NightQuinn

His Responsibility

Dick Grayson's apartment, Gotham City, 1:00 AM,

Dick entered his apartment through his window once more and went to remove his mask out of habit, but he again remembered Harley was still in his room. Then he thought about whether he really should remove his mask for her. If they were going to trust each other from now one, she'd have to know who was behind the mask. He couldn't. He couldn't trust a villain with his identity. Then he decided he couldn't continue with this Bruce-esque mindset of making people earn his trust, rather than him trusting them. If this team up was going to work there had to be a two way trust, he would trust her with his identity, she would trust him to work with her to stop Joker. It's not like he was going to tell her the entire Batfamily's identities, just his. This was his responsibility and his alone.

He walked over to his bedroom door and placed his hand on the door handle. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and asked himself once more if this is something he should be doing. Yes. Yes it was, in his mind anyway. He somewhat slowly opened the door and lightly said "You still in here?". Suddenly, there was a click and the lights turned on. Harley was lying on the bed, phone in hand, she looked up at Dick. "It's not like I've got too many other places to go.". Dick smiled and walked over to where she was lying. He swallowed nervously, and quite audibly. "Somethin' botherin' ya?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. Dick pulled up a chair, sat down and looked her in the eye. "You could call it that." Dick said. Harley sat up. "Obviously, from now on we're gonna have to have a lot of faith and trust in one another. I think the best way to force that trust is to show you who I am." Dick explained. Harley's eyes widened and she put her phone down beside her. Dick reached up to his face and his finger briefly rested on his mask before he closed his eyes and removed it, both of them were silent for a second.

Dick opened his eyes and broke the silence. "My name is Richard Grayson, my friends call me Dick, and also Nightwing. Sometimes Robin." He said. Harley smiled, not in a crazy way, but in a warm, comforting way, which made Dick feel like he'd made the right choice in telling her. "Well, Dick," She began, they both realised that she'd just called him what he said his friends call him. "your secret's safe with me."

"Good, I'm glad I can trust you." Dick smiled, he was relaxed now. Then some slightly more serious thoughts crossed his mind. "What's,uhh, what are you thinking we should do next about Joker?". He asked. She sighed.

"I think he's got a few deals going down with guys like Penguin and Two-Face in a few days, probably best to figure out what's goin' down there, stop the deals." She explained. "Operative phrase in the sentence being 'I think'. He hasn't properly told me any of his plans for a while.". She shrugged. She stared to think back to how little Joker would care about trusting her in recent months. but she didn't want to think about that. "Enough about that, though." She said, changing her tone as to come off more jovial. "Let's talk about something else. Anything else."

1 hour later:

Dick got up from his chair, smiling. Harley had practically talked herself to sleep for the past hour. Dick thought it was kind of adorable. Wait. No he didn't. He didn't just admit he found Harley Quinn adorable, did he? Dick had visibly stopped moving when that thought crossed his mind. He looked down at her sleeping face, trying to figure out if he had started to develop genuine feelings for her. Surely not, not after everything that happened between the heroes of the Batfamily and Joker's villainous accomplices. But that was the point of contention. She wasn't with Joker anymore, she was someone new. Maybe this wasn't Harley Quinn sleeping in his bed, but Harleen Quinzel.

Before Dick's thoughts could progress any further, there was a knock at his door. Dick looked once more in Harley's direction before turning out her light and leaving the room to answer the door. As he walked to his front door, the was another knock. Dick sped up and opened the door. Tim was outside. "Tim?" Dick said, shocked, surprised and a little tired. "What are you doing here?"

"Bruce told me an 'anonymous source' gave you tips on Joker." Tim explained. "I wanna talk about that source. Y'know, the one you let into your bed." Dick scoffed.

"What makes you think--" Dick began. "Yeah, you're right. It was her."

"Knew it." Tim said, with a proud grin. "Is she still here?"

"Yeah, she's asleep in the other room." Dick explained. "You can come in if you want."

"Alright, sure." Tim began to enter the apartment, then paused. "She's not gonna wake up any time soon, right? I didn't bring my mask and I.." Tim froze. "You're not wearing your mas... did you..does she.." Tim began stuttering.

"No, Tim, I didn't..." Dick started, but it wasn't worth lying. "Oh, who am I kidding? Yes, yes I just showed Harley my secret identity. No-one else's, not yours, not Bruce's, not Jason's. No-one. Just me." Both of Tim's hands smacked his own face and slid down as he let out a distressed groan. "Dick. It doesn't matter that you didn't tell her anyone else's real name, you just told her yours!" He tried his best to not shout. "I think this is the worst mistake you've ever made!" He almost growled.

"Look, Tim, you're just gonna have to go with me on this one." Dick said. "Because if I'm making the right choice, we make an ally with an insider knowledge on Gotham's underworld. If I'm wrong, you get something that's one of the most important things in the world to you. Tim, you get to say 'I told you so.'"

"That is so not worth the risk!" Tim hesitated for a second and considered the situation. "Look, fine, I will give her a chance. If I have even the slightest suspicion that she's up to no good, I'm sending her to Arkham, but there is no way I am letting her know my identity and we are not to tell anyone else about this. Deal?"

"Deal." Dick smiled. "Thanks for having faith. Now, we need to start getting to work. What first? Talk to Jason about the task at hand or does Red Robin need to tell Harley about this working arrangement?"