Sara Lance (taer_alsafer) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-03-05 13:01:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, harley quinn, sara lance (white canary) |
Who: Sara and Harley
What: Meeting and flirting
When: Early February
Where: The Double Tap
Rating/Warning: Low/none
Status: Complete
Harley needed a drink. Several drinks probably. She’d had a busy few days, between her day job, and her night project, and honestly she’d earned a few drinks. Wiping some blood off of her knuckles, she tossed the cloth into a bin and swung into the bar, looking around. It was a bit of a dive, but she was wearing a red corset, fish-nets, cut off jeans and a leather jacket, to go with her tie-dyed hair and paper-white skin. “Eh. I look white trash enough!”
So she slipped in, making a beeline for the bar.
So far, Sara was enjoying her time at the Double Tap. The clientele was a little rough, located as it was at the edge of one of the bad neighbourhoods in town, but those were exactly the kind of people Sara got along best with, and, for the most part, she could handle herself if someone took things too far. Dan was a pretty good boss, and even his girlfriend seemed alright, if not a little strange. And, he let her wear whatever she wanted, which, today, was a grey t-shirt and a pair of black jeans, ripped at the knees.
The bar was empty at the moment, and Sara was taking advantage of the quiet to change out one of the kegs. She was crouched under the bar, changing the hose, when she heard someone walk up to the bar.
“Just a minute,” she called, finishing up, and then got out from under the bar and stood up, taking in her guest. For Sunny California, there sure were a lot of super pale, hot women around. Her lips curled into a smile. “Hello there,” she said. “What can I do you for?”
Harley flashed her a bright grin, leaning forward over the bar. “I gots a few ideas, cutie, but why don’t we start with somethin’ colorful and fruity.”
Tonight was looking up again. She slid onto a stool, looked at some of the dated decor and deadpanned. “I like the decor.”
“Something colourful and fruity, coming up,” Sara said. Dan didn’t keep much in the way of ‘colourful and fruity,’ given that it wasn’t the drink of choice of the usual clientele that came through here, but there was a dusty bottle of blue curacao and raspberry Sourpuss hidden away behind the more commonly used bottles of cheap rum and whiskey.
“You joke, but I like it,” Sara said, taking a look around the bar while she mixed the drink with an underplayed flashiness. “It doesn’t try to dress up and hide behind anything flashy. It’s more authentic, I think,” she said, and then topped up the drink with sprite. She slid the purple drink toward the customer. “I hope you like porn stars,” she said, with a playful smile.
“If you ain’t got it whiskey on the rocks works too.” Harley winked. “Flashy can be fun though. An’ authentic when its the right person!”
She picked up the drink, eyes sparkling. “I’ve got a few favorites.”
“Not everything - or everyone can look as good as you under all the glitz and glam,” Sara said with a playful smile. And then, “I was talking about the drink,” in a tone that implied she wasn’t entirely talking about the drink. “So, are you a regular around here?”
“I do know how to rock the unicorn look,” Harley replied, letting her eyes wander up Sara’s body. “Not this place! Just happened to be in the area. You work here long?”
“Yeah you do,” Sara agreed, grinning, not missing the look of appraisal. “Not at all,” she said. “I’m still brand new. To the job, at least. I grew up around here,” if not around this particular neighbourhood, “otherwise I might have asked if you’d show the new girl around after my shift.”
“So ya know this area pretty good, huh? What if you’re the one showin’ me around?” Harley waggled her eyebrows as two police cars sped buy outside, sirens blazing. She didn’t seem to notice them, or the ambulance that quickly followed.
“I think I could manage that,” Sara said, leaning against the bartop. “Assuming this place hasn’t changed too much in five years.” Really, how much could have changed in the last five years? “I should be off at nine, if we don’t get too busy before then.”
“I ain’t got anything else planned, my dance card was all emptied.” Harley took a sip of her drink, spinning around in her stool and … okay she in fact went ‘Whee!’.
Sara grinned. Oh, this girl was going to be fun. “I’m Sara, by the way,” she said, offering a hand for a handshake.
“Doctor Harleen Quinn,” Harley replied, taking Sara’s hand in a firm handshake. “But my friends call me Harley. Wanna be one of my friends?”
“Doctor Harleen Quinn is a bit of a mouthful, so I think I’d better,” Sara said, grinning. It was a slow night, one that would have been mind-numbingly so if it wasn’t for the interesting doctor sitting at the end of her bar. But finally, it came to clock out.
