Chapter Text
"I'm sorry."
That's always the first thing she says...
I mean, not counting the few expletives that escapes under her breath as she sits up and steadies herself, y'know?
The apology usually comes from behind her hands. Because she can't bear to look at me, like she's let me down in some way.
She hasn't, of course, so I'll usually respond sayin' something along the lines of-
"You've got nothin' to apologize for."
Ivy's made a lot of progress over the past month. She doesn't see it yet, and of course I could never blame her for that. If anything, I get why she doesn't. I mean, to still wake up everyday after all she's been through, to still find this strength to fight, one woman against the whole f*ckin' world. She knows, more than anyone, that there are people sworn to fighting the same fight she is, people getting out there in the streets, making their voices heard. She has so much love for this world, and while she'd never admit it, I think she has a love for the people who fight their own version of this fight in the ways that they can.
But she carries this...immensely, immensely heavy burden over her shoulders. Her powers, the fact that society will never forgive people like her and I for the sh*t we've done, she feels like she alone has the means and the least to lose to bring about effective change by spilling the blood of those responsible for harming our planet...y'know, like the CEOs, the grifting politicians, the billionaires, the occasional pop-star with a serious f*ckin' carbon footprint...
Love isn't something Ivy expresses so easily, but that doesn't mean she don't feel it. It spills out from her eyes, the unflinching stares that I once found so intimidating from across the table back at Arkham, betrayed by the little glances she makes when she's struggling to find the words to say, the trembling that comes creeping up from her fingertips.
I mean, I f*ckin' get it. I can get why she feels so frustrated trying to do somethin' that comes so easily to others, because the trauma she's confronting...that I'm doing my best to help her confront, is something I still can't comprehend any person coming out of in one piece.
But to her credit, after almost 33 years, Ivy knows her f*ckin' limits when she's in the right headspace. It would've been all too easy for her to shut this thing that we have goin' on down.
And she hasn't...
That's gotta be the craziest thing about her. That the will she possesses is rooted in the Earth deeper than any tree could possibly reach. That the patience she's afforded me, even after all the sh*t I've put her through, hasn't run it's course yet.
There are a few plants here in her apartment that are wilted and withering. A handful of brown spots dotted throughout the sea of leaves and flowers adorning the windowsills, sitting on the dressers, and on the countertops of her kitchen breaking up the sea of green against the dark red walls of this old apartment. You'd think with her powers, Ivy'd just wave her hands and bring them back to flourishing, but there's something special to her in the methodical exercise of tending to them slowly and naturally...In giving her undivided attention to something so small in comparison to the otherwise extraordinary life she's been pushed into...
I felt so small in the shadow of someone as surreal as she was, and yet she gave me a place to grow, to live, and to heal in her care. The least I can do is return the favor...
Kinda f*cked how the good things in life take so much work and dedication to realize, while all the bad sh*t tends to hit'cha like a runaway bus, but I think Ivy understands this well enough. There's a lot of value in the comfort she finds, the comfort of the routines she's developed, the monotony of doing things slowly.
She's comfortable with me now. She's comfortable in my arms...
She's comfortable with my fingers, my lips...my tongue...
...for a while, at least...
..but it still eventually becomes too much.
"I'm...impressed, Harley...You sound less and less like her doctor with each passing day, you know?"
She couldn't see Harleen, but she could hear the smile in her words, the doctor's biting criticism seemingly steeped in what couldn't possibly have been genuine admiration for a change. Not once since Harley had pulled the trigger of that gun outside the Joker's cell, since Harley'd pulled the trigger on her own life, had the doctor who'd taken up a permanent residency in her head offered anything outside of damning condemnation towards her actions.
"Yeah, you're right..." Harley hung her head back off the foot of Ivy's bed, wearing a look of smug satisfaction over earning a genuine comment from one of her biggest critics.
"About what?"
"Hmm?" Harley craned her neck back up to see Ivy leaning back against the headboard, still cracked from their first night together, a few errant vines still snaked through the wooden slats, adorning what'd otherwise be an unremarkable old bedframe with the few flowers that had managed to sprout up. She was exposed to her, wearing nothing but her glasses as she basked in what little light another dreary, gray morning in Gotham had to offer the bedroom. She'd been wearing one of the other pairs Selina had gotten her, an oversized gold frame that complimented the nose ring she'd gotten. The pulsing wash of green across her bare chest, dancing across the countless scars and the thin veins of plant-life and the leaves growing just beneath her skin. Ivy was brushing her fingers through the curly mess of red hair, tying it back into a loose bun as the dull embers of green in her eyes flickered and faded from the lingering traces of emotion from their night together.
"Oh...I was just talkin' to the voices in my head."
"Yeah?" Ivy reached over to the metal water bottle sitting on the cluttered bedside table, crowded by a few books, some trinkets, an old lamp Harley'd found that just screamed Ivy's whole vibe with a brass body and a beaded lampshade that was a faded green, a few white magnolias embroidered into it's parchment surface. "About nothing bad, I hope."
"Nah, they're all struck silly by how beautiful you are."
Ivy smiled at the comment, holding out the water bottle to her as soon as she'd taken a sip herself, the clinking of the ice ticking over the Faye Webster song playing off of the record player Ivy's phone was connected to via bluetooth.
"How about the voices in your head?" Harley asked as she sat up slowly, taking the bottle as she slid back into her spot by Ivy's side, her feet seeking shelter from the cold beneath the blanket.
"They're all screaming in a deafening chorus of agony over the collective suffering of a dying world."
Harley froze briefly, mid-sip as her brain registered the very flat cadence Ivy delivered a joke in. Technically, the best illustration she had of Ivy's relationship to the Green read like it was somewhere between a telepathic connection and an extremely severe hyper-sensitivy. But spring was creeping into the city, slowly but sure enough, and with it, Ivy seemed to be at the center of an emotional whirlwind. If the autumn left her feeling sick from the decay and the death, the first days of springs left her almost...scatter-brained in a way.
It wasn't hard to tell from afar that Ivy was struggling to focus on a single project, a single plan of eco-terrorism or systematic corporate assassination, but the refreshing change of pace came from the fact that she didn't seem too overwhelmed or bothered by it for once.
Despite it being still very cold out, the two of them had been going on walks regularly, hitting up Ivy's favorite haunts in the city, dotted across Gotham's many city parks, each of them playing host to a particularly untamed patch of nature she seemed to let her guard down in. Harley'd turn to look at her while they were sitting in the grass with their hands interlocked until the street-lamps switched on, or she'd look back to see Ivy almost swaying back and forth in the bracingly cold wind, the petals from the flowering trees swirling around her as she held the heavy coat she wore tight over her body. Ivy's eyes were drawn to the bumblebees starting to buzz around, making Harley wonder if she felt some form of kinship towards the silly little bugs, playing a vital part of our ecosystem without question, even as the world became increasingly hostile towards their presence.
Ivy was quick to point out to her the sham that was a lot of "bee-friendly" business practices, many corporate funded bee-farms leading to the destruction of wild bee habitats, or wildflower seed distribution campaigns introducing invasive species into our ecosystem. Ecocide was a word Harley had admittedly never heard used before, but it was very real, whether it was being committed in the name of profit, burning and bulldozing the lands they stole.
Ivy was so hot when she went on her tirades about the harmful industries polluting our planet...
But it all weighed so heavily on her, a thousand different things happening to our planet like a thousand different blades buried deep into her skin. A deep sadness would fall across her face when she lost herself in a moment of peace she felt she had no right to enjoy, the wind blowing the curly mess of ginger hair into her face, strands getting caught in the frames of her glasses, giving Harley a glimpse of the purple bags hanging heavy under her eyes. The green complexion Ivy worked to hide would come blooming across her cheeks as she lost focus, but when she caught a glimpse of Harley standing there in whatever outlandish outfit she'd cobbled together, she'd smile, letting the pain and sorrow that came with being Poison Ivy fall to the wayside for just a moment.
Seeing her smile like that left Harley feeling stupidly lucky to be in that moment. Harley Quinn might have been a walking disaster, a mass-murdering self-destructive trainwreck with more mental problems than Gotham City had rats, but she was something to Ivy...and that felt good...
Ivy groaned, bringing Harley back out of her thoughts as she turned in the bed to find Ivy's face illuminated by her phone.
"What's up, baby?"
"I promised I'd meet Selina before we got breakfast at Pauli's."
"Oooh, sounds serious..." Harley giggled, snuggling up into the crook of Ivy's arm. "Anythin' lil old me should be privvy to?"
"I mean, not if you want your birthday plans for tomorrow to be a surprise." Ivy laughed in response, sitting up out of the bed and inadvertently dragging Harley, who'd latched around her hips like her life depended on it, with her.
"And who am I supposed to snuggle with for the next two hours!?" Harley's voice was laden with mock desperation, playing it up as pathetically as possible in an attempt to get Ivy to stay a little longer. She squeezed Ivy's hips tight, face pressed against Ivy's bare ass as she whined like a puppy.
Ivy rolled her eyes, before looking down to the cluttered wooden floor of her apartment, the small collection of stuffed animals Harley had acquired since moving in scattered around the bed. "I think you'll find a way to manage..." she said as she pried herself free from her beloved's grip, turning back to kiss her softly, trying to keep her sated long enough to give herself enough time to get dressed and escape. Only Harley was quick to snake her arms around her neck in an attempt to pull her back down onto the bed.
"Harley, please!" Ivy pleaded through her laughter as the blonde peppered her face with several quick smooches. Her heavily tattooed arms held her so tightly, pinning Ivy's to her sides. Almost 33 years on this great green Earth, as unstoppable as the forces of nature she commanded, only to meet her end here, in the grips of one of the most deliriously affectionate creatures to be given life. It would've been a good way to go, far better than the fate she'd likely be subject to...
Unfortunately, as much as she'd have liked to lay there in Harley's impressively large arms for the rest of her unnatural life, she had a crusade she'd devoted herself to...and more presently, a birthday to finish planning...
