Wow, I'm WAY late to the WonderTrev ship (like missed the whole boat) but here I am! Quarantine leads to some interesting new fandoms, y'all.
Basically the new WW84 trailer got me, and this fic was born. So could be considered spoilers, maybe?
This is my first time out with these characters so I hope I did them justice. Enjoy!
She can't stop staring at him, can't stop touching him, their arms wrapped around each other in the dim lights outside the Washington Monument.
She reaches over and caresses his face, and Steve smiles at her, that bright smile that reaches his eyes, that smile that she's missed for nearly 70 years. He gently takes her hand and links their fingers together as they walk, noticing how she's looking at him. "What is it?"
Diana smiles back. "I've dreamed of this moment, for so long...I just can't believe you're here."
Diana isn't sure if she's dreaming, but even in all the years she's dreamed of something like this, it has never felt so real.
Steve is next to her—alive—as they cling tightly to each other, walking along the reflective pool in the dark, the air quiet and peaceful around them.
She can't stop staring at him, can't stop touching him, their arms wrapped around each other in the dim lights outside the Washington Monument.
Her heart hasn't felt this light since that night in Veld. She's afraid any minute she might wake up and realize it's just a dream, after all, that it's actually another nightmare about losing him again.
She's had more than her fair share of those.
Almost instinctively, she reaches over and caresses his face, and Steve smiles at her, that bright smile that reaches his eyes, that smile that she's missed for nearly 70 years. He gently takes her hand and links their fingers together as they walk, noticing how she's looking at him. "What is it?"
Diana smiles back. "I've dreamed of this moment, for so long...I just can't believe you're here."
He nods, pulling her hand to his lips and pressing a quick kiss against her fingers. "Me either."
His smile suddenly fades into a frown, and Diana wants nothing more than to put that blinding smile back on his face again. He didn't smile nearly enough back during the war, and her only memories of it are filled with snow and a windy airfield.
"Diana," Steve begins, a hesitant look on his face, "I still don't know how I'm here, how I came back…"
"I know," she cuts him off, squeezing their interlaced hands again, "I told you, we'll figure it out together."
"Yeah," Steve agrees with her, but she can sense that he's holding back, that he's searching for the words, "yeah, I know that, but what if this is, I mean, what if I'm not…"
Diana gives him a pained look, already knowing what he's trying to say without hurting her. "What if this isn't permanent?"
He nods, sighing as they turn the corner at the far end of the pool, closer to the Lincoln Memorial now. "Whatever—or whoever, I guess—brought me back, or however this happened, we still don't know what it all means, or what all the consequences could be. We need to be prepared for what's coming."
He pauses, dropping to a gentler tone. "People don't just come back from the dead, Diana. I shouldn't be here right now."
Diana knows he's right, but it doesn't hurt any less to hear it, hurt any less to think about it. She'd been pushing away those very fears this whole time since he'd shown up in the middle of the Smithsonian party tonight with a watch and the words that she'd had permanently etched into her heart all those years ago.
But Steve had always been the realist, and the strategist—and he couldn't help but still think that way—while she had been the optimist.
Well, at least she had been, until decades alone in man's world after the man she loved tragically died, and then her only friends slowly left her one by one over the years. She's been long left alone with the horrors and realities of this place, and she's not the same person she was when Steve brought her here—and either is he.
It's a miracle, truly, that he's even here right now, that she finally has the love of her life back...but deep down she's also afraid of the price it will cost.
Diana is also determined never to lose him again, not when she just got him back. She'll pay the price, whatever it is, she's sure of that.
Her eyes are glistening with unshed tears when she finally replies. "Steve, I know what you're saying...but I just got you back. I can't think about losing you again. Not tonight."
Steve winces at the pain in her tone, and he squeezes her hand again. "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to ruin this, right now, us, being back together, and I'm beyond grateful just to even be here with you right now, even if it's only for one night...it's just hard not to think about it, you know?"
When she doesn't reply at first, just holding onto him tightly as they walk along, Steve groans, shaking his head. "I ruined it, didn't I?"
Diana sighs, and she stops walking, pulling him to face her. She reaches up and cups his face again, looking into those clear blue eyes that have haunted her dreams. "You didn't ruin anything. Nothing could ruin you being back here with me."
Steve smiles again, and Diana's heart soars. For him, it's only been a few days since he's seen her last—he doesn't remember anything about the after life—but for her it's been almost seven decades.
"Diana," he murmurs, giving her a look of pure awe and affection, "I love you."
Diana leans up to kiss him then, closing her eyes and relishing in the feel of his lips against hers. It's been so so long, but she has never forgotten the way they felt.
She pulls back, wrapping her arms around his neck and smiling up at him. Now that she finally has the chance to say it to him, she doesn't think she'll ever stop. "I love you, Steve. I've never stopped loving you."
A million emotions flash across Steve's face at her words. He pulls her closer against his chest, arms wrapped around her tightly. "Diana, I can't believe you still feel this way. I mean, I've been gone for a really long time."
