Chapter 9
Diana looked dubiously at the structure she was about to enter. She'd been with Audrey in some of the finest hotels in Paris and Kasnia, as well as the Kasnian royal palace and country mansion. Now, however, Audrey had asked her to come to this rustic shack in the middle of the forests abutting the country manor, which appeared serviceable - by 1950s standards.
Still, it had to be better than that dungeon cell so many weeks ago.
Nervously she adjusted her dress before knocking on the door.
The door opened slowly, and Diana gasped. Audrey favored clothing in shades of cream and silver, but tonight she was in a black sleeveless dress that clung to her upper body before flaring slightly below the waist.
The princess looked at her with approval. "Hello, Diana," she said happily. "You'll forgive me if my reaction is not as extravagant as yours, but I have already had the opportunity to admire you in that dress, and I took great satisfaction in it."
"Even then?" Diana asked, referring to that first night they met when Audrey helped her pick it out. "We barely knew each other."
"Yes, but I have my dreams too, Diana," Audrey replied, managing to sound demure and naughty at the same time. She turned around and walked inside, granting Diana room to enter. As she moved away, Diana was spellbound both by the back of the dress, which dipped down to a point just above her waist, as well as the way the fabric of her gown accentuated the curves of her legs as she walked.
Audrey cast a glance over her shoulder, and the look on Diana's face must have pleased her, because she beamed.
"If this is the Kasnian hunting lodge, I'd say you were gypped," Diana said as her wits recovered.
"It is only an insignificant shack that my father once used when hunting bears," Audrey told her.
"I can imagine," Diana replied, noting the thick black bearskin rug near the fireplace, which roared and lent heat to the cabin. "Don't tell me you built that."
"Don't be silly," Audrey said, laughing. "Just as it was not I who brought everything here. Unless you thought it always looked like this."
Diana's eye took in the carefully set table, exquisite in its simplicity, as well as the flowers, the candles, and the drawn shades. "A little out of the way," she said.
"Yes," Audrey told her. That little word seemed to be loaded with meaning, and Diana smiled. "It's perfect for a secret rendezvous. In fact, I lost my virginity here."
"What?!!!"
"Just kidding, Diana," the princess reassured her, her eyes alight with impish glee. "Actually I have never used this cabin for such a purpose. Although perhaps you might like to," she added softly.
The fire was a big success, because Diana felt warm. "Is this part of the 'street map' too?" she asked faintly.
"Oh, now you're just teasing me!" Audrey said, her face pouting. "Come, we're having a date, remember? I had this food cooked myself." She went over to the table and, for the first time, looked lost. "Er, which one of us sits first?"
"Well, on Themiscyra, we Amazons believe a woman doesn't need a man to do anything for her," Diana replied, feeling her confidence powerfully reawakening. "So we should get our own chairs."
"Right, of course," Audrey said, tapping her chin with her finger. She moved her hand toward the back of her chair.
Diana's hand caught her wrist, however. "That also means a woman can do whatever she wants," she murmured as she pulled Audrey's chair out and invited her to sit.
Audrey's eyes shone. "Thank you," she whispered. "But," she continued, her voice returning, "as a would-be Amazon, I think I should assert myself." Leaving the empty chair to Diana, she walked around the table and sat in the other seat.
"Very well," Diana answered, considering the petite woman as she sat. She took her own chair. "How did you explain this set-up?" she asked, thinking for the first time that night of what Batman had said the day before. Specifically, the indiscretions of royal servants, but that led to other thoughts, and she clenched a fist under the tablecloth.
"I told the servants I would be dining in private with a foreign dignitary. Someone royal, I believe I mentioned. I've let it be known that I'm looking very carefully at possible future husbands," Audrey told her. She grinned. "Don't worry about the help. I learned years ago that the best way for them to supplement their pay is to leak things to the press. I used that knowledge over time - especially when I wanted something naughty to reach my father's ears via the papers." Her smile faltered.
"How is Gustav?" Diana asked.
