"Hey! Screw you too buddy!"
Gunfire from Harley's rifle was far more biting than her rather weak attempt at a comeback to being flipped off. A sadistic glee was across her painted face as she heard her target cry out in anguish at taking several bracing wounds where his leg wasn't quite in cover. In her eyes, fair retribution for him deciding to flip her off in the middle of a shootout.
The trail of bullet impacts and sparks along the walkway drew closer to the next trio of goons as they moved towards firing positions. Rather than moving down for cover, she was going full ham into the spray from her thrill in maiming the first. Completely ignoring the return fire about to ensue, or the ammo count of her own weapon.
At least until Poison Ivy bolted past and grabbed her wrist without pause.
With more gunfire sending hot shards in their direction, both women charged right for the brief safety provided by an office room in the middle of the factory floor. It stretched above and overhead towards the rest of the administration, forming an open tunnel that would still leave them exposed once the gunmen moved around.
Still quick on planning, Ivy hurled out a pair of smoke grenades in either direction, buying them a bit more time before the blind gunfire would commence.
"Harl, one of these days-!"
"Yeah yeah! Can't have fun on the job anymore!"
Ivy rolled her eyes, and was prevented from continuing her scolding by the expected-yet-early blind gunfire into the smoke.
"Shit!"
It was coming from both sides simultaneously, forcing them further against the wall. Heated shards of concrete sprayed up at their legs, barraging them with the reminder that the next sound had the potential to be the one that maimed them.
"This is not how it was supposed to go!"
"Don't have to tell me twice, Red! Boost me up!"
Harley was already reaching up towards an access panel in the office floor above them, using her rifle to try and knock it out of place.
Ivy went down to seek out any plant matter in the vicinity on an impulse, swearing again under her breath at the futility of that, and consequently her own stupidity. With the smoke already starting to clear out, and the gunfire drawing closer, she knelt down to grab around Harley's knees and lift her up that way.
She heard the thump of Harley's head hitting the ceiling above, wincing more on top of the stinging cuts crossed around her shins.
"I'm not apologizing! Get that damn thing open!"
Through more swearing, Harley managed to elbow the panel out of its socket, then used that momentum to get a solid anchor on the floor above to pull herself up. Within seconds, she was twisting back around to reach down and pull Ivy up as well.
Those last few seconds were hellish for Ivy. She could feel the rush of air past her legs and lower back from the gunfire as it closed in through the fading smoke. Her decision to go with soft shoes for the factory job was now biting back as her feet failed to find a grip on the wall in the scramble to climb.
"One word about weight and I-!"
That time, being cut off mid sentence came as the result of a bullet grazing over her shoulder, singing the skin as well as her loose shirt, drawing blood shortly after. It was sheer fortune that kept her from falling at that moment, Harley's desperate grip on her wrists notwithstanding.
Survival desperation finally pushed her to throw herself upward as much as possible. A second bullet skimmed close enough to graze the skin of her leg, leaving a searing pain in its wake.
By the time she got up to clambering onto the floor, the spray of glass had already started. Stray shots aimed at the thin walls were shattering the viewing windows over them, lining the cheap carpet with a vicious sharp mess. Crawling to avoid the gunfire would cut their limbs up, and sprinting had a greater risk of slipping, with an even worse consequence.
"Ideas, Harl?"
"What're you asking me for!? Run!"
Throwing caution aside in the face of imminent demise, Ivy threw her weight forward into a bolt for the admin section right behind Harley. For those few seconds it took to cross the carpeted area to the open gangway, she was chilled by the fear of one simple misstep sending her crashing back to the glassed floor, or the metal grating outside. Both were equally gruelling.
As soon as she reached the threshold of the admin rooms, she dived down to the floor. Harley had done the same, leaving her right in Ivy's landing zone, much to the annoyance of both.
The continued gunfire drowned out the brief squabbling as they got back up to a crawl, bearing more cuts and minor wounds for the ordeal. But, they were still alive.
