Karaoke (DCAU)

"I can't believe I let you guys talk me into this," Diana uttered with a frown, pulling her coat a little tighter around herself despite not feeling the cold that swirled around them. She blew a couple of stray snowflakes off her face as she brushed a raven lock behind her ear. "This isn't my sort of thing."

"How do you know that?" Shayera asked. "You've never done it before."

"Yah, give it shot, Di," Zatanna agreed, looping her arm through Diana's. "You're gonna love it. It's a blast."

"I've never done it either," Lois revealed. "I'm kind of anxious to try it."

"You're never done it?" Shayera questioned the Metropolis reporter. "That's a shocker."

"Why?" Lois asked. "Do I seem like some wild party animal to you?"

"Actually, yes," Dinah cut in, elbowing Lois in the ribs with a sly grin.

"I'm an army brat, not a wild child," Lois claimed.

"Come on, guys," Zatanna excitedly said as she quickened her pace. "This is going to be a so much fun. Once you get a few drinks in you, you'll lose all your inhibitions."

"Not likely," Shay uttered with a snort. "I can drink John under the table."

"I'm pretty sure I can drink Ollie under the table," Dinah revealed. "By the way, you know we're all going to get lectured about being in Gotham, right?"

Diana glanced back over her shoulder, already feeling as though they were being followed. "I'm not afraid of Bruce," she replied. "He's not as scary as he portrays himself to be. I think he's actually a softy at heart."

"That's because he's in love with you," Zee reminded her with wistful smile on her lips.

Diana chuckled in response. "You're dreaming again, Zee."

"It's true and you know it," Zatanna pointed out. "He's just too scared to admit it. Besides, we are not here as League members. We're just a group of friends checking out the brand-new karaoke bar in Gotham. He can't kick us out of the city for that."

"Watch him," Dinah uttered with a laugh.

"He can try," Diana agreed with a grin she shared with Black Canary.

"Hey, maybe I'll do an article about it," Lois said.

Diana frowned as she glanced at her friend. "That's not really the kind of article that you write, Lois."

"No, but it might be a refreshing change of pace," she ultimately decided.

"Here we are!" Zee excitedly announced.

"This is a bad idea," Diana murmured as she stared at the front entrance of the karaoke bar with a sudden case of stage fright.

"What's the matter with you?" Shay asked as her hands found her hips. "You aren't scared, are you?"

"What? No!" Diana adamantly declared. "I'm just not comfortable singing in public."

"Okay, spill it," Lois demanded. "What happened to you?"

Diana's heart sank as she stared at her friends who were staring expectantly back at her. "Fine," she muttered, drawing a deep breath before plunging headlong into the humiliating story. "When I was five years old, I sang a song for my mother for her birthday. Everyone laughed. I swore I would never sing in public ever again—end of story."

"Oh, Di," Zee said. "Why did they laugh?"

"I got a little mixed up on the pronunciation of some of my Ancient Greek words," she admitted.

They stared at her in silence before Dinah finally responded. "The woman who can take on Doomsday and Darkseid is afraid to sing in public? Are you kidding me?"

"I said I'm not afraid!" she hissed. "It's just something that I'd rather not experience ever again in my life."

"That was like a thousand years ago," Shayera reminded her. "You were just a little kid. I'm sure you can't screw this up."

"Come on," Zee stated, wrapping her arm around Diana's. "You can sit and watch us makes fools of ourselves."

"Yah, Di," Lois encouraged her. "Watch us embarrass ourselves. That alone will be worth it."

"I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm an awesome singer," Dinah replied. "I'm going to totally rock it."

"Just don't blow out everyone's eardrums," Shay warned her.

"Let's go already," Zee uttered with a great deal of impatience. "We look smoking hot and I need liquor…a lot of liquor."

"Another fight with Constantine?" Diana asked.

"Don't bring up that Cretan's name ever again," Zee ground out.

"All right," Dinah said with a nod. "Let's bring the house down."

"This is going to be on every front page across the globe," Shayera muttered as they began to enter.

"What?" Diana cried.

"Nothing," Shayera tried to tell her, pushing her in the back and into the bar.

Shayera smiled to herself as they managed to find an empty table close to the stage. She had seen Diana go up against the most dangerous criminals and alien races, never blinking an eye or hesitating to throw herself headlong into battle without an ounce of fear but ask her to sing a song on stage and she crumbled.

