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Helen was running just a wee bit late, through no fault of her own. There'd been an issue with the Uber she'd ordered to pick her up. Apparently he'd slipped on a bit of black ice and then gotten stuck in a snowbank on the side of the road. At the time he should have been arriving she was getting a text telling her he was stuck, and only then did she notice the dot on the app map hadn't been moving.

The second Uber had had better luck with the roads and ensured her she wouldn't be being charged for the first failed pick up, which was great, but by her calculations she was running a good ten minutes behind.

Groaning in frustration the woman sank down in the passengers seat and hastily shot Harley an explanation and an apology and told her to hang tight and that she'd be there soon.

In the meantime she got to listen to her driver singing old Katy Perry, which...actually wasn't that bad. I kissed a girl, and I liked it.

"Thanks again!" Helen called it through the open window of her Uber as they were pulling away from the curb and waved, already heading down the sidewalk to meet Harley around the corner. The driver nodded to her as he passed, chuckling and waving, then drove off down the street.

Sneakers slipping a bit n the icy sidewalk Helen jogged to the corner and around it. Harley was standing about half way down, but there was...something wrong, and Helen put on an extra boost of reckless speed. "Harley! What's wrong?"

She damn near fell as she reached her, but she managed to regain her balance as she slid to a stop beside the other girl and caught her shoulders. Her initial impulse was to pull her close, but she didn't know what was wrong, and she didn't want to risk hurting her further some how, so Helen hovered anxiously in front of the other girl, crouching down so she could look up into her face. "Harl? Hey, are you okay?"

Please be alright.

She didn't want to think about what would happen if she wasn't. Harley was...well, she was important. More than just a best friend or a partner. So much more. More than she knew.

There were tears on pale cheeks before Harley seemed to register that she was there and brushed them away. Pulling that familiar steady confidence back around her and smiling a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. Reassuring g to see, but not fully, and Helen was still worried as her best friend took her hand and she straightened up.

"Are you sure you're okay? What kind of flashback was it?" The club? The kiss? No, that was silly, right? If Harley felt that strongly about it, good or bad, she'd say something, right?

It nagged at her, gnawwing away at insecurities and hopes and that place in her mind that Harley occupied always. "Do you...do you still want to hang out?" Whatever the flashback had been, if it was that, it'd made the silver haired girl look like she was in pain, and Helen didn't like that at all.

Bright eyes widened as cool hands cupped her face, pressing into her cheeks enough to make her lips pucker, and she stared down at Harley, the skin beneath those soft hands heating up from just that simple contact. Ever since they'd kissed on her birthday it seemed like any little thing was enough to send her pulse racing, and it was getting harder and harder to hide the effects Harley had on her.

But the flashback, the nature of what the other girl was saying was sobering, and Helen frowned down at her, palms itching to reach out and pull her into a reassuring tug.

"D-date?" The word squeaked out, and Helen kicked herself mentally, aware of the color rising up in her face, spreading across the bridge of her nose in a way that had the very faint smattering of light freckles standing out in contrast. "I mean, yeah. Yes. We're going to do s**t. Whatever you wanna do."

Date. The word played on repeat through her mind as Harley linked arms with her and started them walking down the frosted sidewalk. Even asking didn't exactly clear up the context with which Harley was using the word. A date could have just been a night out with a friend, which they'd done on many, many occasions in the past, but Harls had never referred to any of those instances as dates.

So then what did she mean? If she meant anything at all. Maybe it'd just been the first word that'd come to mind. Maybe it'd been carefully chosen.

Maybe that kiss in the club had meant a little more than a bit of drunken exploration. It did to Helen.

The overly thoughtful expression lingered for a long moment before she realized Harley was batting long lashes up at her and she blinked, startled, before smiling softly down at the other woman. "Of course."

"I saw some fliers for that earlier this week, I was gunna ask..." The warm smile lingered as she felt Harley's head resting against her shoulder, and she shifted just enough to curl her arm around the smaller woman's back, holding her close.

Wandering around a crowded, cold carnival was not something Helen would usually have considered going to, but it did seem like something Harley might like, and even before her birthday she would have gone if Harley had wanted her to. Now? Well. Now there seemed to be more reason to anticipate Harl's potential wants and desires.

Or she hoped so, anyways. Hoped she wasn't reading too far into things.

"Sure, that sounds great." A movie date, maybe dinner afterwards, and after that? Who knows.