Author's Notes: Hope you guys like the chapter, this would've been up sooner but my internet got turned off and I've been playing my Injustice Gods Among Us game it's sooooo awesome. Anyway enjoy the chapter and wow over 4,000 views thanks for all the support :) (one last side note, just to put it out there I have written male on male type of scenarios before, still practicing and working on it so sorry if it seems off or anything).
Bruce took Jack to his room and laid him on his bed to rest more comfortably. There at the corner he found a change of clothes for both Jack and him. It felt so uncomfortable being in wet and constricting business clothes. He looked over to Jack to make absolutely sure that he was asleep. He didn't want the jester to catch him in the buff while he stripped. He quickly changed into the set of dry and casual clothes then took the new dry pajamas over to Jack. He cautiously unraveled the blanket off his pale body and tried not to lay eyes on the naked white form in front of him. But it was hard to ignore it though. Such stark chalk white skin discolored by numerous bruises and scars. Bruce found himself gazing at these marks, some of them he recognized from their many battles. He went over to touch a scar near the corner of Jack's pale shoulder until he began to shudder from being exposed. Bruce quickly snapped back to reality and dressed the unconscious clown. Just as he was about finished buttoning the shirt, Jack's eyes began to open watching the detective over him.
"Wow Bats, are you sure you don't pull anything while I sleep?" spoke Jack with a hushed but playful tone. Bruce actually jumped hearing his voice so suddenly. He then saw what the clown was insinuating about the situation and backed off all while trying to hide the red flash of color spreading on his face. "Oh you're so cute when you blush Batsy," he smiled as he began to sit up and finish buttoning his shirt.
"You know I didn't do what you're insinuating," stated the detective trying to regain composure.
"I know but it's so funny rattling your cage sweetheart."
Bruce began to rub the bridge of his nose from the awkwardness and embarrassment of the situation. This clown really knew what buttons to push to get him riled up. But he quickly collected himself after remembering the events that led them to this point. "Jack, can we please talk?"
"Oh boy here we go again," he said in a fit of giggles as he rested a tired hand to his head.
"Please I want to talk seriously. Why were you out there Jack? Why did you try to escape?"
"I don't want to talk about it, just leave me alone," Jack was no longer smiling, there seemed to be an underlying rage boiling in those acidic eyes.
"No, I'm not going to let this go. Was this your way of showing me that you're going back to being the Joker?! Why did you leave Jack?!" Bruce could no longer keep his feelings of hurt and abandonment from rising, his serene eyes turned furious as the storm outside.
"BECAUSE YOU HATE ME THAT'S WHY!"
Bruce was at a loss of words. The power from his eyes diminished and went blank with confusion. Before he could speak, he saw tears welling up in Jack's eyes and roll down his pale cheeks. The sight was really one to behold, never in his life could he have imagined this. He raised a hand to try to wipe his tears away. "Jack…"
"Don't touch me!" he screamed as he slapped Bruce's hand away. Jack saw the hurt in the knight's expression by his disdainful action. The clown didn't want any false empathy from Bruce; he's had enough of that from Harley and the doctors in Arkham. "I heard you Bruce, talking to your manservant about how you really feel about me. About how you will never forget my deeds as the Joker, you toyed with me and made me feel that there was something between us. When in reality I know now that you just hate me," he explained in a hushed yet hurtful tone.
Bruce was able to discern that Jack was listening all along, but by the way he was talking it seemed like he didn't hear the rest of that discussion. "Jack, can you please let me explain. This is just one big misunderstanding."
"What's there to misunderstand, I heard it with my own ears. I don't need bat ears to hear what you really…" Bruce grabbed his pale hand and held it tightly in his.
"Jack listen to me there was more to…"
"Let me go, stop messing with my head Bats!" screamed Jack as he tried frantically to pull away. Their eyes met, both men unwilling to yield to the other. Bruce saw the raw intensity in those green eyes and desperately tried to calm his own. He drew deep breaths and found the strength to comply by letting go of Jack's hand. Those toxic, acidic eyes burned a hole in him, but he found the calm to handle the situation with words instead of physical violence like from their battles before.
"Alfred told me you said that you loved me," Bruce said quietly. His words broke through the clown's rage and left him in a silent state. Jack's eyes lost all their intensity and seemed so shaken and stunned. "Do you love me?"
His green eyes regained focused but couldn't endure looking into the seriousness but at the same time serenity of Bruce's blue orbs. "What does it matter, Bruce."
