They walked towards the stables, not speaking, neither one wanting to disturb the silence that had fallen between them. As they entered the stables, her favorite mare, Rika, nickered softly in the straw beside her and nudged Diana's hand for the treat she knew she had brought. She opened her palm and the mare made short work of the small turnip. She smiled and scratched her head.
It was the first time she'd been alone with Kal since this morning in the sauna. Now she wondered at the wisdom of it. Being with him now, unsettled her, made her feel…strange. Not like herself at all. Things had changed between them.
"Follow me," she said now, and walked towards the cliffs of Paradise Island, not waiting to see if Superman indeed had followed her.
After a short, steep hike to a ridge top, she stopped and turned, prepared to wait until Kal caught her up. He nearly walked over her.
"Great Hera!"
"Whoa, sorry," he said, displaying not a hint of remorse.
He was very fit, she'd give him that. In spite of his powers, she knew he worked out with equipment that he had fashioned from the Kryptonian elements of his old rocket ship.
Kal had not an inch of spare flesh on him. He was pure muscle. A dizzying image of him naked and powerful in the steaming sauna, caused her to suck in a breath.
Oh, she must stop these thoughts!
They rushed over her unbidden and unwelcome, at the slightest provocation. She must get hold of herself, and quickly. Difficult days lay ahead, and she would not allow one kiss to befuddle her thinking.
Or alter her convictions.
'What is that place?' Kal said, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Down there." He pointed at a forest clump of trees below them.
"Some of my sisters rest there. Those who fell in the battle with Hercules, so many thousands of years ago. Come, I will show you.' She started down the other side of the ridge toward the resting place, and Superman walked alongside her, the wind whipping at his hair and clothes.
Diana felt her foot slip a bit, and she struggled to balance herself. "Here, take my hand," Kal said. Before she could protest, he had clasped her hand firmly, and pulled her against his body, and begun leading her down the walk. Diana turned to look at him, loath to break the bodily contact. Their eyes met, and his flashed a hint of the warmth they'd held this morning. For the barest moment it seemed they were truly two hearts beating in harmony. She looked away, and the spell was broken.
"Thank you," she said awkwardly, and continued down the slope.
A few minutes later they stood amidst the graves, each marked by the weapons the Amazon had borne when she fell.
As she and Kal walked among the graves covered by the canopy of trees, Diana sent up a silent prayer for the fallen warriors. She came to the edge of the area, and turning, knelt down to say a final word, "Sisters, you lie in honour. Your death inspires us, your will gives us courage, by your courage we are healed. You will never be forgotten.' She repeated the ancient pledge.
Kal's hands on her shoulders felt strangely reassuring, and she drew strength from his presence near her, enjoyed the casual camaraderie that seemed to have sprung up.
As they walked around the area, they came to the warren of caves that had once held great fascination for Diana. She had played there as a child, then, as she grew older, she spent even more time making one of the caves her very own place. She still came here at times, she mused, to retreat, to review, to reflect, to regenerate. In fact, it was one of the spots on the island that she felt most at peace with herself.
Unsure if she wanted to share it with Superman, just yet, she made to walk away from the caves. But he was having none of it, he pulled her towards the caves, with every intention of exploring them, it seemed. She allowed him to pull her into the caves, knowing what he would find.
They went through the smaller entrance cave, then into the darker, larger one that followed it. Diana stopped a moment to light the torches on the walls. Their flickering illumination lit up the cave, throwing light on the scrolls and books that lay around. An artist had obviously been at work, for there was an easel, and paints, and brushes and unfinished art lying around. The walls of the cave had weapons and armor displayed. The eagle emblem on the armor proclaimed the room as hers. In one corner of the cave was a dressing area, and gowns hung there. As he walked around the cave, making appreciative noises, Superman noticed a small plaque that had been nailed to the wall. Familiar with ancient Greek, he read the inscription, which was a proclamation from Queen Hippoltya, declaring the caves as the inviolable sanctuary of her precious daughter, Princess Diana, off-limits to all except those who were permitted entry by her daughter.
Superman was intent on examining all the contents of the cave – and walked around looking at the scrolls and even the paintings that Diana had been working on. As he walked around, Diana hoped that he would not notice the small opening at the back of the cave, which she knew led into another cave that was more private, more secluded than this one.
Unaware of Diana's seeming nonchalance, while remaining terribly, terribly alert to his every move, Superman continued to admire what was obviously Diana's talents as an artist. This was an unknown side of her, and he was pleased to glimpse another facet of her talents and skills. As he walked near the secluded opening of the cave, Diana tensed.
Seeing the opening in the cave, Superman, took a step towards it, meaning to walk through.
'Wait,' she cried, 'don't go in there, just now.'
Nonplussed, he stopped and looked at her. 'Why not?' he asked reasonably, 'Come with me, then,' he invited.
She bit her lip as she thought about her next course of action.
As he waited, Superman hoped that she would share the cave with him. He could have easily used his x-ray vision to look through the stone walls, but had decided to respect her privacy.
