Good Luck With Your Future Chapter 5
Title: Good Luck With Your Future
Author: Dreykar
Fandom: DC-verse/Nolanverse
Pairing: Batman/Joker
Genre(s): General
Rating: M
Summary: Approached by their older selves visiting from 25yrs in the future, Batman and The Joker agree to work together to prevent a situation allowing the mob to take over Gotham permanently. With so much going on, what happens when the men work together?
Disclaimer: I only own the plot. Everything own by DC comics and Nolan/Warner Brothers.
Bruce was walking through the city, it seemed to be daylight. Looking down he was he was in a business suit, but what was that on his face? O, the cowl.
Suddenly he was at a function and it was night time outside. No one seemed to notice the black covering his face, but someone was staring at him from across the room. He tried to ignore it. The person watching him was surrounded by adoring woman and men who seemed to hang off every word he said.
The man was dressed in some very expensive clothes which showed off his somewhat thin but muscular body. Bruce looked away blushing from the man’s intense gaze. When he looked again, he panicked slightly. The other person was walking over to him.
Bruce tried to look away but a soft gloved hand gently took his chin and turned his head towards the visitor, lightly touching the cowl which was apparently still there. Funny...only this man seemed to pay it any attention.
“Why hello” the gentleman greeted huskily. Bruce felt as though he knew this person. He also felt shy around him and he only really did that with people he had a crush on. He felt ageless though at the moment which felt strange, he didn’t really use the word crush at his age whatever age he usually was.
“I haven’t seen you around here before. What’s your name?” the man whispered and the words seemed so powerful, enchanting. Bruce tried to answer but nothing came out.
“Shy are we?” the man continued. “That’s ok” he whispered in Bruce’s ear. Bruce shivered as the warm breath swept over the shell of his ear. “It’s ok, because I know what to call you. But what’s your real name? Hrm?”
The stranger put a hand on Bruce’s hip and sensually pulled him closer. Bruce’s brain wasn’t working. He looked at the person’s face. He should have been surprised to see the greasepaint and green hair but somehow he knew who it was all along.
“What’s your real name?” he repeated. He then brought him in for a kiss, Bruce had never wanted anything more than he wanted this. It was only him and the other man there it seemed. But just before their lips met the other man pulled away.
“I’m going to have to take off that mask”.
Bruce tried to protest but again he found his voice wouldn’t work. Unseen hands started grabbing at the cowl but it wouldn’t budge. They were back at the party.
“It’s ok” the Joker reassured suddenly with a towel in his hand. “I’m taking mine off too”. And with that he started wiping off the greasepaint. His forehead and nose were clean when he looked up and said “I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised”.
Somewhere along the line the others had stopped trying to pull off the cowl. Bruce could feel the anticipation, he was going to see the man underneath the monster. So many feelings were swirling around.
Finally The Joker revealed his face. Underneath it all...he was Mayor Garcia. Bruce gasped and took a step back while Garcia laughed.
“How do you think I know so much about our mission, hey?” He kept cackling and moved in for a kiss again.
Bruce’s skin crawled, this wasn’t supposed to happen! He tried to move further away.
Bruce woke up sweating and gasping. It was ok, he was in his room. It seemed to be daylight outside already but he didn't get back until sunrise anyway. He tried to push the dream to the back of his mind but something told him that he wouldn’t forget it for a very long time.
That afternoon Bruce began researching about Garcia. After hours of sifting through information he couldn’t find anything untoward. Perhaps he’d have to do this face to face with some people as Batman?
He was in the computer area that he had set up at the mansion. It was fairly identical to the other security area he had used when the house was being rebuilt. Bruce turned around as a polite cough was heard behind him.
“O, hey, Alfred. Thanks” he said eyeing off the sandwiches his butler presented him with. He hadn’t realised how hungry he was and began to eat them quickly.
“I thought you may have forgotten to eat lunch seeing as it was the afternoon already when you decided to rise for the day, sir”.
Bruce thought guiltily that only a couple of days ago the man had spoken to him about not being out so late as Batman and looking after himself more. Last night he’d been out the latest in a long time.
Bruce had so much respect for Alfred, he didn’t know where he would be without the man. Dead probably. Looking up to the screen which had various images of Garcia at work and in his everyday life he briefly explained to his butler about Garcia and Warren.