"Jack, I don't hate you. It's true what you heard before, I won't lie. I really can't forget all the pain you've caused me throughout the years." Jack tuned his head and looked away from the knight unable to hear that fact being said again. But Bruce cupped the prince's chin and turned it slightly to meet his eyes. "But what you didn't hear me tell Alfred was that despite all that pain it doesn't mean I'm not willing to forgive you."
"Forgive me? Why would you do that?" Jack was just dumfounded by the word. He didn't want to find hilarity in the situation but his mind betrayed him as he began to let out a laugh. "Oh, Batsy! I think you've finally lost it! That's hilarious, you forgive me? That's a good one!"
"This isn't a joke. I'm being serious." Just hearing the familiarity of that condescending and mocking tone that was associated with the Joker managed to reignite sparks from before.
"Well excuse me if I don't believe a word you are saying," he smiled in that wide infamous grin. That little gesture further angered Bruce. But he was smart enough to know that Jack was just instigating him. Making him feed into his rage in hopes that he would lash out at the jester.
"What do I have to do to get you to believe me?" Bruce was honestly not in the mood for the clown's games. When the two got closer as Bruce and Jack, beyond whom they were at night as Batman and the Joker, Bruce honestly believed they were done with these games.
"Kiss me." He still had a huge bloodied grin plastered across his pale face. A part of him can see the detective struggle to comply and reveal his thoughts and feelings wholeheartedly. It wasn't hard for the Clown Prince to further irritate and intimidate the Dark Knight, it was the lighter of things he's done to the bat over the years, and oh how he loved to play with him. "Unless, you're lying to me."
Bruce is not the kind of man to submit to the demands of another, especially not to those of Gotham's infamous prankster. True, he did take initiative last time to kiss those red lips, but he didn't like the idea of being ordered to do so. "Jack…"
"God you think way too much," interjected Jack with a deep and annoyed sigh. He grabbed onto Bruce's collar and pulled him close; they remained there face to face. "So detective, show me how you honestly feel. No more words," he continued with a low and deep whisper as he let go of the collar.
Bruce saw the glimmer of ecstasy in the other man's eyes. But noted how patient he was even being so tangibly close to one another. He could smell the faint scent coming the clown's skin and hair. He bore a mixture of faint scents; the lavender body wash from his bathroom was being muddled by the smell of the rain and fresh roses from the garden he had found him in. He found his senses being drowned out with every breath he took. His thoughts turned to inaudible whispers as he took Jack's advice to show rather than tell him what he felt. He parted some of Jack's disheveled green locks away from his pale face and leaned closer to his awaiting blood red lips. Locking their lips in a tender kiss, Bruce backed the clown against the bed's headboard. The kiss turned rough as Jack felt the larger and more powerful frame of his bat press hard into him. He allowed his knight to deepen the passion as their tongues danced. So this is how it felt to see his Batman release his inhibitions, the jester reveled at the situation as he began to smile.
As they departed from each other, each man staring deeply into one another's eyes and breathing heavily after such display of affection, Bruce noticed that Jack was giggling softly. "What's so funny?"
"I believe you sweetheart."
Bruce couldn't help but to stare incredulously at the pale man in front of him. "Really? After all that drama, now you believe me."
"Heh, what can I say Batsy. Actions speak louder than words and boy did all those actions speak to me," he replied in a lighter and playful tone as he teasingly fanned his face.
"I really hope you're not playing with me Jack."
"Sheesh lighten up, you're very serious you know that."
"So I keep hearing, especially from you," replied Bruce as he finally let a slight smile slip.
Jack saw the change in mood exuding from the usually brooding and serious bat; his smile grew as he turned his head to face the windows to try to collect himself. The more he witnessed how the rain was now reduced to small pitter patter against the glass compared to the storm from before, the more his smile lessened. Bruce observed this change and remembered how the pale man was reacting in the dazed and lost condition from before. "Are you all right?"
"It really hurts you know," he responded in a low voice without even looking at the billionaire.
"What hurts?"
"After I emerged from those searing chemicals and the rain hit me from that night it hurt, it has never stopped hurting."
Bruce continued to stare at the jester who just seemed in his own world by himself. He was concerned for Jack, how can he be in such constant pain and seem so collected. "You've been hurting all this time?"
