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The lounge reeked of margarita mix. Mostly from Harley, but from the way the soles of Ivy's shoes were sticking to the floor as she walked over to the sofa she was pretty sure she'd gotten a good dose of it too. At least it was better than Bloody Mary mix - that would never have washed out.
"...come talk to me after a St. Bernard shits on your FACE!" Frank was mid-rant, but Ivy's attention was on the dejected figure sitting cross-legged on the couch that would no doubt smell of artificial lime from this day forward. Seeing Harley like this was almost enough to make Ivy regret setting up the whole stupid scenario with the Riddler. Almost.
"Frank! Jesus..." Pushing the plant out of the way, Ivy sat beside Harley, momentarily taking her hand. She knew what she was going to say, but the anxiety she couldn't quite suppress was still gnawing at her. "Harley." Blue eyes flashed towards her as she spoke, and Ivy took that as a good sign. "I... love you." Those words were hard to say, but even worse was the way Harley's shoulders sagged as Ivy said them, her gaze falling back to the floor. 'Well, what else were you expecting?' the unpleasant mental voice that sounded remarkably like Ivy's mother hissed at her. 'For her to fall into your arms?'
Ignoring it, Ivy forced herself to continue. "In a very odd, hard to articulate way." No response - Harley's eyes remained stubbornly fixed on the floor. 'That she doesn't reciprocate you stupid girl, she's your only friend and you're trying to ruin that.' Perhaps the Mother-voice had a point, Ivy reflected. Finding out that the man you were hopelessly in love with - even if he was a piece of shit in the shape of a clown - would be happy to skip over your corpse in order to keep chasing Batman wasn't something that you could get over quickly. "And if you'd just stop sabotaging yourself..."
"Unlikely." Harley still wouldn't meet her gaze, ('because you made it awkward') but at least getting a response was an improvement.
"Right, but, if you did... the world would be yours." Unconsciously, Ivy began to reach out towards Harley as she spoke. Just as unconsciously her hand stopped midway. "And you could be any kind of, I don't know," Ivy flicked one of the bells on Harley's hood as she went on which finally made the other woman look at her again. "Circus performer that you want."
"Yeah." The upholstery made a faint rasping sound as Harley stood, the sticky fabric of her costume peeling away from it almost like velcro. "You know, why am I still wearing this thing?"
"I do not know," Ivy replied. She was about to ask why Harley hadn't taken it off the moment they got back since being saturated with drying margarita mix had to make it uncomfortable, but then the doorbell rang. Ivy took that as a sign that talking about her feelings was officially over.
oOo
"Did you send me to her because you think I can't do this?" Rather than angry, Harley sounded despondent as she looked at Ivy with genuine hurt in her eyes.
"No!" Ivy protested, with the belated realization that yes, sending Harley to talk to the Queen of Fables could be interpreted that way and yes, that kind of shit was typical Joker-style manipulation. "Harley, I sent you there because I know that you can. Look, I..." She hesitated with a deep sigh, knowing that 'I don't want to see you dead or in a fucking tax book' would most likely read as patronising. "I just wanted you to know what you're up against, you know, 'cause I, uh..." Saying it was just as hard as it had ever been, but Ivy forced it out anyway. "I love you."
This time Harley didn't look away and the blonde's smile sent a surge of warmth through Ivy's chest. The feeling was as unfamiliar as it was terrifying and Ivy quickly tried to cover for herself. "Don't make a thing of it," she stated flatly. Later, Ivy would wonder what might have happened if Harley had decided that she wanted to make a thing of it. As much as she might deny it, there was part of Ivy - most of her in fact - that was desperately hoping that Harley would make a thing of it. Instead, Frank derailed the entire conversation by bursting into tears and Ivy somehow managed to be grateful for that and hate him for it at the same time.
oOo
"So where's Harley?" Ivy asked, setting the potted aloe down on the nightstand in King Shark's hospital room. "She said she got held up with some Legion shit, but I figured she'd come running as soon as she heard."
"Patrick Swayze's ghost!" Clayface exclaimed, pointing at the wall-mounted TV behind her. "It appears we've been deceived." That wasn't the answer Ivy had been expecting, but she turned anyway to see what was on the screen.
And it felt like Mr Freeze had blasted her in the chest with an ice ray.
Ivy was barely aware of Tawny's narration; it was nothing but nonsense sounds. Her eyes were fixed on the image of Harley and Joker, back together.