A scattering of whistles and catcalls filled the air as the five women removed their winter coats. "Now that is a definite confidence booster," Zee announced with a chuckle. "Nothing like a few whistles to make you forget about how crappy your love life is."

"It'll be okay, Zee," Diana comforted her as she took her seat. "You're still young. You have plenty of time to find the right one."

"Come on," Shayera said as a young woman appeared to take their drink orders. "We're going to forget all about our love lives and party like there's no tomorrow."

"My love life is awesome," Dinah replied with a smirk. "In fact, just last night, Oliver made me scream so loud I nearly shattered all the windows in his mansion."

"So did not need that picture in my head," Zee muttered, wrinkling her nose.

"My love life is great too," Lois agreed. "Clark can make me—"

"Ewww!" Zee yelled. "Just…ewww! I don't need any more so-called support from my friends."

"You've still got us, Zatanna," Shayera told her.

"John still can't make up his mind?" Diana asked.

Shayera called him something in Thanagarian that was clearly degrading, a fierce scowl on her face as she completely downed her drink in one gulp. "Scum of the earth."

"Bruce still hasn't made a move, has he?" Dinah asked Diana.

"He's a piece of Cerberus dung," she ground out.

"That answers that," Lois said with a nod.

"Can I have another drink?" Shayera yelled across the bar to their waitress, holding up her empty glass.

"This could prove to be a pretty entertaining night," Zee told Diana with a chuckle.

"Or we could all need to have Bruce come down and bail us out of jail," Dinah said.

Diana couldn't help but laugh as she hooked a raven curl behind her ear. She picked up her glass and took a drink. She was wearing her favorite form-fitting, red dress and she was going to have a good time regardless of the billionaire playboy who refused to acknowledge what was so obvious between them.

"Hey, can we get a round of loaded nachos?" Shayera requested as the waitress brought another round of drinks. "And keep the drinks coming!"

"You've got it, ladies," the waitress said with a laugh.

At that moment, a guy who clearly thought he was God's gift to women got up on stage, prepared to sing and impress the gorgeous group of ladies at the table to his left. "Hi there, ladies," he greeted them with a cheesy grin. "Prepared to be amazed."

"This ought to be good," Lois muttered with a roll of her eyes as she swirled her drink in her glass.

The man busted out singing "More Than a Feeling" by Boston, but not in a good way. All five of them internally cringed with how off key he sounded. His performance only seemed to worsen when he began singing to Zatanna who was doing her best to smile politely and not wrinkle her nose in disgust.

"Can I turn him into a guinea pig yet?" Zatanna said over her shoulder to Diana.

"No way!" Diana crowed between bouts of laughter. "This is too funny to stop it yet."

"I'm glad you're having fun at my expense," Zee muttered, turning back towards the stage to find the man sticking his hand out to her to come sing with him.

"Do it, Zee!" Lois yelled.

"Oh, I don't think…okay," she uttered as the man grabbed her hand and pulled her up on stage with him.

"Yes! 'Islands in the Stream!' he exclaimed. "It's my favorite song!"

"I'd really rather not," she tried to tell him.

"Zee! Zee! Zee!" her friends chanted.

Zatanna turned a glare on them, but she quickly found herself being drawn into the upbeat love song. Her teammates were surprised at how well she could sing, causing them to cheer her on even more. They watched as she began to dance, getting even more into the forced performance.

"Whew!" Zee said as she made a quick escape from the stage. "That was really fun. Would've been a lot "better with a handsome guy, but hey, the night is still young."

"Let's go, Shay," Lois suggested. "Let's show them what we've got."

"Come on, Di," Shay encouraged her as she got to her feet. "You can sing with us. No one will even hear you."

"I think I'll just watch," Diana decided.

"Chicken," Lois said as she got onto the stage and grabbed a microphone. "What's going to be our jam?"

"Sweet Caroline," Shay announced.

"Neil Diamond has nothing on us!" Lois excitedly declared.

The pair burst into song, singing their hearts out. Soon, they had the entire bar singing along with the two women who were dancing along with the song. Diana couldn't help but sing along, but kept her volume low, afraid of anyone hearing her. She had to admit that it did look like they were having a lot of fun.

Diana threw her arms up in the arm, mimicking the motions to the next song "YMCA". She couldn't stop laughing at Lois and Shayera who were entertaining the crowded bar. Everyone was shouting out the words to the song, but Diana didn't know them.

Completely absorbed in the fun, she didn't notice a man entering the bar with two of his friends or how his eyes narrowed in on her as they sat down at a small table in the back of the bar. "I can't believe I let you blokes talk me into this," Constantine grumbled as he pulled out a cigarette.

