Harley Quinn Romance 3

Chapter 20: Because of a Mad Woman

The sun shone brightly on the white sands as the sparkling ocean waves washed gently over the beach. A pair of hyenas raced after thrown tennis balls, each animal fighting to claim the first one. The loser had to snatch up the second from the sand, but both hyenas were able to retrieve one and return it to the waiting hands of the children who'd thrown them.

The boy and girl wrestled the tennis balls free from the hyenas, who only released them after much growling and wagging of tails. The florescent projectiles were hurled down the beach again, and the hyenas kicked up small clouds of sand as they tore out after them to the delighted laughter of the kids.

"Would you mind?" Harley asked Bruce, handing him a bottle of sunscreen.

"Why do you keep doing this?" Bruce asked as he took the bottle from her. "It's been five years since we left Gotham, and in all that time, you've never gotten a sunburn or even a tan, so why bother with the sunscreen?"

"It's a good excuse for my gorgeous husband to put his hands on me without the kids asking questions they're not old enough to know the answers to," Harley explained, stretching out with her stomach against a beach towel and looking over her shoulder at him with a playful grin.

Bruce chuckled as he opened the bottle.

"So how's Gotham doing?" Harley asked. "I heard you talking with Gordon on the satellite phone this morning. Are we going to his retirement party?"

"We'll have to throw him a private party at Wayne manor," Bruce answered. "I have to keep a low profile when it comes to public appearances."

"Oh, my poor dear," Harley snickered. "Being dead is so inconvenient."

Bruce and Harley shared a laugh. He finished applying the sunscreen to the milk white skin of her back and moved to her shoulders, pushing her long blonde locks aside.

"The League is doing its job well," Bruce continued. "No casualties have been reported at their hands, and crime continues to decline."

"Sounds good," Harley praised. "Any word about Clayface?"

"I don't think we'll hear about him again as Matt Hagen has returned to making movies," Bruce informed her. "It sounds like he's never been happier."

"And what of you, Dark Knight?" Harley asked.

Bruce took her by the arm and turned her over so he could look her in the eyes.

"When I lost my parents," Bruce said softly. "I committed to being Batman because I never thought I would be truly happy again. You changed that. You changed me."

"You changed me too," Harley reminded. "I was a stooge for a psychotic clown. You saw in me what no one else did. If not for you, I'd have ended up dead or locked away in Arkham or Blackgate."

"Looks like we saved each other," Bruce suggested.

"Who would've thought," she asked, "that Batman would get a happily ever after because of a mad woman named Harley Quinn?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Bruce confessed.

He was about to kiss her when a pair of tennis balls bounced past, followed immediately by two hyenas in hot pursuit. The sprinting beasts ran right over Bruce and Harley as if they weren't anything more than another dune of sand.

The kids were laughing themselves silly, but the laughs quickly turned to excited shrieks as Harley and Bruce got up and began chasing them. The hyenas saw the pursuit, forgot about the tennis balls and joined in with the family, racing across the sands of the private island.

                                                                                The End