And the one thing Harley hadn't considered was that Ivy didn't need her arms to manipulate the Green.
At the bidding of her mere thoughts, the vines snaked around the fractured bedframe reached out and gently snared around Harley's wrists, pulling them back and tying them together, pinning Harley to the headboard.
"Ohh!!" Harley gasped, heavy breathing punctured by exciting giggling as Ivy stumbled back onto her feet.
"I'm sorry, I-...I need to get dressed!", she moved to the closet, singularly focused, sifting through the clothes strewn about in an attempt to find something that resembled a remotely presentable outfit.
Harley tested the grip the vines had on her wrists to find absolutely no give in them, whatsoever. They didn't squeeze her uncomfortably like handcuffs, not that she would've minded if they did, but they kept her hands locked above her head. Her eyes were glued to Ivy's figure, watching the dark red pair of high-waisted briefs she'd found on the floor travel up her thighs before conforming to the shape of her rear, the waistband snapping to her green skin as she turned her attention to the hamper in her closet, before finding and thoughtlessly throwing on a baggy black turtleneck, the less skin Ivy had exposed made for less she had to draw the green back from.
There was a particular curve to Ivy's hips that left the sweater sitting comfortably on top of them. Harley was left absently chewing on her lip as she lingered on the contour of Ivy's body. She turned back with a loose green skirt draped over her arm, barely noticing that Harley had been outright glaring at her backside as she sat down on the foot of the bed to fish her legs through.
"Y-...You ain't gonna just leave me like this, Red, are ya?" Harley asked with a tremble in her voice, looming dangerously close towards audibly moaning at the thought.
"Of course not, I just needed a second to get dressed." A flick of Ivy's fingers freed Harley from the bedframe, a shakey breath escaping from the blonde's lips as her arms fell back to her sides. A quick examination revealed that her wrists weren't even the slightest bit sore, Ivy's grip so lovingly tender even in her most absent thoughts. Not like his, not when his sharp fingernails dug into her throat, not when she counted every breath she could choke down as he squeezed tighter and tighter with each thrust, fearing that each one she took could be her last...
It was behind her now...Gotham was a big city. Population of 9.8 million according to the public census she looked up to settle a stupid argument between nurses over a smoke break back at Arkham. Enough people to keep their paths from crossing again, to stay lost.
Ivy's hands ran through her hair as she looked back at her, brushing the loose, burnt-orange strands that hung in her face out of her eyes, the green draining from her skin and leaving her resembling an almost ghostly facsimile of a younger Pamela Isley, an almost muted, corpse-like pallor to her face when she masked herself from the world. "Why?"
Her voice was flat as she asked, but Harley could tell her little trip down memory lane had left her wearing a little bit of a thousand-yard stare. "Oh...y'know, I'd get..uhh, bored..."
"It's only an hour, Harley..." Ivy rounded the bed, taking a risk by leaning and kissing her again, but Harley didn't dare to grab her again. Ivy broke the kiss quickly, "And I doubt you'll have trouble keeping yourself entertained in that time."
"What makes 'ya say somethin' like that, Pammy?"
Fzzzzzzzztt
Harley pulled away to see that Ivy had grabbed the pink vibrator off of the bedside table. She held it between the two of them, before playfully tapping it in the space between Harley's breasts, on the stem of the tattoo of a rose she'd gotten between them.
"I..aha...well, yeah...I mean it was that or play Animal Crossin'..."
Ivy dropped the vibrator, almost snickering as the toy landed on Harley's stomach, the blonde grabbing it in an instant, wearing her rosy cheeks with a grin.
"I'll text you when we're on the way to Pauli's..." Ivy said as she slipped on a well-worn pair of New Balances, grabbing her wallet, phone, and the tote her keys were currently connected to via carabiner. She turned through the door with all of the energy Harley brought with her when she was running late for a class back in med-school, leading to Harley sparing a thought for the woman Poison Ivy was before all of this. The door shut behind Ivy on her way out, but there were some doors that wouldn't shut so easily. Ivy sharing that night with Harley, sharing something that's tortured her for the better part of a decade had done little to heal such an old wound. There are some wounds that don't ever heal, not all the way...but Ivy's determination to make something work between the two of them inspired Harley in a way.
The apartment was silent now, save for the buzzing between Harley's fingers. She looked down to the vibrator, cracking a half-smile at Ivy's little tease.
Goddamn, that was f*ckin' smooth, Ive...
---------------------------------
They'd agreed to meet at Robinson Park. Her own request, of course. On the outskirts, Ivy's back was to a city that was positively bustling, the early morning commute drawing people from their homes and into the cold. She'd shut the noise out beneath a pair of headphones as she wandered into familiar territory, the Green's song coming in as a harmony to music playing in her ears. While the pathways of Gotham's largest city park were still crowded with people, there was enough security within the Green's grasp for her to draw her hands out from the pockets of her coat, keeping her arms crossed as she navigated between early morning exercisers, the food vendors setting up their carts for another day, and anyone else who sought what little bastions of life could be found in this neon-laden nightmare of a city.
Even with the sick of the city still lingering in the air, the budding and flowering of the many oak trees around her filled her lungs with a new cycle of life coming to bloom. If autumn was a numbing decay, the first days of spring was a dizzying rush to her senses. While not so visible to the naked eye of the average person, even through the lenses of Ivy's glasses, the city was bathed in a haze of blue beneath a dull pinkish-grey sky, like she was standing on the ridge of a great mountain. It was an assault to her senses, but for once, it wasn't a bad one to endure.
She found herself pushing in, past the many trees she'd hidden amidst over her many years in Gotham, until she reached one of the arched bridges arcing across one of the smaller lakes in the park. There was a spot towards the middle of the bridge she'd found suitable enough to afford her some privacy, while also being out in open enough for the thief to find her. And once her hands were on the railing, and she was overlooking the lake, she was able to drift away for a moment, like the many small white petals drifting through the wind. A moment of peace the world scarcely afforded her.
It was almost perplexing how she'd found a way to be comfortable in this disgusting city. As terrible as things were when she left Washington all those years ago, she missed getting lost in such a majestic wilderness, not a sleight to the unbidden forests in New Jersey. She missed the salt in the air as the many trails she'd hiked pushed her closer to the sound of waves crashing against rocks, she missed when her curly hair was heavy thanks to the misty rain, only the heaviest droplets managing to find their way through the canopy the towering trees would cast overhead. She'd lose herself on those hikes, in a way not to different from how she was on that bridge. On those hikes, she'd occasionally linger behind as she looked out to the incredible world around her, only to be drawn back into the moment by...her voice...
By Izzy's voice. Isabella's voice...she couldn't convince herself that her blood didn't stain the green of her palms, but she could say her name, now...
Harley's doing, of course...somehow, through the mania, she was able to say the right thing, again...For someone who's head was perpetually in the clouds, Harley was remarkably grounded right when she needed to be. And as much as did with the Green, with both Harley and Selina came those places of comfort for her in this foul city.
And here she was now...planning a birthday..
Something so remarkably mundane...granted it was for the least mundane woman on this earth, but still, it was...foreign territory to Poison Ivy. For anyone else, she'd have said it was beneath her...but for Harleen Quinzel?
"Splash of oat-milk, no sweetener, right?"
The rich voice of a woman in her ear made Ivy jump back. Selina had sidled up to the railing to her right, leaning against it like it was the only thing keeping her upright. In her hands were two cups of coffee from a nearby coffee-shop.
"Uh..yeah.." Ivy answered as she pulled her headphones off, letting them hang around her neck as she took the still-hot cup from the thief's extended hand. "Thank you, I...you didn't have to."
"Mhmm, cute outfit." Selina remarked before taking a particularly long sip from her own cup of coffee.
She looked...rough? Okay, Selina Kyle never looked anything remotely close to rough, but the sunglasses she wore (on a very dreary day that in no way warranted them) were perched dangerously close to the tip of her nose, allowing Ivy to see the dark bags hanging beneath her heterochromatic eyes. She was indifferent to the way the wind whipped her curly hair into her own face, a bulky, black overcoat pulled tight across her body as she followed her sip of coffee with a long, labored sigh.
This was technically the end of the day for her, which Ivy could now empathize with considering she'd been up with Harley through the waning evening hours.
"Were you out last night?" the incredulous look Selina shot her led to Ivy stammering out a followup, "I mean, were you working?"
"What gives you that idea?"
Ivy's eyes reflexively drifting down answered that question better than any words could've. Hugging the thief's body tightly beneath that overcoat was one of her catsuits, the leather still zipped up to her neck. The only part of the suit missing was the hood, taken off to allow her to walk through the city without drawing too much attention to herself. Still, it definitely wasn't a normal outfit to be walking around in, hence Selina's concentrated effort to keep the overcoat closed over it.
For once, the thief looked at a loss for words, not out of any form of hesitation, but from a fatigue that was clearly hanging heavily over her.
"Benefactor?" Ivy asked.
"No." Selina laughed at her own answer, "It was personal this time...I just wanted to steal something expensive from someone who sucks..."
"Because you're upset?"
"Oh what, are you playing f*ckin' shrink now?" she snapped back, sharply.
"I'd like to think I'm playing as a concerned friend." Ivy answered without missing a beat, prompting an uncomfortable silence between the two of them, Selina clearly searching for the right thing to say.
Friends. That's what they were...two grossly unsuitable candidates for friendship that they may be, she'd gone above and beyond to keep Ivy, and now Harley too, upright. Her temper could be quick...not quite as quick as Ivy's, considering the amount of human bodies she'd left as cold, rotting meat to be returned into this earth...
But despite being the closest thing to sane between the three of them, Selina still had her share of problems eating away at her.
"Sorry..." she finally said under her breath, "Yeah, I...I stopped by my dad's this morning.."
"Oh..." Her father's...Such a normal revelation seemed...out of character for her. Selina usually had a few drinks in her before she'd bring up anything about her family. "I didn't know you were speaking to him again.." Ivy added, uncertain if it was something Selina would want to delve into.
