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Date With a Princess
By ToaR
"Oooff!" Lois felt the air forcefully exit her lungs when the arms that caught her abruptly stopped her downward fall.
"Clark was right, you fall a lot." The dry observance from her rescuer was new and, under the circumstances, unappreciated.
Sucking in enough air to say it only once, Lois whipped her head around to look over her shoulder, hitting the person still holding her in the face with a dark ponytail and delivered her defense. "This was not my fault, Feathers!"
"Pfft! Bleh! No need to hit me, Lane. And I do not believe you for a hot second." An updraft pulled the two higher into the air until tawny gold wings stabilized their flight and began to angle down towards the ground. "And it's Hawkgirl. Get it right or I let you finish your swan dive."
Glaring as hard as she could into the one green eye she could see through the flyaway red hair, Lois bared her teeth in a mockery of a smile. "Drop me and I will pluck your primaries, Birdie."
A fierce scowl and the loosening of the arms around her waist met her response. The two females continued silently daring the other to make the wrong move, ignoring the approaching figure in red and blue.
"Shayera, I can take her if you need to return to help apprehend the last of the gang members." While cloaked in the guise of a suggestion, Shayera knew a command when she heard one.
Snorting she gave a small heave and thrust the annoyance toward the other superhero. "She's all yours, Princess."
"Heyyy-aaahhh!" Lois flailed midair feeling the bottom of her stomach fall out once more without anything to hold on to accept the assurance of gravity's inevitable pull. "Oooff" Caught again, winded again. Lois herself was getting a little sick of falling. "I'm gonna invest in a parachute," she mumbled, not expecting a warm chuckle nor a quick maneuver that ended up with her cradled like a bride in the arms of an Amazon instead of hanging like a towel strung up to dry.
"I do not think even a parachute would save you from falling, Lois."
Wrapping her arms securely around Diana's neck and shoulders, Lois grimaced then smiled. "Well, I wouldn't dare call any of you Leaguers 'parachutes.' Maybe safety nets…" she trailed off teasingly.
The ground never got close as the duo flew clear of the fight zone in downtown Star City where a branch of Intergang literally exploded on the scene when an intrepid reporter got a little too visible in her snooping and some idiot opened fire in a warehouse full of illegal explosives. Diana slowed and descended to land in a park on the outskirts of downtown, tipping Lois up and out of her hands.
A concerned frown wrinkled between her eyebrows as Diana watched Lois check all her pockets and brush off debris from the explosions she attempted to avoid. "I wish a safety net could be a guarantee."
Looking up from her still intact (Thank God!) recorder, Lois was a bit taken aback by how unhappy Diana was. Putting the recorder away Lois reached out and pushed on the heavy wrinkle between those striking blue eyes, causing Diana to tilt her head away with a questioning expression. "Princess, the only guarantees I have in life are for my electronic devices."
Switching her hand over to tap Diana's nose when it scrunched a bit as she huffed a laugh, Lois allowed a fond smile to peek out at her friend. "That any of you try to save me amidst the chaos is a gift I will never take for granted. But," her hand opened to fall from Diana's cheek to her fingers, grasping tightly, trying to get her point across. "I do not expect to be saved."
The confusion was back and Diana struggled to accept her friend's words. "Why put yourself in danger then? You know I, or Clark, or Bruce would always…!"
This time Lois' other hand was in motion. Her thumb gently bridged the gap between two coral pink lips tense with worry while her other fingers cupped the strong jaw below them. "It is my job, Wonder Woman," the reporter said firmly even as her ice blue eyes shined with affection. "This is how I save our world, in pursuit of the truth so justice has a fighting chance."
Lois felt her heart stutter when the lips she touched pressed a kiss into her skin and her breathing hitched when Diana pulled her into a hug. "I am always left a little in awe whenever I speak to you Lois Lane. You remind me of home and why I left to save it. You make me a better hero with your bravery."
Her cheeks were burning at the embarrassingly frank praise being whispered into her ear. "Really, Princess, I already won a Pulitzer," she tried to joke as a spicy perfume wafted to her nose from Diana's cloud of black hair, enticing her to breathe deeper the heady scent.
