Diana
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'I don't suppose you're available to talk for a minute?'
I frown for a second, unsure as to what Diana needs. I take a deep breath, before calling her, turning to look out towards the water. I walk away from the sidewalk to lean against a fence post, elbows supporting my weight as I listen to the phone ring.
As the phone continues to ring, doubt begins to form. Did she not want me to call? Was she expecting a text back instead? I move to pull the phone away from my ear and end the call when Diana picks up, sounding out of breath. I straighten, worried that something is wrong.
"Bruce! I didn't think you'd get back to me so soon!"
"Are you okay?" I skip straight to the point.
"What? Yeah, I'm fine. Just left my phone in my room and then forgot where I put it."
I relax in relief, leaning back on the railing. "Okay, so then what's the problem? What did you need to talk to me about?" I hold my breath, an odd anxiety rising as I consider the different answers she could give.
"Well, my friend has set me up with someone and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do."
I try not to deflate against the railing, trying to maintain my posture. "What do you mean?"
"Well, it's a blind date kind of thing and I don't know anything about the guy. I'm not sure if he knows who I am or how I should talk to him. It's always so awkward when I get set up on dates and the date already knows I'm Wonder Woman." Diana has vented to me in the past about said dates. And I can understand where she's coming from.
"And you're hoping that since I deal with the same thing as Bruce Wayne that I can offer assistance?"
"Yes," she sighs in relief.
"Well, Princess, I would say to just be yourself. While I experience the same situations, I also have to maintain the persona. I have to play into it most times to keep people off of my back." I hear Diana scoff but choose to ignore it, knowing she doesn't fully buy the pretend bachelor persona I use in public. "In your case, I think it'd be better for you to be honest and yourself with this guy." I refuse to let myself grow jealous of this date she's been set up with. I'm the one pushing her away. I don't get to be jealous. "If he's too much of a creep or clearly only there because of your title, then you have every right to leave. Hell, text me and I'll call with an emergency to get you away if you really need it."
"You would do that?"
"Absolutely."
"You're a lifesaver, Bruce. I owe you if it comes to that."
"Don't worry about it, Princess."
"Bruce!" Lia calls from up the beach, walking towards our meeting spot with her arms waving. As if I could miss her.
"Oh, did I interrupt something? I didn't mean to pull you away from a date." I can hear something in Diana's voice but can't identify what it is.
"No, that's Lia. We went to highschool together. She works up in Metropolis for a photography agency and I'm helping her out." When Diana doesn't respond, I feel the need to continue explaining myself. "Lia's like an annoying little sister. We've never dated." Diana hums, almost as if trying to placate my attempts at explaining. "Well, I have to go. Again, text me and I'll call to get you out of your date if you so need it."
"Thanks, Bruce." That odd tone in her voice is still there. "Have a good night," she hangs up before I can respond. I pull my phone from my ear, staring at it questioningly before Lia calls for me again. I pocket my phone, knowing I'll contemplate Diana's odd behavior later.
"Okay, so, we're just waiting on her. I told her to show up a couple minutes later just to make sure you didn't run into each other before I could get pictures." Lia glances to the setting sun, nearly below the waves by now. "The fireworks should start soon. So I'll probably stand closer to the beach so I can get the pictures of you two plus the show. They're lighting them from a boat so they'll be blowing up over the waver." Lia talks loud enough for me to hear but in a way that makes me question if she's actually talking to me or just talking loudly to herself.
"Oh! There she is!" I move to look but Lia grabs my shoulder to keep me facing her. "I'm not ready yet. I need the perfect picture so you have to wait till she reaches us." I roll my eyes but can't help the nervousness that I fight to ignore.
"Merlia!" The voice calls out and my eyes widen, recognizing that voice. I hardly notice the flash or the click as Lia takes the picture. "So, she's finally letting me meet you! I'm-" I turn around and watch her eyes widen and mouth drop open. "Bruce?"
"Uh, hey, Diana," I greet, suddenly very unsure of what to do with myself.
"You're the guy I just called you about?"
"Apparently so." I chuckle.
"Wait," I hear Lia approach from behind me. "You guys actually know each other?" Diana and I glance at each other before looking back to Lia. Diana remains quiet and I realize she's allowing me to think up the story. "Yeah, we've met each other at different benefits and galas. Besides, it's hard to not know this beauty." I flip on the charm, hoping to convince Lia.
"Oh, yes, we met in Paris and then I just kept running into him at different events." Diana agrees, placing a hand gently on my arm. I look at her and offer a small smile.
"You haven't slept with her, have you?" Lia shoots me a very pointed look as our eyes both go wide.
"No! Lia!" Lia holds her hands up in surrender.
