Admitting your true feelings to yourself is one thing, admitting it to others is something completely different.
If you asked Clark or Diana how long they stayed together in the secluded cave that morning, neither one would have been able to tell you, as time seemed to stand still when they were together. They could not seem to get enough of eachother and anytime one of them would suggest that it was time to get going, the other would pull them back further into the darkness of the cave. However, despite the fact that they were a man and woman in love, they were also Superman and Wonder Woman. They had duties to perform, responsibilities, and neither one of them would shy away from the challenges that lay before them.
Clark was the first to emerge from the cave, as it was easier for him to simply slip into his tights than it was for Diana to clasp up hers. This process, however, took longer than usual for both of them. Normally Clark would blur into his suit and Diana's armor would magically form perfectly fitted onto her body, but they spent a great deal of time trying to locate missing pieces that had been thrown in various directions in the heat of the moment. Clark also found it extremely difficult to extract his cape back from Diana as she refused to let go of it, and also because Clark was not going to deprive himself of one second of viewing her perfect form wrapped in the Kryptonian fabric.
"Diana, you're going to have to give me back my cape if we ever want to go anywhere" Clark said, slightly amused by the look of possessiveness that Diana had about her as she gripped it tightly around her form.
"After what we did last night and this morning wrapped in it, I don't know if I can ever let go of it again" Diana said, enjoying the warmth that surrounded her. As a meta-human she had difficulty feeling hot and cold temperatures, but there was something about the alien cloth that warmed her right to the depths of her soul.
"Besides, it seems I'm not the only one who's attached to a piece of my lover's clothing" She retorted, pointing to her golden lasso, which was still wrapped around Clark's left wrist like a large glowing gauntlet.
Diana almost burst out laughing when she saw the blood fill Clark's face, turning it a vibrant shade of red.
"The most powerful man in the world and he can still be such a boy" She thought to herself, enjoying that she could take the man who could melt steel with a mere glance, and embarrass him like he was a five-year old caught taking cookies from the cookie jar.
"I was kind of hoping you wouldn't notice that. I enjoy being bound by you" He responded sheepishly, the words slipping out of his mouth with ease, the magic rope compelling his thoughts to the surface and forcing them out.
"Do you know what's funny Kal? You are probably the only one who could be bound by that lasso permanently and it wouldn't affect your speech pattern. I know you would have told me that you enjoy my lasso even if you weren't tied by it" She commented as she finally relented, releasing the cape from her naked form and causing Clark to visibly stumble over a rock, his eyes focused completely on her.
"Oh it would affect it Diana, imagine if I am still bound by the lasso when Wally asks me about what it's like to be in bed with Wonder Woman" He said, allowing a bit of dread to enter his voice, as he began to reluctantly unravel the rope from his arm.
Diana quickly reached forward and took the lasso from him and reattached it safely to the hip joint of her armor, the look of anger on her face very apparent.
"That is none of anybody's business but ours, and I am appalled that Wally would ask that" She quipped, causing Clark to laugh out loud, so hard that he began coughing.
"Diana this is Wally that we're talking about right? The Flash? He's been begging me to use my x-ray vision on most of the women in the League and describe every intimate detail. And also let's not pretend that your sister Donna, or even Shayera, Dinah, or Zatanna are not going to be following you around day and night until you cough up some little detail about your intimate time with Superman. I have super-hearing remember?" He responded, smiling while he tapped on his right ear.
Now it was Diana's turn to blush as it became apparent that Clark had heard more than he had ever bargained for on many occasions as she thought back to some of the extremely racy conversations that she had been privy to sit in on between herself and some of the more vocal female League members.
"Besides Diana, you don't always need super-hearing to get the context of what is being spoken about sometimes. The hand-gestures some of them make leave very little to the imagination. I do have to say that once you began to understand what was being talked about, the look on your face was priceless" Clark said, raising his right eyebrow at her.
