LKBF: Aspire to Touch the Sky (1/2)
Title: Aspire to Touch the Sky
Pairing: Bruce/Diana.
Words: 13513 (that's a lot)
Spoilers/Setting: JLU if JLU had happened differently.
Warnings: Het. Slash. It's Lord King Bad Fic, the warnings could fill a post of their own.
Indebted to: maelithil for Greek picking and beta, jamjar for betaing the heck out of this sucker, and believe me, it had plenty of heck, and rubynye for sending me to the Sappho when I was ready to chuck my computer out a window. You'd have thought it would be obvious, but no.
Author's notes: can be found here in DVD form.
Aspire to Touch the Sky
Princess of Lost Island of Women to wed in First Diplomatic Marriage of Twentieth Century
Classicists Stunned; Distraught
Clark Kent, Foreign Affairs
The residents of the Blüdhaven retirement home didn't care that their rescuer came from an age of myth; they were just glad she was able to reach the fourth floor where the firemen could not. But when she flew through the smoke with Mrs. Kelly in her arms, the cameras were waiting. With the dramatic arrival of Diana, who some are calling "Wonder Woman," the island of Themyscira rejoined the modern world. Talks between the Amazon Nation and Washington in the last week have been kept quiet, but a source close to the White House suggests a surprising announcement may be forthcoming--
The State Department had insisted on installing the entire entourage in one building, for security. The hotel is empty, except for her people, and government men with wires down their collars. It's faintly ridiculous, Diana thinks, that they are called "Amazons," and yet man's world treats them like children.
"I forget, sometimes, that you're no longer my little naked frog, given to me by the Gods and the sea."
Diana smiles over her shoulder. "Mother."
Hippolyte pets her daughter's hair. "This thing you are doing--"
Diana knows if she shows any doubt now, her mother will call off the plan, never mind the loss, so it's easy to say, "It was my idea, mother, to rejoin the world. My plan."
Hippolyte laughs, gently. "My little frog, making plans!"
"Mother!" Diana twists around.
"I'm sorry, I'll leave you to your sleep. Do you not find the beds of man's world far too soft? Though I suppose you will get used to them."
She's never gotten used to her mother making reference to her bed sport, and she feels her blush rise. "Mother!"
Hippolyte squeezes her about the waist and laughs into her hair. "Good-night, daughter. I love you."
It is not until her mother has shut the door, leaving her in her ugly hotel suite that she lets herself move through the battle forms. Her mother would have recognized the activity for a sign of tension. She has to move the ridiculous furniture to one side to get room, but once she can move through a form uninterrupted, she feels it bring the familiar clarity.
Until it is interrupted by a sound from the balcony. She spins, identifies the intruder, and then, irritated, turns away, refusing to give him her full attention.
"Princess," says the Batman. He says it with a mocking tone she's only heard from her other prospect.
"Do you know," she says, still turned away, catching her hair up in a thong, "we do have bats on Themyscira. They are actually quite pleasant creatures. Small and inoffensive."
"My intent was not to offend," he says, sounding nothing close to apologetic.
The man is insufferable. She had thought their first meeting would have put her on good footing with him. Without her help, she does not think it is possible he could have evacuated the building in time, and yet even then he tried to scold her. "It is normal custom among your people to accost a woman in her chamber to discuss foreign policy with her? Or do I mistake your intent in coming here? Perhaps you have come to apologize for your behaviour earlier?"
He doesn't even acknowledge it. "Your people have spent millenia training at war, and now you want to embrace peace? The League will keep an eye on you, and your people."
"My people... We know the cost of war, and so we value peace."
"Spare me the press release. It's a mistake for this country to accept an ambassador who isn't even of the same species as the people she represents."
Diana reins in her fury, turns to face him. "I am my mother's daughter," she spits, biting off each word.
The Batman's tone is politely sceptical, but the politeness is only another insult. "You can snap a man in half, Princess."
"And this is a reason not to pursue diplomatic relations?"
"Is that a threat?"
If he sounded even a little worried by the prospect that would be... something. "Thank you for your opinions, man-who-hides-behind-a-mask. If you are quite finished?" She wishes she knew if he could fly so she could throw him out her window, but the possibility that he climbed remains.
"You are making a mistake about Bruce Wayne," he says, without any introduction.
For a moment, she's breathless at his gall. "You know him, then?"
"He's from my city."
"Your--"
"He's a spineless coward, a fool, a shallow, vain, useless idiot. He was so frightened by his parents' death he's never grown up."
