Nach Mera Hero

Alfasl Alkhamis

A/N: Sooo...I accidentally left out this entire chapter. I didn't mean to and didn't realize until just now. Oops... Anyways, here we go.
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A week later, Diana was going through her morning routine as per usual. Before having breakfast, she went across the hallway to knock on Steven's door to make sure he was up so that way he couldn't be late to work. Whatever presence she had felt the night Steven slept over, she felt it around him more often, however she still had no idea what it was or why it was so familiar to her. She tied her dirty blonde hair up into a ponytail and made sure her tortoiseshell frames were situated properly on her face.

She double checked to make sure she had everything before leaving her flat, bumping into Steven coming out of his own flat. Locking the door behind her, she then loops her arm with Steven as he was on the phone with no doubt his mother's voicemail. She pulls him along with her to the lift, around the man selling brooms and brushes in front of the entrance and down to the bus stop.

Steven was exhausted, he had leaned forward and partially fell asleep against the back of a stranger on the bus until they moved, and he quickly picked his head up. He looked around before Diana reached up, slid her arm around his neck and gently pushed on the opposite side of his head to signal that she wanted him to lean his head against her shoulder, which he easily did without any hesitation.

Once they got to their stop, Diana woke Steven up with a delicate nudge and the pair of them got off the bus. She quickly heads up the stairs of the museum but, Steven stood a few feet away from the stairs, to look up at the Ennead banners hanging down outside. He stares up at them, and she returns to him.

"Steven? C'mon, we're gonna be late." she tells him.

"Something's wrong here," he mentions.

She sighs and makes her way back down the stairs, to him. She turns around and looks up at the banners as well, taking them in.

"There's two Enneads missing, that's what's wrong." she points out for him.

"You're right. There's nine in total but, only seven on the banner...I'll have to let Donna know." he says.

"Speaking of Donna, we gotta get inside before she deems us late and yells at us." she reminds him.

He looks in her direction, and nods once his mind caught up to her words before following her inside.

"Okay, I'll see you for lunch." Diana tells him.

He nods again, mind still on the fact that the banners were wrong. She notices his distracted focus and places her hands on his shoulder.

"Steven, you've got to get your mind in the moment. Otherwise, Donna's gonna yell at you for some stupid bloody reason."

He blinks then meets her gaze, "Right...you're right. I'll see you at lunch."

She gives him a small smile before turning and leaving him. Steven watches her go then notices a little girl placing a chewed up wad of gum on a model pyrimad and walks up to her.

~~~~~~
Diana stood in the gift shop with Dylan as they waited for their respective groups to gather so they could begin to give their tours of the day when the dirty blonde observed the other woman making her way over to Steven. The Eternal couldn't help but subtly move closer to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"Hello." Dylan greets.

"Hello," Steven gives her an awkward big wave.

"How's the sugar trade going?" Dylan asks.

"I don't know what this has to do with Egypt really. They didn't have that back then, did they? No. They liked figs and dates, and..."

"My next tour's here" Dylan interjects, "but just checking, we still on for 7:00 tomorrow?"

Steven looks at her in confusion, "7:00 tomorrow?"

"Best steak in town?" she reminds him.

Diana couldn't believe what she was hearing...she had no idea that Steven was interested in dating or that he had feelings for Dylan at all. But, it seems like he didn't know that he had a date either.

"Sorry, but...are you asking me out?"

Dylan laughs at his question, "You're funny."

She walks away from him and towards her group, "I'll see you then."

Diana subconsciously glares as Dylan's retreating form before she seemed to realize what she was doing and she turned her gaze elsewhere.

"Stevie, you absolute rascal." She turns her attention back to Steven behind the counter as Donna walks up to him.

"I didn't know you had taken a crack." Donna says.

"I didn't know either," he tells her.

"Hang on, did she say steak? What in the world's a bloody vegan gonna eat in a steak house?" Donna asks him.

"I don't know, Donna. Salad? Bread?" he suggests.

She looks him up and down, "Yeah, I can see why she went for it. Real catch you are."

Steven watches his superior walk away before he's meeting Diana's gaze across the gift shop. He goes to walk around the counter but, she quickly shuffles off to go lead her tour group that had grouped together. Watching her go, Steven can't help the feeling in his chest when he realized that she must've overheard that he had a date tomorrow. He didn't even remember asking Dylan out and he was surprised that he did because he was always planning on asking Diana out...once he gathered the courage to actually do so. He sighed and went about stocking up the gift shop.

