A/N: This is a story idea that has been plaguing my mind for months. It came about after I saw Black Panther and wondered how Themyscira would function if it were a real country existing today. The plot and Diana's story unravelled from there. It took me forever to post because I've never written anything and I'm worried that no one will like it.
This is a wonderbat AU story, however, if you're just here for the ship and not for the journey that our characters will go through, then this probably isn't the story for you. I tried to write Bruce and Diana as real people living today, so just keep that in mind while reading.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these amazing characters. I'm just obsessed with them.
One
Gotham City now...
The heavy front door swung open with a jarring croak and Steve found himself thinking, not for the first time, that he really needed to oil the hinges. Like every Wednesday morning, he got to Diana's flat before she got out of the shower. Wednesday was the only weekday that neither he nor Diana had any morning sessions with clients, and so they both usually got together to discuss upcoming events or plan things for the social media marketing of their fitness business.
Today was no different, yet Steve knew that this would be one of the most difficult conversations that he'd ever have to have with Diana.
By the time he passed the guest bathroom and Jason's bedroom by feeling around the walls of the low lit hallway, he was almost blinded by the white light streaming into the massive ceiling to floor windows at the end of the living room. Steve squinted until his eyes gradually adjusted to the flat. Everything was as expected. The clear cut lines of the pristine — almost masculine furniture and clinically clean floors and shelves was always broken up by something unexpectedly feminine or juvenile. Today for example, a lace hemmed night gown draped carelessly over the back of her faux leather couch, or the five or six worse for wear collectible baseball cards fanned carelessly over the taupe-white granite island in the middle of the kitchen. As always, Steve closed his eyes and took a long deep breath and inhaled Diana's scent, her essence the reason why her flat always felt more at home to him than his own, or even his mothers' apartment where he grew up. Lemongrass with a hint of cinnamon, the mild sweetness, from whatever fruit was left out on the open produce cart in her kitchen, and the lavender that she always put in the diffuser to help Jason calm down at night. They were all so pronounced and bold, yet none of them overpowered each other.
They just smelled like home.
The muted sound of the shower was coming from the loft bathroom. "It's the only time when I don't have to rush shaving my legs." She'd told him matter of factly, one morning when he asked her why he always had to come here and wait for her every single week. Steve had offered to pay for her to go to a spa and get a professional wax, but she turned him down politely, she said liked doing it herself. Clearly leg shaving was a luxury to her. That was the thing about Diana though, you could move mountains and she wouldn't be impressed, but one day the smallest thing would knock her socks off.
Just like every Wednesday, Steve made his way to the kitchen and yanked opened the stainless steel fridge to see what could he could whip up for their breakfast. Diana's refrigerator, always seemed to resemble a terrarium in different stages of growth. Today, the shelves were blooming with large bunches of leafy greens, with sporadic bursts of colour from various other fruits and vegetables.
While Steve was still standing there thinking about what ingredients he would need for their smoothie, the lock for the loft bathroom unhinged and Steve could hear Diana's steps padding around her bedroom right above his head. That lemongrass scent of hers drifted more strongly throughout the open-plan apartment.
"Are you there, Steven?" She called out. The sound of glass clinking followed her words. Steve thought that, no doubt, she was replacing one of the many bottles on her dresser,.
"Yeah! What do you want in your smoothie?" His muffled voice travelled up to Diana. And just from the sound she could picture him bent over looking into the lower drawers of the freezer compartment.
"Surprise me." She shouted back. There was a rustling from downstairs which Diana assumed was Steve grabbing whatever he needed from the fridge, followed by the loud scream of the blender.
Diana sighed and looked at herself in her full length mirror. Her long hair looked like a rangy, dark mop but she was too hungry and her arms were too sore from her earlier workout to start detangling it. Her hair was a labour of love for her. She loved her long thick waves, she spent a lot of time and probably even more money taking care of it. But truly, there was nothing she hated doing more than styling her hair. Once it was styled it was the softest thing ever, but before she detangled it, it always felt like the manes of her horses from back home after she'd taken them out for a hard ride.
Diana shot her hair one more baleful look then pulled on the dark cropped hoodie she had on her bed and skipped down the stairs from her loft bedroom to meet Steve in the kitchen.
