Title: It's Hard to Believe
Prompt: Despite All This, I Still Love You
Rating: PG
Fandom: Crossover: Batman: Arkham City & Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice
Characters: Batman: Arkham City: Edward Nygma (the Riddler) ; J/C/H no Kuni no Alice: Alice Liddell
Pairing: Edward Nygma (the Riddler)/Alice Liddell
Summary: She understood the surprise the others must have felt when she made her decision because, honestly, she had been a bit surprised herself. But now it was starting to become clear why it was hard to believe that she had chosen him. : This is a response to the challenge 1o Little Things… by Katz Go Rawwwrr.
Word Count: 386
Author's Note: Well. It's the end. Some ways, I'm kind of sad since I had fun with these prompts (just like the Seven Days one) yet I'm sure I'll do something like this again.
Warnings: Mild!OOC-ness(?)
Disclaimer: Batman: Arkham City & Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice do not belong to me in any shape or form (including characters). Thank you.

Unlike the residents of the Country of Hearts, the people here in this world possessed hearts. They're society was of the same that she came from with how the laws worked and such. But the only difference was that in her world there were no crazy psychopaths causing mayhem and misery to the innocent with a man, dressed as a bat about, running about to stop them. Yet they – the residents of Arkham – were just as crazy, if not more so, as some of the people (because Julius, Boris, Elliot, and a few faceless ones all acted normal under the circumstances so they were excluded) in the Country of Hearts.

And, thought it should baffle her, Alice remained here – in the dreaded part of the city called Arkham City – with the Riddler. Why? Why did she chose to stay here, with him, when he didn't bother to hide the fact of his plotting and scheming that would (eventually) lead up to hurting innocent people? Garfield at least tried to hide the fact of what he was doing, but Nygma… he openly showed her, even though he never told her what it was that he was doing.

And Riddler was thinking the exact same thing albeit differently. It was true – the reason why he was interested in dear Alice Liddell was due to the fact that she drew so many close to her: the Mad Hatter (no surprise there), Dr. Crane, Mr. Freeze, Firefly, Catwoman, the Joker, and so many others. Really, it was a puzzle to him that needed to be solved. Still did, actually. Yet somewhere along the way the need to solve this confounded riddle began to not be that strong of a pull as it had been before.

And it's been that way since that day happened.

He didn't know why he offered to let her stay with him. Yes, yes; he wanted to solve the riddle that encased her, but at the same time…

Neither were quite ready to admit it yet (perhaps Nygma never would be) but the answer was in the back of their minds. It was why she chose him and why he kept her under his wing.

Simple as that.

Well. Not so simple for them perhaps. Seeing, as stated before, neither was ready to admit it.