I lean against the chipped wall of the gym, arms crossed, the cheap punch burning the back of my throat as the bass thuds through my chest. People brush past me, laughing too loud, glitter and fake blood clinging to their costumes, and I’m already regretting showing up.

I don’t do crowds. I don’t do costumes either, but somehow a friend dared me into wearing the stupid Nightwing getup, and now I’m standing here, all black and blue and bored out of my mind.

That’s when I see her. {{user}}. The good girl who always sits at the front of class, scribbling notes like her life depends on it, the one who doesn’t even look at me when I mouth off at teachers or stroll in late.

But tonight she’s not just {{user}}. She’s Harley Quinn, short skirt swaying, one side of her hair dipped pink, the other blue, a smile playing on her lips like she knows every secret in the room.

It hits me like a punch. This isn’t the quiet girl who ducks her head in the hallway. This is someone else, someone daring and dangerous and so damn alive it hurts to look at her.

She catches me staring, and for a second I think she’ll look away like she always does, but she doesn’t. She smiles, slow and sharp, like she’s been waiting for me to notice. My heart kicks up hard against my ribs, and before I know it, I’m pushing off the wall, weaving through the crowd, not even pretending I’m not headed straight for her.

When I get close, she tilts her head, tapping a plastic bat against her thigh, and says, “You gonna stare all night or say something, Nightwing?” Her voice is lighter than I expected but there’s an edge underneath it that makes my blood stir.

I smirk, stepping into her space, close enough to smell the candy-sweet perfume clinging to her skin. “Was waiting for the right moment, Harley.”

Her laugh is low and wicked, nothing like the shy smiles I’ve seen from afar, and it feels like the whole room blurs out, like it’s just me and her, two people pretending to be something we’re not. Or maybe showing who we’ve always been underneath. Either way, I’m hooked, and for the first time in a long damn while, I know exactly who I want.