"He's all right," Audrey responded. "His legs are recovering slowly. His mind is healing faster, though, and my father needs his faculties more than he needs his morning walk." She lightly placed her hand on Diana's. "Could we talk of other things tonight?"
"Of course, Audrey," Diana said. "What would you like to know?"
"Have you told any of your friends in the League about us?" Audrey asked brightly.
This time it was Diana whose face fell.
Audrey looked dismayed. "Oh, I see. You haven't told them yet."
"No, no, I've told them. Some of them are just - they're more concerned about the image of the Justice League than with my own happiness," Diana said coolly. "Or their own problems," she added, remembering Shayera.
"What will you do?" Audrey asked.
"Well, hopefully they'll understand soon. Maybe if I introduced you to them," Diana said thoughtfully.
"And if they don't?"
Diana hesitated. "This is a first date," she answered evasively. "We should spend more time focusing on each other, not what someone might do months from now. Nothing heavy tonight."
Audrey nodded. "All right." She looked down for a second. "You look beautiful tonight, Diana," she finally said.
Her words dispelled Diana's burdens for the moment. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "And you look incredible."
The Kasnian princess blushed. "I've heard that a thousand times, but coming from you, somehow it's better."
Diana smiled. "So what's for dinner?"
"Perhaps we should remove the lids and find out?"
"And dessert?"
Audrey raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps we can both leave that to our imaginations."
________________________________
"Audrey."
"No, no, Diana, we can get up in another hour . . ."
Diana was able to smile for the first time in hours. This probably wasn't how either woman had envisioned her ending up in the princess' bedroom. Perhaps it was sooner than expected; it had only been a week since that wonderful first date. "Audrey, wake up. It's Diana."
The princess slowly opened her eyes and focused on the superhero looking down at her. "Diana," she said sleepily. "What are you doing here? What time is it?"
She glanced at the clock. "Two-thirty A.M., I think," she whispered.
Audrey sat up on one elbow. "Why are - is something wrong?"
"Yeah," Diana said wearily. "You could say that. The Justice League has completely fallen apart, Audrey."
"What? No! It's . . . it's not because of us, is it?" Audrey asked sadly.
Diana shook her head. "No, it's not." But she stopped. "Well, maybe it was a factor."
"I do not understand," Audrey said, trying to clear her head. "What happened?"
Diana tried to explain about how the League's teamwork had gradually disintegrated over time, culminating in a humiliating defeat at the hands of a collection of villains who had all been beaten in the past. "I think when Superman said he'd had it, that pretty much killed what little was holding us together at that point," she said.
"That's horrible," Audrey said, not sure how to respond. "Only what did our relationship have to do with it?"
"Well, we'd been laboring under a lot of strains lately," Diana said, sighing, "and my little revelation didn't help matters. Batman's never afraid to say what nobody wants to listen to, I'll give him that. But Hawkgirl and the Green Lantern have their own problems, and it made them irritable with virtually everybody. The Flash's tongue generally exacerbated the situation, rather than lightening it."
She looked down. "There were only three people I could have gone to after I walked away. Shayera was obviously out, and my mother equally so. That left you." Diana took Audrey's hand. "I don't mean to say that you were my third choice," she hastily added. "I just knew I would have to wake you. But it only took me a second to make up my mind, and I flew here right away." Diana yawned suddenly.
"Diana," Audrey asked curiously, "where exactly did you have this big fight?"
"Los Angeles. Why?"
"But that's several thousand miles away!" Audrey said, appalled. "You can't honestly have flown that entire distance in one night!"
"I did have to stop to rest in France," Diana replied softly.
Audrey nodded. "You must be exhausted, Diana. Perhaps you would like to talk more in the morning?"
Diana found herself yawning yet again. "Okay, yes, Audrey. I'll be back in - "
"No, no, no," Audrey said good-naturedly. "I want you to sleep here. With me."
"Here?"
"Naturally. You'll have to take those boots off first, you know," Audrey warned her.