Harley would always go back to him. Ivy should have known that, should have expected it, should have braced herself for it. No matter what he did to her, Harley always went back. Maybe Harley's whole Legion of Doom obsession had only been about getting the Joker to notice her from the start.
"That asshole changed, and so has Harley," Frank told her as the stoner who'd brought him to the coffee house ate Harley's cake. "Trust me, you're on your own."
Frank had only been half-right, Ivy reflected as she picked up the remote and paused the news report. Harley hadn't changed at all. But Ivy was definitely on her own. From the silence around her, she guessed she wasn't the only one who felt that way.
oOo
"Listen, Ive, I can't live with not knowing why I'm some bad guy in your brain setting fire to things!" Ivy would have ignored Harley and kept walking, but the blonde woman darted around to face her, grabbing her by the arms and looking up at her imploringly. "I love you!"
'She doesn't mean that.' Ivy didn't need the Mother-voice's input there, the memory of seeing Harley in a passionate embrace with the Joker still too fresh. 'Not in the way you want it to.'
"Harley, later." Ivy snapped as she knocked her hands away. "Scarecrow's about to use my pheromones for some kind of biological warfare." She wasn't sure exactly what the sack-faced shithead's end game was, but it definitely didn't bode well for Gotham. "We have to stop him." Ivy didn't bother adding that when she said 'stop' she absolutely meant 'kill'.
"I think we gotta stop them," Dr Psycho interrupted, lifting a recycling bin and pointing at the prominent Legion of Doom logo.
This day kept getting better and better.
oOo
Driving a truck remotely using vines was definitely not the easiest thing in the world and the way the wind was whipping at the damn hospital gown Ivy was still wearing didn't help, especially when she knew she was absolutely naked underneath. But she'd worry about the tabloids after she'd thrown Scarecrow into a giant pitcher plant.
"Hey!" Harley had followed her. Of course Harley had followed her. "Now that it's just me and you, I was hoping we could talk a little bit about why one bestie would think of the other bestie as her worst nightmare?"
"Not now!" The truck lurched to one side, throwing Harley off her feet. Ivy only stayed on hers thanks to the vines coiled around her ankles. Accelerating, she tried to swerve past the trucks that were on either side of her so that she could catch up with Scarecrow, but her tenuous control of the vehicle wasn't enough. She briefly managed to pull past one of them, but it quickly caught up. Out of the corner of her eye, Ivy saw a goon in a hazmat suit lean out the truck's window with a gun in one hand only to be smashed straight out of the cab by Harley's bat. Somehow she'd gotten from the top of Ivy's truck to the roof of the one on her left.
"Uh, what about now?" From experience Ivy knew that Harley wasn't going to let this go and right now she was angry enough - with Harley, with Scarecrow, with herself, with everyone on this entire damn highway - to face her and answer truthfully.
"Fine! You want to know what my biggest fear is? Finally allowing myself to count on someone and then having them ditch me!" Ivy saw Harley look away just as they both had to duck under a low sign and that just made her angrier.
"But I was still planning on helping you!" Harley shouted back with a plaintive note in her voice that made it clear she knew exactly how weak a response that was.
"You were my one friend," Ivy shot back, deliberately echoing Harley's own words. "And I asked you for one favour, but instead you ditched me for the Joker who treats you like shit!" She could feel the telltale burning at the back of her eyes and hated it, telling herself that later she'd blame it on road dust. 'But you know you're crying because you have no friends Pamela, haven't you grown out of this nonsense yet? You should know by now that you can't make friends and crying won't change that.' Tears scored hot lines across Ivy's face as the wind caught them and whipped them away. "I thought you could change, but I was wrong. You still live your entire life based on what he might think!" 'And that is why she'll never love you.'
For a moment there was only the sounds of the highway as Ivy blinked her tears away. Then Harley spoke. "So, how do we fix this?"
Ivy almost laughed in response. All these years and she still hadn't figured that out. "I don't know," she replied honestly, then her eyes widened in horror as the road rose in front of her at an impossible angle - and kept going. "Loop!" Ivy heard Harley shout the same word, and wondered if they'd need to fix this after all since dying on the Harley Quinn Highway seemed pretty likely about now.
oOo
"Answer my question!" Harley demanded, jabbing a finger at Ivy accusingly. Even though she'd been expecting this subject to come up for weeks now, Ivy still wanted to stall. She'd never expected the question to come up while they were miles up in the sky on a fucking cloud after all. Clayface being thrown aside by the angry giant bought her a few extra seconds. As did the giant smashing his club down between them.
