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Harper Row was an interesting problem to solve, in Molly's expert opinion.
In many ways, she was perfect for The Unsanity Collective. Smart, almost as good with a wrench as Molly herself, an absolute goddess with a keyboard, and with a lifetime of trauma to go with it all. Really, as far as Molly was concerned, she couldn't be more perfect for them unless she came gift-wrapped.
It was a shame then that, like so many others in this city, that beautiful blue rose couldn't see the benefits of getting pruned. Snipping out all those gnarled bits in her brain so she could grow better, stronger, and hit the peaks Molly knew she could with just a little bit of help...
That wasn't to say Row seemed completely against the idea, and that was the part that confused Molly. Usually, anyone with a Bat on their chest, literally or metaphorically, wanted to argue with her. Wanted to debate her, to prove why their ideals were soooo much better.
That purple one had called them a bunch of cowards running from their pasts, both Robins had too, and Batman himself... Well, he was interesting too, but not nearly as fascinating as Molly's little blue bird.
They'd first met in a way one might not really expect. There was no chase, no big incident, Molly had done what they did with most people. She sent the woman a message.
Data on social media is pathetically easy to track, even for someone like Row who barely seemed active. Medical records, though sparse, told the story of someone who had fought for every scrap. The fact that she had dropped out of school to support her brother, the attempts at heroism, it was all perfect.
So Molly had sent the message, and they agreed to meet, up on the roof of a diner in the narrows, with takeout in hand. Harper slurping down a cup of noodles while Molly herself picked at a breakfast burrito. Sure it was late, but hey, a girl had to take advantage of a 24-hour breakfast menu.
She offered up the idea and explained in as great a detail as she could how the process worked. How Master Wyze had made a machine to help people. To read a person's mind, to target the cancerous trauma that poisoned them, and simply remove it. Leave all the skills intact, even most of their personalities, and let them be reborn.
Molly had expected her to shoot it down immediately but, no, Harper had seemed receptive. She listened, she watched Molly with interest in her eyes and a smirk on the corner of her lips. Maybe it was the fact that Harper was like Molly, that she was trans, that she got the urge to change. The want to rip down all the barriers society put up for you, to burn your old life to ashes so you can dance in the ruins as the person you really are...
Or maybe the Bluebird was just smarter than the Bats, who could say for certain?
But for a moment Molly had almost expected her to accept but, when she spoke, the answer wasn't what the cyborg had wanted.
"I get it, I do." Harper had started. "But... I dunno if I can? My life sucked, nah scratch that, this shit still sucks. I'm barely a Bat, I'm barely a superhero, I'm barely scraping by but... My life is trauma, ya know? If I let go of it, ain't that letting go of me?"
The words were discouraging, but they still made Molly smirk, disappointed as she was she had learned to accept that sort of answer. So she'd stood, her snack finished, and offered Harper a hand. The Magic eye flashed in her socket as she got her hoverboard up and running. The four rotors buzzed to life while she spoke.
"Eh, can't blame a girl for trying, right?"
Harper had taken her hand, and Molly had led her up onto her drone, hands stuffed into her pockets as the machine jerked slightly before lifting off the roof. Harper stumbled, and fell into Molly, but she stood tall. A thing that, apparently, told Harper she was perfect to hold onto for stability... Not that Molly minded.
She was warm, and as she flew Harper back to that crummy little apartment she called home, it was nice enough that Molly left her with a parting gift. An email address, a way to contact her, she wanted to see where this could go.
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That was their first meeting, and the second of many came not long after. Though Molly didn't know how much that meeting had meant to Harper, she had made quite the impression. A few days passed and Harper finally sent an email to the woman. It was short, and maybe more than a little dorky, but thinking of her and the way she was so confident, the way she treated Harper like an equal and not some idiot kid...
It made Bluebird's heart flutter just like the wings of her namesake.
"Hey" The email started. "We should hang sometime, I know I shot you down and all, but I wanna see more of your group. Babs says you're bad news and tbh that usually means you're going to be fun. I wanna get a look under the hood of that bigass drone you fly around on!"
Email sent and then Harper collapsed into her couch. Anxiety bubbled up as she waited for a response... And waited... And waited... Aaaaaaand waited. It had been hours, not long in the grand scheme of things, but in the head of a lovestruck 20-something that might as well have been a lifetime. She'd just about resigned herself to not getting a response when she heard a knock at the window. Harper groaned, got up, and trekked over to the window from her bedroom.
She expected a Bat outside her window. One here to tell her that she was needed for something because Egghead or Condiment King or some other nobody needed stopping and none of the big names wanted to do it but, no, it was Molly. A grin on her face as she hovered outside the window, bent slightly with her hands stuffed into her pockets, green hair hanging around her face as she spoke.
"Hey birdie, ready to fly?"
"Lead the way, doc."
Harper nearly leapt out of that window, she didn't care where they were going, Harper just wanted up onto that board.
