Chapter Two

Dick couldn't help the judgemental eyebrow that raised, obvious even through the domino mask. He considered, for a moment, calling her out on whatever the hell this farce was, but…

“I wasn't going to jump.” It slipped out without his conscious input, and that was it, he was engaged in this little roleplay now.

His eyes flicked to hers, scanning for something, anything. He felt the inexplicable need to defend himself for something he hadn't even done, “I wasn't. It- I just get wrapped up in my thoughts sometimes, y'know?”

Quinn was the picture of professionalism as she said, “Nightwing, most people don't lose rationality when they're too introspective, you understand that, right?”

Dick scoffed before he could think, and swiftly snapped, “As if you're a good example of sane mental health.”

He regretted it before the words left his lips, and almost immediately followed up with, “I'm sorry! Sorry, that was…that was so out of line. Fucking-”

“Wing, I'm not mad.” His eyes snapped to hers, lenses shooting wide with surprise, “Not only are ya right, this is ain't about me. So, I'm a little hurt, but eh, it's not as if ya had a sterling view of me before.” She grinned, as if it was a given that he wouldn't like her.

That twinged in his chest, for some reason. Why did she think he wouldn't like her? She'd always been nice to him, and- he was off track again. Trying to avoid talking about…everything, really.

Dick sighed, and sent her a soft smile, “It’s fine, Harley, honest. There’s just a lot going on in the Haven these days, and it’s sometimes overwhelming to deal with…”

Harley finished his sentence for him as he trailed off, “Alone? But Wing, ya ain’t alone, last I checked. Got all them other Bats around if ya need ‘em, don’tcha?”

Dick scoffed before he could stop himself, and immediately looked guilty, “We…we’re not on good terms right now. Let’s leave it at that, huh?” This was getting too close to him. If he didn’t end it, he might start talking about things he shouldn’t.

He stood, shaking his limbs as if to amp himself up, “It’s all good, Quinn. I’ll be fine, just gotta keep going, right? Right.” He answered his own question before she could reply, and flashed his signature bright grin at her, no matter how false it felt, contorting his features like the performers of his childhood. “And hey, I’ll see you ‘round town.” Then, he took two bounding steps and leapt off the side of the building with a flip, letting the air carry him for a moment.

For a moment, Nightwing flew. For a moment, Robin flew. For a moment, Dick wondered what it would be like to fall.

—

Koriand’r was…unsettled. She had felt out-of-sorts for many months now, but this was a new feeling, different and entirely unwelcome, as it came without apparent cause.

Before, she had felt the sadness feeling, which she was told can turn into the depression feeling. It had taken her a while to understand, but that was one of the empowering emotions that the more isolated hermits of her people would sometimes use. It was anathema to how she used her powers. Despite this, she had felt the sadness, though not the depression, for several of the recent months, because of Richard’s terrible absence from life.

She knew loss, and emotional pain, remarkably well for the short length of her life, and yet the thought of Richard permanently being gone from her life was… it was what she believed earth called heart-breaking. The two of them had been close, closer than any other had ever been to her, even if that might have drifted somewhat following the disbanding of the Titans.

And then…he had returned, and explained how he had faked the dying in order to perform a under-the-cover mission, which had prevented him from telling anyone of the truth regarding his demise. That had not gone according to his plan, she suspected. She had been less than receptive to the realisation that she had undergone the months of negative emotion for such a paltry reason, and had informed him of this. It was entirely unacceptable to her that he be allowed to believe such decisions would not have consequences on the emotional wellbeing of those that care for him.

Now, however…. She felt unsettled, and she began to wonder if she had missed something. There was no clear reason for her to be feeling this, as she had not heard of any of the negative news regarding Richard. And yet she did feel. It made her reflect, as emotion often did. Perhaps she had been too harsh to him, so soon after whatever ordeal he had spoken of. Perhaps she, and the others that he attempted to speak to, should have allowed him to explain somewhat more than she did. After all, she had done the interrupting when her emotions grew too strong to be safely contained, then she had left. Perhaps-

As sharp and swift as a starbolt, Kory realised what was granting her the feeling of the unsettled, and wondered how she could not have noticed it sooner.

She hadn’t heard from Richard in too long.

Before his deception, he would not go longer than three of the days before contacting her again, and he had attempted to continue that when he had returned. The longest she had waited before was five days. Usually a simple message, just to communicate he was still there if she should require him. It had been seven days.

She paused, staring at her phone for several minutes, considering. Then, she huffed slightly, and pocketed the brightly coloured electronic brick. It was Richard, nothing truly stopped him. He would simply be delayed…and if she lacked a response by the ending of the week, she would take some time to visit Bludhaven.