She's taken aback, and oddly, a little disarmed by the real venom in his voice. "You-- has he done you some harm?"
The Batman's laugh is dark and ugly. "Him? Impossible. But he's no fit husband for you, Princess. He's a philanderer, always in some lie."
"He's dedicated himself to helping your city. Why do you--"
The Batman's cape snaps like a snarl. "He treats my city's symptoms while I fight the disease."
"Why are you so dismissive of a good man? I've seen the dossiers your bureaucrats prepared--"
"If you think those files tell you the whole truth--"
"And you do?"
The Batman is silent. The noises of the traffic grid rise from the city below. "No. But I'm not lying."
It feels like honesty, and she's loathe to disrupt it with accusations. "Do you advise me to marry Luthor, then?"
For the first time she actually sees him move, an abortive jerk toward her. "No! Not for... Wayne is a joke, but Luthor is... " She imagines she can actually hear sincerity in his voice now. "Princess. The only good reason to marry him is if you intend to use him ruthlessly, because he would do the same to you."
"It may come as a surprise to you, but I place certain meaning in vows I make," she says stiffly.
Batman unfolds his arms, and smiles pleasantly. "I don't trust you at all, but that comes as no surprise. You would be straightforward in your deceit."
Wayne, or Bruce, as she must now think of him, is not what she expected. The meeting is discreetly arranged by a rabbitty man from the State Department. She had supposed they would try to arrange the meeting in a romantic setting, but the bureaucracy has no romance in its soul. They meet in the corridors of an office building, in a nicely impersonal lounge painted white, with inoffensive stuffed furniture, and mediocre but inoffensive paintings decorating the walls.
"My God!" he says, when he sees her, and then seems worried. "Or would I have to adopt your religion? Because I'm Catholic. Well, really more of an atheist. An atheist Catholic."
The rabbity man struggles to paste a smile over the wince. "I'll just give you some privacy." He leaves the foyer, glancing backward nervously.
She moves forward and reaches for his hand, and after staring a moment, he gives it to her to shake. "Mr. Wayne, thank you for agreeing to meet with me."
His smile is wide and quite sincere. She hopes. "My pleasure, your highness!"
"Diana, please."
"Well then, you must call me Bruce!" He seems happy at this prospect.
"Now, this is a bit delicate..." she gestures him into one of the stuffed chairs man's world seems so taken with, and takes one perpendicular to him. When he perches on the chair she realizes he's actually quite large for man's world.
Bruce laughs. "I'll say! I always thought an arranged marriage would be the only way I'd ever get to the altar, but I never thought the United States government would be doing the arranging!"
Diana wonders about the altar. Does man's world burn offerings after all? But she scolds her wandering mind. "Themyscira has long lived separate from men, as you know, and a symbol is required for us to rejoin them."
"Everyone loves a wedding," interjects Bruce.
"You would be doing my country, and yours too, I hope, a favour if you would consent to this," at the last minute, she cannot make herself say union and says, "alliance. But... I hoped we could see first if we were... able to like each other."
Bruce grins at her. "Your highness, I cannot see how any man could dislike you."
It's not smooth but it's sincere. "Thank you. The marriage I propose... I hope you do not feel I am belittling the union, but I propose mainly a marriage of convenience. I would continue with my duties as an ambassador, and I hope, not disrupt your life too much."
"Of... convenience?" asks Bruce. "You mean.... no ..." he twiddles his fingers with a puppy dog look on his face. "No uh. Relations?"
"If you prefer. I must admit to a certain curiosity about how... relations with a man would be different, but you needn't feel compelled. I only meant that I would expect discretion from you, rather than fidelity, and would give you the same."
"Gorgeous," says Bruce smiling broadly, "where have you been all my life?"
The government men are, she realizes, attempting to nurture romance between her and Bruce, in their own way. The man with the blue stripe on his dark glasses keeps on suggesting historical sites she might want to visit. She's not sure how to tell him that the buildings they call "forts" look like a death trap to her.
Bruce seems to share this disinterest, which is a point in his favour.
It takes her only four days to decide that Bruce will do very well. He is not repulsive, she could take him to bed. He is not clever, but he is not as dumb as he pretends. He has nothing but goodwill for everyone. He takes pleasure in showing her New York, and she wonders how it will be when he is showing her Gotham, which he clearly loves even more.
Luthor wanders over to their table when they are in a restaurant. "Princess, a pleasure. Wayne." She cannot quite like, still, the way he says 'princess.' He congratulates them with apparent goodwill, although Diana protests that he is premature.
