TITLE: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

AUTHOR: LOTSlover

CHARACTERS: Batman / Wonder Woman

RATING: T

WARNINGS: Author Chooses Not to Use Warnings

DISCLAIMER: I love Justice League, but especially Batman and Wonder Woman. Unfortunately, I do not own the characters and, if I did, things would be much different for them.

SUMMARY: Set during the events of JL episode Secret Society, Bruce and Diana both struggle with their anger and developing feelings for each other.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

With a roar of vengeance, Diana slammed her fist into the punching bag, taking it clean off its reinforced hinges. The sound of her exerted breathing filled the training room, her chest heaving with the extent of her anger that coursed through her veins like lava.

How dare that insolent man jump in and destroy those droids in front of her like that. Did he really think that she couldn't handle herself? Did he believe that she was incapable of taking out those droids just because she was a woman?

She growled furiously as she turned her attention to another punching bag. She pictured it was Bruce's face as she attacked it with a renewed sense of retribution. Just because he was out of sight didn't mean he was out of mind. She was more than eager to get her hands on him.

He had not only ignited her ire into a simmering volcano but he'd also wounded her pride. He had made her look like a fool in front of their teammates, inept and weak…unable to pull her own weight on the team. She was not some helpless female, a frail damsel in distress in need of saving or being protected by anyone.

She slammed her fist again, following it up with a vicious kick. She was an Amazon warrior born and raised, instilled with countless gifts from the gods to be a Champion to the world. She had been training with a sword since she was old enough to pick one up, long before Bruce's great grandparents had even been born.

She did not need some mortal man stepping in to save her or to show her how to take down the enemy. She was just as effective in the field as the great Dark Knight of Gotham was. She didn't need to be taught anything by him, shown that his ways were better or supposedly more efficient.

He'd already preached to her about her lack of patience more times that she could count, telling her she needed to think with her head instead of her fists, to stay back and assess a situation before flying headlong into it. She swore if he told her that one more time she was going to show him her fist up close and personal.

Just because she wasn't someone who liked to hide in the shadows or work in the darkness didn't make her any less of a warrior than he was. There was nothing wrong with choosing to fight evil head on, meeting it out on the battlefield instead of waiting and watching. Not everything required stealth.

Her fists repeatedly slammed into the punching bag as sweat slowly trickled down her chest and back. She couldn't believe that she had actually been developing feelings for this impudent man. She had honestly believed that he respected her and thought of her as an equal, thought that he trusted her.

How could she have been so foolish as to believe that Bruce actually felt something for her…possibly cared for?

Mother had been right all along. Men were swine, full of deception and only interested in creating turmoil in the lives of women. She had been foolish for listening to Shayera who had told her not to knock it until she tried it. Her friend had led her astray.

Her friend…

Could she really call Shayera her friend anymore? She had called her a stuck up princess. Her words had ignited her anger, but she also had to admit that those same words had stung far deeper than she wanted to admit. Did Shayera really believe that she was stuck up?

She had considered Shayera to be her sister, the closest thing she had to her Amazon family that she dearly missed but couldn't see. Now that very same sister had turned on her as well, all of her friends stabbing each other in the back. She was losing the only family she had left, her heart fractured by the very man that she had thought cared about her…respected her.

Straightening up, Diana attempted to calm her labored breaths, a furious scowl etched on her face. She forced her fingers to uncurl from the fists that had done considerable damage to the Watchtower training room. It looked as though a battle had occurred in here.

She needed to get a shower, try to clear her head. She had no idea what she was going to do now or where she was going to go, but she knew that she could no longer stay here. She couldn't stay in a place where friends turned on one another, where she would be reminded of the one man who had truly began to mean something special to her.

Turning on her heel, Diana stalked out of the training room and down the hall towards her quarters. She hoped that she didn't run into any of her so-called friends…friends who were now considered to be former colleagues.

"Call me when it's important and not before…"

She swore she could still hear Batman uttering those derisive words before storming away from that ghost town just minutes after stepping in to take out those droids for her. It caused the tightness in her chest to intensify, her anger flaming hotter all over again.

He'd acted like working with them was nothing but a waste of his time…as if they were all beneath his notice including her. His sheer audacity and arrogance had never infuriated her more than it had today, his lack of respect for her making her wonder what she had ever seen in that man in the first place.

She was having a very hard time reconciling the man that she had done the training exercise with today with the man that she had gone out with in Paris. It was as if he was two separate people, his personality changing like the flick of a switch.

