Chapter 6

Clark and Diana landed in a quiet alleyway in Rome so as not to attract any attention to themselves. Clark was wearing a smart white shirt tucked into a pair of jeans and his jet-black hair, although still parted gently to the right, fell a little bit more over his forehead than it did when he was Superman. The majority of his face was, of course, concealed behind his comically large, thick-rimmed, circular glasses which he was required to push up the bridge of his nose at regular intervals. Diana wore a beautiful purple dress and had her hair tied back in a tight ponytail. She also had a pair of round glasses to disguise her face, a trick that she had copied from Clark, although hers were somewhat thinner in their frame and were in fact rather ineffective at concealing the flawlessly beautiful face behind them. Clark took her hand as they began walking out onto the main street and Diana gently rested her head on his shoulder as they walked in a romantic silence down the foreign pavement. They walked slowly, Clark silently adjusting their pace so as to keep time with Diana's soft heartbeat, the soothing sound of which he let flood his ears the whole way.

"We're here" Clark said, smiling as they stopped outside a modest Italian bistro a few minutes later. Diana looked at the outside of the restaurant. It didn't seem like anything special but she trusted Clark; he had the air of somebody who'd been here before.

"After you, my lady" Clark said, holding open the door and bowing in a ridiculously hyperbolic fashion.

"Why thank you, kind sir" Diana said, pouting her lips and lifting up the edges of her dress. She continued "and doth it not please you that…"

"Diana?" Clark interrupted her "that's too much. You… you should stop now". His face was deadpan for a while but then she saw his lips curl upwards playfully at the edges. She just stood there, looking at him, for a short moment, a smile now growing on her face too. Suddenly a voice came from behind the counter. It was a man's voice, with a foreign accent but full of joy.

"Mr Kent!" The man shouted out. He was short, plump and relatively old. He had thinning grey hair on the top of his head but Diana noticed that he had still maintained a bushy, dark moustache above his upper lip.

"Mr Bianchi!" Clark shouted, equally enthusiastically. The man waddled out from behind the counter and eagerly shook Clark's hand. The two greeted one another like old friends.

"It's very good to see again, Mr Kent" the Italian gentleman said.

"And you!" Clark replied. "This is Diana" Clark told the man, signalling to Diana, "my girlfriend". The man looked from Clark to Diana, then from Diana back to Clark.

"Oh wow" the man said, shocked. He enthusiastically greeted Diana by planting a kiss on each of her cheeks. "When Clark said he wanted to book a table for two I didn't expect him to be bringing such a stunning lady friend: what a beautiful young woman!" He looked back to Clark. "Good job there, son" he said, "how much did she charge you?" Diana was a little embarrassed but Clark just laughed. "Not as much as you're about to!" he said. The two men broke into laughter and Mr Bianchi led the couple over to a booth near the back corner of the restaurant, next to a giant fish tank.

"I'll give you two a moment" he said, leaving menus for them both before walking away.

"Well he seems like quite a character" Diana said, after a moment's silence. Clark chuckled to himself.

"Yeah, he is a bit" he replied. "I've been coming here for years but I think this is the first time I've ever brought anyone with me".

"Really?" Diana asked him "So you'd just come here and eat on your own?"

"Pretty much" Clark replied, adjusting his glasses. "I mean, I brought Krypto once…" Diana laughed. The sun was just about to pass below the horizon and their table was lit by the flickering orange glow of a candle. Clark leant forwards and placed his hands in the middle of the table, inviting Diana to do the same. She got the message and placed her hands on top of his, gripping them softly.

"You know" she said, looking down at her lap, "If I held anybody else like I'm holding you now, I'd probably break every single bone in their hand". She looked back up at him. Clark looked at their hands and then turned his attention back to the beautiful pair of eyes that were gazing back at him from across the table. He looked at her smooth, red lips and couldn't help but lean across the table toward them. She met him more than halfway. Diana's face was warm and her lips felt soft and sweet against his. He could feel her mouth move into a gentle smile as they continued kissing for what felt like forever. When they were together it seemed like the whole universe just disappeared. There was no space except for the space between them; there was no time except for the time they spent together. It was during this that a great burden seemed to lift from Diana's heart. She stopped fighting whatever it was that was inside her telling her not to continue. She needed to be with Clark and, even more than that, she wanted to be with Clark. To hell with reason; to hell with what her mother would think; in that moment, there was nothing else that seemed to matter.

After several minutes, Clark slowly pulled his lips away from her. For a moment she moved with him, caught up in the comfort of his embrace and not wanting him to stop. When he did manage to move away, however, Diana noticed that something was wrong.

"Diana" Clark said, panicked. He had gone deathly pale and his eyes were wide in some sort of primal terror. "Diana", he repeated, "Diana, my hand. Let go of my hand". Diana pulled back her hands as quickly as she could, his terror now becoming hers as she saw the horrible sight that lay before her. "My hand" Clark said again, still in shock, "my hand is broken".