"No, no, I see which way the wind is blowing. Bruce, your good looks have won you quite the prize!"
Bruce smiles at him genially. "I sure prefer her to your lunch date." Luthor laughs and returns to a small man who is losing the hair on top of his head.
Diana absorbs this new information. On the island, they had sculptures of men, as well as hydra, centaurs, and other mythical monsters. She had never really considered the men to be attractive any more than she had thought of the cameleopard that way. But she supposes he's pleasingly symmetrical, and although he lacks any curves, he has a certain... regular angularity about him that she could get used to.
"What?" asks Bruce. "Do I have something on my nose?"
Her mother finds him charming, and beyond asking Diana if she can really live with such a stupid man for his mortal span, has no objections to the wedding. Superman stops in, once, and gives a long and circuitous speech, leading up to his congratulations. Diana wonders if he is a virgin. He asks if she is in love, and seems quite relieved when she stares at him in disbelief.
Batman appears on her balcony again, the night before the New York wedding is planned. She has finally escaped the congratulations of women who she does not know. She is considering going down the hall to sleep with Io when her window is opened with a faint sound.
"Here to warn me away from my groom?" she asks, idly stroking the bride gift given her by the first lady. The fabric is soft but the cut is impractical.
"Your interference in Gotham is unwelcome." Batman seems incapable of even pretending to make conversation.
"I have familiarized myself with your laws. You have no legal standing, and cannot prevent my marriage."
He makes an impatient sound.
"Gotham doesn't need your kind. Her criminals will only become more dangerous if you confront them."
Diana realizes they are having a new squabble. "I'm not interested in your ego, only in the welfare of my new home."
"Don't you dare-"
"However," she speaks over him, "I will concede that you have greater experience. I respect that."
"You have no idea what you're getting into," Batman growls.
"I--" But Batman has disappeared.
The wedding in New York quickly spins out of control. It seems every major world leader must be invited and the only place it can be held is in the park. The mayor offers security, with very ill grace, and then nearly refuses to allow her sisters to stand guard for her. A thousand white doves are planned to be released, but two dozen stifle in the van before someone remembers them. Everyone, it seems, has some wedding joke they wish to tell her, and even the one told by old Sophia ends with the groom's attempted escape. Despite this, Bruce remains in good humour throughout, although his servant seems a bit grim by the end.
The one in Gotham is presided over by an amiable old man. She had resigned herself to being bound in white cloth like man's world prefers for weddings, but Bruce had surprised her with a funny little man who made a dress for her that was quite comfortable, and for Io and Philippa who stood for her that were more like a suit of armour made in fine silk than anything else. Their temple was packed full with the leaders of man's world, and Bruce's adult son stands for him. She wishes she'd got a chance to get to know him. She hopes he will not dislike her.
His younger son is the ring bearer but has to be fetched out of the bell tower to do this duty. He makes a face at her, and Diana has the sinking feeling he will be the difficult one.
Superman comes to neither, although she invited him. He sends a delicate crystalline flower she does not recognize.
The President wishes to give her and Bruce a 'honeymoon,' a sort of retreat dedicated to Hymenaios, if she understands correctly.
"You should see America! As a gift from our people, anywhere in the country."
Bruce looks sideways at her, seeking her approval and says, "I had thought... Well, I have a little pied-a-terre in the Mediterranean. I thought Diana might like to see Greece?"
Greece is a revelation. Bruce speaks no Greek, so she must translate for him, but her Greek and the Greek spoken by the natives are only barely mutually intelligible. They laugh, and explore little towns, swim nude, and she takes him flying. She becomes a little fond of Bruce's phallus, and wishes she had a sister present who could laugh at her for this.
The Villa is smaller than she had truthfully feared, and is kept spotless by a pimple faced young man with a tragic expression. After they arrive, he only appears once to bring groceries. They don't miss him.
"Where did you get these scars?" she asks Bruce, fascinated. Mortals scar so easily.
He runs his tongue around her nipple. "I-- I usually say something about enjoying dangerous pursuits... but..." He hums into her skin. "Truthfully, I was... angrier than I knew how to... Doing stupid, dangerous things is my... I don't know how to stop," he confesses.
Diana pets his shoulder thoughtfully, and tries to imagine her beautiful, good-natured husband angry.
On the third day, aliens invade. It's everywhere on the radio and on TV.
"Bruce, I can't-- I have to--"
"Go," he tells her.
