[it must've taken bruce considerable time and resources to track down the photograph, and that fact doesn't escape her. she has built up an extensive network as diana prince, renowned antiques dealer, one that reaches all over the world, but even that has always come up empty. for almost a hundred years, she has had only a watch to remember steve trevor by; even if it's long since stopped ticking (which she hasn't attempted to investigate how to fix), it serves as a constant reminder of what they hadn't had — time. seeing his face again brings tears to her eyes and a surge in her heart. the opportunity means so much more than she can possibly say.
"men are still good." what bruce had said to her as metropolis, as the world had mourned superman comes back to her now. it's a beautiful sentiment, even if she has learned that it is a little too simplistic to fully encompass the truth. men are much more complicated than she'd thought all those years ago, with no easy explanation for the cruelty and horrific things that exist everywhere, but there will always be goodness in their hearts, too; it can be seen in random acts of kindness, in sacrifices made unflinchingly.
and that is what is worth protecting.
she places the watch with the photograph, locks them away both in a safe and deep in her heart, and walks toward the future. there's a new war to fight now, one that is not in her personal mandate to look away from. plans are made, she takes a flight back to the united states. they start looking for the others.
it's late into the second night of their work in bruce's base of operations, and diana finds her eyes starting to grow tired; so far, it's been a lot of poring through files and staring at screens without much to show for it. she blinks and turns away from her own task, finding bruce in the half-light. the silence that's persisted between them for hours is finally broken as she ventures:]
I will tell you my story if you will tell me yours. It seems like a fair exchange.
[Bruce is the sort of man to allow silences to stretch to hours on end. He could talk the talk, walk the walk, everything that would be expected of him as Bruce Wayne, businessman.
In reality? A comfortable silence is what he prefers, at times. To be left alone and untouched by sideways social pressures is what he yearns for some days. He takes comfortable silences as something to accept and even appreciate.
The silence is finally broken, with a statement Bruce hadn't expected to come from Diana. The photograph really had been hers, and, like him, she has an identity to maintain as well. It's not as if she could explain away looking identical to a woman in a photograph from World War I to the general populace.
A secret to keep, a reminder to maintain. In that way, they were alike.
He glances to her, eyes narrowing ever so slightly.]
I'm not sure what there is to tell. It's been in every newspaper, every magazine, every... everything. The start of it, at least.
[As Bruce Wayne, he took the death of his parents hard. As Bruce Wayne, he did everything in his power to repair the growing cracks in the city. As Batman?
Ask any Gothamite what they think of the Bat. They know he exists, but why is a mystery to them all, outside of the superficial crime-fighting scenarios.]
What do you want to know?
[It's unusual of him to answer so freely. He may, perhaps, not even answer everything. Some things a man has to keep to himself.
But they're teammates now. They're looking for others like themselves. Something had to eventually give if they're to fight this war to its end.]
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no subject
"men are still good." what bruce had said to her as metropolis, as the world had mourned superman comes back to her now. it's a beautiful sentiment, even if she has learned that it is a little too simplistic to fully encompass the truth. men are much more complicated than she'd thought all those years ago, with no easy explanation for the cruelty and horrific things that exist everywhere, but there will always be goodness in their hearts, too; it can be seen in random acts of kindness, in sacrifices made unflinchingly.
and that is what is worth protecting.
she places the watch with the photograph, locks them away both in a safe and deep in her heart, and walks toward the future. there's a new war to fight now, one that is not in her personal mandate to look away from. plans are made, she takes a flight back to the united states. they start looking for the others.
it's late into the second night of their work in bruce's base of operations, and diana finds her eyes starting to grow tired; so far, it's been a lot of poring through files and staring at screens without much to show for it. she blinks and turns away from her own task, finding bruce in the half-light. the silence that's persisted between them for hours is finally broken as she ventures:]
I will tell you my story if you will tell me yours. It seems like a fair exchange.
[especially if they are to work together.]
no subject
In reality? A comfortable silence is what he prefers, at times. To be left alone and untouched by sideways social pressures is what he yearns for some days. He takes comfortable silences as something to accept and even appreciate.
The silence is finally broken, with a statement Bruce hadn't expected to come from Diana. The photograph really had been hers, and, like him, she has an identity to maintain as well. It's not as if she could explain away looking identical to a woman in a photograph from World War I to the general populace.
A secret to keep, a reminder to maintain. In that way, they were alike.
He glances to her, eyes narrowing ever so slightly.]
I'm not sure what there is to tell. It's been in every newspaper, every magazine, every... everything. The start of it, at least.
[As Bruce Wayne, he took the death of his parents hard. As Bruce Wayne, he did everything in his power to repair the growing cracks in the city. As Batman?
Ask any Gothamite what they think of the Bat. They know he exists, but why is a mystery to them all, outside of the superficial crime-fighting scenarios.]
What do you want to know?
[It's unusual of him to answer so freely. He may, perhaps, not even answer everything. Some things a man has to keep to himself.
But they're teammates now. They're looking for others like themselves. Something had to eventually give if they're to fight this war to its end.]