All This Time

no conditions following

Summary: the one where Diana gets her love back.

The exhaustion still hasn't gone away. She's had two weeks to rest after fighting Ares, but the exhaustion seems to live in her bones and she can't shake it. Etta, bless her heart, has tried to understand. Bringing over teas and meals while showing her how to work the old stove in Steve's rickety apartment, but Diana can barely stand to bring herself out of bed most days. She thinks maybe Etta doesn't understand the exhaustion is more than just from the physical battle, but then they both end up crying over an old photo of Steve one day and Diana knows she does. Humans have a strange way of showing it, but Etta does understand.

"Here, love," Etta says, handing her another dish as she stands in the doorway. "I baked it fresh this morning for you."

"Thank you, Etta," Diana manages to say.

Etta doesn't stay long that morning. After all, she's a working woman and Diana still needs an impossible amount of legal papers if she's going to remain in Man's World, so Etta leaves and Diana's left alone.

London is loud and Diana hates it, but at least the traffic outside the apartment window gives her something to watch, so that's what she does. When the exhaustion and grief get to be too much, she moves to the window and tries to imagine how the people below are living. Did they lose someone to this war too? How long until man declares the end of it now that Ares is killed?

Diana gets her answer the next morning, but it's not the biggest thing to happen to her that day.

It's ridiculous, really. She hasn't cancelled Steve's subscription to the local newspaper with the excuse that she's still grieving, so of course, it's waiting for her.

Germany Surrenders! The Great War Finished!

Diana slams the door shut and leans against it. She's been waiting for the news, she supposes, but the news deserves to be celebrated with someone and she doesn't have anyone.

She's cried more in the past two weeks than ever before, so it's really no surprise when her cheeks become wet and she finds herself shaking against the door. Steve deserved to read that headline, not her. He fought the war much longer than she had, yet she's the one who gets to see the victory and it's not fair.

Not for the first time, she wishes that she'd been in that plane instead.

"Bad time then, eh?"

Diana's head snaps up and she finds herself staring into uncomfortably familiar eyes. She knows she's never seen the man standing in front of her, but she also knows she recognises him somehow and that can't mean anything good.

"Zeus?"

It's perhaps a little bold to assume Zeus would visit her like this: in London, wearing a ridiculous suit and top hat while she cries herself sick in a dead man's apartment. Then again, the gods have done many strange things and Diana knows to never be too surprised.

"In the flesh."

He does some sort of gesture to his human outfit as if that would make this make sense, but Diana's only just now registering that Zeus is very much alive and could have helped with Ares. Before she can get ahead of herself and forget how her mother taught her never to anger a god, Zeus speaks again.

"A recent development, I assure you," he says, but the assurance is lost on Diana. "Ares's death released the hold over us. Some of the others are still forming, but we've all decided you deserve a reward for saving us and in turn, the world."

"I don't want your reward," Diana says shortly. The gods are renowned for their disastrous gifts and because of them, her one love is dead. "I don't want anything else from you."

"Perhaps you think so, but you will want this."

Diana wants to argue that no, she does not, but there's a sound outside the door that catches her attention. Her head turns and when she looks back at Zeus, he's gone.

Diana scowls and turns to open the door. At the very least, she should make sure someone isn't trying to break into the apartment. When she opens the door, however, she stops short.

"Steve?"

She's not even sure if she's spoken or not, but Steve gives her a strange grin. Slowly—worried he'll disappear if she moves too quickly—she reaches out and runs her fingers over his cheeks.

"Is it really you?" she murmurs. Her fingers tangle in his hair and she brushes dirt from his face gently.

"It's me, angel."

Steve reaches out and wraps his hand around her wrist, the last assurance she needs that this is not a dream. Tears take over her vision and she lets out a strangled cry of relief before pulling herself into Steve's chest and hugging him as tight as she can.

"A little tight there, angel," Steve chokes out. Diana loosens her grip until he can breathe, but doesn't pull away. "Hey, it's okay. What—Diana, what's wrong?"

She doesn't answer. She's not sure she can. Not after two weeks of thinking he was dead and mourning him.

"Angel?"

Diana pulls her face back to look up at him and Steve wipes her cheeks gently. He smiles warmly at her and Diana feels another happy sob well up in her chest.

"You were dead," she tells him. He brushes her cheek gently when she struggles on her words. "For two weeks, you were dead."

Steve looks confused, but Diana doesn't have the energy to explain it to him at the moment and he seems to understand this. He lets her hug him and cry into his chest and Diana doesn't care that they're still in the doorway.

Eventually, Steve wrangles her inside, but Diana never leaves his side. In one way or another, she's always right there. Even when Etta comes by like usual and screams at the sight of Steve standing there, perfectly healthy although a little confused.

Diana knows she'll have to talk to Zeus about it at some point, but she kind of forgets. Sameer and Charlie come over as soon as Etta calls to tell them Steve came home and there's no time to think about a god.

"You don't remember anything?" Charlie asks in the days after, glancing at Diana as he talks to Steve about how he came back.

"I remember pulling the trigger and being in the plane," Steve tells them, squeezing Diana's hand under the table. "After that, I woke up in front of my own door."

She's about to say something about Zeus visiting her before, but Steve gives her a look and she decides now may not be the time to mention his return is from the gods and possibly conditional. However, she does decide that she needs to talk to Zeus sooner rather than later, so while Steve goes out with Charlie and Sameer the next day, she stands in the window and demands an audience with the god of lightning himself.

"Yes?"

He's wearing that suit and top hat again, but this time it has changed from a simple black to a navy blue. She's not sure it's better.

"What are the conditions?" she asks, not wasting any time. Zeus won't get away without giving her an answer, but she won't risk wasting time either.

"There are none," Zeus tells her. She doesn't believe him. "It was a gift, Diana. You saved us all and as such, Hades has seen fit to return your Steve Trevor. As long as you live, he will never leave again."

Diana blinks because of all things, she wasn't expecting that.

"There are no conditions, Diana," Zeus repeats, seeming to sense the doubt in her mind. "As long as you breathe and fight, Steve Trevor will do the same."

Zeus disappears in a beam of light as Diana struggles to find the right words. It's a few seconds later when she hears Steve laughing as he returns with Sameer and Charlie that she decides to take Zeus's word for it.

"Thank you," she murmurs, turning just in time for Steve to come tripping over the newspaper and loudly announce that while they hadn't found any ice cream, there were things called croissants that she absolutely had to try.