be mocked?" She glared angrily down at him.

"Well, uh, not just to mock, act-ually", the Joker studied her face, noticing that she was now adopting her regular voice, before moving slowly back up again. "I mean, hey, c'mon, you don't exactly make it easy for me to speak to you. It's not as if you return my calls."

"You're a murderer. A disgusting, cold blooded killer – you should be locked up." Through her armor she felt two large hands trace up her back.

"Don't be like that" he chided, moving his hands to then rub across her upper arms his long, clever fingers searching for the latches that would remove her suite; "You know, before you came along I'd been off women. They're always the same. Always basing their entire existence on how they look; on how sexually appealing they can be. It stumps their personality growth and it makes them so boring." They both heard a series of loud clicks as he discovered the latches, pieces of armor falling away from her body.

"It's almost as if they think being sexually attractive gives them some sort of power. But I'd say it is a false sense of power, wouldn't you agree?" He paused, to drink in the sight before him, chewing on the inside of his scarred mouth; "Not you though" he muttered lustily, "You are just too much fun." He leant forward to bite down on her collar bone and chuckled softly when he heard her gasp at the touch of his hot, wet eager mouth. He used the opportunity to slowly push her flat onto her back to reverse the positions.

The Bat let out a grunt as she felt herself being pushed down. No, I can't let this happen, again, no matter how good it feels. She reached down roughly grabbing a fistful of his dirty hair, yanking his head away from her chest. Jaw gapping open, eyes still closed the Joker let out a gurgled moan and she couldn't help but keel over at the sight.

"Hm? You like that, do you?" She hissed at him before giving him another vicious tug.

He always did this to her. Always brought out this side in her.

She shoved him over and felt thrill rising in her at the little resistance he put up, although now he was flashing his infuriating grin at her. She'll fix that. She leant down and attacked his mouth, savoring the deep rumbles echoing within his throat. His calloused hands were now alternating between gripping and stroking up and down her back, while her own were desperately trying to undo his vest and shirt buttons.

She slowed down her kissing momentarily to trace the scar tissue inside his cheek with her tongue, smiling softly as he gasped into her mouth. Impatient with the shirt, she paused sitting up as she now tried to rip at the buttons in frustration, pulling it open so that she could have a good look at him. She let out a low purr in satisfaction, tracing her fingers along scars that mirrored her own.

Wanting to feel more of her skin against his own, the Joker quickly sat up, careful not to throw her off, shrugging off his coat, shirt and vest. His tie was still fastened around his neck and as he reached up to untie it, she reached out and grabbed it roughly jerking his head towards her.

"I want you… to leave that on" she murmured coyly, she wound the silk fabric around her hand so that it tightened bringing him closer to her.

"Mmm. Now we're talking." His fingers traced down her sides before firmly resting on her hips, digging into her skin possessively. "Always have to be in control. Don't we?" he muttered. He leaned forward to initiate another kiss as his hand moved slowly and deliberately between her powerful thighs, his other one still gripping at her hip bone.

She bit her lip to try and withhold a gasp when he applied a firm, circular rubbing motion to her sensitive spot. "Hmm, what do we have here?" he purred, relishing her now trembling body. He wriggled his eyebrows at her and began varying his movements until finally she let out a whimper. Bingo.

"Doesn't it feel good to just give in sometimes" he breathed into her ear. "See, this is why you need me." He choked a bit when she tightened her grip on his tie then giggled. "Aww…Batsy, you're still trying to deny this aren't you?"

He continued working his fingers, placing his other hand and arm up along her spine to keep her now writhing body, slick with sweat, in place. With her head tilted back and her hands gripping his hair and neck, he was able to gain access to her long, exposed neck. Her whimpers were now becoming moans.

"C'mon,c'mon,c'mon…tell me what you need. C'mon, just say it" he growled at her. He was now rocking his body against hers, trying to create some friction for himself.

She scrunched her eyes shut, refusing to say it; "No!" she panted, "I don't…I don't know…what you're talking about.." She pulled tighter on his hair, eliciting a moan from him.

"Oh, but I think you do" he hissed. He could tell that she was getting close, from previous experiences with her he knew that the way her short moans had evolved into long trailing greedy ones meant she was slowly drawing to the edge. All it would take now is just one push.

So he abruptly stopped.

Her eyes snapped open to narrow dangerously at him, with her cheeks flushed and strands of damp hair clinging to her sweaty forehead and face she looked so wanton that the Joker began to briefly wonder if he should just take her there and then. No, because that would go against the pur-pose…

Instead he just stared at her reaction with a bemused, lopsided grin crossing his lips.

She continued to glare before reaching over to grab his purple coat that was lying on the ground nearby, fumbling through its inner top pocket to retrieve a small square packet.

"Prepared as always, I see." She sniffed.

"Scout habit."