"If this goes on much longer, he's going to show up, you know."
"Yeah yeah. Then we get a broken nose and rib between us instead of our brains splattered over that wall! What'd you expect me to do about it huh?"
They had moved over to more secure cover by then. Out of sight from the windows and the upper doorway, with room to move if anyone came through the second door they were facing. A minor reprieve, but certainly a step up from the dismal cover of smoke and little else.
Having time to breathe only brought Ivy's attention back to the wound in her shoulder. It had started to coagulate, but still hurt enough to keep her distracted from a deeper call to the plant life outside. No rescues from her avenue of talent just yet.
"Harl, you think they'll back off if we-"
"Forget it, Red. We ain't giving them back the goods. And they ain't smart enough to figure pissing off the big J isn't in their best interests." To punctuate her point, Harley finally got around to loading the remaining drum mag into her rifle.
Ivy rolled her eyes while carefully peering above the cubicle wall. "Have we tried telling them that? Or maybe the fact that what we stole isn't even worth much and definitely isn't worth dying to get back?"
She was yanked back down by Harley, who had gone into an absolute fit within seconds.
"What? Since when are diamonds worthless Red!?"
The resumption of gunfire put Harley's focus back onto readying her weapon. Ivy rolled her eyes again, though that time with a streak of gratitude that she had been pulled out of the line of fire.
"They've got us pinned and outnumbered, and they're still trying to kill us! What did you do to piss them off?"
"Whad'ya mean 'what'd I do?' They're brainless thugs that you pay to pull a trigger! It ain't my fault they got no tactics!"
"Okay fine! Give me time to crash a vine through several concrete walls and-"
A crossfire began outside the admin area. The new spray of bullets carried a much more familiar sound to it, and under those circumstances it was relieving in its own twisted way.
Harley leapt up onto the table of that particular cubicle to join in, blasting down towards where their assailants had lined up on the gangway. With gunfire from two directions, there was no hiding from their bullet-riddled fate.
Ivy stayed in her huddled position on the grimy carpet. Her ears were ringing now that the constant blare had ended. Once again, the sharp pain from both wounds was coming back to the forefront, aggravated by their frantic attempt to escape.
With the immediate danger gone, she decided to take that moment to sit and recover her senses. Other parties would show up before long, but for those quiet seconds she stopped thinking about that.
"Hey, Red, you feelin' ok?"
She looked up to Harley, who was now standing over her, reaching a hand out while the other kept the rifle slung across her shoulders.
It was a sight that made Ivy smile a little, and work up the will to take that offered hand and pull herself off the floor.
"Yeah. I think I am."
The duffel bag landed on the desk with a crunching thud. Not bothering to ask, Ivy reached over and unzipped the top, letting some of the diamonds within spill out onto the writing pad.
"Several kilos of industrial diamonds. Acquired illegally, very blatantly attributed to myself and Harley, and mostly intact. What's this about?"
"Oh Ivy…"
The chair twisted around slowly to the maniacal grin of the Joker. Taut wider than usual, he didn't even glance twice at the display of diamonds, eyes locked right onto Ivy's own.
"Still having trouble with the hearing? Or is it the understanding part that's got your gab in a knot, hm?"
He leaned forward in his chair, the smile leaving his face in a sickening motion. The flesh itself was quite possibly incapable of doing so normally anymore.
"Leave the questions to whom it concerns. That would be the thinkers, not those on retainer. You're here to keep Harley from getting underfoot, remember?"
The smile returned as the Joker leaned back to give a loud snap of his fingers. On command, the pair of guards at the doorway opened it to Harley. She took a few moments to notice before bounding over with a gleeful smile.
Ivy went silent as she moved aside, glaring at anything but the smug grin taunting her, or Harley herself. That was an absolute mess she didn't want to spark off in the Joker's office of all places.
Harley was on the verge of cartwheeling her way over to the table, settling instead for a front flip with a very flaired landing.
