A/N Lemons ahead. Read at your own risk!

Chapter 25

Batman, being Batman, was naturally heading back to Gotham to patrol that evening, despite a full day of briefings on the Watchtower, most of which he had been leading.

Shayera, being not only the new Gotham Gargoyle, but also Batman's new BFF and girlfriend on top of it, was naturally accompanying him.

They left a slightly less grumpy Lois in Clark's capable hands for her Watchtower tour, which John Stewart and Vixen had thoughtfully volunteered to co-lead as security oversight for the sake of protocol, since Clark and Lois were in a relationship. Engaged, actually, Shayera thought to herself with a smile. That had been a nice surprise coming on the end of a few weeks of heavy inter-team stress.

Lois had looked so happy, for her, when Clark had announced their engagement on the landing pad, and Clark, of course, had been beaming brighter than the yellow sun that powered his Kryptonian abilities. Shayera's eyes had been drawn to Lois, though, who reminded her so much of herself. Rather than looking overly excited, Lois was glowing with a relaxed sense of peacefulness; like she'd finally settled into her truth and it was anchoring her.

Shayera recognized that look. One snarky and bitchy Thanagarian warrior had once looked like that when she had gotten engaged, in what felt like a lifetime that took place eons ago. When she had agreed to marry Hro, Shayera had felt more content and secure than she ever had before. She had felt right; connected to the path of destiny that she belonged on.

Except, things had changed. The Gordanian war, which had been dragging on and on with no end in sight, suddenly seemed conquerable when Thanagarian scientists had come up with the wormhole bypass generators which would ideally allow them to teleport their troops in past the Gordanians' previously impenetrable defenses on their homeworld.

Shayera, against her will and against her heart, had been ordered to Earth as the advance scout, since the Thanagarians would need to erect a wormhole over the planet in their chain of wormholes leading to Gordania. She was only supposed to be scouting for weaknesses in case of a future Gordanian attack; Thanagar wasn't supposed to destroy Earth in order to use the generator. So Shayera had been told.

But deception wasn't only a Thanagarian strategy against their enemies - it was one employed frequently on their own troops when deemed an overall benefit to the mission objective. So, Shayera hadn't known that the friends she was making would become sacrificial pawns in her own people's pursuit of self-preservation, or that the planet she'd come to tolerate and sometimes even appreciate would be wiped out in a mass genocide.

Shayera had hated leaving Hro, but she had obeyed orders like a good soldier. She was one of Thanagar's finest warriors, after all, and even was an instructor at the military academy due to her tactical prowess.

She hadn't meant to cheat on Hro. She hadn't. But her isolation had dragged on for so, so long. She began to wonder if her people were ever coming. Perhaps the war had gone worse than expected and the Gordanians had won. The Thanagarians had no way to contact Shayera with updates due to their homeworld's distance from Earth and her military-minded superiors wouldn't have risked it even if there had been a means of communication.

Not only that, but due to the never-ending demand for weapons and warships for the war effort, the bypass generators would take years to build as materials and skilled crafters were limited. Her people couldn't ignore their immediate need for survival even with a long-term, long-shot hope for a final victory now in place.

So Shayera had ended up alone on Earth for over five years before J'onn had summoned her for what became the Justice League's first mission. Her love for Hro hadn't changed in that time, but Shayera had. She was achingly lonely and what started as friendship with the Green Lantern slowly, incrementally, turned into more. Shayera had pushed down her nagging guilt with inner reassurances that she only half-believed, telling herself that she'd been abandoned at this point by her own people to a fool's mission.

When they had actually showed up one day?

Well. It hadn't been good. For oh so many reasons.

Still, Shayera couldn't say that she was sorry that she'd become independent enough from her people and her military duties - and Hro - to stand against a genocide. Hro's passionate defense of their people's plans had nauseated her. When had he become that person? Or had he always been that blindly devoted to their own survival? And a more frightening thought - would Shayera have been the same had she not been assigned to Earth?

She'd never know. But she knew who she was, now, so she'd stood with Justice League in the end, even though she'd broken their trust and broken John's heart.

But her heart had broken, too, and in more ways than John's. Her people had betrayed her belief in their goodness and her once unshakeable faith in her military superiors had fallen to ashes.

So, remembering her engagement to Hro felt like remembering a distant dream - soft and hazy and wispy around the edges - but seeing Lois's ease of being brought it all back.

Shayera sighed as she flapped her wings towards Gotham with Batman in her arms. They had beamed down rather than wait on a javelin, since she could get them to Gotham faster than the shuttle trip to Earth from the space station.

"Is something wrong, Shy?" Bats asked her, turning his head to look at her. He'd become remarkably comfortable with flying with her to the point where he sometimes even fell asleep, which she couldn't help but think was completely adorable, to see her big grumpy Bat peacefully snoozing in her arms while his legs dangled down thousands of feet above the Earth.

She never woke him up when he fell asleep, either. He seemed like he never slept much except when he was with her and she personally thought the extra hours of rest were doing him good. But he was definitely not asleep now and had heard her wistful sigh.

