Valentine (DCAU)
Diana couldn't believe that she had allowed Dinah to talk her into this. She didn't want to date anyone, didn't want a relationship. She was perfectly content with her life as it was without a man to complicate things. She'd already been there and done that as they always say. She was not anxious for a repeat experience like the last one.
In fact, she was still angry about it.
Diana paused outside of the establishment, contemplating leaving before she was spotted by anyone. This was ridiculous. She didn't know why she had even agreed to this blind date. She wasn't ready for it. She was still dealing with the last man she'd tried to start a relationship with. Maybe it was because she'd been tired after an exhausting mission or maybe it had been Dinah's pleading blue eyes that had been her undoing. Either way, she had found herself relenting.
Worst of all it was Valentine's day of all days.
Diana never really understood the need for Valentine's day. It wasn't something that they had on Themyscira. Weren't you supposed to show your love for others and those you cared about throughout the year and not just on one certain day?
Dinah had explained to her that it was a day set aside to focus on the one you love, to celebrate the love that you share with that person. Diana still felt it was a little ridiculous. Love was meant to be celebrated every day, wasn't it?
Drawing a deep breath, Diana steeled herself before pulling the front door open, knowing that she couldn't stand up her date. It would be hurtful. She didn't want to put someone through that. Not to mention, how would it look if Wonder Woman stood up her date?
XXX
Bruce sat in his car for a handful of moments, contemplating the necessity of this endeavor. He could strangle Oliver for coercing him into this. He had only agreed to this blind date because he'd lost a bet and he always made good on his bets.
Steeling his resolve to be a gentleman, he got out of his Porsche, knowing Alfred would kill him if he didn't do the proper thing. He decided that the bet he had made with Ollie must have been rigged somehow. There was no way that he could have lost unless Ollie had somehow cheated. He wouldn't put it past him.
His jaw clenched as he slowly approached the establishment. He had already made up his mind that he was going to have a horrible time tonight. Besides, who picked a place like this for a double date? This had to be Dinah's idea. He couldn't picture Ollie suggesting this for a double date.
Stopping before the door, he silently cursed Oliver Queen for this, knowing that this was a very bad idea. Bruce Wayne did not do blind dates. Women were practically breaking down his front door trying to get a date with him. He had a literal buffet of women to choose from. He didn't need to be set up like this.
Growling to himself, Bruce entered, forcing a smile on his face. Despite his dread, he still had a reputation to uphold and a part to play in order to protect his secret identity. Women had certain expectations about a date with Bruce Wayne. He couldn't let her down.
Entering the large room with twelve stations, he quickly spotted Oliver and Dinah in the far corner, freezing solid when he spotted his date. He couldn't believe that Oliver and Dinah had done this to him. He felt his heart skip a beat as Diana met his gaze, his pulse betraying him as it began to race out of control.
Diana's blue eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. If looks could kill, he'd be incinerated right where he stood. He was more than a little relieved that Diana didn't possess Clark's heat vision. He quickly ran through several scenarios, trying to decide his best life-preserving option. Before he could settle on one, he was noticed by his so-called friends.
"Some friends…" he bitterly thought to himself.
He was right. He was going to have a horrible time tonight.
"Bruce!" Oliver called, waving to him. "Over here! Come join us!"
He forced his legs to move against his will, carrying him towards the trio waiting for him. Dinah met him halfway, hugging him tightly. "I'm so glad you could make it," she told him.
"I had no choice," he softly bit out, leveling Ollie with a deadly Batglare.
"Behave yourself or I'll make you permanently deaf," she whispered in his ear before releasing him before saying in a normal voice, "we're glad you could join us…aren't we, Diana?"
"Sure…if you say so," she ground out, folding her arms against her chest. The tension in her body caused her posture to become rigid and uninviting. Her bearing did not validate her verbal response in the least.
Bruce matched her frigid stance, clearly as angry as she appeared to be. Things between them had not been good or the least bit friendly for that fact for the last three weeks. Hurt feelings and miscommunication had led to this icy fissure that created an expanse between them, but neither had been willing to do anything about it.
Dinah took Bruce by the hand, dragging him towards Diana who stood at one of the cooking stations. "I can't believe you did this to me," he lowly ground out.
"I think I better leave," Diana decided, missing the momentary flash of hurt that passed through Bruce's eyes with her decision not to stay where he was at.
"You're staying…you're both staying," Dinah insisted, grabbing Diana's wrist as she attempted to pass by her. "Now, we're going to learn how to make eclairs tonight and we're going to have a good time. Got it?"
"Eclairs?" Bruce repeated, stunned.
"Yes, eclairs," she stated. "It sounded like fun, so I signed us up for the class on making eclairs. Oliver and I will be here at the cooking station next to yours."
"We have to make eclairs together?" Diana asked.
"Yes—together," Oliver told them, pulling his apron on over his head. "You're going to have fun. Now, get your aprons on. The class is about to start."
