Bedtime

"It's time for bed, Alex," Diana called, standing in the doorway with her arms folded against her chest and an affectionate smile gracing her face.

Alex ignored her mother's prodding, the tip of her tongue slipping out as she concentrated on the task at hand. Her bright blue eyes narrowed as she studied her opponent, the intelligence permeating the five-year-old's eyes taking him by surprise once again and astounding him. She was a force to be reckoned with.

It never ceased to amaze him how smart she was, proving to be harder and harder to get anything past these days when she was in the same room as the adults. She was highly perceptive of what was going on around her, making connections that he never believed her capable of doing.

Of course, look who her parents were.

Glancing down at his hand, Bruce's eyes lifted to meet those of his daughter's in an effort to determine what she had in her hand and just how close she was to winning again. His daughter was as fearsome as her mother when it came to competition.

"Daddy," Alex groaned with a huff of annoyance. "You know it's your turn."

"I'm thinking…I'm thinking," he told her with a frown. "Do you have any nines?"

A huge grin spread across her face as she gave him a triumphant look. "Go fish!"

Bruce's frown deepened as he looked down at his cards again. He thought for sure that he finally had her that time. Unfortunately, his daughter was the queen of Go Fish. He was going to have to teach her a different game to play, maybe one that he actually stood somewhat of a chance of winning.

"Do you have any kings?" she politely asked, but the telltale smirk on her face told him she already knew the answer.

"Alexa Martha Wayne," Diana called again with a little more authority despite how heartwarming the scene before her always was. "It's past your bedtime."

"But, mommy," she whined despite the fact her mother had not only used her full name, but her middle name as well. "I'm beating daddy again."

"You already beat me twice tonight and Alfred three times," he pointed out with a mock scowl that only caused his daughter to giggle in response, lifting her handful of cards to hide behind as she peered over the tops of them at him.

"I already gave you an extra half hour," Diana reminded her, walking over to the table where they sat. "Besides, you have a big day tomorrow. Uncle Arthur is coming over to give you another swimming lesson."

"Yay!" Alex squealed in delight as she suddenly threw her cards onto the table, the game forgotten as she stood up on her chair and threw herself into her mother's arms. "I can't wait to see Uncle Arthur!"

"Kiss your father goodnight," Diana told her, kissing her temple before setting her on the ground.

Alexa ran to her father who swept her up into his arms and into a bear hug. "I love you, Ally-bug," he told her, blowing a raspberry on her cheek.

Each member of the family and extended family had a favorite name for the byproduct of Bruce and Diana's love for one another. To Diana, she was Alex. To Bruce, she was Ally or Ally-bug. To Alfred, she was always Alexa though princess was a very close second. To Uncle Arthur, she was fishy-face which always made her laugh when he actually made a fishy face at her.

To Uncle Barry, she was Bon-Bon mostly because she was his partner in crime like Bonnie and Clyde, always getting into some sort of trouble together. To Uncle Victor, she was dimples because of the small dimples that appeared every time she grinned like a Cheshire cat. To Uncle Clark and Aunt Lois, she would forever be Hugabug for really no reason at all except that Uncle Clark had called her that one day and it had stuck.

Alex giggled and squirmed in her father's hold, trying to escape his tickling fingers. "Da…dad…daddy!" she chided him between fits of laughter as she struggled to catch her breath.

"All right, you two," Diana finally intervened, scooping her daughter up into her arms once more.

"I'll be up to tuck you," Bruce promised her.

"Promise?" she asked him, extending her pinkie.

"Promise," he swore, wrapping his pinkie around hers.

Diana shook her head at the pair that was practically joined at the hip, a patient smile, on her face as she carried their daughter out of the entertainment room and past Alfred. "Grandpa Alfred, you forgot to kiss me goodnight," Alex scolded him.

"I could never forget such a thing, my darling Alexa," he reassured her, leaning in and kissing her cheek before ruffling her curly blonde locks. "Sleep well, princess."

"Night!" she called over her mother's shoulder as she continued towards the staircase of Wayne Manor.

Diana had worked extensively with Bruce and Alfred to restore the dilapidated home, turning half of it into the home base for the Justice League. The other half had become their home not long after they were married, and Diana discovered that she was pregnant.

While Bruce had been hesitant about moving back into Wayne Manor, she had been insistent, wanting to raise their daughter in the home that his parents had raised him in while they had been alive. Bruce had reluctantly agreed, but under the condition that they picked a different room as the master bedroom instead of the one his parents had used. It had been an acceptable compromise to her, one that she had been more than willing to make in order to make him feel more comfortable about the transition.

"So, what bedtime story would you like tonight, my sun and stars?" Diana asked her daughter as they entered her room that had been painted a very cheery color of purple that Alex had insisted on.

"I want you to tell me the story of how you met daddy," Alex readily decided as Diana laid her down in her bed.

"You don't want to continue the book that we've been reading?" she questioned her, somewhat surprised though she knew she really shouldn't be. Alexa was a romantic at heart and she loved nothing more than to hear how her parents had met and fallen in love.

"Tomorrow night," Alex readily decided. "I want to hear about how you and daddy met."

"Didn't I just tell you that story last week?"

"Yes, but I love it," Alex told her with a pleading whine that couldn't be ignored.

"Fine," Diana surrendered with a knowing grin. "Crawl under the covers."