Who was the real Bruce and who was the real Batman? Who was the person who had held her in his arms as they had danced in Paris? Who had been the man who had come to her quarters to check on her after meeting the Justice Lords a couple of weeks ago?

The man was so confusing, so infuriating. She was beginning to think that she had been wasting her time and energy trying to be his friend or to hope for something more with him. It was ludicrous to think that the man who had treated her so heartlessly today was the same man who had managed to occupy her heart and mind.

Turning the corner, Diana noticed Shayera walking down the hall towards her. She refused to even acknowledge the Thanagarian's presence, keeping her gaze straight ahead of her, her jaw clenched as tightly as her fists. Shayera seemed to feel the same way. Both women passed without a single word being uttered by either of them, the tension in the corridor oppressive.

Passing by Batman's quarters, Diana's gaze lingered on his door for a moment longer before coming to a stop before her own right next to his. She wanted to punch a hole through his door, but knew it was pointless. Bruce hardly ever used his quarters up here. Besides, he had made it abundantly clear that he wanted no part in the League unless it was absolutely necessary…wanted no connection to them.

Entering her quarters, she locked door, glancing around her room. Almost everything in here reminded her of Bruce, the furniture paid for by him. She swore at times she could still smell his aftershave from the last time he'd been in here to check on her.

Now, she found she wanted nothing to do with him.

XXX

Alfred descended into the Batcave with a tray of coffee and sandwiches. He'd been surprised by Master Bruce's early return home, but only mildly. He had not expected his surrogate son to spend time with his teammates or partake in their team-building exercises for very long.

Being a team player was not in Batman's vast array of skills and talents. Alfred was actually quite surprised that Bruce had agreed to show up for the exercises at all. Gotham and his mission always came first in his life, the Justice League a distant second.

Despite the dimness of the cave, he was able to spot the infamous Batman working on his computer, typing at a furious pace as he punched keys with an obvious angry air. He could tell by the set of his shoulders that he was in a surly mood at best.

Alfred released a weary sigh, wondering when Bruce was going to ever let any light or happiness into his life. He'd hoped that things between Bruce and the princess would progress to the point of him actually allowing her into his life, possibly backing off his mission a little and making the Amazon a priority in his life.

Looking back on it now, he knew that was nothing more than wishful thinking. It was clear now that things with the Amazon princess had cooled some, no doubt because of something that Batman had said or done. He'd likely perceived that Diana had been getting too close to him, his fear getting the better of him and dictating his life once ago.

If his past had taught him one thing it was that being alone was far safer than lowering his walls and trying to let someone into his life. It was a lesson that Alfred had tirelessly attempted to prove to him was not necessarily true, but he had obviously failed in that futile endeavor.

"Master Bruce," Alfred greeted him as he set the tray down on a nearby desk. "I take it your team-building exercises finished early."

Bruce grunted in response, refusing to make eye contact as he continued to type. "You could say that."

Alfred gazed up at the ceiling as he clasped his hands before him. "Please don't tell me you intentionally thwarted the exercises so you could escape them."

"I participated in the training exercise, protecting my teammate in the process," he evenly stated. "There was no point in sticking around to prove myself more than capable of being a team player so I left."

"Protected your teammate?" Alfred questioned him. "And who pray tell needed protecting?"

"Diana," he muttered, his gaze narrowing as he skimmed through a file on an open murder case in Gotham.

Alfred couldn't begin to contain his amusement with Bruce's response. "Miss Diana?" he incredulously asked as if not believing his ears. "You had to protect Wonder Woman?"

"She was outnumbered by droids," Bruce defended himself. "I had destroyed mine so I stepped in to destroy hers as well."

"My aren't you the knight in shining armor," Alfred drolly replied, deciding that for a man with genius level intellect Bruce wasn't very bright when it came to handling women…especially Meta powered women. "I'm sure Miss Diana was more than pleased that you stepped in and saved her from certain peril."

Bruce didn't miss the mocking tone of his butler's voice. "Actually, she was pretty furious," he revealed, still refusing to make eye contact. He didn't need to. He knew what was coming next.

"Did you two have a fight?"

"I didn't stick around long enough to let her say much," he stated. "I'd made my point clear."

"So let me get this straight," Alfred said, doing his best to get Bruce to understand what an idiot he had been. "You intentionally ruined a team-building exercise and infuriated an Amazon warrior capable of breaking every bone in your body just to prove what? That you don't need anyone, especially her?"

