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I'm just going to stop making promises. I am pretty terrible at keeping a regular writing schedule. This is partially because whenever I force myself to write, I'm rarely pleased with the product. Nevertheless, I should be dedicating more time to this and I apologize. Please review and enjoy.

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Bruce and Diana finished off the final horde of the day. They were both drenched in sweat and collapsed next to each other, breathing heavily. They pulled their helmets off to let their heads breathe. After a minute of calming down their nervous systems and taking swigs of water, they looked at each other. Bruce smirked, it was a good workout and the rush of endorphins felt great. Diana cracked up and threw her head back laughing, presumably on the same post-workout hormone high that Bruce was on.

"What?" Bruce asked, trying to contain the smile her laughter was causing.

"It's just, you always look so comfortable smiling as a billionaire playboy, but the one time I manage to get you to smile for real...you look like Artemis at one of Dionysius' parties."

"I suppose that means my smile looks out of place, uncomfortable, or awkward?" She nodded. The joke came to mind and he could not help himself: "Well I'll have you know this smile has broken a thousand hearts."

She retorted with ease, using a mockingly ditsy voice. "Oh, Mr. Wayne, I'm sooo sorry." She fluttered her eyelashes. "Did I not swoon enough when you graced me with your smile. Here, let me try again." She put the back of her hand against her forehead and sighed dramatically as she let her body fall backwards.

"Oh come on. They don't do that."

Diana sat back up nodding and laughing. "Yes, they do. I've seen it with my own eyes, and with that exact voice too: Oh, Brucie, I'll die without you."

Bruce grinned despite himself, it was not fair, he was already high from the exercise and everytime she smiled more drugs got released into his bloodstream,

"At least I don't have random people I've never met in my life running up to me and declaring their love on the spot...Wonder Woman! Wonder Woman! I'm your biggest fan! I've loved you since the moment I saw you on TV! You have such a good...personality! Will you marry me?"

She punched him lightly. "Stop. I feel bad for those guys, they're so confident, but they've never been taught what it actually means to love."

"Well I would feel bad for them too, except they are almost definitely objectifying you behind your back."

Diana's heart jumped at the implication of the care he had for her. "Fair enough, I suppose we both have some less-than-savory fans."

Bruce hopped up and offered her a hand. She used to not take too kindly to such gestures, but as she spent more time in man's world she realized it was more about kindness than about helping the "weak". She took his hand and pulled herself up. Bruce took out some tiny sensors and set them up. They were powered by a battery small in size, but with enough power to keep those sensors on low power for almost a full day.

"These will pick up any movement overnight. I will have to recharge the battery excruciatingly slowly with a solar panel tomorrow, so we can not use electricity very often."

"Hoping that the scavengers will provide a reliable source of food?"

Bruce nodded. "I haven't seen any life here other than these monsters, and who knows which of these things are edible and which aren't."

"Well, hopefully this will allow us to diversify our menu of beef jerky, canned beans, canned vegetables, and... ah yes, canned fruits."

Bruce chuckled as he crouched, working. "The modern world has spoiled you, Diana."

It was Diana's turn to laugh. "The modern world? You should have seen the feasts on Themyscira! Tables laden with meat from beasts not fattened and raised for slaughter, but fat because of the abundance of their natural habitat. Fruits and vegetables not engineered to be bigger and produce more, but carefully tended by millenia old farmers to be a panoply of flavors. There are very few chefs in man's world who can draw out the flavors that just were on Themyscira. And America is the worst of all in this arena! The food is so bland everywhere you go, you have to pay exorbitant prices to get the same quality of food you get in Europe as a matter of course."

"Hmm, never really noticed."

"That's because you have Alfred cooking for you everyday. One time he called me up and said: 'So sorry to bother you, Miss Diana, but I'm in the midst of a recipe that requires tomatoes and I seem to have run out. Could you pick up some tomatoes from this tiny farm in Sicily for me?' You should have seen the faces of this family as they saw Wonder Woman descend from the sky and ask to buy a few tomatoes."

Bruce paused what he was doing for a moment. "Do you and Alfred hang out much?"

"I suppose, we usually talk at least once a week I think."

Bruce resumed setting up the devices. "Good."

"Might I ask-"

"Because I'm not sure Alfred gets much human interaction. Or rather, I dragged him into my world and it's good that he has contact with the world outside of the cave."

Bruce stood up and they began to walk back to the house. "Bruce, 'your world' is the world. Most people just choose not to see it."

"That may be true, but they're better off that way. Knowledge of all the suffering in the world means taking responsibility for it. It means feeling the pain of all that you can't stop, couldn't stop, and it means actually doing something to help."

Diana thought for a moment. "And yet, all that have chosen truth value it more than their comfort. You can't put evil back in the Box*, once you see the world for what it truly is, you would rather suffer with it than forget about its suffering and live in comfort."

"That's a fine observation for people like us who actually value truth, but if you attempt to force reality upon someone who does not want it, I think you'll find that they will reject it in favor of their self-delusion."

"Then it is good that we give the world an example of the meaning that can be found in truth and hard work."

Bruce nodded in agreement. "One of the reasons I took up this mantle was to inspire the citizenry of Gotham to action."

"Has it worked?"

"I've had mixed success. I think we only have the ability to reach the people who were already looking for a hand to grab on to."

"I think that's more people than we realize though. I believe most people yearn for something more, something greater, even if they don't realize it all the time."

