Bruce lay naked on the floor, barely covered by the blanket.

He reflected on the actions of that morning as he watched Joker sleep.

It had been amazing.

Better than the first and second time combined.

Maybe because this time he'd had no doubts about whether to do it or not.

Or maybe because he had admitted his feelings toward Joker.

He wasn't sure which.

Joker had been so forceful, so gentle.

Just amazing.

It had been like, those stories of sex you hear as a child, the ones that make it seem overly romanticised.

That it's something amazing you do with someone you're in love with.

He reached over and bushed Jokers soft green hair out of his eyes.

How was this going to work?

He couldn't keep seeing him as Batman.

He couldn't tarnish Batman's name by having him be in a relationship with one of the bad guys.

And he couldn't see him as Bruce.

There would be an uproar if Bruce Wayne started dating the Joker.

And Joker couldn't exactly make himself look human.

Could he?

Maybe with a little make up or something…?

He'd have to look into that.

Joker stirred.

He slowly opened his eyes, "oh hey…"

Bruce smiled over at him "hey, good evening."

Joker wiped his eyes, "wassa time?"

"8, I think, you slept all day."

Joker sat up, smiling, "oh god, that was a good sleep, I don't think I've ever felt so relaxed or happy…"

Bruce looked up at him, lovingly running his hand over Jokers back, "do you want some coffee to wake yourself up?"

He nodded sleepily, "black please… loads of sugar."

Bruce sat, and lent over to undo the restraints on Joker's ankles.

He watched as Joker looked down at the ropes which now lay on the ground.

"Wow, you must trust me to give me free run of the house."

Bruce smiled at him and replied "I trust you... to not leave."

Then he got up and started to walk towards the kitchen, he was still naked and didn't make any attempt to hide himself.

As he walked he noticed one of the small lights on his belt was flashing, meaning that he had a missed call.

He grabbed the belt as he walked past and pulled the mic-speaker out again, casually throwing the belt back on he heap of clothes and armour.

He placed it in his ear as he turned the coffee maker on.

"Someone tried to call you, batsy?" Joker called from the other room.

"Yeah, hang on…"

A recorded voice crackled from the speaker, "you have a message, left at 7:20 this evening:"

Gordon's voice boomed into Batman's ear, "Batman! We have an emergency, of sorts;

The Riddler has escaped again, letting several inmates out with him. We haven't had any deaths yet, but we have had a few casualties, some civilians. Come and help us when you get this."

"Oh for god sake… Only a matter of time till this happened I guess."

Joker walked into the kitchen and took his cup of coffee, adding several heaped spoonfuls of sugar, "bad news?"

Bruce placed his cup under the nozzle of the coffee maker, filled it and then took a sip of the scolding beverage.

"Riddler, that arse, he's escaped again, I've gotta go an' deal with him."

Joker frowned, large lines forming across his face, "so you've gotta leave to play with another guy? Good thing I'm not the jealous type."

He laughed.

Bruce handed him the mic-speaker.

"I'll call you on this later ok?"

Bruce started gathering up his armour, and dressing himself.

He was able to do so amazingly fast now, after years of practice.

"I'll see you later my little bat." Joker kissed him.

A loving kiss to say goodbye.

It made Batman not want to leave.

That'd never happened to him before, not with any girl.

And it'd been exactly what he'd been afraid of.

"Bye Jack…" Batman pulled the fridge to one side and reluctantly walked to the bat-mobile.

Looking back all the way.

…

"Alfred hi, what's the situation?" Batman talked into the bat-mobile's intercom.

"Batman at last. I was close to sending Nightwing to find you. It's been over 8 hours."

"Yeah, sorry Alfred I was asleep."

"Joker gas?" Alfred said, sounding concerned.

Bruce smiled to himself, "no, just normal sleep."

The butler paused and eventually made an odd confused noise, "you were able to sleep?"

Bruce felt his smile grow slightly, "yeah, things went better than I could have hoped, I think... So what's the Riddler situation?"

Alfred paused, probably reading something off the computer screen.

"The police captured Riddler almost as soon as he escaped, however the other convicts

are still out, and having a stand off with the police, I'm sending the Bat-mobile co-ordinates now."

A light on the dashboard started flashing, and the car gradually gained speed.

"So how have you guys been while I've been gone?"

"Ok I guess, a small argument broke out between Miss Kyle and Master Dick, he seemed to think sending you to talk to Joker was a bad idea."

