Sorry, this is just a revised chapter. I just had to. I honestly hate how I portrayed the Joker in the end of this fic, and I had to add a few tweaks here and there to make him more "Comic Joker" and less sappy.

Revised: 16/12/2013

It was almost an hour to midnight, and the past several hours felt like days. I had been pacing back and forth impatiently, driving poor Alfred crazy.

"Master Bruce! Would you please have a seat already!" The butler exclaimed, "You have been walking around ever since you have got the news regarding the Joker's whereabouts this morning."

"For God's sakes Alfred! You know how important this is to me!" I growled, "How do you expect me to sit and wait calmly?"

"No actually, I don't. I thought I did, but I would rather hear your theory on your radical behavior, Sir." Alfred scowled at me.

I gave Alfred an astonished look, but I hurriedly retorted, "I don't have time for this, I've to get ready."

With that, I quickly left the room; Alfred's counter question had taken me by surprise. I had no idea why I felt this impatient. I knew I had some questions that only the Joker could answer, but still, why? Why did I want to see him so badly? Did I really miss our fights this much?

Do I miss you…Joker?

I dismissed the unlikely theory with a scoff. Why would I ever miss him? He's a psychopath who would kill a child in a heartbeat and with no remorse.

As I headed to the batcave, the sting in my chest suddenly attacked again, and I had to press hard against my chest in hope to sooth the pain. This pain had occurred several times during the past weeks, and I had no clue what was causing it. All I can think about right now was that it might have been due to all of the pacing I had done while waiting for the time to pass by.

Damn you Joker... You are definitely bad to my health!

I sighed as I hopped into the batmobile, but the moment I turned in the engine, all my thoughts were replaced with pure excitement. Finally, after three agonizing weeks, I was going to meet the Joker and have my questions answered.

As I drove to my destination, I tried to gather my thoughts and mentally list down the questions that had been overwhelming my mind. However, I started to get nervous and my mind went blank. For some reason, I felt like a teenage boy heading out for his first date.

Gather your act, Bruce!

It was quarter to midnight, when I arrived at the dark alley. Needless to say, it was quite early for our meeting.

Dammit! I'm way too overwhelmed by this... What has gotten into me?! Calm down, Bruce, calm down.

I concealed myself in the shadows, waiting for the Joker. For all I know, this might be a trap.

Nonetheless, fifteen minutes had passed. It was now ten minutes past midnight, and I felt all my excitement getting replaced with pure anger.

Did I misinterpret the Joker's message? Or is he making fun of me?

I was too overwhelmed and furious to think straight; I jumped out the shadows and looked around cautiously.

"Where are you Joker? Show yourself!" I demanded angrily, darting my eyes to each and every corner.

Suddenly, a laugh came from the shadows, "So, you have finally decided to show yourself…Batsy."

I stood there, staring at the grinning clown as he slowly emerged from his hiding. I somewhat, for some unknown reason, felt glad to have had finally seeing him. But anger engulfed me as fast; he had put me through hell and out, and now he was laughing it out!

"Why?!" I growled with rage and clasped my hands into fists, trying to contain my anger.

"Why you ask? Hmmm, let me think…" The Joker retorted mockingly, while tilting his head to his side. His grin then flipped upside down as he stressed angrily, "Why?!"

He lunged at me, anger consuming his entire body. I tried desperately to defend against his sudden attack, but lost balance as I did. The clown was now on top of me, grasping my cape and gritting his teeth with rage.

He pulled me closer to his face and snapped, "You're asking me, why?! How dare you! How dare you, you worthless bastard?!"

I stared at him incredulously. Through the years, I had heard the Joker mock me and call me a thousand of ridiculous names, but never once did he curse me this way. I tried to release myself, but he was unbelievably strong.

Were you always this strong, Joker?

He started throwing punches at me, right to my chest, exactly the way he assaulted the doctors. Yet, strangely, his punches weren't as hard as they claimed. They were rather soft, as if too scared to hurt me, but strangely, yet again, they hurt. Each punch brought up a sharp sting in my chest, which felt exactly the same as the ones that I had been experiencing the past couple of weeks. As I tried my best to fend him off, suddenly, something warm dropped on my chin that startled me. I stopped and looked up at the clown, he was crying bitterly and wasn't even trying to hide it this time.

