How could I have let this go on like this for so long?

As they flew side-by-side and hand-in-hand, the shores of Themyscira fading into the night, Clark could not help but be both looking forward to and dreading the conversation that he and Diana were about to have. They had waited so long for this moment, tip-toed around the issues for so long, and finally here it was. He glanced over at her, noticing that she just kept looking straight ahead, not looking over at him, a look of determination on her face that Clark had never seen, not even in their greatest battles. Without a word Clark understood what Diana was trying to get across eventhough she was not looking at or speaking to him at that moment. She wanted to make sure that they had their moment together, and he was all too content to silently fly next to her, his hand gripped in the warm vice of hers.

After twenty minutes of silent gliding through the air, Diana suddenly stopped in the air and let go of Clark's hand. He looked confused for a moment as to why they were stopping there but she knew exactly why she had chosen this place. They were high in the stratosphere, the world stretching out for miles in every direction below them. Diana had never felt this nervous in her entire life, and she could feel herself shaking. She knew he probably heard her nervous heartbeat fluttering in her chest but at that point she didn't care. It was time to put all cards on the table, and it was time to finally tell him what she had been holding back for so many years. She was an Amazon and she would not be denied what her heart so strongly desired.

"Why did you choose this place Diana?" Clark said, finally letting curiosity get the better of him as he did not see any discernible landmarks either below him or around them.

"Because Kal, at this point in the sky, high above the earth here, we are at the exact point that puts us the farthest away from Themyscira, Smallville, Gotham, Metropolis, and the Watchtower that we can be all at the same time" Diana responded, causing Clark's eyes to widen in surprise.

"How do you know that Diana?" Clark inquired, wondering how Diana could have found a spot that put as much distance as possible from so many different locations at the same time.

"I come here when I need to think about you. I came here after you died and I came here after we got back from Asgard" Diana said, closing her eyes and Clark noticed as a small tear escaped her right eye, where he quickly reached up and brushed it away.

"An Amazon is not supposed to feel fear. She is supposed to just harden herself for the next battle. I cannot pretend that I am made of stone anymore, that I am just a non-feeling creature made from clay" Diana's tears were flowing now, as she wrapped her arms around herself, briefly unable to keep speaking. She could not believe how difficult this was, to convey what she had been bottling up for so damn long.

Clark reached forward and placed his arms around her, pulling her in close to his chest. For a moment in the sky it was just the two of them holding eachother as Diana strengthened her resolve to continue.

"Diana, do not for one moment think that you are alone in this. I am right here with you, I always have been, and I always will be" Clark said, trying to reassure her, but was surprised when she reacted violently, her tears briefly stopping as she struck out at him, knocking him hard across the chest away from her.

"You weren't there Kal! You cannot claim that you were always there! You died fighting that god-damn monster! You left me when I needed you most! How could you do that to me?" Diana yelled, unable to hold back the pain that she had been hiding inside for so long.

She expected him to show sorrow or surprise, to maybe even blush or scratch the back of his neck in classic Superman-form, but what she didn't expect was the hardened expression that appeared on his face.

"My death. Yes Diana, I died fighting Doomsday on that fateful day where that creature made me draw what I thought was my last breath. I had thought that I wouldn't ever kill, no matter what, but that day we killed eachother with that last punch. I will never forget that moment, not because it was my death, but because of the last thing that flashed across my mind prior to that instant" Clark said, closing his eyes, finally ready to admit to Diana the truth that he had been holding back for too long.

"What was it Kal?" Diana was caught off-guard by this comment as Clark had never before spoken about those last moments, or even about his fight with the creature before that. She waited patiently for him to explain himself.

"You Diana. In that instant I thought of you, of all the unresolved moments left to speak of, of all the times I would never see you smile again, or to watch you laugh over me after you dump me unceremoniously on my ass after an intense sparring session. I thought about how my death was going to affect you, and that in that last moment I realized that I was going to make an Amazon cry...that your last image of me would be that of a bloody, beaten, and broken shell of a man. People have asked me why I was able to summon the resolve to kill the creature on that day, well, the truth is I struck that last blow against him because of you. I knew you and the others were on your way to help, and I couldn't die knowing that you could get hurt or worse after I fell. I died to save you".

Diana could barely register Kal's admission, as her heart was beating so fast it seemed ready to explode. He had just admitted that he had let himself be killed just so he could protect her from the monster, and that his last thoughts were of her. It was so overwhelming for her that she couldn't even bring voice to her defiance that Kal had again been trying to protect her.

As if reading her mind, Clark held his hand up, closed his eyes, and continued speaking.

"I know what you're thinking Diana, we've been having this banter for years. I know you think you don't need saving, that you can handle everything by yourself. Well the truth is that you can't, none of us ever can handle everything by ourselves. That's why we have a League...but more importantly that's why you have me and I have you".

Diana finally found her voice and immediately reacted in Amazon warrior-like defiance.

"How did you think I would be able to live with myself knowing that you had died, especially now that I know that your misguided nobleness had you sacrifice your life to protect me?! You sacrificed yourself to protect me from possibly dying as well! What gave you the right to do that?! Did you not think I couldn't handle it on my own?"

Diana was cut off before she could say anything else as Clark raised his voice, something he rarely ever did, interrupting her with the cold, hard truth.

"If it had been you up against him and you knew that I was coming, would you have given your life to protect me?!"

