I've wanted to write this pretty much since I rewatched Batman Begins. And since I met my word quota on my novel and quasi-updated Orange Juice? I decided I could indulge myself and finally write it. And while Batman/Joker is totally my OTP, this is my back up one. Actually, I just slash Batman like crazy, don't know why, I just can't help it. Don't be suprised if you find a Harvey/Gordon fic from me...
Bruce Wayne was clearly overcompensating for something. And he was hiding something, possibly the thing he felt he needed to overcompensate for.
Jonathan Crane wondered if other people noticed. The man was clearly insane, he decided. What kind of person just walked into a hotel and bathed in their fountain and bought the place? What kind of man went everywhere with two or more girls?
Yes, he was very much overcompensating.
But Jonathan didn't care enough to try and find out why. He had other things to worry about that were much more important.
-- -- -- --
It was true that Bruce Wayne was over compensating, but not for anything anyone would guess (After all, he worked hard on that playboy image, so who but anyone with a brain would figure out he was Batman?). But he needed something not Batman to be overcompensating for, and who knew, maybe even if he'd never become Batman he'd still be overcompensating, which was just a word being used a lot recently in his head.
Because he really did find Jonathan Crane almost unbearably attractive.
-- -- -- --
So maybe it wasn't such a strange thing when he ended up with the doctor pressed against a wall—door actually, kissing him, his fingers tangled in the maybe-just-a-little-too-long hair.
And so maybe Jonathan could worry about all those other things he needed to worry about later because right now, he didn't want to worry about them.
Because for the moment, all that really mattered was Bruce Wayne had developed quite the (deserved) reputation and he kissed very, very well.
-- -- -- --
While he enjoyed Bruce and all the things they did, other things were moving and there was some huge bat flying around and making things harder. Jonathan decided then and there he didn't like bats. He hadn't really expected a lot of things that had happened and now he sat in Arkham, and Bruce was out there, somewhere else, doing those same things with any number of other people and that just fueled his hate of bats…
-- -- -- --
The thing was Bruce wasn't out being a playboy at all. Instead, he was sitting in his new penthouse brooding and ignoring Alfred's attempt to cheer him up. (Alfred meant well, he always did, and had a habit of knowing more than people gave him credit for. But Bruce didn't want that right then. He wanted to brood.)
He hadn't really fallen in love with Jonathan, Scarecrow, Dr. Crane, whatever he called himself. He hadn't.
He hadn't.
So it didn't hurt him at all to think the man with the beautiful eyes turned out to be an insane psychopath.
-- -- -- --
The first time Crane escaped Arkham, he went to Bruce. Wanted to explain, hoped to be accepted back.
"Get out or I'll call the cops," Bruce growled and Jonathan felt anger twist in his guts and he left. In the end, everyone left, he mused, pulling the mask back on as he walked away from the building, the anger building up and ready to explode and take part of Gotham with it.
But the bat had caught him moments later and he wondered how quickly the beast had found him.
-- -- -- --
Months later, Batman pulled the mask off and found the man starring back at him, still defiant and he still wasn't hurt by any of it. It didn't hurt him to see Jonathan glaring back at him, hating him. Every once and a while Bruce would see Jonathan, and feel Jonathan starring at him when he did, at events where Scarecrow was about to strike, on the streets sometimes just after he'd broken out of his cell.
One time after the first time, Jonathan had dared to come up to his penthouse again and Bruce tried not to think about how badly he had given in at that point, how hard he'd kissed the… doctor, the psychopath, the sociopath, the beautiful man.
Now he starred and wondered, before turning in his overly dramatic way to return to his tank. He knew who Jonathan was, but Jonathan still didn't know who he was. It was better this way, he kept thinking. Better that I catch him quickly so he doesn't come looking for me again.
Better that what happened that one time doesn't happen again. Besides, he had other things to worry about. Things other than his messed up and screwed up quasi-relationship with a criminal he had to track down and catch.
However, as he sped off, leaving Crane and the pretenders to be picked up by the cops later, he found himself looking back one more time through one of the cameras.
Through the cameras cos this is before he got his new suit and he can't turn his head. Anyway, that scene in the Dark Knight? Where he just STARES and Crane? Uh-huh.