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Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy emerged from the ground outside of Ivy’s apartment via one of her flowers. The two women held each other tightly as the flower ascended to the penthouse balcony to deposit them there.
The chilled Gotham air greeted the pair as the flower bloomed on the balcony. In perfect sync with her steps, a little stairway of flower petals allowed Ivy to gracefully exit the flower. Harley got lost the beautiful rhythms of her body as she moved, but refocused when Ivy turned to present her with a hand.
Blush as red as Ivy’s hair dotted her cheeks as she looked at the sight before her. Ivy was otherworldly in her plantlike beauty, yet she was looking like her as if she was the apple of her eye…
Harley tried to banish the thought, but she just couldn’t look away. Her eyes traced the dark green tattoo-like vine imprints across Ivy’s smooth pale green skin. They got lost in the sway of her leafy bodysuit that covered her curves. She even briefly felt jealousy that the plants got to experience her black heels stepping on them while she didn’t. Harley shook her head finally getting free of the increasingly erotic thoughts.
She took Ivy’s hand with a rare sheepish smile before descending the floral steps. Harley honestly felt a little self conscious by comparison. She knew the Arkham orange crazy suit she was wearing was not doing her any favors. She decided to mask her feelings with a little joke.
“Wow Ives’, I’m getting the princess treatment but I didn't even steal my dress yet!”
“You’re beautiful in anything you wear darling,” Ivy replied in her honeyed voice. To emphasize her point, she spun Harley like a ballroom dancer into her arms and looked into her eyes with a hint of playfulness and something else Harley didn’t want to recognize.
Harley released her grip around Ivy’s waist and felt an immediate sense of loss now that she wasn’t as close, but she pushed that away in favor of getting back to the Joker’s side.
“Well, thanks for busting me out Ives’! I can’t wait to see the look on my puddin’s face when I surprise him,” Harley said, turning to leap off the balcony.
“Harley, wait!” Ivy called sending a vine to wrap delicately around her wrist. Harley surrendered to the vine with an inquisitive look, and she let it pull her back into Ivy’s personal space where Ivy then interlocked their fingers. Harley’s skin shivered at the softness of Ivy’s hands. She was suddenly short of breath, captivated by Ivy’s more intimate demeanor.
“Can you stay?” Ivy asked in this small delicate voice that made Harley melt. Ivy then cleared her throat and began again with a slight blush on her kissable green cheeks, “Just for a little while I mean. I’m sure you’d like a hot shower and I can make you something way better than that disgusting prison food.”
Harley met Ivy’s gaze, her alluring green eyes now shimmering with affection and uncertainty. Those same feelings began to stir inside Harley. Her stomach fluttered like an exhibit of butterflies and her heart pounded so hard she thought she might have a heart attack. Harley knew what this was, but that is what terrified her, so again she pushed the feelings away.
“I don’t know Ives, the longer I wait the more I lose the element of surprise on Mista J,” Harley countered trying to stay nonchalant but Ivy’s crestfallen face was already breaking her, “My face is probably plastered all over the news and,” Harley looks up at the night sky and spots the bat signal, “B-man is on the prowl.”
“All the more reason for you to stay,” Ivy pleaded while covering Harley’s hand with her free one. Ivy moved ever so closer and Harley nearly lost her will to refuse. Ivy’s smell was lovely like a perfect bouquet of flowers, and she looked like a goddess with her red hair cascading down the sides of her face. Harley was losing herself in Ivy’s eyes and feeling an irresistible pull to kiss Ivy’s luscious red lips.
“I’m sorry, Ivy,” Harley said through a shaky voice, “I have to go.”
Harley tore herself away from Ivy and turned around so she would not break in the face of her disappointment.
“Why do you even go back?” Ivy began with indignance laced in her voice, “The Joker couldn’t even be bothered to break you out of prison. Hell, he probably is the reason you wound up there in the first place!”
A tiny little spark of anger rose in Harley’s chest, that need to defend The Joker. Good , Harley thought to herself. She can use it to burn away the feelings that are harder to accept.
“That is not true! I was the one that messed up the plan. I let Mista J down and got caught, that’s all there is to it, but he loves me regardless,” Harley angrily retorted, trying to fan the flames of her anger but even she felt it was hollow.
“Does he Harley? Or did he just use you to break out of Arkham and keep you around as his pretty doll with a bat?”
The questions stung Harley because recently she had been thinking the same things, but she’d already gone too far with the Joker, and there was no going back.
So Harley whipped around to face Ivy with tears in her eyes. Of anger or hurt, she didn’t know, but with passion she declared, “He does fucking love me! He is the only one who saw me for me! Saw what I could become. He freed me from the shell of a life I was living before!”
“All he did was give you a different one! Second fiddle, fall-guy, punching bag for Batman, the butt of every one of his sick jokes,” Ivy shook her hands emphatically, “But Harley you are so much more. You’re a fucking doctor with a diabolical mind, infectious energy, beautifully intense emotions, and athleticism to match the boy wonder. The Joker has you but he throws you away like trash. I know you can see that!”
Harley was a bit stunned by Ivy’s words. They’d had this conversation multiple times before, but now she could barely ignore the truth. Memories flashed in her mind about all the times the Joker left her, hit her, called her stupid, and tried to restrain her personality. Then he’d make it all better by love bombing her. Tears finally fell from her eyes as she realized she was falling for the oldest trick in the book again and again. Her piece of shit father, her professors and now him.
“How many times do we have to do this Harley?” Ivy asked. Harley couldn’t quite catch her tone. It wasn’t disappointment, so Harley looked up searching for an answer.
Ivy had come closer without Harley realizing. She looked up into Ivy’s face only to find pure love and patience, a love and patience that cracked Harley’s defensive shell open with ease. Her mouth parted as if to speak but Harley was breathless. Ivy’s fingertips lightly grazed over Harley’s cheeks before Ivy cupped her face as if she were her most precious flower. Harley’s eyes widened, trying to drink in the divine sight in front of her. There was no denying it any longer.
She loved Ivy.
Ivy spoke again in an intimate whisper, “How many times do we have to do this before you realize he’ll never love you like me?”
As Ivy finished her sentence, Harley was captured in a life changing kiss. It was simple and chaste, yet overflowing with all-consuming love that shattered every emotional dam Harley had built. All she could do was drown in Ivy’s love as Ivy kissed her again and again with her dizzyingly soft lips. Before Harley could regain her bearings, Ivy pulled away leaving the sweet taste of honey on her lips.
Dizzy and weak in the knees, Harley wrapped her arms around Ivy’s waist and hugged her. She tucked her head into the crook of Ivy’s neck and closed her eyes. After taking a deep breath, she smiled before answering Ivy’s question.
“I think I may need a few more of those kisses just to make sure I get it,” she joked with a contented sigh.
“Stay here and I’ll give you all the kisses you want,” Ivy said tenderly as she caressed Harley’s head.
“Deal,” Harley replied before Ivy scooped her up in her arms and walked her inside the apartment.