Rather than dodge like the rest of them, Harley chose to flip herself up onto the club instead and start running along it. Ivy had no idea what her plan was and she was pretty sure that Harley didn't either. 'Maybe she's running away from the situation, just like you'
"Fine," Ivy sighed, then cupped her hands around her mouth to shout to Harley. It wasn't like she had anything to hide from the damn giant, and everyone else here already knew about her and Chuck. Which made it even more incredible - somewhat galling too if truth be told - that Harley didn't. "I'm... I'm dating Kite-Man!"
"WHAT?!" Harley was making good progress up the giant's arm until she heard that, her voice mixed disbelief and outrage as she swung round to stare at the green woman. Which turned out to be an incredibly poor tactical decision as the giant immediately swatted her away to send her tumbling to the cloud floor. Whether it would turn out to be as unyielding as the ground below remained a mystery as Dr Psycho caught Harley in a telekinesis field before she could hit it.
"Ha! Got ya!" If the misogynistic dwarf was expecting gratitude then he didn't get it, Harley didn't even look at him. She was glaring at Ivy instead, but through the red haze of the field it was hard to tell if the look in her eyes was anger or jealousy.
"You're dating Kite-Man?" Anger. It was definitely anger. Harley only got this shrill when she was genuinely angry. "Why?!" Harley shrieked, apparently deciding that this was much more important than the giant trying to kill them.
"Uhhhhh..." Responding with 'because you weren't interested' might have been honest, but this absolutely wasn't the time to open that can of worms. And while Ivy didn't care that Harley's crew knew about her and Chuck, she absolutely didn't want them knowing about her feelings for Harley. That probably meant something.
"You... you love him?" Harley's outrage had vanished. Now it was just disbelief and bewilderment that Ivy could hear in her voice. It wasn't the reaction of someone who had feelings for her beyond the platonic, so at the very least Ivy could be relieved that she'd never gone down that route after all.
"I haven't said, like, 'I love you' to him," Ivy admitted as Psycho set Harley down next to them. "But... yeah. I love him a little." And one day she would tell him that. After working herself up to it, because saying it was never easy for her.
Except to Harley.
"How do we not know about this?" Now Harley sounded hurt, but not like a spurned lover. Like she'd found out Ivy had gone to half price cocktail night at the Iceberg Lounge without her. Or, more likely, that she'd found out Ivy had gone to half price cocktail night without her even though Ivy had texted her about it and left the flyer pinned to the fridge. As the giant's hands slammed down around the two of them, trapping them, Ivy felt her own anger bubbling up once more.
"Because you never asked!" she snapped as the giant leaned down to leer at them with a malevolent chuckle. "I mean, it's like if it's not about you, you're not interested!" Ivy couldn't keep the note of accusation out of her voice as she continued. "I wasn't even trying very hard to keep it a secret!" As the giant's hands closed around them - obviously intending to crush them - Harley climbed onto one before backflipping to the other. "I kept coming home, reeking of kite, leaves in my hair..." Ivy kept up the tirade as she made a grab for Harley's outstretched hand, the blonde pulling her free just as the giant's hands slammed shut. Reflexes were clearly not it's strong point. "Didn't you ever think that was weird?"
"You seriously didn't know, Quinn?" Dr Psycho asked as they all started running. "Show of hands for everybody who knew." Even Sy raised his hand. That was the worst part. That and the fact they were all about to be eaten by a giant. Ivy could at least take some satisfaction in the knowledge that she'd probably poison the ugly fucker.
oOo
Ivy had to admit that being giant was actually pretty sweet. She could have done without having to murder the poor trees who'd never asked to be turned into psychotic foot soldiers for the Legion of Doom, but being this size meant catching up with the one which had just grabbed Harley was easy. Punching through its heartwood and tearing it apart was harder, but she could plant more trees later. She couldn't plant another Harley... who was currently plummeting to the ground yet again.
"Gotcha!" Managing to snatch Harley out of the air, Ivy lifted the other woman to face height. Harley - being Harley - didn't seem fazed by this at all, sitting cross-legged on Ivy's palm like it was a beanbag and they did this all the time.
"Thanks Ive," Harley grinned up at her. "Wow, you risked your life and killed trees for us." As Harley went on, Ivy reminded herself to ask her to maybe not spread the whole tree killing thing around after this. "And I thought you didn't love anything more than trees."