He made it sound as though all the information that he had came from a couple of conversations he'd overheard. He couldn’t exactly explain that his older self came back from the future and told him. If Alfred was already worried about his state of mind then that really wouldn’t help.
“Sounds like you’ve got it under control, but I’d be looking closely at Garcia, sir”. The younger man was surprised at this, he assumed the older man would tell him to focus on Warren. He seemed to pick up on this.
“You see, Warren has nothing to hide, if he’s found to be friendly with the mob he’ll have his excuses. A man as charismatic as that can talk his way out of anything. Garcia however, people are always tired of these people just before an election...they’ve heard all of these things for the last couple of years at least and the new person always seems so fresh. Garcia’s always been a ‘clean’ man in his position. But if anyone could find some information on a public figure it’s the men you’re fighting against”. He had a point, but Bruce didn’t want to believe that Garcia was like the rest of them.
“One question though” Alfred seemed a little confused “What does this have to do with Batman? Can’t he just pass what he’s heard already onto the Commissioner? This really has nothing to do with preventing some innocent people getting hurt or scaring a few bad men”. Bruce had obviously neglected to tell Alfred about the consequences on Warren getting into power, just that he was the mob’s puppet. He hoped this would seem to be reason enough for Bruce to try to prevent this.
The older man cleared away the dishes and neatened up the desk which Bruce was working at. Unfortunately he had a point.
“It’s just something I feel strongly about, Alfred” he explained yawning. The older man nodded.
“You mentioned two men that you overhead in a warehouse last night? If you are not going to go after Warren yet, perhaps it would be worth looking over the warehouse the men were in. See if they left anything behind?”
“Good idea, Alfred. I’ll head there tonight”.
Again the older man nodded as he headed for the door. He could tell that there was something strange going on but it really wasn’t any of his business. Not professionally anyway.
“As you wish, Master Bruce”.
Before heading to the warehouse Bruce went on a brief patrol. For the last couple of months, or maybe even years now he thought about it, he’d been getting some strange feelings about his nightly patrols. They had led him to feel unfulfilled, like something was meant to happen out there but it never did. None of this was a challenge anymore. Except The Joker.
Batman stopped walking and was still. He hadn’t thought that before. He then realised a lot of the time he felt disappointed was because the purple madman hadn’t come out to play on those nights. Like no one else was a challenge to him.
Frustrated at himself he began walking forward again. This is all because of that stupid dream, he thought crossly.
He went back over what he’d been thinking. ‘That’s impossible’ he thought angrily ‘I’m just tired. The Joker is no different than the others. Just more persistent’.
‘Wrong’ another part called out. This was weird, he rarely disagreed with his gut feeling.
‘Why are you always so excited to see him? Why are you disappointed if you don’t?’.
Bruce thought for a while as he walked towards his destination, this must have been a combination of lack of sleep and that stupid, stupid dream.
‘It’s because he’s a challenge. But mainly after all the awful things he’s done I’m the one there to stop him and take him back to Arkham’.
The other part of his brain was silent. Obviously this meant he was correct.
The reason he knew he was right was that he was satisfied to see the Joker getting justice, that’s why he did what he did. But he’d admit the challenge excited him. Nothing more.
After a relatively quiet night Batman made his way to the warehouse. Having seen nothing around the place he entered the room where the two men had had their meeting. He searched around for a couple of minutes when a figure standing in the doorframe caught his eye, he faced it.
“Great minds think alike, right Bats?” The younger Joker jeered, putting away a pocket watch and shutting the door behind him. He kept his eyes on the man in black the entire time.
“Don’t mind me, thought I shouldn’t turn my back on you. Last time I scared you, you tried to punch me in the face. But I’m just far too quick for you” he winked and nodded smugly as he walked over and lounged on a chair with his feet on the table, in total control.
He seemed to be in a far better mood than the last time they had spoken. Bruce was somewhat concerned with what dastardly deed had put him in such a good mood. Or more like taken him from the bad one.
Although, The Joker did seem to have some of the smouldering darkness behind his eyes like he did last night. That let Bruce know he had something on his mind and that put him on guard.
The clown kept talking seemly not worried by the other mans lack of response.
“I’ve already searched the place, there’s nothing here. Must have just been a convenient place to meet” his jacket swept over him as he sat. Bruce was always amazed at how the jacket made him appear bulkier than he was. It was an essential piece of his intimidation. Right now it was just a tool to keep him warm.