“I just need to run the cash to the back and I’ll be good to go,” Sara said, preparing the envelope of cash to drop into Dan’s cash-box. “You still up for that tour?”
“Yeah, I think I’m up for that tour,” Harley said. She’d finished her drink and a bowl of peanuts while waiting, and was excited to get going.
Sara closed up, and then led Harley out the door of the bar, making sure to lock-up behind her. “Well, here you have scenic Slater Slums,” gesturing to the area outside the bar. “Good girls and boys usually leave this place alone.” Her dad sure hadn’t been happy any of the times Sara had hung around with her friends in the area, at least. “Do you live around here?”
“Good thing I ain’t a good girl,” Harley quipped, stretching her arms back and up until it felt like her back was popping and she was going to burst out of her corset.
“Not really, kinda slummin’ it actually, but I grew up in a place a lot worse.”
Sara eyed Harley appreciatively as she stretched. “Oh yeah? And where was that?”
Harley turned and glanced towards the East. “Jersey!”
As if that explained everything.
In a way, it sort of did, and Sara chuckled. “I guess I should have guessed from the accent,” she said. “So, you’re new to the area then?”
“This neighborhood, yeah, but I’ve lived in the OC for a long while now,” Harley explained. “Got my practice here and everythin’. Nice house, coupla dogs, my hyenas.”
She neglected to mention her wife in London, but mostly because she didn't feel like explaining the whole open marriage thing. Naturally, she’d have to tell anyone she dated about that and they’d have to accept that arrangement. But for a strange? Nah. She’d had a hard enough time explaining that to people on the network that one time!
Sara did a double take, and then smiled, almost convince what Harley said was a joke but not quite convinced that she wasn’t serious. “Back up. Did you say hyenas?”
Harley grinned, glancing at her before pulling out her phone to show off her babies. “Yep! My snookums!”
They came from her dreams and only a crazy person would keep a pair of hyenas as pets. “Hyenas get a bad rap, they’re skilled, efficient hunters an’ lions steal their prey more often than they scavenge a lion’s!”
“I didn’t know they hunted,” Sara admitted. She had always thought that they were just scavengers. “I also didn’t think they’d make good pets. I wouldn’t think there’d be a lot of hunting here in the city. They don’t mind it?” she asked.
“They don’t mind it at all as long as I give ‘em tummy rubs and fresh meat.” Objectively, Harley knew they were dangerous animals and not at all suitable for house pets. But her dreams had altered her brain chemistry in such a way that she couldn’t be objective about them. Besides, they hadn’t ever hurt her step-daughter and in fact had protected her a few times. Their loyalty was unquestionable!
“I totes wouldn’t recommend ‘em for like, most people. Or anyone. But they work for me. I like dangerous things.”
Sara hadn’t survived backpacking around the world for five years by doing things like giving hyenas bellyrubs, but hey, if Harley still had all her fingers it obviously worked for her. “Yeah? That must be why we get along so well,” Sara teased. Maybe it was a little early to decide how well they liked each other yet, but Sara had no problems with Harley. She liked how out there Harley seemed to be.
Harley flashed her a grin, leaning over and into Sara to make sure she got the best possible view of the ladies in that corset. “So you’re a dangerous thing, dollface? Bet you got no idea how dangerous I can be.”
There was a flash in her eyes, maybe a hint of that danger, of someone who’s hands had been bloodied in the past and may or may not have anything to do with that ambulance and police car down the street loading some guy.
“I don’t know if I’d say dangerous,” Sara said. She’d never shot a man in Reno just to watch him die, at least. “But I do like to take risks.” Like, apparently, walking down the street in a bad neighbourhood with a woman who liked to give hyenas bellyrubs in her free time. “ Sounds like you can be a little risque.”
Yeah, Sara could make puns too.
Harley’s smile was a little mad, thanks to a sparkle in her eyes. Her make-up didn’t really help with the effect, the colors brought out by her bright clothing. “Life ain’t worth livin’ without risks. Without livin’ it up as long as you ain’t harmin’ people who don’t deserve to be harmed.”
She was always careful with words like that. People who deserved harm vs those who did not.
“So wanna see how risque I can be?”
Sara didn’t especially like hurting people, though she had to admit that there were people who, on some level, deserved it. Her father had taught her self-defense, and her years on the road had only managed to hone it. She’d left a few broken noses and fingers in her wake, and so she didn’t think that Harley’s statement was very strange.
“I thought you’d never ask,” she said, shooting Harley an impish smile.