"It's your...d-damn… fault..." The Joker sobbed as he pointed a tall, slender finger to the left side of his chest and added, "How…? How are you causing me this pain, Batman?"

I had no idea what he meant or what to do at that matter. What did he mean by 'how' or 'your fault'? Why was he in so much pain? What's wrong with his chest?

What the hell is happing in here?

I'm not proud of this, but I've punched the Joker senselessly countless of times and he always laughed it off. Not once did he complain about any sort of pain, on the contrary, he seemed to relish in it. But for him to be in such pain that drove him into tears, and for him to think that I was causing this, it left me at a total loss. As much as I hated the clown, what I really desired was to help him. To bring back whatever was left of his humanity. And never cause him this much pain.

Unconsciously, I lifted my hand and placed it over his hand, the one he had over his chest.

"Does it hurt that bad?" I asked. The words were coming out of my mouth spontaneously. I had no idea why I was acting that way or why I said these words. It felt like I had no control over my body, like it had a mind of its own.

The Joker just sobbed bitterly and uncontrollably. He looked so heartbreaking and I couldn't take it anymore; this wasn't the Joker I know. This side of him stirred in me a thousand emotions, some that I couldn't even comprehend. My hands wrapped around his neck and brought him closer into a hug.

What the hell…?! Dammit Bruce! Why are hugging this lunatic?

My brain was screaming, but the stinging pain was easing away as I brought the Joker closer and closer to my chest. It felt good. I felt good.

The Joker grabbed onto my chest, instinctively begging me to hold him tighter, and I obliged. Minutes later, his sobs grew lower and lesser, and his breathing was almost back to a normal rhythm. I looked down at him, he was sleeping and his face looked sorrowful, wet with tears.

I wiped away his tears cautiously, and allowed him to sleep on my chest for a while. I had no idea why I did this, why I was doing all of this, but I had just given up on thinking. My mind had failed me quite miserably these days, and left me with no choice but to allow my heart to take over and see where it would lead me. So, if hugging the Clown Prince of Crime was what I felt like doing right now, then let it be.

The ground was hard and cold, so I slowly wrapped my hands around the clown's thin body and stood up. I carried him as carefully as possible so that I wouldn't awake the now soundly asleep clown. I went to the nearest wall and sat, resting the Joker in my lap for support, or so I had convinced myself.

I had seen the Joker unconscious million of times, but never soundly a sleep. His sleeping face looked so peaceful, now that the sobs had ceased completely. I found my hand caressing his pale face, and as I tugged back a stray lock, he stirred slightly at my touch and a little smile formed on his face. It startled me. For as long as I had known the Joker, I had never seen his face form anything close to a smile besides that signature grin of his. It gave me warmth and peace, and made me smile back. It was contagious. He then suddenly muttered something, something that he had said quite a few times, but which I had always dismissed. Yet this time, it felt like it might be a clue to all of this, and it gave me the urge to wake him up and ask him if he ever actually meant it. Nonetheless, I suppose it's true if he said it in his sleep, wasn't it? Wasn't there some study about the connection between honesty and the subconscious?

Patience was never one of my virtues, but this time I had to endure it. Waiting for the clown to wake up was extremely agonizing. My curiosity was eating me away, and I had to confirm it this time, even though he would most probably laugh it away. But who knows, he might actually surprise me; I mean he had been pretty full of surprises lately.

At last it was dawn; the moon was now setting, allowing the sun to take over and announce a new day. As the sun was steadily rising, sunrays had found their way to the Joker's face and caused him to stir. He squinted as he raised his hand to his face in an attempt to block the sun, and allow his eyes to open and adjust to the change.

"Where… am I?" The Joker asked with a husky voice. When he tried to adjust his position, I swiftly slipped next to him so he wouldn't notice that he had been sleeping in my lap.

