TITLE: Great Minds Think Alike
AUTHOR: Lotsy
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: Diana and Bruce struggle to plan their wedding amidst a new arrival to Wayne Manor. Meanwhile, Bruce begins to fear that Luthor could be planning something that could spell the end of the world.
Great Minds Think Alike
Diana's eyes narrowed dangerously as she glared daggers, her red lips twisted into a derisive sneer as if facing off against a mortal enemy. Her arms were crossed defiantly across her chest, feeling as though she was being mocked by the very thing she was attempting to accomplish.
She raked her fingers back through her raven locks, gripping them tightly in her hands as she risked a glance at her notebook. Her notebook that held all of her notes for the wedding she was trying to plan. The notebook that still held blank pages and no actual notes.
Next, her glare landed on the pile of wedding magazines. They had proven to be completely unhelpful despite going through each one twice. Instead of assisting her in her plans to marry the man that she had fallen in love with, they had only served to prove to her how impossible the task at hand was.
Her mind was a whirlwind of dresses and gowns, flowers and bridal veils, tuxes and venues. There were too many options, too many decisions to make and Bruce had tasked her to do it. Did he realize that she had lived on an island the majority of her life and not in Man's World? All of this was foreign to her.
In a word, it was a nightmare.
Maybe they should just elope.
She released her hair to hold her head in her hands, wondering how she was going to get an entire wedding planned all by herself. She supposed she could ask her sister Donna for help, but she was busy with the Titans. Not to mention she was spending a lot of time with Roy Harper whom she was fairly sure was more than just a friend by now though Donna still denied it.
Sitting back once more, Diana glanced up to catch a glimpse of Alfred as he walked by. The British butler had offered to help her, but she didn't feel that was fair especially with the surprise arrival that had shown up last week. She internally winced with the reminder.
Bruce had a son…a son with none other than Talia al Ghul.
The unexpected news still had her and the rest of the family reeling but none more so than Bruce. Her heart ached for him, learning that he had a son that Talia had kept from him all of these years. Finding out about Damian had been a startling event, one that couldn't have come at a worse time.
Bruce was tracking Lex Luthor, feeling that the evil mastermind was planning something. He'd been spending every spare minute trying to follow his every movement in hopes of incepting him before anything disastrous happened.
Now, he had a son living in his house that he hadn't even knew existed a week ago. He was doing his best to get to know Damian, but it was difficult for both of them. The ten-year-old was practically the spitting image of his father, making a DNA test nothing more than an unnecessary formality.
Bruce did a test anyway.
She could hardly blame him. He'd believed that Talia was his past, nothing more than a painful event in his life that he'd rather forget about. Now, they shared a son, forever linking them as parents though not married.
To say that she was thrilled with this turn of events would have been a falsehood of great proportions. She was beyond furious with Talia for hurting Bruce by withholding his child from him, deciding now of all times as they were trying to plan a wedding to make Damian's existence known.
Diana knew Talia was doing this in an effort to break up their engagement, a fleeting hope that she might be able to win Bruce back after all of this time. Little did Talia know that Diana wasn't going to step aside and let the daughter of Ra's al Ghul take her place.
She took a sip of her tea to find it had cooled considerably since that last time she'd taken a drink. She wished that Bruce would come home soon. She missed him, knowing he was being pulled in every direction with trying to make Damian feel at home plus his duties as Batman.
His mood had been less than stellar lately, but she could hardly blame him. It was proving to be a challenging adjustment for everyone, and Damian certainly wasn't helping to make it easier on any of them. Her patience was beginning to thin but Bruce's even more so. She had a feeling there was going to be a major battle of wills soon, one that Bruce would no doubt win.
As if on cue, Damian Wayne walked into the entertainment room. She could tell by the expression on his face that he hadn't anticipated her being in here. "Sorry," he mumbled, turning on his heel to walk out.
"Come here," Diana said, patting the seat of a chair next to her. She decided she needed to make a better effort to get to know him since he was Bruce's son.
Damian huffed under his breath as he reluctantly turned around and made his way to the table. He plopped into the chair next to her looking anything but happy. "What do you want?"
Diana sent a silent, pleading prayer to Hera, begging for an extra dose of patience at that moment. "I wanted to know how you were doing," she replied with a warm smile, hoping to melt his icy demeanor. "How are feeling about being here? Are you settling in alright?"