They looked at each other. That first night in the cabin had led to a great deal of passion, as both women had wanted and expected. They had lain next to each other on that thick rug and devoured each other. But neither woman had done more than partially disrobe. By unspoken agreement, neither woman had initiated anything more. Diana wasn't sure if she was ready for that, and evidently Audrey felt the same way.
"I don't think you need to talk anyway," Audrey went on. "All you need is to lie here in my arms." She smiled hopefully. "You don't have to be Wonder Woman the Amazon all the time, you know."
Diana stood up. "Hold on," she said, leaving the room.
Audrey watched her leave, wondering with trepidation if she wasn't coming back.
But she did come back, and her boots were off.
So was her costume.
Audrey gasped.
"I knew I'd get that kind of reaction from you sooner or later," Diana said. Her underwear was the only stitch of clothing she had on now. Even the tiara was off.
The princess wordlessly moved the blankets aside so Diana could climb in.
"You're right," Diana whispered after she had slid under the covers and into Audrey's waiting arms. Her breasts pressed against Audrey's, with only the sheer silk of the princess' nightgown between them. "I don't really want to talk right now."
"Then sleep," Audrey said, caressing her hair. "And dream."
And so they slept, and dreamed.
There was kissing first, though.
________________________________
"Do you have a few minutes?"
Diana looked behind her and saw Hawkgirl approaching in the air. "Can it wait until the Watchtower? We've both just fought for our lives after more than a day in confinement, and I really want - "
"We both know you're not going to the Watchtower," Hawkgirl said as she caught up with Diana. "Or you'd be in the ship with the others. And I think you can spare a few minutes, when you consider it will take you a couple hours to get from Gotham to Kasnia. We do know where you spend your free time now, remember?" she added when she saw the look on Diana's face.
"I suppose you do," Diana replied after a moment. "All right, let's touch down for a minute."
They landed together in the forests to the north of Gotham. Diana watched Hawkgirl closely. The last time they'd spoken in private, Hawkgirl had made the completely unfair suggestion that Diana had ruined her opportunity to openly tell John how she felt about him.
"Do you want to be alone with Audrey because you want to be with her, or because you don't want to be with the rest of us?" Hawkgirl finally asked.
"Are we being honest here?" Diana answered with a question of our own.
"I think we've been honest with each other for days now. Brutally, tactlessly honest, thanks to that oversized monkey," Hawkgirl replied. "Now we can choose to be as honest - or as polite - as we like."
Diana nodded. "Is this your way of saying Grodd was responsible for the things you said to me in the Watchtower last week?"
Hawkgirl glared at her. "I don't think his powers extend that far beyond the Earth's atmosphere, Diana," she said curtly. "It doesn't matter, though. My words came from within me."
"Then the answer is both. I want to be with Audrey. By now she's heard about what happened at the stadium, and she'll be worried about me. But I don't feel like being with the others right now, either," Diana told her.
"So you don't agree with Green Lantern when he says we should say sorry and move on?"
Diana laughed mirthlessly. "He's got the right idea, but he makes it sound so easy. Maybe we need counseling, because we need to deal with a lot of issues."
"Like your new girlfriend?" Hawkgirl asked.
"Yes, like her!" Diana retorted, her anger flaring. "Or your never-to-be boyfriend!"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"For a woman of your courage," Diana said icily, "you've been quite the coward with John. You're like a girl waiting for her crush to ask her to the school dance!"
"Oh great, here we go with the Amazonian feminist lecture," Hawkgirl muttered.
"This has nothing to do with what women can or can't do," Diana told her, although she was still irritated by the way that bitch Giganta had tried to play on Superman's male chauvinism earlier that night. When a woman said to a man "You wouldn't hit a woman, would you?", Diana could grit her teeth, or she could beat her silly. "This is about your personal choices. I was afraid to be truthful with Audrey. I was afraid to tell the League. But I did it, and your caterwauling that your secret somehow had precedence over mine is completely asinine. If I were to wait for you to go first, I might never have told them!"
"I'm not hearing a sorry," Hawkgirl snarled.
