Disclaimer: Property of: Warner Bros, DC Comics, Legendary Films, Chris Nolan, Bale and Ledger. So in case you missed it, they're not mine; which I find most upsetting.

Warnings: Slash of the Joker/Batman variety. This means guy/guy love, which is undeniably the best kind!

--Character introspective with nothing explicit, sadly. Mostly pre-slash stuff, but it's always a safe bet to warn the easily squeamish ; )

Opposites Always Attract

By: EIW

"You complete me." – The Joker, The Dark Knight

The man with the face paint had some sort of demented hold over Batman, not Bruce Wayne, but Batman himself. Bruce Wayne was used to the glitz and glamour that Gotham's upper elitists provided. Sparkling champagne and glittering girls were common place in the billionaire's life. He was used to shimmering lights and pretty things and he liked it that way, thank you very much.

However, Batman was born on the dark and grimy streets of Gotham's underbelly. Devious creatures and horrific violence were the constants in his life. He bled for this city and gave her everything that he had. He had acquired a taste for the darker things in life. Once the sun set, Bruce Wayne no longer existed. It was only Batman. The man that had sworn to protect this city and he'd done his job well, until he showed up. The Joker, the man with a painted face and a devil's laugh, he'd come in and brought chaos to the unsuspecting public and the criminals alike.

Bruce Wayne was scared to look too closely at the Joker. He was disgusted with what he saw. The smeared face paint, the ever smiling devious face, and that horrible laugh; it was the laugh that Bruce couldn't stand the most. Heartless and insane, no human could laugh like that; only a demented deviant, only a man sent from Hell itself could pull that laugh off.

Meanwhile, Batman was captivated and couldn't quite make himself look away. Even though he knew how he should feel about this maniac, he still didn't have the strength to fight this captivation. It was almost an enchantment actually. A very sinister and wicked enchantment, but it was there nonetheless. It lingered in his mind always catching him at the wrong moment, always making him stare a little too long. The Joker was haunting him, always.

It was a fatal attraction at best and Batman found himself craving to see the flesh beneath the make-up. Anytime that the Joker's sweat would rub the white paint off of his forehead or chin, Batman found that he couldn't tear his eyes away. He found himself waiting for the next hot explosion and while he worried for the helpless victims inside and he'd do anything to save the citizens of his city, he'd always watch out of the corner of his eye for that flash of skin.

There was a marvelous green twinge in the clown's hair and if the light of the exploding building caught it right, it would glow ghoulishly in the dark of the night. The grease made it shine against the fiery orange backdrop. He truly was a stunningly horrifying sight to behold. Batman couldn't help but feel privileged, not many got the chance to be so close to see the splendor of evil personified and live to tell about it.

The laugh sent a chill down everyone's spine; however, Batman knew it wasn't the right kind of chill that shimmed down his. It wasn't fear that had him unable to walk away. There was a promise in that laugh. It was taunting him to try to walk away because as soon as he felt he could, the Joker would show his ace and the game would begin again.

Batman liked when they fought close together. It was their equivalent of dancing, he supposed. Everything was perfectly synchronized, almost as if they had choreographed it together. They bended and flowed around one another as they clashed and it felt right when he'd slammed the grinning maniac into the wall at the police station. Pressed tightly together with neither backing down, all the while trying to figure out what the Joker had planned. It was never simple, they liked it like that.

He'd stare into his arch-nemesis's eyes and try to figure him out. The Joker's eyes glittered with mischief and were haunted with madness, but it was a beautifully horrific madness. It was those eyes that were going to get him in the end.

Batman knew that already.

Like all good arch-nemeses, they were opposites.

Totally and complete opposites, but they completed one another. The extreme ends of the color spectrum, black and white, with neither one willing to move an inch into the grey area. Fixed points to their causes, and maybe that's why Batman couldn't move away, because they were far too similar. It was something of a contradiction, but they were more alike than any one else in Gotham.

This thing between them was twisted and demented, but after a while Batman didn't have the capacity to care.

In the morning, after he took his Bat-suit off, Bruce would lean against the mirror in the bathroom. The steam from the shower had long since evaporated and all that Bruce could think of was how messed up he'd become. He stared angrily at the mirror, trying to understand that part of himself that felt compelled to follow the Joker. The part that continued to pursue the maniac after everyone had given up. It was partially out of some sense of justice, the Joker had killed too many people to ever be let free, but it was also out of curiosity. A compulsion to understand the man because if he could understand him then the attraction might subside, if he understood, he'd be able to let go.

At least that's what Bruce Wayne told himself in the daylight hours, but at midnight when he was standing upon a rooftop overlooking his city, he knew that it would never be over. They'd never stop trying to out do the other. Batman would fight him and try to understand and the Joker would play his cards carefully, always trying to get Batman to let go of his rules, always trying to corrupt the incorruptible.

Neither one would ever succeed, they both knew that. But it was the thrill, the excitement, and above all else the content feeling that something in this chaotic life would be permanent fixture. The Joker would always be there and Batman would be in the way of him and his precious anarchy. If the Joker's words at their last meeting had been any indication, he thought so as well. He'd said they'd do this for all eternity.

It was their destiny.

Perhaps he had become the villain. To have such thoughts about his arch-nemesis was not something that 'good guys' did. The superheros of his childhood never felt compelled to see the 'evil' man behind the paint. Not one of his heroes had ever felt a tug towards a villain. They never felt as if their polar opposite was somehow a warped version of their kindred spirit, their soul mate.

It just wasn't right.

So, he'd fight the inevitable. Fight because that's what Batman did, he fought against the bad, the wrong. Even if that's what the wanted most in this life, he'd fight against it. It's what was right and good for his city and everything else was irrelevant.

His city always came first.

At least until they got rid of Batman or he was killed off. Eventually one of these things was bound to happen and then what? If he were alive, could he settle down as Bruce Wayne and pretend to be the billionaire playboy?

Doubtful.

It was pleasant to think that Bruce was the real person and that Batman was the mask, but that had stopped being true years ago. Batman was the real person. Bruce was the cover. He'd never be able to go back. Perhaps he and the Joker would be locked up as the man had said, as he had been hanging from the building swinging back and forth in a hypnotizing fashion, sweeping into reach every few twirls. Maybe they'd throw them into the asylum and share a padded cell.

Two freaks locked together for all eternity.

They'd never get along though, he supposed. It wasn't in their nature. They weren't destined to be that way. They were fighters and bringers of order and chaos.

The only two people that really 'got' one another were going to be enemies to the last. It was how it was suppose to be. The fates had dubbed them, the unmovable and the unstoppable characters in this life. There was nothing to do, but play their parts and play them well they did. Forever unyielding in their quests, forever entwined to the same fate, the same thread of destiny.

After all, opposites do attract and the magnetic chemistry between them would always be there, for better or for worse, as long as they both shall live.

This is what happens when you see the movie four times in 5 days. Seriously, you start to see stuff. I blame Ledger and Bale. It's all their fault. They just had to hint at this stuff. Oh, and it's marvelous in IMAX! I drove 2 hours to see it in the IMAX theatre. My town isn't cool enough to have one, I suppose.

Thanks for reading. Please review!