"...is winter over...?"
Harley spun around and squealed with the voice behind her. “Ya silly snake! I’ve been waitin’ for ya to wake up!” She hugged him tightly and nodded. “It’s been over for a while. Ya must be starvin’! Can I make ya somethin’ to eat?”
Levi was still rubbing his eyes, and a somewhat groggy ‘hmm’? precipitated his arched black eyebrow. It seemed to take the serpent a moment to process the words, blinking slowly as he did.
“Oh yes. That would be wonderful, Harley. Thank you.”
He returned with a quick, affectionate peck to her forehead, squeezing her against his side.
“I should sun for a bit. Come with me. Tell me everything I’ve missed. Don’t leave out any explosions.”
She nodded with a wide smile and giggled. “Sure thing hon. Life’s been borin’ without ya around. I spent a couple months locked up but ya see how well that turned out for the guards.”
Harley walked along with Levi, holding his hand in hers as she swung their arms together. Made some friends, killed some enemies, fell in love, broke a few hearts. Nothin’ too fun without you though. How was your nap?”
“Sound.” The serpent mused. He perked an eyebrow a moment later. “You got yourself locked up? Harley. In the regular clink?” he stopped for a moment, his expression turning serious.
“ . . .They didn’t put you back in Arkham, did they? Ivy was pretty clear about what would happen to any judge that tried to have you back there. Pretty sure we both were.”
He raised her hand to his lips, and carefully lay a kiss across the back of her knuckles.
“Yeah, it was nothin’ though. I mean I had to get into a lil’ trouble while I was alone. I was in an’ out in a month.” Harley waved off his concern with a scoffing laugh. Her cheeks turned a bright shade of pink with the kiss to her hand. “Nah, I think the last time a judge turned up with roots in his veins after I got sent to the big ‘A’ they learned their lesson. I was fine and I had Croc come feed the plants.”
She pressed a quick kiss to Levi’s cheek and giggled. “But I’m out now and I’ve got my snake to come after me if I do get locked up tight again.”
“Maybe; but a month in Arkham might as well be a lifetime.” Levi added with a tisk of a forked tongue. He didn’t sound not bitter. He’d only been in once, with Ivy down the hall, and their escape had left plenty of casualties. Since then, however, sley and Levi had both lay low, and kept their nefarious activities-nefarious, of course, depending on who you asked-confined to places like the deep of the amazon basin where the only bats to look out for were the ones with rabies. So long as their eco-activism was outside of Gotham, no one seemed to t take notice, or care, and batman left the duo to their eccentric greenhouse.
“He deserved it.” Levi returned with a matter-of-pride tone in his voice. “There are a lot worse in Gotham than either of us three. Comparatively speaking, we’re behaving ourselves. Not poisoning our own well, so to speak.”
“I had Johnny to keep me company though. It wasn’t all bad.” She smiled with a shrug of her shoulders and a quick look away. Harley knew he wasn’t scolding her, but she always felt bad for making him worry.
Her smile grew and a shine came back to her eyes. “And he looked hilarious with roots comin’ outta his nose. Like a buncha nose hairs stickin’ out. There’s a hell of a lot worse than us. I mean look at half of the cops tryin’ to take us in. They’re more corrupt than us!” She shook her head and placed her hands on her hips. “So, what d’ya wanna eat?”
He paused, giving the latter of her question some serious thought. Then, he visibly seemed to brighten, and a bemused smirk slowly trickled over his face, and his black eyes glittered.
“Let’s order takeout.” he seemed, in that moment, like an eager schoolboy, scooping up her hands again and dipping down a little. “Not pizza, too greasy. I was thinking from that Vegan kitchen Ivy likes so much. You know, the ones with the lean delivery drivers. They don’t upset my stomach so much. Anything else’ll take me forever to digest.”
His excitement was contagious. It made Harley giggle and bounce in place. She laughed and pressed a quick kiss to Levi’s nose. “You can have the icky vegan driver, but I can’t eat another piece of kale or I’m gonna die. I’ll get greasy burgers for me and you can have the hippy driver from the green food place.”
“Okay, but you’ll have to make the call for both. The last time one of ‘em didn’t come back, people were asking questions. The bat included. For a long time we had to have them deliver to that mailbox down the road where that old couple live.”
“Harley, you can have any burger you want. Get me a sprite too if you don’t mind.”
In serious tone again, just for a moment, Levi added. “I’m glad you had company there. But Johnny is a few chips shy of a bag, and I say that as a doctor. Doesn’t mean that any of us are right that way-but sometimes I have to wonder if Crane really will get the drop on us all one day. If Ivy and I weren’t immune to everything under the sun, I might be more concerned than I am.”