"Whad'ya tell you, Mr J? Nothing the two of us ain't able to pull off."
"Yes, excellent excellent!" Back to his full character, the Joker began spreading the spilled pile of diamonds across the writing pad, picked up a few, and then promptly tossed them over his shoulder. Each time, he muttered a few generic remarks about inadequacy, all while deliberately ignoring Harley's squeals of confusion and protest.
Eventually he stopped the casual tossing, picking out an entirely arbitrary diamond to hold up between himself and Harley. In that form, far from the beautifully crafted tesselated shape of gemstone diamonds, it was more of a crudely brushed rectangle, like any number of chocolates as if formed from glass.
"You've proven my point expertly, Harley! Yes, this will be my most fantastic caper yet!"
To further taunt her completely missing the point, he reached his arm back, then flicked forward to shoot the chunk of diamond clear across the room. It shattered against the wall opposite his desk, leaving a glittering pile of dust on the floor.
"Hard, but brittle. Just like Malcom over there's ex-wife!"
One of the guards at the door shifted uncomfortably at being called out like that. More often than not, being directly addressed by the Joker was the prelude to a grisly death.
That time was a shocking case of the latter, the Joker going right back to his bit about the diamonds in question.
"You're supposed to be smart under all that squeaking, Harley dear. Why don't you take a crack at figuring out why you stole an entire bag's worth of industrial diamonds, instead of a bag's worth of diamond-encrusted jewellery, hm?"
"The slush fund is looking great, so I already knew it wasn't for straight cash." She hesitantly reached over towards the diamond pile, half expecting her hand to be slapped away. When it wasn't, she picked up a chunk of her own to look over. "Isn't it slower to make our own fake jewellery laced with explosives than to do it to already made stuff?"
"Explosive jewellery. That's actually not a bad idea. But not what I've got in mind."
"Then I got nothing. Red said something about these diamonds not being very valuable, but she's the one with a doctorate in chemistry."
"Just the one in biology, Harl." Still trying not to give the Joker any kind of satisfaction in pushing her around, Ivy was careful in her return to the desk. All the while, her eyes remained clear of both, focusing on the array instead.
"These might as well be slightly overpriced chunks of glass. Probably not worth much more than the crap they paid the people who mined these in blood diamond territory, if they got paid at all. They stick junk like this on drills, grind it into powder, whatever."
The Joker snickered at that. "I heard they even use them to power lasers! You'd know something about that, right Ivy?"
She couldn't contain herself from giving a very dismal glare in return, though the reason for it escaped her. It came more from a distinct feeling of revulsion, of being reminded of something best forgotten.
"Fact is, we nearly got shot stealing a bag of ugly glass pebbles. They won't even pass as imitation jewellery. So, in short no idea what they're for either."
"Bah. Leave it to women to miss the bleeding obvious. You don't even realize you've already explained the answer!"
Ivy tightened down her glare again. Snarking back at the Joker was a dangerous line to walk, much as she wanted to.
"Fine. Why don't you do us the courtesy of explaining it your way, Joker."
The Joker leaned back into his chair with a great beam of smugness. The thrill of being asked to explain more of his brilliance. Straightforward, but so deeply satisfying.
"You were right on the money, in that there's no money to be made from this heist! But, we all know what the sensationalist media are like! The headlines will read 'Harley and Ivy make off with loads of diamonds!', no-one will care about reading down where they mention that they're worthless, and big ol' Bats will be scratching those ears of his trying to figure the whole thing out! Cause a big stir, everyone looks the other way, and that's when I hit them with the real thing!"
"Yay!" Harley flung herself onto the edge of the table in sheer excitement, holding her pose for several seconds before coming down to the obvious question. "The real thing being…?"
"Ah, tut tut sugarplum. This one's a real doozy, absolutely top secret. There's only one other I'll need for preparing this caper. You'll be right beside me when it sets off instead."
