A Sweeter Purgatory
When the first rays of light fell on her bed Diana was already awake. From where she was lying she had watched the Themyscirian sky turn from grey to pink and finally to blue. The days were getting longer. It would be time soon.
Shayera always arrived on the longest day of the year, just like she always left on the longest day of the next year… only to return again one year later. This had been their final arrangement after all. One year together in Themyscira and one year apart when Diana would return to Man's world and Shayera would go off to fight wherever in the universe she was needed. They had agreed this was the best way of handling eternity together without losing their distinctive identities or tiring of each other. It had worked so far.
Of course it had only been a few years since Shayera had been granted immortality. Diana could still recall every detail about their first reunion.
She had been pacing in that very same room since dawn, with nothing for company except the sound of her own sandals against the marble floor. Around noon she had begun to worry, thinking that her lover had changed her mind, but then she saw Shayera standing in the light of the doorway. She was still in her uniform, fresh from battle, covered in soot and dirt, but she was steady on her feet and smiling.
Diana could not help herself. Without breathing a word she roughly grabbed her by the collar and all but bit on her lips. The redhead smelled of fire and metal and blood, but she was back. She left dark smudges on the white bed sheets where Diana had practically thrown her before undoing her belt and pulling her pants and underwear down to her boots. It didn't matter. All Diana could see was the woman she had to have. Lifting her tunic slightly, she straddled the woman beneath her, and having worn no underwear, she immediately lowered herself on her lap.
She rocked against Shayera who had instantly slid her hands under her tunic to grasp at clenching thighs and buttocks. She never took her eyes off her face as she rode her. It had been a year and she wanted to cry, but instead she laughed when she felt Shayera's fingers tremble against her skin so soon. They had agreed on having absolute freedom during their time apart and she knew that Shayera must have slept with other people but it definitely wasn't recently. In fact, if Shayera was already struggling to hold back her release it meant she had stayed celibate for quite some time. It meant she had saved herself for Diana…
When they were done, and Diana's tunic was no whiter than the smudged bed sheets, she had a bath prepared for Shayera. They could have used the royal baths of the palace but even that didn't feel private enough. The princess had a wooden tub brought to her room and filled with hot water, and it was only when Shayera had shed the last piece of her clothing and stepped into the water that they finally spoke. There, behind a thick curtain of steam Diana was able to wash the weight of the past away from her lover's shoulders.
This became a custom of theirs. Diana would tenderly wash the dirt away from Shayera's body and hair, and Shayera would begin recounting her adventures, slowly and in broken sentences at first, but fluently and even excitedly as the glassy look of the soldier would gradually melt away from her eyes. Diana would listen to her while caressing every single inch of skin that hid under the water, obsessively checking for new scars and wounds. She would stare at the blurry water that run through her fingers like time...
The first half of the year would mostly be spent in the wilderness. As soon as Shayera had put on a fresh change of clothing and greeted Diana's mother, the Queen, they would pack up and go deep in the island's forests. There, they would do little more than sleep and make love away from the other Amazons. In the stillness of the woods Diana would be free to cry out as loudly as she wanted when Shayera took her under the shade of the thick branches, and afterwards, they would lie curled up together, naked on the grass, without worrying about being seen. There they would remain until they could eventually control the intensity of their couplings.
The remainder of the year would be spent in the town of Themyscira.
By day they would tire themselves out, sparring, or horse riding, or swimming naked in the sea, or taking walks. Although the one would rarely be seen without the other nearby they would avoid any unnecessary touching, especially in public. Their relationship was no secret, but Shayera, though much respected, was still an outsider in many ways.
By night, behind closed doors, the princess would guide Shayera to her bed and gently help her slip out of her clothing. With their more primitive cravings sated they would finally take their time and spend hours under the silken covers getting lost in each other's body without rushing to completion. Sometimes they would fall asleep with their bodies slick and still entwined, and in those last moments of consciousness, with her heartbeat still pounding in her head, Diana would hear Shayera whispering sweet promises against her shoulder and pledging herself all over again for eternity…
Soon after their year would be over and Shayera would leave the planet after making a brief stop to stay with her son for a few days.
Diana turned on her side to face the window with a scowl. She had tried to convince Shayera to spend the entire year with her son, where she would be safer – immortal didn't mean invincible after all, not even for her. But Shayera would always laugh off Diana's concerns and claim that Rex wouldn't want his mother meddling in his life for so long.
The truth was of course much more complicated. Diana knew that her lover had never truly come to terms with her guilt. Fighting for other peoples' causes for eternity was a kind of purgatory, a repentance for her actions towards her own long lost people. This constant exposure to hardships and death was also quite possibly the closest she could get to feeling mortal again…
The princess was pulled out of her thoughts abruptly as she felt the covers shift by her side and a warm body press against her. She stretched and leaned against the hard nipples that had brushed against her back and the coarse short hair that had grazed against her buttocks. She sighed contently when Shayera kissed her neck and slid her hand along her waist and right beneath her navel. Yes, the days were getting longer, and Shayera would soon have to return to her very own purgatory, but she would come back to her eventually. Perhaps things weren't so bad. After all, there were few sweeter purgatories to be found.