"I'm not...I just stop by to pick up any of the bills that need paying. Old fool thinks the state's taking care of it." Selina's shrug did little to mask her frustration.
"His pension's nothing...He gave Gotham City public transit forty years of his life, and all the city gave him in return is f*cking lung cancer. Hell, this city took my sister from us, and losing her took my mother from us. And with me-" Selina froze for a moment, deflating slightly as she entered the equation, "..He hasn't seen me since I started transitioning. Well, I mean, he's probably seen me, I was on a makeup ad in Gotham Square, and sometimes I get photographed if I'm out with Bruce, and I was a guest on Ziwe...but..not in person..
He's old, he's in his 70s now. And if he's anything like me, that reminder that mom and Alicia are gone hits him everyday...I don't wanna be there to see him realize that Stephen's gone, too. The least I can do is keep him in that old house, though...Right?"
Her voice cracked when she ended that sentence. Hearing someone who regularly radiated such an unmistakable air of confidence break clearly had an affect on the both of them, Selina sinking in defeat, hiding her face behind her folded arms as she let out a particularly guttural groan.
Ivy sat there for a moment, a few errant white petals from the blooming trees caught in the wind, swirling around them. She brought a hand up, the Green returning to the surface of her skin as she drew the petals towards her. The delicate scales landed gently onto her glowing palm as she looked up, eyes following a small group of middle-aged women power walking across the bridge until they were out of earshot so she could speak freely.
"So I killed my parents..."
Selina snorted from behind her arms, before wearily looking up from the railing, "Goddamn, girl. Even Harley approaches these kinda things with some degree of nuance and she regularly goes outside dressed as a clown from a bad p*rn movie."
"I didn't..." Ivy sighed, before seeking respite in the coffee Selina had gotten her, the bitter drink as much a welcome escape from her blundering through another social situation as it was shelter from the cold. It didn't shelter her from the scathing gaze of the very amused thief, who'd stood back up straight to face her, pulling her shades off with her free hand.
Ivy cleared her throat before trying again, "I say that because I fear that I'm a poor confidant in this sort of situation...b-but I...think that it's a testament to your..character that you go out of your way to make sure he's taken care of, even if things are...difficult between the two of you. You go out of your way, not just to keep Harley and I housed, but to keep us comfortable as well, and you ask for so little in return."
"Well, I've got the money..." she sighed out her usual reminder.
"And you've got us, for whatever that's worth. You're doing what you can for your father, and you're doing it from afar because you have to look out for your own well being. And if anyone tries to shame you for doing so, f*ck them." Such a brusque statement felt inappropriate, Selina's laughter in response made her flinch for a second, like she'd said something untoward.
The thief left her hanging in anticipation for a moment, looking out over the lake and deeper into Robinson Park before finally breaking the silence, "You're a good friend, Ivy, one of the best I've ever had...you're an agonizingly bad therapist, though. Fortunately that's one of many talents Harley brings to our little table...speaking of Harley..."
Ivy groaned as Selina pushed herself off of the railing, even in her fatigue, the thief's casual gait wasn't too far off from the assertive strut she'd done down many a runway. Despite the both of them being around six feet tall, Ivy felt practically rushed trying to keep up with the stride Selina's long, muscular legs afforded her.
"Has she told you what she wants to do tomorrow night?" Ivy asked as the path carried them off of the bridge back under the veil of the Green, the air sweet from the many imported Yoshino Cherries on the precipice of blooming.
"Are you kidding me?" Selina answered with a near exasperated laugh, "It'd be easier to list the things she doesn't want to do on her birthday. She wants to go out and go dancing, that's easy. She wants to get a lap-dance, totally doable, I've got an in at most of the clubs worth going to in this city."
"Yeah, but some of the things she's asked for are a little more...abstract...than going to a nightclub."
"Like that sh*t with a magician?"
"I don't even know how Harley could perceive getting sawn in half as a sexual experience, I'm pretty sure they don't actually saw you in half."
"The one magician I do know could find a way, but she scares the hell outta me."
"Well, if we rule out the many, many things that aren't physically possible, that leaves going to an amusem*nt park-"
"-I can get us tickets, but all the good ones don't actually open until May-"
"-a Renaissance Faire-"
"New Jersey's doesn't run until August, but I'd be down to go."
"-going to an arcade, going roller skating..."
"Well, there's definitely one of those big ass arcades with a bar in Gotham, and her birthday's on a Saturday, there's bound to be a roller-disco somewhere in this city. Also, I'd give anything to see you busting your ass on skates."
Ivy shot her a glance that she'd usually followed up with premeditated murder, "-and then there's going dancing, which...I don't know...First of all, Harley and I don't really have the best track record with nightclubs, and second of all...that just seems...mundane? I mean, don't you go out like three times a week?"
Selina scoffed, "Okay, first of all, no I do not, and second of all, I know Gotham City has more mass-murderers then every other city in the continental US combined, and a violently corrupt police force that is far too preoccupied with brutalizing the populace to do anything about said mass-murderers, but the chances of what happened at the Iceberg happening again have to be near zero."
"I know...I just worry she's going to be disappointed, Selina. Harley has put so much work into finding herself again, and she's also been doing so much to help me...deal with things."
"You mean with the sex, right?" Selina's words brought her screeching to a halt on the park's pathway. A small part of her wanted to turn from the paved path and disappear into the trees without a word, even if the escape she wanted to make would leave the thief taunting her about it for the rest of their lives.
The all too familiar shaking had returned to her hands, the tingling acidity of her sweat numbing her palms as she took a deep, laborious breath.
"What has she told you?"
Selina sighed deeply, the pause she took indicating that she was putting a lot of thought into her choice of words.
"That the both of you are coming at this with a lot of baggage, and that it's taking a lot of...work..."
Ivy shuddered at Selina's words, the very thought of Harley feeling unfulfilled in spite of the incredible amount of work she'd put in towards making her feel comfortable pressed down on her, siphoning all of the air from her lungs. "Goddammit..."
"Okay, look..." Selina said, waving her over to the row of (fortunately mostly empty) iron benches lining the path ahead of them, the scattered petals of spring discarded across it's surface. The thief almost sat Ivy down herself before sitting beside her and elegantly crossing her legs. "Ivy...Sex is...well..."
A silence crept up between the two of them, the kind of silence distorted by the city swirling around them, humming above the noise of the park itself, polluting even the natural song of the Green as much as it did the air. The soothing calm of the wind rustling the limbs of great branches violently interspersed with the sharp horns of taxi-cabs, leading to Ivy staring absently into the grass.
"Sex used to be my occupation, all throughout my twenties. I did it before I started transitioning, I did it during, and when I was struggling with some of the changes my body was going through, it was, like I don't know, I feel dumb even saying this, but affirming to have people desire me as a woman. Whipping repressed Wall Street douchebags trying to call me 'mommy' through the ballgags I shoved in their mouths was genuinely one of the more stable parts of my life, so believe me when I say I know all there is to know about sex...but intimacy?
Ivy, I've been with a lot of people, I've had boyfriends, girlfriends, partners, I've been with sh*tty people, I've been sh*tty to people. I think I'm speaking from a place of relative experience when I say that you and Harley are going about this the best way you possibly can. It's almost shocking how healthy the two of you are for each other, given all the crazy sh*t you've both got going on.
It's almost enough to make a girl jealous.
...until I remember I'm dating the richest guy in the city and I get to be mean to him and he still has to buy me whatever I want, of course."
"Selina..." Ivy sighed, even alluding to that billionaire's existence left her on the verge of crushing the coffee-cup between her knees, the second degree burns it'd leave on her thighs preferable to the murderous rampage she'd be inching closer towards if she thought at all about the millions of gallons of water Waynetech wasted and contaminated to make a single computer chip. She forced her mind onto the subject at hand, which didn't make her feel that much better by comparison. "I just feel terrible, Harley must be feeling so unfulfilled by focusing all of her attention on me."
"You can't be so critical of yourself." the thief answered, lazily letting her head drift down to Ivy's shoulder, "You're working through a lot. There's no shame in that, and Harley knows that..."
"Yeah...It's just...my failings just leave me thinking I'm not cut out for this sort of thing."
"Failings? Ivy, girl this ain't a race..." Selina sat upright, her heavy eyes rolling as she stretched, her back audibly popping amidst the soft squealing of the leather she wore. "You're not gonna come everytime. Of course, when you do, you're probably going to come a lot."
Selina's casual delivery of something so lewd left Ivy glancing nervously towards the nearest passersby in the park, fearing that it'd draw undo attention their way. "I'm aware, Selina can we pl-"
"Well, can you bring yourself to org*sm when you masturbat*? Do you even masturbat*? Like, I can look at Harley Quinn and think 'Yeah, she masturbat*s constantly', but you have an ethereal quality to yourself, you know?"
"I really don't want to get into this here..." came Ivy's answer amidst short, terse breaths, "I...I just..see Harley putting everything that she is into everything that she does. She's so brutal, just unabashedly herself in every way one can be oneself, but she's gentle and delicate at the same time. Even in the wildest of her hysterics, there's a grace to her, to the way she keeps glancing to check and make sure I'm still...doing okay...She acts like she lost her identity when he cast her aside, like she was nobody until she met him, but in truth, she was always so much more than the giggling little jester wrapped around his arm.
I realize everything she gives to me, she gave to that horrible man. I don't judge her for that, I never would... But to know that someone once stood where I do now and saw her as something so worthless when she's anything but...
That is a poison that damns so much of humanity in my eyes. And it is a poison that flows so freely through my veins. I've stood in a sea of flames, felt the flesh melt from my limbs as I watched the Green burn, and even that pales in comparison to the fire in my chest when I see Harley, when she flashes that smile of hers, so wide you think her face is going to crack. She's the brightest of blooms that manages to rise up through the dead earth, in spite of all the odds. She has me in a stranglehold, and while the Green beckons me on this funeral march I've been forced to walk, I want nothing more than to give in to her, to the smell of her skin, like strawberries and sweat. If I could tear myself in two so a part of me could stay in her arms as I gave myself fully to the Green, I would. In a life that's been burdened by so much doubt, that's the one decision I'd make without a second thought..."