The expected pout followed from Harley. For once, rather than bounding right into a whole slew of complaining about being left out and the like, she shrugged it off on the spot. "Alright. So long as I ain't there to be the fall girl patsy, I'll let this one be a surprise. Like you say."
"That's a good girl, Harley. Now run along, Ivy will be along to play in a little while."
Ivy watched Harley bound out of the room in complete silence. The implication that she'd be staying longer all but confirmed she was also the one to be helping the real plan. Which in turn meant it would involve plants. And given they were at the end of January, the rest of the pieces, diamonds included, fell into place.
"You're going to hit the Valentine's Day parade. Diamonds and roses."
"Two of a girl's best friends. Well, the latter in your case anyway." The Joker gave a quick tilt of his head after that. "Perhaps I was a little harsh earlier, hm? You put that together nicely, with a only a hint more information. You're not planning on running off to Riddler, I hope?"
Once again, Ivy rolled her eyes, and in the moment wasn't careful about running her mouth. "I'd laugh, because that's a good joke, but I'm not in the mood."
That wiped the Joker's smile faster than before. The sinister manner in which he leaned forward again, conveying his threatening mood so clearly, made Ivy step back a bit.
"I don't appreciate remarks of that kind. Either a joke is worth laughing at, or you let it pass without comment. The only in-between is if I ask for feedback. And believe me, that doesn't happen often."
His face settled back to a more neutral expression once the threat had been made clear. His own mood had shifted away from humour for the moment.
After reasserting herself, Ivy bit down twice on her distaste for the Joker to put her focus on the task itself. Getting it done as soon as possible would get her out of his crosshairs for a short while at least. That much she could work with.
"Well, since roses are a given for Valentine's Day, there also has to be something funny in a twisted morbid way that makes you want to go that route. Giant roses with thorns that impale people, or the flowers themselves go around eating them…" She splayed out her fingers when she came to a loss for ideas. "What's the punchline that makes this a trademark 'Joker' attack?"
And still, she let one more barb slip past. Possibly one too many. "Or are you going to tell me to shut my woman mouth and do as you say yet again?"
"You know, I'm getting a lot of mixed signals from you, Ivy. Half the time, you're right on the ball. The other half…" The Joker got to his feet slowly, opening the top drawer where he kept one of many loaded guns. "You're forgetting your place. And that's, not, funny."
Knowing exactly what was in the drawer, Ivy took those remaining seconds to think. She felt more in danger than when there were bullets grazing her skin, knowing any one of them could be it. And she had used up all her chances and slip-ups.
Biting down her tongue and pride, she closed her eyes for a deep breath.
"Fine. Tell me what you want, where you want it, when you want it. No questions asked. No complaints about what you do with those flowers. None of my usual environmental-cause shitting around you make fun of anyway."
The staredown was tense for Ivy. A silent plea for her own life, demeaning as it was to back down from a man she despised.
For the Joker, it was informative. A chance to gauge her resilience, her gall, and her determination. In the end, it was entertaining.
He broke the stare with a sinister chuckle, closing the drawer as he sat back down.
"Details, details! I'll send you a full breakdown of what I require by tomorrow. Email, text. I'd say fax, but then you'd probably start sobbing about it being printed using non-recycled paper." His grin began to return. "Maybe I will anyway! Be sure to record your breakdown for some bonus points! And I might even forget your flagrant disregard for the power structure I have going here to boot!"
After one last laugh, he motioned his hand towards the door in a dismissive way. "You can go now. Have Harley back before bedtime."
The feeling of being small, and especially defeated left Ivy without the will to try biting back any longer. Clutching at her sore arm, she turned away to leave. No attempts at getting in the last word. No snarky remarks about the garish theme of his office.
As soon as she got outside the office, and heard the door close behind her, she went for the nearest wall pressed against it. Her head craned upward, eyes bleary as she looked to the rotting warehouse ceiling. It was somehow even more dismal than it had been when she left well over a year earlier.