"Ah yes, that moment" She said, allowing a brief smile to cross her features, being brought back to a specific moment when Zatanna and her sister had been wondering to themselves what Superman was hiding in his trunks. Her sister had made an exaggerated movement with her arms, which led to her being thrown across the table by Diana, who had finally understood what they were getting at".
"The Sister Smackdown, how could I forget?" He said, laughing, remembering that moment that incident had devolved into what could best be described as a prison-level brawl between two Amazonian siblings.
"Don't you dare pretend that you didn't react similarly to when Hal did that thing at the conference table last year" She said, causing Clark to immediately stop laughing, being brought back to the time when in a moment during a League meeting where Hal Jordan had thought no one was paying attention to what he was doing, he had tried to create a Green Lantern-construct of what he imagined Diana looked like naked with his power ring.
"I thought I handled that pretty well" Clark defended quickly, his mouth a thin line of controlled emotion.
"You threw him through the window Kal...into space!" She said, choking back laughter.
"So? He can survive in space and the blast shields immediately came up when I broke the glass. Everything was fine" Clark said, although he almost cut himself off remembering the panic that ensued in the aftermath of that incident. He honestly didn't remember ever seeing Bruce that angry before, except when he recently destroyed the Batmobile during their skirmish.
"Ah yes that". He would eventually tell Diana about the incident at dinner between the two of them prior to them showing up, but now was not the time. He felt he should wait until they actually ran into Bruce to tell him to his face.
"Let him see the fruits of his labour himself" He thought to himself, knowing that when Bruce saw them together, any resentment he felt would be replaced with his sense of self-fulfillment of knowing he'd been right about the two of them holding back.
Diana took a deep breath and recomposed herself, both of them now completely clothed and standing outside, allowing the brightness of the early afternoon Grecian sun to shine down on both of them.
"In all seriousness Kal, I think it best that we keep recent events between us a secret, just for the next few days. We have a legion of Egyptian and Grecian gods and demons about to descend on Themyscira, we don't need any added distractions, right now we need everyone in the League completely focused on that task" Diana said, as she saw Clark reach up to activate his comlink to call J'onn for transport to the Watchtower.
Clark shifted uncomfortably and nodded grimly at her. "You're absolutely right. Once we finish with this task, we'll deal with the onslaught together. Your sister probably has some idea of what happened between us and so does Bruce, obviously, but I know they will keep it to themselves. It's not in their natures to gossip".
"Superman to Watchtower. J'onn, two to transport, Diana is with me".
They both immediately began to feel the familiar tingling on their skin, when Diana leaned over and captured Clark's lips in a brief but powerful embrace.
"Just because we can't tell everyone for the next few days doesn't mean I am not going to claim what's mine every chance I can get" Diana whispered, recomposing herself, just before they were enveloped in a flash of blue light.
"Rao help me" Clark said, hoping he would be able to calm himself down as well by the time they arrived at Watchtower".
Watchtower- moments later
As they had been friends for years, it was not unusual for Superman and Wonder Woman to arrive together on the teleporting pads, so when they both materialized standing close together onboard the Watchtower, nobody even gave them a second glance.
That is except for the dark figure of Batman, fully armored and standing just off to the side of the teleporter, with a slight twitch in his lip. However, to Clark, with his microscopic vision, he might as well have been giving him a full-toothed smile.
"Oh great, here we go" Clark thought to himself, knowing that a large part of the reason why Bruce had put the effort into bringing them together was for this moment right here, the moment where Superman would have to concede to Batman.
"For all his farm-boy humbleness, Clark sure can be just as hard-headed as me sometimes" Bruce thought to himself, not even looking away from the computer monitor, forcing Clark to eventually come to him.
It had taken him hours to just get one of his computer monitors working again and it would take days more just to get the Batcave at 10% capacity again, but the look on Superman's face that he could see just out of the corner of his eye was worth all the work he would have to put into it.
"I could use all the kryptonite in the world on him at once and he wouldn't even look at me like that".
