let's play.

[durare]

open post. texts/prompts/starters welcome. Gen and NSFW friendly.

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[durare]

[ Diana comes for him when she discovers where his soul resides. Hades, god of the Underworld and brother of Zeus, had needed her help with an incursion and had summoned her into his presence, and Diana had readily agreed -- with a price. Steve Trevor, plucked from the arms of death and returned to her, to the world he had given himself up for. He deserves time, he deserves to know for sure if family is what he wants.

That, and -- she cannot lie to herself -- that he is her weakness. Unrealised dreams, a wish whispered before he slipped from her grasp and became but a blazing light in the night sky. I wish we had more time. She wakes from dreams of him more and more often, her cheeks wet with silent tears.

This she does for months and months until Hades had called for her -- perhaps he, like Morpheus, knows of the dreams of all in their realm; perhaps it has only been a coincidence. But she agrees, and together with him restores balance but for a price of a life. Orpheus had failed with Eurydice, but Diana will not fail. She takes his hand, forces herself not to look back when she restores him to the living world.

Steve, brave and good and fierce, the one man that encapsulates the love of this world, the courage of his sacrifice. Diana loves him -- and in her dreams she tells him this, once, twice, whispered into his collar as if through her words he wouldn't slip away like silver smoke, chased away by Apollo's sun.

His hand feels real in hers, and she watches him carefully when they return to London, six months from the day he'd died. She feels like she's returned the heart to this ugly, smoggy city -- she feels like a piece of her has come home, but. But he comes back not quite right; it's been two weeks, and perhaps it is true that mortals who have been in death's embrace come back forever changed. They have, after all, seen what lies beyond, in the fields where even Diana cannot reach.

But he's back with her, alive, rebuilding after the war even if she's more than willing to slip back into obscurity. There still are pockets of resistance to neutralise, men who believe war is the rightful way of the world and who will stop at nothing to hurt others. They have work to do, but today feels like a bad day for Steve, the skies overcast as if mirroring his mood. ]

Steve. [ She murmurs when Etta takes her leave, closing the office door behind her. She moves towards him -- their last mission had been difficult; the scale of viciousness, the death and destruction from the last vestiges of the weapons they had hoarded from the armistice deployed on an innocent town had been painfully, devastatingly heartbreaking, but they had stopped that one too; contained the damage.

She approaches him from behind, a light touch on his shoulder, her fine brows knitted in concern. ] Steve, what's wrong?

[certainvigor]

[He's not mad at her.

He wants to be mad at her, maybe that's the problem. He wants to blame her. He wants to ask her to send him back. But for the same reasons that he took her to the front and followed her across no man's land and hijacked that plane full of poison-- he can't do any of that. He can't be mad at her for being who she is. He can't be mad at the proof that she's as affected by him as he is by her.

Steve channels that anger into other channels. Throws himself into their work. Snaps at Charlie when he's being obnoxious. Becomes just a little bit more reckless. Doesn't say please when he asks Etta to do something anymore.

And then today was horrible. It was a painful reminder of Veld, the heat of a bomb against his skin, and the most terrible parts of men all at once. It's a sharp, powerful contrast from the peace he found in the afterlife or heaven or whatever the fuck you want to call it. The fight was over there. He could take a deep breath and let it out easily. Now he's here. Now he's back, fighting the same fight he's been fighting for years and he's just goddamn tired.

He turns at her touch, which has the side effect of knocking her hand away and after a moment (probably a moment too long, because she'll notice, she sees everything) he forces a smile. He slips on a mask because he's a spy and a soldier and he has a job to do and he's not going to break. Ever.]

Everything's fine. I was just thinking we should start on the paperwork tonight.