She looked back over to find Selina staring at her, mouth hanging slightly open as her eyes narrowed.
"Ivy, I just asked if you were having trouble coming or not, what in the f*ck was that!?"
"Well, I mean...I...can if I really focus..." She stammered out, a lot less certain in her words now that they were driven by much more physical desires. "Even Harley helps me there...she gives me something to focus on, the thought of her touch, the shape of her body-"
"Yeah...the girl's got huge thighs." Selina added, "Like, I know she was an practically an Olympic gymnast, but god damn..."
Ivy nodded along to Selina's words, "She does." Those legs of hers, thicker than her own waist above the knee, adorned with tattooed tally-marks bookmarking the people she'd killed back when she considered it something worth counting, had no right carrying Harley with as much poise as they did. Harley's shape spun through her mind constantly, such a perplexingly wonderful marriage of wanton decisions, tattoos and piercings, scars and blemishes dancing through the urban sprawl of Gotham like she hadn't missed a step at all from her days as a gymnast, jumping turnstiles like it was part of a well-choreographed routine, her body a canvas for the violence she'd committed and the violence she'd endured.
Ivy stood back up, prompting another cat-like stretch from a weary Selina, the thief slowly rising back up to meet her as they set off on a narrower pathway, sparsely populated as it led towards the dense grove of trees that made up the deepest reaches of Robinson Park.
"I don't even have a birthday gift for her!" Ivy lamented, her head looking up to the overhanging branches in defeat, the faded green leaves meeting to form a canopy over the path, "That's how far out of my element I am. Selina, I wage war on humanity, I don't...plan birthdays.."
"Ivy, darling, I bought Harley an egg sandwich last week for $3.99 and she cried so hard I thought she was going to throw up. She can be a little...affectionate, if you know what I mean."
"I'm aware." Ivy remarked, "I practically had to tie her up to get dressed this morning, and here I am, I can't even give her a simple gift for her birthday, I can't show her the same kind of attention in the bedroom she's been showing me...I'm embarrassed."
"Wait..." Selina stopped abruptly, "You tied her up? Like...with plants?"
"Yeah, I mean, she would've let me go I'm sure, but-"
"Ivy..." Selina groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose, "How are you so oblivious!? How are you not seeing it!?"
"Seeing what!?"
"Okay, lesson two on sex:" Selina announced, holding two fingers up to ineloquently resume her crash course:
"Some people have fetishes, kinks, roles they like to play in the bedroom...So, sex between the two of you has been a little rehabilitative when it comes to Harley pleasuring you, but with you going down on Harley? Ivy, the girl's a bottom!"
Ivy raised an eyebrow, her head tilting as she looked to Selina, searching her expression for an indication of what the thief was hinting at.
"Has it really never occurred to you that Harley, that Daddy's Little Monster, might have a particularly submissive side to her? That the form of love she's recently been acquainted with may have been dependent on a grossly unhealthy power-dynamic that, like, seriously f*cked her up mentally? And that maybe it'd mean a lot to her to explore a different, healthier, safer way of experiencing that same sort of love with her new girlfriend that just so happens to have built-in BDSM powers?"
Ivy's silence spoke volumes, her brow furrowed as she mentally put herself into this role Selina was telling her to play. It wasn't an impossible concept, but it certainly was an intimidating one.
"I...don't even know where I'd begin, I-...I..."
Selina rolled her eyes before taking the coffee-cup out of Ivy's hands and placing it, along with her own, down on the paved pathway. She then spun Ivy around and pulled her arms back, bringing her wrists together.
"Tie her up here-"
Selina brought her other hand up and traced it gently along the length of her forearm before bringing Ivy's elbows together.
"Here..."
And then her hand slid up to just beneath Ivy's shoulders, where she traced a line from one arm to her other, "-and here..."
Selina maintained her grip on Ivy's wrists as she stepped around her, their faces inches apart as she continued her crash course. "You can do the same three points on her legs, too." Selina brought Ivy's arms out in front of her and folded them across her stomach, "You can also tie her up like this, just like the straitjackets you wore back at Arkham...just...be careful, of course. I've seen how strong those vines can be, you don't want to break her arms...or do, Harley might be into that..."
The thief's words were punctuated by Ivy's heavy breathing, the very concept of tying Harley up like that sent her heart racing. Selina released her grip on her arms, giving Ivy a moment to compose herself.
"Look, it's know conceptually it's a lot, but I think it'll come naturally to you." Selina gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder, "Take baby steps, but show her that you're in charge and that she's safe with you, and she'll be wetter than the goddamn bay and a hell of a lot less toxic, too."
"Right..." Ivy nodded. Selina reached down and picked the coffee-cups back up, offering Ivy's back to her. She took it with a nod of thanks. "Safe..."
Safety was maybe the most abstract concept of all to her and Harley. They both lived delicately in the balance of being one bad day away from being sent back to Arkham. Ivy wasn't safe from her own evolving powers, and neither of them were safe from their own minds.
But the feeling was there for Ivy, closer than she realized. She recognized one of the trees they'd wandered past, followed by another. And another...
"Hmm..." she mumbled absently after a few minutes of welcomed silence, Selina's ear catching on to her curiosity, prompting the thief to look back.
"What's up?"
"We're not far from the place we met..."
"You mean the tree your mud-covered ass was living beneath when you were borderline feral after walking across the continental United States in a fugue state where you killed hundreds of people?"
"Yeah...I guess..." Ivy couldn't help from laughing at the way Selina phrased it. She turned from the path, pushing in to the heavy brush, which parted for the two of them at the wave of her hands, the earth around them regarding her like an old friend.
She had come back here a few times over the years, a small sanctuary she had in the middle of the city. The oaks around them grew larger, gnarled and flush with life, the path forming in front of their very eyes adorned with moss and mushrooms, and the earliest blooms of spring, tiny white flowers peeking out from the dark green grass, the soil fertilized by the few bodies she'd buried here.
They found their way back to the massive oak that served as Ivy's refuge during such a dark time in her life. Selina looked up to the towering tree, it's roots spreading far and wide across the ground, reaching across the clearing and snaking in between the smaller oaks.
"It didn't seem so...imposing all those years ago..." Selina's voice was barely above a whisper, the interwoven branches dense enough to finally shut out the sound of the city around them.
"It wasn't...it's a white oak, which typically make up the tallest trees in this park, but sheltering a conduit of the Green's living energy has had it's lingering effect, prompting the growth...This place was the closest thing I had to a home as Poison Ivy, until I met you, of course...and now it's like a reservoir, a well that I can draw upon, same as the tree they're still trying to exhume from the bones of Ace Chemicals...these little bastions I've made are one of the things that makes living in this city bearable..."
"Yeah? What's the other?" Selina asked with a sly smile as she turned away from the tree, picking each step she took back to her carefully, since she was in heels.
"The women." Ivy answered, far quicker than she meant to, "I, ah..mean..some of them...two in particular..."
"Well, if you like the girls in Gotham so much, I know one you're gonna love. We're about to have brunch, actually. She's blonde, a little shorter but she's got muscles, her accent's ridiculous, and her outfits are even more so"
She got the hint. "I'll text her and tell her to get ready." Ivy spoke out of the side of her mouth as she reached into her tote and procured her cell-phone.
"It shouldn't take her too long, her makeup's already done..."
"How could you possibly-..." Ivy looked back up to the thief on verge of laughing. Selina raised a gloved hand up and tapped her own cheek, Ivy furrowing her brow in response...until she realized...
Her fingers slid along the glass surface of her phone, quickly switching to the camera she only really ever used to take pictures of plants she found out in what little wild there was in Gotham.
And through that camera she saw several red splotches across her face, several red blushes of Harley's lipstick smeared across both cheeks, blatantly, glaringly obvious. Selina began laughing hysterically as Ivy's expression turned towards a mixture of horror and embarrassment at the realization that she'd walked there adorned in Harley's very public displays of affection.
"Oh my god, Selina!-
---------------------------------
"Alright, I've got the garden omelet, add broccoli and feta cheese, with two pieces of toast with strawberry jam for you...the eggs benny with smoked salmon for you, ma'am...and last, but not least: the buffalo chicken, bacon jalapeno pancakes with extra ranch for you."
The waitress flashed a gaptooth smile as she set down a monstrous looking stack of pancakes in front of Harley, the kind of abomination they'd only serve at a diner where the menu was as big as a phonebook, "I'll back with more coffee for you two ladies, and another Dr. Pepper for you, ma'am. Is their anything else I can get you?"
Harley sank into Ivy's side like she'd fainted at the sight of her food, "Ooohhmygod, you are an actual angel, sweetheart..."
Her remark prompted the waitress to bring her hand up over her mouth to stifle a laugh, her multicolored acrylic nails catching Harley's eye, "hUUHHFHH, your nails! Oy gevalt, they're gorgeous, you're gorgeous! Who does 'em!?"
"Oh, gosh!" she laughed, her long eyelashes fluttering through her praises, "Thank you! I do them myself!"
"They look so GOOD!" Harley proclaimed, loud enough for everyone in the diner to hear, "Do ya wanna do mine!? I'll pay! My thirtieth birthday's tomorrow and I want them to look nice! I've been meanin' to get back into nail art 'n sh*t, but my hands been a little busted lately, from y'know..."
Swinging a bat, busting a knuckle against some douchebag's tooth, basic firearms operations, trying to dislocate her wrist to get out of a pair of handcuffs, fingering Ivy, clinging to a gargoyle some thirty stories off the ground after she slipped trying to keep up with Selina on a rainy night...
"...uhhmmm, playin' pickleball.."
The sound of Selina's knife sharply making contact with her plate preceded her nearly choking out a laugh. Harley waved her off, indignintly trying to cling to her excuse, even if the waitress also seemed to not be buying it.
"I'd be happy to," she laughed, "Do you have an Insta? That's where I have all my prices listed, I'm working dinner tomorrow, but I don't go in until 3pm, so if we do somethin' early."
