High above the city, Daniel kept running across the air while wind rushed past them and Gotham stretched far below beneath the afternoon sun, its crowded streets and towering buildings spreading endlessly into the distance.
Then he suddenly slowed down.
And stopped.
Just standing in the sky.
Harleen Quinzel, who had been squeezing her eyes shut and holding onto his neck for dear life, cautiously opened one eye when she felt them stop moving.
For one brief second, she thought they had arrived.
Then she looked down.
They were still thousands of feet high in the air.
Harleen immediately tightened her grip around his neck hard enough to nearly choke him. "Why did we stop?!" she demanded, trying very hard not to look downward again.
Daniel looked at her for a moment before smiling awkwardly.
"Quick question," he said. "Which direction is Central City from Gotham City?"
Harleen stared at him.
"…You don't know?"
"I came to your apartment by following your presence," Daniel admitted. "I've never actually traveled to Central City before."
There was a long pause.
Wind blew around them.
"I left my life," she muttered in disbelief, "in the hands of an idiot who gets lost in the sky."
In the end, they took a bus to Central City.
Daniel sat beside Harleen Quinzel while she flipped through the patient file Arkham had sent over, reviewing notes, prior evaluations, and the list of incidents attached to the case.
A few minutes later, a thought suddenly hit her.
She looked up from the file and glanced around the bus.
Nobody was paying attention to Daniel.
Not even a second glance.
Which made no sense.
His face had been all over the news for the past week.
But the passengers around them acted like he was completely normal.
Harleen slowly lowered the file and looked at him again.
"...Okay, now that's weird."
Harleen frowned and looked around the bus again before leaning closer to Daniel. "Okay, what's going on here?" she asked quietly. "Your face has been on every news channel for days. Why is nobody reacting to you?"
Daniel looked up from the window. "Oh. That."
"Yes, that."
"They can't really see my face unless I want them to," he said casually. "To most people I just look normal. Some random guy sitting on a bus."
Harleen blinked at him.
"You're telling me the entire planet's been trying to identify you for a week and you've just been walking around with supernatural privacy settings enabled?"
"That's actually a pretty good description."
Harleen stared at him for several seconds before leaning back into her seat.
"You know," she muttered, rubbing her forehead, "every conversation with you somehow creates new ethical concerns."
"Umm… I let go of most of my ethical concerns a long time ago. They kept getting in the way," Daniel said.
"I think you let go of all of them," Harleen Quinzel replied dryly.
Daniel leaned back slightly in his seat. "Maybe. Or maybe not."
He still kept a few of the important ones. Probably.
By the time the bus reached Central City, the sun was already starting to dip lower across the skyline.
Harleen and Daniel stepped off and made their way toward the Central City Police Department headquarters, the building noticeably more tense than a normal police station.
Officers moved quickly through the halls, conversations low, several people glancing toward the secured lower levels.
The moment Harleen Quinzel entered the lobby, one of the detectives immediately approached.
"Dr. Quinzel? Thank God you're here," he said before his eyes shifted toward Daniel. "Uh… we were only informed one doctor was coming."
Harleen smiled without missing a beat. "He's my assistant."
Daniel looked at the detective and nodded once. "Physical assistant," he clarified. "If one of your psychiatric prisoners decides to become violent, it's usually healthier for the doctor to have backup."
The detective stared at him for a second, clearly unsure how serious he was supposed to take that statement.
"...Right," he said slowly. "Well, the prisoner's downstairs."
As they started walking, Harleen leaned slightly toward Daniel and lowered her voice.
"Assistant?" she whispered.
"You said it first."
"You could've denied it."
"And miss the chance to sound employed?"
"Why are you even messing with me?" Harleen Quinzel asked as they followed the detective down the hallway.
"I mean… don't you're a doctor? How do you not know?" Daniel replied casually.
Harleen sighed and looked at him again. At this point it was obvious—he was flirting with her. The problem was she genuinely couldn't figure out why.
"Honestly, I should evaluate you before I evaluate anyone else here," she muttered, grabbing his sleeve and trying to drag him forward.
The detective walking ahead finally seemed done with both of them. He turned around with visible exhaustion on his face.
"If you two want to handle your personal issues," he said, "can you at least wait until after the job?"
Daniel looked at the detective and shrugged. "Well, we're in a relationship, so this kind of thing happens."
Beside him, Harleen Quinzel smiled despite herself and nudged him lightly with her elbow before leaning closer.
"And when exactly did this relationship start?" she asked under her breath.
Daniel looked at her calmly.
"...Just now, probably."
*****
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