"Put that away," Bruce growled. "There's no smoking in this bar."

"This is balls-up," Constantine groused under his breath as he tucked his pack of cigarettes back into his coat pocket.

"No one put a gun to your head," John pointed out. "Leave if you want."

Constantine caught sight of the black-haired magician, the sound of her laughter carrying through the bar as the applause settled down after Lois and Shayera's performance. He felt his heart melting as he watched her, wondering what it was they had actually been arguing about in the first place that had caused him to walk away.

"Sorry I'm late," Clark apologized as he took a seat next to Bruce.

"What are you doing here, mate?" Constantine asked. "Are you having woman troubles too?"

"What?" Clark said. "No, Lois and I are great. In fact, just last night—"

Bruce held up his hand in Clark's face, stopping him in his tracks. "Do not want to know," he bluntly stated.

Clark just grinned at them as their waiter approached to take their orders. "I only got to see the end of Lois's performance," he said, disappointed he didn't get to see more. "I hope she sings again."

"I'm sure she'll be up there again," John said. "Is Ollie coming?"

"No," Bruce replied. "He said he and Canary are solid."

"So are Lois and I," Clark announced. "I'm just here to here to have fun and support you guys."

"I am not singing with you so don't even ask," Bruce adamantly stated.

"He's only here to make sure Diana doesn't get picked up by another man," John revealed with a grin as a man and woman took the stage to sing a love song together.

"I'm here to make sure she doesn't get taken advantage of," Bruce clarified. "She can be naïve at times…doesn't know how men can be in this world."

"Yah, it has nothing to do with the fact he's in love with her," Clark said before taking a sip of his drink.

"Ut-oh, Bruce," Constantine muttered with a nod in the direction of the ladies' table. "Looks like your girl is being hit on as we speak."

All four men looked across the bar to find a man talking to Diana. It was blatantly obvious he was flirting with her. What made it all the worse for Bruce was the fact that she seemed to be enjoying it. Was that an actual blush on her face?

Bruce's hands curled into fists beneath the table as he gritted his teeth. He couldn't figure out why she wasn't telling him to leave or better yet punching him in the face. Was she flirting back? He fought the overwhelming urge to go over there and stop it, but he didn't want to be that guy who lost it over something completely innocuous like that.

It was innocuous, right?

There was no way that Diana would fall for someone like that. Did she have to look so amazing in that red dress and did she have to wear her hair up like that? She was just so damn sexy, and she didn't even have the slightest idea. That was probably part of the reason he was so attracted to her. She was the perfect combination of sensuality and innocence.

"Breathe, Bruce," John leaned over and murmured in his ear. "You're about to go super nova. He's not worth it."

"Diana told me she didn't even want to come here," Clark informed them. "She refuses to sing in public. Something about her childhood I guess."

"Then, why is that guy leading her onto the stage to sing with him?" Constantine asked.

"Okay, you can hurt him, but don't kill him, Bruce," John warned him.

They watched in stunned disbelief as the man led Diana up onto the stage, the other four women hooting their approval. Diana dipped her head in embarrassment, her lips curling into a shy smile. Seeing her up on stage, the entire bar began to cheer excitedly.

Bruce internally groaned as the first strains of music began, pinching the bridge of his nose. It was "Don't Go Breaking My Heart". He lifted his head as Diana began to sing, her voice causing everyone to listen with rapt attention. She was absolutely amazing, mesmerizing everyone in the bar.

She seemed to shine like a shooting star as she began to get caught up in the music and the moment. She danced to the song, singing to her partner as if she'd known him all her life. Her blue eyes danced, sparkling like diamonds. Her voice gained more power the more confident she became, revealing a love for singing that he had no idea she possessed.

XXX

"We've got company," Dinah said with a smirk as she elbowed Lois.

Lois looked where Dinah pointed, spotting the men who had come to observe them. "Should have known they would show up," she replied with a grin.

"Why is Clark here?" Dinah wondered out loud.

"Probably moral support for Bruce," Lois said.

"Bruce looks like he's about to blow a fuse," Dinah noted. "Time to save him from himself."

"Let him fester for a while," Lois advised. "It would do him good for stringing her alone all this time."

"Do you really want a fight to break out in here?"

"Point taken," Lois replied. "Go get her."

As soon as the song ended, Dinah leapt on stage, taking the microphone from the man who was shocked by her unexpected appearance. It was obvious he'd hoped to do another song with the raven-haired beauty, but Dinah was determined to save his life even if he had no idea just how much danger he was actually in.