He was already sitting at one of the barstools in her kitchen with both of their smoothies resting on the breakfast bar, so Diana lifted herself onto the stool next to his.
"A girl could consider making a honest man, out of you, Steven," Diana smiled wryly, cocked her head slightly towards him then looked up at him through her thick lashes. When her pale, blue eyes met his bright, green ones, Steve arched an eyebrow mischievously and smiled, the dimple on his left cheek deepened.
"You say that like if I'm not constantly feeding you, Prince. I literally take a bag of snacks with me everywhere we go so that you can keep your precious blood sugar stable."
"But that's only because Jason always eats all of my food." She reasoned.
"It's a vicious cycle then." Steve threw his hands up pretending to be exasperated. Without missing a beat he added. "I'll give you some simple advice though, free of charge." That dimple of his, the one that Diana always wanted to press her finger into, deepened even more as his smile widened again. "All you need to do is take more food with you."
"But then I wouldn't have an excuse to talk to you and you'd be a very lonely boy." She did have a point there, the majority of their conversations did revolve around food.
"Then I'd be lonely, that's true." He conceded as he closed his fist over his heart in mock heartache and Diana's smile went from wry to blinding in a nanosecond. She and Steve always fell into the same playful banter whenever they were together, but in all the years that they'd been best friends they'd never even dreamed of crossing the line.
"Jason wants you to take him training with you this weekend. I've been trying to tell him that we need to leave you on your own sometimes so that you can find a girlfriend. But he very rudely informed me that you don't need one," Diana said. Steve who'd already started drinking his blueberry smoothie, had to purse his lips tightly so that the liquid didn't come spraying out with his laugh.
"It's nice that he knows what's best for me."
Diana chuckled and chucked one of the cherries that Steve had taken out for them, into her mouth. "I know. He's incorrigible."
"Are my moms taking him and Jessie out today?"
"I think the plan is to try to see a movie, but that really depends on whether or not the rain lets up." Ostensibly, Diana's eyes drifted towards the large windows at the far end of the living room. Steve's gaze followed hers and sure enough there was the telltale gathering of angry grey clouds in the sky. The city had been bathed with torrential rain for the last three days.
"Gotham's never been on the map for its good weather." Steve said and Diana nodded. "When you go up to finish getting ready, I'll pop down to my moms' and say hello."
Steve's parents lived on the tenth floor of Diana's apartment building. It had become so normal for both the families to be in and out of each other's homes, that Diana joked that they lived in her basement and Etta and Barbara, Steve's mothers, called Diana's apartment their attic.
When Diana had come here to live a little more than five years ago, she was sixteen, alone, terrified and four months pregnant. It was Steve's mothers Etta and Barbara who took her in. Diana remembered that first night she'd spent in her apartment. She was sitting on the laminate floor in the middle of her empty apartment trying and failing to make sense of the IKEA instructions to build her bed, which was laying in front of her in a pile of parts.
Unsurprisingly, Diana did not have the faintest idea about how to use a screwdriver. After all, it was only three months prior that she was still being raised as Her Royal Highness Diana, Princess of Themyscira, and despite her extensive education, somehow the use of construction tools, that held no role in the creation of art, was completely left out of her lessons. As if to add insult to injury, her stomach was growling like a rabid dog, but her fridge wasn't scheduled to be delivered until the next day, so she hadn't been able to stock up on groceries. The thought of eating take-out again only served to activate her gag reflex. She'd only just started getting over her morning sickness, she felt that if she never vomited again it would be too soon.
To summarize, Diana wanted to cry. She felt sorry for herself and she wanted to wail and scream until her voice ran hoarse. But what good would that do? Besides no one would come. She was alone now.
When Diana was little, her servants or even her mother would be at her side before her first tears could even spill over her eyelids. Now the only thing that greeted her tears were the mocking echos of her own sobs that reverberated in her empty apartment. It was the emptiness that made her feel sorry for herself more than anything. It exaggerated the fact that she was lonely and that no one cared anymore.
