The Arkhamite's Kid

New Kid

—+—

Harley's POV

Harley first saw the kid through a window on the second floor of Arkham Asylum she happened to pass while being dragged to solitary. She watched him pile out of a van, already in the standard white uniform, fighting with the orderlies and screaming curse words. Harley grinned at the sight.

    Oh, this'll be a riot.

^—^

"Hey, Ives, you seen the new kid?" Harley asked Ivy a few days later. She'd only just been brought back to her cell, and was happy to be able to speak to her girlfriend again.

    There was a moment of silence. "New kid?"

    "Yeah, new kid! Black hair, violent–"

    "I'm right here," Eddie called. His cell was directly across from Harley's, and he was peering through the glass into her room, looking mildly judgemental.

    "Not you," Harley said with a snort. "The kid."

    Ivy hummed. "I knew I felt something different," she muttered, voice just barely audible.

^—^

It was another day before Harley saw the kid again. He was sitting in the corner of the cafeteria, reading a book. For a moment, Harley wondered if he was another Mad Hatter, another man obsessed with a fictional story, but quickly decided he probably wouldn't be sent to Arkham for believing he was a part of Pride and Prejudice.

    "Stalking the kid?" Ivy asked. Most of the rogues had taken to calling him 'the kid,' even though he was technically listed in Arkham's files as a John Doe.

    "Nah. Just curious." Harley hadn't seen a new face in Arkham in a while. It was mostly the same guys over and over. "What's his name?" Harley asked, still staring at the kid.

    "Red Hood," Harv answered, and Harley flinched before forcibly reminding herself he wasn't there, Joker wasn't there, and this kid maybe-probably-definitely didn't work for him.

    "Uh-huh," she said when she regained the ability to speak. "Know what he did?"

    "You could ask him," Ivy suggested.

    The kid finally noticed her staring. He glanced up at her, waved, and looked back down at his book.

    Harley grinned. "Great idea, Ivs." She stood, marching over to the kid's table. He looked up at her fully, marking his page and setting the book down, not looking away from her for a second.

    "Hiya!" Harley said cheerfully. The kid continued to stare blankly at her. Harley took it as an invitation to sit down. "So," she cooed, smiling at him. "Heard a rumor you got pinched by Batsy." It was a decent guess. After all, this was Arkham. Roughly half the patients had been brought in by Batman.

    The kid's eyes seemed to glow at her words, and his expression turned downright murderous in a way Harley found adorable.

    "So," she said, "what'd you do?"

    The kid looked right at her and said, "I tried to get Batman to kill the Joker."

    And just like that, Harley had a new favorite patient. Well, after Ivy, of course.

^—^

Arkham patients had exactly one visiting day a month. Harley normally didn't have many visitors, but on that month's visiting day, a reporter was waiting for her on the other side of the glass.