~~~~~~~
Diana did not see Steven for lunch, throwing off their normal routine. After what she overheard that morning...she needed some time to herself to figure out her sudden surge of emotion. She hid out in a stall of the woman's bathroom for privacy, holding her head between her hands as she thought to herself. She knew what happiness felt like, sadness and hurt when her best friend walked away from her, pain and grief from when her friend was suffering from loss but, this feeling was something new to her and she's been alive for at least seven thousand years.

The dirty blonde picked her head up, and stared at the stall door. She came to the realization that it was oddly quiet in the bathroom of a museum when she knew there were kids and other tourists walking around. Suddenly, there was large gust of wind and the empty stall doors slammed open making her jump in alarm. She waits, feeling on edge now, then her stall door starts rattling and she could feel that familiar presence on the other side of the door. She clenched her fists, preparing herself for a fight when it suddenly stopped. Her green-blue eyes bore into the door for a hot minute before she gets up from the toilet and reaches out to the lock and slides it over. She then carefully pulls the door open and cautiously stepped out then looked around in curiosity. Absolutely nothing or nobody was in the bathroom...whatever presence she felt was gone too.

When she walked out of the bathroom, Diana noticed that it was time for the museum to close meaning she took time to herself a lot longer than she originally thought. She did a quick look around and didn't see Steven anywhere, waiting for her. So she bids JB and Donna a goodnight before walking out of the museum. Once outside, she looks around again for any sign of Steven, hoping he was still around even though they didn't have lunch together.

"So, the girl I was telling you about, the one that lives in the flat across from me...she overheard a girl from work asking me out. Apparently, I'm going on a date tomorrow." she finally picked up on his voice and makes her way in the direction it was coming from.

She stops when she notices a couple approach Steven and the performer he sat beside, asking if Steven could take their photo.

"I'm going on a date and I didn't even ask her. I don't know how it happened. Because honestly, she isn't the one I want to take on a date." he says to Crawley before taking the couple's photo.

He hands the phone back over to them and reminds them to tip the performer before they walk away. Diana walks up to him in that moment before he could continue talking with the performer sitting on the fountain.

"Hey, didn't think you'd still be waiting around." she says in greeting.

Steven looks up at her from his seating position, "Well...we always walk back together, safer that way innit?"

"Yeah, it is. Come on then, let's go home." she holds her hand out to him.

He turns to the performer, "All right, I gotta jog on. Nice catching up. I will see you on the flip-flop." he says, leaning over to put a tip into the hat.

He takes Diana's outstretched hand and stands up. She intertwines their fingers before leading him away from the fountain.

"Oh, I picked you up a burrito." he lets go of her hand to pull out another burrito and hands it to her before taking her hand again.

"Thanks Steven, much appreciated." she tells him gratefully.

Diana doesn't eat her burrito until they're seated on the double decker bus headed back to their flats. Steven turns his head from the window towards her, a question rattling around in his brain. 

"Diana...d-do you think...I mean...c-could you...if it's no trouble would you...c-consider helping me...get ready for my date tomorrow?" he felt nervous about asking her because he didn't want to bother her.

The dirty blonde paused mid chew before swallowing. "Yeah, sure. No problem."

She crumples the burrito's wrapping and shoves it into one of her pockets just as the bus reached their stop. They both get up from their seat and step off the bus then headed inside the building, taking the lift up.

"You should get her a box of chocolates and flowers." she recommends as they journey upwards.

He nods, "Y-yeah, okay. Right. Chocolates and flowers, got it."

She hums, "We'll pick out your outfit tomorrow once you get off work before the date."

The lift door opens then and the pair get off, heading down the dim empty hallway to their flats.

"Goodnight Diana, I hope you sleep well." he tells her.

"Thanks Steven. And I hope the same for you if you manage to get any tonight." she tells him in return.

They unlock their respective doors and enter their flats, locking their doors behind themselves.