Chapter Six

It was still slightly surreal to be working alongside Harley, and despite how much he wanted to, Dick wasn’t letting himself fully trust the woman. She had a very long history, and he didn’t entirely trust the information lapse surrounding her since he’d been at Spyral. And with him avoiding the cave recently for obvious reasons…

Yeah, trust was slowly coming, but it still felt odd. Honestly, the strangest thing was how much Dick wanted to trust the blonde. And how much it felt like she was telling the truth about her apparent reformation.

The pair had started actually working…not quite together in the way a true duo or team would, but they were definitely collaborating, at least. Dick was the one with the alert system for Bludhaven, after all. It was actually that which had brought out the question that he really shouldn’t have just asked.

He had been thinking about how useful it had been to work with Oracle on the other end of a commlink, managing the crime monitoring system back in Gotham. Here in the Haven, he’d gotten her help in setting up a crime alert system, but it was rudimentary in comparison without a true pilot at the keyboard.

It had gotten him thinking about how, once upon a time, she had gone the extra mile to do what she could for Bludhaven despite the sheer size of her workload over in Gotham. He would chide her for it, she would ignore him, and that little flame of warmth in his chest would roar at the unspoken care and love. Nowadays…

‘Go fuck yourself, Richard.’

Now, he was lucky if nobody swore at him. He was lucky if they just ignored him. Pretended he didn’t exist, until it was convenient not to. He didn’t blame them. How could he? Sure, he would never have done the same if roles were reversed. Hell, he didn’t do the same. When Jason came back, Dick did everything he could to try and help, to fix his past fuckups, or at least make good on the scales. But how could he blame the ones he loved so much? He hurt them in the worst way, and never explained himself.

They had all been fine, anyways. He’d been dead, but nothing terrible happened, did it? Bludhaven kept ticking just fine without him, his family moved on, Gotham never missed it’s extra Bat. Young Justice kept running- Not that he’d been much involved with them anyway, not anymore, after-

And that was when he’d asked it.

“Harls, how do you keep going?” The words slip past his filter before he can stop them, and the psychiatrist-turned-villain-turned-hero slowly turns to face him with an eyebrow raised.

“That’s a loaded question, Birdy.” She stood from her crouch on the edge of the rooftop, quirked a hip and placed a hand on it, iconic pigtails bouncing, “Don’tcha think?”

Immediately, Dick realises what he’s done. The smile pulls back onto his features, twisted and easy-going, “Yeah, that’s fair. I meant more like, uh, you’re new to this, right? So what keeps you on the straight and narrow?”

There’s only a split-second moment where the excuse falters. A tiny slip, unnoticeable to anyone. At least, that’s what Dick assumed from experience. Only Cass ever seemed to notice his slips, and she didn’t comment on them unless she felt it really necessary. Apparently, however, it was also noticeable to psycho ex-psychiatrist villainesses.

“For someone with such a great rep, ya sure do bullshit a lot.” Her words, calling him out on the deception, were blunt, yet the intent was anything but. Her tone of voice, that smile, the body language- it all lacked that sharp edge of confrontation. It didn’t try to intimidate, or convince. It just…welcomed, and shone a gentle light on the issue.

Dick could admit to himself, it was a nice change from how the Batfamily addressed problems like that. It reminded him of the small handful of conversations he had had with Dinah. Well, they were similarly trained, so that’s not surprising. He’d stopped having those conversations after he came back. She insisted on one, under the guise of a medical checkup, but after that he just…couldn’t do it. The thought of going there, trying to talk to her, being **** by his own loyalty to lie- He’d just started ignoring the calls and texts, recently. She’d stop trying soon. He wasn’t worth the trouble.

Snap!

Nightwing blinked in surprise as Harley’s hand withdrew from near his face, a mischievous grin on her face as she said, “Back with me, Boy Wonder?” She waited for his surprised grin to bloom, and said “Listen, I get it. I’m Harley Quinn, got all Mistah- fucking shitfuck- Got all Joker’s bullcrap ‘gainst me, right?”

She nodded to herself, not waiting for a reply, “But I’m trying to move on from that, ya hear? And part ah that, apparently, is wanting to actually help people.” Her clear blue eyes met his sharply, yet warmly, “You’re one of ‘em. C’mon Bird-brain. Lemme help ya. Lemme use all this psych training and crap for somethin’ good for once! It don’t have to all be at once, but at least talk about somethin’...please?”

Nightwing seemed to stare at her for a long time, white lenses of his mask unmoving. Beneath the mask, Dick was reeling from the sudden outpouring of emotion, the heartfelt plea. It was a long-standing, well-established fact that he was the most emotionally adept member of the Batfamily by leaps and bounds. The only one who even came close was Steph. To Dick, it really felt like Harley had just pulled open her chest and shown him her heart.

It was the most emotion, barring rage or disgust, that he’d had directed at him in most of a year. It reminded him of how life was pre-Spyral. It reminded him of teaching Kori social norms when they were teens. It reminded him of running across rooftops laughing with Babs. It reminded him of late evenings talking about secrets and heartfelt truths into the night with Donna. It reminded him of movie nights with his family. It…it felt good.

Before he knew it, tears were building behind his mask, the sensation bringing him back to reality. “...Okay.”

He was cross-legged on the floor and talking before he let his Bat-training kick in and stop him, “I was kicked out from home at fifteen.”

Harley lowered herself beside him, but she didn’t say anything. He knew she wouldn’t. Just like Dinah always said, this was his time to say things.

“B and I had this huge fight, after Joker clipped me with a round and- Heh. You probably remember that fight, actually. It was the last time we fought whilst I was Robin. Next time I showed in Gotham, I was Nightwing.” His eyes clip over to her.

She looked slightly surprised for a moment, and quietly said, “I…I remember.”

Dick smiled a little, then it left and he continued “Anyways, I dunno, I guess I just wasn’t good enough, or I couldn’t stay there or something. Maybe we’d outgrown one another, already. It doesn’t matter, really. He kicked me out onto the streets. Probably expected me to come back and beg him to stay.” He paused a moment, “I didn’t. I found some flat somewhere that would rent to a kid. Probably in the narrows. I don’t remember that well. It wasn’t great. But I was mad, and spiteful enough that I wanted to show I could do it without him. I went and founded the Titans.”

He could feel his willingness to talk closing up. Story-time was almost done, and he began to smoothly move away from himself, “Did you know that the Titans are the only Hero team, and actually the only Heroes, that aren’t under the authority of the Justice League? I made sure of that, even after I, uh, left. Young Justice is also mostly disconnected from the JL, only technically connected to them. All the systems are different, and not even Batman has the codes for them. One of the only things I’ve flat-out refused the guy.”

Nightwing stood up, flexing the muscles across his body to keep them limber after sitting for so long. He smiled a genuine smile, for the first time in a while, and extended a hand to the blonde on the ground to help her up, “C’mon. Got crimes to stop, don’t we?”

She hesitated a moment, and nodded resolutely, “Damn right.” Harley took his hand.