Wonder Woman ✧ T'CHALLA¹ [✓]

23 - Hurts To Be Human

5 YEARS LATER...

"SO WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND, DIANA?"

Diana glanced up from the car she was working on, looking at her coworker, Tyler Hakuro. Smiling, she shrugged and returned to the vehicle. "Nothing very interesting."

Tyler chuckled, and another one of her coworkers, Otto Lee, rolled his eyes humorously.  "That's all you ever tell us," Otto said.

Diana shrugged again. "What can I say? I'm not that exciting."

The two men laughed before returning to their work, and Diana smiled at them as the room fell silent, save for the clinking of metal and the whirrs of repair tools. It was a serene atmosphere to Diana, and it gave her a much-needed sense of peace.

It had been five years since The Snap, and the aftermath of the event was evident. Major cities were seemingly abandoned; boats were left unattended in docks; stadiums and concert halls were bleak and lifeless. The people of Earth had not coped well with all the loss.

Especially Diana.

After she and the other heroes had returned to earth, Diana had tried to stay at the compound. But the pain she had felt was too much to bear, so she had left in search of people she could trust — only to find that, just as she had feared, both Julia and Vanessa had been taken by the Snap. And when Diana returned to Themyscira, over half of her beloved sisters had been taken as well.

Truly devastated and alone, Diana moved to Los Angeles and took a job at an autoshop — even though the establishment itself was no longer needed. Her former job in Paris had been too much; being surrounded by artifacts from other places on Earth kept reminding her of what she had lost. So she had settled there, and made friends with the two men that worked with her. It had been hard to adjust at first, but by the end of the first year, Diana had retired her role as Wonder Woman for good and took on the full identity of Diana Prince. And that was how it would be forever, it felt like.

Diana still thought about T'Challa every now and then. She had turned the Kimoyo bead he gave her into a necklace and hung it by her bed — right next to the dreamcatcher Vanessa had given her. That way, every night Diana could go to bed thinking of the three people who meant so much to her. She missed them terribly, but there was no way to bring them back. The best she could do was keep on remembering them.

"Hey, earth-to-Die," Otto suddenly said, the use of the nickname Tyler had given her bringing Diana out of her thoughts. "You still with us?"

Diana looked up, giving him a guilty smile. "Right. I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

"Ty and I are gonna head home for the night," Otto said. "You'll lock up before you leave, right?"