"So he's obviously not pleased? Wait till he finds out what's happened to me over the last 16 hours…"

"… What did actually happen…?" Alfred asked reluctantly.

Batman sighed, "umm… Don't over react, but… I think I might be in love…"

A loud grown came from the opposing side of the intercom, "… Please tell me it's with Miss Kyle…"

"I'm afraid not Alfred… With him, with the Joker."

Another loud grown came from Alfred, "shall I tell Masters Dick and Damien, and Miss Kyle, or leave that privilege to you?"

"I'll do it. I owe them that much. I've got to go Alfred, I'm here."

…

Batman sat at the top of a building, overlooking the small house the convicts were held up in.

As far as he could tell there was only one hostage, he wondered why the police hadn't stormed them yet.

Then he realised the hostage was actually one of the higher ranking policemen.

Then he noticed a large bomb strapped round the hostage's chest.

That would explain why they hadn't stormed it…

Batman watched one of the escapees, the one who had the detonator.

He seemed to be following a certain path.

He looped round the hostage then into an empty room and back.

So there was a clear opportunity to take him out.

Again he couldn't help wondering why the police hadn't done so already.

He found himself thinking back to all the times the police had had a clear shot at Joker but let Batman deal with him, because they knew that whoever took him down would be killed during Jokers next escape.

Batman was the only person who had been able to take him and stay safe.

Bruce shook his head, trying to keep focused on the task at hand.

But he could feel this, thing, at the back of his head, trying to tug him away.

Batman focused himself and prepared himself.

He flew down through the window, smashing it and expertly taking out the man with the detonator.

He sped through the house and sent a flurry of batterangs at the 5 men in the other

room.

He readied himself to fight, expecting the men to get back up to fight him.

But they didn't.

Batman took a closer look and realised the batterangs had been modified.

There was a tiny lump of plastic on each them, some sort of microchip.

He bent down to pick one of them up, and felt a small surge of electricity run up his

arm.

They had been electrified?

"…Damn it Jack…"

He pulled the batterang out of one of the convicts and checked the mans pulse.

He was still alive.

Thank god.

He walked over to the hostage, and untied him.

As he did he noticed a look of terror he had never seen directed at him before.

The man fainted through fear.

Batman finished untying the man and lifted him over his shoulder.

He carried him out the door.

He was approached police, who took the man away.

As soon as they left he was swarmed by press.

They where shouting, screaming questions at him.

Some about the man he had just saved.

The majority were about him and Joker.

Batman chose not to say anything, and simply grapple away.

...

"Joker?" Bruce whispered into the bat-mobiles intercom.

Joker's giggling voice flowed through the speaker, "I told you, call me Jack."

"Jack. Why did you modify my weapons?"

"Oh yeah, did they work? It didn't kill them did it? Coz that's what I was going for."

"No, I did thought it did for a second, but no. Did you you do it to all the batterangs?"

Joker giggled, "no baby, only the first few, just to test."

Bruce grunted, annoyed that Joker had tampered with his stuff.

He decided to change the subject, "are you alright Jack?"

"Yeah, I'm a little confused though honey, about our situation. Are you going to be alright?"

Bruce chewed his lip contemplatively.

"I should think so, although I've been meaning to ask you, do you think it'd be possible for you to wear makeup, to make you look, kind of, more human?"

"Yeah, I have done before. Why? Have you come up with some sort of crazy plan? If it's a crazy plan it'll probably be more fun."

"I want to take you to Wayne manor, but, you can't be seen as Joker there, so we'll have to make you look human."

Joker chuckled, "OK, not a crazy plan, but it sounds like a good idea. We'll do it when you get back ok honey?"

Bruce grunted "k" and hung up.

...

"Jack?" Bruce called gently as he entered the bungalow styled house.

"Jack, I'm back. Sorry I took so long, I bought some make up."

"Hi Brucy, I'll be out in a sec."

He placed several heavy, almost overflowing shopping bags onto the floor by the door.

He chuckled, "well... I say some..."

Joker walked out of the bed room, walked over to Bruce and hugged him "Ok, lets see what prezzies you've got me."

"Did you not think to get dressed while I was gone?" Bruce raised an eyebrow as he looked down at Jokers naked body.

Joker tilted his head, "why would I need to? I'm not going out or anything, and the only person who's going to see me is you."