Alex quickly climbed under her covers, waiting until her mother had laid down on the bed next to her, her back pressed against the headboard. Alex snuggled up against her mom, her arm wrapped around her favorite stuffed teddy bear whose name was Bobo. Bobo had seen better days since being given to her by Uncle Clark and Aunt Lois on her first birthday, but Alex refused to ever give it up for any reason.

"Where do you want me to start?" Diana asked as if she didn't already to know the answer.

"The beginning of course, mommy," Alex insisted with an exasperated tone that made her sound more like an adult than a five-year-old.

"Well, I saw your father for the first time when I went to a party to get some information that I desperately needed," she began.

"Because you're Wonder Woman and daddy's Batman and the bad guys can't hide from you," Alex interjected with great excitement.

Diana chuckled softly as she stroked her daughter's blond hair that was just like her grandmother's. "That's right, my sun and stars," she confirmed.

"And daddy looked so handsome," Alex added.

"Yes, he did," she confirmed. "He looked very handsome in his deep blue suit. Our eyes met across the crowded room and—"

"It was love at first sight!" Alex squealed in delight.

"Well, not exactly, but I did think he looked vey dashing," Diana told her. "I had something very important that I had to do that night so I really couldn't think about anything else…even your father. I needed to find some information."

"And you stole it from daddy," she said with a giggle, her small hand moving to cover her mouth in a conspiratorial manner. "He tried to chase after you, but you got away."

"Hey, who is telling this story, little one?" Diana teased her, tickling her side.

"Mommy! Stop!" Alex told her as she laughed and squirmed. "Then what happened next?"

"I went to a museum gala a few nights later," she continued, remembering the events as if they'd just happened yesterday. She swore she could still feel the press of Bruce's fingers against her skin as he'd gripped her arm, the way his masculine scent had invaded her senses. It caused a fierce flutter in her stomach. "Your father found me and told me I was a thief, but I had given him back the drive that I'd taken from him."

"See? You weren't being naughty," Alex said with genuine sincerity in her voice. "You just had to borrow it and you returned it, so you didn't do anything wrong."

Diana chuckled with her daughter's logic. She was most definitely her father's daughter with her analytical mind. "Yes, I gave it back to him, but then I had to save him because he got himself into big trouble."

Alex squirmed with excitement against Diana, shifting to lay her head in her mother's lap. "I love this part," she told her, trying to stifle a yawn as her eyelids began to grow heavy.

Diana continued to stroke her daughter's blond curls, an affectionate smile curling her lips. "I saw that there was trouble and I had to go help. I couldn't just sit back and not try to stop it."

"Because you and daddy are superheroes and you don't get scared," Alex commented.

"Doomsday tried to hurt your father, but I showed up just in time," she continued the tale. "I used my bracers to block the fire."

"And you saved him," Alex said.

Hearing a mild snort, Diana looked up to find her husband standing in the doorway leaning against the doorframe with a mildly annoyed look on his handsome face, but unmistakable amusement and love danced in his eyes. She stared at him as she continued the story, her heart growing warm with the love she felt for him.

"I certainly did, and I've had to save him several times since then," Diana teased as she flashed Bruce a mischievous grin.

"Not that many times," Bruce grumbled under his breath.

Alex lifted her head and shushed her father with a very passable Batglare. "Go on, mommy."

"Then, Steppenwolf and his Parademons showed up," she relayed. "That's when we created the Justice League to try to stop them."

"And that's when you fell in love with daddy because he's handsome and he's a hero," their daughter decided.

Bruce gave Diana a smug look as she shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Yes, something like that," she agreed. "We were working very hard to form the Justice League, working many long nights together. Sometimes, he'd make me mad and annoy me, but somehow, he managed to capture my heart. It's been his ever since then."

Alex sighed as her eyelids grew heavier, a dreamy smile forming on her face. She completely missed the intense look that her father was giving her mother as he fully entered her bedroom. "And it was after we defeated Steppenwolf that I finally kissed your mother."

"Then, you got married…and had me…and we all lived happily-ever-after," Alex sleepily murmured, clutching her teddy bear to her chest.

"Yes, we did," Bruce confirmed as Diana shifted out from beneath her daughter and off the bed.

Bruce adjusted Alex in her bed before pulling the covers over her and tucking her in. He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Goodnight, Ally-bug," he whispered.

"Nigh-nigh, daddy," she muttered softly.

Diana turned the light off, taking Bruce's hand in hers as they exited their daughter's bedroom, softly closing the door behind them. "She wanted to hear our story again?" he questioned her as he backed her up against the wall, his gaze hungrily falling to her lips.

"For some reason it's her favorite," she confirmed as her arms slipped around his neck, her fingers playing with the dark strands that laid on the nape of his neck.

"I have to admit…it's my favorite story too," he softly replied as he tilted his head, his lips beginning to seek out hers, their warm breath mingling as one. "Although, I have had to save you too a few times."

"Maybe once or twice," she agreed with humming approval and ending with a groan of disappointment as his lips found hers only to retreat a few moments later. "I'm just happy our story is true and not fiction."

"Me too," he decided, his mouth caressing hers as his hands firmly gripped her waist.

His hands slid down to her thighs, lifting her legs to wrap around his waist as their kisses grew more insistent and demanding, deepening and conveying the love they shared with one another. As he carried her to their master bedroom, he readily decided that it was the best bedtime story that ever could've been written.