Whether it was leftover adrenaline from liberating the village of Veld or a post-coital effect, Captain Steve Trevor couldn't define the warmth in his chest. Having seen his share of physical ailments in battle, he sensed that he wasn't in danger, whatever this was. For a good five minutes, this self-generated heat amused and mystified the man. Finally, he decided distraction was the only way to push the feeling from the main focus of his mind.
Beside him, his companion, as he called her and could hardly deny now, slept peacefully. Steve studied the features of her face, the soft smile at her lips. Diana's hair was splayed in messy fashion across her shoulders and pillow, and her fingers were splayed across his bare stomach.
A princess, Steve mused. Why not?
In any other setting, he'd have assumed she was mentally unbalanced. What else could cause her delusions of Ares and other things he'd learned about in school? The Amazons were fictional characters from Greek mythology. That much he recalled. Yet he had seen them with his own eyes. Spears. Horses. Armor. The whole she-bang.
Well, Steve reasoned with himself, it only made sense that she was an Amazon. No human mortal could move as quickly as she could, lift the weight she could, be as fundamentally good as she was.
The nature of Steve's life as a spy exposed him to the bizarre, the improbable, and even the impossible. So he whole-heartedly believed the beautiful warrior. Diana. Princess of Themiscyra. Raised on an island full of women, never saw a man until Steve crash-landed there, could fight like a supernatural being, and spoke hundreds of languages.
Sure. Maybe she was an Amazon. Why not? He had no reason to believe she was leading him astray.
After all, she certainly hadn't lied about reading all twelve volumes of Clio's treatises on body and pleasure.
A rush of sensation burst forth from Steve's chest. It flowed down his arms and up the sides of his neck, leaving goosebumps in its wake. His heart tripped over itself out of time. Steve gasped for a breath as his pulse spasmed then evened out. Exhaling in relief after the panic passed and a moment of steady beating, Steve glanced down to Diana's hand.
His eyebrow quirked in suspicion. The woman's long fingers rested against his skin, making several individual points of contact. Stranger things could be true about her. Though he couldn't find a single flaw to Diana, Steve couldn't deny that she might be causing his physical plight.
Pleased with his deduction, Steve wondered if Diana knew of all of her powers. He gently slid her hand onto the bed and touched his skin where it had been. Cool. A check of the rest of his body resulted in the same. Sleeping with her didn't seem to have compromised his flesh in any way. So it wasn't Diana. Then why did he feel so strange? Suddenly he felt foolish and regretted not having a physical connection with her any longer.
The warmth, fluttering, and general awareness of his chest moved from being mildly interesting to downright annoying. If Steve was going to die of an undetected disease, now was not the time. Lives needed saving. Diana needed him to guide her to victory, whether that was finding Ares or knocking out German high command.
Deep down Steve knew Diana would arise triumphant even without him. Not only was she beautiful and skilled, she was intelligent and kind. Completely on her own, she would have been able to navigate her way to the front. She just may have done it in her Amazonian wear, raising eyebrows and dropping jaws along the way.
Something compelled him to reach out and stroke a stray strand of hair away from Diana's cheek. With bated breath, he reached out gingerly, hoping not to wake her. Stirring slightly, Diana mumbled something in another language Steve didn't recognize. Her soft fingertips found his hand, traced downward and came to rest at the crook of his arm.
A smile pulled at his lips, his heart palpitations long forgotten. The sight of her was enough to sate any worry. Sleep seemed far off, but the young captain gave no mind. He was satisfied to watch Diana sleep and feel her next to him. No matter what horrors and peril tomorrow would bring, he would be prepared and willing to die as long as Diana saw her mission accomplished.
At that moment, it hit him with the force of a bullet. The breath went out of him and he sat up in surprise. Diana of Themiscyra was to blame for his sudden physical sensations.
Steve Trevor was not ill. He was in love.