shakal

- Bruce who knows Joker’s mannerisms like the back of his hand, who sits and watches the security tapes from Arkham over and over until he has memorised them all

- Bruce who insists on handling Joker alone, being the one to hunt him down, because he is the only one who can predict him

- Bruce who has catalogued all of Joker’s hideouts, knows all of Joker’s associates, who cannot rest unless he knows where Joker is

- Bruce who feels a desperate need to curl his hand into a fist and hit Joker, to see him bleed for him because it is always *their* game and nobody else’s

- Bruce who can’t explain it, not to his family, not to anyone, and tells them when they ask that they could not understand

- Bruce who can’t help the writhing anger that sits in his gut when he sees the bruises that someone else has left on Joker

- Bruce who slides fingers around Joker’s neck like they belong there, because the marks there match his fingerprints

- Bruce who is told over and over that Joker’s heart beats for him, who sees the evidence of it written in blood and knows that Joker does it all for him

- Bruce who will go to the ends of the earth to find Joker, again and again, because the two of them will always be intertwined

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