Diana pulled back, releasing Lois from the embrace, a little unhappy that her words were not being taken seriously. "Please do not belittle my admiration or the courage you show when you investigate." The Amazon paced around the area, trying to bleed off some of her irritation when a sure hand on her bicep stopped her on the second round.
"I'm sorry. It is a bad habit of mine to brush aside concern or praise. I am not really comfortable with either being aimed my way." Lois dropped her hand when Diana finally looked at her again, still a bit disgruntled, she could tell.
At a rare loss for words beyond the apology she owed, Lois fiddled with her recorder in her pocket, caressing the buttons, signs worn away from constant use and more than a bit of situational abuse but she knew this device inside and out. It is not a puzzle or a mystery to solve; it is not disguised as anything other than what it is.
Lois pulled out and held up her recorder to the light of the afternoon sun, up to Diana's gaze. "I greatly admire you, Diana of Themyscira. You do not hide who you are, how you are culturally different from others, that you view the world with pragmatic optimism; that you listen, that you speak." Lois grinned, slightly bashful but loving the fact that a pink hue now rested on Diana's cheeks and her eyes were a bit wide. "I could go on and on, and if you get me drunk enough some night I will only say I warned you. But I love that when I say any title given to or earned by you it is always Diana who answers."
For a moment something bright and fragile and infinitely precious fluttered over Diana's face, through her eyes, and then she grinned widely and cracked a joke. "Comparing me to your recorder does a lot to my ego, Miss Lane. Not all of it good, mind you."
Lois barked out a laugh and placed her device back into her pocket. "Princess you're only jealous because the recorder comes home with me every night." She knew she was flirting horribly, blatantly, but something about this woman instinctively drew out the words she most wanted to say.
The smile never left Diana's lips, merely transformed into something sly and heart-attack inducing. "All too true."
Lois swallowed hard and felt a fine sheen of nervous sweat break out on her back. "I…Would you…"
Whatever it is she would have said neither woman will ever know because a giant robot in flaming pieces landed a little too close for comfort. Diana dove in front of Lois, crossing her arms deflecting minor but potentially deadly debris with her bracelets. Lois had turned her back on the explosion, cupping her hands around her neck, arms against her ears, and hunched over to protect herself from the heated blast. When the ground stopped shifting and the high whine of destroyed mechanics mellowed into the deceptively calm crackle of a fire both women cautiously dropped their guard.
"Are you unharmed?"
"Just peachy."
Nodding but sweeping her eyes over Lois anyway, Diana relaxed when she saw no visible wounds. "I have to return."
Lois rolled her eyes and smirked. "You don't say. I bet that flaming robot was a great clue to figuring that out."
Quick as a whip, Diana's hand snapped out and whapped Lois on the shoulder. "Don't be an ass, Lois. It is unbecoming of such a silver tongue," she retorted with an arched smile.
"Ow! Watch the strength around this poor mortal," Lois grinned even as she rubbed the slight sting from her skin. She deserved it.
"I could always kiss it better." Diana's smiled turned absolutely wicked. It took Lois completely by surprise and she felt her face flush positively siren red. "Diana!" she gasped in shock, mouth agape. "Do you kiss your mother with that mouth!?"
The struggle was real. Lois could have smacked herself for the awful line that burst out in her surprise, especially when Diana threw back her head and laughed.
"See you later perhaps?" A hopeful smile replaced the wicked one after Diana had finished laughing.
"I'll see you on my balcony, Princess. Make sure to bring supper," Lois bravely commanded, scoring a pseudo-date in the process.
Diana grinned even as she lifted off the ground. "I look forward to tonight then. Chinese?"
Nodding and matching the happy look on the Amazon's face, Lois waved the heroine off. "Yes, yes, now shoo. You have some bad guys to catch."
Diana winked then flew off back to the warehouse district.
Lois watched for a second then started walking towards the park entrance to hail a taxi. It was two hours back to Metropolis from Star City and even though she had a free plane ride courtesy of Wayne Enterprises, being late for her first date with a princess was not an option.
"TAXI!!"
The End