Diana took one look from Bruce to Clark, immediately sensing the tension between the two of them, and with the God-given Wisdom of Athena at her disposal, she quickly pieced together that Clark must have had a visit with Bruce prior to coming to Themyscira. She knew she would eventually have to thank Bruce for his role in lighting a fire under Clark's ass and sending him rocketing off to her on the Island, most likely charged up from a battle that they had to engage in before he headed off.
"Men. Thinking they can solve everything with their fists, so uncivilized" She thought to herself briefly. Diana briefly considered for a moment to just head off to the conference room where her sister and the others would most likely be waiting, let the boys have their confrontation and let Bruce have his moment that he had worked so hard to get, but she was Wonder Woman, she couldn't leave it without leaving her mark fist.
"Let me show him the dangers of Wonder Woman being together with Superman" Diana smiled to herself, quickening her pace and cutting infront of Clark, and she stopped just infront of Batman, who finally looked up from his screen with a mild-mask of annoyance, like they had interrupted him from something, as if he hadn't been standing there waiting for them for over an hour.
"Yes Diana? Something you want to share before the meeting? I'm busy" Bruce responded in his Batman voice, before glancing back down at the monitor, as if the display had suddenly changed.
Before he could react, Diana had reached out and taken a firm grip on his left shoulder, her fingernails digging in between the wedges of the darkened armor on his suit, and driving into pressure points in the muscles. Bruce stumbled slightly, before turning up and affixing her with his patented Batman glare, his eyes demanding an answer for her hostile movement.
"That hurts doesn't it Bruce? Something tells me that you hurt in a few more places than just where my hand is" Diana said, causing Clark and Bruce to briefly exchange questioning glances.
"It's obvious that something happened between the two of you and judging by the fact that Clark seemed like a man possessed when he first arrived on the Island, and that you are concealing more than one injury, I'm pretty sure that you two had a 'man-to-man talk' with your fists prior to that. Let me make two things very clear to you Bruce. One, I appreciate and thank you for your role in Clark and I coming together. Two, and more importantly..."
Diana paused for emphasis, squeezing Bruce's shoulder tighter and bringing her eyes directly inline with the eye-slits of his cowl.
"Superman is with me now and as such I will take personal offense to anyone who tries to damage his honor in any way. One of Clark's greatest attributes is that underneath all his natural gifts he is still a very humble and kind man. It is in his nature to not always tell you what he should when you try to undermine him. But I'm not Clark, Bruce. I'm an Amazon warrior, and I'm not as forgiving as he is. So tread carefully Batman" She said with some satisfaction, allowing a small smile to cross her lips, before walking off in the direction of the conference room.
"I'll remember that...Princess" Bruce responded, straightening his posture, and watching Diana glare back at him over her shoulder before heading out of the room.
The moment she had left the room, Bruce's shoulders slumped slightly and he brought his right hand to his face, rubbing his jaw thoughtfully.
"Kent, remind me why I thought helping you two get together was a good idea?" He said, causing Clark to laugh with a slight pride in his voice, having marveled at how Diana had just briefly threatened Batman.
"It's not all my fault Bruce. That glare she gave you and the pressure points in your shoulder that she went after to emphasize her point, that she picked up from you" Clark responded, which earned him a brief glare from Batman before he relaxed and allowed a small real smile to lighten the darkness on the lower half of his face.
"So judging by the looseness in Diana's posture and the scratches that I can see on the upper portion of her shoulders, the bruises that you're trying to conceal on the right side of your neck and exposed upper collarbone, I'm guessing that the two of you worked something out?" Bruce quipped, glancing up to see Clark grinning like a kid on Christmas morning.
"Ever the detective Batman" Clark responded, not faltering under Bruce's glare, smiling even broader, making Bruce feel like he was going to be sick.
"Jesus, am I going to have to see the two of them looking like that every day now?" Bruce wondered to himself, briefly questioning his initial logic yet again. He could barely stand Clark's eternal optimism, save for his moping about Diana, and now that was going to go away too? He didn't know if he could handle it. This was going to be awful for him, his own personally crafted nightmare.