"Yeahhhhh... well, you know, I guess there are a handful of exceptions." Ivy replied, looking at Harley meaningfully while also shuddering inwardly at the terrible pun.
"I'm so sorry." Great. Harley hadn't even noticed that awful bit of wordplay. Maybe that was for the best. "I'm not great at having people who are actually good to me in my life," Harley continued, her shoulders sagging.
"Same. Most people are trash," Ivy stated bluntly. Before she'd met Harley, 'most' would have been 'all'. Hell, if she'd never met Harley then she doubted that Kite-Man would have survived their first encounter.
"I promise I'll do better," Harley's eyes were wide and sincere as she looked up at her. "If you're willing to give me a shot."
Lowering her hand slightly, Ivy gave a sigh that was part acceptance and part surrender. Harley was her best friend. And if that was all Harley wanted to be that wasn't her fault, or her responsibility. Besides, now she had Chuck - even if Ivy still wasn't sure if that was a good idea or prospect. Maybe it was time to put her feelings for Harley behind her. And maybe that was for the best - it wasn't like she'd have to compete with the Joker for Chuck's affections. Or have to see him making out with the clown on live TV.
Ivy wasn't sure whether she wanted to laugh or gag at that mental image.
"Wouldn't it be messed up if I ate you right now?" she asked with a smirk. Harley grinned in response and they both cracked up in helpless laughter.
Then someone punched Ivy in the back.
oOo
It was dark. Cold. Damp. A heavy weight was holding her down. For a moment Ivy thought she was back in Arkham, but it smelled like loose soil which was a huge improvement on the asylum. As she started to struggle, the oppressive mass above her shifted and she realised it was loose soil. The last thing she clearly remembered was being hit and looking down at her free hand to see green blood covering it. After that everything was a hazy montage - Harley had been yelling at her but her words were drowned out by the amplified shrieks of triumphant laughter coming from the Joker's tower.
He'd killed her. But apparently nature had other ideas - though if Ivy didn't get out of here quickly she'd suffocate. Could she still suffocate? And if she did, would she return to life again to do it over and over until she managed to get out? That would be a seriously shitty way to spend however long it took her to dig her way out.
With a snarl that she immediately regretted as wet earth filled her mouth, Ivy started to gouge away at the soil above her with her nails. Someone must have buried her and Ivy was sure that it would have been Harley. If the Joker had got hold of her body then he'd either have burned it or thrown it in acid. Then again, that could be giving him far too much credit.
How long had she been down here? The ground was still soft enough to claw through with relative ease so it couldn't have been that long, but Ivy had no way of telling. What had happened to Harley? Had the Joker killed her? Or... could she have gone back to him? No. She wouldn't. 'Are you sure?'
Pushing that thought aside, Ivy tore even harder at the soil, trying to push herself upright while she did - as if she was swimming. She was trying to breathe as shallowly as possible, but even so her lungs were starting to burn when her right hand suddenly broke through to the surface. Carefully withdrawing it, Ivy sighed in relief as she saw daylight and took a deep breath of Gotham's questionably fresh air.
The sensible thing to do would have been to feel around for any plants she could use to help dig her out, but instead Ivy took another deep breath, braced herself and forced both arms up through the hole she'd made as she tried to stand. Loose earth rained down as she created a miniature landslide that threatened to immediately re-bury her, but then she caught hold of the solid turf at the lip of the grave and used it to lever her upper body free. Spitting out clumps of dirt, Ivy shook her head and raised one hand to shade her eyes from the sunlight. Then a shadow fell across her. Looking up, she saw Chuck standing over the grave, staring at her as his mouth moved soundlessly.
"Uh... hi?" Ivy offered, her voice a rusty, soil-clogged croak. Painfully aware that she was still up to her waist in grave dirt, Ivy pushed herself further up - and Kite-man screamed. He made a few abortive attempts to say something as he backed away but the only intelligible words Ivy made out were 'hell no' before he turned and launched himself into the sky.
"What?" Frank's voice came from behind Ivy and she struggled to turn only to find her view blocked by a boulder that was carved with her name. "Is it Harley? Did that clown motherfucker- holy shit! Ivy?!" Letting his pot drop to the ground with a thud, Frank lifted both of his eyestalks to goggle at her. "Is that you, or is that asshole Faust fucking around with raising the dead again?"
