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Helena Bertinelli's first kiss is Harley Quinn, because of course it is.
While Harley took Cass and they more or less behaved like two teenagers set off a leash, the rest of the Birds just kind of stuck together. Renee opened a private investigation business and they are now officially working together, so that's weird. Weird as in this was not how her Gotham-revenge-plan was supposed to play out but also weird-good.
She went to pick up her bike from the shop on a tuesday afternoon and not five minutes later, while driving a moderate 50 through downtown Gotham suddenly a person drops down from god-knows-where and lands behind her on her bike seat.
"You got it fixed!" Harley screamed next to her helmet clad ear, while Helena desperately tried to keep the bike upright and not crash into anything.
Helena tolerated Harley, sometimes respected her even, but what they shared was a love for the thrill of speed, so she sped out of the city with Harley behind her, hollering and egging her on, pressing herself tight to her. They stopped outside Gotham at a burger place, then sped back to the city, Helena dropping the newly minted solo sorta-villain outside her place.
"Thanks for the ride, babe!" Harley said, jumping off the bike. "Wanna come say hi to Cass?"
Helena declined politely, her tolerance for Harley hijinks exhausted for the day.
"Okay, that was a lovely date, let's do it again sometime," Harley said, then pressed herself tight to her leather clad form, one of her hands going low on her lower back and kissed her squarely on her mouth, a proper adult kiss, then skipped inside.
Helena needs a minute, realized she might need more that that (she'll be thinking about it for a solid week), and still stunned drove off.
***
Huntress and Canary are a team, with Montoya being the brains of their little p.i. agency. It might work, but they are still butting heads, trying to figure out a way to work together. Dinah is a perpetual mystery to Helena, mischievous as Harley sometimes, cranky as Montoya the others, and a smirking Cheshire cat of her own. She is constantly keeping Helena on her toes, and sometimes it's exhausting, but mostly it's exhilarating.
It was a particularly dicey mission that had both Huntress and Canary limping back to "headquarters" after it became clear that two rival gangs set aside their differences to gang up on both of them. Harley was there also, with a green-skinned plant lady, and a girl in a purple cowl showed up, still it wound up a messy and ugly fight. Black Canary dislocated her shoulder and Helena had to pop it back in, being as gentle as possible. ("Just fucking do it already, Helena!") They'd be black and blue but it will heal, and they were alive.
Renee is a hardened cop, a grumpy mess of a human, a latina that subsists on cop shows and street food. She rushes through the door towards them, concern and worry written all over her face. She hugs them gently, kisses them both on their cheeks then gets them inside to fuss over them with their first aid kits, grumbling the whole time. After leaving Italy more than a year prior, she feels the warmth of something that might be family in her chest. She glances at Dinah, who is watching her with a gentle smile.
***
It's been three weeks since Harley dropped Cass off at their doorstep.
"So they're cutting down the Amazon, because capitalism, and Red's really passionate about this stuff, so we'll go have a little fun with the loggers, ya know. Stock up on cereal, the kid eats like she's secretly fighting crime while I ain't looking!"
At this point though Helena isn't sure she'll be back. Cassandra is adamant she will and Helena hopes she's right. Cass doesn't need another parental figure (?) (???) to skip out on her.
"It's their honeymoon, they'll be back," Cass says not looking up from her game.
Cass mostly hangs out with Dinah, they are a natural fit, but she comes train with Helena sometimes. Helena finds she actually likes kids and she thinks about setting up self defense classes for girls and teens. But still she feels like her and Cass can't really find any shared footing.
Another week later Harley does show up and hangs out at their headquarters a few days – they drink, they go out, beat up some slimebags and human-traffickers, and have a generally great time. Helena wakes to Harley and Cass packing up their stuff early morning, getting ready to leave. Harley's never big on goodbyes ("See ya later, bitches!"), but Cass goes to hug Dinah, and then surprises Helena when she hugs her just as hard, and tells her she'll come by next week for their training session.
Helena keeps smiling the rest of the day.
***
Dinah is still a mystery to her, and she has zero idea what goes on in that pretty head of hers but she realized what it is that goes on in her own head. Helena likes her. Helena thinks about legs, clad in shiny fabric or fishnets, kicking at thugs, thinks about hair, flying wildly in a fight and framing mischievous eyes when they're lounging on a couch, thinks about hands and arms going around her waist and tightening, when they ride fast on her bike.
They are high on top of a building, exhausted but still full of adrenaline, watching the horizon slowly coming alive with the sun still far below it. There's a bad cut on Helena's forearm, and bruises forming on Dinah's torso. She used her Canary cry tonight and Helena will never get tired of seeing her do it. The force behind it, the anger fueling it, it's magnificent. Dinah turns to her, and Helena's been watching her for the last minute.
She swallows, then tries to pick out words that would somehow make a coherent sentence: "I... I want to-"
It's a toss up between 'kiss you' and 'get some burritos'.
Dinah interrupts her with a kiss, and honestly, it's for the best, since she's an awkward mess as usual.
"For someone who doesn't talk all that much, you still talk too much," Dinah says with a smirk and Helena finally gets to wipe it off her with a kiss, like she fantasized for weeks now.