"Thank you for your help Bruce, I appreciate it, and although Diana didn't use as many words, she does as well" Clark said, extending his hand to shake for Bruce, who reluctantly outstretched his gloved hand as well. Everything notwithstanding, they were and had always been the World's Finest.
"I pushed you two for your own good, but also for the League. Let's call it even for the damage you caused to my cave after you two have saved my life...let's say ten times?" Bruce responded finally, accepting that maybe things might be better with the two of them together, a nuclear powerhouse, all pointed in the same direction. It opened up whole new battle strategies as far as the Batman was concerned.
"Only ten Bruce? So that covers Monday, what about Tuesday?" Clark said, with an arched eyebrow. He watched as Bruce's features immediately darkened, and Batman returned to the surface.
"Funny Kent. Just remember to not let your new girlfriend get you in too much trouble. You shook the planet you know? Earthquake centered in Greece. That's just showing off, seriously. I'm willing to bet that if you'd hadn't consummated your relationship at that moment, when Diana just grabbed my shoulder she would have taken my arm off if you two hadn't released that tension" Batman said, smiling underneath his cowl.
"Shook the planet? Wow, we might have to stay in the air or at least go to the Fortress next time" Clark wondered to himself, briefly hoping that the small quake caused by his and Diana's lovemaking hadn't injured anyone. Bruce immediately picked up on the concern in his face and sighed.
"Don't worry, no damage, just a few tremors, you two were smart in picking your location" Bruce responded, causing Clark to visibly relax.
"That's good, although if what's coming is any indication, I don't know how long the 'no-damage' aspect is going to last" Clark said, tensing up again.
"You would be referring to the upcoming guard duty we're going to have to perform on Themyscira to guard an Egyptian goddess from the combined forces of Hell?" Bruce interrupted him, angling his head towards the conference room door, where other members of the League were gathering.
"How did you know about? Nevermind, don't tell me, and don't say 'Because I'm Batman'" Clark brought his hands to his head and earned a smirk from Bruce in return.
"No, although there is always that though, but just because you were busy in the skies with Diana doesn't mean her mother wasn't briefing J'onn and myself about what was going on" Bruce responded, enjoying Clark's frustrations at again being cut off by the Batman before he could relay news.
"Then you know how serious this is then?" Clark said, as both of them began walking slowly towards the conference room.
"Yes I know how serious this is, we're going to get caught in the crossfire between the gods yet again" Bruce said grimly, his mouth tightening into a thin line of determination. Clark recognized this immediately, it was how Bruce Wayne became Batman. His shoulders tensed, and a dark energy seemed to course through the core of his being. He became the night. It was why some members of the League still feared him, even now after all these years. There was nothing ordinary about this human who walked among the gods.
Clark smiled to himself, having seen this transformation many times, and could only respond in the same way as when he was in those situations.
"Glad I can count on you Bruce".
"Likewise Kent".
Bruce leaned forward and pushed open the doors to the conference room, where everyone else who was in-system and on duty was seated around the ever-enlarging round table. He moved over near the head of the table, next to where J'onn was preparing a series of visual aids for the briefing, using his changing limbs to work on six things at once, which had several of the younger League members transfixed.
Clark meanwhile took a brief inventory of the room, allowing his eyes to scan around who was going to be on the team that would head to Themyscira to protect the Island from the coming clash.
Zatanna, Dr. Fate, Green Arrow, Black Canary, the Flash, Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and John Stewart, Hawkgirl, Aquaman, Captain Marvel aka Shazam, Cyborg, Wonder Girl, and Wonder Woman were seated in clockwise formation, with Diana sitting at the end with an empty chair next to her while she spoke quietly with her sister who kept glancing up at Clark with a big grin on her face. Clark could hear the tone in Diana's voice shift and watched Donna nod and the smile vanished.
"Good so Donna knows that we're keeping it a secret" Clark thought to himself, immediately taking the empty seat next to her, which itself wasn't a surprise. Superman and Wonder Woman often sat next to eachother at League meetings, as they tended to have several fiery exchanges, so they usually sat near so as they were not yelling across the room.