"It's me, Frank." Finally managing to crawl out onto the grass, Ivy tried to get to her feet then stumbled as a surge of dizziness hit her and leaned back against what she was guessing was her headstone.
"Prove it!" the plant growled, eyes narrowing suspiciously. "What's your favourite Indigo Girls track?"
Spreading her hands out on the sun-warmed stone to ground herself, Ivy closed her eyes and waited for the giddy nausea to fade. "Closer to Fine, Frank," she replied irritably. "You know that."
Frank made a derisive noise in response. "Yeah, yeah, that's the one you want people to think is your favourite. But what's the one you sing when you're all maudlin and shit after too much wine even though I told your drunk ass that another glass was a bad idea?"
Raising her head, Ivy glared at him, but Frank glared right back as he folded two of his vines like arms. "Ugh. Fine. Power of Two, you asshole."
"Ivy!" Grabbing her with a delighted yell, Frank pulled Ivy into a tight hug that really didn't help with the nausea. "God-damn woman, why did you never tell me you could rise from the dead like that? I mean, I'm really happy to see you but that was a total dick move."
"Well gee, Frank, forgive me for never getting killed before," Ivy managed to grit out as the plant's vines crushed her against his main stem. "It's not something I was actually aware of. At least you didn't run away," she added with a disappointed huff.
"Girl, you just bust out of your grave like the fucking Return of the Living Dead!" Frank crowed with a wild chuckle. "If I had legs, I'd have run the fuck away, especially after the shit Nekron pulled last Halloween! Well, Harley probably wouldn't have run, but that girl's crazy anyhow."
Managing to extricate herself from Frank's grasp, Ivy cautiously stood and this time was relieved to find that most of her unsteadiness had gone. Now it was just a dull whirl at the back of her head like a fading hangover. "Harley. Where is she? How long was I dead for? What's going on with the Joker?"
"Well - in no particular order - your dirt-nap took a week or so," Frank began, counting the questions off with flicks of a vine. "Joker's running the whole damn city on account of having Batman prisoner since Harley's first plan to take the clown motherfucker down. He wants Harley alive and you just know that don't bode well. He put a million dollar bounty on her head but until now she's managed to lie low."
"Until now?" Fear twisted sharply in Ivy's gut at those words. "Did... did she go back to him?" Her question was followed by a yelp as one of Frank's vines slapped her smartly across the head.
"'Course she didn't," Frank was glaring at her with clear disapproval as he spoke. "Not after he killed you like the pilot from that space cowboy show. She was here like an hour ago to tell your not-actually-dead ass that she was headed to his tower to either kill him or die trying. Said she'd either see you later or see you on the flip side. If it's the latter, looks like you gone and stood her up."
"Shit!" Turning to face the tower looming over the park, Ivy felt a spot between her shoulderblades start to itch as she looked up at the massive grinning head that surmounted it. "You're sure it was only an hour ago?"
"Yeah, as sure as I am that if that clown motherfucker had killed her, he'd want the whole city to know about it." Frank replied. "I take it you're going after her instead of Kite-Man, huh?"
"What the hell do you think?" Ivy snapped without looking at him. The tower had risen out of the ground, so that meant there must be a way in from underground. That seemed like the best way to get in without being seen.
"What do I think?" Frank repeated, with a smile that Ivy could feel rather than see. "I think I'm gonna stay here and count on my fingers how many times you've risked your life for Kite-Man. Well, I don't have any fingers but that's okay 'cause I'd need zero fucking fingers anyway."
"Go to hell, Frank." Without looking back, Ivy headed straight for the tower.
oOo
"You know, when I met Kite-Man, I thought he was a total dweeb," Harley was swinging one leg over the end of the pier while another Ace Chemicals executive shrieked as the toxic waste they'd planned to dump in the river was poured down their throat instead. Ivy turned to look at her, surprised that Harley had gone for a word as mild as 'dweeb'. "Who didn't even deserve to breathe the same air as you."
Ivy couldn't help a small snort of agreement. "Yeah, me too." She wondered if she should tell Harley that she'd felt the same about her when they'd first met, but she was pretty sure Harley already knew.
"Then he started hanging around more," Harley continued. "And I still didn't really like him," she admitted, looking away awkwardly as Ivy tried not to smile. Trust Harley to think she hadn't noticed. "But today he risked his life to get you that diamond you wanted."
