Work Text:
I’ve lived through a lot of awkward experiences. Created a lot of them too, in fact. Tripped on my dress in front of a wealthy benefactor, once.
That was dumb.
What was more dumb was the fact that I spilled my champagne over my dress, which was white, and it went see-through, showing my bra to all around me.
Yeah, that was awkward.
You know what’s even more awkward, though?
Having to go to work on Monday.
I’m wearing my baggy sweater again and leggings. I’ve tied my hair up too. And those heels - yeah, I’m wearing them as well.
I’ve got eyeliner on too. Why not, in a chaotic world like ours? Everything’s still a little raw. There’s a lot of quietness, a lot of tiredness, it’s the aftermath of an event that didn’t happen.
I’m scurrying to my office, walking surprisingly well in my heels, when I round a corner and run, literally, into Diana.
She bends down to pick up my papers at the same time I do and then we lock eyes and wow-
Yeah, this is awkward. Worse than the dress thing.
“Hi.” I say, and it surprisingly doesn’t come out as a squeak.
“Barbara…” Diana replies, slowly. It’s a little frosty. Unsurprisingly.
“Sorry for the whole ‘trying to kill you’ thing!” I’m mostly sorry. Not completely. I really need to stop apologising.
“Likewise.” She says, and there’s almost an edge of a joke to it all. She hands me some of my papers, and I stuff them into my case and snap it shut.
“Well, it was nice to see you!” I say, quickly, and then turn to leave, before I can think more about the look of her eyes and just how awkward this whole thing is. “I’m going to go-”
“Barbara.” Diana catches my hand and I nearly, just about, almost manage to swallow my gasp. Her palm is cool and soft and I want to feel more of it.
“Yes, Diana?” It comes out a little breathless. Damn this body. Damn my inability to keep it together, after all we’ve been through. I’ve gotta get a grip.
“We have both said and done quite a lot.” Diana says, staring far too deeply at me. I fight the urge to look away. “It does not do to leave a friendship on such a basis. Dinner?”
“Me?” Even after all I’ve done… after what we’ve both done… she still wants to spend time with me?
“Yes, you.” Diana says, and smiles, lazily. “There’s no one else here I’d rather spend time with. Seven?”
It takes me a moment. “Uh- yeah!”
“I’ll see you then.” She replies, then walks off, with all the airs of a literal goddess - I mean, I guess that’s what she is, technically (???) - her hips swaying.
I swallow. Guh.
I look a mess. I look a mess, and I’m going to dinner with Diana after we’ve both tried to kill each other and ughhh, why does my life have to be like this?
If this was a movie, I’d be the nerdy scientist turned hot blonde by the end of the film.
Well.
I mean, I guess it was kinda like that.
Until the whole ‘turning back into my same old frumpy self’ part.
That doesn’t happen in the movies.
I tie my hair up and tug on my heels. I have makeup, sure, but it doesn’t quite… feel authentic, right now. I stay with the eyeliner only.
Diana knocks at two minutes to seven. She’s dressed the same as she was earlier in the morning, which means she still looks gorgeous. I absolutely pale in comparison.
“Barbara.” She smiles, and it’s a smile that immediately brightens my day. “You look lovely. Should we go?”
“Let’s do it!” I say, and resolutely don’t stumble over in the heels as I join her.
And the thing is, dinner is nice? Not awkward at all. We sit on a secluded balcony, high about the sea. My hair has escaped from my ponytail a bit, but I’m not sad about it.
We talk about work things. I don’t talk about how I nearly killed her, and she doesn’t talk about how she nearly killed me. It’s fine.
Until it isn’t.
“I wanted to say…” Diana says, after we’ve ordered our desserts. “You’ve really picked up walking in those heels.”
And that’s the thing, I guess I have. But there’s a reason for that. My smile turns bitter. “Gotta have the confidence, I guess.”
“It was always within you, Barbara.” Diana says, placidly. “All you had to do was find it.”
“By turning into a cheetah.” I huff, feeling a twinge of the rage I once had rise inside me, once again. “Which I gave up. For you.”
“You don’t need to have abilities beyond your world to be strong, Barbara.” Diana replies. She reaches for my hand again, and I let her take it. The thing is, she’s right, no matter how much I don’t want to admit it. “You’re an incredible scientist, unique, strong, and funny. You’re kind, too, and you have a warm heart. That’s what matters.”
I blush a little. I can’t help it. She’s too nice to me, after all we’ve done. “Shut up.” I murmur. “Just… don’t.”
“You need to know your own worth.”
“You’re being too nice to me.”
“It’s what you deserve.”
I stare at our clasped hands for a moment, deep in thought. This feels… right, somehow. I don’t understand it. “I thought I’d be angrier. I thought I’d want to kill you. I gave up feeling… the best I’d ever felt - the most powerful, the strongest, the most beautiful - because of you. I thought I’d keep the rage. But I just feel… like me again.”
“The stone was controlling you. That rage wasn’t yours.” Diana reminds me.
I shrug. “I feel like I should hate you. But… I don’t. I can’t hate this. I can't hate you.”
“Good.” She says, and smiles softly at me. “You are a bright light in my world, Barbara. I don’t want to lose you.”
I blush even harder. “Don’t- you can’t just say things like that.”
She reaches out, with her other hand, and brushes a piece of hair behind my ear. Her hand rests very gently on my cheek. “Really? They’re all true.”
My heart thuds very, very loudly in my ears. This isn’t- I swallow, my throat dry all of a sudden. “I’m- I just-” I look around, but there’s no-one within eyeshot. No-one who can see us. “Um-”
I’m not one to just jump into things. I”ve never been much of a spontaneous person, but something inside me says to take this leap.
I reach out and kiss her.
And, y’know, it’s good.
I don’t exactly go around kissing strange women -
Well, ever, really -
But she’s very easy to kiss.
And then I remember.
“Oh my God,” I stammer, breaking away reluctantly and leaning back in my seat, a weird kind of dirty shame coursing through me. “I’m sorry, uh- your boyfriend- uh, Steve? He- I’m- he’s- shit. Sorry.”
Diana just smiles again, a little sadly this time, and runs her thumb along my cheek. It sends shivers right down my back. “Steve was my wish. He’s gone. I miss him. I will always miss him… but I can’t live my life pining over a man who died sixty years ago.”
Oh.
Well… that. Uh. Changes things.
I want to ask more, but suddenly she’s kissing me again, and I forget my worries almost immediately.
All except one.
“Wait. Sixty years?”
In the scheme of things, possibly not the most awkward situation I’ve ever been in. The dress thing is fairly up there.
The kissing moderates the embarassment, somewhat.
Very good.