"If you think you're going to be my mother, you're sadly mistaken," he spat out. "I already have a mother and I don't need another one."
A single, raven eyebrow arched in question as she studied the son of her fiancé. "I don't want to be your mother, but I would like for us to be friends."
"Friends? You want us to be friends?"
"I think that—"
"Do you really want to know what I think?" Damian rudely interrupted her.
"Actually, yes I would," she told him, refusing to turn tail in this showdown. He was going to find her a worthy adversary.
A flicker of surprise passed over his face, but he quickly tucked it away, reminding her of his father. His emerald eyes narrowed as he glared at her. "I think you're taking advantage of my father by trying to take my mother's place," he coldly stated. "He should be with my mother, not here with you."
"Fair enough," she replied, taking him by surprise once more. "I understand how you would want him to be with your mother, but they ended things a long time ago…before you were born. I love your father more than anything in this world, and I want nothing more than for him to be happy. We are going to get married, Damian."
"Fine," he snapped, "but I don't have to like it."
"No, you don't," she agreed. "But it'll make life easier for you and everyone around you if you would at least be accepting of it. Your father wants you to be happy here and to be happy for us. Do you think you can at least try for his sake?"
Damian drew a deep breath, averting his eyes as he thought about it. "I'll try," he reluctantly decided.
"You can make this experience as wonderful or as horrible as you want it to be," she pointed out.
"You have no idea what I'm going through so don't even pretend you do," he bit out.
"I do know what you're going through," she commented. "I lived on Themyscira for a thousand years before coming to Man's World. Themyscira was all I had ever known, my Amazon sisters and mother the only people I had ever known.
"It wasn't until I came to Man's World that I met a man for the first time. I had no place to live until Bruce built the Watchtower. I had no friends, no family. I had no idea what the customs were in this world. It was a completely new experience for me that left me feeling awkward and vulnerable."
Damian looked at her curiously, his frosty disposition warming somewhat. "You did?" he asked, watching her nod her ahead. "How did you adjust?"
"It took some time," she admitted. "I was pretty lonely at first. I was homesick. I missed my mother and sisters, but I made friends with my new teammates…and then I fell in love with your father."
Damian snorted softly in amusement. "I doubt he gave in right away."
Diana chuckled in agreement. "He was a stubborn one to crack," she confessed. "It took some time, but he eventually admitted that he loved me too."
"I guess I can try to make it work here," he reluctantly agreed.
"I'm glad," she replied. "I think you'll find a real family that cares about you if you would just give us a chance."
Damian nodded his head as he got to his feet, leaving the room without another word. Diana released a relieved sigh, thankful that the conversation had gone as well as it had. She had greatly feared it was going to blow up in her face and make things even worse around here.
"You did great."
Diana looked up to find Bruce leaning against the doorframe. "You heard?"
Bruce nodded his head as he walked in, unbuttoning his suit jacket. "Every word," he confirmed, a lop-sided smile forming on his face. "You really were amazing."
Diana returned his smile as he took Damian's empty chair. "I didn't mean to interfere," she replied. "I know he's your son, but I felt that he needed to know a few things. I was just trying to help."
"No, I appreciate it," he told her, taking her hand in his. "I've been wracking my brain for a week trying to figure out how to get through to him."
"I just tried to be honest with him," she said. "I know how hard it is to adjust to a whole new world."
"I'm sorry you were so lonely when you first came here," he apologized. "I was so busy trying to find out everything about you and appease my suspicions that I didn't fully realize it."
Diana laughed with the revelation. "You were suspicious of me?" she asked. "I guess I really shouldn't be surprised. It's in your nature to be suspicious of everyone."
Bruce had the decency to look chagrined as he lost himself in her eyes that shined like the finest sapphires. "What can I say?" he said with a shrug. "This gorgeous woman arrives out of nowhere with strength and endurance rivaling Superman's, claiming to be an Amazon from a mythical island I didn't believe truly existed. What else was I supposed to do?"
"Is that why you were always lurking about the Watchtower the first several weeks?" she questioned him, her brow knitting in confusion.
"I confess," he responded with a sigh. "I was watching your every move…listening in on your conversations."
"Isn't that what people in this world call stalking?" she ventured with a laugh.