"A virgin tear." I teased with a smirk, which caused the clown to startle; he was still oblivious to his surroundings.

"Ha ha... Funny." The Joker scoffed in annoyance, "The caped coconut have finally cracked a joke."

"Seriously?" I frowned at the stupid nickname.

"Whatever… I'm pissed off at you." The Joker mumbled with a pout and a dismissive hand.

"So it seems." I replied and heaved a deep sigh. I really wanted to ask him if he truly meant what he said during his sleep, yet I felt it would be better to have my other questions answered first. So, I turned to look at him and asked, "Would you care to enlighten me?"

The Joker looked at me then turned back to look at the sunrise and scorned, "What have the world come to? Here I'm with my greatest adversary, watching the sunrise... how romantic. Bleh~"

"Joker." I pleaded with a frown, "You at least owe me that."

"Fine." He replied with a sigh, "But don't nag if you don't get it, Bats! Hell, I don't! Just know that it's your fault and that's it!"

"I promise I won't!" I growled, while trying to conceal the urgency in my voice.

He took a deep breath and started talking, "Well, before that incident, when I… you know…"

He trailed off and looked at me. I nodded, knowing that he meant that eventful day, when all of this had started.

"For weeks I kept thinking of you, of why every time we met I felt this weird pain in my chest. It was barely noticeable at the beginning, but then it got more and more painful. It was ruining my game, my fun! And at that cursed day, my chest felt like it was on fire, and I just wanted to somehow numb the pain away, which you did." The Joker continued then looked at me for a second and tilted his head wearily as if to thank me for the punch.

"That's why you asked me to take you to Arkham?" I asked, urging him to continue.

"Yah, I thought one of the doctors might figure it out." The clown shrugged, "But for two agonizing days, I've waited and waaaaaited. For nearly forty-eight hours, I kept thinking over and over and over of what this might be. Why it hurts so much. What was screwing up our dates! Nada!"

The clown paused a little and clenched his chest, before continuing, "The pain... it just became so unbearable... way beyond my threshold... And by God, darling, you do know the threshold of my pain." He chuckled, but then he closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as if he was reliving the pain, "I just had to get rid of it... It ate away my senses... then all of a sudden the pain began to cease, and I felt something warm and soothing trickling down my chest. It was like I blanked out and wasn't aware of what was happening, that's until the medic's gasp brought me back to reality."

He paused again, a little hesitant as he looked at me with a weary grin and chuckled, "I do sound crazier than the usual, don't I, Sweetums?"

"Why do you think it becomes more painful, erm, around me?" I asked, countering his question, which I really didn't want to answer.

"Well... none of the highly certified, self-proclaimed experts knew that. So how am I supposed to know?" The Joker spat, obviously meaning the doctors he had assaulted, and then he sighed as he added curtly, "Maybe that little batbrain of yours that you keep well protected with that coconut shell has some logical explanation? You are the Great Detective after all."

A little smirk crept on my face, for I did believe that I had finally reached to a conclusion. However, I didn't want to hand it down that easily to the clown, not after all the insults. "Hmmm… What would you say if I told you that I had the same pain? Well, not as painful as yours but still."

The Joker's green eyes widened with bafflement, he stood up abruptly and snapped, "What do you mean?! I knew you were the one causing it! Dammit Bats!"

I tried so hard to suppress a chuckle that was threatening to escape my throat, and I'll be damned if I overstepped my persona more than I had already done. Therefore, I stared down to hide my amusement and gestured for him to sit. He impatiently obliged and glared at me for answers.

"Well, let me ask you this." I said, while raising my head to meet his eyes. I unconsciously placed a hand under his chin, bringing him closer to my face. The Joker flinched at my touch and I felt a flush across my face as I noticed what I had just done. However, unfortunately for me, what I had to say next was bound to make it even worse. Nonetheless, I had to -no- must say it.

"D-do you... do you really love me?" I asked abruptly, yet timidly, and with a face that was burning with obvious embarrassment, "And I mean like are you seriously in love with me, and not your creepy obsession with my persona."