They were silent for a while. "Why me, Diana?" She looked at him quizzically. "You know what I mean."

"Isn't it obvious, Bruce?"

"No. You live in a world of hope and honor and courage. I live in a world of darkness, evil, and fear."

"None of that matters, Bruce. You exist there because you have to, but underneath all that is a love unmatched in all the world. Because love isn't some emotionally charged sensation, experienced around those you care about, but a choice. A simple, but impossibly difficult choice to sacrifice yourself for the greater good of another."

Bruce neither confirmed nor denied, just walked on. "We could never be a normal couple you know."

"We aren't normal people, that much was to be expected."

"You realize you'd have to choose? You couldn't date Bruce Wayne and Batman."

"That's easy, Batman isn't a real person, and Batman doesn't date people. Now what would happen behind the scenes is another question entirely and wouldn't be known to the public."

"And what would happen to the bright, shining, and virtuous example of Wonder Woman, if it were known to be infatuated with a less than moral playboy?"

"Nothing, because she would be known as the one woman good enough to save the arrogant, pig-headed, stubborn, womanizing playboy."

"The media could spin it and will spin it, any which way they please. Most likely, there will be at least one tabloid that will call you out on the basis of hypocrisy or something similar."

"Ha! 'Will' instead of 'would'. We will just have to make it obvious that the billionaire has changed, make it undeniable that meeting Wonder Woman changed his life for the better, and it was that change that she was attracted to, not the playboy. It should be easy enough to come up with a media strategy, especially since you own the Daily Planet and we personally know Lois Lane, the most trusted reporter on the planet."

"I won't lie, you deserve that much; similar solutions did come to mind, I just needed to know what you thought."

"Any more questions for me then, Detective?"

Bruce shook his head. They walked for a long time in silence until Diana spotted something moving in the distance. She motioned toward it and they both crouched, slinking quietly toward it. As they got closer they saw that it was some sort of local fauna. Diana motioned toward her spear and Bruce shrugged. She took that as permission and drew back the doru while remaining crouched in some knee-high shrubbery. She held her other hand out forward toward the animal which was now bending down, presumably eating something. Sticking her tongue out slightly allowed her to concentrate better and get a taste for the wind. She stood up and let fly the doru. The animal reacted almost identically to a deer, perking up at the sound of Diana standing and throwing, but before it could flee the spear slammed into its heart. It fell instantly.

Bruce frowned and nodded slowly. "Good throw. What was that? 50 meters?"

They approached the animal and retrieved the spear. Diana knelt next to it and sighed.

"What is it?"

"I used to dedicate every kill to Artemis; pray that the animal would find rest. Now I don't know what to do."

"I'm missing something crucial here."

"I forsook my gods." Diana stated matter-of-factly.

Bruce crouched next to her. "Then don't pray to them, pray to the aether, and maybe someone will hear."

"Spoken from experience."

"Maybe."

"Any luck yet?"

"No."

They placed their hands on the small deer-like creature and looked from it, to the sky. Bruce slung it over his shoulder, then saw something he should have expected and seen earlier. The plant the 'deer' was eating, the general shape of the area they were in.

"Diana, I think this is the Gentle Man's field. It's a bit overgrown; didn't have time to weed recently I guess, but that's definitely what it is."

Diana looked around to confirm what he had said. "Two encouraging finds in one day."

After they had walked the short distance remaining to the cave-house, Bruce started a fire while Diana fielddressed the animal. Its slightly different biology proved challenging and she lost a good amount of the meat, but there was still plenty to eat tonight and some to dehydrate for later. They were both smacking their lips as they watched the meat on the spit. Even just two days of jerky and canned goods was too much.

"Why'd you forsake your gods?"

"The long and short of it is they proved themselves to be untrustworthy and worse than mankind when it comes to selfishness, arrogance, and pride. They don't care at all for the plights of humans unless caring helps them in some way."

Bruce restrained his thought of: well I could have told you that. "Will you be okay?"

"Yes." She paused. "Actually, I have no idea. They defined how I viewed the world, Bruce. How am I supposed to just throw all that out?"

"You don't. I've known you for years now, Diana. You haven't been dependent on your gods to support your beliefs for a long time. You know what you believe to be good and right, that doesn't suddenly change because you no longer believe in the people you thought gave you those ideals. Do you know how I know that?"

Diana shook her head.

"I know that because you rejected your gods because they weren't living according to your ideals. You already viewed your ideals as more important and 'above' your gods."

"I guess you're right. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

They ate, they drank, they talked some more, and they grew tired. Their week in Gehenna was not even half over yet.

"I think I'll head to bed now." Bruce had been pondering and stressing over this next move for a while now, his feet seemed to carry him robotically toward her. His blood seemed to retreat out of his extremities, which was odd considering how hard his heart was now working. He grabbed her by the arms. It felt, so unnatural… so… good and right. All he did was kiss her on the forehead, that was it, and then he drew away.

He rushed into his bed, simultaneously wishing he had done more and not done anything at all. "Goodnight." But as he lay there he knew it had been the right thing to do, he could not explain it, but it was as if a small corner of his universe of darkness and uncertainty suddenly made a little sense.

"Goodnight." Diana stood there flustered, processing what had just happened. Her legs carried her to her bed, and as she laid there in the dark, her heart caught fire. And they both smiled into the darkness, forgetting the abyss that surrounded them.

*An idiom referring to Pandora's Box