"I was thinking about Lois," she said. "Getting engaged." Her Bat grunted. In a way that Shayera understood meant affectionate goodwill towards the reporter and Clark.

"You were engaged before," Bats said to her, not so much a statement as a probing question into her moodiness, and she had to smile that he understood where her mind had wandered off to without her needing to explain it. The benefits of being with a detective, she thought contentedly.

"I was," Shayera said, and her tone was as bittersweet as she felt. "It was nice," she said after a minute in which Bruce had patiently waited for her to go on. "While it lasted," she added a little more sadly.

"What was it like?" he asked her with genuine curiosity. "What made it better than dating?"

Shayera rubbed a gentle finger along his arm as she thought how best to put it into words.

"Hro and I knew we wanted to be together forever long before we got engaged," Shayera finally said. "But coming out and boldly declaring that yes, we were getting married? It felt like a 'fuck you' to destiny," she said with only a slightly bitter laugh. "Like staring fate in the eyes and saying no matter what happens, this person is mine, and we want the whole world to know it."

Bruce hummed a little bit in empathy as Shayera blinked away some tears.

"I guess that was a really stupid feeling, huh?" she asked him. "Given how my engagement ended." Bruce grunted.

"Hro should have come with you," he said. She looked at him. "You were engaged," Bruce said. "He should have come or you should have stayed. Splitting up was what did you in. Not destiny," he said. Shayera stared at him. Then swallowed.

"They needed Hro back on Thanagar for the war," she said thickly. "He was one of their best generals," she said.

"Then they should have kept you there, too," Bruce said, frowning. "Your talents were frankly wasted here on Earth. There was no need to send you, specifically, here as an advance scout. Unless -" he said, and then he did a most un-Batlike thing and shut up.

"Unless what?" Shayera prodded him. "You can say it. I always want to know what my Bat is thinking," she said sincerely. He looked at her and sighed.

"Unless they knew you'd be opposed to utilizing the genocide of innocent planets as a means of survival. So they sent you here to keep you out of the way," he said regretfully.

"B," Shayera said shakily. "But that would mean Hro -" she broke off this time, her jaw wobbling.

"Yeah," Batman grunted. "I'm sorry."

"He let me go?" she asked him, needing to hear it out loud.

"Or he deliberately sent you away," Bats muttered. "Maybe it was even his idea. He was a top general and he knew you better than anyone," he said, but he sounded like he hated having to say it.

Shayera whimpered a little bit and choked back a sob.

"Land," Bruce told her with some concern.

"We're not back to Gotham yet," Shayera mumbled as she sniffed a little bit.

"Doesn't matter," Bruce told her. "Land anywhere out of the way." Shayera scanned the rapidly darkening landscape and descended towards some woods, slowing until she dropped to the ground in the middle of a thick forest.

"Come here," Bruce said, turning around and pulling her into his arms as the tears she was trying to hold back broke loose. Shayera gratefully wrapped herself around him and planted her face in his shoulder to cry as Batman gripped her waist tightly with one arm while rubbing her back with his other hand.

"We were in love," she sobbed out against him.

"I know," Batman said soothingly as he kissed her temple while continuing to rub her back.

"We said 'fuck you, world, we're engaged,'" Shayera cried harder, her wings drooping as her sadness completely overwhelmed her.

"I know, baby," the Bat murmured, bending for a second to scoop her up under the knees so he could sit on the ground with Shayera in his lap. She curled into him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she fell apart in a way that she never would have permitted any other member of the Justice League, John included, to ever see.

And even though Bruce's heart was aching for her, the fact that Shayera trusted him enough to break down in front of him warmed his soul. He murmured soothing noises into her hair like Alfred used to do for him when he was a small child, on any of the numerous occasions when his guardian had found him crying inconsolably after his parents had died.

He rubbed a hand along the back of her head as she cried into his neck, and cuddled her as close as he could until her sobs slowly turned to whimpers and then sniffs as the forest turned dark around them as twilight turned to night. When Shayera seemed to have sufficiently quieted, Batman fished around in his utility belt for a tissue, which he gently wiped her face off with before she took it from him so she could blow her nose.

She sighed morosely as she shifted her arms around to wrap his chest so she could slump more comfortably against it.

"I love you," she said quietly into the darkness and shadows that made up her Bat.

"I love you, too," he said so gently that she almost broke down again. "And," he continued more fiercely, "for the record, I would never send you away like that."

"No?" Shayera said in surprise. "Not for anything?"

"No," Bats growled back at her.

"Hm," she said thoughtfully.

"You don't believe me?" he asked her. She smiled against his armor.

"I do believe you, actually," she said. "I'm just surprised. Deception and misdirection are two of your favorite strategies."

"Loving you is not a strategy game," Batman said to her.

"No," Shayera said slowly, "but what if you were concerned about my safety? You wouldn't ever lie to me to keep me safe? Or send me off on some out of the way mission?" Bruce snorted.