“I have some, uh, people getting everything on Warren as we speak” the clown licked his lips serenely. “And how was your day, Sweetheart?” he questioned dreamily.
Batman finally spoke “I’ve found nothing on Garcia that we didn’t know already. He seems clean. You were wrong about him”.
If it was possible Bruce could have sworn the other man paled slightly underneath his white greasepaint. His eyes narrowed somewhat but he said nothing.
“I think I may start asking people face to face about Garcia. I’m not going to find anything the way I’m going”.
“I wouldn’t, uh, do that, all-knowing-one”. The purple man recommended dryly.
“Why not?”
“Hate to tell you but-ah, you’re the shinning beacon of hope for this city” he nodded proding his lip with his tongue. “And, if the shinning beacon of hope is seen scratching around, drawing attention to a seemingly innocent man, people like me start to ask questions. Or in our case, not ask questions and dig around for answers until we find them ourselves. The worst thing you could do for the good ol’ mayor is to draw attention to him”.
“Then what should I do?” Batman demanded, confused as to exactly what he was meant to do to complete his task.
The Joker adjusted his jacket and tie nonchalantly. “Uh, look a bit harder from the sidelines. I’m sure whatever it is, it’s staring you right in the cowl”.
Bruce started to feel anger bubbling in his veins. It was a mixture of things. How dare this man act so casually around this, trying to tell Batman what to do. But what annoyed him most was he was focused on the cowl just like in his dream.
He felt he’d better let him know he was working hard on all aspects of their mission to distract him.
“I figured the men last night must have all the information we need. I decided I’d come back here for clues-” Batman continued.
Surprisingly a shrill laugh came from The Joker. He doubled over cackling then slowly made his way around the table until the men were only a couple of feet away. The clown half sat on the table, his laughs dying down. Bruce could see the man’s blue and green suspenders pocking out from under his vest as his overcoat slid off a little. He really needed to keep his mind on the job.
“What’s so funny, Joker?” Batman growled. Only a few moments ago hadn’t he been getting angry again at the vigilante’s words?
“Ahhhh” he wiped a tear of mirth from his eye. “Clues! You sound like an episode of Scoooooby-Doo! Was that your mystery machine outside?” he asked waggling a finger, breaking into wild giggles again. He felt very relaxed in the situation.
Bruce however, saw red. He grabbed the laughing man by front of his jacket and then threw him into the wall. This made the mad man mostly stop laughing as he edged back up the painted plaster slowly.
Bruce’s heart thumped wildly and his less vocal side of his brain reminded him about what it had said about Bruce being excited by this man.
The smouldering darkness was back in The Joker’s eyes and he looked somewhat dangerous again as he leaned up against the wall.
“You...really need to learn to control that temper of yours, Bat Man. It might get you in trouble one of these days” he growled.
At this Bruce saw something flash and caught The Joker’s wrist before he was able to stab him with the knife he was now holding. Bruce squeezed the wrist until the weapon clattered to the floor.
Feeling betrayed he punched The Joker in the stomach, the chest and once on the bottom lip which split. The mildly injured man began to groan but the vigilante wasn’t sure if it was in pain or not.
“Hrmmmm, yoooou” the man panted. “Urgh. You never get the joke, do you?”.
A small trickle of blood dripped down his chin. Bruce stared at it unaware he was moving forward. It was only when he realised the detail he was seeing on the clown’s face did he notice they were chest to chest up against the wall. He was tied to the spot and his stomach felt strange, it seemed to be doing flips.
The rational part of his brain was seemingly silent. He didn’t move but flicked his eyes up to the painted man’s. The smouldering look had changed to something just as intense but Bruce couldn’t quite place it.
His head was cloudy, he felt too hot and time seemed to be altered. His heart also thumped wildly.
The Joker was breathing harshly, leaning back waiting, not breaking the eye contact.
The clown slowly swept a tongue over his lips and Batman’s eyes went wide. The reality of the situation hit Bruce like a cold gust of wind and he forced himself backwards, stumbling over to lean against the table, fighting for air.
Eventually he looked up to see the other man leaning side on against the wall, not taking his eyes off him. Bruce felt feverish trying to figure out what just happened.
‘Have I gone completely insane?’ he thought.
He didn’t want to look at the other man. Maybe he'll think Batman was just trying to intimidate him?