Diana looked over briefly, nodding to acknowledge him, just like always. Clark nodded in return, and then to his surprise felt Diana's hand squeeze the inside of his right thigh and then return to her lap. If he hadn't been blessed with speed he would not have seen the small smile and glance that Diana sent him that said one thing very clearly, "I love you".
Clark looked over and briefly noticed that Donna saw this and smiled at him knowingly before mouthing the words "About time" and going back to speaking with her sister.
Superman had been in many battles throughout his life and as such was accustomed to his warrior instincts kicking in when there was danger around, so he was surprised to feel it now. He quickly looked around the table and saw it, Wally West, aka the Flash was looking directly at him across the table, with the biggest smile on his face that Clark had ever seen.
"Super-speed...he saw it. Oh God no, not him first" Clark thought, immediately watching Wally begin to vibrate the way that he did when he was trying to hold something in. He was just about to put some more thought into it when thankfully Batman spoke up.
"Now that everyone is here, I think it is time to begin the meeting. Superman and Wonder Woman, you have the floor" Bruce said, before taking a seat next to where Clark was, while J'onn stood next to the display ready to cue up the screens as was necessary.
The two of them stood up together, and Clark had no time to warn her that Wally was about to explode, and could only hope that for once Flash would maintain some semblance of civility until at least they got through this.
Diana took a deep breath and began speaking, ready to tell them about Themyscira and the danger that was coming.
"Superman and I are glad you're all here, because we have something of the utmost importance to share with you..." Diana began, and then the world fell apart, to Clark it was almost like it all happened in slow motion, making matters even worse.
It happened so fast neither of them could begin to react, as Wally took the opportunity to stand up and burst out loudly what he thought was the end of Diana's point, "That you're dating and couldn't wait to tell us!"
Before Diana or Clark could even begin to think of a response, Donna stood up and turned to her sister in an Amazonian temper.
"You told Wally?! You told me it was a secret and of all people you told Wally?!"
Diana grabbed her by the shoulders and in a quick and clipped tone spoke sharply in Greek to her sister, who within seconds had gone white as a ghost, the realization that she had unknowingly confirmed Wally's suspicions.
"Oh. My. God." Zatanna spoke up first, momentarily losing magical control, causing herself to briefly levitate above the table.
"You owe me $200 Ollie". Dinah Lance turned to Oliver Queen with a smile and an outstretched hand only to find out that Green Arrow, who had been leaning back in his chair, had promptly fallen over backward and was lying in a heap on the floor.
"Superman is officially my hero. Way to go Supes!" Hal whooped, turning to slap John Stewart on the back, who along with Shayera Hol had both remained silent, grim expressions on their faces, both of them all too aware of what happened when it becomes public news that two League members are involved with eachother.
"Superman and Wonder Woman together? This is amazing!" Billy Batson yelled, having to quickly clap his hand over his mouth to keep him from yelling 'Shazam!' by surprised reflex. The last thing this powderkeg needed was a bolt of lightning.
Clark turned to see J'onn holding his head tightly and grimacing, and his suspicions were confirmed when J'onn spoke to him briefly via telepathy.
"I don't think I've ever heard so many thoughts at once Clark, it's overwhelming".
In the next second Wally was standing in between both of them with his arms around both of them.
"Congratulations both of you! We knew it had to happen eventually. Now please if you will, tell the class how you both got together".
Diana looked like she was about to break Wally in half, but her sister was holding her right arm tightly, as Clark looked from Diana to the pandemonium that the room had turned into.
"I wonder if the window shields will go up as fast when I throw the Flash into space" Superman thought before turning to Diana who reluctantly nodded, reaching over and squeezing his hand (drawing whoops and whistles from almost everyone in the room). Clark took a deep breath and then forced his mouth open to speak.
Sometimes the harder you tighten your grip the quicker things slip through your fingers and the faster you lose control.