There's a tinge of sadness to his words, of wistfulness, of their lost life together and the what-could-have-beens.
"You're the love of my life," Diana whispers, holding his gaze, "there wasn't anyone else I wanted to love after you. I never wanted to."
Steve's face falls. "Diana, I never wanted that. I wanted you to be happy, to find love again, to have a life here after the war was over."
"No, Steve," she quickly tries to reassure him, "it was my choice. That's just the way I've felt, all these years. It's always just been you."
Amazonians only fall in love once in a lifetime, after all, but Steve hadn't known that. Neither had she, until after he was gone.
She pauses, and cups his cheek again, swallowing hard against the emotion rising in her throat. "And I should have told you how I felt, before you…"
She trails off, unable to finish, and she sees that same pain reflected back in his eyes. She hadn't realized exactly what he was going to do when he had pressed the watch into her hands and ran towards the plane, too disoriented by the explosion and distracted by her fight with Ares—until it was too late.
He'd made a necessary choice, sacrificing himself to save London and all those innocent people from a horrible death, but he'd also sacrificed their chance at happiness, had sacrificed all of the time together that they would've had.
Steve leans his face into her hands, searching her eyes as he speaks. "I knew. I knew how you felt, Diana, or at least I hoped...but it didn't matter either way, because I loved you more than I've ever loved anyone. Still do."
He straightens up out of her grasp with a shaky exhale. "I don't regret what I did—getting on that damn plane—but I regret hurting you the way I have all these years. I'm sorry, Diana, God I'm so sorry, I never wanted that for you."
"It's not your fault," she soothes him, hating the look of guilt on his face, "I made my own choices, just as you made yours. And I've never resented you for that, Steve. You did what you had to do, and I've spent years loving you and missing you because you're a good man, the kindest, bravest man I've ever met, even now."
Steve shakes his head miserably, as if he doesn't deserve her words. "Diana, I'm not brave...I was terrified when I pulled the trigger…"
Diana gasps, although she'd always assumed that had been true, because Steve hadn't been trying to die, he'd just been making sure that others got to live—but it still hurts to hear it. "Oh, Steve…"
He closes his eyes, exhaling heavily as he turns away. "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that."
For him, the memory of his final moments are still incredibly fresh, and she can clearly see that he's struggling with dying and now suddenly coming back to life in a new decade with no explanation.
"No, it's okay," Diana reassures him firmly, and tilts his chin to look back at her. "I can't even imagine how that was for you. But being brave is not about being fearless, Steve, it's about being afraid and doing it anyway."
Steve opens his eyes, shining at her with unshed tears. "Maybe. But I wasn't afraid of dying, not entirely."
Diana searches his face, brushing her thumb across his cheek. "Then what?"
Steve looks up at the dark sky for a moment, and Diana thinks he's lost in memories until he finally speaks again. "I was afraid of not living."
He turns his gaze back to her, and she feels like he can see right into her soul. "I sort of always knew how the war was going to end for me. Every day I was still alive seemed like a surprise, but when it came to the end, when getting on that plane was the only way that it could end...it was okay, in a way, because that's what I'd come there to do. To stop the war, to stop the gas, no matter what it took."
Diana blinks back tears. "You did, Steve. You saved all those lives."
"So did you," he murmurs, "you took on the actual God of War. I just wish I'd believed you sooner."
"I understand why you didn't," Diana says softly. She's never held that against him, not believing her until it was too late, but then again she didn't believe him that people aren't always good, until it was also too late to realize that he was right.
She's spent many sleepless nights wondering that if they had just believed each other sooner, if it could have kept Steve from dying that night.
"By the time I realized what I had to do," Steve continues, and she can feel him shaking a little against her now, "I realized for the first time how much I actually wanted to live, how much I had to live for. I had you."
He pauses, swallowing hard, and Diana wraps her arms tightly around him, anchoring him and letting him know she's there, that she loves him.
"You came into my life, Diana, and you changed it in ways I didn't think were still possible, made me believe when there was nothing left to believe in. You gave me something good to live for, for all the ways you could change the world," Steve gives her a sad smile. "I never wanted to leave you like I did."
Diana thinks of their last moments together, forever seared into her memory, of how he had hesitated just for a moment on the airstrip when she'd called after him, and how he'd then run even faster until he caught up to the plane, breaking her heart.
"I know," she whispers, clutching him tighter, "and I've thought about you, about that night, every single day since you've been gone...but I know why you had to do it."
Steve reaches up and cups her cheek, eyes remorseful. "It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do."
He hesitates, and clears his throat. "Once I got up in the air, I didn't...I wasn't sure if I could do it."
Diana brushes a stray tear from his cheek that he had stubbornly been trying to hold back. "But you did it, Steve. You stopped the gas. That's what matters."
Steve breaks into a slow, wistful smile, eyes wet. "Because you gave me hope. You were the last thing I thought of."
