Lucy's favorite person was her Aunt Harley. She had no doubt that there was no one prettier or funnier.
"Why are the cars wearing tutus?" She grinned earnestly at Lucy while stroking her hair. They were sitting in the dirty floor of the living room in front of an old TV set. The floor was littered with the toys Lucy kept at her Aunt Harley's house.
"So they can feel pretty while their dancing. Duh. I thought you would know that!" Lucy responded as if it was the most obvious thing. She twirled the red hummer in the air, creating a magnificent arc as she lowered it back to the ground to crash into a shiny green Cadillac.
"I don't know everything."
"Of course you do! Plus, I've told you before!"
"Oh right. And the baby doll's name is?"
"You know that!"
"Well remind me, I love your stories." Harley said with a slight smile. Lucy loved that about Harley, she was almost always smiling, and she listened to every single thing she said, and never thought any of it was weird.
Lucy grabbed the doll from beside the cradle where a yellow truck was sleeping soundly under a Sleeping Beauty baby blanket. The doll was more scary than endearing with its partially melted face and chewed arm.
"This is Baby Bottle Rocket!" Lucy said with intense pride as she handed Harley the doll "He's like Superman! He's an alien from another planet with super powers and stuff. He got in an accident where his firework super powers back fired and he hurt his own face! But he's like Superman, so he's okay. OH! And his arm he got from fighting off Cerberus at the gates of Hell!"
"Wow, impressive, I'm sure he'd get along with the Justice League."
"NUH-UH! He works outside the law!" Lucy said dramatically squinting and deepening her voice to further a point.
On the television set goofy, loud laughter was heard and Lucy looked up to see the smiling face of a clown. The large red smile, the white face, the abnormal laugh, and dark joyful eyes disturbed her on an instinctive level. She let out a squeal and took cover in the cushions of the couch. "Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry" Lucy thought in her head as she pressed herself into the familiar scratchy fabric of the old, smelly couch.
"Lucy, sweetie, you know it's just a clown." Harley said softly running over to the girl and petting her back soothingly.
"Clowns are scary!"
"They're supposed to make you happy and laugh. Sometimes people even like them, because they're scary."
"Who decided that? That's stupid!"
"People like to laugh. People like to be scared even more. It's human nature. Human nature is like…just how people act."
Lucy turned to Harley, tiny tears in her eyes.
"How do you know that?"
"They told me in school silly! They don't call me a doctor for nothing!" Harley winked at the small girl.
"Nobody calls you a doctor." Lucy replied with a pout.
"Well…they did a long time ago." Harley said softly to the point Lucy had to strain to hear. She was still smiling, but there was something off about it. Tears rolled down Lucy's face.
"Do you like clowns?" Lucy asked naively. Maybe if Harley didn't like clowns either she wouldn't feel so silly for being scared of them. And if Harley liked them, then that meant maybe they weren't that scary. After all in Kindergarten the other kids talked for ages about how cool they were when the circus was in town.
There was something unspeakably sad in Aunt Harley eyes as she pet Lucy's hair.
"I love them."
A large wild puppy dog and Pam came into the small apartment with a loud door slam. The sound of gun shots followed, and Lucy immediately put her hands over her ears while Pam swore loudly.
"You live in shit hole, Harley. Seriously, your sister would be pissed if she knew exactly where you lived." Pam said brusquely. People outside were yelling and a woman was screaming shrilly. The large dog immediately ran to Lucy, licking her face and almost standing on top of the girl. Lucy let out a squeal and giggled, and very well couldn't be afraid then.
"Ivy…"Harley said unhappily looking from Lucy to Pam.
"Yeah, sorry, though I think Lucy knows by this point not to repeat anything that comes out of my mouth, right girlie?" Pam smirked at Lucy. While Lucy was sure that Harley was the prettiest woman in the world, Pam was a close second, even if her skin was a funny color. Aunt Laura did tell her not to judge based on skin color, and it was a silly thing to care about anyway. Especially when Pam always smelled like flowers and had hair like a fire truck and Lucy knew for a fact that was pretty awesome.
"Right, you have a potty mouth! Never say any of those damn words."
"Lucy!" Harley gasped.
Lucy laughed hysterically, with what her Aunt Laura called her trademark mischief smile. It was a full face one that stretched from ear to ear, creating little dimples, and lit up her eyes. Pam frowned slightly as Harley simply shook her head.
"Sorry Aunt Harley! I just wanted to see the look on your face!" she exclaimed as she squeezed her purple bear in the throes of her laughing fit. The dog, excited by Lucy's laughter, tried to jump on top of her, making her laugh only harder. It hurt her sides, and suddenly she didn't feel so much like laughing. The yelling outside got louder and there was door slamming and another gun shot. Her laughter turned into sobbing and she hugged her bear even more tightly.
Harley eyes looked dangerous suddenly as she stood up and went to the back room.
