4

Harley liked Barbara. They were a lot alike, one could almost call them kindred spirits. They both went crazy for love and both were blonde. What else do you need for the foundation of a beautiful friendship?

Harley enjoyed it when there was a quiet moment (which wasn't very often when you lived with actual psychopaths) and Barbara would braid her hair while they would both talk about their days or pretty much anything else that came to mind. It was almost like they were just normal friends hanging out and having fun together. It made Harley feel less like she had completely lost control of her life.

Barbara taught her a lot of things as well. She taught her how to manipulate people and how to use her own body to get what she wanted from others. She taught her how to handle herself so that people would never even think about giving her problems and how to kill a man with her bare hands. She taught her how to kill someone quickly and also how to do it slowly and make it hurt. Most importantly, Barbara taught her what it was like to have a real friend.

Harley had always been independent and self-reliant and lonely. She had always taken care of herself and her brother because if she didn't then no one else would. She became an adult the day her second brother was born and her mother died during child birth and she hadn't had time for friends or fun or anything other than constant responsibility.

She was tired of being an adult when she was still only a child.

The day Oswald left the asylum was the day that Harley completely lost all hope. Oswald had been a friend and something other than her own misery to focus on and then he was gone and she was alone and really there was no point in even trying anymore. She had nothing left to live for.

Just because she was ready to give up did not mean that Strange was ready to let her go yet. She was a valuable asset and he couldn't just let her leave (no matter the way) and so he took her freedom to roam around the asylum away from her (she's also pretty sure the fact that the detectives kept lingering about had something to do with her being grounded) and confined her to the basement. This wasn't particularly surprising and she's more surprised that he hadn't done it earlier but he also probably wanted to see what repercussions her friendship with Oswald would yield (joke's on him she wasn't able to do anything to help the poor man anyway).

It's weeks before she sees the sun again.

The day comes very suddenly when the secret bomb in the asylum is set to blow and Fish Mooney (she had heard about her from Oswald and wasn't very fond of the woman but she's pretty sure there's a saying that goes something like the enemy of my friend is my friend until I don't need them anymore and backstab them) decides to pull a breakout with all of Strange's freaks and honestly she's not about to complain because at least it's a way out and to find her friend again.

She'll take what she can get.

The first thing she does when she's out is go looking for Oswald. It's not very hard, all she has to do is ask a few of the right people (she stumbled upon the right people by accident) and they led her right to him (she finds it kinda odd that it was so easy to find him and is slightly disappointed that she didn't get to pull some kinda cool spy shit). You'd think a known criminal would be a little more hidden but whatever.

It took a bit of haggling and maybe a bit of manipulation to get a meeting with The Penguin but it was worth it for the smile on his face when he saw her. When her friend gripped her hands in his and began to tell her everything that she had missed, she found herself feeling genuinely happy for the first time in a long time.