She couldn't stop the tears now. They were falling in fat drops onto the small instruction diagram in front of her. Her tears bled the ink and welted the paper into thick, black blotches. Diana looked at the smudges and let out a disgusted snort, the ruined paper seemed like a sad metaphor for her life; she was given everything she needed to succeed yet somehow she managed to mess it all up for herself.
The doorbell to her apartment buzzed angrily into the silence and Diana sat up immediately her brows furrowed suspiciously. Could it be that Bruce had changed his mind? No, it couldn't be, because he wouldn't know where to find her. But then again who could it be? There weren't anymore deliveries scheduled for today. When the doorbell buzzed a second time Diana automatically jolted upright and walked over to the door, her bare feet padding with quick, muffled thuds on the floor. Diana paused for a beat, inhaled deeply and dried her tears, then she opened the door. To her surprise there was a short, brown-skinned round woman standing there.
"Hello sweetheart, is your mother at home?" The woman smiled kindly and stepped forward turning her head slightly and looking into Diana's apartment. When Diana just stared at her blankly the stranger added, "My wife is a university professor and she has a huge presentation in a couple of days, but there's been some kind of noise coming from up here — our apartment is just below yours. We just wanted to work out a time — with your parents — when we can have some quiet. We know that you all just moved in and you have to arrange things…" the woman trailed off and started playing with the wooly end of one of her dreads that fell over her shoulder.
Diana who was still taken aback by the intrusion, took some time to process what the woman was saying to her. She could hear her mother's voice chiding her in her head. "It's not polite to stare." Though her mother, Queen Hippolyta, bless her soul, never did say things in the nasally, whiny voice that Diana always used whenever she heard her mother's voice nagging her in her head.
Diana shook her head quickly as if to clear her thoughts, lifted her head, then said, "I'm so sorry, that's me. I can't — I don't know how to build my bed and I've been dragging parts of the frame on the floor because I'm afraid to lift them just in case —" Diana stopped abruptly and blushed deeply. But her neighbour's eyes lowered to where Diana's hand was ever so casually caressing her stomach.
When Diana noticed the woman watching, she winced and dropped her hand as though she was touching hot coals. She mentally berated herself for being so careless in front of a stranger. Her stomach wasn't at all noticeable in her denim overalls, but she'd given herself away. Diana was slowly coming to terms with the lingering judgemental eyerolls and scornful glances that came her way when people learned she was a pregnant teenager, and here she was ruining the mutual neighbourly politeness that she could possibly have with this woman.
Luckily for Diana, Etta Candy was one of those women who rarely ever did what one expected of her.
Etta's eyes softened as she looked at Diana's face. She wanted to get a read on this tall, dark-haired, mysterious girl. The sadness that Etta saw in Diana's pale blue eyes struck her unexpectedly. Etta could already see her son, Steve, and her wife, Barbara, rolling their eyes and smiling conspiratorially at each other when she'd tell them what had happened between her and Diana. Barbara always told Etta that she was a magnet for sad stories.
Etta sighed and said, "Maybe I can help you with your bed, dear. Is it from IKEA?" Diana, who was at a loss of words from the unexpected detour their conversation was taking, could only nod mutely in response. Her mother's shrill voice augmented in both pitch and volume in her head, still reminding her to speak up. Etta smiled gently and motioned with an angled nod of her head for Diana to lead the way.
Within the hour, Etta had helped Diana lift all of the furniture boxes up the narrow flight of stairs to the loft area that she'd intended to use for her bedroom, put together her bed and nightstands and most importantly (and much to Diana's gratitude) taught the young girl not only how to use a screwdriver, but even explained the names and uses off all the tools that came in Diana's generic orange and white IKEA toolbox.
They were both sitting at the foot of her bed drinking water when Etta's curiosity finally got the better of her. With Diana desperate to have the company of her neighbour for a little longer, she was keen to answer Etta's questions, "It's really complicated and I'm forbidden from explaining the details, but basically I can never go back home unless I give him up." Diana's hand moved to rest on her stomach again. Etta's response came as a sad smile. Diana had gotten used to sad smiles and adults pitying her or giving her unsolicited advice, in the last few months, so just to make things clear, she added, "That's really all there is, I won't give up my son. My blood is flowing into him right at this very moment. No one can change my mind."