Harley's enthusiasm died a little at the question. Being on the FBI's Most Wanted list was devastating for one's social media presence, in that if she ever tried to create an account, the US government and Batman's little dork squad would be all over her ass before she'd put a single post up. She sighed, "Huhh, nah...I'm on a social media sabbatical...thank's anyway," Harley paused, leaning off of the edge of the booth to read her nametag, "-Jada."
Jada rolled her eyes, reaching down into the apron tied to the kitschy, old-school waitress dress all the girls working there had to wear, pulling out her notepad and a pen, before scribbling something down quickly, tearing it off and handing it over to Harley.
"This is my number, just text me and remind me that it's-...."
Normal conversation structure would've had Harley filling in the end of the sentence for her, telling her that the ghostly, clearly unnaturally pale, blonde was in fact, the same ghostly, unnaturally pale blonde woman wanted for orchestrating a violent and bloody prison break and playing a hand in the assassination of Gotham City's previous mayor and in carrying out the deadliest detonation of a chemical weapon on US soil, the deadliest incident to happen in Gotham City since an entire skyscraper was torn down, coincidentally, by the tall, trembling redhead seated next to her. Because they were dating...
Ivy, Selina, and Jada were all staring at her. This was her chance to make up for the pickleball flub...
"Uh...yeah, it's...Charlie-eeen, Charlene! Yeah, just call me 'Charlie' though, all my friends do, not sayin' we're friends or anythin', yet...I mean I'm totally into you. -YOUR VIBE, I mean, I'm spoken for, this is my girlfriend, here!" She elbowed Ivy, now that she was freefalling, she was determined to bring her with her.
"Mhmm..." Jada looked over to the silent Ivy, who was presently occupied with hiding her face behind her hands. "Well, you two are cute together..."
"Thank you." Ivy said, her voice muffled by her palms.
"Ugh, you're such a doll, Jada! Don't let me keep 'ya from your other tables in here, but I still will deffo take that Dr. Pepper when you can!"
"Sure thing, you ladies enjoy." Jada gave a quick nod before taking her leave.
"Okay, thanks again!" Harley beamed. As soon as the waitress was out of earshot, she dropped her voice down to a hushed tone, "Oh my god, I'm such a jackass..."
"Of all the names! Really? Charlene!?" Selina cackled.
"Oh, shut the f*ck up, I hesitated! You guys could've given me a hand, y'know!"
"Harley, I spend every waking moment hiding both of y'all's crazy asses from the public eye, the IRS is still out for my perfect ass after Comrade Ivy over here tried to redistribute the wealth by donating every dollar I gave her to a hundred different crowdfunding campaigns." Selina laughed, "I'm off the clock, right now."
"I make no apologies for easing the burden of those disenfranchised and neglected by the warmongering duopoly that opts to hoard wealth at the expense of our natural world and the indigenous peoples who inhabited them. If anything, humanity should be positively grateful that I am so merciful." Ivy said, her bitter words punctuated by a bite into a piece of toast, "And if they want to return the favor, not to me, but to the Green, they'll seek to replace the system with something sustainable as I bath in the blood of the ruling class. Now, can someone please tell me what pickleball is?"
"It's like if someone found a way to make tennis whiter." Harley answer, reaching across the table to the metal cruet-stand and plucking the crusty bottle of hot-sauce up and dousing the pat of butter melting on her pancake in it, "Now, I understand you's ladies are wantin' to talk about plans for tomorrow night. And look, right outta the gate, I really appreciate that the both of you are tryin' to make it special for me. I know my life's all sorts a f*cked up right now, and getting to spend my thirtieth with my two favorite girls is already miles better than the last twenty-nine of these I went through."
Selina and Ivy exchanged a glance at her words, a mix of flattered and concerned as Harley dug into her nightmare brunch.
"I'm..glad I get to be here for it, Harley...really...I want it to be special for you." Ivy said, first to speak.
"We both do." Selina added, "I've already made a few arrangements, we've got reservations to this new Korean BBQ place that's stupid expensive, I've got a booth at a few clubs, we just...want to make sure that you aren't going to be disappointed in anyway, you know?"
"The only thing I got for my birthday last year was a fractured skull, kittycat, and God rest my mother's soul, her and Frank didn't do that much better when I was growing up." Harley said through a mouthful of food, prompting another uncomfortable glance shared between Ivy and Selina.
"What?" Harley butted into their silent communication, "You don't get through medical school for psychiatry without bein' able to read people, I can tell you two are still worryin' about this."
"Harley, you've been talking about your birthday nonstop for an entire month, now." Ivy answered, her head turned down to her plate as she absently picked at her omelet. "And you try to make the most of every single day, but sometimes things...catch up to you when you don't have either of us to distract you. We want this day to be about you, not about whether I'm comfortable or not, not about whether you're spending too much of Selina's money or not-"
"And you're not." the thief added as she held up her mug as Jada returned with their refills.
Once the waitress was out of earshot, Selina continued for Ivy, "Look, darling, you said it yourself, turning thirty is special. You've put so much into reinventing yourself, let tomorrow night be the night Harley Quinn hits Gotham City like a goddamned hurricane."
"-which isn't such a unique event anymore due to the rising sea levels." Ivy chimed in, bringing Selina's energy crashing to a halt. "Sorry, I...Harley, we want to treat you tomorrow night, really."
"Well, what did you two do on your thirtieth birthdays? Gimme a reference point, here."
A silence fell over the table, the madwoman and the thief dwelling on Harley's question before Ivy finally spoke.
"Well...I was in Arkham...I'd lost track of the days, but I knew from the muted whispers of the Green outside that it was in the dwelling days of spring. There was one day in particular, I'd been dragged back to my cell after being paraded in front of another group of doctors taking samples of my tissue and the from the blood that flows through my veins. They shoved me to the floor of my cell, arms still strapped around my own body as one of the orderlies, a brutish man with skin as rough as leather, slid the food they forced me to eat each day, cooked rice with unseasoned, unsalted chicken on a metal tray. The guards behind him laughed as he commanded I eat on the floor, like some wretched mutt....
...so I did as they said..."
"OH MY GOD, f*ck! MY f*ckING HAND!"
"sh*t, radio medical! f*cking radio medical now!" one of the guards shouted.
The weight of two other guards and another orderly came crashing down onto her, crushing her against the tiled floor of her cell. A needle filled with searing, numbing heat was thrust into her neck, weighted blankets wrapped around her body, mummifying her in a cocoon of suffocating canvas held secure by several belts. Once they'd hoisted her back upright, she made eye contact with that horrible man as he was being ushered off, spitting the two fingers she'd taken out onto the floor before smiling at him, his blood blackening her teeth as it poured down her chin.
"-and I ate my fill..."
"Awhh, I read about that in your file!" Harley leaned into her side, "Y'know, you did a lot of nerve damage too, he lost a lotta mobility in that arm and never fully recovered."
The ceramic diner mug was at Ivy's lips when she responded with a simple "Good."
Selina stared at the two of them with a look that implied she was rethinking whatever decisions led to her being sat at the same table. "Right, well...hopefully your birthday's better than...that..."
"Well, what'cha do for your thirtieth, Miss Haut Couture?"
"Hmm, my thirtieth birthday..." Selina hummed, tapping her fork against her chin, "A couple friends took me out, I got to try steak tartare for the first time, served with a truffle caviar that was divine. Then we did drinks...and then we went dancing...and we kept drinking as we danced, of course...and then I'm pretty sure that was the night I stole Jimmy Fallon's Tesla."
"You're bullsh*ttin' me, America's sweetheart, James "Jimmy" Fallon?" Harley leaned across the table, "Where did you find his Tesla!?"
"His driveway?" Selina shrugged, looking to the two women as if the answer should've been obvious. "He lives upstate...and he got it back...I mean, technically the police found it where I'd left it...when I rolled it over into a bog in Slaughter Swamp. The news reported on it, see?" She shifted in her seat, reaching for her phone to show a very enthused Harley.
Everything that Ivy and Selina suggested recieved a glowing seal of approval from Harley, with a few addendums added here and there, Harley raising the idea that they wear costumes for Purim, suggesting that they start pregaming a little earlier, only for Selina to point out she was typically still sleeping that early in the afternoon. Still, she couldn't shake the notion that Selina and Ivy were pouring over every minute detail in their gorgeous little heads.
"Look," Harley finally stopped them both in their tracks, pushing her empty plate away before back into the booth, clasping her hands together just beneath her chin, "between Ivy's occasional cannibalism and your rampant theft and property destruction towards late-night comedians, I feel like I'm in good hands, seriously."
Harley unclasped her hands, reaching over and taking Ivy's into hers, and reaching across the table with her other to take Selina's. With a quick nod from her, Ivy and Selina also reached their free hands out, the three of them forming a small triangle.
"I know I say this a lot, but for once, I love where I'm at in life. And I thought the same when I was with the Joker. But with him things were so distorted. It was all fun and games until I f*cked up, and when I f*cked up, it was real, real bad."
The awkwardness Ivy and Selina felt from the little gesture of holding hands faded with Harley's words.
"I'm sittin' here next the absolutely sexy-nasty woman I love, across from one of the best goddamn friends I've ever had, and I feel f*ckin' invincible, y'know. And-"
"I'm sorry for interrupting ladies, but went ahead and brought the check." Jada had returned, setting the check down in the middle of the table, Selina hands quickly retreating from a public display of affection back to the pockets of her coat.
"-and a little something extra for our birthday girl." Jada added, with a smile, as she set down a plate in front of Harley. "I picked this one because the colors seemed to match your style, but if you'd rather another, please let me know."
On the center of the little saucer plate was a cupcake. Pauli's hosted an assortment of baked goods in a glass case next to one of the registers behind the bar, like everything else in the diner, it was very old-school. And the cupcake that matched Harley's vibe was slathered in a black frosting, curling around the cake in a perfect spiral. Various shapes and swirls adorned the black, hearts, spades, and diamonds done in red. She'd chosen those colors when she left Arkham because of what they meant to her.