She puts on her armour, and is over Berlin in ten minutes. The creatures are pouring through a rent in the sky, and are shaped like nothing on earth, squat, over-long arms spiked and jointed in a way that mocks logic. They have their mouths open as if screaming, but no sound pours out and they mow through Berlin like scythes through grain.
"[Rennen Sie!]" she yells, placing herself between a one of the creatures and a group of screaming men, women and children. She didn't bring her shield, no time, but no time to regret--
And then there is the battle. They keep coming. One of them gets close enough to open up her thigh, but only one. She bludgeons one with the column of a collapsed building, decapitates another with her lasso, and when the Flash finds her, she's swinging the arm of one of the creatures as a club.
"Wonder-- woah! Uh, Batman says we need to leave the area."
"But the--"
"I've got the civilians, let's go!"
Diana punts the nearest creature as far as she can and takes off into the sky. Superman is streaking overhead and she joins him, "This way, Batman is-- you're hurt?"
"It's nothing. There's a plan? I can keep this up, but..." The city shows tracks of damage from the air, and the creatures are still moving voicelessly through the rubble.
"Batman got in contact with the dimension they came from. It's a miscommunication, but we have to--" Superman lands, continues, "contain them, and re-open--"
Batman steps out of the shadow. "And that's where you'll come in. Do you know the tensile limit of that lasso?"
"It has the strength of Mother Earth."
"I'll take that as a no. The rift will widen the longer it's kept open. Your lasso may be able to contain it, and stop it from engulfing Earth."
The Flash looks a little concerned. "May?"
It concerns Diana too. Batman sneers, "If you have a better idea, I'd welcome it. Let's get on this, people."
Holding the rift is nearly as difficult as fighting the creatures that came out of it. Superman and Flash chivvy them back into the rift. Batman, she realizes when an explosion rocks a monster back, is guarding her back. Knowing he's there, she can keep all her attention on the lasso. Never has it seemed so much like a part of her as when she is trying to keep the tension on it constant to stop the world from being unmade. The lasso sings a constant note and everything else is discord so that she doesn't hear him when he says, "Princess? Princess! Diana!"
"What?"
"Let go now!"
She makes her hands let go, and the lasso whips free and she falls to one knee. Her heart pounds and there is silence.
"Okay," says the Flash. "Does someone want to explain to me what's just happened?"
Superman lands. "Those creatures were vermin from another dimension. The inhabitants thought they could sweep them under the rug. J'onn convinced them to be a little more neighbourly."
"Damn, I hate it when people are bad neighbours," says the Flash. "Thanks for your help, your highness. We couldn't have done it without you."
Diana stands and starts to coil up her lasso again. "Thank you. I couldn't--"
"Those creatures turned out to be non-sentient. Something you could have waited to discover before using lethal force."
Flash looks somewhat embarrassed by Batman, and Superman gives him a sideways look.
Diana is dirty and exhausted and bleeding. "No," she says. "I couldn't. Human lives were in danger. I chose. I would choose the same regardless."
Superman looks halfway distressed, halfway appalled. Flash merely looks shocked, but quickly pulls himself together. "You're still bleeding. Can we--" His eyes flicker to Superman's, who glances at Batman.
Superman pulls himself together. "Can we offer you our medbay? Seeing how little we know of those creatures, it might be wise to get that cut looked at."
Diana looks at her thigh. She's still bleeding, and she oughtn't be, perhaps there was some venom on its claws. And she would be foolish not to try to make friends with the League, at least those of them who are friendly. "I would appreciate that."
Her leg is taken care of with a beam for disinfecting and a bandage. Superman, ("Call me Kal?" ) shows her the watchtower and its inhabitants with obvious pride. At last she is forced to say, "But I must be getting back to my husband."
Kal turns red. "I'm-- I forgot, your honeymoon. I'm so sorry, I--"
"Thank you for the tour."
Bruce has left a note in the villa, "In case we both survive, Wife, I've returned to Gotham."
When she reaches Gotham, a news crew is gathered on the front lawn of the Wayne Manor. Mr. Pennyworth has brought out folding chairs so they are not so much milling as lounging, but leap to their feet when she touches down.
"Wonder Woman!"
"Princess Diana!"
"Mrs. Wayne!"
Diana is now glad she made use of the Watch Tower's facilities. The cut is now only a faint red line, and it gave her a chance to wash all the cement out of her hair. "One at a time, please!" she says, words she learned early.
"Wonder Woman, does this mean you're now a member of the JLA?"
She holds up one hand, and the group quiets. "The JLA and I worked cooperatively, but my involvement was as a private citizen."