"Harley…" Pam said cautiously.
"This will only take a moment." Harley said cheerfully as she quickly walked out the front door with a large paddle in her hands and the wild dog joining her with a vicious growl, yapping loudly.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP OR I'M GOING TO FUCKING MAKE YOU." Lucy heard Harley. She went to look out the window, when Pam quickly grabbed her.
"Come on dear, help me water the plants."
"They're pretty much dead." Lucy responded stubbornly and tried to pull away. When she first got to the apartment she had run to check them only to see them very droopy and sad. Harley told her she lacked Lucy's magic touch with them.
"I don't believe that. They just need some time and attention." Pam insisted trying to pull a reluctant Lucy in the direction of the kitchen.
"See these flowers are fine; just water them a little bit." Pam continued handing her a small watering pale. The pink flowers were brown at the tips of the petals and the leaves were all yellow and brown.
Lucy squinted at Pam suspiciously.
"I'm not dumb, it's going to take more than a little water."
Pam simply put her hand on her hip and gave Lucy a look.
"Oh, Lucy, you doubting you're green thumb? You know the plants can hear you when you talk like that. You can't just give up on them. They need encouragement! They need to believe that you believe they'll get better."
Lucy let out a heavy sigh and began to tilt her tiny pink water pail over the dry soil of the plant. The instant the water touched the dirt the plant came to life with the leaves and stem turning proud emerald green and the petals becoming the brightest shade of pink Lucy had ever seen. It even stood taller with its petals outspread to the world. Lucy let out a squeak and stepped back looking at Pam with alarm in her eyes.
"I told you." Pam winked with a smirk.
"DID YOU SEE THAT?! Oh my gosh Pam that was so AWESOME!" Lucy exclaimed jumping up and down energetically, her long pig tails bouncing everywhere with her.
"I told you, you can't doubt your power." Pam laughed softly. It was weird; Lucy was never sure what to think of Pam. She was sure she was nice, since she was really pretty and was always sweet to her. But sometimes she would sound really mean on the phone or get an attitude with Aunt Harley. And even worse she heard her call her Aunt Laura and Uncle Scott a bitch more than once. She especially didn't like Uncle Scott calling him a "pig in a uniform." Lucy wasn't really sure what that meant.
Lucy reached out to gingerly touch the pink petal of the flower and frowned deeply.
"What's the matter, Lucy? I thought you loved pink."
"Oh, I love pink. It's my favorite." Lucy said, but softly and with not quite as much pep as she usually had when she talked about her favorite things.
"Then why are you frowning at the flower? You might hurt its feelings." Pam insisted making Lucy even more confused as to what kind of person she was. Nobody bad could care this much about flowers.
"It's just while they are very pretty and I love them very, very much they really aren't my favorite."
"Well what's your favorite flower?"
"Do you think we could have a rose bush?" Lucy asked earnestly yet shyly as she already knew the answer. "No, nowhere to put it, don't be such a silly goose Lucy." she thought to herself mimicking a grown up voice.
"Roses are really nice, but I don't think Harley has any place for one in this tiny apartment. And I don't think this neighborhood is the happiest environment for them. You wouldn't want them to get scared like you do." Pam persuaded the small girl.
"I don't get scared!" Lucy said indignantly, though a red blush at the bold faced lie was creeping across her cheeks. She crossed her arms and pouted, avoiding eye contact with her.
"You wanna know a secret?" Pam said after a long pause.
"What?"
"We all get scared. Especially when we grow up, there's just more things to be afraid of."
"….that doesn't sound very fun."
"But there are more things to do for fun. We are adults after all." Pam grinned, "And adults have the best fun."
Lucy thought about that long and hard and knew that had to be true. The adult world held so many secrets, and that meant surprises, and surprises tended to be pretty fun. And if adults were the type of people to scare themselves for fun, then that meant being scared was really just another game.
"You look like your mother when you think like that. You have such a serious, thoughtful face." Pam said with proud affection only for eyes to widen immediately when she realized the flood gate she opened.
"Do I really? What about my dad? Was my mommy pretty? Aunt Laura says she wanted me, but life got in the way, what does that mean? Some of my classmates don't have daddies but I have a daddy right?" Lucy began to babble energetically her whole body practically vibrating.
"Don't worry about it so much, girlie. You got plenty of time to learn all about your parents. And until then you have plenty of people looking out for you and doing the important things for them." Pam said crouching to look Lucy in the eye, "Including me and let me tell you another secret: nobody fucks with me. And that includes my girls."
Pam's eyes were serious and a little dangerous. Even though she didn't like to admit it she had seen the same look in her Aunt Harley's eyes whenever it got too loud with the fighting and gun shots or Uncle Scott would grab her a little too rough. A shudder went up her spine and she realized that while Pam was one of the coolest people in the world to her, she was also really scary. And yet Lucy didn't blink or look away, she just met the serious stare with her own.
