A Shade Of Purple With A Side Of Chaos

Valentines Day - Purple And Green

Ah Valentine's Day...a bit of a cosmic joke on herself, Harley thought. She stared at the rows upon rows of cards, flowers, teddy bears and chocolates all made cheaply and bought for girlfriends and housewives whose husbands considered this the only day of the year they had to be nice to their other half.

"Or maybe I'm just bitter" Harley murmured to herself frowning. Harls continued with her shopping, making sure to stock up on enough chocolate and ice cream to outdo Valentine's Day and her PMS which were both fast approaching, it was the first week of February. She couldn't believe how quickly time was passing her by these days, like water in a stream, it wouldn't stop flowing, no matter how hard she tried to create a blockage. The more time that went by the further away she felt herself drift from him.

Oh him.

It made Harley inwardly sigh, Gotham had not heard a peep from the Joker since he broke out from Arkham back in December which was very unusual indeed. No threats, bombs, murders, kidnappings, Batman threats in weeks (or at least none of the above was made specifically by The Joker). Harley was sick with worry, he could be dead....or worse. The Joker was a wanted man, not just by the Police but every crime gang that existed in Gotham, when he broke up he was most likely alone and scared, he could have ended up anywhere....

NO. Harley stopped herself mid-thought, he wasn't her concern anymore. She thought he cared about her, wanted to be with her even but he obviously didn't, just like everyone else in her life, she hadn't heard a damn thing off the clown since Arkham. He had promised her, PROMISED HER that he would take Harley with him when he left...but he didn't, he abandoned her like her dad, her mom and everyone else that had ever mattered to her. Harley felt tears build in her eyes so she hurried to the self-checkout service, bought her groceries and left the store. When she left the store it was already getting dark but she wasn't worried, she still lived in the expensive side of town, which Arkham were still paying for thanks to the Joker incident a while back where he knew her address. Harley had a sneaking suspicion that if wanted to find her new address it would be none too hard to get but he obviously didn't care about the silly little blonde to do that otherwise she would have had a visit, letter, note or freaking neon sign by now. 'This is for the best' Harley thought, it really was because no matter how bored she got with her current life it was stable and secure, he was a madman and a murderer, a bad guy...

'With super gorgeous eyes' she added in her head. Ugh, Harley groaned as she turned the corner onto her street, the groceries getting fairly heavy by now, why the hell had she decided to walk?!

Work had been busy to say the least since the explosions, most of the west wing was still being rebuilt and there was the job of retrieving the escaped patients. Most of the low risk patients were captured on the first night, most of them hadn't wondered off far, in the nearby woods or down the road so that was fairly easy but then we had the Rogues, the super criminals which were a whole other level of complicated.

Harley walked up the steps to her apartment building, let herself in with the key and got into the elevator, pressing the button for the 5th floor.

Yes, the super criminals were a lot more complicated than the regular crazie, Arkham mainly left it up to Batman to get them back, which Harley couldn't help but think was a bit unfair, Batman surely had better things to do than get all those criminals back when they obviously didn't want to be found? So far however she was continuously proved wrong, he kept bringing them back one by one, week by week. Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Calendar Man, Firefly, Mad Hatter, Penguin and Mr. Freeze were all back in their cells, Harley was particularly happy about Scarecrow, he pissed Harls off to no end with what he did to her last time, dick.

However this still left The Joker, The Riddler, Catwoman, Bane and Killer Croc all on the loose in Gotham, these were perhaps some of the most dangerous criminals out of the lot bar Catwoman, Harley had nothing to fear from her, she was pleasant enough in Arkham. Harley reached her apartment, she let herself in and flicked the light on but immediately she felt like something was wrong. It was just one of those feelings, like a deep feeling in the pit of your stomach that something was off even though she could see into the kitchen through the long corridor and nothing was amiss, her coat rack untouched, and her shoes still where she left them.

Harley exhaled through her nose, not realising she was holding her breath. She set the groceries down, next to the door, quietly slipped her shoes off and padded through the apartment noiselessly, she could feel her heart beating rapidly in her chest.

SHOOT, she turned round and grabbed the bat she had propped up against the wall then continued her journey into the kitchen. She came to the frame of the doorway, peaked her head in and tried to see through the darkness but everything looked normal from what she could see. It was a normal sized kitchen so she could see every corner of the room from the door frame 'You're just being silly Harley' she thought, slowly she lowered the bat and flicked the light switch on. As the light came on, her kitchen looked exactly the same as when she had left, dirty dishes in the sink, tea towels on the radiator, cat asleep on the windowsill 'Huh, I must be getting seriously paranoid or something' Harley scrunched her face up in confusion but proceeded to explore the rest of her apartment just in case but everything was fine, the living room was a mess but still the same, the bathroom still smelled of the perfume she had put on earlier but still the same and her bedroom also looked the same...at first.

It caught her eye as she turned to leave the seemingly innocent room, right on her windowsill was a bouquet of the most extraordinary flowers. They were like roses but purple, red and black, covered in gold glitter. They were in a very expensive looking crystal vase, one that Harley definitely did not own, hanging from one of the flowers on a gold thread was a small gift card, plain and white.

Trembling and feeling sick Harley walked over to the roses, as she got near to the window she realised that they were real as the smell of roses hit her but they were sweeter than regular roses. Harley reached her hand out and touched the petals, it was like touching velvet, utterly soft and perfect. She reached for the note and flipped it over, feeling the stiff cardboard dig into the palm of her hand. Harley quickly read the note and let out a half moan/gasp, collapsing against the windowsill to support herself, she started crying hard letting the note fall back with the string against the vase.

Inside the card read

'I've missed you Harley, see you soon.

PS: Happy Valentine's Day – J' written in black swirling ink.

Harley Quinzel cried and cried, for what she thought she had lost and for the pain in her chest. But as the tears slowed, laughter began to creep out of her, first as a light chuckle but that quickly progressed into full hysterical laughter, Harley wiped the tears from her eyes, this time from laughing so hard, she picked the note back up and read it again, smiling.

"He does care!"