"You have an awesome voice, Di," Dinah gushed. "Let's do a duet!"

"Sounds great!" Diana agreed.

Bruce breathed a sigh of relief when Dinah jumped on stage to join Diana, but that relief was short lived when they started to sing "Pour Some Sugar on Me". They pair on stage started dancing, everyone in the bar jumping to their feet to cheer them on during the sexy song.

"I think we need more alcohol here," John said, signaling for the waiter.

"You know you could go up there and sing with Diana," Clark reminded him.

"I'm only here to make sure she doesn't get into trouble," Bruce stated as he watched her.

"Yah, right," Constantine muttered, taking a healthy drink.

Everyone kept cheering, wanting to hear more from the duo. Diana put the microphone down instead, needing to take a break. Dinah put her microphone down as well, grabbing Diana's elbow and whispering something in her ear.

Diana's eyes roamed the crowded bar to lock on Bruce.

"I think you've been discovered," John told him, clapping him on the shoulder.

"And here they come," Clark said, adjusting his glasses before focusing all his attention on the drink in his hand.

"Hello," Diana greeted them with a smile. "We didn't expect to see you guys here."

"Well…uh…yah," John stammered, staring at the two women. "It was a last-minute thing."

"Bruce, can I please speak with you for a moment?" Diana pleasantly asked.

"Nice knowing you, bloke," Constantine told him, knocking back the rest of his drink.

"Why don't you guys come join us at our table?" Dinah offered. "I know Shayera and Zatanna would love it."

"All right," John agreed. "Let's go, guys."

Bruce got up with a frown to follow Diana, stopping on the street outside of the bar. She turned to face him with a dangerous smirk on her lips, one that told him he was not going to be able to talk himself out of this one. She inched dangerously closer to him, causing him to take a step back.

"Why are you here, Bruce?" she sweetly asked.

Bruce shoved his hands into the pockets of his dress pants, momentarily averting his eyes under her scrutinizing gaze. "Just making sure that you and your friends stay out of trouble," he replied. "You do remember this is my city."

"Last time I checked you don't actually own the city," she pointed out, folding her arms against her chest. "And you don't own this bar."

"You know what I mean, princess," he stated, refusing to back down. "I don't like the League in my city."

Diana looked down at her dress before looking at him dressed handsomely in charcoal gray suit. "I don't believe I'm here in my uniform," she reminded him, the sweet lilt to her voice letting him know she was not going to let him go without some sort of an admission on his part. "My friends are not in their uniforms either. In fact, we're just a group of friends going out to have a good time."

"What are you doing here, princes?" he demanded to know with a narrowed gaze, trying to put her on the defensive and gain the upper hand in this tête-à-tête. "You don't even like to sing in public."

A single, raven eyebrow arched as she studied him, her smirk growing. "How did you know that I don't like to sing in public?"

"Clark told me," Bruce evenly stated.

Diana took a step closer, the distance between them quickly dwindling. "I think you came here to make sure I didn't go home with someone," she purred, reaching out to drag a finger along the curve of his chiseled jaw. "I think you can't stand the idea of me being with someone else…I think you want me all to yourself."

"I'm just here to make sure you don't cause any problems in Gotham," he maintained, doing his best to keep his steel-like resolve from cracking. He could feel his self-control trembling violently as she slowly raked her teeth over her red bottom lip.

"And I think you're lying," she murmured.

"I wouldn't lie—"

Diana effectively silenced him as she suddenly pressed her lips against his, backing him up against the wall of the bar as she deepened the kiss. Bruce's control shattered as her tongue met his in a fierce duel, his arms sliding around her and pulling her flush against him as he tilted his head.

They kissed for several breathless moments, savoring the intimacy and passion that was intensifying by the second. They broke the kiss with a soft gasp, his lips immediately claiming hers once more for a second kiss. He found he already missed the contact with her as he retreated once more.

"We should probably go back inside," she softly murmured, her lips grazing his with longing. "They'll be wondering where we are."

"Let them wonder," he replied with a devious smirk, taking her by the hand and leading her to his waiting car. "I want to hear the story about why you're afraid to sing in public."

Bruce opened the car door for her, Diana pausing before getting into the car. "Only if you promise to sing "Am I Blue" for me," she sweetly requested as her finger traced his lips.

"Deal," he said, kissing her with a passion that hinted at what was in store for them that night.