"Lia? I thought it was Merlia?"
"Merlia is my full name," Lia admits, glancing towards the boat that has begun to make its way out to sea. "Bruce and I grew up together and so he and my close friends call me Lia. You can too, if you want. I don't mind either way." Lia shrugs before gesturing out on the pier. I offer Diana my arm and she rolls her eyes before accepting, allowing me to lead her down the dock.
As we casually walk down the pier, following Lia who continues to watch the boat, I take a moment to admire Diana out of the corner of my eye. Her hair is pulled back into a braid, small hairs curling to frame around her face. She wears a white cami crop top with high waisted pants that are a deep orange. She wears white sandals on her feet and simple diamond earrings in her ears.
"Did you know I was the other person doing this?" Diana asks quietly under her breath.
"Not a clue." I answer as we reach the end of the pier. Lia begins twittering around us, pushing and pulling us to her ideal spot before focusing on her camera for a moment. "She refused to tell me who I was taking these photos with. The only hint I got was that I might've met you at an event before." Diana subtly nods as Lia looks up from her camera.
"Okay, so you two are going to face the fireworks, arms around each other." My heart picks up speed at the idea of holding Diana close. Our existing chemistry is going to make this photoshoot possibly easier while making it far more difficult to walk away at the end. I have to remind myself that these photos aren't real. We're both just actors playing our parts.
Lia pulls us both to the left a little bit before beginning to instruct us. "Okay, Bruce, you're going to wrap your arm around her lower back and Diana, you're going to lean into his chest." I hesitantly reach out and slide my arm around her, pulling her closer to me. She doesn't seem to be as wary as she steps right into my embrace, her head tucking against my neck, looking towards Lia.
"Almost perfect but I need you to look out towards the water, Diana." I hold still as Diana's head turns against my jaw, offering me a good whiff of her hair. I hear Lia's footsteps approach before feeling my arm be repositioned a little further up Diana's back before Lia begins to mess with my hand, not seeming to care that she's forcing my hand to rub Diana's back. I go to tense my arm a little more so that Lia stops messing with us when I feel Diana melt into me a little more, as if the rubbing motion soothes her. I push at Lia's hands before pulling my arm back slightly, just enough to make my hand visible to Lia behind us, my fingertips wrapping around Diana's waist.
"I like your shirt," Diana says quietly against my chest. "The pineapples really suit you," she giggles.
"You think so? I was hoping for something a little less obnoxious."
"Your shirt could be lime green, Bruce Wayne," Lia grumbles as she pulls on Diana's arm to wrap around me. Diana does so with little prompting, her hand grabbing the back of my upper arm.
Almost as soon as Lia is done positioning us, a large boom sounds, followed by colors, crackling, and cheering.
I hear Diana's breath catch, a brief glance down telling me she's entranced by what she sees. "Have you never seen fireworks before, Princess?"
"No," she breathes, continuing to watch the sky in awe. I can hear Lia taking pictures of us, able to see brief flashes of light behind us as she clicks away. I begin soothing my hand up and down Diana's back again, enjoying the feeling of her leaning further into me. Her head rubs against my shoulder, as if she were snuggling in.
Lia's camera eventually quiets and I have half a mind to look behind Diana and I to see what she's doing but as Diana drops her arms to circle my own waist, I find that I don't care. I hear Lia steal a few more pictures before going silent again. "They're beautiful," Diana whispers, eyes still trained on the sky. As I glance down at her again, I feel the need to be cheesy and agree that the view is beautiful, the view in my arms.
But I say nothing.
Instead, I nod against her forehead, watching the fireworks continue. Hoping that if tonight went as well as it did, that maybe this weekend won't be too bad.
After the fireworks last night, Lia followed Diana and I back towards our huts. We were hesitant to let go of each other but knowing the more I tried to hold on now, the harder it'll be to let go in a couple days so I had let go of her, Diana following a moment later. Lia gushed over the photos while refusing to allow us to look at them.
Upon reaching our huts, she had ushered Diana into hers and shooed me down to mine, promising she'd be down in a couple minutes. Diana had waved and smiled, bidding me a goodnight before allowing Lia to guide her into the hut. I had waved back before continuing down the dock, still able to feel Diana snuggled into me. I felt I had barely made it to my hut when Lia came rushing in, hands moving to finger through the different swim trunks hanging from the clothing rack before landing on a pair of bright red trunks.
"I'll meet you outside your hut at 8 in the morning. Wear these, no shoes." She pushed the trunks into my chest before practically running out of my hut, leaving the door open without so much as a goodbye. I watched her, bewildered, as she ran back towards Diana's hut.
