Disclaimer: I don't own the Justice League or the episode Comfort and Joy and the characters therein.

It's Christmas time and the Justice League members have all gone off their separate ways to celebrate the holidays, except for Batman and Wonder Woman who decided to spend the few days for everyone else on Monitor Duty. Christmas is almost over and it's time to head back to the real world – and to dinner at Wayne Manor.

Enjoy!

Chapter 12, Home for the Holidays

"Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays
'Cause no matter how far away you roam
When you pine for the sunshine of a friendly gaze
For the holidays you can't beat home, sweet home"

Diana's perspective-

I woke up the next morning to about an inch of mattress between myself and plummeting to the floor. With a groan, I elbowed the body behind me. Hearing a grunt, I turned over, trying to keep his warmth close but also not fall off the bed thanks to his habit of hogging the entire bed. Looking up with a sleepy expression, I saw him glaring at me, rubbing the rib that I had nudged in order to get him to move.

"Sorry," I said with little apology in my voice. After all, I really wasn't that sorry. It was either elbow him or fall out of bed and I had made my choice.

"Just another war wound," he murmured.

"Is there an implied statement about our relationship in there, Dark Knight?"

"Nope," he answered, yawning, "Just implying that you're mean in the mornings."

I tried to hold on to my anger, but ended up laughing in his face. Reaching over, I tickled him along the low part of his rib cage, hoping that he would be ticklish, but to no avail. My efforts were useless and I finally gave up, snuggling in next to him.

"Could have told you I wasn't ticklish, Princess."

"It was worth a shot," I answered, meeting his gaze with a smile. I knew that today life would return to normal, well, normal for Bruce and me, but I wasn't ready to let go of this intimate time just yet. I wanted to savor every moment of it while I still could. And I had always wondered if the great Bat was ticklish. I imagined that his enemies would have a field day with that information, particularly the fiendish clown, Joker.

"Mmmm," he murmured, wrapping an arm around me and pulling me in close, quietly content. We lay there for a few moments, lost in each other and the remains of our Christmas holiday together and alone on the Watchtower, knowing that moments like this would be few and far between after today.

Then suddenly, I found myself flat on my back as Bruce's hand played devilishly along my stomach. Tensing from the sensation, I found myself in gales of laughter, gasping to get a breath in between giggles. Apparently at least one of us was ticklish.

But I was unwilling to submit to his torture, thrashing about, trying desperately to escape his hands. Finally, I decided with the few brain cells I had left that weren't lost in laughter that my best plan of action was distraction. So, I strained forward and pressed my lips to his.

Immediately, the tickling torture stopped and I found myself the recipient of a passionate kiss, bodies entwined and rubbing against one another. After several breathless minutes, he pulled back, looking at me with an odd mixture of lust and affection in his eyes.

"Come to dinner," he whispered before laying his lips against mine once again. Mind wrapped up in him, I could barely understand his word, much less comprehend them. Drawing away from him, I murmured, "What?"

"Come to dinner at the Manor," he again whispered. "Meet everyone."

He kissed me again and my mind struggled to wrap itself around what he was telling me, but finally, it broke through the barrier of lust and I jerked away from him, looking down in those dark eyes with a smile lighting my face. "Really?"

"You want a written invitation?" he growled, launching another lustful attack on my neck.

"Yours did rather admirably," I answered, pulling him in for another kiss, thanking him in the way I knew that he liked best.

Later, each of us dressed in our uniforms, we sat in the Monitor Womb, waiting for the other members of the team to return from their forays outside the Watchtower during the holiday season. The first to return were Superman and J'onn and each looked decidedly happy, more content than I had seen either of them in some time. The air of loneliness that habitually hung around J'onn seemed to have lifted and boyish glee was all over Superman's face, a remnant of his happy holidays.

Immediately, I stood to give each of them a hug, welcoming them back into the fold of Justice Leaguers post-Christmas. We exchanged a bit of friendly conversation and then I saw J'onn's eyes dart from me to Batman and all I could do was smile up at him, knowing that he could see in my mind and on my face exactly how my time in the Watchtower had gone.

The corner of his mouth quirked up and he put a gentle hand on my shoulder, saying softly, "I'm very happy for you both."

I smiled again, looking back at Batman to see him engaged in conversation with Superman. I had a feeling that he knew exactly what was going on between J'onn and I anyway, though. Somehow, he always seemed aware of what was going on around him, even when he was distracted.

"Diana?" J'onn stated quietly, "I would be pleased to relieve you and Batman of your duties now. I imagine you have other plans."

"I would greatly appreciate it," I said, trying to maintain my royal dignity. It was broken though when I threw my arms around the Martian and whispered, "Thank you, my friend, and welcome back."

And I turned, walking down to my quarters in order to find something suitable to wear tonight. I had arranged to meet Batman in the cave via the teleporter as was our usual habit. Luckily, my wardrobe had been greatly added to by his gifts for "Diana Stephanos."

Throwing on a dark royal blue sweater and a pair of black pants, I wasn't surprised in the least to find out that they fit perfectly. Either Bruce had raided the meager clothes that I had to determine my size or he had some amazing ability of being able to correctly gauge a woman's clothing size. I was a little less than thrilled at how he might have come by the second one, but now wasn't the time to quibble about it.

Walking out of my room, I passed Flash in the hallway on the way to the teleporter. "How was your Christmas, Flash?"

He beamed at me, "Great, Princess, you should have tagged along! Would have been a lot better than sitting up here with Bats. Did he even say one word to you the whole time?"

