I love the reviews! Thank you all so much! This is John's view on things. Bruce may come later. Enjoy!

Lovers

John watched her go, tattered and bloodstained, holding herself with all the pride and fierce energy of a triumphant warrior. His bloodstained angel, his battlehawk. How he loved her, and how he worried for her. He knew the blood wasn't hers, for the most part, yet still it shook him to see it. As much as it shook him to see her walk off after the Bat, while he staggered off to medical.

He fought the urge to go after her. It was illogical. He was injured and required medical attention. She wasn't, and was therefore free to go. That was simple sense. Yet love was nothing if not irrational, and he found himself wondering where she would go, and why. There was so much he had yet to understand about her, and he feared those gaps in his understanding, feared that their still so fragile relationship would slip through them and be lost.

But thinking these things served no purpose now. There were practical things to take care of. Always, you must first take care of the necessities, before you can afford to think of the other things. Yet their relationship was fast becoming a necessity for him. He hoped it always would be, for both of them.

He watched her return the next morning, fresh and with a strange fierceness to her, an electric glow, and he wondered. That glow was beautiful, but worrying. The only times he'd seen it before were after ... their connection. It was the light of passion, the battlefire of her soul. The part of her that he had yet to grasp. It showed in the taut arch of her wings, that made him think it came from the part of her that was Thanagarian, the part that was hawk. The part that he had no handle on.

'Shayera?'

She turned to him, an intense smile on her face, desperation and acceptance co-mingled in her eyes. He faltered, unsure, but she came to him, wings spread above them, enclosing them in a living bower. She took his worried face in her hands, and kissed him, urgent and hungry. He stumbled, caught.

'John, we need to talk,' she murmured. He struggled to clear his head.

'If you wanted to talk, then you shouldn't have befuddled my senses so much,' he stated grumpily, more worried than ever. That had felt too much like a farewell. They slipped into a quiet room, him trailing after her, uncertain and afraid.

She moved to the window, standing against the glorious backdrop of space like some exiled angel, beautiful but hauntingly alien. His heart twinged. 'Do you remember when we first acknowledged what we had?' she began. He nodded. 'Do you remember what I said, that we were too different? I believe it, in part, even still.'

He swallowed, and sat, listening. She turned to face him, the desperation again clear on her features. She went on.

'I'm not human, John. Not fully. I'm Thanagarian. I am a hawk, a predator. But ... I have so many things inside me that are human, and every one of those things cries out that I love you, that we are meant for each other. I listen to those things. They are right. I love you, with everything in me that is human. But there's more to me than that, and I cannot deny those things either.'

She crouched before him, staring earnestly up at him, striving to explain. 'I hunted tonight. I went with Bruce to his city, and I hunted with him, flew with him, fought with him to bring down our prey. Do you know what that means?'

He fought down anger and sorrow. He'd sensed a distance lately, feared another man had caught her, but he had never thought it would be Batman. And yet it made such terrible sense. Of all the people on the team, the dark knight was the closest to her, in terms of career, in terms of nature. If anyone was a hunter among them, it was the Bat. But that still didn't make it right.

'John. It doesn't mean what you're thinking, not completely. It's a different connection altogether from what we have.' If we still have anything at all he thought bitterly. 'John, don't doubt me, please. Just listen.'

'I am a hawk. It's in my blood, my very nature. I couldn't fight it any more than you could fight being black. Some part of me will always live that fierce life, that need for hunt and battle, that need for a mate to hunt alongside. That is what Bruce is to me. A mate, a hunting partner. It is not love, as such. Not love as humans know it. That part of me will always belong to you. But while you hold my heart, he holds my wings. You hold my love, he holds my fire, my wind. I need you both, so desperately I cannot explain it. I couldn't bear to lose you to this, to my other nature. It was easier on my homeworld, where everyone had two natures. Here, I feel I must choose between them, tear myself in two, and I cannot. I need you both. Please, can you understand? I love you, and him, differently but in equal measure. I cannot choose. Please, help me!'

He stared as she fell silent. He understood now her desperation. It was so much at once. He didn't know how to react. This was the gap in his understanding that had caused him such fear, and rightly so. What she asked of him, to share her with another man, was so foreign a concept that he could barely grasp it. Yet he saw her now, not simply the woman he loved, but the complexity of a duality of nature that he could never have seen had she not shown him. He did not want to share such a gift with any other man, yet neither could he bear to hold her jealously to himself and lose half of what made her her. He could not tear her in two, because it would destroy her.

It was simple. He could hold her broken to himself, or stand by her with another mate and see that glory that she held inside fully realised. If he could bear to share her, he would have a part of something more, a winged goddess made free. Was it so much to ask, for them to be whole? As three instead of two, but whole nonetheless. A small sacrifice, in hopes of achieving something beautiful.

'I could never bear to tear you in two,' he said gently. 'I would love you no matter what. What you need, take from me. You have everything I am, you know that. If you need him, then we'll try. I can't promise to take it lightly, or without strain, but I will try. For you, Shayera, I would try anything.'

She gazed at him, tears of gratitude in her eyes. With a gesture purely her, that swelled his heart every time, she feathered her wingtip across his cheek, love shining in her every feature. His heart leapt. For that look, he truely would do anything. He loved her, with everything in him that was human.

But necessities first. 'Does Bruce actually know any of this?' he asked. She shrugged sheepishly.

'Actually, I was hoping you could help me tell him ...'

He burst out laughing. He couldn't help it. By all the gods, he loved her. He just hoped Bruce would too, because she was one hell of a handful. Maybe having another man on hand would be handy, because this angel needed some serious looking after.

'Shy, anything for you. I just hope you know what you're getting us into. I've a feeling this is not something Batman is going to take easily. Persuading him may involve serious bodily harm.'

She smirked. 'But you'll be there to protect me. You always are.'

He couldn't deny it. He always would be, too. He loved her.

Well? I wasn't sure I was going to keep going here, but I could leave poor John hanging. And next chapter we get to see Bruce's reaction. I'm so enjoying this. What do you guys think? R&R?