"Maybe…but I couldn't be too careful," he defended himself. "I had to learn more about you…make sure that you could be trusted."
Diana leaned in, her lips millimeters from his. "And what did you find out?"
Bruce glanced at her tempting red lips, his heart beginning to beat a little harder. "I found you irresistible…and nothing but trouble," he teased, his breath warm against her face. "I found myself falling in love with you."
"Kind of backfired on you, didn't it?"
He dipped his head to capture her lips, kissing her deeply and savoring the taste of her as his tongue teased hers. "Maybe…maybe not," he huskily replied. "I got the girl in the end. I consider that to be a huge win."
"Not without a lot of work on my end," she reminded him, kissing along his jaw to whisper in his ear. "But it was worth every single moment of it."
"Definitely," he agreed, turning his head to steal another kiss.
"Sorry to interrupt," Alfred said from the doorway. "I wanted to let you know that dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes."
"Thank you, Alfred," Bruce responded, putting a little distance between him and his fiancé. He turned his attention to all the wedding magazines, picking one up. "How is the wedding planning going?"
"See this?" Diana asked, holding up her blank notebook.
"That good, huh?"
Diana snorted in frustration. "I don't know what I'm doing, Bruce," she bemoaned. "I've been sitting here for two hours and I'm no further than when I began."
"What if we hired a wedding planner?" he suggested.
She frowned with the suggestion. "I don't know if I want some stranger planning our wedding," she said with a shake of her head. "Do we have to have a big wedding?"
Bruce leaned forward, tightening his hold on her hand. "I have an idea," he told her. "How would you feel about eloping?"
"Really? You would be willing to do that?"
"Anything you want, princess," he replied. "I just want to marry you. I don't care where or who is there as long as I have you. What do you think?"
"I think great minds think alike," she said with a grin, excitement gleaming in her eyes. "Where would we go?"
Bruce's lips spread into a smirk, a plan coming together in his mind. "Did I ever tell you about the yacht I own?"
"No," she responded, wondering where he was going with this. "Go on."
"What if we got married on my yacht?" he suggested. "It would just be me, you, and the ship's captain who happens to be an ordained minister. After we're married, we can sail off into the sunset for our honeymoon."
Diana grabbed him by his silk tie, her lips crashing into his as she pulled him towards her. She kissed the air from his lungs, leaving him breathless once she released him. "I absolutely love it."
"Good," he said. "I'll see what I can do to set it up."
"Wait," she muttered with a frown. "Do you think everyone will be hurt they don't get to be there for the wedding?"
"We'll throw a big reception party once we get back from our honeymoon."
"You are amazing," she whispered against his lips.
"No, you are," he insisted, brushing her hair from her face with his fingers. "You've put up with so much this past week, far more than you should've had to."
"It's okay, Bruce," she assured him. "It's not your fault."
"I know I haven't been in the best of moods lately," he confessed. "I thought I had permanently closed that chapter of my life with Talia. I'd moved on with the woman that I was meant to share my life with, one who continues to inspire me, gives me faith, and unconditional love. Now, this comes out of nowhere, blindsiding me…blindsiding us. I'm so sorry that you got pulled into it."
"It's alright, Bruce," she told him. "I love you and we'll find our way down this new path together."
"I couldn't do this without you," he replied.
"Bruce," Tim said, somewhat breathlessly as he burst into the entertainment room. "You need to see this."
"What is it?" he asked, standing to his feet.
"I uncovered some information about what Lex Luthor could be up to now," Tim revealed.
Diana followed Bruce and Tim to the library, behind the grandfather clock, and down the stairs into the cave. Bruce slipped into the chair that Tim had been occupying, reviewing the information that Tim had brought up on the bank of computer screens.
Bruce cursed as he scrolled through the information, his worry and paranoid mounting with every passing second. "It's worse than I'd suspected," he muttered more to himself than the others.
"What is it?" Diana asked, her hand resting on the back of his chair as she leaned over his shoulder.
"Luthor is having the Secret Society's headquarters outfitted for deep space travel," Bruce revealed, typing feverishly as he pulled up more information that Tim had uncovered.
"Why would he be doing that?" she questioned him, glancing at Tim.
"I'm afraid to guess," Bruce murmured, his brow creased with concern.