"Hey Red! How'd it go with Mr J?"
"Ask me that again, Harl, and I cannot guarantee I won't flip you off and go to my happy place without you."
A few blinks from Harley followed. And then a few more. A bit of thinking prompted her to reach down for Ivy's hand and lift it playfully.
"Not good, huh? Sounds like I'm treating you to dinner then, huh?"
"Harl, we stole thousands of industrial diamonds not even an hour ago. It'll be all over social media by now. That's literally what Joker was counting on with this plan to begin with! We can't go out in public for at least two days until everyone finds some other stupid crime to be all obsessed over."
"Yeah, for two days we're actually relevant again! This is exactly when we should go out and have dinner like two good friends who don't give a fuck about the cops or anybody else! Whad'ya say?"
The rain outside seemed to exemplify Ivy's current mood.
Both she were Harley were sitting in a mostly populated restaurant, at a table right next to a very large window across the sidewalk and street beyond. Plenty of people, both inside and out, knew they were there. She had even overheard a few particular relevant words in exchange.
But beyond that, no-one seemed to care enough to do anything about their presence, so far anyway.
From her seat, she had a constant view of Harley as she went to order for them both. She was barely paying actual attention though, her thoughts too fixated on concerns, and the lack of concern fighting it out in her head.
She didn't really want to be there, amongst so many people, going on with their lives in ignorance. She didn't want to be in a situation where the hassle would be awkward or unwelcome. In something of a twisted way, the inevitable interruption to the evening she wanted was something more akin to a police raid, or even a more low-tier arrest attempt. Something that would give her an easy excuse to fight back. To not have to interact with ordinary people.
A couple years in the Amazon had driven her from enjoying the luxurious life of an upper class supervillain, to a low-tier introverted tag-along. Even her activist activities had been at a minimum since coming back. And it was more irritable than infuriating that of all the people who apparently wasn't noticing enough of her silent distress, it was her best friend.
The qualified psychologist in red-black leather and dyed pigtails.
By then, Harley was bringing over their tray of food without even a hint of blood on her white shirt. That was the most impressive feat of the night so far.
"No issues, Harl?"
"Eh, had enough violence today. Besides, poor kid looks like they had enough of a night anyway. Buncha 'phobic jerks, telling you."
Ivy rolled her eyes, barely even touching the burger wrapping before her.
"Okay, now I know there's something goin' on, Red. Prime chance to crack about how much you hate anyone who isn't me, and that's the best you got?"
"I don't have a problem with non-binaries, Harl. Loathing for all of humanity isn't specific like that."
"Not who I meant, but whatever." Harley dived right into her stack of waffles following that. It of course didn't stop her from continuing her attempt to be investigative. "So, I get you're still not fond of Mr J. You bothered he wants your help, or somethin' else?"
"Well, since you brought up hateful opinions based on social norms…" After how many times her verbal barbs had come back worse on her, she felt ill for that latest one. Her arms folded up on the table, head landing on top of both shortly after with an exhausted sigh. Having her hair tied back in a messy bun kept it from splaying all over the unwrapped vegan burger.
"What am I doing here, Harley?"
The ditzy demeanour sapped away from Harley. She slid the waffles aside to reach across the table, trying to get Ivy to lift her head back up.
"You haven't told me, Red. You been back barely two weeks and ain't said a thing." She pursed her lips after that. "I mean, they didn't say much on the news. A bit about how you were causing trouble for loggers in the Amazon, then nothing for a few months, and then you came back. Can't tell you what's wrong if I got nothing to go on."
It took longer for Ivy to pull her head off the table. She still had to prop it up with her hand, looking even more dismal than before.
"They got fed up with me prompting hordes of killer ants to go eat all the logging crew."
"Like that one film we watched sometime, Marabunta was it?"
