#harleyfanfic

[kitsunati]

One step at a time

So, it was Batman Day this saturday, and I finished watching Harley Quinn’s fantastic third season this week. So I don’t know, tonight I suddenly was in the mood to write a little thing about Batman, and about Harley, inspired by the events of this season. I’ve never written Batman fanfiction before; I barely even wrote fanfiction of anything since I started writing years and years ago, but...why not, he? Also, english is not my first language (french is), and I rarely wrote stories in english, so it’s probably a little wonky. But I’m glad I did it, mainly because I had so much trouble writing those last few years. I think it’s the first story I did in a long, long time, and it felt good. So, here it is:

One Step at a Time

He was crouching on a gargoyle, but the nice one ; the one that has still its two eyes, and only one ear broken. He didn't really know why, it was just natural at this point. He saw a gargoyle, he climbed it, and that was that. And it's not like it was complicated to find a gargoly on the roofs of Gotham City. The bloody things where everwhere, like rides in the demented merry-go-round that was Gotham City in the night, the same eternal night where criminals rampant and the memory of pearls hitting the ground was here, always here, and...

Batman shook his head. He couldn't think like that anymore. Not always, like he did since that night(1). That's why he was here. To, maybe, find the thing that would...well, that wouldn't make it all go away, that wasn't the goal, and that was impossible, but...that could make it just a little better, somehow. And as much as he tried -well, that wasn't somwething he could do on his own. Not this. Never this. And the Batfamily couldn't help either. That wasn't entirely true : of course they helped, in a million ways he was often to proud to admit with words. He could talk a dangerous maniac out of their homicidal plan, but when it came to talk, really talk with his family... Let's say it was a work in progress. But the kids, that wasn't their burden to bear, god knows they had enough of their own trauma to deal with. And Alfred... Alfred was too close to the picture to really give it a new spin. He needed...something else. Finally admiting had been a difficult first step, one he took grinding his teeth...but he took it nonetheless. He just had to wait.

Wait for her. She was oddly ponctual, he gave her that. Every time, she climbed the building the same way, passing under the same gargoyles ; he took the time to know her schedule. Batman was never late, after all. He heard her before he saw the colors she loved so much ; he waited for her to pass under the gargoyle...and pounced, landing right before her, a muscular shadow in an impressive costume stepping out the dark, the visor of his helmet giving his eyes the unforgiving white look he was known for.

« Bejeezus, Batsy ! »

Harley Quinn recoiled, her two hands on the baseball bat that never left her side (2). She wore bright colors, like she did more and more, and not only the red and the black shes was infamous for. Tonight, she wore leggins with spots of color blending into each other, and a green tank top with a « Save the plants ! » spelt with little roses, each a different color. Her two ponytails, pink and blue, where dangling at the side of her head as she walked right into Batman, liberating a hand to point him right in the torso with an angry finger,

« You know you have to work on that ! You don't jumb on your therapist ! »

« Sorry. Force of habit. For my defense, my therapist used to jump on me pretty often. Generally with something like a big hammer. To bash my face in. I recall it was with a big fish once, a believe a sort of swordfish ! »

« We agreed we'd never talk about the fish ! »

« I thought it was your job to make people talk about the fish. »

« Not that fish. » She shuddered, her eyes lost in one of those memory that could never be spoken out loud, because the univierse would probably explose or something. One second later, she was back as her own self, beaming a big smile : « You came ! It's the third appointment, and you continue to...well, not avoid them, like the...what, five first times we tried to do this ? »

« The third time, it was because The Flash rebooted the universe -again- and I was stuck in a loop where I was pirate dinosaur ! »

« I'm never here for the interesting stuff... And the four other times ? »

« Yeah, I avoided those. Sorry. » He smiled. A rare and true Batman smile. The first time, it scarled Harley and she nearly hit him in the teeth to fracture this unatural vision. But today, three seances in, she was starting to get used to it. A little like you got used to the weird picture on the wall of your parents house. She sit cross-legged on the roof, her bat on her knees, and she patted a tile, inviting her patient to do the same. He did, and for a few second they just enjoyed the silence. Under them, the Arkham Asylum was a fierce and distorded vision in the night, but they were high enough to not hear patient scream.

« Why here ? » She took something in her pockets, a pair of black rimmed glasses she always liked to wear when she was doing something vaguely professional.

« Well, I... »

« Tut tut tut, I'm not done with my costume yet ! » She had a little notepad in one hand, a pen in the other. « Now I'm ready ! You can't rush the psychology, dude ! »

« You're wearing one of Ivy's shirts again, I see. »

« I don't give eyes exams. I was more in the habit of like, popping them up with knives or something ! »

« But not anymore. Now, you wear your girlfriend's shirt to work, you get one of your old enemies to open about himself before he goes completely banana, and you haven't opped an eyeball in ages...or have you ? »

« Maaaaybe ? Oh, and for the record, let us know that I'm writing in my little therapeutic notepad that Batman said « Completely banana » ! »

« No one will ever believe you. » That smile, again. She hoped he didn't forced that on the poor kids.

« So, what d'ya want to talk about today, my bat-patient ? My batient ? He, we'll workshop it. »

« You should try having Manbat on one of these, I'm sure it would be illuminating. »

« Don't divert, dude ! We're here to talk about ya ! Well, you're here to talk about you. I'm here to listen and doodle in my lil' notepad when it get to « the night is dark, I am the night, I am your coffee in the morning, and all that. »

« I know, I know. I just... I'm not used to it. To really speak about...any of it. I'm still getting to grasps with the fact that you know who I... »

« People get psychically transported in other people psyches by supervillains every tuesday on this universe. It's not big deal. And you know I won't tell. Patient-confidentiality and all that jazz. »

« That, and because you're a good person now, Harley. »

« Shut up. I'm...I'm just me, always a work in progress, and when I saw how sad and pathetic it was in this lil' nuggin' of yours, I couldn't do nothing. It would have been like kicking a puppy in the balls and I never were that far gone. »

« I just... Thank you Harley, I mean it. It was...time. It was more than time, in fact. »

« Yeah, yeah, I've enough roses at home, so stop throwing them on the roof. Speaking of... why here ?  Why Arkham and not your fancy manor ? »

« It's...more grounded that way, I guess. They go through it, I should too. »

« Not really the same thing : I don't see the padded jacket and your still a multibillionaire with enough issues to fill up at least three cosy retreat facilities with what isn't right in this bat head of yours. »

« Step by step, I guess. »

« And even a little step is better than no step. I mean it. » She did. This...arrangement, as weird and unatural it seemd at the start...well, it was not working exactly, not yet, but it was doing something. For him, but for her too. She still didn't know who she was now that she didn't want to define herself as a villain anymore. And she could never go back to Harleen either, it didn't work like that. She just had to find what would come next. And maybe...maybe it started with helping the traumatized little boy who was hding inside the scary man dressed as as bat.

Yep, they'll be there a while.

But it was a start. Sometimes, that's all you could ask.

« So ! She said. « Last time, you started talking about this near death experience with... »

She spoke, and he spoke, and on this night in Gotham City, two people who spent so much time fighting each other were actually trying to...help each other ?

One step at a time.

You know, that night ! Everyone and their mother knows about that night ! You can go to anyone who hasn't read a comic in their life and told them about the night, they would know about the friggin' night !

Well, except with this bizarre incident with the llama.