"Exactly," he bit out. "It was a ridiculous waste of time. I have more important things to do than hang around playing nice with superheroes that are more focused on themselves and their egos than getting the job done. Besides, Diana was getting to close."

Alfred slowly shook his head, wondering once again where he had gone wrong raising this young man. He'd obviously done something wrong over the years for his surrogate son to be like this. "Forgive me for saying this, Master Bruce, but you're a complete arse."

Bruce's head shot up from his work to stare in shock at the man who was like a father to him. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me," Alfred sternly replied with a frown. "You are a complete arse. You have alienated teammates and friends in your effort to prove that you don't need anyone and in the process infuriated the very princess who has actually brought a small measure of happiness to your life."

"Diana and I are just friends—nothing more," Bruce snapped. "You know as well as I do that nothing more could ever come from our friendship. It's best that she find that out now before she really gets hurt."

"Somewhere along the line I failed you, Master Bruce," Alfred softly said, regret lacing his voice. "God help me figure out where that point was, but I failed you and your parents in raising you."

Bruce stared in stunned disbelief at the elderly man who suddenly seemed to look older than he had yesterday. "Alfred, you did not fail me or my parents," he argued. "I am doing all of this because I failed to do anything to save my parents' that night. It's the least I can do now for them."

"Survivor's guilt isn't a very good reason for running from rooftop to rooftop, taking on the worst that Gotham has to offer all the while isolating yourself from the slightest bit of happiness or love," Alfred countered. "If I were you, I would think long and hard on that before just writing off any chance of happiness with Miss Diana. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have duties that I need to attend to upstairs."

With that, Alfred turned on his heel and stormed off, leaving Bruce alone to consider what he had just told him and not allowing him to get any sort of response in. It left Bruce feeling more than a little bewildered by the British butler's outburst, his words hitting him as sure a punch to the gut.

He thought for certain that Alfred would understand better than anyone why he did what he did, would support him in his need to carry out the promise that he'd made to headstones the day they'd buried his parents. Instead, he was trying to talk him out of continuing his mission, to settle down with a wife and start a family…to be happy.

Why couldn't Alfred see that he wasn't meant for such a happily-ever-after fairytale life? His life had been destined for loneliness and pain the moment that gun had fired in that dark alley that fateful night. It had been etched in stone, his future unavoidable.

It had been nice to believe for a time that he and Diana could actually have a future together…that he could find love and contentment in the arms of the Amazon princess. She of all people would fully understand his need to protect Gotham, could accept both sides of his life, but he knew deep down it would never last. She would eventually succumb to the darkness that consumed him or he would end up driving her away. That was, of course, if she lived long enough without his enemies getting their hands on her.

He knew that he had infuriated her today, basically telling her with his actions that he didn't believe that she could take care of herself in a fight. While he had done it mostly to prove that he didn't need to be there, a part of him had done it in order to push her away. She had been getting far too close, closer than most had gotten and it terrified him.

He couldn't let her into his world. It was safer for her this way. Wasn't it?

XXX

They stood there staring at one another, trying to figure out where they would go next now that Grodd's Secret Society had been defeated. The cheer of the crowd was deafening, but so was the unspoken resentment that had settled over all of them. The tension was thick enough it would take GL's powerful ring to cut through it.

Batman stared at Diana from behind the white slits of his cowl, noticing the stiff way that she held herself…the way she avoided making eye contact with him. She was still furious with him and he could hardly blame her. While he was doing his best to keep her at arms' length and put a little distance between them again, he found that he didn't want her completely removed from his life.

He missed the warmth of her blue eyes whenever they settled on him, the way they danced and sparkled with amusement or mischief. He longed for the blinding smile that she gave him for absolutely no reason at all. He missed her friendship, their easy banter and flirtatious comments.

He knew that this was going to take some work to repair the damage that he had done. He had basically told her in no uncertain terms that he didn't trust her in a fight, didn't feel that she was capable of defending herself…that she was in need of protecting and looking out for.

In his attempt to prove a point to the League that he didn't need to be at the exercises, he'd singlehandedly hurt the person that he cared most about.

He wished that Diana would turn around and look at him instead of standing there with her back to him, her hand grasping her opposite arm. He could practically feel her anger and resentment from here, could taste her anger and frustration.

"Yah, but that was all mind control," Flash pointed out.

"We meant every word," J'onn reminded him.