"I didn't want that diamond," Ivy replied dismissively. She had no idea why Chuck had ever thought she'd like it in the first place - because it was leaf-shaped? Seriously?
"Yeah, I know. It's totally not your taste," Harley said with a shrug. "It's too whimsical."
"Far too whimsical," Ivy agreed, not really surprised that Harley had picked the exact word she'd have used.
"But I saw a less lame side of him." Harley's eyes softened as she smiled and Ivy felt something tighten in her chest at the sight. When she had imagined Harley looking at her like this, it had not involved discussing her boyfriend. "And I'm starting to get it."
'Are you?' Ivy pushed that resentful thought aside. Harley had accepted her relationship with Chuck, and that was what she'd wanted. Wasn't it? "He grows on you, right?"
"Yeah." Concern flashed in Harley's eyes as she went on, her eyebrows contracting into a worried frown. "Ive, you're never gonna be Catwoman because you have people that love you."
Shifting slightly, Ivy flinched and looked away at those words. For a moment she felt absurdly guilty - like the housewife fucking her husband's boss that Harley had once compared her to - then felt the other woman's hand on her shoulder.
"People who want the best for you." If Harley had noticed the conflict in Ivy's expression, she didn't react to it. "People who will help you with your goals if you let them." Glancing at one of the bound executives, Harley grinned wickedly then looked back at Ivy. "Can I do one?"
"Sure," Ivy replied, bringing a vine across to drop a chemical drum into Harley's outstretched arms as the blonde woman squealed excitedly. Watching her dump the contents into the face of the screaming vice-chair, Ivy decided it was time to let it go - just like that stupid damn song Harley had kept singing on the carousel at the German Christmas Market until a combination of eggnog and centripedal force had made her throw up.
Let it go.
oOo
"Only love sets us free!" Ivy had never imagined hearing that sentiment from Bane of all people but here she was, clinging desperately to a vine as her hands slid inexorably towards its end, the heat from the flames below beating at them with an almost physical force. Harley's arms were locked tightly around her waist, but she couldn't break free from Bane's grip and it was his weight that was going to pull them both back down into the pit. And if the fall didn't kill her, she'd have to deal with spilling her insecurities in front of everyone.
Shit, even if the fall killed her it might not take.
"Ivy." From the tone of Harley's voice, Ivy immediately realised her intentions and looked down to see the blonde gazing up at her.
"No." Glaring at the other woman, Ivy tightened her legs around Harley's torso. She'd suffocate her if she had to if it meant stopping her from letting go.
"It's okay." Harley's eyes were calm, accepting. Ivy had never seen that kind of look in her eyes before and that alone was frightening.
"Don't. Don't do this." Ivy wanted to reach down and grab Harley by the hair if she had to, and was only stopped by the knowledge that she would lose her tenuous grip on the vine in the process and they'd both fall.
"Have a good life." Harley gave no sign that she'd even heard Ivy's words. "Get married, make babies, name them Harley. The girls and boys."
"Harley!" Ivy's voice was getting desperate, but Harley's beatific expression didn't change in the slightest.
"See? It totally works. You know I love you." This time there was nothing defensive or desperate about the admission, only deep sincerity in Harley's eyes. Her arms tightened around Ivy's waist as Harley pressed her head against her midriff in the best approximation of a hug that she could manage with Bane's weight hanging from one foot, then her grip slackened. "Bye, Ive."
And then Harley let go.
Ivy did not have an athlete's strength like Harley, and even if she had Bane's sheer mass would have defeated it. There was nothing she could do to stop Harley from slipping through her legs and the moment she did the sudden release of the excess weight sent Ivy hurtling upwards like the vine was a bungee cord.
The next thing Ivy knew, she was skidding across the desert ground by the lip of the pit as the vine released her. She barely felt it - instead she focused her will on the plants around her. Grabbing a root that exploded from the ground in response to her summons, Ivy hurled herself back into the void, teeth bared in a snarl.
The flaming wreckage at the bottom of the pit loomed up as Ivy plummeted towards it, but all she could see was Harley. The root had wrapped firmly around her wrist, leaving her with a free arm that she stretched out to snag the other woman by one foot just before she hit the burning debris. Ignoring the wrench in her shoulder, Ivy hauled Harley upwards as the root began to retract and as an afterthought she split a tendril off from it to wrap firmly around Harley's waist then lifted her in both arms for good measure.