"Steve," Diana chokes out, her own tears finally escaping, overwhelmed to know that she gave him peace in the final moments of his life, when he'd had to make an impossible choice that had saved thousands of lives at the cost of his own, at the cost of their life together.
"And you," she shakes her head, not even bothering to brush the tears off her cheeks, "you were the reason I stayed here, and kept fighting. The reason I was able to still believe men could be good, even after what I saw."
Steve looks at her in wonder, brushing his thumbs across her cheeks to wipe away her tears. "What? Diana, what do you mean?"
She exhales shakily, determined to tell him because he needs to know. "After you...after I saw the plane explode...I lost control, and Ares took advantage of that. He tried to turn me to his side, against this world. He wanted me to kill the German soldiers, and Dr. Maru," she shakes her head at the memory. "I almost did."
Steve looks at her in surprise, because he hadn't known that part of the story until now. There's still so much she has to tell him. "What stopped you?" he asks softly, voice hoarse.
"I remembered what you said," Diana holds his gaze through her tears. "At first, after the explosion, I couldn't hear you...but then it came to me. Everything."
Steve makes a choked noise in his throat at that revelation as he says her name. "Diana…"
"And I realized that men were still good, that they were still worth fighting for, that they were still worth saving," she finishes, running a hand gently through his hair and pulling his face closer to hers.
"And you did it. You did save the world," Steve whispers proudly, gently tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "You stopped Ares. And the war."
"We did," she corrects softly, because in no way does she want him to downplay his sacrifice, and despite their best efforts—the world still needs saving. "We both did."
Steve surges forward and kisses her again then, full of longing and love and promises they never got to keep.
When they finally pull back, both breathless, he leans his forehead against hers. "I don't know what I did to deserve you, to deserve another chance at being with you."
Diana pulls back and gives him a fond smile, wiping her eyes. "But it's not about deserve."
Steve breaks into a laugh then, a beautiful sound, shaking his head at the memory as he realizes what she's said. "No, I guess it isn't, is it?"
"It's about what we believe, and I believe in love," Diana echoes her words from so many years ago, running her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck.
He hums in agreement. "For the first time in my life, me too. I love you, Diana."
"And I love you, Steve Trevor," she murmurs back, beyond grateful that she finally, finally gets to keep saying it back to him after all these years.
Just then, the strands of a guitar echo distantly to them, from somewhere in the park nearby. It's faint but the acoustic melody carries well on the wind down by the Monument.
Steve smiles, a real smile this time, and backs away, offering her his hand just like he'd done in Veld with a little bow. "May I have this dance?"
Diana laughs, tears now gone, and takes his hand. "Are we just going to sway again?"
He quirks an eyebrow at her. "Unless you've learned some other moves in the last few years. And I don't mean the traditional Amazonian ones."
She smiles, eyes shining. "I may have learned a thing or two."
"Is that so?" Steve muses, and he grins, taking her hand and raising it over her head. Diana immediately realizes what he means to do and leans into the spin, twirling underneath his arm, the long sides of her white dress fluttering along her legs, their movements reflecting back at them from the water.
Diana lets him spin her back and forth a few more times, smiling so wide her cheeks start to hurt.
He finally stops and pulls her up against him, readjusting his hold on her to the familiar one from Veld. His eyes are no longer shining with tears, but pure, burning adoration for her. "Not too bad. But I prefer just swaying myself."
Diana nods, still smiling as she settles into his arms, and they continue to sway to the gentle music echoing in the background. "It's a lot closer."
"Which is exactly why I like it better," Steve smirks, and Diana leans up to kiss him again, sighing in contentment against his mouth as he deepens the kiss.
She's loved him, and lost him, and now she has him back again. She's going to take in every moment, now that they finally have time.
She pulls back finally, leaning her cheek against his as they continue to dance next to the water. "Are you real?" she whispers, almost afraid to break the spell.
Steve takes her hand that's clasped in his and pulls it flat against his chest, against his black jacket, right over his beating heart, so she can feel the steady thumps underneath her palm. "I'm real, Diana, I'm here. I promise you. I don't know how, and I don't care anymore. All that matters is that we're together again somehow."
Even without her lasso, she knows he's telling the truth.
Diana pulls back to look at him. "We finally have more time."
Steve's eyes widen at her words, realizing she's rephrasing what he'd said to her right before he'd put his watch in her hands. She hadn't realized until far too late how much that watch had truly meant, how much time meant to mankind because they have far too little of it.
She wonders how he'll react when he finds out that she still has it, even all these years later.
He sighs happily, and leans his forehead against hers again. "Yeah. Yeah we do."
And Diana is determined to make sure that happens. No matter what tomorrow brings, or whatever the reason is for Steve coming back to her, Diana is going to fight harder than she's ever fought for anything to keep him with her this time, to get the time they'd never had the chance to have before.
She won't lose him again.
*sobs forever*
I think we all know this movie is going to break our hearts…
Thanks for reading!
Courage is not the absence of fear. It is acting in spite of it. -Mark Twain