That ended up being the first night they spent together, on a couch in Molly's workshop, speaking till the first rays of morning. About what? It didn't really matter. It was everything and nothing all at once. The pair rambled in circles to one another as Molly talked about life in The Collective, and Harper talked about being a vigilante. They talked shop too, of course, with a pair of gearheads like them in the same room that was bound to happen.
Harped cracked open some of her homemade gadgets to show Molly the cobbled-together guts, with her dishing out some genuine compliments, and Molly in turn showed her some of the cybernetics that she gave to any of The Collective members who wanted them.
And hey, Harper didn't even laugh when Molly told her she called that workshop the Miracle Room. So that was extra points in the young hero's column.
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That was three months ago, three months of talking on and off, three months of late calls and early texts. Three months of making Molly's heart... Well, she could feel emotions bubbling up in that mechanical ticker she thought was better left unexplored. Feelings she swore never to act on again. After all, while Molly might not know all the nasty details, she knew those exact feelings had led to years of misery married to a man she could barely stand.
Not that it seemed to dissuade Harper, the little bird thought she was a real flirt, though to be fair to her Molly hadn't been forthcoming about her hesitations. No every crappy pickup line and stolen glance when the pair helped one another out had just been accepted. And though Molly kept trying to shove those feelings into a metaphorical locker, Harper Row just seemed to be a Bug in her system she couldn't seem to squash.
Thankfully though Harper had enough respect to keep things platonic, even if she liked to joke their almost weekly hangout sessions were dates.
A quip Molly wished didn't make her smile quite as much as it did.
And that brought them to where they were now, in the Miracle Room once again, though this time it wasn't to get hopped up on energy drinks and work on problems together, no this time Harper was here for business.
Namely, Harper wanted her body modded.
Molly had, to her credit, explained that the process wasn't as fun as she might think. Parts could be rejected by the body, she'd need to come in for checkups, and she could say goodbye to going through metal detectors at the airport, but Harper had just smiled that dopey smile of hers and told her she wanted it all the same.
"So, Doc, ready to cut me up?" Harper asked, sat on the operating table. "Or you wanna just keep staring at these tiny lil tits of mine?"
Molly rolled her eyes and wave a hand dismissively. She would admit, yes, she was looking, but it was all part of the process. She had to mark the incision lines with a sharpie first, after all, and that meant some staring.
Plus, small or not, they were nice.
"Ya know Bug, maybe alongside the new heart and lungs I should swap out your vocal cords too, finally give you an off button." She'd snark, but she was smiling.
"Hey, now I know you like this voice of mine, for some reason, hell if I understand why."
"'S got a nice husky quality, now stop whining, and just take the compliment." Eyes would roll, and she would cap the marker. Tucking it into one of the dozens of pockets in her jacket.
Said jacket would soon be shucked, tossed off to the side and onto the couch, and her little bug would gasp. She really couldn't help me smirk at Harper's reaction, that girl always did have the cutest responses to seeing Molly's deceptively well-toned arms usually kept hidden under her giant jacket.
It was absolutely precious.
"Still wild to me a dork like you has the best arms in Gotham." Harper rolled her eyes, before casting them down towards the dotted black lines on her chest. "These look way too much like autopsy markings."
"Dork, huh?" Molly snapped on a pair of rubber gloves "And listen you want those arms so bad? We gotta buff up your organs first, which means a new heart and lungs. I'd detail the process but..."
"Not good for the subject to know the meat grinder they're getting into?"
"Not at all," Molly said as she set the new organs on the table beside them. Right next to all the sharp objects she was going to use to rip into the girl. "Ready?"
Harper squirmed, and Molly frowned, half expecting Harper to back out at the last second, but Harper was an interesting problem, and one that Molly rarely could predict. The girl sat up straight, which put her about at eye level with Molly, and rubbed the back of her own head. She wanted to say something, it didn't take a genius to know that, but just what she said was a surprise.
"Just uh, before you take my breath away for a bit, can I do one thing?"
"What?" Molly asked, an eyebrow raised "What's u-"
And that was when the pair shared their very first kiss. Harper has seen the opportunity, and she went for it, closing the gap between the pair to lock their lips together. She wasn't forceful, she hoped, this was in fact Harper's very first kiss, but she planned on pulling back the moment Molly didn't reciprocate.
Thankfully she did.
Despite all her internal debating, whether this could work between them at all or if this was a disaster in the making, Molly melted into that kiss. Arms wrapping tight around Harper's waist to pull her closer, eyes slipping shut as her whole world became this one moment in time.
"Sh-shit, wow, okay that went way better than I expected."
And just like that Harper was right back to being a neurotic little mess. Face flushed red, eyes cast down at the floor, and the silliest little grin on her face. Molly couldn't help but laugh and shake her head.
"Yeah, yeah Bug I think it did."
"And you said you didn't date girls half your age" And Harper was right back to that playful teasing "Cradle robber."
"Ah shut up."
Harper was an interesting puzzle, and after that? Molly wanted to solve it more than anything in the world.
"C'mon, Bug, we can head out to a real date after I'm done hacking you up."
"Sounds damn good, Doc."