Ivy shrugged, barely remembering what was left of a mediocre experience. "They said they'd start blasting the entire forest with pesticide if I kept going. Millions of insect species wiped out, a lot of other animals and plants sick and dead from all the chemicals."
Harley's face sank. While she wasn't particularly phased by the devastation described, Ivy's own distraught at it brought out the sympathy in spades.
"So, you gave up?"
Ivy pulled her lips in while her eyes started to glaze, looking around idly. "I, gave up. I could've pushed harder, become more destructive. But, they might have started firebombing anything I threw at them. And I'd be seen as the one at fault when they pulled in the heavy support. The Justice League only protect the planet when it's not lower class workers and businessmen that are the threat."
"Yeah, that sounds 'bout right. 'The American way' means you don't invade a country 'less there's a big buck to be made. Getting oil makes money, sizing down the wood industry loses money. Besides, this ain't Supes' planet, why would he care? And the rest follow along."
"This is all reinforcing why I hate humanity."
Even when saying that, in the face of such bitter pessimism, she found herself smiling slightly. Enough to lift her head a little more.
"Except for you, Harl."
"Aw, I don't hate you too, Red."
"And now it's awkward. But again, who cares?" Riding on the moment of apathy mixed with positivity, her appetite returned long enough for her to cast her eyes downwards yet again.
The vegan burger, filled with meat substitutes and the like. The final, definitive answer to what exactly she considered a suitable diet given her campaign of plant freedom in the past. An end to the dangers of overfarming animals, far more important than parading the absurd notion that the plants themselves had rights that needed to be protected.
Her appetite began to subside again. For the cause, for the planet, and for setting an example, none of it was quite enough to make her get over the dissatisfaction she felt the moment she took a bite.
"I leave for an entire year and they somehow make these things taste more bland. I'd be more willing to not send killer ants to eat people alive if they'd actually bother to make a fucking halfway decent veg burger."
Harley flicked a mayo sachet across the table to her with a casual hum. "Figured you didn't wanna wait around for fancy dresses and whatnot. We can find somethin' better if you want."
Ivy shook her head in the middle of emptying the mayonnaise onto the burger, rendering it distinctly not-vegan, and then followed it up with a helping of pepper. It wasn't much, but it did make some headway into making the whole thing easier to get through.
"Where? I mean, look at me. I'm in a shirt and ripped shorts because I don't have much else. I'm basically crashing with a friend and her shitty partner when I'm not freeloading at the arboretum. And there's no way I'm ever crawling back to Wayne, so where do I even start on getting back to high class meals and actual lab equipment to plan my next 'save the planet, fuck humanity' thing when he's got his back turned?"
She winced right after that, even before seeing Harley's hurt expression. "I'm sorry. No complaining about Joker, that was the promise."
"Hey, you don't like him, big deal. S'long as it don't get to be a problem. And at least you not bottling all this up. It's one thing to keep going on about how much you hate humanity. Personal stuff, well, that's different."
"If you're about to pull a Wiseau and start dissecting my sex life, I'm cutting that off too. For the record, I'm well past the seductress schtick."
"Was gonna say it sounds like you either need a new partner. Maybe more of a big display of environmental revenge to get back into the good vibes. Somethin' to make you feel like the Poison Ivy people are afraid of again, the one that makes them scared enough to not be so lazy and actually clean up after themselves."
Ivy went quiet at that point. Bringing up Valentine's Day at all was going to put her in the Joker's bad books when Harley inevitably told him. More than that, her disheartening failure in the Amazon had sucked away a lot of the determination. That harsh slap in the face about the futility of her one woman war on ecological destruction.
She couldn't keep the silence for too long. The slow drop of her mood back towards melancholy was giving plenty away.
"Right now, I don't have any ideas, and quite frankly I don't think I even want to. Like I said, I'm a crasher doing what I can to get by. No-one's going to behave more environmentally friendly if all I do is make some vines grow and smash up a few buildings. That's just pointless chaos."