"Batman seems to think that I'll have to apologize for my feelings for Audrey someday, but that will never happen. You know, your dimensional double is nothing like you, Shayera," Diana said. "She crossed too many lines, but you never cross any."
The mace in Hawkgirl's hand sprang to life, and with an outraged cry she pivoted on her heel and smashed the tree behind her to the ground.
A snide remark or two sprang to mind, but Diana decided to wait for a more rational response.
"You can really be a pompous bitch sometimes," Hawkgirl said.
Diana kept waiting. This had been Hawkgirl's idea, after all.
Hawkgirl looked away. "When we parted ways the other night, I assume you went to her."
"Yes, I did," Diana replied, expecting this to lead into another diatribe.
"Would it surprise you that John and I found our way to each other?"
"Not entirely, no," Diana said. "We were all pretty upset with each other, but the two of you would be the most likely to talk, I suppose."
"Well, I think he actually gave me an opening to be honest with him, and I rejected him," Hawkgirl told her.
"What did he say?" Diana asked.
Hawkgirl sighed. "He told me he would give his life for me." She glanced at Diana. "All right, we've all risked our lives for each other in the past, but that night I think we all felt like if someone else was in trouble, it was their problem. I think John was talking about something deeper. And I told him he didn't know what he was talking about."
"You were upset, and let's not forget the whole not-thinking-right part."
"I was resentful, not upset. Resentful that he'd seemed completely oblivious to my hints and glances, resentful that I'd done nothing more than hints and glances, resentful that during that fight I'd been more concerned with his condition than watching my own back when he was injured. And yes, resentful that you'd dropped your little bombshell." Hawkgirl flung her mace to the forest carpet. "For the first time he gives me a sign that he returns my feelings, and I wasted it. So I guess your big revelation didn't have anything to do with my own ability to share with him," she admitted reluctantly.
Acknowledging error was not something either woman did easily. But Hawkgirl's admission made it easier for Diana to respond in kind. "I could have postponed the announcement," she said, "until I talked to you about it. After what you'd told me, you deserved to be the first to know, and I should have given you the chance to come clean to John first."
Hawkgirl smiled, but it wasn't a happy one. "I'm not sure I would have even then. Maybe you _would_ have waited forever if I had insisted on going first."
"Well, in this case," Diana replied, "I think John is correct. All you have to do is say you're sorry, ask him to forget those last words of yours, and move on by picking up the conversation where you left it. After all, he did give you that sign you were hoping for."
"I just hope I wasn't reading too much into it," Hawkgirl said doubtfully. "I'm sorry, Diana."
"I am equally sorry, Shayera," Diana answered.
"I think most of the others will be supportive of you and Audrey once they've adjusted," Hawkgirl told her. "Your only problem is Batman. I figured him to be the bearer of bad tidings, but I never expected him to play the orientation card."
"I sincerely don't believe him to be a bigot," Diana said. "But I do think years of fighting crime in Gotham has soured him a little on human nature. He expects the worst from people when it comes to things they don't understand."
"I can talk to him if you like."
"No, I'll deal with it eventually. If everyone talks to him, he'll feel surrounded and he'll stick to his remarks even harder."
"He's not completely wrong, Diana," Hawkgirl warned her. "Even more than I, you're a role model to millions of girls around the world, and some people with microphones and podiums and pulpits will say very loudly that you are corrupting them with the notion that homosexuality isn't an affront to notions of truth, goodness, and decency."
"But it isn't," Diana pointed out.
"You're right, but to them, it is. Which is why you should go right ahead and corrupt them," Hawkgirl added with a smile.
Diana nodded solemnly. Then she grinned. "So I'm more of a role model than you?"
"It's the wings, Diana. Daddy can buy his little girl a lasso and a tiara, but wings are a little harder to come by."
Hawkgirl then leapt into the air, but she hovered briefly over Diana. "Tell Audrey I'd like to meet her sometime. I want to know what kind of woman could wrap you around her finger."
"I'll do that," Diana said. She watched Hawkgirl leave and hoped other differences could be solved so easily, instead of just being papered over.
To be continued . . .
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