They clatter together again. "Did you-- Have you-- What did--"
"Gentlemen, ladies!" calls out Bruce striding across the grass. "If I might speak with my wife?"
Diana feels her smile become less tight. "Husband," she says, and isn't sure what to follow it with.
"Wife," says Bruce as if it's enough. He lowers his voice. "Do you want to talk to them?"
She grips his hand, and turns back to the crowd. "The embassy will have a statement ready in the morning. Thank you."
Once they're out of earshot, Bruce asks, "Will you be doing that often?"
She swings their hands, pleased by the way they bump against her hip. "Probably."
"I'm glad you're home," Bruce confesses, "Tim was about to try a slingshot and water balloons on the press corps. I think it's the television he watches."
Lane: First question. Why 'man's world?' Frankly, I feel a little neglected.
Diana: [laughs] I'm sorry, it's what we've been calling you for millennia, it's a hard habit to break! And it is the most salient difference between my society and yours. But I have met many wonderful women here, and you're right, it does them a disservice.
Lane: Your take on our society, then. Is it, in fact, male dominated?
Diana: I'm not able to judge a society, especially one I'm only an observer of. I've experienced instances of... extremely inappropriate behaviour, that to my mind, were occasioned because I am a woman. I can't say these are systematic. However, criticism of your society's treatment of its women has arisen from within, and I think these voices deserve to be heard.
Lane: While we're speaking of men, tell us about your husband.
Diana: He's really a wonderful person! [smiles, leans forward] I'm not sure if you're aware of all the good work done by the Wayne Foundation, but I couldn't be prouder to be associated with it. His foundation provides childcare for low income women, health care for at-risk women and youth, and is responsible for forty-two percent of community centres with Gotham. Do you have a ticket to the charity Gala we're having next week?
Lane: I'm afraid--
Diana: Please allow me to provide you with one.
Lane: Let's speak of your own charity work. The Amazon nation is opening up women's shelters across America. What do you say to accusations you're interfering where you're not wanted?
Diana: Not wanted by whom? Women's shelters across America are overcrowded. We're helping women who might otherwise have no choice, and we're certainly working together with the existing organizations.
Lane: Your husband, prior to his marriage, had a reputation as a philanderer. Now people are speculating that you're keeping him on a short leash. Care to comment?
Diana: What an unpleasant figure of speech! Unless it's meant literally? In which case, I must say, it's an extremely personal observation on which I cannot comment.
Lane: No comment on your husband's changed behaviour, then?
Diana: People tell me he was different before our marriage, but I find it hard to believe. I've never known him other than a thoughtful, considerate man.
The Green Lantern looks the worst of any of them. He has a split lip and his eye is beginning to swell closed.
"Join the corps! See the galaxy! Get beaten up by the grateful populace you freed from slavery!" he says, translucent green ice bag clasped to his face.
Diana looks over the city. People are everywhere, and she can see a dozen festivals that seem to have spontaneously formed in the streets. "An unfortunate misunderstanding, but we have done well here today. I am glad you asked me to join you."
Anikitiri, the rebel leader, smiles broadly at them all, showing her fangs. "Thank you all! You will be remembered as heroes in our songs, I promise you!"
Kal shuffles his feet, looking somewhat embarrassed. "Um. Really, we only took care of the orbital platforms."
"Will you stay for the banquet? You would do us great honour."
Green Lantern looks up at Superman. Superman looks at Batman. "There's an advantageous launch window in seven hours and forty-five minutes."
Anikitiri smiles widely. "Good! Princess, does this change your answer?" Her ears are pitched forward hopefully, making her scarred face seem momentarily approachable.
Diana smiles, "Indeed, and I am glad!"
Anikitiri's tail twitches. "If you all will excuse me? Gentlemen, Princess." She exits with a sashay in her hips.
"Does she scare anyone but me?" asks Flash. No one says anything. "Okay, I guess just me. What was that about, Wonder Woman?"
"She asked if I wanted to spend the evening with her, but I was not sure of our timetable." Superman's head whips around.
"You- does she know you're married?" asks Superman.
"You mean spend the evening spend the evening?" says Flash, at the same time.
"Kal," growls Batman, "I fail to see how the Princess' marriage is any business of yours."
Superman looks at Batman, face blank, and then turns back to look at Diana. "I'm sorry, that was-- I'm really sorry, that was really rude, it's none of my business."