Diana's jaw set defiantly. Etta noticed that the teenager was clutching the loose fabric of the leg of her denim overall in the fist of the hand that wasn't resting on her tiny baby bump, the older woman placed her hand on top of Diana's fist and squeezed it comfortingly. "A mother's love does not ever need to be justified, sweetheart. But, you're so young and you're a foreigner." Diana's eyes snapped up to Etta's. She was surprised to find them just as kind as they were since Etta had entered her apartment.
"I'm Greek." Diana said. Diana knew that Etta must've picked up on her accent. It didn't take a rocket scientist to hear it. Grammatically, her English skills were impeccable, but she'd grown up on an isolated island with teachers who weren't native speakers themselves; it was no surprise that her accent was quite thick.
When they were friends, Bruce, Lois and Clark used to constantly heckle her about her exaggerated 'r's' and the throaty, broad way she said all her words. Her memories of them filled her with a bitterness that Diana didn't even think she was capable of feeling until recently. But the phantasmagoria of her time with her friends pierced through her whenever she thought of them. Every single time that the intense pain of their memories would wear off, Diana would be left with a constant dull ache that never left.
When she thought only of Bruce, Diana felt used and dirty. Like a wrapper meant to be jettisoned as soon as you'd finished your treat. Or perhaps he saw her as the stickiness that stained your fingers after you'd eaten. The dirty filth that you couldn't wait to scrub off of your skin. That was how Diana assumed that Bruce viewed her; as something to be consumed; then she had left a human stain that he couldn't wait to wash his hands clean of.
"If you're so young and you're all alone, how are you going to support yourself and the baby?" Etta's voice brought Diana out of her thoughts.
"I had some valuable belongings that I sold. That's how I bought all of this." She motioned her open arms through the air gesturing vaguely to her surroundings. "And I've already paid my tuition for this year. I was supposed to start in the winter semester, but I deferred for a year because of the baby." Etta looked suitably impressed so Diana continued, "I should have enough money to get me through the year, but I'm going to start working as soon as I can after giving birth, that way the baby and I don't run out."
"How old are you? You seem quite young to be going to university."
"That's because I am. I'm about to turn seventeen." Etta's eyes widened in disbelief. As a way of explanation, Diana said, "Mother invested heavily in my education. I'm ahead of most kids my age."
Etta nodded, though she didn't really understand.
"May I ask you one more thing?"
"Sure."
"Where's the father?"
Before Diana could help it, her shoulders slumped and the all too familiar sting of tears came to her eyes. "I know it's stupid and every pregnant teenager probably says the same thing, but," she swallowed thickly, "I thought he loved me." The tears were flowing freely now. "Now, he doesn't even want to see me." Diana's breath stuttered on a sigh and she quickly started wiping her tears away. Etta looked on, distressed. She wanted to wrap her arm around Diana, but she couldn't be sure that the girl would like that — they'd only just met. Instead Etta simply squeezed Diana's hand again. Diana squeezed back and smiled sadly at Etta.
"I don't know that there's anything that I can say to make you feel better, but we're neighbours, so, what d'ya say to coming down and having dinner tonight? That way you can meet my wife. We'll probably have to listen to her speech ten times, but you'll be able to relax a little. We usually have dinner around eight-thirty. I know it's a bit late but it's what we do." Etta shrugged, though at this point it seemed to Diana that her guest was rambling more to herself than Diana.
There was a long pause. Diana couldn't decide if Etta was inviting her out of pity, or because this was just the way she was. Now that she wasn't a princess anymore, Diana had learned the hard way, that people very rarely did something because they wanted to be nice. Hell, even when she was a princess people treated her well, but it was probably only because of her status. Authenticity was hard to gage.
In the real world, when you're a nobody, people consume you until your fire flickers out.
The silence had stretched on uncomfortably, and so to break it Etta added, "If we're lucky my son might grace us with his presence. He's in his junior year at GCU. Sometimes he pops in for sustenance, before he goes out and paints the town red with his friends. He uses us for free food on Saturdays." She leaned in and whispered the last part conspiratorially.
Diana raised her brows dubiously. "You're okay with me being around him? I mean in my condition?"
