Tell Me a Story

OR

I Don't Mind

Summery: Bruce Wayne/Jonathan Crane slash! Bruce comes down with the flu and Alfred is away. Because of this, Wayne is left in his boyfriend's care. Strangely, Bruce asks Jonathan for something no one has ever asked him for: a story. Disturbing one-shot.

A/n: I love slash. I've got various pairings, all of which I am composing stories for (at the SAME BLEEDING TIME). I couldn't help but put in a reference to the film Breakfast on Pluto here (my fellow Cillian fan girls know what I'm talking about!) The other slash stories are as follows; look for them soon:

Birds of a Feather: Scarecrow/Holiday pairing

The New Judas: Jonathan Crane/ Henri Ducard (Ra's Al Ghul) pairing

Jekyll and Hyde: Scarecrow/Two-Face pairing

"ACHOO!"

"I'm glad you could come, Dr. Crane," said Alfred Pennyworth, looking up at the sound of a sneeze from the second floor. "Master Bruce is in need of some TLC."

Jonathan Crane blushed madly, hating himself for it.

"I--erm--heard you were leaving--" he started.

"Yes," said Alfred. It was his turn to blush madly now. "An…old friend has invited me for a day's R&R. I feel guilty taking the lady up on her offer, what with Master Bruce suddenly falling ill--"

"I assure you--he is in good hands, sir," Jonathan replied. Alfred nodded as a taxi appeared in the main driveway of Wayne Manor. Crane gave the taxi a weak wave and entered the house. He smiled as he stood in the doorway to Bruce's room. "Knock knock."

Wayne looked up, smiling at the sight of his boyfriend.

"Hey Kitten," he said, reaching for the box of Kleenex on the bedside table. Jonathan unconsciously began fiddling with his tie--something he always did when caught off guard or embarrassed. Bruce couldn't help but find it cuter every time he did it.

"How are you feeling?" inquired 'Kitten', blushing madly once again. He began to use his tie to clean his glasses now.

"Could be worse," Wayne answered with a shrug. He chuckled as Crane--already somewhat nervous--jumped a few inches off the floor at a loud clap of thunder, followed by pounding rain against the window.

"That's good," said Crane, collapsing onto the window seat so he didn't jump out of his skin. The two were silent for a while, each of them reading a different book. Bruce was thumbing through a dog-eared copy of Alice in Wonderland whilst Jonathan was immersed in Dante's Inferno. Wayne sighed, tossing his book onto the end of the bed.

"Jonathan?" he asked.

"Hmm?" Crane replied, not looking up from his book.

"Could you do something for me?"

Jonathan looked up and closed his copy of Dante.

"Like what?"

Bruce grinned like a kid in a candy store.

"Could you--tell me a story?"

Crane blinked in surprise.

"Pardon me?" he muttered. "Did I take a wrong turn and end up in a nursery school?"

"Oh c'mon," said Wayne, looking at his boyfriend with puppy-dog eyes. "Please?"

"Ahh! Not with the face!" Jonathan said, putting a hand to his chest in mock pain. "I'm afraid I only know one story, and it is not a pleasant one--"

"Neither are Grimm's Fairy Tales," countered Wayne. "Go on, tell me. If it's unpleasant, I don't mind."

Jonathan wet his lips and placed his glasses in the breast pocket of his blazer.

"I'll warn you now--it's true," he said quietly.

"I don't mind," repeated Bruce.

Crane sighed and began.

"There once was a young couple--both of them came from devout Irish-Catholic families--and they were madly in love. Both of the families agreed to marriage and the couple couldn't have been happier. However, they did not postpone consummation until they were wed. The young woman ended up getting pregnant out of wedlock and the marriage was called off. The couple became torn apart by their families, who vowed that they were to never see each other again. After the baby was born, the young woman tried to contact her former beau. She found out that he had married another woman--one that his family had approved of. Heartbroken, she walked into the baby's room, pressed her hand against her son's lips and held it there. She kissed the child as he struggled to breathe. Miraculously, the child survived, but the family dubbed the mother a monster. Her parents took the child away and had her committed. The boy grew up and learned of the story when he turned 15. He came to the institution where his mother was held on Mother's Day and strangled her. He managed to succeed where his mother failed. He took her life 15 years after she had failed to take his. Justice. Pure and simple."

Bruce stared at Jonathan in disbelief.

"Is that the history of one of Arkham's inmates?" he inquired in a horrified whisper.

"An inmate on the other side of the glass," answered Crane quietly.

"A doctor?" gasped Wayne, all the more horrified.

Jonathan sighed, pressing the palm of his hand against the window. He pulled something from inside his blazer with his free hand.

"Mother…" he whispered. He smiled ironically at Wayne as he turned to face him, wearing a burlap mask.

"ALFRED!" Bruce shouted.

"He's currently out of town, Bruce," replied Jonathan, his uncanny blue eyes shining wickedly behind the mask. He clapped his right hand across Wayne's mouth. The mask over Jonathan's face lifted up slightly and Bruce knew he was smiling. Crane reached a long thin arm over to the window seat with his free hand, grabbing his copy of Dante, quoting Canto III.

"Through me you pass into the city of woe:

Through me you pass into eternal pain:

Through me is to go among the lost.

Justice the founder of my fabric moved:

To rear me was the task of Power divine,

Supreme Wisdom and primeval Love.

Before me things create were none, save things

Eternal and eternal I endure.

ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE!"

The halls of Wayne Manor rang with Bruce's screams and Jonathan's demented laughter as crows circled the outside of the house. Waiting. Waiting for their master.

A/n: Sorry about the whole Dante thing. Kinda made good ol' Johnny Crane turn out like the Mad Hatter (BAD ME! BAD!) I can see Crane being obsessed with Inferno, however. I mean, c'mon, it's a place of absolute torment (which, looking back at Scarecrow's origin story, which I vaguely remember, was what poor John suffered). It is also a place that installs fear in the righteous--something that Crane never fails to succeed in. I've put waaaaaaaay too much thought into this…