This time the landing was much more gentle but Ivy still barely felt it through the adrenaline. Part of her wanted to scream at Harley for being so stupid but the sheer fact that they were both alive and free was enough to silence it. Instead she started to laugh as she got her breath back, catching Harley in a hug that was returned just as tightly.
"We did it," Ivy managed to gasp, her smile so wide that it almost hurt. Harley didn't reply, but looked up at her with shining eyes and a breathless smile. Later, Ivy would try to remember if she'd moved first or if it had been Harley but in the end it didn't even matter. Her hands were in Harley's hair and Harley's were in hers and they were sharing the most passionate kiss of Ivy's entire life.
Then the moment ended, replaced with the dawning realisation of what they'd just done. 'Well,' the Mother-voice sneered. 'Now you've ruined it, haven't you?'
oOo
Ivy sipped her tea mechanically, barely tasting it as she listened to the footsteps going back and forth behind her. She and Harley had made it back to the mall, showered (apart), slept (apart) and now it was a brand new day and they still hadn't discussed... it. Maybe it had changed everything. Maybe it had changed nothing. Given that Harley hadn't even tried to raise the subject - although the nervous pacing indicated that something was definitely on her mind - Ivy's suspicions were leaning towards the latter. Maybe Harley was embarrassed. 'Maybe you should be too.' Maybe Harley thought Ivy had read too much into it. But it had just been a kiss. Ivy wasn't the only person Harley had kissed after all. Harley wasn't the only person Ivy had kissed. Sure, nobody else she'd kissed had ever made her feel like that but that was probably because she was socially inept and hadn't had her first kiss until college. Maybe Harley was just a good kisser.
"Harls, if we're going to talk about it, let's just talk about it." It took an effort for Ivy to break the awkward silence but she guessed that things wouldn't go anywhere until she did.
"I mean psssh, if you want to I guess I could, yeah." Ivy felt the sofa shift slightly as Harley leaned against it, but didn't look at her. She was afraid to. "That was crazy, right?"
Well, 'crazy' was one word for it. "So crazy," Ivy replied with an awkward chuckle, forcing herself to look at the other woman. Harley however was looking down at her hands.
"I've been thinking about it a lot," she began, though her casual tone indicated that she must not have thought about it that deeply. "And I think it was..."
"An impetuous, spur of the moment thing." Ivy finished for her. "You know?" Maybe Harley would disagree. Right now Ivy wasn't sure if that would be a bad thing. If they could just get this out in the open then maybe...
"Yes." Or maybe Harley would just agree with her and the whole thing could blow over.
"It was the adrenaline of escaping, you know?" The words were spilling out of Ivy automatically now as she tried to justify herself. If the kiss had meant nothing, she wanted to make damn sure that Harley believed that was what she thought too. "I just think it went to our heads.”
"Hundred percent," Harley agreed, her stance starting to relax as if she was finding the situation much more bearable now that things were out in the open.
"You know?" There was still a note of doubt in Ivy's voice, just as there was still a small part of her that wanted Harley to go 'well, actually...'.
The same part that wanted to kiss her again.
"It's so weird and uncanny how you just said everything I was going to say," Harley replied, leaping over the back of the sofa to sit beside Ivy, propping her feet up on the coffee table. Something in her voice made Ivy pause, but maybe that was just down to the sheer awkwardness of the discussion.
"I think we just chalk it up to a crazy moment where something crazy happened," Ivy could feel her confidence returning as shaky ground became solid once more. She could just bury her regrets in there now and hopefully they wouldn't come back to bite her. Again. "You know what I mean?" she asked, wanting Harley to put a nail in this once and for all. "I mean, that's it."
"Totally, totally, it was so me!" Harley pushed herself up from the sofa and away. "It was Harley Quinn, always doing crazy things. Always being impetuous, hey!" As Dr Psycho walked past her, Harley grabbed him, spinning him around and lifting him. "Always kissing people!"
Ivy wasn't sure if she or Dr Psycho were more surprised when Harley kissed him with a loud smack. With a disgusted yell, the dwarf shoved her away and twisted out of her grasp, landing on the floor with a grunt.
"Disgusting, you're not my type!" he spat, then stalked off angrily.
"Harley, are you sure you're cool, or..." Ivy left the sentence hanging.
"Yes!" Harley sounded exasperated as she sat on the coffee table. "I swear to you, I'm cool. I'm just... we are cool."
And that was the end of it.