Clark watched as Diana's voice caught in her throat, and he knew that he'd caught her. This was never about either of them thinking the other was not strong enough or that they needed saving, but the inescapable truth that if either of them could help it, they would give their life to protect the other, and they would do it in a heartbeat.

"God damn you Kal, you know I would have" Diana responded, unable to argue with the Kryptonian's logic. She knew that he saw her as his equal, and had laid his life down to protect her that day, not because she was incapable, but because it couldn't be any other way. He was Superman, he had to save her, just like she was Wonder Woman, and would have saved him. She knew that a day may come where she might have to give her life to protect him, and if that moment came, she would not hesitate for a moment.

"Just seeing your reaction is still so strong today after I died fighting Doomsday, I'm glad I never told you how much I cared when we were in Asgard" Clark sighed, although the fire that re-ignited in Diana's eyes suggested that now was the wrong time to bring that up, but it was already too late. He barely had a chance to get his hands up before Diana struck out at him again, but this time he managed to deflect her glancing blow.

"Asgard?! It was a thousand years Kal and you never once made me believe I was more than just your friend! Every day we could have died and you never once took the opportunity to tell me that you gave a damn!"

Clark's heart nearly broke as the tears of anger and heartbreak once again began to flow from Diana's eyes. He couldn't believe how much emotional turmoil he had caused for the both of them in just a few short minutes, but it was time for everything to come out, no matter how painful a process this was turning out to be. They were through pretending.

"You think I didn't want to Diana? You're wrong. Every moment of every day, even in the midst of battle, I wanted to take you in my arms and tell you how much I cared, but it was too risky. I couldn't spend a moment of wonderful with you just to lose you the next day. It was a war, and I couldn't bear that those feelings would expose themselves, only for one of us to lose the other the next day. It would have been too much to bear for either of us" Clark responded, watching Diana's eyes widen, as he finally told her why he had never made any move towards her during that bloody time.

"I would rather have a moment of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special Kal" Diana said, causing Clark to raise his head, and look deep into her eyes.

"As much as we just want to be Diana Prince and Clark Kent, the fact is that we are superheroes. We are Wonder Woman and Superman, and we always will be Kal. We are going to continue to risk our lives every day. I don't want to spend another moment wondering if I am going to lose you and not tell you how I feel. If I lose you or if you lose me, I want you to know what is in my heart, I want us to have eachother, even if it is just for a short time. I want you for as long as we can have eachother, whether for a moment, or all eternity" Diana said, as the floodgates were now open and she had begun to pour her heart out to the man infront of her.

"I don't want to wait any longer either Diana. We have danced around this issue for too long, pretending that we are just friends, and all we seem to do is just hurt eachother more. I cannot allow this to go on any longer. You are my best friend, my equal in every way, a woman with so much kindness and strength in her heart. You are my living goddess come to me, but you are also the woman, you are Diana. You love this world despite all its flaws and it hurts you to see others hurting all over it, and yet you still maintain such a positive outlook on life when so many forces have given you infinite reason to just give up. You never do. You are the warrior, you are the diplomat, and you are the woman, and my heart has always been yours, from the first time I ever saw you" Clark said, as Diana noticed that his perfect blue eyes had begun to mist over as well. His skin may be made of steel, but his heart was vulnerable, and it had always belonged to her.

Diana's heart was caught in her throat and she was visibly trembling as she took his face in both her hands.

"What are you saying Kal?"

Clark's gaze locked with Diana and she watched as the tears began to fall on his face, and his lip curled up into his trademark sideways smile.

"I love you Diana"

For Diana, time seemed to freeze at that moment, at hearing Kal finally speak those words aloud to her, bringing voice to all the pent-up mental and physical stress that had been building for so long, and how with just three words, all of it had went away. She felt like her heart had stopped and she was transcending above. It was an unbelievable lightness, which considering they were floating in the upper atmosphere, was not surprising in the least. She finally found her voice and gave words to the feelings that she had been holding back for so long.

"Kal, Amazons are not supposed to feel this way, to be stripped of all our armour and left completely vulnerable before anyone, let alone a man. It is why I have had so much trouble for so long as well. For a long time I believed that I had angered Aphrodite for filling me which such inner pain, but now I know that what we have and what I feel for you is a wonderful gift. Despite all your gifts, you are the most gentle person I have ever met, and you always put others before yourself. You have always been completely selfless and noble, always concerned for about others. It is not your powers that make you Super, it is the man that you are, the man that I have loved from the moment I saw you. You are Clark Kent and you are Kal-El, and I love you"

Diana waited for him to respond to her admission, but Clark did not have any words left. They were not needed anymore. He reached forward and took her into his arms, wrapping them around her back as she clasped her fingers behind his neck, each bringing the other closer. They could literally feel the intense energy in the air as their faces neared eachother, before their lips finally came together in a fiery passion that had been building for so long.

When their lips met, fireworks did not explode, the Gods did not trumpet their approval, and there was not a slow building clap in the background. In that instant, all that existed was the two of them. This was their moment, and theirs alone, to have for the rest of their lives. There, together above the Earth, touching the edge of Heaven itself, they wrapped their arms around eachother, getting lost in the warm glow of the other. They existed as they always had...for eachother, and they were ready to face tomorrow...together at last.

A/N: Apologies for the delay in this latest chapter but I wanted to make sure that I could convey their emotions as well as I could, and also offer some explanations as to why it took so long for them to get to this point. Next up the new couple spends some quality time together, unaware that Set and Ares are plotting! Thank you for the reviews so far everyone!