"If I did that, I would fully and rightfully expect for you to kick my ass from here to the remains of Krypton," he said. Shayera giggled and he chuckled against her forehead.

"Shy, if anything, I should be worried about you sending me away to keep me safe. You're the best warrior we have. I'm the human liability on the team." She scoffed at that.

"Your human frailty is what gives you the edge strategically," she said. "You had to teach yourself to plot and attack in unusual ways in order to survive as a vigilante," she said. "At this point? I'm more worried about the Flash getting himself killed than you."

"So you wouldn't send me away, either, on a ruse for my protection?" he asked her curiously.

"Hell, no!" Shayera said. "I respect you too much. And," she said with a little grin, "I might be the slightest bit afraid of you figuring out a way to kick my ass afterwards if I did. Strategic Genius," she said, nuzzling his cheek with her head before kissing his jaw.

"Mm," Bats said. "I would, too."

"I know," Shayera laughed. "Hold on," she said suddenly. "You think I'm a better warrior than Diana?" she asked him in disbelief. "Diana's stronger physically. You'd better not be giving me false compliments, Bat," she said.

"Diana's physically stronger, yes," Bruce said. "But you're more ruthless," he chuckled. "She holds back sometimes. They didn't go in for death blows on Themyscira," he laughed. "Diana has a lot of training but she lacked any real life battle experience before joining the League," he said.

"Whereas you were not only raised by a warrior race, but were in their actual military, fought in the war, and rose through the ranks to become a master strategist and academy instructor," he said admiringly. "You win."

"Yes," Shayera hissed with satisfaction. "Give me a kiss," she ordered. "That was hot." Bruce chuckled and kissed her more sweetly than she would have expected. Shayera sighed into his gentle lips and let herself relax into the slow sweeps of his tongue across hers, feeling comforted and cozy and, well, exactly where she belonged.

"We could get married, too, you know," he said to her, pulling back slightly from her mouth. "If you wanted to. If it's important to you."

Shayera stopped breathing for a second.

"Is it important to you?" she asked him after a stunned moment of wonder.

"All that really matters to me is being with you," he said honestly. "Especially since you can't be seen publicly with Bruce Wayne if I want my identity to remain a mystery. But if it's important to you? Then yes, it's important to me," he said, snuggling his hands a little more firmly around her waist. "But I don't ever intend to be with anyone else, either way. For as long as you'll have me," he said.

"I'll always have you," Shayera murmured. She felt Bruce smile against her face.

"But would it make you happier to get married?" he persisted. "You sounded like you enjoyed the idea."

"I did," she said slowly. "I do. But…"

"We could get married on the Watchtower," Bruce said calmly, anticipating her question. "International space. No marriage licenses or non-League witnesses."

"You'd really want to?" Shayera asked him quietly, not quite sure how to take his almost ambivalent opinion on matrimony. "It sounds like marriage doesn't matter much either way to you."

"You matter to me," Bruce said. "And if marriage matters to you, then it matters to me, too, and then I want to marry you."

Shayera dipped her head as she smiled, a ridiculously giddy and altogether unfamiliar sensation bubbling up through her chest. And it wasn't at the thought of getting engaged. No; it was because her Bat loved her. A lot. A hell of a lot, apparently.

"Yes," she said, lifting her head back up to breathe the word out into his ear. Or, well, as close to his ear as she could get with the cowl covering it. "I want to marry you."

And then Bruce was kissing her so much more passionately than before, and Shayera's hands were tugging at his cowl and pushing it off of his head until she could run her hands through his hair as she poured all of her love and affection into kissing her future husband, who hated people and societal expectations and didn't give a damn about ceremonies and tradition but he wanted to make her happy, and that made his proposal more sweet than Shayera could possibly have imagined.

And as Bruce stripped her clothes off while she stripped off his armor, Shayera thought to herself that maybe this time getting engaged didn't need to be a 'fuck you' to the universe. Maybe it could be a 'thank you' instead.

"Oh," Bruce said when Shayera was riding his cock in his lap.

"Like that?" she asked him.

"No," he said. "I mean, yes," he huffed. "Not what I meant," he chuckled against her throat.

"I meant 'oh,' I wanted to tell you that Lois was wrong about one thing today," he said. "At the meeting."

"That's what you want to tell me right now?" Shy laughed in his face as she thrust down a little harder. "Right now, Bats? Really?" she teased him.

"Yes, right now," he grunted, although he groaned a little bit when Shy swiveled her hips in an especially delicious way.

"She was wrong," he said, punctuating the word 'wrong' with a sharp thrust upwards that toppled Shy forward against his chest, "about me having secret backup plans that I haven't told anyone else in the League about," he said, gripping her hips tightly as Shy's arms looped around his neck.

"I haven't told them to anyone else except you," he said, and then his cock wasn't the only reason why Shy was moaning in happiness as she held onto her Bat.

They were a little late starting their patrol in Gotham that night.