Grinding his teeth, Bruce mentally began assembling a list of ways to make Oliver Queen suffer as he turned to look at Diana. She threw him his apron at that moment, hitting him squarely in the face. He grumbled in response, reluctantly putting the bright pink apron with red hearts on over his shirt. He was so going to make Ollie and Dinah pay for this. One way or another, they were going to suffer if it was the last thing he did.
"Welcome to Cozy Cooking Time," the overly cheerful instructor loudly announced to the gathered couples. "My name is Kristy."
Bruce decided she sounded more like an overzealous cheerleader than an actual cooking instructor. He'd expected a Julie Childs. Instead, they ended up with a Taylor Swift. It was only helping to further sour his mood as he glanced at Diana out of the corner of his eye, noticing the way she stood with her arms crossed over her chest.
She was so beautiful even when she was mad at him.
"Tonight, we're making eclairs that you can take home and share with your sweetheart because what is better than eclairs on Valentine's day?" the Taylor Swift instructor revealed as if they already didn't know.
Diana cast a sidelong glance at Bruce in hopes of appraising the depths of his anger. She could practically feel his anger radiating off of him in heated waves. His hands were palm down on the countertop as if bracing himself for the horror that was about to unfold tonight. The instructor went through the various ingredients they were going to use for the eclairs in a sing-song voice that was proving to be annoying.
She felt her heart clench beneath her breastbone, wishing that things were different between them. If she had known that pursuing a relationship with him would lead to this unbearable strain between them, she would have remained friends with him. She never would have agreed to a romantic dinner at the manor.
Anything with him would be so much better than this.
She missed being able to talk to him, teasing him, and making a comment that always seemed to cause that tiny smirk to form on his face. She longed for their witty banter that always danced along the lines of something else…something flirtatious and almost inappropriate.
She longed for the close bond that they shared, their ability to talk about anything. Yes, he was her teammate, but more than that, he was her best friend. Now, she'd lost even that. How had things spiraled so out of control they couldn't even be near each other?
Bruce could feel Diana's gaze on him, wondering what she was thinking about. Was she thinking of the heated fight they'd had three weeks ago that had led to this painful fracture in their relationship? They hadn't talked at all since then, each avoiding the other as much as possible. He'd even skipped the Founders' meeting to avoid seeing her. It was too painful to be near her.
How had things gotten so far off course? How had a romantic dinner led to this frigid condition that was colder than Superman's Fortress of Solitude?
"You're going to begin by bringing the milk, butter, salt, and half cup of water to a boil in a four-quart saucepan over high heat," Kristy announced.
Diana picked up the saucepan, putting it on the stovetop. "Do you want me to stir while you add the ingredients?"
"I had better be the one to stir," he told her. "Cooking is not my forte. This could end up being a disaster if you have me do anything more than that."
"Among other things," she said under her breath.
"Diana…" he grumbled her name.
"Just start stirring," she told him with a sigh, handing him the wooden spoon.
Carefully adding the ingredients to the saucepan, Diana looked over at Ollie and Dinah who were laughing together as Ollie stirred the ingredients in the pan, trying his best not to splatter it all over both of them. They looked so happy and in love. It was something that Diana had longed for with Bruce, but that was obviously hoping for too much.
"Diana, watch how much salt you put in," Bruce snapped, trying to remove the excess salt with his spoon.
"Sorry," she murmured, getting the flour ready that the instructor had told them to add to the saucepan.
"You need to pay better attention," he stated.
"Are you really going to go there?" she demanded to know, slamming the bag of flour down on top of the counter. Puffs of flour escaped the bag, dusting the countertop. "If you want to do this here and now, then fine by me."
"Not really, but we might as well," he bit out. "We don't have anything else to talk about. I told you that I had an image to maintain, but you wouldn't listen to me."
"Bruce," she bit out, her hands clenching into fists.
Turning to face her, he waved the wooden spoon at her as he let loose all of the pent-up anger and hurt that he'd been harboring these last few weeks. "If you had been paying attention, you would have remembered that I already had a preset date with Michael Stephen's daughter Alexandria for the charity auction the next day."
"Bruce…" she tried again.
"You know I couldn't break the date with her," he continued to rant, not giving her a chance to respond "Wayne Enterprises is trying to broker a deal with Michael's company. The deal could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I had no choice but to take her."
"Bruce…" she ground out his name between clenched teeth as her hands curled into fists of utter frustration.
"Instead, you get angry and refuse to take my call the next day," he said. "I wanted to apologize and explain what happened, but you wouldn't answer."
"Bruce…" she growled.
Pointing the wooden spoon in her face, he continued his tirade. "It was probably for the best that you didn't return my call," he growled. "Now, we can bypass all that relationship mess and just be teammates again like we should have stayed all along. I knew this wasn't going to work out. I said it from the start. Dating between teammates never works."
