A/N: Thanks for the reviews!

Beautiful

All her life, Diana was taught that beauty came from within. A warrior did not need to be beautiful. A warrior needed to be brave, to show no pain, to keep fighting, to never admit defeat and to celebrate victory with grace.

She knew full-well that she was blessed with the attributes of her goddesses. She had the wisdom of Athena, the strength of Gaea. And the beauty of Aphrodite. But beauty meant nothing in a country where there were no mirrors.

Diana thought of herself as any other Amazon — dedicated to the well-being of Themyscira, to serve the gods and live her life purely. If that meant she was beautiful, then so be it. But beauty was a consequence of the Amazon way of life, not a goal.

Time passed, she moved on from her homeland. She met new friends, found new enemies to combat. Learnt that beauty, like everything else, was not black and white. She still fought for justice, she still believed absolutely in truth, but in other things, the code that had defined her childhood did not work in the grey area that was Man's World. She no longer knew if she was beautiful. What if the violence she surrounded herself with had warped her? She was called beautiful by the press, but she knew that was superficial. She didn't feel beautiful.

But years after she came to Man's World, she was told otherwise. In a low, barely audible voice, as she lay half-conscious in the infirmary. Her fight with Mongol had affected her more badly than originally they'd thought — though obviously battered and bruised on the outside, there was also massive internal bleeding and several broken bones. With the treatment she received in the med-bay, it would not take her long to heal.

Still, she knew it worried Bruce and Clark how badly she'd...well, gotten her ass handed to her. They both stayed with her while the morphine helped her drift on a cloud of euphoria. She was vaguely aware of Clark speaking.

"How does she..."

He didn't continue, but Bruce finished the sentence.

"Get the crap kicked out of her and still be the most beautiful woman you've ever seen?" he asked, forcing the levity into his tone.

Clark agreed, but left soon after that, called away to Metropolis. Bruce stayed with her through the entire day, leaving on when darkness fell on Gotham. Diana registered he was there each time she surfaced, and his presence was more of a balm than the morphine.

Just before he left, he leaned forward, pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You really are beautiful, you know, Princess."

He was gone into the shadows in a second.

But Diana had heard him.

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A/N: Review please!