CHAPTER 3HREE: ADDICTION AND [HIS] NAME
**Disclaimer in first chapter. Addiction and Her Name belongs to There for Tomorrow. Not me.**
**( lovely creatures get a long chapter! Aren't you proud of me? ^.^.::)**
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You try to move on but still you're perfecting failure
There's always something in your way
Was it the guilt in you that pushed me to improve?
I know you've always had the choice to hear
You gave it all up when you broke the thought
Of keeping away the things you bought
When you took common sense so serious
This time around you're coming closer
You're never coming back until you know it's over
Won't you take it away from me?
Just take it all
Cause you never know you're leaving until it's over
And it's not that it's too hard to try to turn your eyes and drive the pain away
It's how much easier it is to let it stay
Once again it's on the tip my tongue
"Don't you wish it was done?"
I'm afraid we're only at the start
You knew that this is how things are
There's always something in your way…
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Bruce Wayne needed a girlfriend—or, rather a boyfriend given his little known preference. His hand, as much as he appreciated all it's done for him, simply wasn't cutting it for him anymore! Really though, Bruce didn't want some scrawny push-over who was determined to be outed with him and be all touchy-feely 24/7 and woke him up with blowjobs every morning. Well… he wouldn't mind having his mornings start out like that, but he wanted someone loyal. He wanted someone uncaring of his status—of who he was. Someone that got his blood pumping and told him what was on their mind regardless of Bruce's feelings as long as it was the truth. He… pretty much described a dog, if hey could talk anyway. Bruce sighed, maybe he should just do what everyone else did and screw his secretary. Well, it could've been worse… he could've described the ever so irritating Joker…
At the same moment in time, both the Joker's and Bruce's brows furrowed as they anxiously bit their lower lip. Something bad, in Bruce's case anyway, was definitely about to happen. When it chose a moment to happen though, Bruce never would've expected it—not the time and especially not the place.
That night Bruce found himself clad in leather, on a wild goose-hunt for the Joker. Having finally caught up with the slippery clown, he growled something out at him to which the Joker's response was a witty,
"Ya wanna cough drop?" Actually producing a cough drop and offering it to him. Bruce sneered to hide his surprise and amusement.
"No, where's the bomb Joker?" The Joker shrugged, unwrapping the red oval of hard candy and popping it in his mouth,
"There ain't one,"
"Then why the bomb threat?" he growled out, fists clenching. The joker shrugged once more, pseudo-shyly glancing up through his lashes and swaying pseudo-innocently from side to side. He whispered, sounding incredibly sincere,
"I missed ya…"
"Stop fooling around—"
"'m not!" the clown yelled stubbornly, childishly crossing his arms and pouted, "There ain't no bomb an' I did miss ya! Ya nev'r have time fer me no more. I felt a lil'… replaced." The bat snarled and ignored the man's puppy dog eyes and pouting, quivering lower lip.
"Trust me, no one could ever replace you." Even though it was sneered out in malice the Joker felt his heart soar.
He felt like he never had time for him? He's a criminal! Why would Bruce make it a habit to attempt to spend time with the bane of his existence? Yet there he was; on a random buildings roof arguing with the Joker, of all people, about why he doesn't spend time with him. The clown was resilient, nearly begging to sit—just sit—with him for a while. He even swore he would leave the city alone for a week. Bruce had asked how he could be sure he wouldn't do anything to him whist on the roof, knowing he was a man of his word. Excited about sitting with his Batsy, he'd almost eagerly suggested that the bat could hold them together to keep him from trying anything. Bruce sighed warily,
"A week?"
"Scouts honor!" the Joker nodded exuberantly, despite the fact that he'd never been a Boy Scout, and ran to the fence bordering the roof's edges. He frantically pat the ground to the right of him. Reluctantly stalking over to what reminded him of an overgrown child, Bruce sat down and had his hand immediately snatched between to pale white ones. As the Joker, frighteningly, snuggled up to the Bat, all Bruce could do was think about how much he hated his life.
"Jack,"
"Hn?"
"'t's my name!"
"Why do I care?" The hate was oozing out with each word. Bruce had long since stopped trying to find the Joker's identity—he'd obviously hacked into something and deleted all of his files. The Joker shrugged,
"Wha's yers?" The Batman snorted and silently prayed for the return of his hand,
"Nice try." The Joker hummed a tune and leaned his head onto the other man's shoulder. The Batman leaned away, causing the green haired man to topple over onto his lap.
"I c'n see up yer nose," he whispered as if it were some sort of secret before giggling loudly. The Bat was not amused and made no motions to acknowledge the clown. Still smiling, the clown released the bat's hand in order to fiddle around the area of the leather suit where Bruce's collar bone would be.
"I'll make a bet with ya,"
Still no acknowledgement.
"If I loose~… I'll leave tha city. Ferevah,"
That certainly got his attention. The Joker almost felt loved.
"What?" the bat gruffed out.
"If I win though ya gotta gimme me one thin'. Jus' one, tha's all I wan'."
"What, Joker?" Oooh, angry Batsy! The clock struck 12 as their eyes met,
"If I c'n guess yer name by say, sex—oops! Six, th'n I win. If not, ya win!" In Bruce Wayne's narrow mind, there was no possible way for him to get even an inkling of who he was. Unless he weaseled his way through somehow,
"No use of your men, no distractions till then. You leave Gotham alone while you try to figure it out."
"How 'm I s'posed ta figer it out th'n?"
"Use your head!" He pouted and jumped up before crouching in front of the cross-legged bat,
"Kill joy. Fine. Shake on it an' gimme yer w'rd!" Bruce shook the outstretched hand and growled nose-to-nose,
"Deal." The Joker smashed their lips together in a bruising kiss, tongue sliding into Bruce's mouth in his moment of being caught off guard. The bat shoved him away in disgust at the feel of the grease-painted man's tongue wrapping around his own. He spat and stood up,
"Freak! Six o' clock! You're late and you lose!" The man that lay sprawled on the floor only cackled manically before yelling to the moon,
"In tha bag, Batsy! In tha bag!"
Half an hour later, Bruce Wayne was mumbling into a glass of wine, appalled at how easily he'd agreed to the Joker's bet. He hadn't even made any limits to what the clown could ask of him if he somehow managed to win! Bruce punched the wall adjacent to his office's chair,
"Damnit!" he knew there was no way for him to lose but he shouldn't have made making the bet so damn easy! Why his name of all things anyway? Bruce understood that he could make his life hell just from knowing it, but what was the point of giving his own name? Jack… Bruce chuckled, if it was status he was after then the Joker certainly was a greater card than the Jack was, especially if the stakes were high and the Jokers were wild. Taking a sip of his overpriced alcoholic beverage, Bruce pondered on the fact that if life were a card game then the stakes definitely couldn't get any higher and the Joker most certainly couldn't get any wilder.
He shook his head, he really need to stop thinking in examples. The wine made him to that far too much, just like it made him sleep in and sleep like the dead. Not wanting to bother Alfred, Bruce washed his glass and put the bottle back in the wine cellar. Briefly stopping in his father figure's room before heading to his own for a well needed rest, be wished Alfred a goodnight to which the butler replied,
"And a good night to you as well, Master Bruce," with a warm smile.
"If only," the fates cackled.