Diana feels-- She had not thought that there were any in man's world whose disapproval meant anything to her, but there is still a feeling in her chest like panic or nausea that she is fighting down. "We have an understanding," she says stiffly, and then wishes she hadn't.
"Don't mind the boyscout, Princess," says Batman, sounding amused.
"Sorry," says Superman, blushing miserably.
"Wait," says Flash. "You mean... spend the evening?"
Diana enters through an unlatched upper story balcony window. The wing is mostly unused so she waits until she's on the main floor of the Manor's central wing, before calling out, "Husband, I'm home!"
The wrong voice answers. "Diana? Hey, Bruce isn't home!"
She changes her course and follows the voice into the library. "Richard? Have you been staying here?"
Richard is sitting at the desk and frowning at some paperwork, but looks up and grins at her. "I swear, it's not rude to call me Dick. I promise. Tim does it all the time." Diana raises an eyebrow, and Dick grins. "Okay, no, but Bruce does too."
Diana can't bring herself to do it, and makes a face. Dick laughs. "My land-lord is installing shelves. Also, I'm taking care of some stuff for Bruce while he's in... wherever he is."
"Richard, we haven't really had a chance to talk but--" Richard visibly braces himself for a Serious Talk, "but I'm glad you don't resent me. Thank you for being so... accepting."
"Hey," says Richard, fiddling with the book in his lap. "Bruce doesn't deserve you, but you're probably one of the best things that's ever happened to him."
"What?" asks Diana, surprised. She had judged Dick as completely devoted to Bruce.
Richard looks uncomfortable. "Uh, nothing... just, he-- Nothing."
Diana doesn't prod.
"Hmm," says Bruce, looking at the mail. "Morons."
"Alfred," says Diana, "I have married the wrong man. These crêpes are divine."
"Quite right, Madame," says Alfred. "When you tire of this bounder, you know where I am to be found."
"Morons?" she asks Bruce.
He hands her an unopened envelope. "R. W. Milhouse, writing, I presume, to beg you to wear one of their creations to the Gala."
Diana opens it with a clean table knife Alfred supplies from nowhere when he sees her eyeing her silverware. Bruce is correct. "So?"
"They do diamonds. You make anything but gold look tawdry." He says it as if it's objective truth.
"I-- Alfred?"
"Master Bruce has an exquisite eye for fashion, and I must concur that your colouring does favour gold."
"Oh," she says.
Sex with Bruce can be slow and tender or playful and exploratory by turns. They come together with the intent of pleasing each other, not of unmaking and remaking each other. The bright flare of passion with a copper tang is missing, but poor Bruce wouldn't know what she was doing if she ever came to him without her fires banked.
She misses her sisters. She supposes this is part of growing up.
The sixth time she fights with the JLA, Flash asks, "Why isn't she in the group? Does Hawkgirl know about our no girl-cooties policy?"
The silence that follows is merely awkward, but Superman looks appalled.
"I'm not really sure I can make the commitment-" Diana is beginning to lie when Batman says;
"She's an unknown agent with over a thousand fighters at her back who are setting up bases at strategic points all over America. Unless you want to come clean about your agenda, Princess?"
"Those shelters are for--" she begins, attempting to sound outraged.
"I thought not. If she joins, I leave."
"Good enough for me!" says the Hawkgirl, "she has my vote!"
"Your games are ridiculous, Batman, and I will have no part in them," says the Martian.
Kal covers his face.
The Flash's gaze darts to Batman and back. "I think it would be uh. Cool to have a princess."
"Very well," says Batman viciously, "Lets make it unanimous, she has my vote."
"Thank you for the very flattering offer, but I must decline. My loyalties are too divided already, another alliance is not possible."
Batman is the first to break the silence. "A pity. Your strength is more dependable than Superman's."
The Martian goes insubstantial and sinks through the floor. Batman takes advantage of the distraction to leave the room silently.
"Wow," says Flash. "I am so, so sorry I asked."
"May I walk you to the transporter room, Diana?" asks Kal.
Walking her there, he says, awkwardly, "Have we really... I suppose we have. Would anything induce you to change your mind about us?"
"I don't have a bad opinion of your league," she reassures him.
"Just Batman," he concludes, ruefully. "He's... He's a difficult man. If you had forced him to leave, I think no one would have ...questioned your right."
"I couldn't do that," says Diana, surprised.
"No?"
"I think... I think you are his only friends." She feels ashamed to have to say it, but it's inescapable.
Kal stops in the corridor. "Diana... I'm not sure I know anyone like you."
Diana was moulded from clay, so this is not a surprise, but his tone is.
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