"You're always early," Adriana said to the Joker
She had just arrived at the warehouse and he was already on the computer, watching as each frame was changed on a video. The video showed him at the police station being interrogated by the Batman. Adriana watched as the Batman smashed the Joker's head into one-way mirror glass before punching him repeatedly.
"Yes, well," the Joker said. "I do not exactly have a full schedule."
"Oh," Adriana said as she watched the Joker being beaten on the screen.
"And you are late," the Joker said.
"Things have been crazy in the city," Adriana said. "There's some new drug on the street and...it's hard to track down anyone using or buying it. As soon as they're discovered the police kill them for behaving like monsters..."
"Would you like assistance to track it down?" he offered.
"No...no," Adriana said. "At least not yes..not until we're done erasing your past identity."
"So Bruce has gone to Russia," the Joker said.
"Yup," Adriana said and dropped her purse onto the table. "We might be able to finish these videos by the time he gets back."
"We will," the Joker said. "I've been here four hours. Got a lot done."
Adriana raised her eyebrows. "Good job."
"Mhm," the Joker said and looked away from her and back at the screen.
"Bruce told me he's invited you to his track," Adriana said.
"Ah yes," the Joker said, the bored tone leaving his voice. He was excited about it.
"Jack," Adriana said, looking again at the screen and the video of him being given a beatdown. "I understand you and Bruce are having fun hanging out or whatever but.."
The Joker looked at her curiously.
"I see," he said, his voice almost sounding like he was singing. "You don't approve."
Adriana stared straight at him, saying nothing.
"Right then, " the Joker said. "But you know, when someone invites you to a race cars you don't exactly say no. Sounds fun doesn't it?"
"No," Adriana said. "Not really."
"I disagree," the Joker said. "If it's such an issue why not ask Bruce to stop inviting me places?"
Adriana looked away and pressed her lips together.
"Ahh okay so you already tried to do that," the Joker said, putting the pieces together easily. "But you didn't want to be the bad guy so you just let him be friends with me. Instead of being the bad guy to Bruce and forbidding him to associate with me so much, you will be the bad guy to me and ask me not to associate with him so much."
The answer was yes but Adriana didn't say it.
"So you think I'm being a bad guy?" Adriana asked. "A fun killer?"
"Of course not," the Joker smiled, the brilliance of his smile made Adriana look away. "You don't want to bully your husband but you're just fine with telling me what to do."
"I'm not a bully," Adriana said firmly. "Hang out with him if you want to, but I just find it weird."
"We all do," the Joker said. "But we are having great fun."
"Okay then," Adriana said. "Like I said. I'm not a bully, do what you want."
The Joker kept smiling as she walked over to her seat. She sat down and saw that he was still smiling at her.
"What?" she asked.
"You want to say something," the Joker said.
Adriana rolled her eyes and powered up her computer.
"No I don't," she said.
"Very well," he said and went back to work, watching the frames being checked for facial recognition.
Adriana waited a minute before speaking again.
"Okay fine," she said.
He raised his eyebrows and smiled again. "Yes?"
"I'm not telling you want to do I just," Adriana said. "Would like to request that you and Bruce don't talk about me when you're...racing cars and huntingI won't and sailing or whatever."
"Ooooh," the Joker sang. "When are we going sailing? Very exciting."
"Jack," Adriana said.
He smiled and laughed. "I won't talk about you," he said.
"Thank you," Adriana said.
"I believe Bruce would prefer not to talk about you," the Joker said. "You have nothing to worry about."
"Meaning what?" Adriana asked.
"Well obviously your name comes up." the Joker said. "Actually, forget I've said anything. This isn't my place."
Adriana felt her face scrunching up.
"So you tell me my husband doesn't like talking about me for some mysterious reason and then abandon the discussion?" Adriana asked.
The Joker paused before speaking again delicately.
"I am good at reading people, Adriana," the Joker said. "Very good, if I do say so myself."
"And what's your assessment of my husband?" Adriana asked.
The Joker leaned back in his chair, his fingertips interlaced on the table.
"Bruce Wayne is a very complex person," the Joker said. "I do not find very many people to be complex. Most people are every simple."
Adriana nodded once, waiting for more.
"Bruce Wayne is an expert at compartmentalization," the Joker said. "Everything is compartmentalized. You. His son. His work. His vigilantism. Me."
The Joker looked at the computer screen in front of him as it paused on a frame that needed to be manually altered.
"This is the only reason he can tolerate me," the Joker said. "He does not have one compartment for me. Has a few. One for the version of me in this video. One for the version of me now that he believes is not a threat to the safety of his child. The sharp change in my appearance is what helps to keep these compartments distinct. If I looked like I did in this video, there's no way he would bear my presence."
He then paused and looked at Adriana.