"I happen to like indulging in pointless chaos. You've always got me for a crime partner, remember?"
A faint tinge crossed Ivy's cheeks. She tried pushing that aside to get back at finishing the burger.
"I saw that, Red. Flattering, but we both agreed it wasn't gonna work out, remember?"
Much as Ivy tried, she couldn't hide behind what remained of the sesame seed bun.
"I know. And I'm not chasing it." Her hands went down to put her face in clear view. "Nor am I talking about this any longer. What I am doing is trying not to ruin an attempt to cheer me up by someone who cares. Thanks Harl."
"We all got our bad breaks and down phases. You'll be back on your plant crusade before you know it, I'm telling you."
While it seemed distant at the moment, the notion of actually enjoying mayhem for the cause again made Ivy smile.
If she wanted quiet, she could have gone deeper into the Amazon, and tried her best to shut out what was happening further out as she solidified a new safe haven. Coming back to Gotham had been out of feeling aimless. And while troubled, it hadn't left her regretting the decision to return quite yet.
Rain had soaked through the entirety of her hair and clothes by the time she reached the parade plaza. Right between the fountain and the indoor arboretum, she had the ideal view of the comforting glow it gave out in the late evening drizzle.
An island of green in the concrete and paved stone. Her own personal beacon in the night, the 'happy place' as she had named it.
No warnings or sudden appearances of individuals looking to arrest her as she approached the dimmed lighting. She even made a point of approaching the front door deliberately in view of one of the cameras. They all faced outward, and whether that was because of the simple fact that foliage was too difficult to place around, or some foresight from Bruce Wayne on her behalf she didn't care to ask about.
It was the eleventh night she had come to the arboretum without issue. There was definitely an unspoken truce of some kind in place. And for her, having one single location of solace was worth upholding her end of the truce.
The latter of the two felt a little stronger when the doors opened to her automatically. For the previous ten nights, it had been as simple as calling over a waiting palm frond to open it from within. The palm itself was further away from the door, but it was also apparently no longer necessary.
She looked up to the doorway camera with a raised eyebrow, then smirked to it. After a night of choice words had put her in a bad position, she opted for silent gratitude and made her way inside.
Even with the relative privacy offered to her own little domain, the only thing that came loose was her tightly wrapped mess of hair. A cascade of red down her back, and across her shoulders as she shook it free. It was in a far better state than it had been during her year long sabbatical, but the return to civilization had left her with the renewed need to keep working it back to its ideal state, one day at a time.
Stepping through into the main walkaround brought the plantlife into full activity. Many of the closed flowers, branches and stems curved towards Ivy as she approached. Each graced by a light touch of her fingers when she walked by. Some delved into her hair, momentary grasps to dig out tangles and the like without breaking her stride.
Once she had passed, each of the plants returned to their restful state. Stray hairs were drawn in out of sight to ensure no trace of her was left open to theft. Flowers that had briefly bloomed to greet her retreated back into the safety of their leafy shells.
The greatest movement came from the oak tree that dominated the middle of the arboretum. A low groan of twisting wood, roots pulled aside, an aging trunk twisting open to reveal the tunnel held safe below. All concealed from outside view by a strategic arrangement of broad plants and the like.
Ivy's descent into the sloped tunnel drew her closer to the earth below the concrete and stone on the surface. Past the plumbing and electricals, her true safe space where sunlight didn't need to shine.
Bathed in a soft green light from the glowing roots, a much more palatable aura to cover the red light that would renew both herself and the plants that lined her sanctum.
It was borderline cliche for her reputation, but on the other hand she had done her utmost to keep it out of sight from everyone else on the planet. Even Harley had not seen it, for a multitude of reasons that had always been kept to herself.
She slid onto the arrangement of giant leaves gently. Never treating the plants gracious enough to provide her rest with contempt or disregard.
However much the world above troubled her, she had one place in which she could hide away from it all. A few restful hours was something she appreciated greatly.