Now I sit on the edge of the pier in the red swim shorts. I had thought about possibly putting a t-shirt on to cover up a little more. My chest is riddled with probably the most scars from bullet holes to long lines that were the result of knives or being impaled on protruding rubble. My ribs were also still bruised from Penguin and the scratches his geisha-whatevers dealt me were still healing.
I stare out towards the horizon, the sun just above the water. I could hear footsteps approaching but couldn't tell if it was Lia or Diana but didn't have to wait much longer to find out when a hand gently touched the top of a scar that ran from a shoulder blade down around my ribs.
"Bruce," her voice is barely audible over the sounds of the ocean. I say nothing as her fingers continue to trace the various scars on my back. I remain perfectly still, holding my breath as her touch wanders across my back before she follows the first scar around my side, noticing the bruises that decorate my skin before she can reach the end of the scar.
Her voice catches as she gently pulls at my shoulder, trying to turn me enough so she can see better. As I finally look up to her, my own breath stalls in my chest. Diana kneels beside me in a very revealing red bikini. The bottoms come high up on her hips, sitting at about the same place as her uniform while the top hardly keeps her modest. My eyes travel up to hers but she's still focused on my chest, her eyes sad and eyebrows drawn.
"I'm okay, Diana," I promise quietly, noticing Lia coming down from her hotel in my peripheral.
"What happened?" she asks, ignoring my statement as she gently traces the bruise before noticing the spot where the bullet grazed me as my shorts had ridden up just a little when I sat down. She reaches out to touch that wound before drawing up short, her cheeks coloring as she realizes where she was about to touch. I grab that hand, squeezing it reassuringly before moving to stand, biting my tongue as my ribs pull.
"Bruce," Diana stands with me, eyes worried but I squeeze her hand again before dropping it and looking at Lia who is focused on her camera once more.
"Alright, you two, we're taking pics in the hammock this morning." She gestures to the netted hammock that hangs off the side of the pier beside my hut. "Bruce, you'll need to get on it first and hold it steady." Diana and I glance at each other, knowing it'd be simple enough for her to float onto the hammock but I don't bother arguing with Lia, sitting back on the pier to lower myself over the side onto the hammock. It swings more than I anticipated it would but I quickly shift to counter the tipping.
I can feel both women watching me but ignore them, focusing on not falling into the water or giving away how much this hurts. Once I'm finally down in the hammock, I shift towards the middle before reaching out to hold onto the pier then offer a hand to Diana. She graciously accepts my hand before carefully stepping onto the hammock. I lock my jaw to fight the urge to wince as the hammock rocks and causes me to hold on tightly to the pier on my injured side. I keep an eye on Diana as she maneuvers to sit beside me before we both look at Lia only to find her gone. A moment later, she emerges from my hut with the pillows off the bed, tossing them down onto the hammock with us.
It's a good thing Diana and I were paying attention or I would've lost my pillows to the water below. We place the pillows behind us before Lia finally speaks up. "Okay, Bruce, lie down first." I follow her instructions and be sure to lie down slowly, trying to keep my body weight distributed. I prop one of my heels against a piece of netting to try and allow for a little more control. "Perfect. Diana, go ahead and lie down beside him, head beside his on a pillow." I subtly shift the pressure of my foot to keep the hammock as still as possible.
"I'm not going to tip us, Bruce," Diana playfully chides as her head hits the pillow beside me, mere inches from my face.
"I know, just trying to keep it even."
"Diana, curl into him a little. Turn on your side and move your leg over his." Whether intentional or not, Diana's knee moves to cover the bullet wound and I try to communicate silently that I appreciate the effort. Without thinking or a prompt, I moved my hand that was lying between us to rest on her thigh, fingers tracing small patterns onto her warm skin. Her own hand moves to curl against my chest, mindful of any residual injuries.
"Look at you two. Naturals!" Lia proclaims before I hear her camera begin to click. I hold eye contact with Diana until she lowers her eyes, curling into my shoulder a little more. Without a second thought, I move to press a kiss to her forehead before freezing, realizing what I just did. But when I'm not tipped into the ocean or at least shoved away, I allow my lips to stay pressed to her forehead.
"You two are the cutest!" Lia continues to praise as she moves around on the dock above but Diana and I have tuned her out, enjoying the cozy embrace.
Tomorrow night is going to seriously suck.
A/N: I realize I'm making Bruce very OOC but I'm kind of okay with it. I feel like this story should have him a little more gentle and playful with his friends. He's still a brooding bat and thinks he needs to push Diana away at the end of this, but he's also pretty receptive to her since he doesn't have as strong of a will to stay away from her as I feel is normally portrayed.
Thx!
AMM