All This Time

disaster in the form of a gun

After living for over a century in man's world, Diana has decided she enjoys having a routine. It changes a bit every time they move countries or when she has to change jobs to avoid suspicion about her and Steve's ageless appearances, but it remains generally the same. She enjoys waking up at dawn and watching the sunrise. She likes it when Steve brings her tea and breakfast. After fighting for the bathroom, she enjoys walking to work and getting there early. She likes the routine.

Steve, on the other hand, despises it. He gets anxious if he does the same thing every day, so while Diana remains a loyal fan of yoga, Steve tries out a variety of different morning exercises and switches up his daily schedule every few years.

But it works and it's become such a common little routine (or non-routine, it depends on who you ask) that when Diana returns to the apartment after an early morning run, she's not all that surprised to find Steve in what she's sure is supposed to be some type of yoga position.

It was time the routine changed a bit anyway, she thinks, tilting her head slightly to try and figure out what move Steve is trying to do.

When he sees her, Steve lets out a surprised grunt and topples over. "Diana!"

He smiles up at her from the floor and Diana grins back, kicking the door shut behind her and flicking the lock.

"I was wondering when you were going to give up on cross fit," she says. She drops her keys and her phone on the counter then joins him on the floor to stretch. "I'm not sure yoga is necessarily your thing, though."

Steve scratches the back of his head and chuckles under his breath. "Yeah, I think you're probably right."

As Diana starts stretching, Steve gets to his feet and presses a warm kiss to her head. He leaves her in the living room and heads for the kitchen to start on breakfast. While Diana has learned how to cook over the past few decades, they've both decided that the kitchen is more Steve's domain and Diana is better off saving the world.

They go about their morning in relative silence. Diana disappears to take a shower and when she returns to the living room, Steve has just finished breakfast and is on his way to claim the bathroom. She kisses him in passing, not sure if he'll be finished with his shower before she leaves for work, and happily sits down in front of the food he's left out for her.

Steve is still in the bathroom when Diana finishes breakfast, so she knocks on the door as she slips on her shoes and through the wood she shouts, "I love you."

"I love you more!" Steve shouts back. It's followed by what sounds like a bottle of shampoo falling and a muffled curse.

"Stay safe," she teases. Steve grumbles out something else she can't understand, but she's already leaving five minutes later than normal, so she doesn't stick around to find out what it was.

Even at seven in the morning, Paris is bustling with people but no one pays her a second thought as she walks the familiar route to work. She stops at a little patisserie down the street and nibbles on a pain au chocolat because despite Steve's delicious breakfast, she can never seem to pass up the treat.

She arrives at work before most of her coworkers and takes the time to organise her desk and review the last few things she'd gone over the evening before. By the time she's satisfied that everything is in order and has done a bit of extra work to help out a colleague, her assistant steps into her office with a stack of files.

"We just received word that a temporary Viking exhibit will be arriving next January," she announces in rapid French. She sets down the files on Diana's desk and without pausing to breathe, she continues on, "We have eight months to prepare the exhibit and ensure that all pieces make it over safely and seeing as you seem to be the primary linguist here, they're requesting you oversee it all."