"And another version of me," the Joker said. "Has its own compartment. The one that was with you. I can tell that it is there. Why it is there to solidly is bewildering. He has a third box for me."
Adriana didn't want to tell the Joker about Bruce's use of Twyla's potions to see very vivid and explicit replays of their past together. He had seen them together which was why the compartment was created.
"Anyway," the Joker said. "I would say this man has hundreds of compartments in his head. Very few of them overlap in any way. He doesn't let that happen. He is very self controlled, intelligent, and driven. He has very few micro expressions. Even when he has then, generally, they are controlled and created with intention. Control is very important to him. He associates control, especially self control, with success."
"I see," Adriana said. "What does that have to do with him not wanting to talk about me?"
"I've already warned you," the Joker said. "That this isn't my place."
"I don't care I want to know," Adriana said.
The Joker nodded a few times.
"We've only discussed you at meaningful length once," the Joker said.
He thought of the first time Bruce came to his apartment. He asked him if he was interested in Adriana. the Joker told him the truth.
"As I said, he equates control with success," the Joker said. "When he discusses you...ehh...it is very subtle. But I can see it clearly. There is shame. Shame to him is failure and failure is loss of control. The extent of...his shame in himself...leads me to believe he has lost control at some time. More than once. With you."
Adriana looked down at her hands.
"It's one of the most curious things about him," the Joker said. "Why his degree of shame and sense of failure is so high."
"Yeah," Adriana said, not knowing what else to say. "He's made some mistakes but I've forgiven him."
"He doesn't like to make mistakes," the Joker told her.
"I know," Adriana said. "I don't want him to feel ashamed about the past though. It's done.."
Adriana thought about their first failed therapy appointment with Dr. Kapoor when Bruce had suggested separation. She knew as soon as the words left his mouth that he didn't mean them. He was ashamed. It was like he was covering his face and trying to hide in the request.
"He will always be ashamed for whatever it is he's done," the Joker said. "Just how he is wired. His mistake is an blemish he can't cover up. Well, at least not from a perceptive person like me."
"I've forgiven him," Adriana repeated. "He knows that."
"Well then he must have messed up horribly, if your forgiveness wasn't enough," the Joker said. "Enough to let him hide his shame a bit better."
The Joker suddenly looked curious.
"We both know you wouldn't tolerate him beating you," the Joker said. "So What could it be?One would almost think he's had an affair."
Adriana looked away.
"You know I am joking," the Joker said. "Although in hindsight, perhaps with this topic of discussion, this isn't the time for jokes."
Adriana looked the Joker in the eyes. His joking guess was correct.
"I...see?" the Joker said, not completely understanding. The idea of Bruce cheating on Adriana was absurd, but her expression confirmed that it had happened.
"It's...only happened once," Adriana said, feeling ashamed herself even though she knew she wasn't to blame.
"Adriana," the Joker said, seeing her discomfort. "You don't need to tell me about it."
She gave the best weak smile she could manage.
"I don't want him to feel ashamed anymore," she said. "I know it won't ever happen again."
"His remorse is great," the Joker said, agreeing. "He's unlikely to repeat what's causing it."
.
.
.
"Good morning," Adriana said to Bruce in the dark as he returned at 4 a.m. "How was your flight?"
"Long," Bruce whispered as he got into the bed and kissed her.
He was wearing his work shirt and dress pants and still had his socks on. He fell down onto the pillows.
"I missed you," Bruce said to her.
Adriana smiled and looked at her husband. She tried to see what the Joker saw, and she realized that she did not have to try very hard. It hurt her to see that Bruce still felt a sense of failure and shame. He looked at her like he was afraid that at any second she would disappear. He was afraid of losing her.
"You and Jack completed the rest of the footage," Bruce said and Adriana nodded.
"You must be tired," Adriana said an began to pull off his socks.
"Exhausted," he said. "And I need to be in the office at 8."
"That's kind of ridiculous," Adriana said and started to unbutton his shirt. "Can't they let you rest tomorrow?"
"Of course," Bruce said. "But I need to work. I am still working on rebuilding what we lost."
Adriana knew he was talking about the great loss of money he had agreed to pay Twyla. But his sentence had more than one meaning, and they both knew it,
"Okay," Adriana said and pulled off his pants and he shrugged out of his shirt. "Do you need anything?"
Bruce gently tugged her arm so she was leaning forward. He touched the side of her face.
"You're here," he said. "I want for nothing."
Adriana smiled and kissed him.
"Sweet dreams, my love," Adriana said.
Bruce leaned back onto the pillows again and closed his eyes. She watched him for a while before laying down beside him. The Joker's words were still with her. Bruce loved her more than anything, and he was still ashamed. Adriana though of her own actions recently, her loss of interest, faking enjoyment, her distraction. Part of her was still afraid to completely surrender to trusting him entirely. She had told herself long ago, that nothing hurt her anymore. She expected betrayal and was not surprised when it happened.