Finally, she nodded as she walked toward him, her heart in her mouth and led the way through the opening.
Superman followed her in and stopped in open-mouthed shock.
The alcove was dark, with the torches yet to be lit, but there was enough light to just make out the small room. And Superman had super-vision, he certainly did not need the light to see the sleeping arrangement of floor couch, cushions, silk sheets or to see that one entire side of the wall was covered with a floor to ceiling mural depicting his face. In fact as he stepped more fully into the room, he realized that the mural was exceptionally good. His eyes in the mural seemed to have a life and light of their own.
Diana lit the torches in the sconces and stepped back, never taking her eyes from Kal. Superman in turn was fascinated. He locked eyes with himself in the mural, and realized that the eyes of his image were warm on him.
Baffled, he turned to Diana for an explanation.
'Well,' she began nervously, 'if you have not already guessed, my mother gifted this cave to me and I have used it as a space to call my own, a sanctuary ever since. And the artist who painted that mural was me. And the reason was–'
She realized, belatedly, that she was babbling and stopped mid-sentence.
Hoping to help her out, and avoid the inevitable awkwardness that would surely follow in its wake, Superman interrupted, "Look, the last few days have been a really emotional time for you, you know? Maybe… this isn't the best time to--"
'Kal, I think we need to talk.' she interrupted him, her eyes pleading with him, and he sighed as he dropped his gaze to the floor and his chin to his chest.
'How sure are you?' he asked.
'Sure enough to know that I want to have this conversation,' she answered, 'But not fully convinced that I need to have it,' she added, and he sighed again as he gestured towards the floor couch; an invitation for her to sit, which she did.
Stepping over slowly, he joined her, then folded his hands in his lap, asking carefully, 'It's because things have changed between us now, right?'
With a sense of remorse, she nodded, then answered, "And I know it's my fault."
'Fault isn't the right word,' he insisted gently. 'You didn't do anything wrong,' he added, but she scoffed in response.
"I shouldn't have brought you here," she shot back, the irritation in her tone directed at herself. "I should've kept my feelings for you to myself, like I had been."
Seemingly startled, he asked, "How long had you been keeping it? How long have you felt this way?"
"A while," she shared, "But I didn't really realize it until Lois."
"Until Lois… what?" he asked, confused, requesting clarification.
"When I saw how in love with her you were," she explained, "And realized then that I'd missed my chance."
You didn't feel this way when we first me,' he reminded her, scowling at his lap.
There was a kind of pain in his tone, and in his expression, and it made her guilt soar for being the cause of it. "I know," she said, "But, that's what planted the seed, I think. It's just… it was growing so slowly, I didn't realize, until--"
"Until Lois," he interrupted, finishing for her, and after a soft sigh, she muttered 'yeah' in response. "You said, two days ago, that you did not want to be around me,' he recalled. "You said it like it was something you could never get past. What happened to change that?" he asked, his gaze still planted on his lap.
'I spent the last few visits to the island thinking things over. The farther I got from you, the easier it was to put things in perspective,' she answered. "I know I needed to stop being near you with the way I was feeling, or I would not be able to stand myself. It wasn't easy resigning from the JLA," she added.
"No, it can't have been easy," he confirmed, shaking his head slightly at the memory. "I can't imagine how hard it must have been,' he said.
Diana continued, 'But, really, that wasn't the hard part. Resigning from the JLA, I mean.'
"Then," Kal asked, almost hesitantly, "What was?"
"The hard part," she replied, "Was knowing how wrong it was, feeling this way about someone who was already taken."
Sighing, he told her, "I wouldn't say it was wrong. Besides, Lois and I are just colleagues who go out on an occasional date. And I don't think that it's going to go anywhere, Lois has fallen in love with Perry White's son, and I think that they might well get married in April. Besides, it's not like you tried to sabotage our relationship, or break us up. You always encouraged me and gave me great advice—Wait." He interrupted himself, turning to face her, staring over at her intently, and with concern, though she didn't so much as glance back at him. "You were trying to help me keep her." When she nodded, though just barely, he then asked, "Why? Why did you do that?"
He was fitting the pieces together. The bigger picture was becoming clear to him, Diana could tell.
Sheepishly, she answered, "Because, I wanted you to be happy."
"Yeah," he countered, "But, it seemed to go above and beyond, especially considering your… your, um, feelings," he added awkwardly.
"I guess," she muttered, feeling every bit as uneasy as he seemed; her courage starting to run out. 'What should I have done? Given bad advice, hoping you'd take it and ruin things with her? What kind of person would I be then, if I had?' she asked, finally braving eye contact.
She shook her head vehemently as his eyes followed the lines of her face.
"Don't," she breathed, reading the intent in his blue eyes.
Too late.
His mouth covered hers in a kiss that was neither tender nor controlled, and that screamed with a frantic possessiveness that shocked her nearly off her feet.
Her instinct to fight him crumbled instantly under the weight of some deep longing that she did not understand. A need for him that was more than physical. A yearning for closeness, for—