Red was the color of love. It was the color of the blood she'd spilt in pursuit of it. It was the color of his lips when they curled into a grin, something she stared at for so long, in the hopes that she could fool herself into thinking something so sad*stic was sincere.
And it was the color of Ivy's hair. At night, when they were in bed, Harley's arms wrapped around her waist, she'd bury her face into those curls, the color of autumn leaves and the scent of spring blooming flowers. It was warmth. And it was safety...
And black was the only color dark enough to hide the mistakes she'd made. Look into the darkness long enough and your eyes will adjust, sure. But if you keep looking forward, maybe you'll put enough distance between yourself and the past to make it just a little bit easier to keep going.
A little scrap of paper was stuck to the bottom of the plate, a handwritten note reading "Happy birthday, Charlie!!"
She smiled, looking back up to a nervous Jada, eagerly awaiting to see if the cake she'd chosen passed the vibe check, to Selina thoughtlessly dropping her credit card on the check before eyeing the desert with a smile, like even she was impressed.
And to Ivy. Her hand found Harley's again, beneath the table, squeezing it gently...she understood better than anyone else.
"I think this one's gonna be perfect..."
----------------
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----------------
With the press of the button marked "A", the little blonde astronaut she was controlling pulled at the sprout sticking up through the earth, pulling up a little red creature that squeaked out a little hum as it flipped through the air.
"Okay, so that little guy-pie is called a Pikmin." Harley explained, having sunken down against Ivy's side until just her head stuck out from under the blanket they shared.
Ivy squinted at the TV, the controller an abstract object in her outstretched hands, her face twisting in confusion as she sat there for a brief moment.
"Do I kill him?"
"What!? NO! Oh my god, Pammy, he's like your little pal!" Harley explained, "You get a bunch of 'em and direct them around and toss 'em at enemies 'n stuff."
Ivy held the pro-controller up between her eyes and the TV, biting her lip as she studied it for a moment before sighing and leaning back into the couch, "Harley, I really should be working, I have a list of corporate shareholders and lobbyists passing through Gotham before the global plastics treaty in Canada next month, and I really think dosing them with a solution that'd cultivate a psilocybin in their bloodstream that'd leave them hallucinating violently until they killed themselves would motivate a lot of their board members into hiding long enough to allow some meaningful legislation to pass.
I mean, realistically, it won't, and humanity is largely beyond redemption, but it'll feel good to kill them."
"Oh, cooome oon, Ivy." Harley groaned, squirming beneath the blanket until her head was resting in Ivy's lap, "You can unwind in less horrifying ways, y'know. Seriously, would it kill 'ya to sit down and relax every once in a while?"
"It'd kill the Green." she answered flatly, always so resolute.
"Well, maybe the Green would benefit a little if it's only living conduit didn't constantly have her big, green buttcheeks clenched hard enough to crack a diamond!" Harley sat up, stretching until her neck popped. "Seriously, baby, when's the last time you've sat down and played a videogame?"
Ivy paused for a moment, her face flush with the memories of the far more innocent life she'd once lived, before sighing.
"It's been...almost twenty years?"
"Oh, were you a Gamecube girlie?"
"No," Ivy laughed, "The one before it, with the cartridges. I didn't really use it a lot, though, I spent most of my time outside, I guess...The only game I really remember was like this little farming game-"
"-Harvest Moon!"
Ivy didn't match her enthusiasm, but she did smile as she nodded in confirmation, "Yeah, that was it..."
"Oh my gaawwhd, do I have the game for you!" Harley brought her phone from beneath the blanket, tapping it and recoiling a little at the time, "Christ, it's midnight already? Well, we're at least gonna download it tonight, but I still gotta run out to the bodega. Mama's gonna need a few Red Bulls if we're pullin' an all nighter tomorrow night. Selina'll probably want one too, since she sleeps so late. You want anythin', Ive?" Harley asked as she slithered out from under the blanket.
"Are you going to the one across the street?"
"No, I've been goin' to the one up four blocks up towards the bay, the owner's son works most nights. He thinks I'm cute and lets me run up a tab." the first garment Harley found discarded on the floor of Ivy's living room was the skirt Ivy wore, which she pulled on over her briefs, the height difference between the two of them leaving her wearing the waistband just beneath her pink sports-bra.
"No thanks, you'll probably want a jacket, Harls."
"I left a cardigan out here, the leopard-print one." Harley began traipsing through the main room of Ivy's apartment in search of the sweater. Ivy was, at first, quite quick to pick up the discarded clothes she'd left on the floor, Harley joking that leaving clothes on the floor was the one thing she'd brought with her from the sh*tty apartment she'd lived in while working at Arkham, but Ivy's small apartment, while clean, was already a little cluttered from the plants, the stolen goods Selina'd left her with, and the scattered meticulous plans for eco-terrorism.
"Here." Ivy stood up, fishing it from between the cushions of the couch, "Are you sure this is enough, Harley? It's barely above freezing out there."
Harley plucked the sweater from Ivy's hands, "Well, if I get too cold, then I'll just have to hold you extra-tight in bed when I get back, my little Pam-a-lamb."
As she turned back towards the door, Harley threw the oversized cardigan on, only for Ivy to catch her by it's too-long sleeve. She pulled her back quickly, leaning in and kissing her, her lips tasting far too sweet for someone who quite literally secreted acid. The kiss was quick and so matter of fact, like the brusque statements Ivy so often made.
"Happy birthday, Harley." she said, letting the sleeve go and smiling.
"OoooOOooh, Ivy, the cold ain't ever gonna bother me if you're leavin' me so close to meltin' every time I go out."
She returned a quick kiss to Ivy's cheek, before spinning back on her heels, kicking on a pair of sneakers she'd left by the door and slipping out into the hall, her mess of keys interspersed with many silly keychains, and her wallet looped around her wrist. She rode the dawning excitement of spending a birthday in good company down the elevator and out the lobby, into the biting, frigid breeze of night, whipping in between the gothic brick buildings adorned in a neon glow Gotham City bathed in each night.
This short walk was one she was quickly becoming familiar with. And while there was a little 24 hour convienience right across from Ivy's building that made a killer breakfast burrito, walking a little helped her get the restless energy out of her legs.
Miagani Island, the bourough that Ivy's apartment was on, was one of older districts in Gotham City, populated by a lot of decaying remnants of the 19th century. And while the encroaching signs of gentrification were still there, and it was still horribly, devastatingly expensive to live in, so was literally everywhere else on Earth. Gotham City was a city with a lot more personality than most, and growing up in Gotham left Harley with a confidence that carried her up and down it's streets. Selina had it too, although Ivy'd be as stiff as a board walking on the sidewalks.
She bounced up the first two blocks, before cutting across the street to the largely deserted sidewalk leading up to the bodega she'd been frequenting, almost eerily empty for a Friday night, even if the din of a bustling city wasn't too far off up the road.
Ivy's skirt lacked pockets, nor did she bring a bag, meaning all that she had with her was piled up in her hands as she walked up to the bodega, which she took care to hold tightly in case of-
WHAM!
A small group of teenagers came sprinting out of the bodega, one of them slamming full-force into Harley and dropping an arm full of stolen cigarette packs. She nearly lost her footing crashing into Harley her head-down, baseball cap pulled low. Harley knew the uniform of a quick smash and grab, she'd worn it herself sticking up pharmacies for Plan B. The girl's friends didn't slow at all, leaving her behind, wide-eyed, staring up at Harley like a deer frozen in the headlights of an oncoming car.
"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE f*ckIN' GOIN'!!" Harley almost instinctively shouted in typical Gotham traffic rage, "Goddammit, you almost-"
Harley stopped once she noticed the girl was trembling. Poor thing was terrified. She had to have been new at this, probably about fourteen or fifteen.
"Hey, look...no harm, no foul." Harley held her hands up like she was trying to calm a frenzied animal, she stepped out of the girl's path, "Get outta here, mmkay."
The girl's hands flinched like she was contemplating scrambling down to scoop up as many of the cigarettes as she could, before flight set in and she dashed past Harley, desperately fast in order to catch up to her friends already across the block. Harley looked down to the small pile of Viceroys. She bent down and picked up a pack, before sighing and looking back to the fleeing teen.
"AND GO FOR THE MARLBOROS, NEXT TIME! THEY SELL FOR MORE!!!" she shouted after the girl, hurling the pack down the street. She picked up the rest of the cigarettes, spinning through the open door and onto the yellowed tile floor of the bodega.
"Yo, Mauricio!" Harley dropped the cigarettes onto the broken glass counter, "You runnin' an open house tonight!? People are cleanin' the place out!"
No response. She could hear the Knights game playing on the sh*tty old TV behind the counter as usual, but the stool where he normally sat was empty.
His dad's gonna kill him if he dipped on the clock to go buy sh*tty weed again...
Harley turned back to find the rest of the bodega in complete disarray, boxes of pills and packs of condoms spilled out across the floor, the snack aisles fairing little better.
"Jesus..." Harley said under her breath, "f*ckin' amateurs."
The buzzing lights were flickering overhead as Harley used her foot to part the sea of debris, carefully and delicately choosing each step across the chaos to the coolers in the back as she hollered into the quiet bodega, "Look, I'm just grabbin' three Red Bulls and a pack 'a sour gummy worms! I'll come back with cash on Sunday, 'kay sweetie?"
The kids had smashed some of the glass panel doors of the coolers, a layer of condensation covering the bottles of soda and canned energy drinks as the refrigerated air uselessly pumped out the broken doors and into the stuffy bodega. It required a little finesse from Harley to reach in through the broken glass and fish out the cans of Red Bull.
Hope Selina ain't a sugar-free girlie.
Once she'd tucked the three cans under arm, she set her sights on the back wall, opposite the beer, where she'd find the candy, paying little mind to where she was stepping when one of her footfalls betrayed her with a loud SQUEALLKH!