Her relationship with the Joker was never far from her mind and she was understanding why. She had only ever had two true loves. And he was the first. Her relationship with Bruce required more from her. When she was with the Joker, the entire time, from start to finish, she knew that it was not going to last. There was no way for it to. She had no real fear of getting hurt. It was how she was able to love so freely and openly without inhibition.
With Bruce, she was fully expecting their marriage to last for their lives. This meant that she needed to trust that he would go on for years to come, not hurting or betraying her. It was too much to ask, in her mind. It would take great courage, erasing of mental brainwashing, and love for her to throw herself into her relationship completely. She swallowed and decided that she would. It required her to accept that it was possible that Bruce would hurt her again in the future. It was a possibility but she had to trust that he wouldn't do that again. She needed to accept it in order to embrace her relationship entirely. He could tell her interest had waned and she now knew it
Perhaps Bruce was ashamed because he knew that she still hurt. She didn't want to hurt anymore.
.
.
.
Bruce turned off his alarm quickly and angrily, He was very tired and knew he would need to try his best not to fall asleep at work. He turned to his side and saw that Adriana was not in bed. He assumed she was out and perhaps the city needed her, although typically the city was reasonably peaceful at this hour. He put his feet onto the floor and sat at the edge of the bed.
He heard the bathroom door open and then turned.
"There you are," Bruce said and smiled.
Adriana walked his way and crawled on the bed behind him.
"Here I am," she whispered and rested her hands on his shoulders.
The alarm began to go off again and Bruce hit the clock to hard it nearly broke.
"Excuse my..." Bruce said and rubbed his face. "Angry tiredness,"
"It's okay," Adriana said, on her knees behind him.
Bruce's eyes were closed as he massaged his temples with his thumb and index finger. Adriana let her fingers glide though his hair and kissed the back side of his neck.
"Better?" she asked and he smiled.
"Much better," he said and turned so they were looking each other in the eye. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," she said, reminding herself...no pain. No anguish of betrayal. She wanted to be present.
"Well," Bruce sighed. "I'd better get prepared to head in...to dig the trenches."
"Okay," Adriana said, rubbing his back with one hand.
She knew that he was exhausted but she felt a playful and daring energy rising within her.
"Before you go," Adriana said. "Could you do something for me? If it's not too much?"
"Hm?" Bruce asked tiredly. "Yes."
Adriana smiled and held in a laugh.
"What is it dear?" Bruce asked not seeming to notice she was borderline laughing.
"Um...well," she said and moved her lips to his ear. "I need your tongue...before you leave."
Bruce frowned, his expression sleepy. "Hm?"
"Just..." Adriana moved her lips to his ear and bit it gently. "For a few minutes...Lo necesito.." (I need it.)
She heard Bruce take a deep breath in like he was suprised. "Ohh..." he said.
She then heard him take another breath and begin to laugh out loud.
"You know I'm so tired I didn't know what you meant at first," Bruce laughed at himself some more.
Adriana smiled and kissed his ear. "If you're too tired it's okay."
Bruce laughed again tiredly and then turned to her.
"Well?" he asked with a smile. "You ready?"
"Sure," she said as he turned is body and started to kiss her,
She leaned back and felt him sliding her underwear down. She felt a bit bad because he was very tired and she also partially joking when she asked him.
"I was kidding," she smiled in their kiss. "Partially."
"Mhm," Bruce said, lifting the t-shirt she was wearing over head. "Too late now, baby."
Adriana smiled as Bruce kissed her stomach. She flipped her hair back over the pillow she was on with her hand and laid back. She wasn't especially aroused but just decided to relax for a few minutes. His lips moved to her thigh and she closed her eyes, feeling a bit sleepy herself.
The second his tongue touched it's target she heard herself gasp for air. The sensitivity was unexpected given her tranquil and restful mood. Her body flinched as he continued with his eyes closed. He was dozy and relaxed and didn't move like he was in a rush or in a hurry to get it over with.
She felt the climax approaching shockingly quickly. She wanted to be as chill as he was, and as silly and lighthearted as she had been moments earlier but the sensation was very strong as it came on. Adriana clasped one of her hands over her mouth and used to other to grab Bruce's hair. As the orgasm began to run its course she felt that she had it under control and maintained her composure. Halfway through the explosion peaked with enough intensity to make her lose it.
A loud and barbarous sound came out of her. The guttural and gritty screech was viscous and not pleasant or even sounding. It was not a pretty sound to her ears.
"Sorry..." she apologized to Bruce.
"For what, my love?" Bruce asked and kissed the side of her chin.
"That...um..noise or whatever," Adriana said, still surprised at herself.
Bruce laughed. "Sweetheart, it was beautiful," he told her.