Harley Does Her Dance pt 1

As seen from these other , earlier episodes



As read from this chapter insert excerpt
[link]

Harley tittered and held the newspaper up. "Looks like they're callin' me Robin Red-Breasts now!" There was a reasonably good photo of Harley in mid-acrobatic leap, displaying a healthy amount of cleavage from her red-chested top and even more leg. The headline screamed it: "Robin Red-Breast, is the Bat no longer a Pedophile?"

Steph made a face at that. "It's the Gotham Post, Harley. Nobody listens to them. They used to call me the Eggplant Extremist when I was still Spoiler."

"Well, you gotta admit your suit was pretty purple." Harley said with a flash of good humor.

Steph sniffed, "It was Eggplant."

"Who wears eggplant, anyway?" Harley said with a mild laugh.

"What's the matter?" Steph blurted out suddenly. "You're not upset about the article are you?"

"Nah." Harley shook her head. "It's... it's something else." She put her hand on Steph's. "Yer my friend, right? I mean we bonded and everything and I did your hair and stuff."

Steph fidgeted uncomfortably. "I... yeah, I guess we're friends."

"I guess it's kinda weird being the intruder in the whole happy family thing you guys have going here, but everyone's been a total sweetheart about the it since me and Mistah Bee revealed our love to the world." She was smiling brightly now.

Steph twitched slightly at that. "I... guess?"

"I mean you and Al have been totally awesome. Dick once he kinda warmed up to me was really nice. Tim and Cass are... uh... they're Tim and Cass, but I've kinda been worried about Damian."

Steph shook her head. "He's a little jerk, but he's not all bad." She paused because she couldn't leave it at such a blatant lie. "Okay, he is a pint-sized jerk, but sometimes he's not too horrible." She stopped again and tried to find some other way to put it and finally settled lamely on, "He's kind of... um... an acquired taste."

Harley smiled sadly. "He's kinda prickly. He's a lot like his daddy. I'm kinda sad cause of him, actually."

Steph frowned, "What did he do?"

"It's more like what he didn't do," Harley sighed, leaning back into her chair. "I mean, yeah he was really totally pissy at first, but then after the first week or so, he really started to warm up to me!"

Steph stared at Harley, "Warm... up... to you?" She was in shock. That had made no sense. Damian had been uniformly hostile and angry towards Harley from what she'd seen. Then again, Damian being angry and hostile was his normal response to the world. Being unpleasant was pretty much Damian's default.

Harley nodded. "Yeah. He wasn't doin' much at first, but then he started showin' little bits of affection towards me in the past couple weeks. I mean y'gotta really pay attention, but they were there."

Steph thought about her own relationship with the diminutive Wayne. She knew the kid liked her, but you really did have to pay attention, otherwise the constant stream of belittlements and abuse would keep anyone from realizing that there was a diamond inside all that rough. It was tiny and flawed, but it was still a diamond. Sort of. "I... I think I know what you mean."

Harley shrugged. "It was goin' great, but then outta nowhere he just... shuts down." She stared down at her cereal with a thoughtful expression. "Couple days ago he stopped everything. I was wonderin' if it was something I did, but I can't think of anything."

--End Excerpt--

Harley is telling her tale of woe to Stephanie and in turn Steph huffs at Damian and hilaritly ensures in the next one

TBC


Art © Me
Characters © DC Comics/WB
Commission/Dialogue -