The Dark Knight told myself he’d never look at Joker this long.

Not like this.

But there he was, jaw clenched, heart hammering under the Kevlar, his grip locked into the tattered collar of his suit. The Joker’s breath was warm between them. His smile was smeared red and reckless. The city roared somewhere far below, but in that rooftop moment, everything was silent.

Then his eyes flicked just barely.

A flicker. The smallest dilation.

And suddenly it all came crashing back.

Every rooftop chase. Every broken bone. Every maddening riddle, every laugh that echoed too long in my head. Joker had always looked at The Dark Knight like this. As if he were the only thing that mattered. As if he saw something in him even he refused to acknowledge.

The Dark Knight wanted to believe it was obsession. Hatred. Madness. It would’ve been easier.

But The Dark Knight saw it now. Clear. Undeniable.

Jokers pupils weren’t just reacting. They were responding. To him.

He was looking at him like a man looks at something he’s lost a thousand times but still can’t let go of. And he.. damn him. He held his stare. Because he knew. He’d always known. And he had never stopped him.

What they had if he could even call it that was built on destruction. On fire. But beneath every punch, every grim standoff in the dark… there was a tether. A pull. One he could never sever.

And now The Dark Knight knew why.

Joker loved him.

And worse.. he loved him too.

Not in the way the world could ever accept. Not in the way either of they deserved. But something twisted, buried deep beneath the blood and ash… it had always been there. A dark reflection of something real.

He should’ve ended it that night.

He should’ve stopped this before it consumed them both. But instead, The Dark Knight hesitated.

And The Dark Knight smiled gently, for once. As if to say, You see it too.

And in that breathless second, The Dark Knight thought… maybe we were both just too far gone.

But in the end The Dark Knight’s eyes matched Jokers. Not being able to resist the undeniable feeling of..

Love.

Twisted. Tragic. Real.