—

Harley let out a whoosh of breath as she heard the clink of a grapple gun and saw the hero swing on the cable out of sight. He was- Well, he definitely wasn’t okay, but he wasn’t dead or dying right now, and that’s the best she could do at the moment.

She collected her things, and started trotting her way home across the rooftops once more, now much more subdued. Nightwing was…she was actually worried about the kid, against all odds. She’d fought him more times than she could count, but now she was out the biz…

It was a slightly terrifying concept, that he of all the heroes would be alone. He had always been the one with the…she could only call it a light. There was just this natural easy-going nature to him, that meant he got along with almost everyone. What the heck could possibly have happened to distance him from everyone? Christ, even that creepy-ass merc Wilson had found the kid good enough to protect him, and refuse to actually kill him.

And, what was actually scaring her to think about…how in the fuck was he fighting alone against Bludhaven, with it’s rising threat level, and actually holding his own? She’d been around enough to see this amount of serious crime overwhelm meta heroes on their own, nevermind a normal guy like Nighty- Well, as normal as anyone in their line of work could be.

Her thoughts shifted to the background as she came to her new flat, lifting the window latch with an ease that would be uncomfortable, if she weren’t confident in her ability to protect herself as she was. Without much thought, she toppled the bag onto the countertop, and began to shove the various prizes into her cabinets, not really focusing on what went where as her mind grappled with Nightwing and his worrying encounter. Not to mention the amount of overwhelming baddies that had started shifting to the Bludhaven for the same reasons she probably had, but with malicious intent. She understood it, both personally and professionally, but she couldn’t help but feel as if she should be-

She froze, fridge door open in front of her, lighting up her face from below as the thought struck her like a ton of bricks.

She felt like she should be doing something. She felt like she should be helping Nightwing.

Where the hell did that come from?

Ignoring the remaining shopping, she let the fridge door slowly shut on it’s own, and leant against the countertop to examine her thought process. Methodical-like, how she used to do for the patients before everything went Joker-green and crazy.

She moved to Bludhaven to escape that life. No, wrong. She moved to give herself a safe place to have a second chance at her life. Right. The same reasons for moving, barring the second chance thing, were true for all the villains moving into the city. That was right. Nightwing was facing that alone, for reasons undisclosed. That was also right. She…was she actually worried about Nightwing? By heck, she was. She wanted to help him, just for the sake of helping him, because he had always been a nice guy to her, and believed she deserved better even when she herself couldn’t believe that.

Harley didn’t know whether she should laugh at the idea, cry that it was so unexpected, or cheer for the breakthrough in regaining her morality.

She looked around her new flat.

Calling it a flat was, honestly speaking, a kindness it did not deserve. She just liked to think of it that way, because calling it the shitbox craphole that it was made her feel all depressed. Three rooms in total, the first had a tiny little rundown kitchenette with a couch facing a TV cabinet on the wall opposite, the second had a twin bed shoved into one corner and a wardrobe barely fit in the room as well, and then the last room was the smallest bathroom that Harley had ever had the misfortune to see.

The kitchenette was covered in rust so bad that nothing she did could get rid of it, the wooden countertops were so water-damaged that they crumbled if she stared at them too hard and the fridge made this weird disturbing whining noise that sounded like a baby screeching only between the hours of 10pm and 6am. The couch was ratty and threadbare, the TV cabinet was missing both one of it’s feet and a fucking TV, not to mention that all of the walls were covered in this perpetual black mold that just wouldn’t die- Kinda reminded her of that time Scarecrow’s venom caught her, and she hated it. The bedframe was cracked and on the verge of breaking, the wardrobe hinges were broken so it wouldn’t shut all the way, and the only actually new thing in the entire shithole was the mattress, because she had taken one look at the one that the flat came with and outright refused to even consider sleeping on that thing.

It was a shithole, but it was all she could get, since everyone knew who she was and what she had done. The rent was through the roof, basically ****, and she just knew she would never get her deposit back. But maybe… If Nightwing believed in her, maybe that meant that other people could too? If she could just……prove it to them?

She couldn’t believe she was considering it, and a part of her mind was screaming at her how stupid it was, how ridiculous an idea, how she deserved to be in this awful flat, how she should just stop thinking for herself and do what she’s told and-

And that was why it felt right. These days, she worked out what she should do by listening to her logical thinking as much as she simply listened to what that snivelling Joker lackey in her mind said and doing the exact opposite. It hadn’t steered her wrong so far, and this time? This time she had an extra incentive in the form of helping out Nighty, for once.

She cackled with loud laughter to her empty flat.

It was ridiculous to consider, and insane to decide to actually do, but- Harley Quinn was gonna do the Good Guy thing and start trying to help out Nightwing.

But first…food. Fuck she was hungry.