"Oh well," says Harley.

"Yep. But there's lots to do in Aurum. Do you want to go to the beach today?"

"Yeah!" he beams.

"All right. We will need bathing suits and towels. What colors should I conjure them up to be?" asks Elspeth.

"Red!"

"All of them all red?"

"Some pink," he decides.

"Okay." With this guideline, she wishes on appropriate bathing suits for both of them, in red, and a beach towel that is red with pink stars on it, and then she teleports them both to the Safesun beach. There's a couple of people already there, and it's high noon. Rather than wrestle with the issue of sunscreen she kills a square to protect Harley from burns for the day; she spreads out the towel and sits on it, all aglow.

"You're pretty," Harley informs her, poking her knee.

"Yes, I am. And you're an adorable little tidbit."

"Yup. If you go out without asking me or bringing me or someone else with coins along, though, you can get burnt in the sun. I put a wish on you to protect you but it won't last forever."

"How much burnt?" he inquires.

"It depends on how long you stay out. If it's only a few minutes, so little you'd never notice it. If it's many hours, then you could turn bright red and hurt all over and your skin would peel off."

Harley giggles. "Icky!"

"Very icky. It would also itch."

"Itchy and icky."

"And hurty and warm. All those things."

"Okay," he says serenely.

"Do you want some sandcastle-making toys?"

"Yeah!" he beams.

She conjures up suitable toy buckets and shovels. They are pink.

Elspeth supervises tranquilly.

He knocks a hole in the wall and watches all the water trickle out. Then he patches it up, builds it higher, and runs back and forth to fill it again.

Elspeth conjures up a book and reads it with half an eye, the rest of her attention on Harley.

After a little while, he abandons his pond and comes over to look at her book.

It's a short story collection. "Would you rather I read to you for a bit than keep working on your pond?" Elspeth asks.

"Yeah! Read to me," he says, snuggling up.

"All right," she says, and she finds something loosely age-appropriate - though Elspeth is not nearly good enough at keeping secrets to sustain this perfectly, she can manage as a general rule - and puts her arm around Harley and reads it aloud.

Harley snuggles and listens, gazing at the pages of the book.

Eventually the story concludes.

But the cuddles do not!

Okay then. Cuddles. Elspeth starts looking for another story acceptable for a toddler.

Warm sunny cuddles!

They've been out long enough that he's getting a little pink. She conjures him a bottle of ice water and hands it over; he wanted to try sunburn, not sunstroke. Then she finds a story that she thinks will be okay and starts reading it.

Mmm, water! Water and reading and cuddles.

Cuddles are infinitely available.

That is good, because Harley wants lots.

Elspeth does wonder what will happen to a small Joker who is hugged whenever he likes. Perhaps it won't make much long-term difference. But short-term difference suffices.

The short-term difference is, he feels all warm and snuggly and nice!

The warm may be partially from his blooming sunburn.

But the snuggly and nice are from Elspeth.

Yes. She takes full credit. Snuggle.

Cuddleflop!

Pet pet pet.

"You've got some sunburn now," Elspeth informs him.

"Warm," he says.

"Yep."

Snuggle snuggle.

Heh. Pet pet.

"Yes, sunburns are itchy, like I said. If you scratch it, it will get worse."

"Itchy," he repeats.

"Yep."

Harley wriggles out onto the sand and rubs his whole back against it.

Elspeth giggles. "I can wish the itch away, if you want."

"Nahhhhhh," says Harley.

"Okay."

Wriggle wriggle.

Elspeth doesn't need to take a picture; she can show people her perfect recollection of Harley's entertaining childhood whenever she likes. She just watches him, smiling slightly.

"That seems to amuse you."

"Yeah!"

"All right then," she chuckles.

Harley giggles and rubs at his sunburnt, sand-covered arms.

Elspeth reads to herself.

Square. Healthy not-too-pink skin. "There you go. Do you want to develop another one?"

Another protective square, then. Cuddles. Also cuddles.

Cuddles!

"Are you done being at the beach?" Elspeth inquires.

He nods sleepily.

She teleports them and the conjured objects back to her quarters in the current capital, wishes the lingering grains of sand away from Harley's person, and arranges him with his head in her lap on the couch and continues to read.

Harley goes to sleep.