She had only been home for a few minutes before her cellphone vibrated signalling she had received a text. She glanced down and saw it was from Dick 'Are you home yet?"

'I just made it back to my apartment a few minutes ago'

'So when do you want to go out again?'

'What happened to waiting 3 days before texting or calling?'

'We live in Gotham life is pretty uncertain, I don't like to waste time'

Harleen knew he was right, in Gotham anyone could die or disappear into the night. It was sobering to know that she was part of the reason that happened when she was with the Joker. Thankfully she was finding it easier and easier to disassociate herself from her past and ignore the slight thrill that always came with the memories, but that tug was still there. She was looking forward to the day when she could be truly disgusted with crime and not intoxicated, she was almost there and she knew that was in part thanks to Dick.

'That sadly makes sense' she sent back having to retype the message due to her shaky fingers.

'Don't worry I'm a cop I'll protect you ;)'

'I can take care of myself' She briefly wondered of that came across rude, but thankfully she received a text immediately after relieving her of her worries.

'I can respect a tough woman, it's kinda sexy' Harleen found herself smiling at the text.

She ended up spending far more time than was necessary texting Dick because his exuberance was contagious even through a phone. Many texts later she realized they had never actually scheduled another dinner date. After quickly remedying that she decided it was time to go to sleep. She needed energy to deal with insane people, she blatantly ignored the fact that she deserved to be in there.

"Why are you so happy?" Joan one of her only real friends at Arkham approached her with a single eyebrow raised, "I understand getting away from the Joker as a patient is a relief, but this job isn't one that inspires smiles and you've been oddly happy for a while now."

"Sorry, I didn't realize I was smiling," Harleen schooled her features into something more neutral.

"Don't apologize for being happy, I'm just confused as to why. What did you get a boyfriend or something?" She asked casually. Harleen had never dated anyone since she arrived at Arkham so she clearly wasn't expecting her to blush and slightly avert her eyes. She grinned, "You did find a boyfriend, didn't you?"

"We've only been out a few times and we haven't defined our relationship, but" she paused for a moment, "He was exactly what I needed, he knows how to make me happy and I haven't really had that before."

"So you're having sex with what's-his-name?" Joan looked at her slyly.

"His name is Richard he goes by Dick, don't be so creepy" Harleen quickly realized her mistake in explaining, "and no we haven't been intimate yet."

"Well I have two suggestions, first define your relationship and second get in bed," Joan was a direct woman and rarely wasn't the type to beat around the bush in relationships or in life. Harleen considered it her immediate response was to say no she didn't want to take that step, but as Dick had mentioned time in Gotham seemed to flow different with the ever-present danger and they were constantly talking or texting on the phone if they weren't together.

"We're meeting up for lunch later. I'll talk to him then, but only about our relationship," Harleen decided that she wanted to solidify their relationship or at least understand where they stood. If it was too soon well she could blame that on her lack of knowledge of dating. Besides she had a good feeling about Dick and she wasn't scared of how he'd react.

"Good luck," Joan called out suggestively as she left the room with a cup of coffee in hand. As annoying as she could be Harleen did appreciate her.

"Thanks," Harleen whispered going to the break room to grab her own coffee, apparently being happy was tiring.

Dick had made sure to choose a cafe nearby because Harleen's lunch break wasn't extensive. She wondered how to broach the topic, she nearly looked it up online, but decided to go with her gut instead of some silly online article. She was brave she knew that, but somehow dating seemed so foreign to her that she got nervous. Still Dick was kind and she wasn't worried, she just needed to tell herself a few more times so she'd believe it.

She didn't know if things were moving fast or not, but she knew she was forming some type of feelings about Dick. He wasn't just some kind of replacement or therapy, it wasn't love not yet, but she was definitely getting attached and she was sure he felt the same. She was past the point where she could lose him or walk away without hurting herself in the process and she was disturbingly okay with that.

She was so lost in her mind that she almost missed Dick greeting her, apparently her discomfort was obvious because the first thing he asked was, "Are you alright?"

She was about to try to confirm that she was fine, but decided against it. There was no point in lying so she threw it out there, "Yes and no. I'm trying to figure out where we stand in our relationship, but trying to find out what to say is a bit nerve wracking." She knew it was a bit weird in her delivery, but she felt immensely better after getting it out in the open.

Luckily Dick wasn't regarding her with shock instead she received a warm smile, "I guess I'm just lucky that I didn't have to bring it up. I'm very confident in how our relationship is progressing so I'll ask officially. Miss Quinzel would you do my the honor of being my girlfriend." He gave a slight bow accompanied by a flourish of his hand.

"I'd love to Mr. Grayson," she laughed lightly happy that it was out of the way and that Dick was officially hers. She almost questioned if she actually deserved to be happy, but refused to let the thought linger.

"Wonderful, now let's get something delicious. I had to hold back from devouring donuts at work, I have to keep my figure," He winked guiding her into the cafe as the entire conversation had taken place on the sidewalk.

"Of course that's always what's most important in life," she poked his stomach which didn't have an ounce of fat.

"Well I also need to keep in shape for my job," he replied easily as if he wasn't referring to trying to handle crime in Gotham.

"That's fair you can't chase criminals if you're too heavy," she tried to sound casual rather than worried by amending the statement with, "or at least you probably won't catch anyone if you're too pudgy, but I doubt you have that issue."

"Thankfully I don't," he replied as they finally sat down and looked over the menu, "which is why I'm going to be a good person and order a salad."

"Really?" She was mildly surprised.

"Nah, I'm health conscious, but I still hate vegetables. Sue me," he laughed and Harleen joined in loving the normalcy of their little date.

A/N

Thanks for reading, let me know what you thought.

Hi I'm back and I posted, sorry for taking so long. I know this chapter is a bit shorter, but I felt I needed to cut it off now because some serious stuff is going down in the future and I wanted to establish that they care about each other to a decent extent before I jumped into the next chapter. Also there are mild time skips between some of the separations because I don't want to describe every date if they don't have anything extremely important going on. So the date scheduled in the first section came before the one in the cafe. So they didn't declare any sort of relationship after being on two dates.