"So what do we do?" Shayera asked.

"All we can do is say we're sorry and move on," Green Lantern said.

They all began to walk out of the stadium, Batman finding himself falling in step beside Diana. She was staring straight ahead, not making eye contact or speaking a word to him. Her frosty demeanor had not thawed in the least with this tentative resolution.

"A lot of things were said…"

Diana's words continued to linger in his mind. Had she directed those words to him? His parting words had been cutting and icy at best, basically telling them all that they weren't important to him and therefore neither was she.

Despite Grodd's unseen mind control efforts, the gorilla had managed to manipulate thoughts and feelings that had already been there inside all of them. It was no secret that he preferred to work alone, his refusal to allow any of his teammates to step foot in Gotham a hard and fast rule.

He knew he needed to make some sort of an effort to be a team player whether he liked it or not. Hurting Diana wasn't something that he had enjoyed. In the end, it had made him feel worse, not better. Now, he needed to do something to make it right again.

He felt her shoulder brush against his, causing him to glance at her out of the corner of her eyes. Everyone had pretty much paired off—John and Shayera talking quietly, Flash, J'onn and Superman talking about getting something to eat. That left him and Diana.

He turned to face the Amazon, steeling him against the furious assault he was about to be besieged with. He knew he had it coming. He decided to diffuse the situation before she had a chance. "Meet me in the training room tomorrow, fifteen hundred hours," he told her.

The anger and hurt that had been simmering in those ocean blue eyes of hers was swiftly replaced with curiosity. "Excuse me?"

"Meet me in the training room tomorrow at fifteen hundred hours," he evenly repeated.

"What for?" she asked.

"We're going to start training together," he revealed. "I believe we could both learn some things from each other that could benefit us in a fight."

The corner of her mouth quirked in amusement, her hands finding her hips as she tipped her head slightly. "So you think there's something that even the great Batman could learn from me…a mere woman?"

He knew that he deserved the dig and far worse. He couldn't stop the smirk that formed on his lips as he moved to stand a little closer to her. "You are definitely not a mere woman, Princess," he replied, his voice far huskier than he had anticipated. "You are far above any woman I know and yes, I'm sure there must be some morsel of skill that I might be able to learn from you."

"And how exactly are we supposed to train together?" she questioned him. "I mean I am a Meta. I'd hate to break you into little Bat pieces…by accident of course."

"Of course," he said, "but I doubt you'll be able to land a punch."

A raven eyebrow cocked in response to the challenge. "Arrogant aren't we?"

"And confident…don't forget confident."

"You're going to be eating those words when I beat you," she countered.

"You can try," he smugly teased.

"Is that a challenge?"

"You can take it anyway you want, Princess," he rasped, folding his arms against his muscular chest. "Just don't come crying to me when I have to pick you up off the training room floor."

Diana's lilting laughter was a welcome sound to his ears, warming his heart and letting him know that things were all right between them again. While he couldn't have her as a lover, he was more than determined to keep her as his friend.

"I take that back," she replied as she tried to stifle her laughter. "You're not arrogant, you're delusional."

"I guess you'll just have to find out for yourself won't you?"

"I'll be there," she promised. "I look forward to sweeping up the floor with you."

"It's mopping up the floor and I think it'll be me who will be doing the mopping," he informed her. "I'll set up the rules and parameters for our sparring sessions. Just be there at fifteen hundred hours sharp."

"Fine," she agreed, "as long as you don't plan on using any of the punching bags in the training room."

"Princess…" he said with sigh, knowing exactly what she had done without even needing to see it.

"Maybe next time you won't feel the need to come to my rescue," she pointed out.

"That wasn't what I was doing," he tried to tell her.

"Hey, you guys wanna grab some burgers with us?" Flash yelled at them.

"I could go for something," Diana decided, turning her attention back to the Dark Knight. "Coming?"

The hope that sparkled in her eyes was unmistakable, making him want to say yes, but he knew that he couldn't. "Rain check, Princess," he replied. "I need to get back to Gotham."

"See you tomorrow then," she said as she took to the air, hovering above him like a perfect angel with that dazzling smile that was brighter than the sun itself. "Be prepared to get your ass handed to you."

Before he could even respond, she was taking off with the others, leaving him standing stunned by her words. She'd definitely been spending too much time with Flash and Shayera. He watched until she had disappeared from view, a small smirk playing on his lips.

Diana may be out of sight, but never out of mind.