The Joker gasped and jerked backwards; his white face had turned into a bright shade of red.

"W-what are y-you saying?!" The clown stammered, "Seriously Bats… what the hell?!"

"You didn't answer my question..." I replied with a voice that was barely audible, and buried my head into my palms.

God this is frustrating!

At that point, the embarrassment that I felt was like nothing I had ever felt in my whole life. My hands were shaking a little bit, and I had to clasp them together to force the shake into a stop. My eyes were fixed on my lap, and I had no I idea what was I expecting from the clown.

"I mean, yah, I did say I love you or hinted it a few times. And don't you call my obsession creepy! It's just that you're interesting. I've never meant it in that way! You know like in love. Dammit! Why in the world would I be in love with a GUY?" The Joker snapped, while pointing at me, "And one that fights criminals in a freaking black spandex at that matter?! I'm just curious in what kind of a brain justifies a fully grown up man to wear a Halloween costume every night!"

He had a point, with the guy part, but the rest pissed me off. However, I was still determined to reach an ending to all of this, so I took in a deep inhale and raised my head to meet his eyes.

"Because…" I began but trailed off; I was scared, embarrassed, confused and way too overwhelmed, but thankful that the cowl masked most of it.

"Because?" The Joker asked with a frown and an exaggerated pout.

"Because… this guy who fights criminals in a freaking black spandex…" I replied while squeezing my hands, trying to muster as much courage as possible.

My God...why is this so unbelievably hard?! Like almost impossible!

"…is in love with you." I mumbled, finishing my sentence, but then I repeated in a louder voice, "I'm in love with you, Joker."

I said it! I can't believe I actually said it!

There was silence. I noticed that I had lowered my gaze involuntarily as I confessed my love to the Joker, and the silence was killing me. So, I rose up my eyes carefully. The Joker had a poker face on, totally expressionless, and then he seemed a bit confused, next he looked like he had finally understood it, but suddenly he dropped his face down, staring at the ground. The Joker was the only person I knew who could pull up so many reactions in barely under a minute.

A few seconds later, I heard a faint laughter which grew louder and louder. The Joker snapped his face up, laughing out hysterically. He even fell on his back with his hands wrapped around his stomach, while tears streamed down his cheeks as he kept laughing.

This pissed me off greatly. I had held my temper for far too long for the sake of all of this mess, but to insult my confession with laughter? That was it!

I snapped and jumped at the laughing clown with fury. I was about to punch him when he intercepted me.

"I'm sorry… Please…B-bats...d-darling…sweet-tums…" He apologized through his laughter, barely able to speak, "Please… just give me… a moment to explain."

I was too pissed off; I really wanted to punch him, even though he claimed to have an explanation, yet deep down it felt like I wouldn't have punched him either ways. The moment I had realized that I was in love with him, something broke inside of me, inside the Batman.

The Joker had finally managed to stop laughing and was trying hard to catch his breath as he wiped the tears from his eyes. I was still on top of him, glaring as I waited for him to explain the punch-line behind my confession.

"I'm sorry, Bats. I wasn't laughing at you, honestly." The man below me apologized as he brought a hand to my cheek and caressed it. His gentle caress sent a wave of electricity through my body; it felt like each and every inch of my body was responding to his touch, and I had never felt so alive.

"I was laughing on how simple the answer was, and how ignorantly stupid I had been." The Joker explained, while raising his other hand and cupped my face, "The pain I felt in my chest…the blend of fear, confusion and longing. So many clues, but still… I would have never guessed."

He brought me closer to his face, closer to his enchanting green eyes, closer to his warm breath, and closer to his cherry, red lips.

"I love you too, Batsy." The Joker murmured, "Guess I always did." He added with the widest and brightest smile ever.

I smiled back at him, and finally let out that suppressed chuckle before our lips met.

This was our story.

The story of the pain in our chests, and the longing in our hearts…

The story of our strange love…

,,

,,

The end?

A/N: If you enjoyed this, then please do check its epilogue "This Love", And don't forget to leave your review!