"Maybe I can just wait for some boy to bring me roses." Lucy said with a mischievous smirk, finally breaking the stare to focus on watering some peace lilies that came to life as miraculously as her pink flowers had. She really did have a green thumb!
"I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. Even roses can have their tricks." Pam said, and Lucy was sure she was just talking in riddles now. Adult tended to do that a lot, and it was awfully annoying.
Lucy looked back towards the window to see something large and black swoop down through the hole in the curtains. Curiosity and impulse overtook her and she bolted for the door, grabbing Baby Bottle Rocket for protection. She was closing the door behind her before she could even hear Pam protest.
"Seems like you cleaned things up here, Harley." A stoic gravelly voice boomed from downstairs. It was soft and loud at the same time, and it kind of reminded Lucy of whenever Uncle Scott got mad at her except even calmer.
Lucy looked down to see a tall, dark looming creature towering her Aunt Harley with several people napping between them. Well, not quite all of them looked like they were napping; some of them were sitting upright and moaning though it was too dark to really see why they were moaning.
"I'm getting my exercise in! How else am I supposed to stay in shape?" Aunt Harley said with a casual laugh.
"It's called a gym membership, harlot."
An older boy dropped out of nowhere right beside Harley, though if he shocked Aunt Harley she certainly didn't seem to act like it. Lucy on the other hand nearly jumped clean out of her skin. He was dressed in brighter colors than the dark, angry man. She ran down the steps silently as possible to get a closer look. The boy was pretty grown up with long lanky limbs starting to bulk out and he was almost the same height as Aunt Harley. He had a sneer on his face and arrogant posture that the dark man lacked.
"OH!" Lucy exclaimed loudly smacking herself in the forehead. She suddenly knew who these people were, she had seen clips on the TV before and Uncle Scott would talk about them with Aunt Laura a lot.
"What the hell is with the kid?" The colorful boy asked incredulously looking at Harley.
"KID? SAYS THE BOY HERO!" Lucy snapped, deeply insulted by being underestimated by some big kid with an ego trip. She threw Baby Bottle Rocket hitting him square in the head.
"Ow! The fucking hell is your problem, brat?" The big kid rubbed his head in shock that a tiny girl in blonde pigtails could actually cause any degree of pain.
"You're the one giving my aunt an attitude you dumbass."
Harley quickly snatched up Lucy in her arms despite her protests and embarrassment.
"Kids, am I right?" Harley laughed nervously.
The dark man, Batman in the flesh, stared directly as Lucy. She fought the impulse to turn away, instead nervously waving at him while holding his gaze. His eyes widened in surprise for a brief second, and Lucy glanced all around trying to figure out what was so surprising.
"Your niece looks a lot like you." The Batman said softly, "She must have her father's eyes though."
Lucy felt a shudder go through her aunt.
"I wouldn't know. I never met him." Harley replied coldly as she set Lucy back down.
Robin walked over to Lucy and bent down to hand her doll back. She could see how shiny and dark his hair was, and his eyes were the brightest blue she'd ever seen. She quickly avoided eye contact and crossed her arms with a pout.
"Here…uh, this…thing is yours." Robin stumbled over his words his tone much humbler if awkward, "You really shouldn't be out here."
"I live here, I mean, I do sometimes. This is my Aunt's place and I can be out here if I want." Lucy responded as she took back the doll frowning a little bit at it, "Here, I think you need him more than I do. Maybe he can teach you to be a real hero."
Lucy's tone was thoughtful and civil, but she could help but giggle a little bit on the phrase "real hero".
"Oh really, smart ass?" Robin smirked with surprising good nature that made Lucy giggle even harder at her own cheekiness.
"Robin, we need to get moving. The police should be here soon, and Harley has done what was needed here." The Batman ordered, Robin's whole posture snapping from casual to military.
"Be good." Robin told her with a crooked smile before running off with the Batman into the night, the pair shooting and flying off with their grappling hooks in perfect synchronization. Lucy felt like she was in a dream as she watched the boy fly across the city with his silhouette framed by the moonlight.
"Lucy, sweetie, I told you to stay inside." Harley sighed looking from Lucy to the pile of napping people.
"Yeah but I saw Batman out the window and I had to see!" Lucy exclaimed, "So is he like your friend or something?"
"Yeah, or something, now don't tell Aunt Laura about this. We wouldn't want her to worry would we, Lucy?" Harley said with a wink and a smile. Lucy nodded in wild agreement.
"Come on, we better get back inside with Pam. Come here Scruffy, come here girl." Harley whistled loudly and the dog ran over gleefully. Lucy chose to ignore the dark red staining the edges of Scruffy's mouth.
"Hey, Aunt Harley can I ask you a question?"
"What's up?"
"What's a harlot?"