"This coming from someone who doesn't believe in plans?" she continued to admonish. She reached over to undo his fly, but he smacked her hand away. "Uh-ah" he waggled one finger at her, "What did I say?"

She shot him a puzzled look and he could already hear the gears churning inside that head of hers. Then a light bulb moment. "You've gotta be kidding me" she sneered.

He pulled her close to him and she gasped when she felt his teeth on her earlobe. "And why not?" he murmured. "We both know it's what you want soo…why so…shy.'" He moved his hands down between her thighs to continue his ministrations on her body, provoking a wail from her. She was becoming so hyper-sensitive. "Your problem is that, you're just too controlling. Not that I don't mind a little bit of that" he added hastily, "No, you're also too uptight and self-righteous. You don't have a sense of fun. And I can't let thaat continue. Oh no. Like cancer, it'll spread to all our other games and that'll be no fun."

"Fun? Is that what you call it?" she gritted through her teeth.

"…" he hummed against her neck. When he withdrew his fingers again she almost sobbed out.

"Okay, fine." she growled. The Joker pursued his lips rolling his eyes upwards, clearly not amused. He swiped his tongue down the inside of his cheek before briefly flickering it out. "And?" he asked "Fine what? What are you fine about?"

She let out a low hiss, before burying her hand in his curls to yank his head forward into a vicious kiss which she finished with a couple of teasing bites and sucks to his scarred cheeks. She smirked when he began to squirm and let out his own whimper. "I" she stated between more taunting nips, "want you to fuck me."

While he was still gasping, she shoved him down onto his back for another kiss, dancing her fingers around his nipples to provoke more of those delicious wanton noises. "Is that enough for you?"

All reservations she had about this man had now flown out the window. Afterwards she'll spend hours questioning her actions and berating her impulsiveness, but at the moment she enjoyed the sensations of feeling so desperately wanted – at least in her mind. There was after all, she thought, something so incredibly erotic about having the power to seduce and tame somebody as dangerous and unpredictable as the Joker.

Briefly recovered, the Joker laughed uproariously as she began unbuttoning his pants, ripping down the flyer with trembling hands. "Oooh…look at you go!" he cackled.

He was quickly silenced by a nimble hand stroking his member, the condom easily sliding down into place, she glanced up to look at him; most of his makeup had rubbed off (probably onto her) exposing a boyish flushed face. His sweat slick chest was now heaving and his curls seemed to have become more pronounced from the dampness, clinging to the side of his neck.

Still watching his face, she clambered on top of him and in one smooth movement took him in. She relished his reaction; his eyes rolled to the back of his head before fluttering shut matching her moan with his own low groan.

Grinding her hips into his, she briefly lost herself in the moment and forgot about everything else. Two large masculine arms wrapped themselves around her, pressing her body against a harder chest. He was now sitting up again, with her straddling on top, his breaths and grunts hot in her ear. They both continued to meet the other even as their movements became more frantic. As her own orgasm loomed and she found that she couldn't keep the pace, she wrapped her legs around his waist and allowed him to push her flat onto her back as his own thrusts became harder, faster and desperate.

Then, finally release.

The Bat was the first to recover; quickly she gathered the pieces of her armor and undergarments. The Joker watched her speculatively; "Not a post-coitus snuggling girl, are you?"

She shot him a sideline glance; "Guess not."

He giggled softly, "So, when's the next round."

"There's NOT going to be another round." She ran her fingers through her hair in exasperation. "This was all a mistake" she reached over to place the cowl over her head, ignoring the Joker's eye rolls.

"Mm-Hm. Sure. You know I think we've had this conversation once, twice maybe three times already." He picked at his fingernails and looked down at his handy work. "Point is, there will be another round, and this time you'll be the one instigating it." He grinned at her stoic expression, smoothing a stray curl behind his ear. "You so begged for it this time…it's only a matter of time before you'll want more of my goods…" he paused to leer at her "Joker-style."

"Don't flatter yourself."

"Oh-Ho! Don't flatter myself?" He cleared his throat before adopting a higher pitched voice as his impersonation of the Bat, "Oh, yes, Oh fuck me, I want you to fuck me!" He then burst into a fit of giggles rolling naked on the floor, his pants still around his ankles while the Bat stood there frozen with embarrassment, thankful that she had already put on her cowl to hide her glowering red face.

She grimaced, grabbing the detonator that she had earlier put to the side, shame filling her very core. She should try and apprehend him and have him carted off to Arkhum. At the moment though she didn't want to touch or go near him. Simmering in self-disgust, she fled away from his taunts, hoots and hollering.

"Oh-Ho, Ah-Ha! See-ya later cupcake! I'll be ready for you, when you are princess! Next time, I might actually pay you! Bah-ha, ha, ha…"

Next time, be damned she thought, the man was like a living drug.