He finally looked up again and saw the man was still watching him. Part of his eyes still showed surprise, but now there was amusement shinning too. Bruce then placed that other look he couldn’t before. It was lust.
“Get out” Batman called a little too defeated. Neither moved. The sweat on his uncovered face danced in the dull florescent lighting.
“Get out. Now”. Still neither man moved so Bruce looked up again.
The Joker stared silently, excitement seemed to reverberate from him. Bruce could see the cogs turning in his head. A stab of nausea came when the amusement was still present in the other man’s eyes. Teasing him, telling him he was weak.
Slowly the painted man took out his silver pocket watch. He knew he had the upper hand.
“Must dash, Bats. Thanks for the bloodied lip and rib massage" he grinned manically. "Don’t think too hard on this, will you?” he let out a lone bark of dry mirth and was gone.
Bruce watched the door slam shut as he held an arm over his stomach. “Shit”.
Once outside the Joker took a second to think this through. This was...unexpected. So...chaotic, really.
He smirked as he sauntered down the lane. This was perfect, in fact. He himself was somewhat aroused but he ignored it. He could wait. He was above such base human elements when a job had to be done, but he really couldn’t wait for the real fireworks. Once things got going properly.
Whether Batsy was going to accept this or fight it, it was done now. The Joker could see it in his eyes as he let the other man force him up against the wall.
Both men knew there had always been a certain physicality to what they did, and what they did together.
Now the preverbal chickens were coming home to roost. Or maybe it’s the bats were coming in to nest...whatever it was called it was happening now. And either way, The Joker was looking forward to finally getting all of his Bats.
He frowned though, he didn’t want a broken submissive Bat. Hopefully after he’d thought this over he’d realise how things should be and the man-bat-thing, whichever bit was having the problems with this, wouldn’t deny it any longer. If he was going to go on a guilt trip every time they saw each other that would be just boring.
He obviously had some feelings too so now he can finally be reasonable about this. Then he himself wouldn’t have to go on about completing one another and such. He doesn’t like doing the same gag twice and having to explain to the flying rodent every other week that they were made for each other was getting old.
He received a text message. The information on Warren was ready. As was his information on Gotham’s elite. The ace was now firmly up his sleeve and ready to be used to his advantage when the time called for it. Things were about to get interesting very quickly, he thought as he whistled merrily down the alleyway.
Back at the Joker’s apartment, the older Joker, in the middle of dissolving some jelly crystals in a saucepan on the stove, shuddered slightly and made a soft noise. The older Batman walked over and casually put his arm around the man and turned him to face himself. “What’s up?”
The Joker frowned and naturally lent into the touch. “Just got the weirdest feeling that...something’s happened-ah”.
Bruce gave a wide smile as he eyed the mess the man had left on the bench.
“You only just realised you’ve mixed the pineapple and strawberry flavours together, haven’t you?”.
He looked across to the other man and realised how glad he was that he’d taken the make-up off tonight. He’d had it on since they’d got here and Bruce wanted nothing more than to see his real face right now. He ran the back of his hand down the clear skin in front of him.
“Ya know” The Joker began as his eyes flickered open and shut at the touch “I which those other two would hurry things along” he gently broke away to stir the jelly mixture humming slightly. Bruce kept an arm lightly resting on one shoulder.
“Cos ya see” his tongue flicked out, Bruce didn’t even register it these days “I don’t think I can take much more of their, uh, personal brand of tension”.
He seemed to think this over. “I’m so glad you and I were never that immature”. His face was straight as he kept his gaze on the saucepan, concentrating on the task at hand.
Bruce had one of his many moments of wondering whether his good friend understood the contradiction of his latest statement.
As the man in purple didn’t crack a smile, Bruce did. He was his most amusing when he didn’t try to be. He always had been that way.
Lost in his thoughts Bruce came to looking at his lover tipping the now brown liquid into slightly dirty glasses and placing them to set in the fridge.
If at the time he met the Joker he was told that one day he’d be watching this he would have punched the person in the face for wasting his time, then probably would have dropped them off at Arkham for their troubles.
Then the man before him did some sort of dance on the spot while he growled in frustration, seemingly fighting with himself over whether or not to drink one of the unset cups now to satisfy his sweet tooth.
Bruce realised, and not for the first time, he wouldn’t have this any other way. He just hoped that his younger self realised that soon enough too.
Next Chapter
A/N: I have big plans for the next chapter. Hope you liked it!