Joker walked up to the shopping bags, grin spread like butter across his face, and started to pull things out of them.

"This'll be such fun, although I don't thing many of these will suit me..."

Bruce walked over and sat next to Joker, helping him spread the contents of the bags over the floor.

"Well I wasn't sure what would suit you, so I just got everything. Oh, and I got some hair dye as well, if you're ok with that."

Joker twitched his head disapprovingly, "but I like my green hair, can't we just say I'm eccentric?"

Bruce reached up to run his hand through Jacks soft, green hair, smiling openly.

"Sure, I want you to be comfortable with this."

Joker giggled, "this is as close to comfortable as we can get I should think."

His smile dropped slightly, "I truly can't believe this, a few weeks ago I would never have considered this as possible."

"Life's full of surprises, you of all people should know that Jack."

"Yeah, but, it's just that, this has happened so quickly. I feel like I'm just speeding through and things are just... Happening, but things don't normally 'just happen' to me, I've always had to make them happen. This is just, odd... For me anyway."

"It's ok, I know what you mean, you feel like, lately things have been happening so fast that you're not sure if your making the right choices, saying the right things or whatever. I feel like that too, but I mean, if things don't go right then at least we've learnt something."

Joker chuckled, "yeah, like I've learnt who you really are."

Bruce smiled and nudged him playfully, "don't go telling people. That wouldn't be fair."

Joker nudged him back, "since when have I been one to play fair? But no I wouldn't tell anyone, that'd take all the sport out of it, it'd be no fun."

Bruce smiled at him in thanks, "ok, well, which one of these would you like to try on first?"

Joker picked up one of the lighter shades of foundation from the row of them he had made.

"This one." He handed it to Bruce, "can you put this on for me? I don't want to miss any bits."

Bruce pulled the wrapping off of the foundation bottle and squirted some into his hand.

He started to rub a small amount of the cool, gloopy liquid onto Jokers face.

Joker, giggling profusely, started pulling weird faces, trying to stretch his skin so that Bruce wouldn't miss any.

"Wouldn't it have looked a bit weird, you going into a shopping centre and buying loads of make up?"

Bruce smiled, "probably, but I don't mind. Hold still, you're making it uneven."

Joker froze, trying not to laugh, as Bruce continued rubbing the foundation into Jokers face.

"This really tickles!" Joker laughed.

"It's alright, I'm almost done."

Bruce rubbed the last of the liquid onto Jokers forehead.

"Ok, ok, now do the blusher stuff."

Joker picked up a small pot, "this one."

Bruce pulled a make up brush from the pile on the floor and swept some blush across his cheeks.

"What now?"

"Eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, bronzer? You really did buy everything didn't you?"

Bruce smiled, "well I didn't want to miss anything."

Joker got up and walked into the bedroom to look in a mirror.

"Wow, I look so cool."

"Do you want to add anything else?"

Joker walked back into the room, "no, I think this'll do for now, just to meet your family. Which reminds me, have you told them about me at all? I mean they would have seen the video but do they really know whats happening?"

Bruce shook his head, "I wanted to tell them in person, with you."

Joker smiled, "can we introduce me as Jack then? It might soften the blow."

He laughed, "I doubt it will, but we can try."

He looked up at Joker, smiling, "... I just want you to know that they won't like this, but I don't care... This is the happiest I've been, the most peaceful I've felt... in forever. My whole life I've felt, weird, but when I was talking to you yesterday, and when I woke up today, I just felt amasing."

Joker smiled back at him, and ran his long, slender fingers through his hair, "yeah... I think I feel the same."

Bruce stood up and looked down at Joker who was still naked, "we should get you dressed before we leave."

Joker walked over to the pile of clothes in the corner, still there from the previous day. "I guess I should wear something other than my Joker suit, right?"

He started to pick up his clothes.

"Just wear the shirt and the trousers, that should be fine."

Joker climbed into his plum coloured trousers, and buttoned up his yellow/orange shirt.

"You know, I feel rather odd without the jacket... Will this do?"

Bruce looked him up and down, "yeah, you look brilliant Jack."

Joker straitened himself up, flattening the creases on his shirt, "good, shall we go then?"

Bruce nodded and opened his arms in a gesture to leave.

Joker whispered a thank you to Bruce as he passed, Bruce smiled to himself as he watched Jack walk out the door.