Harley narrowly avoided a total wipeout, slipping forward a few inches as her eyes snapped down to the sticky tiles to find a dark, almost black puddle, it's rusty stains fanning out into a lighter shade of red. The optimist in her looked to the broken cooler to her right in the hopes that a busted bottle of fruit-punch had spilled out, only to find a similar smear of red spread across the broken glass in the shape of a handprint.
sh*t...
"Mauricio?" Harley called out, a little louder than before. "Talk to me, sweetie."
Those f*ckin' kids...
Harley turned her sight back down to the puddle to find it taper off into smears leading back to the beer cooler. Only, it wasn't a smear, it...almost a perfect line, like it had been...painted.
Harley set the cans down, cautiously, slowly walking over to the back, not even daring to take a breath as her eyes followed the trail of blood, angular lines fanning out into the shape of an arrow, pointing her towards the door of the cooler. Blood was smeared up the walls around the door, her heart sinking as she swallowed down the lump that'd formed in her throat.
An "H" was drawn in the blood along the surface of the door, beckoning her back into the darkness.
She pushed the door open, slowly, and...
"Oh god...oh my god..."
The first thing her eyes were drawn to was the garishly orange bungee cord looped around the cooler AC fan, her eyes avoiding the rest of the macabre scene like some defense mechanism had kicked in. Both ends of the bungee cord were securely wrapped around Mauricio's wrists, the poor kid left there strung up, head lolling forward. Limp, motionless...lifeless...
And the blood...
His shirt was ripped open, soaked through with blood, a deep, deep gash traveling across the length of his stomach, before savagely curling up towards his pectorals. The hilts of two knives stuck out just beneath his collarbones, and sight of them led to Harley stepping back, knocking over a stack of cheap beer cases, her head light as the realization set in.
She recognized those knives...they were his...
The gash in Mauricio's stomach was made to resemble a twisted grin, the hilts of the knives playing the role of the eyes in the cruelest of smiles the Joker had carved into this poor kid's body. Harley's heart was pounding hard in her chest, hard enough for the pulsing of blood in her ears to drown out all but the droning of the cooler.
The faintest pin-prick of yellow stuck out from the gash in his gut. Harley approached the body slowly, eyes drawn to such an unnatural spot jutting out from Mauricio's abdomen.
As tears began to well in her eyes, partly from shock, partly from the sickening coppery smell mixing with the smell of stale, spilled beer, she brought her hand up to the sharp, papery edge of the yellow-spot. She looked up to Mauricio's glazed over eyes, shaking her head before pulling.
"AAAUGHHKK-"
Mauricio's eyes snapped back into some form of tormented lucidity, making Harley scream as she fell back, pulling the foreign object from his wound, and bringing with it his intestines spilling out.
"AAGAGGHHH-" Mauricio's choked cry became a dry wheeze, a semi-conscious death rattle as his body jerked unnaturally, the AC unit creaking from the weight of his body.
Harley pulled her eyes away from the gore to the blood-soaked yellow card in her hands.
It's Your Special Day!!! was printed on it's sopping surface beneath what was a little red and black cartoon circus tent, framed the cutesy little depictions of the animals you'd associate with a carnival.
Harley's hands were shaking violently as she flicked the birthday card open with her thumb, seeing the note he'd written her in his immaculate script.
I hope you didn't go around thinking I'd forgotten your special day. I'd never forget about my sweet little harlequin. Big things are coming, so I'll be seeing you very soon.
Love, J
Love...
Harley could stop herself from staring at his note, even as she rose back up to her feet slowly, skirts soaked through with the sticky mixture of spilled beer and blood
Love.
He always loved you, just in his own way...
It was torture, Harley. He tortured you.
And deep down you loved it...you got off on it...
"Harley-"
You feel it now, don't'cha Harley...between your legs...
Harley looked up at the display he'd left for her, a work of art trailing from the body from some unlucky 23 year old. It was crude...but there was an artistic flair to each stroke of the madman's savage brush...
"Harley, I need you to focus on my voice."
"I-I can't tell...which one you are."
"The one that keeps you alive. If someone catches you here, it is all over. You need to run. Run back to Ivy's and DO NOT stop until you're there..."
She looked back to the door behind her, before turning back to the body, "I...I can't leave him..."
"-ha...-har...ley?" Mauricio's bloodshot eyes were weakly looking up at her.
She'd never told him her name...
"I-I'm sorry, bud..." she said, approaching slowly, until she was only inches away. "I am so...so sorry..."
And then she pulled one of the knives free and slashed his throat, putting an end to his agony. It took a few seconds for him to bleed out, Harley maintaining eye contact in hopes that the pain she felt over his death was some small, pathetic display of sympathy in his last moments.
She was covered in his blood as she stepped back to the door, knife clutched so tightly it's handle was now printed into her palms. She noticed the light next to the lens of a store-bought CCTV camera up in the corner of the cooler.
Cover your tracks, girl...
She dashed back out the cooler, leaving the body suspended as she sprinted over to the register, jumping the smashed counter, kicking off the many packs of cigarettes she'd returned as she frantically searched for the CCTV monitor.
"f*ck, f*ckf*ckf*ck, oh god, oh f*cking sh*t-f*ck!" She found it a few feet behind where Mauricio and his father would sit when they were working, a few dusty black cables snaking down from the cheap monitor to an old VCR. Without a moment of hesitation, Harley raised her leg up, using her heel to drag the VCR off of the counter, taking care not to leave her fingerprints anywhere as it crashed onto the tiled floor. She then stomped on the old recorder, until she'd smashed through both it and the hard case, revealing the reflective film of the loosely spooled tape.
She gasped for breath as she bent down and carefully scooped up the tape with a finger from her free hand. That was everything she could think to get, and with a furious surge of desperation, she jumped back over the counter, bolting out the door and back into the cold, cold night. She'd be able to dispose of everything back at Ivy's, the tape, the ruined clothes she wore, and the-
WHAM!
Someone was walking by just as she left, an older man that she slammed into, the impact sending them both crashing down hard onto the sidewalk.
"Yoo, what the f*ck is wrong wit' you?" He snarled through laborious gasps, "Are-...are you on drugs!?" the gruff old man she'd ran into shouted, clambering to a nearly railing with a hand that was scraped bloody, "f*ckin' punks these days-"
His tirade came to a sudden stop as Harley rolled onto her side, looking to him with wide eyes. He wasn't looking back at her, however. He was looking at the only thing that'd pull one's eyes away from the blood-stained blonde lying on the sidewalk.
And that was the bloody knife that had slipped out of her fingers as she fell.
"Wait, please!" Harley pleaded.
Only her pleas fell on deaf ears, the man turned, scrambling furiously into a crawl as he dragged himself upright and running as fast as he could. But he was old, and Harley was far faster.
And she wouldn't be caught...not like this.
She reached for the knife.
The door nearly came off it's hinges as Harley threw herself back into the safety of the apartment. Ivy was still seated at the couch, hunched over a laptop she'd been keeping plans on when she came crashing back in, her head snapping back up in concern.
Harley couldn't bring herself to face her, though. She couldn't stand being seen, not after what she'd done, not after what'd been done because of her...
She ran to the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her and barely making it to the toilet before it all came out, a sick acidic bile that burned as badly as the bleach that stained her skin did. She kept retching after she'd emptied her stomach, as Ivy immediately pushed open the bathroom door and was quick to be at her side. She felt Ivy's green hands trembling at the small of her back, barely steady as she used a finger to fish the matted blonde strands of Harley's bangs out of her face.
She was doing everything she could to make her feel safe...but Ivy didn't know what was wrong, and that...that scared her...
It took the better part of an hour for Harley to find the strength to look up at her, finding the strength to face the woman she loved. Ivy was silent, her eyes racing up and down Harley's wretched figure, trying to piece together what had happened. And Harley could tell that she was terrified...
Are you thinking about going back to him?
Would you tell me if you were?
Two simple questions that Ivy asked her a few months ago.
Harley tried to be so finite with her answer. She was certain that she'd give everything she had to turn her back on that part of her life. She hated him for what he did...she hated herself for being with him...
...all until he wanted her again...
"Harley?" Ivy's voice was barely above a whisper as she probed as gently as someone could for an answer. Her face was drawn in, mind visibly running through what could've possibly happened in what was barely an hour. But Ivy was perceptive, almost supernaturally so...Her nostrils flared with a deep breath as her scarred brows softened...
She wouldn't let go of this...she wouldn't let go of her...not if he came pulling on her leash...not if a part of her so desperately wanted to feel it pull tight across her neck again...
"It's him..." she finally said. No secrets. Not this time.
----------------
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"So, I just plug the first drive in, run the .exe file...and that's it?"
"No, you're skipping, like, so many steps. First, mask your IP address by running a VPN, but make sure the data-center your using is still in the state of New Jersey. Take the second drive, plug that in first, run the executable in administrator mode, and it'll open a command window. With that command window open, create a new desktop by pressing the windows key and tab, plug in the first flash-drive and run the executable, in administrator again, and it should automatically open a new browser tab, taking you to the home page of the state of New Jersey's Department of Medical Records with the same access you'd find from a server side computer, is all that clear?"
"I think so...but why are we calling the second drive 'the second drive' if it's the one we use first?"
"Because it's the second drive I made you. For this illegal activity that I am consenting to helping you with, with zero context. Selina, you know I don't mind helping stealing from the rich, sometimes. But breaking into a criminally underfunded state-department is raising a lot of concerns you've done nothing to clear up."
"Oh my god, Barbara, where's the trust?"
"Do you really want me to answer that?"
No. She didn't.
Bruce had already left her walking on eggshells after being seen with Ivy and Harley back at the Iceberg Lounge. Since then she'd managed to dance around the subject by avoiding any circ*mstances in which her little hobby led to her crossing paths with the Bat and his little geek squad. (Barbara not included, she loved Barbara)
"What if I told you I was just securing my access to gender-affirming care when the rights of trans people are under continued scrutiny in a country run by war criminals?"
