NightQuinn

Something Had To Change

Gotham City, 10:52 PM

Under the cover of the black night and pouring rain, Nightwing climbed through his apartment window and leaped down to the floor and shut his window. He sighed slightly and removed his mask, discarding it by throwing it onto his couch. He removed the rest of his gear and got in the shower. He let the water run over him as he took a minute to contemplate what was going on in his life. He thought about the pain he was going through right now, not even entirely physical pain but emotional too, as well as the aching bones from fighting criminals night in, night out, he felt heartache as he'd just been dumped by another girlfriend. He reminded himself of what his little brother Damian insisted on saying to him "Grayson, you may be good at getting girls but you can never seem to keep them more than a month.". Damian was slightly exaggerating when he said this, but he wasn't entirely wrong. Dick always had no problem starting a relationship, but he could never make it last.

After his shower, he dried himself off and checked his phone, which read "One missed call from: 'Batdad'". Dick had started dreading his adopted  father, Bruce Wayne, getting in touch, calls from Bruce had recently just become calls consisting of Bruce demanding that Dick gets to the Batcave or Wayne Manor for some urgent team-up against Gotham's villainous contingent. Reluctantly, Dick called him back. A few seconds passed of Dick waiting for him to pick up. "Hello?" Bruce's deep voice boomed into Dick's ear.

"Hey, Bruce," Dick began. "I noticed you tried calling me a while ago, anything important?" Dick knew it was important, but pretended he didn't notice how Bruce's calls are never just check-ups. "I need you to meet me and the family at the manor." Bruce said rather predictably. "It's important."

"Y'know, you don't to come up with excuses just to see me." Dick chuckled, there was and unamused silence on Bruce's end. Dick sighed. "I'll see you there, Bruce." Dick then hung up, grabbed his jacket, keys and shoes and headed out. He did begin to feel like he had fallen in some cycle, however, he felt like he had been repeating the same steps for the past while. He would work with Bruce for one mission, then he would go off on his own, maybe meet someone he cares about, he and that someone would be together for a few months before she leaves him and he goes back to work with Bruce again, rinse and repeat.

Something had to change.

Meanwhile, Harley Quinn sat in her room at the Joker's hideout, she was almost afraid of staying too long in Joker's room. Then, she kept convincing herself otherwise, telling herself that it was just Dr. Quinzel still lurking around in her brain, she tried reminding herself that she still loved Joker...didn't she? She tried so hard to love him, and he had a few moments of showing affection to her, but he would always end up hurting and abusing her, physically or otherwise. Still, she kept crawling back to him. No matter what he would do.

Harley sat on her torn mattress and began petting Bud and Lou, her pet hyenas. Joker hated them, always getting in his way, always distracting him from his work. The more Harley thought about Joker's views on Bud and Lou, the more she realised that Joker had the same opinions on both Harley and the hyenas. Harley shuddered, she knew that her Mr. J still loved her, he was just bad at showing it, or at least, that's what she thought.

Before she could gather any more of her thoughts, Joker appeared by her door. She smiled at him, but she couldn't tell at this point if she was forcing the smile or not. "Hey, puddin'!" She said in a jovial tone. "Watcha after?" She asked. 

"Oh, nothing much, but I do have something to ask you." He grinned, slowly walked towards her and crouched to match the height of where she was sitting. "You see, I've got a bit of a job for you to do, not tonight, it'll likely be tomorrow."

"Whadda ya need me to do?" She beamed. "Blow up an office tower? Rob a bank? Steal candy from a baby?" Joker masked his irritation at her trying to make him laugh, which he would claim she could never do. "No, no,no." He smiled. "All I need you to do is plant some bombs beneath Mercy Bridge, don't set them off, just plant them there, make sure they're well hidden because the next night after that, we're gonna put them to use. Can ya do that for me Harls?" He asked.

Harley raised her hand to her head in a salute. "Aye aye, cap'n!" She replied. Joker grinned.

"Very good, now I've got something fun that needs planning, so I'd best be going." He turned away to leave, she frowned as he didn't stop to kiss her goodbye."Toodle-pip, for now!". Before Harley could respond, he had left. She felt like this happened a lot, she agrees to do some of his work for him, expecting him to be loving and grateful, only for him to show little affection. This, combined with all of his abuse, had to end, surely.

Something had to change.