Etta's laugh burst out of her with a woosh. "Lighten up. You're pregnant, not a leper." She picked up Diana's arm and made a big show of inspecting her skin. "You seem fine. No ticks or mites." She gasped dramatically, "Maybe you're an alien!"
At this point Diana's face was bright red. "It's just that… people assume things because I'm pregnant this young and they haven't been the kindest." She sniffed and wiped her nose.
"People are stupid. You're young. Shit happens — not saying the baby is shit, he's obviously an angel — everyone needs somebody and deserves a second chance, okay? Now come on." Etta enlaced her fingers with Diana's and stood up pulling the girl along with her.
Diana looked at their hands, Etta's chunky dark fingers woven through her thin white ones. Their hands were so different, but somehow they fit.
This was it, this was the universe throwing her it's proverbial bone, and Diana would be damned if she didn't catch it.
xXxXx
"Hey." Steve leaned in to Diana and nudged her shoulder with the side of his arm. Her body swayed with the motion, then her head snapped towards him and she let out a dry chuckle. Steve made a face and stuck his tongue out at her then said, "Am I really boring you that much? Man, I might need to step up my game, I can't even get girls to listen to me now."
"I'm sorry," Diana smiled ruefully and her full eyebrows crinkled adorably. "I was thinking about when I met Etta. I mean... I still don't know how I was lucky enough to meet all of you when I did." Steve raised his hand to protest, but Diana shushed him with a look. "I mean it, Steven. I don't know where Jason and I would even be without you guys. Your moms have helped me so much. And you." Her eyes met Steve's and his cheeks crimsoned ever so slightly. "You've been with me every single time I had to go to the hospital with Jason. He looks up to you so much. It means a lot to me that you're always there for him."
"You know I love him. He's a great kid. You guys are family now. You don't thank family, you just show up for 'em." Steve shrugged ineffectually. A quick, yet laid back gesture that seemed to say, "Don't worry about it. It's no big deal." He didn't do it at this time, but Diana knew him well enough to know that if they were facing each other, instead of sitting side by side, that he would do the limp hand wave that he often did when he tried to accept a compliment modestly. Contrary to his nonchalant body language though, his smile was full and bright.
Steve lifted up his arm and put it around Diana pulling her closer into him, he was shocked when he felt her resisting him. He cocked a brow and looked down at her, questioningly. "My hair's wet. You'll get soaked." She said, although, she took it back and gave in as he saw his unamused expression. "Fine fine. Don't complain when your sweater gets wet, though." Diana tucked herself into his side savoring the warmth and safety of the arms of her friend.
They sat there holding each other for a while in what Diana thought was comfortable silence, when Steve eventually sighed loudly.
"What's wrong?" Diana's brows furrowed as she pulled back and looked at him. He was giving her that tight lipped, one sided smile of his, the one that in all of the years that Diana knew him was always the precursor to bad news.
Diana gave him a reassuring squeeze and smiled kindly at him. "Just say it. It's the money, no? We lost two clients this month, I've been turning down lots of the brand deals on Instagram and we had to replace our camera." She pulled her arm away from Steve and tucked it against her belly. "We didn't make a profit this month."
Steve's pursed lips twisted slightly. He was thoughtful for a moment then said, "That's part of it, yes."
"I couldn't do the Instagram ads, Steve. They wanted me to 'sex it up'," She embellished the last part with air quotations. It was true, the spokespersons for the brands told her exactly that, then when a week or two later the photos from other social media influencers, who had a similar audience to Diana's, all appeared on her feed in very skimpy bikinis with their bodies arched in various positions that shouldn't have anything to do with the products they were advertising, Diana knew that she'd made the right decision.
Steve was quiet for a long time. Diana wanted to tell him that she didn't want to have to resort to selling her body, in that way, but she knew she wouldn't have to because he felt the same way.
Yes, her body was the "face" of their brand. Steve thought up their workout routines, diet plans and did their bookkeeping, however, Diana was the one whose body was proof of the results that their clients could have. But she wanted the hard work and sweat that she put into her body to be what drew people to her work, not just her tits and ass. If she just became like any other pretty girl on Instagram, then their brand probably wouldn't last long enough for them to reach their goals.