"Then I'd say something like 'Why didn't you tell me?' before I extended you the same courtesy I have to all my other trans friends by exploiting a loophole in one of the largest insurance provider's central databases and created an incredibly generous 'phantom' insurance plan that is tied to no occupation and auto-renews at no cost to the individual in question."
"I...wait, you can do that? And you have other trans friends!?"
"You've literally met my roommate, Alysia, multiple times. You saw her last week when you drove me to physical therapy...and then there's Eden, she plays bass in my friend Dinah's band, Black Canary...and then there's Parker, he manages the coffeeshop closest to the clocktower, he brings my order to the tower if I call it in, he's so sweet...and, like, three of my Twitch chat moderators are trans."
"And I'm the one that drives you places and I still don't get insurance!?"
"Selina, you have insurance, you're a multi-millionaire. You spent, like the first thirty minutes of this phone call talking about buying the new electric Porsche."
"Because I'm trying to save money, Babs. I don't know if you've noticed that the entire country's under severe economic unrest, but it costs over a hundred dollars to fill up my Audi."
"Yeah, all from that harbor fire last November...you know, we have some theories as to how that started too, the contextual assemblage particles from the soot samples Bruce collected indicated that the precise temperature of flashpoint lines up with the ignitive properties of a high concentration of methane...a concentration that can be found in a certain agricultural grade fertilizer..."
"Barbara, you know I have no goddamn clue what you're talking about." she said with confidence, leaning back in her office chair, the glow of her PC accompanying the dim inlaid lights of the bedroom of her luxury apartment. Dior was curled up on her bed, Prada and sh*thead somewhere in the living room, all three of her girls had their own little respective list of places they liked to sleep.
"We think it was Poison Ivy. It fits her M.O. to a T...Crude, but meticulously planned. No regard for human life. The first GCPD officer on the scene, the poor girl who was maimed in the blast, had traces of plant matter on her body...and the cause of death was determined to be the hyper extension of her neck...you don't know anything about this?"
"Oh my god, Barbara, you too?" Selina groaned, taking a slow sip from the chilled Merlot at her side before standing up and stretching her legs, "I have already expressed this to Bruce, I hired Ivy to help me with a heist and I regretted it, she's insane, a mass-f*cking murderer, and I'm a dumbass. I've confessed my sins and the two boy-scouts still hate my ass."
"Tim and Dick don't hate you, they hate how you treat Bruce through all of this. You lie, constantly! And about everything! We all know you're hiding something, and Bruce is clearly giving you the benefit of the doubt because he loves you, and he doesn't know how else to express that, and you just use that as a free pass to walk all over him. It's sh*tty, Selina!"
"So, I've just got a target on my back now?"
"Selina, Bruce wears a bodycam, I've seen the footage from the Iceberg Lounge...you can call Ivy a rabid dog all you want, she was protecting you...you and Harley Quinn..."
Selina paced the length of her room, her eyes fixed to the dark, hardwood floors.
"Look," Barbara cleared her throat, her tone softening a bit, "Selina, Ivy's done monstrous things, she's killed so, so many people...but I've seen the medical reports, the news articles about the experiments that doctor ran on her...She's been through something so horrifying, I can't imagine the mental anguish it's left her with. I'm not immune to feeling sympathy for the person Pamela Isley was, and I can understand why you'd take pity on her-"
"I don't-"
"-but she is far too dangerous to be walking free.
And Harley Quinn? Selina, with all that she's done? To Jason? To me??"
Barbara's voice wavered as it reached a pitch she clearly wasn't intending to reach. Selina could hear her take a breath through the phone before speaking again.
"I'm sorry, I try to tell myself that holding a vendetta is a fool's errand, it's just...I got more done this year than I have in the first twenty-six years of my life, combined.
I defended my thesis from the hospital-bed a week after it all happened, I've built an entire network that allows me to help the rest of the team in ways I never could've as Batgirl, I've built lasting friendships with the people who've gone out of their way, people I never would've expected to, like you! Hell, I even crowd-surfed at a punk show back in December! I haven't stopped moving for a second.
And yet, all that I've done in the past year comes with this big asterisk now. Everytime I see my dad, or I see Bruce or Dick, they look at the chair first. My dad still goes back to that night constantly, and it's killing him...Bruce had this on top of Jason's death, and while I'm grateful he's bankrolled the accommodations I need, I can't shake the feeling that he's treating me with kid gloves now, when I was the first one to work alongside him. And Dick? I love him, but there's a reason we aren't together anymore. It started with the little things, him saying that he wished I was still out there in the field with them, when I'm always on comms, when the overwatch I can now provide has quite literally been the difference between life or death.
I was the one who got shot that night, and it wasn't even about me, it was about the men. It was about my father, it was about Bruce, and it was about the Joker, and I was just a...prop...I think when Harley's smile broke, she realized that...she realized that her own role wasn't too dissimilar...but the mask she wore still came back...
So I'm trying to show a little grace, to you mostly, I mean Harley is still a psychopath and a mass-murderer who should be institutionalized...Selina, if you're withholding any information regarding the whereabouts of Harley Quinn or Poison Ivy, it's not going to be something that you can’t just sweep under the rug. You will be tried as an accesory to the hundreds of deaths they are responsible for...your reputation will be beyond ruined, and you will go to Blackgate Maximum Security for the rest of your life....
If you tell me now, I will do what I can to protect you from that. Harley and Ivy will get the help that they need, and you can keep living the life you've been living, I promise..."
Selina's PC hummed quietly over the silence, a stark, almost jarring parallel to the conversation they were having.
"That was a beautiful speech, Barbara, really-I...should I email you my confession, or can I just send it in a text?"
"Oh, f*ck off!" Barbara scoffed, "I nailed the delivery, the way my voice wavered?"
"It was good! Were I not already emotionally dead it would've moved me to tears, I think. Do you really think a nice speech is all it's gonna take to get me to confess to whatever it is you're accusing me of?"
"Selina, I don't expect you to tell me the truth, I just wanted to see if you'd squirm when you lied."
"Are we still playing Apex tonight? Because I feel like the mood's off, now."
Barbara sighed, "Maybe a game or two, but after that, I've got some work to do. Tracking movements across message-boards that resembles your boy Nashton."
"Don't call him that," Selina groaned as she noticed her other phone light up, plugged in on the bedside table. Speak of the devil...or one of them, at least. "Look, Babs, I'm getting a beep, we'll play tomorrow night."
"No you're not, Selina, I can literally see your-"
"Burner phone, Barbara, come on!" Selina chided her, "I'll talk to you soon, thanks again for the drives, love you, byeee!"
"Wait-"
She didn't. With a thoughtless toss, Selina discarded one phone for the other, prompting Dior to jump up quickly from the light thud her main phone left on the bed. Selina ran her free hand over the grayish-brown tabby cat's head, coaxing her back down as she picked up the other phone and swiped it open.
"What's up?"
"It's Harley."
Ivy's voice was hoarse, something was wrong. Seriously wrong...
"What? What happened?"
"I...I don't..he reached out to her...and I-I...f*ck..." Selina could practically hear Ivy pacing frantically around her apartment, reminding herself to breath under her breath. "He reached out to her...The clown. He left a message on a body. He's been watching her, us, I don't know..."
"Where is she?" Selina asked, her first fear being the worst. That she went back to him...
"In bed, she's...terrified. I don't think she feels safe here anymore."
"She can stay here if she needs to-"
"Selina, I will murder anyone who dares to come here, slowly. I promise you, I-"
"Ivy, darling, I believe you, but maybe it'd help her feel better..."
"I don't...you're right...I..there's something else. She killed someone on the way back...on the street. She was panicking, she doesn't know if anyone saw, but...I can tell it was messy."
"f*ck." Selina knew that Harley and Ivy were going to...well, killing came so easily to them. She didn't ask them for anything outside of keeping her far away from being implicated, but even then, Barbara was watching her like a hawk. And this was close to Ivy's apartment.
"I don't know if Harley has it in her to go out tomorrow night. It might be better for her if we just stay in..." Ivy finally spoke after a pregnant silence.
"Goddammit." Selina sighed. Harley was always someone who bounced back quickly, but she was right, you only turn thirty once. Harley'd been talking about her birthday for a while, and it made her feel terrible to see all of that excitement get sucked out from something so horrible and f*cked up. After a moment spent mentally trying to salvage anything she could, she finally raised the flimsiest suggestion she could've.
"Why don't you guys at least come over, tomorrow night? We'll play it by ear. Tell Harley to bring an outfit she'd wanna go out in, just in case. And you? Well, you're gonna need help picking out an outfit, if we do happen to go out, just brush the leaves out of your hair or whatever, can you do that?"
"I-guess...yeah. I can do that."
"Good, try to get some sleep. Call me if anything comes up."
"I will."
And with that, Selina hung up the phone, leaving Ivy in the dark of her apartment. The creaking wood floors betrayed any hopes of her checking on Harley without making her presence known, how she snuck out all those times over the summer a complete mystery to her. Once in the doorway to the bedroom, Ivy saw the small mound beneath the bedsheets, Harley curled up as small as she could make herself. She was ashamed of the past that came rearing back into her life with the cruelest of vengeances, she was embarrassed of what she'd done in the throes of terror...
And worst of all, Harley doubted herself now...such an unshakable confidence broken, because she couldn't trust herself anymore. She'd thought about going back to him, after all that had happened, after what they'd built together. Ivy stepped as quietly as she could've over to the bed, sliding in beneath the sheets. Harley shifted as soon as Ivy's hands found her back, but the tenseness of her shoulders slacked slightly, around her to wrap her arms gently around her waist, cold and sticky still, from the blood...
Love was such a queer thing, it made the most resolute of roots feeble in the earth, and yet it still bore with it a strength that could fell the tallest of towers.
For once, it wasn't Ivy shaking beneath the sheets. Her hands were steady, and they would be as she peeled back the smile of the man who'd dare to pull Harley from her arms, with fingers sharp as thorns, laced in an acid that'd eat away at his flesh until there was nothing left.
She wouldn't let go either...