The laughter coming from the cooking station to their right caused both of them to momentarily look away, noticing how much fun Dinah and Ollie were having together. They shared a sweet kiss before returning to the task of making eclairs, effectively shooting down Bruce's assumption about teammates dating.
"Bruce!" she exclaimed, snatching the wooden spoon out of his hand to get his attention.
"What?" he almost yelled, turning to look at her once more.
"Your pan is burning," she snapped, pointing at the saucepan that was about to boil over.
Bruce growled a curse as he stole the wooden spoon out of her hand and began stirring furiously in an attempt to salvage the mixture. Diana suddenly dumped the whole cup of flour into the saucepan, wisps of white flour flying everywhere as Bruce continued to stir.
"Are you done?" Diana seethed, slamming the measuring cup down.
"I think I kept it from burning," he mumbled as he tried to wipe the flour from his apron to no avail. He only managed to make it worse.
"Not that," she bit out. "Are you done yelling at me?"
"Oh, yeah…I guess," he sheepishly replied, unable to make eye contact with her. He'd allowed his emotions to spill out which was not something that he typically did. Then again, it was Diana and she made him do and feel things that he tried not to.
"Good," she icily stated. "First of all, I knew you had that date with Alexandria. I was angry because there were pictures in the paper of you kissing her. Second of all, I never got a call from you."
Bruce's head snapped to the side, staring at her in shock. "I did call," he insisted.
"Bruce, I had no calls from you," she told him.
"I contacted you on your comm the next day, but you wouldn't pick up," he reminded her. "I guess you didn't want to have anything to do with me after that."
"I got sent on a mission to the center of the Earth," she told him. "My comm didn't work the entire time I was gone."
"I thought Shayera went with John, B'Wanna Beast, and Zatanna?"
"Shayera was still recovering from that ankle sprain," she pointed out. "I ended up taking her place at the last minute."
"So, it was all just a misunderstanding?"
"Not entirely," she icily stated. "Why did you kiss her?"
"She kissed me, Diana," he told her, his shoulders slumping slightly. "That's what I wanted to tell you, but it turned into a huge argument when we finally talked."
"That was my fault," she admitted, filling with regret. "I let my temper get the best of me. I didn't really give you a chance to explain anything."
"Okay, transfer the dough to a bowl and, using a hand mixer, beat in eggs one at a time until smooth," the instructor called out in that annoying voice.
Bruce shook his head as he did as the instructor told them. "It's my fault too," he confessed, turning to face her. "I was angry that you didn't return my call. I made assumptions that you no longer wanted to be with me. I was hurt…and I took it out on you. I thought I had ruined everything."
"It's alright," she assured him as her hand came to rest against his jaw. "I guess we both made assumptions instead of actually communicating with each other."
"So, does that mean that you're willing to give it another try?" he ventured, hope lacing his voice.
"I thought you said that dating between teammates never worked out," she teased.
"I may have been wrong about that," he decided. "Can we try again?"
"Definitely," she replied with a smile.
"I'm sorry," he softly said as his arms slid around her, pulling her against him as the cooking lesson was completely forgotten.
His lips found hers in a slow, passionate kiss that bespoke of his feelings for her, more than relieved that she wasn't giving up on him already. Her arms slipped around his neck, her head tilting as her tongue prodded his lips for more of him.
He readily complied, allowing her to taste and explore to her heart's content. If he had his way, he'd take her right back to the manor now to continue this in private. However, their friends had other ideas at that moment as they intruded on their intimate connection.
"It's about time you two kissed and made up," Ollie quipped. "I thought I was going to have to lock you two up in a room until you got it straightened out."
Bruce retreated but refused to release his hold on his Amazon. "Don't you have eclairs to make?"
Diana chuckled, stealing a kiss from Bruce. "You made it a great Valentine's day, Ollie and Dinah," she told them. "Thank you for getting two stubborn people to finally talk."
"Just don't expect a lot of in-depth sharing of feelings," he warned Diana with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. "Tonight was enough to last me for a long time."
"What if I said I love you...and I want you to be my Valentine?" she softly expressed.
Bruce responded with a kiss that left her lightheaded with a desire for more. "We'll see you two later," Bruce told Dinah and Ollie, taking Diana by the hand, and quickly leading her towards the door. Returning to the manor was now an absolute necessity.
"What about your eclairs?" Ollie questioned them only to get elbowed in the ribs by Dinah.
"I don't think they care about eclairs right now," she told him as Bruce and Diana swiftly disappeared out the door with almost the speed of Flash.
"Oh…can we leave too?" Ollie asked with a grin, wiggling his eyebrows at her.
"No, I want eclairs first," she replied, kissing him. "After that, you can have whatever you want."
Ollie readily decided that this was going to be a great Valentine's day.
A/N: Hope you all have a great Valentin's Day. If you get a chance, check out my new fic Marked for Death (DCEU / ZSJL). Don't forget to vote on my profile for the sex of Bruce and Diana's next baby in the upcoming fic Family Tree. :)