And they had big plans for themselves in the future. They wanted to open a wellness centre. They didn't just want some gym where people came to work out. They wanted a facility where people could come and have a holistic approach to their health; where they could treat their mind body and soul. That's why they busted their asses training all their clients, and managing their blog and social media, but the money was trickling in. And so, a few months earlier, they'd decided to advertise for other companies. Diana already had a large social media following and they needed more money, so it seemed like a good solution. But it felt more and more like if the sponsorships were pulling them further and further away from their goals.
"Just tell me how bad it is, Steve. Dr. Brennan increased Jason's dosage last week after his last episode. My insurance won't cover it. I need to find the money bef —"
"Before you have to fill his next prescription, I know. I've been thinking about that." Diana noticed the way his jawline bulged and flattened as he clenched and unclenched his jaw. His waist twisted as he swivelled his barstool to face Diana, he leaned over, elbows pressing into his knees. Diana followed suit and looked up at him, white teeth chewing into her plump lower lip. "We'll pay for the meds with the business credit card. But we still need to figure out everything else."
"What if we just do one of the stupid posts?"
"Out of the question, we're not selling sex we're selling health." Steve rubbed his head frustratedly then placed his hands on Diana's knees, his gaze meeting hers. "Look, an opportunity came up. It's literally the most amazing business deal that we've ever had, but you'll hate it."
Diana's face scrunched in confusion. "I mean, if I don't have to get my boobs out, it can't be that bad, can it?" Steve's face was shuffling through the plethora of human emotions, but Diana's patience was running thin. She pulled back abruptly and sat up, putting more space between the both of them. "By the Gods, Will you just spit it out!" And so Steve did as he was told. He told her about the phone call that came while she was busy speaking with the doctor last week when Jason was in the ER. He told her that Wayne Enterprises was looking to rebrand their company's image to seem more youthful and modern. That they'd just remodeled their tech division and they wanted their employees to enjoy a full package of benefits. The idea being that if their design team was well rested and happy, that they could keep their productivity levels up. And one of those benefits would be having facilities in their offices that their employees could turn to, to get the help that they might need.
This was where Steve and Diana came in.
Wayne Enterprises wanted to have a few different gyms and fitness facilities available at their newly built tech campus and wanted to work with people who fit in with their brand: Young, Innovative and Goal Oriented. The talent scouts at the company had come across Steve and Diana's website and their Instagram account and decided that they would be a perfect fit. They would have an interview process, of course, but Steve was confident that they'd get it. "Basically we'd be getting our own place, just like we've always talked about. We will have to train employees, organize some group classes and help the cafeteria staff come up with meal plans, so that employees have access to healthier food, but we're still allowed to keep our current clients and let them use the facilities too. Basically, we'll just be contracted to Wayne Enterprises, but we will retain the creative freedom to continue our brand how we want to," Steve said. He sat back in his seat and waited with his eyes winced preparing for the verbal onslaught that he was sure would be coming his way, instead there was only silence.
"I'm sorry, I thought you said, Wayne Enterprises." Was all she said eventually. She was serious too. Steve could see it in her eyes; she truly thought that he had mistaken the company's name, that was how far out of left field this whole thing was for them.
"That's because I did, Diana." Steve replied. Diana's eyes were vacant and she was nodding her head slowly. The motion didn't seem to say that Diana actually understood what Steve had said and that she was agreeing with him, but rather, more like if she was processing the information he'd just given her. Diana was gripping the glass with her smoothie so tightly that her knuckles were turning bright white.
"I'm sorry, Steve but I literally have no idea how you could even think that this is an option for us." She eventually stopped strangling the glass and pushed it away, then continued, You know how I feel about Bruce Wayne." She looked at him full on, a pale fire burning in her eyes. Her voice rose several octaves on the 'Wayne'. Steve always thought that that name was a bit like Lord Voldemort's around Diana. Bruce was the 'He who must not be named' of Diana's world, hell, they even met in boarding school.
"Yeah, but we won't be directly working neither with him, nor for him. We'll be contracted to the Tech Division. Besides, Bruce hasn't been seen in Gotham for more than a year."