Jack sensed the concern in the detective's voice and snapped back to reality as he met his bat's worried blue stare. "Yeah, the pain is so constant that I've mostly become accustomed to it. But something about the rain makes it hurt more than usual. Except one time though."
"And when was that?"
"It was that night after we fought through the carnival grounds and faced off. In the midst of the chaos and rain the lights were coming from Gotham seeing us off in the horizon and the sirens of the police cars filled the night. That night we laughed the rain drowned everything but our laughter, the pain was almost absent. I'll admit to you, that was one of my favorite dances we shared."
It was really something surreal hearing how Jack described that night. That night was coated in pain and hatred. The suffering of the innocent fueled his drive to stop the clown's madness. They tore through the funhouse, smashed through the hall of mirrors and clashed through the carnival grounds. Both men fought each unwilling to give in, unwilling to give up their ideals, their creeds or their resolves. But the fight reached a stalemate, despite all that the Joker did Batman still tried to reach him. But when the man before him told him it was far too late and shared a joke instead, Bruce couldn't help but to join the madman's laughter. Deep down it almost felt like joining the Joker on the side of madness for that ephemeral moment, it felt like accepting defeat and giving up. Even years later, they shared the same "dance" as the Joker put it, the same routine. But here they were now, together without masks and assumed identities, sharing a chance for something new between them and Bruce didn't want to give it up like he did for that brief moment on that rainy night.
"Jack, can I ask you something?"
"Sure, go ahead and shoot. And I don't mean in the literal like how Two Face did sorta way, because that's how I got in this predicament in the first place," he chuckled as if remembering his usual playful demeanor.
"What do you think is going to happen between us when all is said and done here?"
"What do you mean?"
"Are we just going to go back to how we were before?"
"Like I said you think way too much about things," scoffed the clown as he dismissed the question with small laughter.
"I'm being serious."
"I know sweetheart. You're afraid we're just gonna fall into the same old song and dance. You think that if we do that you wouldn't be able to chase me as diligently and seriously as you did before because of everything that's happened between us recently. I'll try to assure you dearest because I know you're the kind of person that needs to constantly be reassured, let's just say that this dance has taken a new tone," smiled Jack warmly.
Bruce couldn't help but to follow his example and match Jack's light and amiable expression. He made him feel so sure, he seemed to drown all his doubt with that smile. His eyes drifted to the clock on his nightstand. Blaring red numbers signified that it was now five o'clock; though the dreary grey sky outside did nothing to help indicate the time. He really shouldn't keep the jester from resting for it could prove detrimental to his health right now. Besides in a few hours, Bruce's attention would be needed elsewhere for he still had an obligation to do his nightly rounds.
"You should get some rest," spoke Bruce as he led Jack to lie back on the bed. Before he could ease off the bed and leave, a white hand kept him in place.
"Brucey, bats sleep during the day. Could do just stay with me until then?" Jack's eyes held the beaming nature of a child who wanted attention and companionship. He didn't have the heart to dismiss him because it could upset the clown and that's the last thing he wanted after just barely making up with him.
"All right but you have to sleep."
"Okay mom I'll be a good clown and listen," he joked as he pulled back the covers. Bruce paused as if not understanding what Jack was demanding of him. "Well come on if I have to sleep the least you can do is join me for a little while before you go out and fly around beating bad guys."
Without any objections the knight joined the prince underneath the covers and lay by his side. Without any hesitation Jack's stark white arm wrapped around Bruce's waist as he rested his head against the broad muscular chest of his bat. Bruce embraced the pale man and stared into his glowing eyes until his eyelids grew heavy and eventually closed. He took a minute to take in this moment, a second to look down at the man in his arms. The white skin he was touching and holding didn't seem as frigid and icy as before. His eyes which usually had an eerily sinister calm about them were able to exude serenity and tranquility. And his lips which were normally contorted into an inhumane caricature of a smile, now could elicit genuine happiness and ecstasy. This man hardly resembled the adversary he's fought for so long. A lot seemed to change in the small amount of time they've spent together away from the people of Gotham, away from the police, away from the other rogues, away from the chaos and fighting. That routine almost seemed like a distant memory of what once was. None of it seemed to matter anymore. As Bruce began to close his eyes he insentiently leaned in as kissed the sleeping man's unguarded red lips. There was a slight stir, but as the knight detached himself the prince was still resting. Both men slept in each other's embraced, enveloped in the warmth between them. Something neither of them deemed possible being such great enemies, there truly was something that has changed between them.