I smiled a little at him and said, "More than one, actually."

"Guess even he had to find the Christmas spirit," Flash mused as he turned to find his own quarters on the Watchtower.

A few minutes later, I emerged from the teleporter, pleased to see Bruce standing there, alone and looking amazingly handsome in a dark shirt and khaki pants, the billionaire playboy's version of casual wear.

Striding over, I gave him a small kiss before declaring, "Thanks again for the invitation."

Suddenly, I realized that there was a figure looking in the shadows and I looked at Bruce with a question on my face.

"Come on over, Tim, introduce yourself."

And with that, I was introduced to Tim Drake, the current Robin in Batman's life. I was surprised that we hadn't managed to meet before, but somehow our paths had never managed to cross. I guessed that he was usually off with the Titans when I visited. Still, he looked a little familiar and suddenly, I realized where I had seen him before.

"You were at Superman's funeral."

"Yes, ma'am," Tim replied, "With Alfred."

Looking askance at Bruce, I asked with a wide eyed expression and a smile on my face so that he'd know I was teasing him, "Tell me again why you weren't there?"

"Enough," he growled, "Let's go upstairs."

Tim raced up the stairs ahead of us and Bruce took a minute to pull me back into the warmth of his arms. "Tease," he whispered, plundering my mouth with his own before leading me upstairs to the Manor.

I walked in and was immediately surprised at what I saw.

"Donna?"

"Diana?"

"What are you doing here?" we each asked simultaneously with mirror expressions of confusion and shock written on our faces.

"I'm here with…" I turned to look at Dick and Donna turned to look at Bruce. Slowly, we turned back to look at one another again.

"Oh," we said at the same time, each with a smile that was growing by leaps and bounds as they realized that they were each dating members of the Bat-clan. We started to laugh and then walked towards each other, hugging as the laughter increased exponentially with every moment.

"This is too funny," Donna said, wrapping her arm around my waist and looking up at me, her big sister, with a smile crowning her face. "Does Mother know?"

"We, uh, had a little conversation a few weeks ago," I told my sister, throwing my arm around her shoulder and giving Donna a little squeeze. "She's not exactly thrilled, but she told me that she respects my choices in this matter. You?"

"Not yet," Donna told me, looking up into my blue eyes so like her own. "This is a pretty recent thing."

"And yet you've already gotten an invitation to the Bat-clan dinner at Wayne Manor? I'm impressed," I said, throwing a pointed look back over my face at Bruce standing behind me trying to sink into the shadows of the room. He smiled sheepishly and looked at Dick. "There's something I want to show you in the library." And with that, the two men exited the room, Dick hot on Bruce's heels as they raced away from their respective girlfriends and into safety.

We just started laughing; sinking down next to one another onto the plush couches, eager to share all with each other and fill the other in on the relationships we had apparently embarked on with members of the Bat-clan.

Our stories of how we had started dating both Batman and Nightwing weren't very similar, but we quickly realized that there was something about the Wonder girls and their attraction to the men of the Bat-clan. We were simply drawn to them, simple as that. Although, in my case, it was much less simple. I was dating Batman, the head of clan, while Donna was dating Nightwing, Bruce's son. I was dating the leader, the head of the family, and a more challenging man more than the rest of them combined.

I sighed, but my thoughts were soon interrupted by Alfred.

"Good evening, ladies. Dinner is prepared and ready for your consumption. Please follow me."

"Thank you, Alfred," I said. Walking down the hallway with Donna trailing just behind me, I could soon smell the delicious scents wafting from the dining room. "Smells amazing, Alfred," I told him with a smile. "I do believe that you've outdone yourself this time."

"I do try, Princess. It's not often that two such beautiful women find themselves in the company of Master Bruce and Master Dick. I aim to impress."

"You're doing perfectly," I assured him, Donna echoing my statement.

We walked into the dining room to find Bruce, Dick, and Tim already seated at the table, Alfred shaking his head at their callous lack of manners. The two eldest tried to put themselves back in their butler's good graces though, standing and walking forward to meet Donna and I. Taking Bruce's arm, I allowed him to seat me at the table, next to his place at the head of the table.

"I regret to inform you, Master Bruce, that Miss Barbara was unable to make dinner this evening. Something about an exam tomorrow keeping her busy with studying."

Bruce nodded. "Barbara Gordon."

"Batgirl," Tim blurted out. Bruce gave him a hard look before turning back to me. "What dish would you like to start with?"

"We have roast pheasant, asparagus with hazelnuts, and fresh peaches. With a rather scrumptious chocolate soufflé for dessert, if I do say so myself," Alfred announced to the table. Impressed at the bounty before me, I just looked at Bruce and said "This is perfect. Thank you."

Next chapter: Auld Lang Syne – Time to celebrate New Year's!

Sorry, I'm not very good at the Bat-clan, don't know enough about them really, but I tried for all of you! If you have any suggestions of things you would have done differently or better, just let me know! I can handle the criticism…

To reviewer SarahC – Stop it! You're making me blush! I really appreciate all the nice things that you said. Hopefully you're not too disappointed by this chapter. I'm going to hope that you were okay with my including Tim and my plausible explanation for why they've never really met before. The truth is that I tried to avoid the Bat-clan since I don't know enough about them. But hey, I tried!

And for all of you wondering, the inclusion of Donna Troy was done for my wonderful beta who loves the Dick/Donna pairing!