Diana shot up and out of her seat like a bullet out of a slingshot, momentarily towering over Steve. "You say that. But he owns the company that would hypothetically be paying our salaries. So we will be working for him."
"That's false. They'll be paying our company, EatRunLift, and then our company will pay us," Steve tried to reason. Diana was pacing back and forth, now, in the space between the kitchen where the appliances were, and the island counter where Steve was still sitting. Her uncombed, black curls seemed to writhe like snakes as they glided over her shoulders and torso with her movements. Her hands squeezed into tight fists.
"Look, stop it with the technicalities. I'd rather be on Instagram naked than have to go to him for money, Steve. Jason and I have made it this far without him. What if he finds out about Jason? Did you think about that? Do you understand what you're asking of me?"
"He's not going to find out about Jason, Diana. We'll protect him. It's a job; our private lives have nothing to do with them."
"You don't know Bruce, Steve. He'll find out about Jason. Oh God —" Diana clasped her open palm over her mouth terror dawning on her face. "What if he wants to take him away from me?" Diana stopped pacing and tightened her arms around her torso, just over the sliver of skin exposed by her crop top. She suddenly felt naked and cold. Her chin was wobbling even though Steve could tell she was trying to keep control of her emotions. If it was one thing he knew about Diana after all of their years together, it was that only two things — or rather persons — in this world could ever get her this riled up, Jason and his father, Bruce Wayne.
Steve slipped off his stool and in two strides was standing in front of Diana. He placed his hands on her upper arms and squeezed them once. His head tilted down as he tried to get her to meet his eyes. When she eventually looked at him, the tears that Diana was fighting to hold in were flooding her vision, but she refused to let them fall. She'd shed enough tears for Bruce Wayne, those days were over.
Steve swallowed thickly.
"I would never let Bruce take Jason from you. Do you understand me? Never." His voice held a finality that was cold and dangerous. Diana believed him. She knew Steve. She knew he would protect her and her son forever. But Steve couldn't begin to understand how ugly Bruce could be when he had his mind set on something.
Steve grew up in a working class family and believed that life was fair if you played by the rules. He didn't know that for the wealthy like Bruce, that rules were meaningless because the world was his playground. When money talks there was no such thing as right or wrong or fair. Just a price.
Not to mention that nothing good could ever come of Diana and Bruce being close to each other again.
When they were happy they were the kind of couple that made people think that they were perfect. People admired their perfection. But, in reality, when Bruce and Diana came together it was like a neutron star collision; they burned bright with unhindered chaos and raw beauty, but after they'd consumed each other all that was left was a supermassive black hole.
Diana blinked hard to clear the burning tears. Steve pulled her into his chest and ran his arms soothingly up and down her back. "Look, forget I mentioned it, okay? We'll think of something else."
Something else? Diana wondered. But how? They were barely getting by as it was. Not to mention that she'd just moved Jason to a private school, where the class sizes were small enough that the teachers could pay extra attention to him given his condition.
"What other options do we have if we don't go to the interview?" Diana stepped closer to, her friend, "I mean, if we continue the way we are right now, how long before we go under?"
Steve released Diana's arms and ran a shaky hand through his messy blond hair. "Three months if we don't change anything. But we can figure it out — we have before —forget I mentioned the interview. It was stupid."
"Here's what we'll do." Diana couldn't keep the tremor out of her voice when she spoke. She couldn't help but marveling, not for the first time, how truly selfless Steve was when it came to her. Was it fair of her to force him to give up his dreams because of her hatred for a guy who probably didn't even remember she existed? "We'll go to the interview and hear what they have to say, I can't keep you from this. It's important to you."
"It really is, Diana." Diana could hear the excitement in his voice, though she could tell that he was trying to keep himself calm. He wrapped himself even tighter around her and his words vibrated comfortingly through her. "If Bruce appears, we'll deal with him like we've dealt with everything in the last few years. Together. It's us against the world, kid. Don't ever forget that."
A/N: Thank you so much for reading! If you like it, or even if you don't please leave some feedback as I've never written anything before and I'd like to improve in anyway I can. But please be gentle.
Up Next: We'll find out what Bruce has been up to and meet Clark.